Stellar Revival

Totally non Yankee related, I know, but I did not post much at all yesterday because I went to a concert down in Atlanta, GA at The Masquerade. We went to mainly see Theory of a Deadman but there were two more bands, Pop Evil and Stellar Revival. I must say that I was skeptical of Stellar Revival because I could not find anything of theirs to listen to beforehand. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised with their live show.

I liked it so much, and I am not going to lie I usually NEVER actually purchase music, that I totally plan on buying this album when it comes out on June 19th. You guys should totally check these guys out, like their facebook page, follow them on twitter, whatever you gotta do. They were down to earth guys who put on a hell of a rock show. The guitarist, Steve, even hugged me lol. Sounds like the start of a bromance to me, no homo.

Anyways check these guys out I truly think they are the future of rock music. Buy the single, The Crazy Ones, off the album.

Stellar Revival Facebook Page
Stellar Revival Official Page

Twins @ Yankees 4/16/12

Tonight the Yankees will host the Twins for the first of a four game series. It is no secret that we have owned the Twins in the recent memory so the confidence is high in the Bronx. Tonight Freddy Garcia will try to throw the ball to Russell Martin this time and not the first row fans behind home plate. Here is the lineup for this 7:05 game

1. Derek Jeter SS
2. Curtis Granderson CF
3. Alex Rodriguez 3B
4. Robinson Cano 2B
5. Mark Teixeira 1B
6. Nick Swisher RF
7. Raul Ibanez DH
8. Russell Martin C
9. Brett Gardner LF

Is The Shift Just A Fad?

Is this going to be a regular site from here on out?
I was at the LoHud Yankees Blog reading the game notes from last night's victory over the Angels. I love anything that gives me a different perspective on things, which is why Pardon The Interruption is one of my favorite shows, and some times you can get that from those notes. This time, however, nothing really stood out. There were more notes on Jeter hitting well at the beginning of this season, which even he is getting tired of. There was some talk about Nova not geting rattled, and challenging hitters rather than trying to nibble at the plate (perhaps you heard the word "rock" used by some other guy, in reference to Super-Nova). But it was this note that caught my eye...

Girardi was asked about whether or not he’s had any discussions with Teixeira about adjusting to the shift. “You don’t,” he said. “You tell him to swing the bat, hit balls hard, and things will work out. It’s not like it’s something new to him this year.”

"...hit balls hard, and things will work out." I've thought the same thing, but hearing that made me think whether or not that's true. Seeing the shift against Teixeira when he bats from the left side made me wonder if that extra fielder made his batting average on balls in play (BABIP) go down. A quick trip to Baseball Reference answered that question.

I decided to look at 2011, as that was the year in which we saw the shift on Teixeira night in and night out. And it turns out that Mark's BABIP versus right-handed pitchers, while batting from the left-side, was only .222. Which is incredibly low when you figure that league average is usually around .300. Look at Tex's BABIP vs. LHPs, while batting from the right-side, which was .278. And this isn't a case of small sample size skewing the numbers, as Mark had 397 at bats from the left-side, and 189 at bats from the right-side, last season.

And the same thing is happening in 2012. Mind you, this time it could be small sample sizes playing tricks on us, but Teixeira's BABIP vs. RHP, as a left-handed batter, is a paltry .222. Batting from the right-side, and facing LHPs, that BABIP is .308. Even though Tex has only had 22 at bats vs. RHP, and only 14 at bats vs. LHP, I'm willing to bet that unless Mark stops being so pull-happy when batting from the left-side, that we're going to continue seeing him struggle when hitting from the left-side.

I was thinking about other pull hitters in Major League Baseball, and came across Ted Williams. Ted was a strong pull-hitter, who had a career BABIP of .328. Now, I'm not saying Williams wouldn't still be considered one of the better hitters in the history of the game, but what if teams employed the shift against Ted a lot more back then, like we see today? Keep in mind that Ted was not a switch-hitter like Teixeira is, as Williams was a left-handed hitter only. So it's not like Teddy Ballgame could just feast on left-handed pitching, sort of like how Teixeira still bats well against lefties from the right-side of the plate.

So this begs the question... "should Girardi start employing the shift more often too?"

