The Daily Yankeeland - 5/5

The Yankees are enjoying a beautiful day off today before starting a 3-game series with the Cleveland Indians at the Stadium. The Tribe took 2 of 3 last week when the two teams met at the "Jake".

Andy Pettitte faces Fausto Carmona on Tuesday. That will be followed by a match up of two hot pitchers, Chien-Ming Wang and Cliff Lee on Wednesday night. On Thursday, the series wraps up with a pair of wily veterans as Mike Mussina opposes Paul Byrd.

Kyle Farnsworth will have his 3-game suspension appeal heard on Tuesday. You would think they would do it on the Yankees day off.

Mike Puma of the NY Post has a piece on the coming of age of Melky Cabrera.

Johnny Damon has reached base in 19 straight games, the longest streak this season.

Jason Giambi has worn his pant legs high the past two days, a la Doug Mienkiewicz, but says he'll only give it more game to try to turn his luck. Perhaps if he would stop pulling every pitch that might help too.

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FOURRRRRRRRR!

The Yankees held off the Cleveland Indians today, 5-3, to pull within 4 games of the Boston Red Sox. Shortly after Mariano Rivera closed out the Tribe for his 18th consecutive game, the Orioles' Miguel Tejada hit a game tying home run off of Eric Gagne. In the 10th, the former king of the Red Sox idiots, made them wish he was still there. Kevin Millar hit a walk-off 3-run HR off of Kyle Snyder to give the O's the win. But back to the Yankees.

The Yankees pitching staff held the Indians to 6 runs in the 3 games, and today it was Andy Pettitte dazzling a slumping Cleveland lineup. He and Jake Westbrook were locked in a scoreless duel until the 4th when Jason Giambi hit a laser into the right field seats, with a man aboard, for a 2-0 Yankees lead. It was Giambi's 9th home run and his in 3 at-bats, going back to his pinch-hit appearance on Saturday.

Robinson Cano continued his torrid hitting with 3 more singles, including an RBI base hit in the 6th. In the 7th, Melky Cabrera extended his career high hitting streak to 18 games with a solo HR, his 8th.


The Indians rallied against Pettitte in the bottom of the 7th with no one out, but Pettitte picked Jhonny Peralta off of 1st, retired Jason Michaels on a sac fly out, and got Chris Gomez to ground out to end the inning. A potentially huge inning turned into a 1 run frame.

Mariano Rivera relieved Luis Vizcaino in the 8th and had a shaky 9th before ending the game. Mo gave up 3 straight hits including an RBI double by Franklin Guitierrez that put the tying runs in scoring position. But Mo struck out Asdrubel Cabrera and Grady Sizemore, and retired Casey Blake on a game ending fly out to Bobby Abreu in right.

...

Ron Guidry was ejected in the 8th inning by home plate ump Tim McLelland for arguing balls and strikes.

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Today's Lineups (8/12)

Pettitte vs. Westbrook

YANKEES

Cabrera CF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui LF
Giambi DH
Cano 2B
Phillips 1B
Molina C

INDIANS

Sizemore CF
Blake DH
Martinez C
Garko 1B
Peralta SS
Michaels LF
Gomez 3B
Gutierrez RF
Cabrera 2B

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Young and Old Alike

The focus has been on the Yankees bats during their 21-6 streak since the All-Star break, but the starting pitching has been just as important. That was the case in the first two games of this weekend's series with the Indians. The young guns, Phil Hughes, using a nasty curveball, and Joba Chamberlain, with his filthy slider, dominated the slumping Indians for 8 Indians. Yesterday it was the old man, though young in comparison to Roger Clemens, Mike Mussina who threw his best outing of the season in a dominant performance.

Friday night, Hughes (2-1) shook off poor start against the Royals last Sunday and gave Joe Torre 6 solid innings. He allowed 1 run while striking out 6. Chamberlain then came in, with a fastball that topped out at 99 mph, and retired all 6 men he faced. With 4 strikeouts, Chamberlain has 6 in 4 innings pitched. Oh, in case the Indians hoped to rally in the 9th, Mariano Rivera came in for a non-save situation to close things out in a Yankees 6-1 win.

Last night was vintage Moose (8-7) as the Yankees romped 11-2. He threw 89 pitches, an amazing 69 of which were strikes. He gave up 2 runs in 7.2 innings, but it would have been 1 run had Johnny Damon not misplayed a ball in left field. It was Moose's 100th career victory as a Yankee and the 247th of his career. He became only the 9th player to win 100 games with 2 different teams, and the first Yankees pitcher to accomplish that feat.

