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The Yanks have had numerous opportunities to close out the race for the top spot in the east but to date have not done it. Now the rubber hits the road as the only teams left for the yanks t\oplaay are the j's, twins Rays and red osx.

Wow they areahead but not in a safe spot just yet

There have been key points in the Alcs where the Yankees have been in position to get control of the series.And both times Phil Hughes has been on the mound to pitch them in or out.Tonight is Hughes' second chance. There have been many Yankee hero's. Hughes has a chance to be a footnote or a stand out.
Tonight, the Yankee batz have a second chance at a second starter. Last game the got a second shot at CJ Wilson and they got him. Now its Colby Lewis.Will the Yankees colder bats finally warm up in the Texas heat. Hello, Arod, Swisher, Berkman.
It might be soggy in Arlington so the Yanks have to prove they are a good mudder.

CC got clubbed. No clutch hitting. Now,its Hughes at 4pm in the heat. Or we wait for the hangman in NY. Either way CC put us in a big hole. It seems the Yanks are still in a lay off. Too bad they decided to contiinue sleeping through this game. I shut the freakin TV off after CC gave up the fifth run. Some dopey subway commercial is on. I can not stand to listen to that Ernie Jones guy. The guy knows very little about how to call abaseball game.I am sure they are playing him a lot so they want to get their money's worth out of him. He sounds or acts like a fish out of water. Wow the Yanks got on the scoreboard-  Cano drilled a SOLO  HR. Look at these box scores Jeter through Posada oh for 15!

Do these guys have any guts. Its Gardner, Jeter and Swisher - 0h for seven so far - Wilson still pitchiing.- He just threw his 101st pitch. Gardner legs out a hit. Jeter looks clueless. Maybe he is done? Maybe not, he just doubled in Gardner. Its Wilson who is done. I tell ya Texas and its crowd thinks this game is over. Heck there are none out in the eighth with a runner on 2nd in a 5-2 ball game. Unless, their Darren Oliver comes in lights out we could have a game.

One and one to Swish. What have these guys got? Three & one to. Great pitch. Three & two- Missed ball four- 1st & 2nd. Tex strike one - The tension growing. Way inside.- Three and one. Missed it foul it off - 3-2 again.Ball four again. Arod bases loaded no one out. washington will make a change - Its # 56 - Darren O'Day. To face Arod - Only one previous encounter Arod is 0-1- First pitch he drives in two- A screamer over third maskes it 5-4. O'day's day is done. Now, cano versus a lefty with runners on 1st &2nd  - No outs - Ahit here and the Yanks can grab the lead.

Oh boy! Clay Rapada just called up.1st pitch tie game! 1st and third. Look who is coming to the mound. Its Washington- Two pitchers two pitches 3 runs - still no one out. Is going to bring in a righty- Derek Holland. A lefty

Marcus Thames 1-2 bad swing gotta get this run in. a rocket by 1st just foul.gret stop by catcher. Another hit!! Yanks lead!!! 6-5  A broken bat to left. Posada ball one. Two and oh. Three and oh. Three and one. Three & two. 

Deep to right - Cano goes to third on the out.

Ganderson, 1st & third - 1 out. One and one. Tough pitch strike two. Ball, 2&2. Just missed d3-2. Struck out swinging.

Gardner who started the inning.- one and one Holland is dealing. Two and one - Big pitch-- Grounds out -

Yanks score five - Garner Jeter Swisher Texieira Arod Cano thames all reach bases safely before on out is registered. Thats seven batters in a row. 

Now the game is in the hands of the 8th and 9th guys. 

Wood is on the mound to face Kinsler.

Ball two. Three and oh. Ball four. Tying run on base. Wood stunk in game three. Ball one. Finally strike one - one & one. he is going ! Two and one. Un believable! Yes they picked him off! 1 out. Two and two. Three and two-  swung at ball four. A good pitch foul ball.Good pitch spoiled. Jammed him grounds out to tex unassisted.

Now batting, julio borbon oh and two. one and two. Wood is pitching better foul ball. Struck him out!

We go the top of Ninth- Jeter Swisher and Texierira. We need more runs! In the ninth Texas will send up, Cantu andrus and young.