I can hear shouts of "NO" coming from a number of Yankee fans. Now, certainly he shouldn't shift against every player, but if spread charts show that a batter is way more likely to hit the ball to one side, like Teixiera tends to pull the ball the vast majority of the time while batting left-handed, then it makes sense to do it. It would also help if the pitcher was able to hit his spots, unlike what we saw from Freddy Garcia in his first outing of 2012. If a pitcher is supposed to throw the ball inside to a left-hander, but the pitch goes to the outside of the plate, then it's going to be easier for the batter to go the other way and get a cheap base-hit (or, as I like saying, "bitch hits").

If Yankee pitchers can at least hit their spots, then don't be surprised if the team employs the shift more often this season.

Series Wrap - vs. Angels 4/13 - 4/15

Game One
The season officially began Friday afternoon, as the Yankees played their first game at Yankee Stadium in 2012. Erick Aybar led off the game with a single on Kuroda's 2nd pitch, and a loud moan could be heard eminating from the Bronx, as fans thought they could be in for another tough outing from one of the newest Yankees. Fortunately Bobby Abreu and Albert Pujols followed that up with a couple fly balls, and Kendry Morales strike out, to end the early threat. After that Hiro looked really good, as he only needed 109 pitches to get through 8+ innings, giving up 5 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 6. After a bitch hit by Abreu (a slow ground ball to Jeter), Robertson came into the game to get Pujols to ground sharply into a DP, followed by a strikeout to Kendry Morales, to look down the 4th win in a row.

As for the bats things also started shaky, but turned out okay soon afterwards. Back to back strikeouts from Jeter and Granderson had me thinking we could be in for a tough one, as Ervin Santana looked to be dealing. But a single by ARod, back to back walks to Cano and Teixeira, and a bases-clearing double by Swisher made that thought go away. The following inning looked to be another good one for Yankee fans, as Martin was at 3rd and Gardner at 1st with 0 outs. Unfortunately Brett was picked off of 1B, in what may have been the first time I've seen the "fake to 3rd and throw to 1st" move work for a pitcher. The Yanks ended up with nothing after that, when Jeter grounded out and Granderson kKd. ARod tagged one over the CF wall for his 1st homer of the year, and Granderson delivered a Yankee Stadium special with a ball over the short porch in RF. Not much happened offensively after that, but as you saw in the previous paragraph, it was more than enough for the Yankees to move to 4-3.

Game Two
Phil Hughes started Game 2, trying to bounce-back from a poor performance against the Rays last Sunday, when he put up a line of 4.2IP, 2R (both earned), 2BB, 5K, and 1HR. Not horrible, but the fact he needed 99 pitches to get there was the biggest issue. Could he be more effecient this this time around? Well, he started off the game getting Erick Aybar to fly out to Granderson in CF, but that was followed up by back-to-back singles by Howard Kendrick and Albert Pujols. Not a good start for Hughes and the Yankees, however fans felt better after Phil struck out Kendrys Morales and Torii Hunter to end the early threat. Unfortunately it was the 25 pitches thrown that worried me, as it looked like the bullpen was going to be treated line a greenhorn aboard one of the boats on the Deadliest Catch. It was 2-0 after Chris Iannetta hit a Yankee Stadium special about 315 feet, which was preceded by a single off the bat of Vernon Wells. The good news was that Hughes struck out two more batters this inning, but besides the 2 runs scored, the bad news was that Phil needed to throw another 21 pitches. The 3rd inning didn't go well either, as Kendrick singled, then scored on a Pujols double. Again, Hughes did strikeout another hitter, but needed 22 pitches to get through that inning. Phil threw 16 more pitches in the 4th, which sounds good, except for the fact he walked Iannetta, Bourjos singled, and Kendrick hit a 3 run bomb to put the Angels up 6-0. A strikeout was in there, but Girardi called up on David Phelps. David ended up pitching beautifully, allowing only 1 hit (a solo HR by Wells), 2 walks, and striking out 4 (the lone hit/run was a solo-HR by Wells in the 5th).

