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      Its about time the Yankees got a win, I was getting a little worried there, but, no need to, because we have our offense back.  And doesn't the game seem so much better when you see this,

      Instead of this,

      Or when you see this,

Rather than this,      I know I definitely do, first, let's talk about the offense.  Everyone in the lineup had a hit except Teixeira(and there's nothing to be worried about with him, he's done with his slump's for the year) and both Curtis Granderson, who has been on fire of late, and Robinson Cano had solo home runs.  To open up the game, Austin Jackson, the former Yankees top prospect, hit a home run in the first at-bat of the game, but not to worry, we took care of it.  Swisher, in the 5 hole (A-Rod's injured), got two RBI's with a hit to left field after Cano walked to load the bases.  Then, later in the second, Curtis Granderson turned on a fastball by Justin Verlander to right field to make it 3-1 yanks.  On to the seventh, and with the score being 4-2 New York, the offense needed to put some space between them and the Tigers, and that's exactly what happened.  First, Cano hit his 22nd homer of the year to right-center field.  Then, Nick Swisher got hit by a pitch(sort of, it grazed his jersey) and then after a Posada strikeout Thames got a infield single.  Granderson walked to load the bases, and then Ramiro Pena got a sac fly to make it 6-2 Yankees, which would end up being the final score.
      C.C. was awesome as usual, not much to talk about with him, but I'll do it anyway.  He had nine strikeouts in 7 innings only giving up 5 hits with two of them being homers, but still, fantastic and he got his AL-leading, not tying, win number 16.  Hopefully, he can pull away with the wins race, win the Cy Young Award, and win number 20 for the first time.
      One last thing, the Yankees Bullpen has been outstanding, giving up only 3 runs (Chamberlain[1], and Rivera [2]) in the last 13 games.  You can add bullpen on the checklist for things the Yankees dominate.

      Well, maybe we should've expected this, going against a pitcher we never faced before, what else to expect but a shutout by the pitcher.  And then Valverde comes in, whadya know?  We score a run and have the bases loaded with Jeet up.  Then this happens.       I know, it looks promising, but not even the speedy combo of Gardner and Jeter can stop a double play.  Max Scherzer, the Tigers pitcher who kept the Yankees to two hits through 6 innings with 6 strikeouts, was "dominant."  He has been good for the Tigers lately, look at his last 5 starts.  Pretty good, if I do say so myself; but let's focus on Javier Vasquez's start. 
      Every inning he pitched, he at least threw 20 pitches, which consequently caused Girardi to pull him out of the game after 4 innings.  Sergio Mitre came in, and was incredible.  He pitched 2 and 2/3 innings while only giving up one hit and a walk.  Kerry Wood finished the sixth and threw an inning and a third with 2 strikeouts and no hits.  The only blemish for the Yankees Bullpen was when Joba gave up a solo home run to Miguel  Cabrera on a pitch that was practically in the dirt, however he did have two strikeouts in that inning.
      The Yankees had a couple of injury's in the game, with Alex Rodriguez leaving because of a calf injury, and Swish with a right forearm injury.  On to the bottom of the ninth... the yanks had plenty of chances.  Cano opened the inning with a walk, however got erased by a Posada ground out fielder's choice.  Then Granderson singled (he went 3-3 with a double) and  Francisco Cervelli walked to load the bases.  Brett Gardner came up and memories flashed of the grand slam he had earlier this year against the Toronto Blue Jays.  However he walked to force in a run, and you know what happened with Jeter.
 

     Maybe A-rod injured himself when he slammed that bat, who knows?  One thing we do know, Joe Girardi probably can't be blamed if the "B team" is out there tomorrow.
      To end this on a happy note, take a look at some of the pictures of Johnny Damon's return to the Bronx.

      Of all the times for A.J. Burnett to throw a complete game and only giving up one stinking run, of all the times the Yankees get two hits, of all the times the Yankees get shut out by a pitcher they've never seen before (again), it happens today.  It wasn't A.J.'s fault though;  Burnett looked like the pitcher the Yankees signed for that big contract and paid $82.5 million to him.  He had 6 strikeouts with three walks as well as 3 double plays behind him.  Everything was effective for A.J., he had both his fastball, and more importantly, his curve ball working.  He made the Royals batters look silly.

      The Yankees bats must have been out relaxing at the pool or something else, because all they could muster against a guy that never won a Major League Baseball game before was two stinking hits, TWO!  Well, I know I am very disappointed with this team, but they can't win every game.

      And you know when you see that there must be something wrong.  Well, since the Rays won, the Bombers are ahead of Tampa by 1 game and have a 6 game lead on Boston.  Well, hopefully Javier Vasquez and our New York Yankees can take at least 3 of 4 against Detroit, but let's take it one game at a time.

