The Daily Yankeeland - 9/14

The Yankees split a day-night doubleheader with the Rays yesterday. Unfortunately Mike Mussina was not the winning pitcher for the Yankees. Moose was off his game, allowing 5 runs in five innings, and dropped his ninth game of the season. He'll likely have three starts remaining with no room for error. The Yankees dropped the opener 7-1, with a ninth inning Bobby Abreu home run the only thing that kept them from being shut out. Moose did pass Cy Young for 19th place on the all-time strikeout list.

Xavier Nady's RBI single in the seventh inning snapped a 4-4 tie in the nightcap. Damaso Marte picked up the win, with Mariano Rivera, pitching for only the second time in two weeks, earning his 34th save in 35 tries.

Derek Jeter went 6-7 in the twinbill, putting him within three hits of Lou Gehrig's career hit record at Yankee Stadium. Being that we're going to the game tie, we would love a 3- or 4-hit performance. The last September game we went to was 10 years ago when David Cone beat the then Devil Rays for his 20th win of the season. That was team win number 113.

Lack of amenities doom the old ballparks.

Kevin Kernan says the Yankees need smart moves in the off-season. Of course he's the guy who said last year the Yankees should sign Scot Schoenweis.

Joel Sherman has his 5 critical fixes for '09.

For some reason the LA Times is talking about A-Rod's need for a ring.

Trenton has taken a 2-1 lead on Akron in the Eastern League championship series. George Kontos, Anthony Claggett, Mike Dunn, and Jhonny Nunez combined on a 4-hitter in the Thunder's 4-1 triumph. Claggett picked up the victory after Kontos was removed with two outs in the fifth inning.

Austin Jackson had a big night with a home run and two tremendous catches in centerfield. Mike Ashmore has more on the game.

The Thunder can close things out tonight in a 6:05 start.

The Daily News has another goodbye to Yankee Stadium.


Joe Girardi says Kevin Long shouldn't be a scape goat.

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Aeros Even up the Thunder

Former Yankees prospect Bronson Sardinha gave his old organization some pay back last night as he enjoyed a 4-hit, 4 RBI in Akron's 13-10 win over the Trenton Thunder. The victory tied the Eastern League series at a game apiece.

Sardinha's four hits included a home run as the Aeros built a 13-6 lead. The Thunder rallied with four runs in the ninth, but fell short. Christian Garcia was put on the hot seat, making his first post season start, and he failed miserably. Garcia, who missed a good chunk of the last two seasons, left after four innings and 6-1 deficit.

The Thunder rallied to tie the game at 6-6, but the bullpen imploded in the eighth inning when the Aeros put seven runs on the board. Kevin Whelan was tagged with the loss after allowing four runs in just one-third of an inning.

Austin Jackson, Reegie Corona, and Colin Curtis led the Thunder with two RBI each.

The Times of Trenton has more.

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Thunder Sweep SeaDogs

The Trenton Thunder finished off the rival Portland SeaDogs, 5-4 tonight, to complete a three game sweep in the first round of the Eastern League playoffs. Colin Curtis drew a bases loaded walk to snap a 4-4 tie in the top of the ninth as the Thunder won their third straight game. In addition to his walk, Curtis had two singles, a double, triple, and two RBI.

The Thunder tied the game in the eighth when Francisco Cervelli was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Mike Dunn retired the SeaDogs in order in the bottom of the ninth to preserve the win for Kevin Whelan. Whelan struck out five of the six hitters he faced.

It was the second straight come from behind win in the series for Trenton. Thursday night the Thunder trailed Clay Buchholz and the SeaDogs 3-0 in the sixth inning when Austin Jackson hit a game tying 3-run home run. It would stay that way until the eighth when P.J. Pillitere's third hit of the game drove in what proved to be the game winner. Wil Arias picked up the win while Jose Valdez recorded the final two outs for a save.

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Down on the Farm - 8/7

Time to do some catching up at the minor league level. Today we'll start with Scranton and Trenton, taking a look at how the teams and their prospects are doing.

Austin Jackson
He's really put together a solid year and word is that he'll spend the entire season at Trenton. He's batting .290-9-61 in 449 at-bats with an .816 OPS, which escalates to .936 against left-handers. He's also stolen 15 bases in 20 attempts.

Jackson has particularly been red hot with the warm weather, batting .357 since July 1.

Al Aceves
There's been plenty of buzz around the right-hander plucked from the Mexican League. But after being out with a strained groin, he's been struggling at Scranton. Chad Jennings has more.

Jason Jones
With Ian Kennedy being called up, Jones has headed up to Scranton. Jones has put together an 11-5, 3.03 record in 21 starts. His ERA had been 2.28 before being roughed up in a pair of late July games.