Not much to talk about when it came to the offense on Saturday, as the team could only put one run on the board, thanks to three singles by Nunez, Jeter, and Cano in the 5th. After that RBI by Cano the Yankees had ARod and Teixeira coming up with only 1 out, but another #RISPFAIL by both of them left the Yankee faithful wanting (imagine Count Adhemar smirking at the Yankee bats). The only good news came from an unsurprising name... Derek Jeter. On top of his single in the 5th, The Captain led off his 5th game with a base hit. At that point Jeter was hitting .361 in 2012, but 6 of his 11 hits this season have come off lefties (only 10 at bats), and unfortunately the Yankees will likely see many more RHPs than LHPs from here on out. So his .238 batting average so far this season vs. RHPs is sure to hurt him.

Game Three
Although this wasn't the most impressive start we've seen from Ivan "Super" Nova, this game was further proof of what I said last week regarding Ivan being the "rock" of the Yankees' starting rotation [link]. A triple by Howie Kendrick (who went 6/10 in the two games he played in the series) didn't rattle Nova at all, as Pujols lined out followed by Torii Hunter striking out. Even after getting into trouble in the 2nd inning, where he gave up a HR to Mark Trumbo, which was followed up with singles by Maicer Izturis and Chris Iannetta. Nova was able to get Erick Aybar to ground out to end the threat. And in the 3rd inning Ivan struck out the side. The Angels were able to score two more runs in the 5th, thanks to a two-run Yankee Stadium Special by Chris Iannetta (again), then one run in each of the 6th and 7th innings. But honestly, there wasn't a time where I felt uneasy with Nova out there. Of course, the 8 runs scored by the Yankee offense surely helped me feel that way, but it's rare that I'd feel good about a final line of 6 IP, 8 H, 4 R (all earned), 2 BB, 8 K, and 2 HR, from a Yankee starter.

I'll tell you what did bug me though... 2 hits, 1 earned run, and 2 walks given up by Rafael Soriano in only .2 innings (he can thank David Robertson for bailing him out). Thankfully D-Rob went 1.1 innings, giving up only 1 hit (but no strikeouts... wow), while Boone Logan came into the 9th and only allowed a walk, striking out 3. I have to take a minute to point out that the Yankee bullpen has started off this season in really impressive fashion. In 31 innings pitched, the 'pen has put up an ERA of only 2.03, along with a WHIP of 1.13, giving up an OPS of only .566, while striking out 41 batters. Although it's not like the bullpen was bad at all last season, when it finished with the best ERA in the American League (3.12), but fans should not look beyond the work our relievers are doing.

Seeing as how the team scored 11 runs in the game, it shouldn't surprise anybody that every hitter for the Bombers reached base. In fact, Russell Martin was the only Yankee not to get a hit, but he did walk twice in the game, raising his OBP so far this season to .455 (that's the only batting stat you want to see when it comes to Martin, though). Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, Mark Teixeira, and Raul Ibanez each had two hits. Jeter and Ibanez homered for the good guys... Raul's being a rare upper deck shot to RF, which even made my roommate (who's not a baseball fan) say "wow". My favorite hitting stat from this game deals with hitting with runners in scoring position, where the team has struggled, in which they were 5-for-13. If only the team could bat .385 the whole season with RISP.


Series Awards

Jake Taylor Award*
Derek Jeter - 5/14, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2 2B, 1 HR

Gentry Award*
Russell Martin - 1/7, 1 R, 3 BB (has not had an extra base hit yet this season)

Rick Vaughn Award*
Hiroki Kuroda - Game 1: 8+ IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K

Kelner Award*
Phil Hughes - Game 2: 3.1 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 2 BB, 6 K, 2 HR


Next Series
vs. Twins 4/16 - 4/19
Click here to talk about the series at the Daily Sports Pages Yankees forum.
--------------------
*The awards are named after one of the best baseball movies of all time... Major League.

Jake Taylor Award - Awarded to the most valuable position player. Named after the hard-nose veteran catcher that, despite making the league minimum, was the heart and soul of the 1989 American League East winning Cleveland Indians.

Gentry Award - Awarded to the least valuable position player. Named after the very first man cut from the 1989 Cleveland Indians, #47 Gentry. A man so insignificant he wasn't even given a first name.

Rick Vaughn - Awarded to the best pitcher in the series. This one is, of course, named after the "Wild Thing". The man that made Clu Haywood look silly in the division deciding game.

Kelner Award - Awarded to the worst pitcher in the series. Named after the Opening Day starter for the '89 Indians. Not a good game for Mr. Kelner, as Indians' announcer Harry Doyle famously quipped "thank God" after Kelner left the game. And yet another bad player without a first name.

