This Day In New York Yankees History 4/23

On this day in 1903 the New York Highlanders, formerly the Baltimore Orioles and soon to be the New York Yankees, win their first game in their franchises history. Spitballer Harry Howell went the distance and threw a two hitter to get the victory when they beat the Washington Senators at American League Park 7-2.

On this day in 1985 Don Baylor collected his 999th and 1,000th RBI of his career when he hit a two run home run off of Oil Can Boyd against the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees lost 5-4 but the 36 year old designated hitter ended his 19 season career with 1,276 RBI's.

On this day in 2000 the Yankees Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada become the first set of teammates to each homer from both sides of the plate in the same game. The Yankees would beat the Blue Jays 10-7 on this day.

Tanaka's 2-run start leads Yankees past Red Sox

Masahiro Tanaka gave up just 2 earned runs in 7.1 innings and three starters managed to collect multiple RBIs tonight as the Yankees surprisingly blew out the Red Sox at Fenway, 9-3. In this one, Tanaka was overall good, walking none while striking out 7, but in the end back-to-back fourth inning home runs from David Ortiz and Mike Napoli somewhat tainted his performance. 

Anyway, the Yanks offense scored a lot off Sox starter Jon Lester this evening, pushing across pairs of runs in the first and third thanks to duos of RBI Singles and Doubles from Derek Jeter, Carlos Beltran (who also homered in the eighth), Mark Teixeira, and Brian McCann. After those knocks, the Bombers went ahead and ran around the bases four more times in the top of the fifth, when Napoli committed an error, Jacoby Ellsbury drove in two with a double, and Jeter connected on his second run-scoring hit of the night to make it 8-2. 

Besides those guys, Ichiro Suzuki and Brian Roberts also played pretty well in this one, going 2-for-4 with a walk and 2-for-5 with a run respectively. Neither of those lines really helped the Pinstripes win the game, but since they were still pretty good I guess they're worth acknowledging. 

Game Thread: Yankees @ Red Sox 4/22

The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, rivalry renewed, tonight at Fenway Park in Boston. For the first time the Yankees will send Masahiro Tanaka to the mound to face off with Jon Lester, no easy task especially in Boston. The game will be played at 7:10 pm ET and can be seen on MY9, MLB Network, MLB TV, and WFAN.

You can join the discussion on twitter during the game by following @GreedyStripes  or by dropping us a line in the comments section of the site. You can also purchase your Yankees tickets, home and away, for all 162 games without even leaving the site so keep that in mind for the future.

Enjoy the game Yankees family and enjoy the rest of your evening.

Masahiro Tanaka Wants Red Sox Blood Tonight Meme

You wanted it Tanaka, you got it. With a little help from mother nature the Red Sox will get their first taste of Masahiro Tanaka and that devastating split finger. Tanaka is out for blood and the Red Sox better watch out. Enjoy the game Yankees family.

Cesar Cabral Clears Waivers, Can Elect Free Agency

Cesar Cabral was designated for assignment after a disaster of an appearance which included three hit batsmen over the weekend and cleared waivers today. Now the Yankees can send Cabral down to AAA or they can outright release him if memory serves. Cabral also can either accept the assignment back to the RailRiders or he can elect free agency. With all the uncertainty in the Yankees bullpen I would think he would head down to AAA and wait for another call up or he can go try and land a major league deal with another team.

Tommy John Surgery Recommended For Nova

The New York Yankees and Ivan Nova got the worst news they could have possibly asked for today when team doctor Dr. Chris Ahmad recommended Tommy John surgery for the right hander. Nova underwent an MRI at New York's Presbyterian Hospital  in Manhattan and the Tommy John surgery is the diagnosis. It was a long shot that Nova would be able to rehab the injury like the St. Louis Cardinals Adam Wainwright did for so many years but it sucks when you still have that little shred of hope and it gets taken away. Season over, next season is probably over as well.