Pitching for the Rangers is Derek Holland again. One and one. Molina behind the plate 2-1 to Jeter. He rips it over Hamilton's head for a leadoff double. Swisher Bunt? Foul ball. Get jeter  1-1 to swisher. Pops out on bunt attempt- horrible. Tex runner on second one out. Strike one - Big ab for tex 1-1 count. Molina and olland talk it over - 1-2 tex looks weak! 2-2 almost had him. Three and two.Popped it up to right. Two outs for Arod. Big insurance run out there. A lefty versus Arod - come on ! 1st pitch popped up!

On to the ninth- The yanks will count on Mariano Rivera to get the 1st game of the best of seven. He has had trouble here recently in this spot. In this stadium. He did great against the Twins. by saving two games. He has had plenty of rest. He will face Cantu andrus and Young. Golston's in right.

Pinch hiitter Mitch moreland. Base-hit. Runner on 1st. no one out. Andrus ball one and he does not look sharp. One and one. Showed bunt-  Strike two foul bunt off. 1-2  He bunted with 2 strikes. Runner on second.

michael young good swing. quickly ahead 0-2 - come on Mo. Inside 1-2. Huge pitch. Posad and Mo know it. Watch the steal!  Just missed 2-2. Fouled back. This guy is tough. FFoul again. the ball seems tohave late movement Struck him out! 

Hamilton and Mo--Oh boy! 1st pitch ground out to arod. The yankees Win! Awesome the gutty gritty Yanks!

Cliff Lee and his army. Lets us assume we going to lose when  this cat pitches okay? That makes it imperative we win the first to in Texas. So when its Lee vs hughes we are going for 3 in a row. Texas has some starch in it pants. The batting order is a dead read swing from the heels group. If CC sticks with more off speed he my be able to shut them down. Winning that first game in this series is huge. 

The Yanks have a lot of hitters that could and should do well vs Texas pitching. I have yet to see the odds for the series but I could see the Yanks as a slight favorite.

The Rangers have collection of real tough hitters.The rolled sevens with Twin killing. If the pitching delivers they have great chance of winning.

I asked the host which team was the last to repeat as champions? His answer the Yankees. next question, what was their record for september and october of the regular season that year? He said i do not know but, I seem to remember not that good. I said you are right they were the same as the Yankees of this year 13-17. Well, if in 2000 they can win with a horrible record to close the season why not this year.

Here is why because like in 2000 they had a host of clutch performers. End of story.

I am shocked they are favorites. I mean the twins have got to win sometime. Heck, the way baseball is the new house usually carries you into world series. BTW the twins do have a new stadium!

Yes guys, what he said you are playing off or you are playing on.Your playing off by the way you are playing now. You are playing on if CC can help you get there. Good news Toronto is throwing you a bone. Bad news you guys never faced him before. Do not let that rookie pitcher garbage be the story of the year. Tag this guy and get to their bullpen and let CC do the rest. Or you will all have very little rest for the rest of your time in pinstripes. 

Not Doug Drabek its Kyle Drabek-- his son. 

Hey Joe, What is going on? We got 7 games left and it looks like this could be a titanic like finish. Every thing was full speed ahead now we have an iceberg dead ahead and it looks like a red sox and a blue jay. The rudders of Sabathia, Burnett, Hughes,Pettitte,Nova,Mosely and Vasquez have all but collapsed. We are close to reaching Met like crashes here. The Sox look like they are playing like they are playing for a
 playoff spot while we look like we are playing out the string.

Trotting out  AAA pitchers. We need clutch hitting. Some shutdown pitching. I tell ya we have not got far to go. With a couple more bad starts from starters on fumes and it all goes up in smoke. Bumpiss' dogs are right outside the door just waiting to tear apart that turkey starting staff that cannot even give us a sniff of a quality start.Check these numbing numbers out!

Monday Nova we took him out before he blew up

Tuesday Hughes walked a 5 batters out he went late bats got us the win

Wednesday Burnett and your idea to give one away one help open the floodgates-----

Thursday CC had nothing. The bats had a chance with bases loaded and only one out but heck we are in the playoff any way--Yeah, RIGHT!

Friday Andy had nothing the ship is getting shaky.

Boston who was in the rear view mirror is trying to get in the back seat.

Saturday. What the NOVA is going on here? Another lousy start by a AAA starter.