Angels @ Yankees 4/14/12

UPDATE:

Yankees drop this game 7-1 to the Angels. Hughes had a rough day and he can hear David Phelps footsteps behind him.

Phil Hughes looks to keep the Yankees winning streak alive today and extend it to 5 straight wins when him and the rest of the Yankees take on the Angels at 1:05 pm ET at the stadium. The game will be televised on FOX and my wife must have heard so she has me going to the mall today, so the updates will be scarce. Hughes will be facing new shiny toy CJ Wilson. CJ has never beat the Yankees in his career, 0-3 in four starts, so I do not think we should be starting  new traditions today.

Anyways here is the lineup

1. Jeter, SS
2. Swisher, RF
3. Cano, 2B
4. A-Rod, DH
5. Teixeira, 1B
6. Granderson, CF
7. Jones, LF
8. Martin, C
9. Nunez, 3B

Manny Banuelos Injured -- DUN DUN DUN

Yankees blue chip #1 ranked prospect Manny Banuelos has been placed on the AAA disabled list with a sore back. Yankees GM Brian Cashman only expects Manny B. to miss one start with a lat issue. This really explains his less then stellar start last time out so I am willing to chalk it up to a back injury and move on from there. Get well and rest up Manny.

No Worries for Kuroda

A lot of people have pointed out the transition from the National League West, to the American League East, as reasons to worry about Hiroki Kuroda. And they have more than Kuroda's last start (his first start with the Yankees) as reason to be concerned (5.2 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 4 ER, 1 HR, 4 BB, 2 K). I looked at the average wOBA (weighted on-base average) for the National League West and the American League East (minus the Yankees and Dodgers), between 2008 and 2011, which covers Kuroda's career with the Dodgers and MLB.

Arizona - .323
Colorodo - .332
San Diego - .304
San Francisco - .307
NL West Average - .317

Baltimore - .322
Boston - .350
Tampa Bay - .332
Toronto - .328
AL East Average - .331

What about team OPS?

Arizona - .740
Colorodo - .758
San Diego - .688
San Francisco - .701
NL West Average - .724

Baltimore - .735
Boston - .803
Tampa Bay - .751
Toronto - .750
AL East Average - .760

I could go on and on with different stats to show that hitting in the AL East is superior to hitting in the NL West, but I really don't think I need to. Those two stats should be enough. The point is, and it's been pointed out plenty of times before, Kuroda is going to have a tougher time pitching well for the Yankees than he did pitching for the Dodgers. The question is... is what we saw in his last start more like the Hiroki Kuroda we're going to see in 2012, rather than the Hiroki we saw last season in LA (3.07 ERA, 121 ERA+, 3.78 FIP, 3.56 xFIP)?

I went over to Brooks Baseball and used their Pitch F/X stats to try and get a better idea. Using their information on pitch movement and velocity I looked at what Hiroki did last season, and what he did last Saturday.


I think it's safe to say, after comparing the statistics from last year and this year, that the Hiroki Kuroda we saw on Saturday is not the Hiroki Kuroda to expect throughout the rest of the 2012 season. The horizontal movement on his pitches Saturday were not close to what he did throughout 2011, while the vertical movement on his pitches weren't quite in line with his 2011 numbers either. It was nice to see that the velocity on all his pitches is very close to normal, though. By the way, Kuroda is throwing a cutter too this season, something that Brooks Baseball says he didn't throw before. All athletes need time to "warm up", and 24.2 innings over the course of 6 spring training starts just isn't going to suffice. So it's safe to assume that all of this will pan out.

Want further evidence? Okay... The first time in 2011 that Kuroda faced a good offense, the St. Louis Cardinals, he put up a line of 5 IP, 10 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 3 K (his 3rd start of the season). What happened when he faced the Cardinals later in the season? 7 IP, 8H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K (his 26th start of the season). By the way, the Cardinals in 2011 had a team wOBA of .330 and OPS of .758, right in line with the averages for the AL East. A similar thing happened in 2010 against the Rockies (team wOBA of .333 and team OPS of .760), when in his 6th start of the season Kuroda's line was 5.1 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 5 BB, 3 K, but when he faced them again in his 24th start of the season his line was an improved 7 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 6 K. So there's another reason for Yankee fans not to worry.