Lineup Analysis: Yankees @ Red Sox 4/22

So begins another series to add to the illustrious Yankees vs. Red Sox rivalry. Tonight the Yankees face Jon Lester. Lester is off to one of his best starts in his career posting a solid 9.00 K/9 rate along with 1.24 BB/9, 0.62 HR/9 rates. His .308 batting average on balls in play is right in line with his 
career BABIP. A 2.17 ERA is what has been posted where his FIP shows his ERA should be around 2.35, still very good. 
The Yankees will send out the following lineup to try and tackle Lester and his great numbers:

1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF L
2. Derek Jeter, SS R
3. Carlos Beltran, DH S
4. Alfonso Soriano, LF R
5. Mark Teixeira, 1B S
6. Brian McCann, C L
7. Yangervis Solarte, 3B S
8. Ichiro Suzuki, RF L
9. Brian Roberts, 2B S
 
All the Yankees' switch hitters will go against Lester tonight; along with that three left handers and 
two right handers will bat. Now to analyze the lineup:

Interesting choice to have left hander and former Red Sox CF Jacoby Ellsbury lead off against the lefty starter. 
Since 2010 Ellsbury has flip flopped in batting average vs leftys but this year he is hitting well over .400 in these 
situations. Ellsbury has not seen much of Lester at the plate but should know a decent amount about him. Jeter 
will bat second and not much to say about him other than that second is a good slot for him pretty much all the time.
Carlos Beltran has been locked in at the plate from the left side of the plate but tonight he is batting right handed, where 
he has recently been picking up the pace. Alfonso Soriano has been on and off but against Tampa Bay 
he seemed to start getting his swing down driving balls to the opposite field and the gap. This is a good 
sign for Alfonso to get hot now during a tough stretch of games for the Yanks. Teixeira is batting fifth and with only one 
game down off the DL he looked pretty good driving the ball deep, Joe should still be cautious as Tex is known to slump 
in April. Brian McCann is hitting seventh against the lefty, probably not too good a night for him as his career stats show 
he favors a right handed starter. Solarte is putting together some nice ABs and making decent contact, at seventh 
he'll make Lester work for his outs. Ichiro is hitting well and so he will be slotted in at the 8th spot and a struggling 
Brian Roberts will hit 9th.

My revised lineup for maximum success tonight would look a little like this:
1. Yangervis Solarte, DH
2. Derek Jeter, SS
3. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
4. Mark Teixeira, 1B
5. Alfonso Soriano, RF
6. Carlos Beltran,DH
7. Brian McCann, C
8. Ichiro Suzuki, RF
9. Dean Anna, 2B S

Before you go crazy, I originally had Beltran leading off which would've had a couple of benefits. Beltran has a 
notoriously good eye as his career .358 OBP indicates, and he also has the team's second best batting average. 
I swapped him with Solarte because Solarte is second on the team with a .328 average and like mentioned earlier, 
he has grinded out some great ABs; his switch hitting also helps his own cause and he has been a HUGE source 
for RBIs lately. Everything else should look pretty normal. Tex over Soriano as im not sure if Soriano is fully in one 
of his amazing stretches yet. Beltran at sixth will put together a nice platoon effect so no bats will stack. I'm not 
expecting too much from McCann tonight so i slotted him at seventh as Ichiro gets to hit eighth and Anna ninth. 
Ichiro has speed and has been hot so i'd keep him in even against the left hander and Anna should start over 
Roberts as Brian has had a really bad time to start the season out.

As always, it’s a long season so remember that one game doesn’t make the season! Enjoy the game everyone!

Preview: New York Yankees @ Boston Red Sox 4/22

The New York Yankees will travel to Fenway Park to take on the Boston Red Sox for the first time this season tonight in the first of a three game set. With a little help from mother nature the Yankees get to showcase their shiny new toy in Masahiro Tanaka tonight against Boston's Jon Lester. The game will be played at 7:10 pm ET on MY9 and MLB Network, on the computer with MLB TV, and on the radio with WFAN.

