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      When I heard A.J. Burnett was pitching, I was scared.

      But the Yanks showed me there was no need to worry.  They scored 4 runs, (no double-digit scores today) and Burnett pitched well.  He went 6 innings, struck out a season-high tying 8 batters, and only gave up 3 earned runs.  Not great, but good enough.
      Mark Teixeira started the scoring with a RBI double in the first which scored Derek Jeter.  Then, in the 2nd, after a base hits by Curtis Granderson and Eduardo Nunez, Brett Anderson, the A's starting pitcher, missed a catch on a ball from Jeter which consequently scored Granderson and moved Nunez up to second.  After Eduardo stole third, Swisher walked to load the bases.  Tex followed up with a single and both Nunez and Jeter scored, making it 3-0.
      The A's scored two in the 4th on a home run by Kevin Kouzmanoff and tacked on another run in the 5th, making it 4-3 Yanks, and that would end up being the final score.
      Mariano Rivera was one of the four relievers Joe Girardi used, as he closed the game out for his 28th save and the New York's 83 win.

      Well, since I last posted, a lot of things happened in Yankees Universe.  On Monday, Dustin Moseley wasn't great, going only 4 and 1/3.  He had given up 4 runs, and Girardi had seen enough.  He took him out and brought in... Javier Vasquez.  I know, I know, it's him.  But he was actually very good, going 4 and 2/3 innings and saving the bullpen from getting depleted.  He got the win, while giving up only one earned run and striking out 6 on the way.

      Teixeira, Cano, and Thames all hit home runs in that game, and Trevor Cahill, the supposed Cy Young contender, was horrible.  He gave up 8 runs and pretty much stopped talks of the coveted pitching award.

      On Tuesday (yesterday), the Phil Hughes went 5, and wasn't great, but wasn't bad either.  He gave up 5 hits and struck out only 1.  Hughes said he was out of whack, and Girardi and the Yankees were happy that he battled through and managed to get the win.

      The Bombers offense did what they do best, hitting home runs.  They hit another 3 tonight with the contestants on the "Blasting Bombers" were Mark Teixeira, Nick Swisher, and Curtis Granderson.  Teixeira hit his 30th, Swisher his 25th, and Granderson his 15th.

      With the win, the Yankees (finally) moved into 1st place since the Blue Jays bashed the Rays wining 13-5.  Also, the Red Sox lost, so they move 8 games behind us, so I think there season is almost done, but there is still a lot of season left.

      If everyone reading this could please pray for my neighbor, Sissy, her husband died on Monday from Cancer and Diabetes.

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      Well, the Yankees won a nail-bitter yesterday, but what I'm really happy about is that Ivan Nova, the rookie who had only one Major League start before the game.  He went 5 and 2/3 (Girardi took him out to early again) while striking out 7 and only giving up 5 hits.  He seems to fear nothing, saying that pitching in the Major Leagues is the same baseball that he played in Scranton, and he dominated there.  Ivan seems like a great option for the Yankees in the postseason, and you have to believe Joe Girardi would have him in the playoff rotation.

      The Bombers must've taken some time off yesterday, only scoring 2 runs, with Marcus Thames (he's been great this series, hitting 4 home runs) hitting yet another homer, and Gardner hitting the eventual game-winning RBI single.  The White Sox scored in the bottom of the 5th, with Juan-Pierre hitting a RBI single to shallow right, scoring Gordan Beckham.

      Kerry Wood made things interesting in the sixth when he threw a wild pitch moving Paul Konerko to third and A.J. Pierzynski to second.  He then walked  Alexei Ramirez before getting Mark Teahen to ground out to first.

      Mariano Rivera came on in the ninth and we all know how well he shut's the door.  With the win, the Yankees were the first team in MLB to get 80 wins, but the pesky Rays beat Boston last night to stay tied with the Yanks for the most wins in baseball, and the AL East division lead. 

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      Let's be honest, we all probably like C.C. Sabathia more than A.J. Burnett; and that's fine.  It is most likely a cause of C.C. being a dominant pitcher while A.J. has been "eh" at best.  For example, if it had been Burnett pitching last night giving up 5 runs with 9 hits, we would all probaly be saying, "Oh, another bad start by A.J., and, he;s no good."  Instead, with C.C. pitching yesterday, we're all saying, "Yes, Sabathia leads the league in wins, and did you see those 9 strikeouts?  Fantastic."

      It looked early on that this was going to be a game consisted of tons ofscoring by the Yanks, and C.C. shuting the White Sox down.  However, Sabathia couldn't hold on but did give the Yankees length.  He pitched 7 innings and has improved his Cy Yound canindacy even more, although his ERA did raise a bit.  He now leads the league in wins, is second in innings pitched, oh, and by the way, has the highest winning percentage in all of baseball.