Finally there's Russell Martin. No catcher in MLB knows Hiroki better than Martin. In Kuroda's 4+ seasons of MLB he's had 7 different players catch him, and Russell has been behind the dish for the most... by far. Russ has caught Kuroda for a total of 362.2 innings in 61 games, while the next closest is Rod Barajas with 139.2 innings in 22 games. If I was looking for somebody to help guide Kuroda out of trouble, Russell Martin would be the guy. And the Yankees are lucky enough to have that guy on the team.

Don't let Kuroda's nervousness about the game throw you off. Anybody, and I mean anybody, would feel the exact same way. But when the umpire points at Hiroki and says "play ball", I think it will be business as usual for the man all Yankee fans will soon by calling "Hiro".

Scouring Ebay for Yankee Memorabilia

I looked up at my Yankee memorbilia collection earlier and decided to go to ebay. Not only can you sometimes find some cool, unique, things there, but you can get them fairly cheap as well. But soon into my search I realized that ebay is full of some worthless junk as well. Don't get me wrong, I was not surprised by this at all. I mean, it's the internet after all. If it's not porn, then there's a good chance that what you come across on the world wide web is completely pointless crap. Just take a look at these items...

New York Yankees Fingernail Tattoos 5 Sets FREE SHIPPING!!
I saw a set of these earlier in my search, and decided to pass on writing about them. As silly as it seems to bother putting these things on, I'm pretty sure if I went to the home opener tomorrow night I'd see at least one annoying girl with these on. But what caught my eye was the fact that the first listing had them for 99 cents, while this set has a Buy It Now of $2.99. I don't care if it's "FREE SHIPPING!!" or not, if you're the type of woman that would take the time and energy to purchase these things on ebay, then I want nothing to do with you. Unless you're hot, of course. Barney Stinson said one should always give in to a hot chick.

NY Yankees Luggage Tag
I skipped by this at first too, but had to go back to it. I couldn't help but imagine a baggage handler, that hates the Yankees like so many people do, treating a bag with a Yankees luggage tag on it like I treat my toilet after feasting on some Taco Bell. Hell, baggage handlers already treat your bag like crap, why possibly give them a reason to make things worse? Of course, since you may not ever see the bag again anyway, then I guess it doesn't matter.

MLB baseball Pinheads lapel pin - Mike Piazza, New York Yankees - photo
I have nothing against Mike Piazza. He was the 1993 Rookie of the Year for the Dodgers, and finished in the top 10 of MVP voting in his first 5 seasons. He went on to have 2 more years finishing in the top 15 of MVP voting, as well as two other finishes of 7th and 3rd. Piazza was a great player, no doubt. But the thing that really ticks me off about this item is that not only did he never play for the Yankees, but this is of Mike's days with the Mets. And anybody that mixes up the Mets and the Yankees should suffer the most painful death possible.

Yankees Souvenir Opening Day Ball & Assorted Yanks Cards *LOOK*!!!!
I don't think you want me to look that hard at this, so the word "look" should neither be in all-caps, nor be followed by four exclamation points. I imagine that if you were trying to sell a set of baseball cards, you'd put the best one's on display to try and make people think the rest of the collection was as good. Now, the Lou Gehrig card is cool, but it goes downhill from there. In 7 seasons with the Yankees Rick Cerone hit .249/.297/.351, so I don't think anybody is going to get excited about his card. Lou Piniella was a good manager, and I have nothing against the guy, but in 417 games managing the Yankees he didn't exactly blow anybody away (winning percentage of .537, no playoff appearances). Jerry Rooster? Tom Brookens? A replica Opening Day ball? If this is the best this collection has to offer, your auction's $19.99 starting price is quite the rip-off.

Ching Ming Wang Trenton Thunder NY Yankees Baseball
*sigh* At least he didn't spell Wang's first name with a "k" at the end of it. Does it bother anybody else when somebody that is clearly not a Yankees fan is selling Yankee memorabilia? I mean, it's not like nikanya made this baseball. I'm sure it was sold at the Thunder sourvinir shop, and when the person that bought it realized that Chien-Ming Wang sucked, the person threw it out only for nikanya to find it and try and make a buck.

