Braves @ Yankees 6/18/12

Make it 10 in a row as the Yanks beat the Braves again by the score of 6-2

Tonight at the stadium the Yankees will be hosting the Atlanta Braves for the first game of a three game set up in New York. The Yankees have won 9 straight games, all against National League East opponents, and look to keep that going tonight against another NL East opponent. CC Sabathia will be on the mound for the Yankees tonight and will be facing Braves lefty Mike Minor. The game will be televised at 7:05 pm ET on YES Network and on ESPN.

Lineups

Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Andruw Jones RF
Russell Martin DH
Jayson Nix LF
Chris Stewart C

The Yankees are still 1.5 games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles and 3.5 games ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays for first place in the AL East.

Go Yankees!!

Series Awards: @ Nationals, 6/15 - 6/17

Earlier this season I pointed out that as long as Yankee starters could start giving up less home runs, then they would be fine. In March/April Yankee pitchers had a HR rate of 1.23 per 9 innings of work, while going 13-9. The HR rate went up to 1.4 HR/9 in May, leading to a record of 14-14. Here we are in June, and the Yankees have swept 3 straight series while going 13-2. And what is the team's HR/9 during this month? .55 HR/9. Attainable? Probably not. But it shows you what this team can do when the pitchers simply limit the long-balls.

Jake Taylor Award
Curtis Granderson is NOT a home run hitter. Got that? Good. So ignore the fact that the Grandy man hit two of them in the series vs. the Nationals. Instead, think about the two doubles that Curtis hit, on his way to going 4-for-14 in the series.

Gentry Award
The nation's capitol wasn't so welcoming for Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod was 1-for-10 in the series, but was able to drive in a run with his lone hit (single), so he wasn't a total bust in the series.

Rick Vaughn Award
Although Phil Hughes pitched really well in Game 1, going 6 innings while giving up only a run with 9 strikeouts, I'll always give this award to somebody that does really well too but goes deeper into the game. Hence the reason Ivan Nova wins the Rick Vaughn Award this time. This afternoon he went 7 innings, giving up just 7 hits while walking 1, to go along with 4 strikeouts.

Kelner Award
Cory Wade. Okay, I'm not for giving a releiver, who only threw .2 innings in the series, this or any award. But I didn't give it away last time, and Cory did give up the game-tying home run to Ian Desmond in the 8th inning of Game 2, which ended up being a 14-inning affair. So I don't feel to sleazy here.

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*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.

Yankees @ Nationals 6/17/12

UPDATE

Granderson and Cano both go yard in support of Ivan Nova. Nova went 7.2 IP with only a home run given to Adam LaRoche for the Nats only run.

Yankes lead 4-1 going into the 9th

Yanks win 4-1

Ivan Nova will look to build on an impressive last few starts today and will look to extend the Yankees win streak to 9 this afternoon as the Yankees will face off in the rubber match of a three game set against the Washington Nationals. The Yankees, like I mentioned earlier, are riding an 8 game win streak which have all come against the National League East. On the mound will be Ivan Nova and facing him will be Edwin Jackson for the Washington Nationals. The game will be televised at 1:35 pm ET on TBS and the YES Network. 

Lineups

Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Raul Ibanez LF
Andruw Jones RF
Chris Stewart C
Ivan Nova RHP

The Yankees have a 1.5 game lead over the Baltimore Orioles and a 3.5 game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East. 

Yankees @ Nationals 6/16/12

UPDATE

It took 14 innings but the Yankees won their first game today without the help of a home run. The Yankees won 5-3 in 14 innings to extend the streak (and overall) win streak against the NL East to 8 straight games.

Teix led the way with 2 rbis and Ibanez and Eric Chavez each had an rbi a piece in the win. 

The red hot Yankees continued beating up on their little brother, the NL East, last night with a win against the Nationals. That was their 7th straight win against a National League East team. This afternoon the Yankees will be going after #8 against the Washington Nationals. Andy Pettitte will be on the mound for the Yankees and Jordan Zimmerman will be on the mound for the Nationals. The game will be televised at 1:05 pm ET on MLB Network and YES.

Lineups

Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Raul Ibanez LF
Russell Martin C
Eric Chavez 3B
Andy Pettitte LHP


The Yankees have a 1.5 game lead over the Baltimore Orioles and a 2.5 game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East.


Go Yankees!

Yankees @ Nationals 6/15/12

Yankees win 7-2

Hughes first start in where he did not allow a home run in a start. 

