Who are these guys? It's something we have all been waiting for, yet it's still kind of hard to believe the looks of the Yankee lineup today. It's been so long. Aside from Georgie DH-ing instead of Nick Johnson or Marcus Thames, and Cervelli behind the plate, how nice is it to see Granderson return from his groin injury and actually hit better than he did coming out of spring training. Posada has stepped back in after a two week respite and is swinging well. Tex (don't tell him this, we want him to keep working to improve) is starting to nudge the average over the .220 mark.
One of the unique things about baseball is that things go in cycles. We know even the best players only hit safely 30 to 32% of the time. It's hard to get everyone going at the same time, so it's critical that guys pick each other up when the others are down. When the Bombers are able to put a lineup this deep in offensive ability on the field, the pitcher has to go out and feel like he can hold up his end of the deal, knowing he is going to get run support.
By end the day, the lineup that polished off the Orioles boasted 6 guys hitting .300 or better--Jeter, Swisher, A-Rod, Cano, Posada and Gardner.
Even though we are still waiting for Tex to step it up in terms of average and some power, and A-Rod to start hitting some bombs in bunches, the Yankee lineup looks 100 time better than it did when we had our AAA lineup in their just less than a week ago.