Oh, sorry. The bidding was started at 99 cents. Hell, even a non-Yankee fan knows that Wang isn't worth shelf space at a dollar store.

4 Yankees ROLLERZ A. Rod, Derek, Jeter Matsui, Giambi
Okay, let's start with the headline. "A. Rod"? Not a big deal, I guess. Sure, I don't think I've seen Alex's name written like that, but it's not a travesty of grammar. Unfortunately that's not the only grammar issue with the headline, as we come to "Derek". Not a problem at all, as Yankee fans don't need anything other than the first name to know exactly who it is referring to. When a person says they went to the childhood home of "Elvis", nobody is going to assume that person meant Elvis Andrus. So I kept looking and came to "Jeter". Seriously? Did the "Derek" part not make it clear?

Note: I was going to insert a "maybe he meant another Derek that played for the team" joke here, but after going to the Yankee history page I couldn't find another Yankee player named Derek... ever. Hell, there have been three guys with the first name "Babe", but not a single other Derek besides our current captain. Anyway...

Then, edsmagnets1, couldn't take the time and energy to put a comma between "Jeter" and "Matsui". And one final thing regarding this headline... Am I the only one that would be happier with this set if it didn't come with Giambi? *shrugs* I wasn't a fan of the guy.

I looked under the description, to see what the poster had to say about this item, and he says "Saw a Set [sic] of these at a Show [sic] For [yet another "sic"] $75.00". Wait... wait! This guy is trying to convince people these were on sale somewhere for $75, yet his Buy It Now price is $13.25. *cough*Bullshit*cough*

Oh yeah... what the hell is a "Rollerz" anyway?

I kind of went off on that last one, but it was by far the biggest issue I had in my search. I could have made this entry a lot longer, as all those items were found in the first 13 pages of a search that was 705 pages long. But I think I made my point. Besides, now you can go search yourself and tell me about some of the insane things you find.

By the way, my apologies if some links don't work. Chances are the action ended (I'd never mess up coding the links), but trust me... these things really do exist. They shouldn't exist, except for people like me to have something to write about on an off-day, but they do.

Series Wrap - @ Orioles 4/9-4/11

The three day long nightmare ended, as the Yankees won the first game of the series against the Orioles. Coming into Monday Baltimore was 3-0, after sweeping the Minnesota Twins in their opening series. Every position player to enter the game for the Yankees reached base (Swisher and ARod were hitless, but both reached base thanks to drawing walks), led by The Captain. Derek Jeter was 4-4, with a double, a run scored, and an RBI. On the run prevention side of things Ivan Nova threw 7 innings, giving up 10 hits, 2 runs (both earned), and a home run, while striking out 7 with 0 walks. David Robertson and Mariano Rivera each threw scoreless innings to finish off the Orioles.

I want to take a moment to talk about Eduardo Nunez. In the bottom of the 3rd inning Nunez was playing in on Nolan Reimold. With Robert Andino on 2nd base after a lead-off double, I guess Girardi thought a bunt may be on, so he had Eduardo move about 5 feet in front of the base line from 2nd to 3rd. Reimold ended up hitting the ball fairly well to Nunez's left, so that Eduardo couldn't get into a good fielding position, allowing the ball to come out of his glove. Eduardo tried to complete the play, but thanks to Reimold being fairly swift-footed, the throw was too late. After that play Twitter blew up with NunEz comments, basically pointing out another error by Eduardo. Nevermind that it was scored a hit, but it wasn't an easy play seeing as how Nunez was playing up like he was. Chances are that if the batter/runner had average speed Nunez would have thrown him out anyway. There will be plenty of chances to point out Eduardo's fielding woes, but that wasn't one of them.

Anyway, it was good to finally get a win in the standings. But what happened next?