      Unlike Friday, there was no shortage of offense for the Yankees yesterday, with 12 runs and 14 hits.  They hit three home runs; with Eduardo Nunez hitting one of them.

       I am surprised he is hitting this well.  Grant it, he's not hitting .400 with 5 homers, but when he gets his hits, they come at the right time. 

      The Yankees are still tied with the Rays, and hopefully they can pull away as we begin to enter September.

      Like the Yankees, Joe Girardi's mind was some where else.  Who knows, maybe he was thinking about the Cubs job (SIKE, he's definitely going to stay.)

      Last night's game was terrible.  A.J. was horrendous, giving up 8 earned runs and not even making it past the 4th inning.  The 4th!  Unacceptable by a guy who's supposed to be our No.2 starter.  The Yankees defense was sloppy, though they only commited one error.  The bats never really came alive, with half of the runs scored coming in the 9th off of Nick Swisher's homer.
      There was one bright spot of last night's game though, Sergio Mitre went 4 and 2/3 while giving up only 1 hit.  He was masterful yesterday, and if Andy Pettitte doesn't make it back, he could definitely give Dustin Moseley a good fight for the replacement job.
      At least the Rays lost, but they were playing the Red Sox so they pull even closer to us and the Wild Card/Division lead.  C.C. Sabathia takes the mound as he tries to get his major-league leading 18th win and gives us a lead over the Rays.

      With Phil Hughes on the mound, I was hoping he could get his 16th win, which would be the second most in the league.  Imagine it, later in the year, you could see this headline.  C.C. and Phil, 20-game winners, and the 2 most wins in the AL. 

      Alas, it wasn't meant to be as the Blue Jays beat the bombers 6-3.  Phil Hughes started the game by giving up 2 runs early, with Vernon Wells being the catalyst, having a triple and scoring on a past ball.  Then, in the third, he hit a 2-run shot making the score 4 nothing.

      However, in the top of the 4th, the Yankees used some of their own firepower, with Marcus Thames homering, scoring Robinson Cano.  But then, in the bottom of that inning, Wells struck again with a infield single (on a bad call) which scored a runner to make it 5-2 Jays. 

      Phil Hughes was pulled out of the game after only 4 and third, giving up 5 runs while striking out 6.  Again, it may be a blessing in disguise since he is coming up on that innings limit; so maybe he can pitch deeper into the season.  He is at 140 2/3 innings, which means he has about 30 more innings in him or so.

      The Yankees remained tied with Tampa Bay, since they lost 12-3, which was their worst loss this year (score wise).  The Yanks head to Chicago to play the White Sox, with A.J. Burnett on the mound. 

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      Well well well, what can I say?  The night after Jose Bautista hit 2 home runs and absolutely showed off; mocking Cervelli by fist pumping; and then came at Nova with a bat, thus causing a near brawl; the Yankees repaid him.  How, you ask?  They did so by scoring 11 runs on 17 hits and keeping the homer happy Blue Jays, homerless.

      Mark Teixeira started the scoring by having an RBI single in the first, but he wasn't over. After Nunez got an RBI groundout to score Jorge Posada, Teixeira came up again and he went DEEP to left to make the score 3-0 Yanks.  Robinson Cano followed up with a walk, bringing up Thames; who would also hit a home run to left, where 4 of the 5 Yankees bombs went.  Jorge Posada, (4-5 with 2 RBI's) hit a home run making the game just about out of reach (at 6-0).

      The Jays tacked on a run in the bottom of the inning, but the Yankees would finish off Toronto in the top of the 5th.  Curtis Granderson's 3-run home run would be the main cause of this, with the only Yankee home run anywhere else but left field (right).  Derek Jeter, (yeah, he can still hit them out of the park) hit his 10th home run of the year making it 10-1 Yanks, and putting the Yankees on course for their 78th win of the year.

      Dustin Moseley, who has been a good temporary replacement for Andy Pettitte, went 6 innings and only gave up 2 runs.  Chad Guadin, who has been better lately, gave up 3 runs on 4 hits.  Kerry Wood (what a good acquisition for the Yanks) threw a perfect 9th striking out 2.

      The Yankees are still tied for the AL East lead and have banished Javeir Vasquez to the bullpen, puting Ivan Nova in his place in the rotation, and he will start on Sunday.  