      Well they say three is the magic number, and it was for the Yankees on Saturday night.  Why, you ask? Because there were three home runs in the sixth inning from Alex Rodriguez, Jorge Posada, and Curtis Granderson, three home runs by A-Rod in the game, and this was the third game in the series.  Early in the game, it looked like this might be a close game, but with the help of the homers, the Yankees easily beat the Royals, 8-3.
      Phil Hughes went 6 innings and threw 99 pitches, while giving up 9 hits ( half were weak little singles that bounced to the outfield) a walk, and 3 earned runs.  Also, has anyone else noticed that Phil Hughes has been throwing around 5-6 innings every start now?  This may be bad, seeing as you want your starter to throw about 7-8 and 9 if possible, but maybe its Girardi's way of keeping the innings limit on Hughes farther away so he doesn't have much of a gap of starting games before the postseason.  Who knows, it all could just be a coincidence.  However, the last time Hughes pitched more than 6 innings (7) was on July 9 against Seattle.  Since then, Phil has thrown 5.0, 5.1, 6.0, 5.1, 6.0, and 6.0 today, all together, Hughes is at 134.2 innings this year.
      This is the first time A-Rod has hit 3 homers in a game since April 26, 2005 against the Angels.      Ohhhhhhhhhh yeah.  With the win, Phillip is 14-5 which is second most behind David Price of the Rays, Carl Pavano, yes him, the one who never won more than 4 games for the Yankees, and fellow Yankee C.C. Sabathia.

      Well, the yanks game could be described by one word: rain.  There were two rain delays that amounted up to a total of 2 hours and 41 minutes.  Dustin Moseley, the yankees starting pitcher, didn't do so well.  He went 4 and 1/3 while giving up 8 hits and 4 runs.  Now, was some of this due to the rain?  I don't think so, seeing that he gave up the runs in the second inning, before the rain even came, and from there on didn't give up a run; but, since there was a rain delay for so long, it was the cause for Joe Girardi to pull him out of the game after the longer delay of the two.
      The Yankees top five batters in the lineup went 7-24, but the bottom half only got 3 hits in 14 at-bats.  A-Rod, Cano, and Berkman were the RBI contributors for the Yankees, with all of them happening in the 3rd inning, and that was it for the Yankees offense.  They never scored after that inning.  If they had... the game might have ended with a Yankees win instead of a loss since the Royals only scored once after their 3-run inning in the second.
      In the ninth the Yankees were seemingly set to come back, with Jeter on first, Teixeira came up but hit a pop-up behind home plate.  Jason Kendall, who was celebrated before the game for being only the 5th catcher in MLB history to catch 2,000 games, dropped the ball however.  Teixeira later struck out, though, but A-Rod brought some life to the game as he hit a single to move Jeter to third.  So the stage was set, 1st and 3rd, and Cano at-bat; but Robinson grounded out to second to end the game.
      One positive from the game was the Yankees bullpen, who didn't give up a run after Moseley giving up no hits with 5 strikeouts.

       At a time, I thought the Yanks were going to get swept.  I know, I know, WHAT was I thinking.  Thank goodness that these are the New York Yankees, who can't get swept by a team from Texas; buuuuuuuut, they were facing Cliff Lee.  As I wondered how I could try to make up for the loss, it came to me, "They were facing Cliff Lee!  They were facing Cliff Lee!"  I instantly had an excuse.  However, it turned out the Bombers didn't need an excuse as they got 8 hits and 4 runs off Lee, but the Rangers ace did have 11 strikeouts against the Yankees.  He left with a 6-4 lead, but they Yankees bullpen was stellar and frankly, the Rangers wasn't.  Texas had 6 relievers follow Lee, with Frank Francisco (1) and Neftali Feliz (2) giving up the runs.
      The ninth started with a Lance Berkman walk. Curtis Granderson pinch-ran and Brett Gardner followed up with a single to left.  Granderson got to third via a wild pitch, and Jeter singled up the middle to tie the game; and then, Thames came up.
      On an 0-2 count, Thames chopped one to the third-shortstop hole,and that was enough to win the game.  Rivera did make it interesting though, giving up a lead off triple to Elvis Andrus before getting Michael Young to fly out to Austin Kearns, Josh Hamilton bouncing one back to the mound, and finally Vlad Guerrero hit one to A-Rod who threw to Berkman to preserve the win.
      NOTE: With the win,the Yankees are the first team to 70 wins,and are a game and a 1/5 up on the Rays.  Also, this is the first time in 10 starts that Cliff Lee didn't throw eight or more innings, and the third straight game Vasquez hasn't one.