Game 2 started off nicely, as Jeter took the 5th pitch of the game out of the park, giving the Yankees a quick 1-0 lead. That was followed by a double by Nick Swisher, as things looked like a high scoring game was coming. Unfortunately that was not the case, as the offense stalled after that. Wei Yin Chen is in his first season in MLB, having moved from Nippon Professional Baseball (Japanese pro league) for this season, and in typical first-time-the-Yanks-see-a-guy fashion he retired the next 10 batters (5 by strikeout). While all of that was going on Freddy Garcia was throwing the ball everywhere but over the plate. Sweaty Freddy put up a line of 4.2IP, 4H, 4R (3 earned), 3BB, 3K, 1HR, along with 5... that's right... 5 wild pitches (2 of which led directly to runs). Thankfully David Phelps came into the game and shut down the Orioles. In fact, Phelps, Robertson, Logan, Wade, and Rapada threw 6.1 innings, giving up only 2 hits, 0 runs, 2 walks, and struck out 10. On top of seeing the bullpen do an excellent job, the Yankees were able to score 3 runs in the 6th inning to even things up, and without the use of the long ball. The game stayed at 4-4 until the top of the 12th when, with runners on the corners and two outs (ARod and Teixeira failed to drive in Cano after a lead-off double), Raul Ibanez earned his pinstripes (well, they were away and wearing the gray uniforms, but stay with me) by hitting a ground-rule double. That was the game winning RBI after Mo was Mo in the bottom of the inning, locking down the Yankees second straight win, and second win of the season.

I already posted about Nick Swisher being thrown out at home, so I'm going to just move on. The question now is... are we going to have another "moment" in Game 3?

Nope. Although some people were questioning Girardi pinch-running Eduardo Nunez for Alex Rodriguez in the 8th, it wasn't a big deal to them at all. The game started off hot again for the offense, as Derek Jeter doubled, followed by Curtis Granderson's first homer of the season. Jake Arrieta retired the next 11 Yankee batters. The Orioles took the lead in the bottom of the 5th, thanks to a two-run double by Mark Reynolds, but the Yankees answered that run in a couple innings later, when Granderson singled home Russell Martin. After ARod opened the top of the 8th with a single, Nunez came in to pinch run. Nunez then stole 2B, but a throwing error by Wieters allowed him to advance to 3B with only 1 out. Unfortunately that was followed by a strikeout by Swisher, an intentional walk to Ibanez, and a strike out by Martin. The bullpen came through again in this one, throwing 3 innings of 1 hit ball, before Nick Swisher came through with a 2-run bomb to put the Yankees ahead by 2. Mariano Rivera came into his third straight game, and besides a single by Ronny Paulino, and saved another one.

Although it wasn't easy, and the bullpen was spent by the end of the series, the Yankees were able to bounce-back from being swept in their opening series against the Rays to sweep the Orioles, heading home for the 2012 Home Opener with a .500 record. Let's just pretend the season is only 156 games long, and not drop a single series this year.


Series Awards

Jake Taylor Award*
Derek Jeter - 7/14, 4 R, 3 RBI, 1 HR

Gentry Award*
Alex Rodriguez - 1/13, 1 BB, 5 K, 9 LOB

Rick Vaughn Award*
Ivan Nova - Game 1: 7IP, 10H, 2ER, 7K, 0BB, 1 HR

Kelner Award*
Freddy Garcia - Game 2: 4.2IP, 4H, 3ER, 3BB, 3K, 1HR, 5WP


Next Series
vs. Angels 4/13-4/15
Click here to talk about the series at the Daily Sports Pages Yankees forum.
--------------------
*The awards are named after one of the best baseball movies of all time... Major League.

Jake Taylor Award - Awarded to the most valuable position player. Named after the hard-nose veteran catcher that, despite making the league minimum, was the heart and soul of the 1989 American League East winning Cleveland Indians.

Gentry Award - Awarded to the least valuable position player. Named after the very first man cut from the 1989 Cleveland Indians, #47 Gentry. A man so insignificant he wasn't even given a first name.

Rick Vaughn - Awarded to the best pitcher in the series. This one is, of course, named after the "Wild Thing". The man that made Clu Haywood look silly in the division deciding game.

Kelner Award - Awarded to the worst pitcher in the series. Named after the Opening Day starter for the '89 Indians. Not a good game for Mr. Kelner, as Indians' announcer Harry Doyle famously quipped "thank God" after Kelner left the game. And yet another bad player without a first name.

Jorge Posada To Throw Out First Pitch Friday Night

Jorge Posada will be honored with the "Pride Of The Yankees Award" Thursday during a homecoming dinner and Friday night will through out the ceremonial first pitch on the home opener for the Yankees against the Anaheim Angels. 

This is obviously a great gesture to give Posada the honor to do this and no one is more deserving for this season. I look forward to seeing Jorge in the Bronx one last time.