      Okay, okay, so we lost, and so what that Jose Bautista sure looked like he was trying to show us up, and what if we lost the AL East lead last night; I've got answers to all of that.  We will win this series, Bautista is on my fantasy team and anyway the Blue Jays are in 4th place, there not making the playoffs anytime soon; and we will at the end of the year, win the division.  So don't panic Yankees fans.
      I want to talk about Ivan Nova's pitching performance last night.  Yes, it wasn't 8 innings with 7 strikeouts and giving up only 5 hits, but Nova was still good.  He threw 5 1/3's innings giving up 6 hits with 3 strikeouts.  Had he not given up the 2-run home run to Bautista, he would thrown a shut-out (well, for at least 5 and a third innings at least).  I don't know about Girardi, but I think he should definitely get another start.  Also, Nova certainly didn't back down to Jose Bautista in the 6th when he threw high and in, and Jose thought Nova was throwing at him.  Yeah, that's happening Jose.  The kids making his first ever start, and you think he wants to hit you?!  Some people.  Anyway, take a look at the video.  Listen to Ken Singleton,  "Was that a challenge for Nova?"  Oh, I don't know, the guy's walking towards him with a bat in his hand, what do you think?  Also, listen to what Nova said about his night; listen to what he said about Bautista coming at him.  I think the kid has a future for the Yanks, he's got spunk.
      The Yanks offense wasn't very good, but hey, with A-rod, Jeter, and Posada out, any lineup is bound to falter.  Hopefully Joe Girardi plays the "regulars" tomorrow; but I do think that Cervelli catching Nova is a good match up, rookie on sophomore.  Anyway, the Dustin Moseley throws for the Yankees tonight and hopefully we can get a good start by him.  Also, David Robertson gave up his first run since July 2nd when he gave up the home run to Bautista.

      The Yankees quite frankly, dominated the Mariners yesterday.  C.C. was a beast, the offense had 3 home runs, and we won the series, 2 games to 1.  To start the game, C.C. didn't give up a hit until the 5th, and I was wondering, with the rain, what would happen if Sabathia was throwing a no-hitter, however the rain delay was too long for him to come back out.  This reminds me of David Cone's perfect game, but that game's rain delay was only 33 minutes, whereas this one's was 57 minutes.  Seeing what Girardi has said about near perfect games or no-hitters this year, (remember C.C.'s almost no-hitter on April 10, when Joe said even if he had gotten Kelly Shoppach out he would've taken Sabathia out of the game).
      Oh well, C.C. gave up 2 hits in the 5th but was masterful.  He threw 6 innings (would've been longer, he only had thrown 76 pitches) giving up 3 hits, only one was an extra-baser, and he struck out 8.  Imagine if he threw, what, at least 2 more innings, he has probably 3 or maybe even 4 more strikeouts, (more are definitely capable with the big man) that's a lot of strikeouts.  This just leads me to believe that Sabathia will most likely win the Cy Young Award.  He is in the top 10 in strikeouts, top 5 in ERA, and leads the league in wins.  Pretty good resume is you ask me.
      Austin Kearns started the Bombers offense in the 4th inning when he had a solo home run to left, and at the time, that was a BIG home run.  Why?  Because the game didn't look like it last the full 9 innings, and if the Yankees were ahead by a run, they would only need 3 more outs.  The next innings, it looked like the Mariners might score a run, when Adam Moore hit a single to right and Franklin Gutierrez was rounding third, however Swisher has a arm, and threw him out at home.

      The replay however, showed that Posada didn't have the ball in the glove, but in his other hand. The runner got called out anyway, and the Yankees kept the lead.  In the bottom of the fifth, the big blow came from Robinson Cano, after a Jeter walk and a Nick Swisher single that Ichiro momentarily had, but then dropped that allowed the runners to move to second and third; the Mariners intentionally walked Mark Teixeira.  Bad idea.  Cano belted a grand slam to right-center field and the Yankees never looked back.
  Jeter got a sac fly the next inning and Robinson  Cano hit a two-run RBI single to right, which raised his stats to 25 homers with 86 RBI's.  I don't know if I'm the only one who is feeling this, but the Yankees 3-4-5 hitters all have a chance to hit 30 home runs with 100 RBI's.  Cano need's 3 more home runs with 14 more RBI's.  Teixeira needs 3 more home runs and 15 more RBI's.  However, A-Rod is injured now and will definably reach the 100 RBI mark, but he needs 9 more home runs.  Only time will tell, but it would be nice.
      NOTE: C.C. Sabathia is tied for the major league lead in wins with 17, Ivan Nova will start next game.

