The Yankees had their second consecutive week of very solid baseball. They went 5-1 against Baltimore, Arizona and at Toronto. Hiroki Kuroda was dominant to begin the week, pitching a complete game shutout Sunday against Baltimore. He was spectacular again yesterday, pitching shutout into the 8th inning until David Robertson came in and blew his 3-0 lead. However, the Yankees did win 5-3 in 11 innings, so his effort was not totally wasted. The Yankees won two tightly contested contests with Arizona with clutch home runs from Robinson Cano and Travis Hafner. On Tuesday, Cano's three-run home run in the fourth inning gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead that they would never relinquish. On Wednesday, Hafner's pinch hit home run in the eighth inning gave the a 4-3 win. Francisco Cervelli hit a game tying home run in the ninth inning in the series finale, but the Diamondbacks won in extra innings 6-2. The nominees for Week 3 Yankees Player of the Week are Travis Hafner, Hiroki Kuroda, Robinson Cano and Vernon Wells.
Travis Hafner: Hafner hit .500 on the week with 2 HR's and 3 RBI. Hafner only started two of the six games this week due to the Yankees facing many lefties, but he still had a huge impact. His pinch hit home run on Wednesday won the game and he also had a home run on Friday in Toronto that gave the Yankees an early lead.
Robinson Cano: Cano was blistering hot for a second consecutive week, as he hit .294 with 2 HR's and 5 RBI. He still showed weaknesses against lefties this week, but was still solid overall. His three-run home run in Tuesday was huge and he had three hits on Friday in Toronto.
Hiroki Kuroda: Kuroda was dominant in two starts. On Sunday, he pitched a complete game shutout agaisnt the Orioles and allowed only five hits. An incredible 21 of his 27 outs were recorded on the ground. Yesterday. Kuroda pitched 7.1 innings, allowed only one run on three hits and struck out seven.
Vernon Wells: Wells hit .280 on the week with 2 HR's and 3 RBI. He burned his old team Toronto in the first two games, as he had five hits in 10 AB's and two home runs. This is the third consecutive week Wells has been nominated.
This was the most competitive week yet, as you can make strong case for all four guys. I will give it to Kuroda, since he was dominant twice, but it should be a very close vote.
[polldaddy poll=7052174]
I'm really glad that the team is playing well .. makes the pill of no Jeter easier to swallow but I still want to see him and Granderson back. I wonder if this were a younger team and a player of Jeter's ilk was out this long, if we could as resilient as the Yanks have been
ReplyDeleteMonica, the time has come to think of the Yankees without Jeter, he is 38 and coming off a broken ankle. He will not be the same player he was in the past.
ReplyDeleteYanks miss Jeter's presence but they have to start getting used to life without the Captain. They really miss his bat in the lineup vs LHP. Jeter is one of MLB's most potent hitters vs lefties.
ReplyDelete