Scranton

The Triple-A Yankees are 73-47 leading the Pawtucket Red Sox by one-half game in the International League's North Division. With promotions (Justin Christian, .309) and injuries, several players have stepped up. Juan Miranda is wreaking havoc on left-handed pitching, batting .352. Veteran first baseman Ben Broussard has belted 10 home runs and Brett Gardner has 37 steals to go with a .405 OBP.

As for pitching, the club has seen a rash of injuries and call ups, and the departure of Dan McCutchen and Jeff Karstens via trade. Kei Igawa has stepped up as the ace of the staff. Yes, we really said that. The overpaid left-hander is 12-5, 3.39 with 100 strikeouts in 132.2 innings pitched. He's 8-1 since June 1.

Trenton

The Thunder have had a number of players, especially key pitchers, promoted to Triple-A, but those who have taken their place have really done the job. Trenton leads the Eastern League's Northern division by 8 games over the Portland SeaDogs (again a Red Sox farm team), and has compiled a 70-45 mark.

As we mentioned earlier, Jason Jones has put together a terrific season, but he's not alone. Phil Coke (9-4, 2.51), Chase Wright (8-2, 2.96), who recently got bumped up to Scranton, McCutchen, Aceves, and Erick Hacker (6-2, 2.82) have all contributed to the club's success. The bullpen has been solid too with Anthony Claggett (3-2, 1.76, 8 saves) and Mark Melancon (6-0, 1.81, 2 saves) being the big names.

Offensively, the team lost Matt Carson and Edwar Gonzalez to promotion, but Chris Malec is hitting .304, and catchers P.J. Pilliterre and Joe Muich have added a lot offensively. And of course there's Action Jackson.

Tomorrow - Tampa and Charleston

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Minor League Recap - 7/24

Games of 7/23

Mark Melancon continued his impressive season, improving to 6-0 last night in Trenton's 3-1 win over the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. With the game tied 1-1 in the 9th, Austin Jackson led off with a double and Chris Malec followed with an RBI triple. Joe Muich's RBI single added some insurance. Muich was only in the game due to a nasty injured suffered by catcher P.J. Pillitere. A foul ball ricocheted off the screen and hit Pillitere square in the face, breaking several bones in his nose. Mike Ashmore has more on Pillitere's injury.

	July 23, 2008
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Trenton 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 9 0 New Hampshire 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 5 0 Recap | Box | W: M. Melancon (6-0, 1.93); L: Z. Dials (2-3, 3.74) HR: None.

The Tampa Yankees also won in the 9th inning, 6-4, over the Brevard County Manatees. Josh Kreuzer was the hero with a walk off 2-run home run. Kreuzer had once been a highly touted prospect in the Blue Jays organization, including winning the Florida State League's MVP award, but was released in mid-June.

	July 23, 2008
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Brevard County 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 4 6 2 Tampa 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 0 2 6 10 1 Recap | Box | W: W. Arias (4-0, 2.61); L: E. Shanks (0-1, 3.21) HR: TAM: J. Kreuzer (2).

You guessed it, the Charleston River Dogs also won the in the 9th. They trailed the Greensboro Grasshoppers 3-1, but Justin Snyder belted a 2-run home run to tie the game up and Jesus Montero delivered a pinch-hit single to put the Dogs ahead. Wil De la Rosa started for Charleston, allowing 1 run in 5.2 innings pitched, with 8 strikeouts.

	July 23, 2008
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Charleston 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 3 4 8 0 Greensboro 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 3 7 2 Recap | Box | W: J. Ortiz (3-2, 1.85); L: S. Cishek (2-5, 4.40) HR: CHA: J. Snyder (5).

No late inning heroics for Staten Island as the Baby Bombers fell to the Jamestown Jammers 7-2. Mike Lyon did hit his third home run of the season.

July 23, 2008
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Staten Island 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 2 10 1 Jamestown 4 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 X 7 9 0 Recap | Box W: D. Clothier (2-0, 4.05); L: N. Asselin (0-1, 4.50); SV: A. Campbell (1) HR: STA: M. Lyon (3).

The GCL Yankees are struggling for runs this season, they got only one last night on a Jose Pirela RBI single, and it showed again last night in a 7-1 loss to the GCL Braves.

	July 23, 2008
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E GCL Braves 0 0 1 1 4 1 0 0 0 7 9 0 GCL Yankees 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 7 2 Recap | Box W: B. Oberholtzer (3-0, 1.90); L: R. Marte (1-1, 1.40) HR: None.

Rain had a big effect last night, postponing Scranton's game with the Richmond Braves.