      Look at the picture, have you ever seen that man holding the ball?
      Chances are no; but I'll tell you who he is.  He is Eduardo Nunez, a rookie who only came up in that game when the Yankees blew out the Detroit Tigers.  He came in and played shortstop for Derek Jeter in the 7th inning since manager Joe Girardi decided to give the 36 year old a break.
      Nunez had an RBI single in the seventh inning of yesterday's affair between the Yankees and Mariners, making the score 5-4; which was also his first ever Major League hit.  This was only one of the 10 hits the Yankees had yesterday, with only 2 of them being extra-base hits.
      The start of the game seemed as though Vasquez was going to have another horrible start.  Well, he didn't pitch horrible, just mediocre (at best). He went 3 innings while giving up 4 runs on 8 hits with 2 strikeouts.  Javier immediately started the game by giving up a homer to Ichiro, and then, yes him, Russel Branyan.  Ichiro homered again in the 3rd, and Javy gave up an RBI single to Casey Kotchman.
      But the Bombers offense came back, with 4 runs in the bottom of the 1st, from a 2-run RBI single by Cano and a 2-run home run by Jorge Posada, his 14th.  With the score tied in the 3rd, Joe Girardi had seen enough, he took Vasquez out and brought in Chad Guadin who pitched 3 innings only giving up one hit while striking out 3.
      The Yankees offense must have taken a nap since they didn't score again since until the 7th, when as I told you before, Nunez got his RBI hit.  New York scored 3 in that inning and another 2 in the 8th.  Rivera came on in the ninth to close it out earning his 25th save of the year.
      The Rays and Red Sox both won , so the standings remain the same with New York ahead of Tampa by 1 game,

      With the pitching match up being A.J. Burnett versus Felix Hernandez, you kind of knew that the opening game against the Mariners might be a loss.  Might be. Well look at the picture.

      That man in the background is Russel Brayan, and today, he killed the Yankees. He started the game by hitting a 3-run home run, and then later in the sixth hit another home run.  The Yankees got shut out by Hernandez, so there isn't much to talk about.  Casey Kotchman and Ichiro Suzuki both had RBI's with them coming in the 3rd and 4th.
      A.J. went 7 innings giving up 12 hits with 3 walks and 4 strikeouts and letting 6 runs score (earned) rasing his season ERA to 4.80 and his win-loss record to 9-11.  Joe Girardi probably would've took Burnett out of the game, however the Yankees need him to get straightened out.  It didn't really work, other than A.J. going 7 and allowing New York to use only one pitcher besides Burnett, Chad Guadin.
      As much as I don't want to say this, "King Felix" was truly masterful today, just allowing the Yankees four hits, no runs, and striking out 11; with Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher, and Austin Kearns each having 2.
      This game was just depressing, hopefully the Yankees can beat Seattle and later win the series.

       Well, it seems the Yankees just love to mock me.  I wrote about how the Yankees bullpen was being as good as ever, and then the next day they give up a run.  I wrote how the yankees offense had come back, and then they score 9 runs, making me have to think long and hard about a title for my next post; and yesterday, they scored 11 runs, 11!  That meant I had to think of yet another title about how to describe the offense; with 9 of the runs coming in the 6th!  Unbelivable.  Well, on to what actually happened in the game; it started with yet another home run by Miguel Cabrera, which was his 4th this series and 31st overall this season.  However, Phil Hughes calmed down giving up a hit in both the 2nd and 3rd before getting the next 11 batters he faced out.                                    

      Phil Hughes went 6 innings,(though he could've went 7 if not for the 6th inning that was 35 minutes) struck out 6, walking none and giving up only 4 hits with two earned runs from that home run by Migeul Cabrera.

      In detail, the sixth inning went like this.  Teixeira walked, and scored on a Cano double.  Swisher walked, and Posada followed with a single to center to score Cano and move Swisher to third.  Then, Detroit's pitching gave up yet another walk, this time to Curtis Granderson which loaded the bases with no one out.  Austin Kearns doubled deep to center field scoring Swisher and Posada also moving Curtis to third.  Ramiro Pena was the first out of the inning grounding out to the pitcher.  Brett Gardner walked with the 4th ball being a wild pitch which scored Granderson and moved Kearns up to third.  Brett "the jet" did what he does best which was stealing and he did so as he took second base.  With the lead pretty much already in hand, Derek Jeter made it a blowout, with a RBI triple scoring Kearns and Gardner to make it 9-2.  Keep in mind now, this is still the sixth inning.  Teixeira grounded out to short, but Cano hit a 428 foot home run to straight away center scoring Jeter making it11-2 and finishing the scoring in the inning.

The top of the seventh was a bit more eventful than Joe Girardi would've liked, with Sergio Mitre giving up two runs, one with a home run and another one by an RBI single by Austin Jackson.  Also, Eduardo Nunez played shortstop for the rest of the game because Girardi decided to give Jeet the rest of the night off.

      Mitre gave up another run in the top of the 8th, but that was pretty much it.  The Yankees won the game 11-5, and got sole posseion of first place since the Rays lost to Oakland 4-3.  Also, Phil Hughes got his 15th win, which is tied with David Price and Carl Pavano for the second most in the league, only behind fellow Yankee C.C. Sabathia.