Sunday who we got in this spring training game the guy who throws with both arms? No wait, this JUSTIN ... I mean this Dustin in..We are being dusted off in a sweep by the Red Sox as we head north for a lovely series with the Blue jays...

When I look ahead I see an awesome future.That is great attitude to have. When it comes to the world champion best record in baseball  Yankees I have to pause for inventory. I must make inventory of our starting pitchers. As I wander over to a great web site called baseballmusings.com.Baseballmusings.com has the data base for all MLB starting pitchers.

A quick look shows us that over the past 21 games since July 24th the Yankee  starters: CC Sabithia,AJ Brunett,Javier Vasquez, Phil Hughes, Sergio Mitre and Dustin Moseley have been responsible for the Yankees winning 11 of the 21 games.  The starters record is at 9-9. Compare this small sample of games to the prior 95 games where the Yankee starters were 50 -24. As we all know the Yankees had to put Andy Pettitte on the disabled list on July 20TH. Let us see how the other starters have performed.

CC  2-2  2.97 era

AJ  1-1 5.50 era

JV  1-1 5.87 era

PH  3-2 3.77 era

SM  0-1  10.39 era

DM  2-2  4.50 era

Does this explain the drop off? What does this tell us about the next 46 games ? Amazingly since Pettitte went on the DL  the Yankees despite playing a little over 500 winning baseball  have stayed in first place 2 games ahead of Tampa at this writing. I suppose the Rays who have played to a 12-8 record have not gained ground on the Yanks but how long can the Yanks count on the Rays to not get it in gear.

Right now  the Yanks just lost 1-0 to the Royals and are now 11-11 since Pettite went on the DL. The situation with the Rays? Well they are playing the Orioles in Tampa and have a 3-2 lead heading into the top of the ninth.

Today, the hitting just was not there. But, with such mediocre starting pitching, can the Yanks maintain the best record in baseball? 

The Yankees are the last team to repeat as a returning champion. Yes, that was the 2000 Yankee team that repeated as champion. Here is a question, what was the last team before that team to repeat as World Champions of baseball? Well, guess what, it was the Yankee team of 1999.

This year the Yankees will try to do what has not been done since the Yankee franchise did it in 2000. There have been a total of nine returning champions and none have won back to back championships. Here is a list of the teams and what they did the following year.

The New York Yankees won the 2000 World Series and lost in the seventh game of the 2001 World Series to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Arizona Diamondbacks despite winning 98 games, the following year were swept in the division series by the St Louis Cardinals.

The Angels won the 2002 World Series and the next year and finished third in their division

In 2003 the Florida Marlins won the World Series then followed that with third place finish in 2004.

 In 2004,the Boston Red Sox after they broke a drought of 86 years won the championship were swept in the division series by the Chicago White Sox.The White Sox went on to Win the 2005 World Series and break a drought of 88 years since their last championship.

The White Sox finished third in their division and did not make the playoffs.

The winners of the 2006 World Series were the St Louis Cardinals who in the following year also finished third in their division.

The Red Sox won the 2007 World Series and followed that championship with a loss in the division series to the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays played the Phillies and  lost the World Series to the Phillies.

The Philadelphia Phillies won the 2008 World series and then lost the following year in the World Series to the New York Yankees.

The Phillies and the Yankees are the only team of the nine returning champions that have made it all the way back to the World Series. So, now here we are 66 days until opening day of the 2010 season as the Yankees attempt to repeat as champions.

While this is the Yankees first attempt to repeat as champion since the seventh game of the 2001 World Series they will be the tenth team to attempt to repeat as champions.

Why has there not been a repeat champion since 2000? That is a great question! What did the 2000 Yankees have that the other nine champions did not have.

It has been said that hitting wins games but pitching and defense wins championships. I agree and the 2000 Yankees had the winning formula. To win in baseball you need to have excellent starting pitching,solid defense and better relief pitching. To support all that pitching and defense you need timely hitting. So, my answer to that question of why has there not been a repeat champion since 2000? Simple, the other nine teams did not have those four major components.

Will the 2010 Yankees have those four components? Well, since the team is not yet fully constructed we will have to see how this team shapes up. As this season unfolds, we will focus on whether they  have what it takes to repeat the last repeat!