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Minor League Recap - 7/23

Games of 7/23

With Brian Cashman in attendance, Scranton starter Al Aceves had a chance to make an impression. A solid or stellar start could have meant a start at the major league level, but things didn't work out too well for the 25-yr old native of Mexico.

Aceves threw 65 pitches (he's still rehabbing from a groin injury) in a 3 inning stint in which he allowed 2 runs, 3 hits, walked 2 and struck out 6. The Yankees won the game 4-3 over the Richmond Braves behind Cody Ransom's 2-run home run, his 18th of the season. J.B. Cox picked up the win after 3 scoreless innings from Steven White. Brian Bruney also tossed one shutout inning and insisted he's ready to re-join the big club.

Chad Jennings spoke to Cashman about Aceves' performance. Jennings also reported that Jason Lane was put on the DL with a rib cage injury.

	July 22, 2008
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Richmond 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 5 0 Scranton/WB 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 X 4 4 1 Recap | Box | W: J. Cox (4-3, 3.76); L: D. Moss (3-9, 4.99); SV: S. Strickland (7) HR: RIC: B. Canizares (12). SWB: C. Ransom (18).

Tough night for Trenton Thunder pitcher Jason Jones. He got hammered for 6 runs on 10 hits in just 4 innings of work against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. He also walked 4 batters. New Hampshire won the game 7-2. Edwar Gonzalez hit his 8th home run for the Thunder and Austin Jackson stayed hot with a pair of hits in 4 at-bats.

Mike Ashmore reported that the Yankees traded reliever Bo Hall to the Astros for a player to be named later. Don't expect that player to have much value.

	July 22, 2008
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Trenton 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 8 1 New Hampshire 2 0 0 4 0 0 0 1 X 7 12 1 Recap | Box | W: B. Cecil (5-2, 2.76); L: J. Jones (10-4, 2.67) HR: TRE: E. Gonzalez (8). NHM: D. Smith (6).

The Tampa Yankees split a 7-inning twinbill with the Brevard County Manatees. The Yankees won the opener 4-2 behind a 3-run home run from Andres Perez and strong pitching by Mike Dunn, Phil Bartleski (2-0), and Jon Hovis.

The Manatees took the nightcap in a 16-2 blow out. Jason Stephens, who had been an All-Star at Charleston and and had started out well at Tampa, got lit up for 7 runs in 2 innings pitched as he continued recent struggles. Eduardo Nunez and Mitch Hilligoss each hit solo home runs to account for the Yankees runs.

	July 22, 2008
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Brevard County 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 7 0 Tampa 0 3 0 0 1 0 X 4 6 1 Recap | Box | W: P. Bartleski (2-0, 1.45); L: A. Rivas (0-1, 9.00); SV: J. Hovis (10) HR: TAM: A. Perez (7).

	July 22, 2008 Game 2
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Brevard County 1 6 3 5 0 1 0 16 16 0 Tampa 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 4 1 Recap | Box | W: M. Ramlow (2-0, 0.00); L: J. Stephens (2-4, 6.08) HR: TAM: E. Nunez (5), M. Hilligoss (1).

Lance Pendleton allowed 5 runs in 5 innings in the Charleston River Dogs 7-5 loss to the Greensboro Grasshoppers. Brandon Laird had a big night, going 4-5 with a home run and 3 RBI. Jesus Montero continued his hot streak with a 2-5 night.

	July 22, 2008
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Charleston 0 1 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 5 15 1 Greensboro 0 3 2 0 0 0 2 0 X 7 14 2 Recap | Box | W: B. Evans (1-1, 4.61); L: L. Pendleton (6-6, 3.60); SV: C. Madden (4) HR: CHA: B. Laird (12). GBO: R. Curry (10), T. Belcher (1).

The Staten Island Yankees came out on top of the Jamestown Jammers (sounds like a Roller Derby team) in a pitcher's duel, 1-0. Addison Maruszak drove in the game's only run in the 7th inning to make a winner of starter David Phelps, who went 6 innings. Pat Venditte struck out 2 of 3 in the 9th for his 9th save.

	July 22, 2008
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Staten Island 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 3 0 Jamestown 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 2 Recap | Box W: D. Phelps (3-2, 3.27); L: T. Koehler (1-3, 2.12); SV: P. Venditte (9) HR: None.

The GCL Yankees were edged out by their Braves countparts 5-4. Humberto Sanchez threw one inning, allowing 3 runs, 2 earned, as he continues his rehab from Tommy John surgery. Spencer Lucian drove in 2 runs for the Yankees.

	July 22, 2008
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E GCL Yankees 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 6 3 GCL Braves 3 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 X 5 8 2 Recap | Box W: D. Delgado (3-0, 2.49); L: K. Perez (0-2, 4.63); SV: S. Rodriguez (3) HR: None.

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