Tanaka will be getting his first taste of the Yankees and Red Sox rivalry at the best possible time coming off his best start in Yankee pinstripes. Tanaka struck out 10 Chicago Cubs his last time out and threw eight innings only allowing two hits. Tanaka now has 28 K's in his first three starts of his career setting a new Yankees franchise record.

Lester beat the Yankees just 11 days ago on April 11 beating Yankees ace CC Sabathia. Lester went into the seventh inning or beyond in all four of his starts of the month and looks to finish off the month strong, hopefully New York has something to say about that. Lester allowed two runs in 6.2 IP in his last start against the Yankees.

Go Yankees!!

Bryan Mitchell Named E.L Pitcher of the Week

Trenton Thunder right hander Bryan Mitchell was been selected as the Eastern League Pitcher of the Week for the period of April 14th-April 20th.

The 6'3", 205 lb. hurler started one game for the Thunder last week and had a record of 1-0 with 12 strikeouts and a 0.00 ERA.

The Reidsville, North Carolina native, made his lone start of the week last Monday night at Akron and threw six shutout innings in Trenton's 2-0 victory over the Aeros. The career-high 12 strikeouts were the most in a game for a Thunder starting pitcher since August 18, 2010 when Adam Warren struck out 15 batters vs. Bowie.

Mitchell, who entered the season rated by MLB.com as the 14th best prospect in the Yankees organization, scattered four singles and walked two batters on the evening.

Bryan was scratched from his scheduled start on Saturday and promoted to the New York Yankees Sunday. He was optioned back to Trenton Monday without having made an appearance with the Yankees.

The 23-year old, who celebrated his birthday Saturday, led all Eastern League pitchers in strikeouts (12) last week and tied for first in wins (1) and ERA (0.00). Bryan, who started three games in his Double-A debut with Trenton last season and posted 1.93 ERA with 16 strikeouts over 18.2 innings of work, was selected by the New York Yankees in the 16th round of the 2009 draft out of Rockingham County High School in Reidsville, North Carolina.

Christian Walker, a first baseman for the Bowie Baysox, was selected as the Eastern League Player of the Week for the period.

Mitchell is the first Trenton Thunder player to win an E.L. weekly award in 2014, and the first since Kyle Roller won Player of the Week for the week ending April 22, 2013.

Being posted with permission from the Trenton Thunder. The original article can be seen HERE. 

Can't Predict Baseball: New York & Chicago

As we all know by now as fans of this great game of Major League Baseball, you just can't predict baseball. This may become a regular kind of entry on to the blog, then again it may not, but today I found a few anomalies that happened on this day that I felt compelled to share. Some are Yankees related and some are not but either way they are just another reason to love and enjoy this game.

On this day in 2006 Bill Hall, Damian Miller, Brady Clark, J.J. Hardy, and Prince Fielder all hit home runs in the bottom of the fourth inning at Miller Park. This would make the Brewers the fifth team in Major League history to hit five home runs in one inning. Milwaukee joined the 1966 Twins, 1939 Yankees, 1949 Phillies, and the 1961 Giants in the record books.

Just a season later in 2007 the Boston Red Sox became the fifth team in big league history to hit four consecutive home runs in an inning when Manny Ramirez, J.D. Drew, Mike Lowell, and Jason Varitek all hit home runs with two outs in the third inning. These home runs came at Fenway Park on Sunday Night Baseball and Yankees rookie pitcher Chase Wright. Drew was also on the 2006 Dodgers team that was the fourth team in big league history to achieve the feat.

Finally on this day another season later in 2008 for the first time in over 11 years there were two teams from one city playing two teams in another city at the same time. The New York Mets played the Cubs in a day game and the Yankees played the White Sox in Chicago during a night game.

You really can't predict baseball.