For the first time since 1961, and the first time under the new organization, the Yankees are going to travel to  Washington D.C. for a three game series with the Washington Nationals. Coming off consecutive National League sweeps of the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves the Yankees will look to continue their dominance against the National League East. Tonight Phil Hughes will be on the mound for the Yankees and will be facing Gio Gonzalez for the Nationals. The game will be televised at 7:05 pm ET on MY9 and MLB Network.

Line ups

Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Nick Swisher RF
Andruw Jones LF
Russell Martin C
Jayson Nix 2B
Phil Hughes P

The Yankees have a one game lead over the Baltimore Orioles and a 2 game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East.

Go Yankees!

Yankees Press Release For 6/13/12

I feel like I am big time now that I got my first press release for the Yankees. The main reason I got it was not because I co own this blog but because the photographer for "Braves Vision", the main guy controlling the cameras for the Braves, had the hots for my wife. I digress though...

This was interesting and he wanted to give it to us because it spoke a lot about Alex Rodriguez's 23 career grand slam and such and he thought it might be worth something one day. I think it was just an excuse to talk to my wife but hey... no harm no foul and I got something out of it.

Sorry if this is out of order or whatever but blogger is giving me fits uploading these and trying to move them has been a nightmare. Hopefully someone gets some joy out of the sheer plethora of information that is on this thing.

Series Awards: @ Atlanta, 6/11 - 6/13

Jake Taylor Award
It was a tough one this time, as four hitters stood out. Derek Jeter went 5-for-14, with a double and 3 runs scored. Curtis Granderson went 4-for-13 with a home run, 2 runs scored, and a couple of RBI. Nick Swisher went 3-for-10 with a double and home run (which gave the Yankees the lead in the 8th inning of game 2). But the winner this series is Alex Rodriguez, who went 3-for-12 with a double, home run (grand slam to tie Game 2 in the 8th inning), 3 runs scored, and 5 RBI.

Gentry Award
Coming into this series Russell Martin was hitting the ball really well, having gone 9-for-28 to that point in the month of June (.321 BA), along with 2 home runs, 2 doubles, and 8 RBI. Unfortunately that didn't carry over into Atlanta, where Russ was 0-for-10 with 4 strikeouts, including having only seen 10 pitches in 4 plate appearances in Game 1.

Rick Vaughn Award
In the first game of the series, Ivan Nova took the hill and dominated. Over 7 innings Ivan gave up zero runs on only 5 hits (all singles), while striking out 6 and walking only 1. As bad as Nova looked coming into June, in his two starts so far this month he's gone 15 innings while giving up only 1 run, 9 hits, while striking out 11 next to 2 walks. I don't expect that sort of performance to keep going the rest of the year, but hopefully Nova has gotten back his winning touch.

Kelner Award
Although it wasn't a poor performance, the fact that it came from the team's ace puts it in the "Not So Good" category. CC Sabathia started in Game 2 and went 7 innings, giving up 4 earned runs off of 10 hits a walk, while striking out 6. The good news was that it only took CC 109 pitches to get through those 7 innings, and the game ended up with another Yankee "W". So I'll take that performance, but I think Mr. Sabathia can do better.

--------------------

*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.

Gardner & Robertson Injury Update

The Yankees have announced today, after Brett Gardner went for a cortisone shot, that Brett Gardner does not have ligament damage in his elbow and will only miss another 3-4 weeks. That puts him coming back at a mid to late July time frame. Just in time for us to hopefully NOT overreact and trade a vital piece for a stop gap outfielder for the stretch run, see Xavier Nady. 

David Robertson will be activated tomorrow for the game in Washington against the Nationals. David Phelps was optioned to AAA Empire State to make room on the 25 man roster. I agree with this move because Phelps has not been used in nearly two weeks and there is no sense in him being up without being used, especially when we have Freddy Garcia. 

We're Not Done In Atlanta...

I have so many pictures to upload, I got a Yankees Press Release I thought about scanning and uploading, and so much more on this off day. We're not done with the Atlanta Braves and the sweep down in Turner Field. Stay tuned to this post and I will be updating it as the day goes on. 

Here is a quick preview because I am struggling to get this adobe file onto the blog for whatever reason. 

Yankees @ Braves 6/13/12

Update Alex Rodriguez with an RBI single in the 1st to make it 1-0

Yankees win 3-2 to sweep!

I will be at the game tonight so the updates will be sporadic, or non existent, but tonight the Yankees will go for the sweep against the Atlanta Braves down in Turner Field in Atlanta. Hiroki Kuroda will be going for the Yankees tonight against Braves right hander Tim Hudson.

Lineups

The Yankees are in first place in the AL East ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles.


Go Yankees!!