Of course, let us not forget the offense. Alex Rodriguez started the scoring on Friday with a 410-ft blast to centerfield. His 37th of the season and #501. He topped himself on Saturday with a pair of 2-run blasts, giving him 39 and 503 respectively.

Derek Jeter had 3 hits in both games, and with a .388 average, has the best average among all hitters with at least 100 at-bats at Jacobs Field.

With a base hit in both ball games, Melky Cabrera extended his career high hitting streak to 16 games.

Jorge Posada sat out both games with a stiff neck, but Jose Molina filled in nicely, including rapping out a career 4 hits on Saturday.

At one point last night, Robinson Cano had 46 hits in last 100 at-bats. In the 30 games since the All-Star break, he's batting .416 with 7 HRs and 28 RBI.

Joe Torre plans on using Jason Giambi as the DH today, so he put him in for one at-bat last night. Giambi promptly crushed his 8th HR of the season, a moonshot that rose above the upper deck before settling down below.

The Indians honored the late, great Larry Doby on Friday night. Doby was the 1st African-American ball player to play in the American League. Every Indians player wore Doby's number 14.

Joe Torre served his one game suspension, for the bean brawl in Toronto, on Friday night and Don Mattingly filled in nicely. He looked quite comfortable in Torre's chair during post-game interviews. Torre watched the game up in the press box with NBA coach Mike Fratello.

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Weekend Series Looms Large

The Yankees head to Cleveland for a big 3 game series with the Centreal Division leading Indians. The Tribe entered today's action, 1/2 game ahead of the Detroit Tigers.

Pitching Probables

Friday - Phil Hughes vs. Fausto Carmona
Really looking forward to this one. Dr. Phil Good has all our expectations quite high and Carmona is a young star on the rise.

Saturday - Mike Mussina vs. Paul Byrd
The kids on Friday, the old farts on Saturday

Sunday - Andy Pettitte vs. Jake Westbrook
The Yankees need Pettitte to keep going smoothly.

A little bit more on the recently completed Blue Jays series. Brian Butterfield complained about take out slides at 2nd Base from Johnny Damon (Monday) and Shelley Duncan (Tuesday). Considering the Blue Jays threw at A-Rod on Monday, and again on Tuesday, you've got no room to say word one.

And how about Josh Towers. What has this little sh*t done in the majors to mouth off about Tony Pena. Pena was one of the best, grittiest catchers in baseball. We don't know his reasoning for leaving KC as manager, but Towers should be eating a fastball sandwich for his remarks.

"I heard somebody chirping when I was talking to Lyle (Overbay) and I didn't think it was Alex and I asked who it was," said Towers. "And Tony Pena is running his mouth and I was like, 'What's this guy running his mouth for? This dude is a quitter, he managed a team and quit in the middle of the season because he couldn't hack it. He's going to run his mouth to me?' So I ended up getting into it with Alex a second time."

Some credit to the Jays' Alex Rios. He took a Roger Clemens fastball between the shoulder blades, and though pissed, went right to 1st Base. Perhaps he realized his pitched screwed up.

Joba Chamberlain had a successful debut Tuesday night. His fastball was consistently clocked at 96 mph and he had a nasty slider that he struck 2 hiters out with. The biggest surprise was seeing him shake off Jorge Posada several times. It was also nice to see the game ending double play. He doesn't just have to blow hitters away...not that there is anything wrong with that.

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A-Rod Walks Off a Hero...AGAIN

Down 6-2 with 2 out in the 9th today, a Yankees comeback against the Indians seemed improbable.

Then Josh Phelps hit a solo HR

Then Jorge Posada singled

Then Johnny Damon walked

Then Derek Jeter singled in a run

Then Bobby Abreu singled in a run

And then it happened..again. Alex Rodriguez belted a walk-off 3-run HR to CF, well over 400 ft., and the Yankees had themselves an 8-6 win.

I'm still stunned by it.

Sean Henn gets the win in relief. Jason Giambi also homered.


More later.

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Yankees vs. Indians Preview (4/19)

Day Baseball in the Bronx - 1:00




Fausto Carmona 0-1, 12.46



vs.



Darrell Rasner 0-1, 4.66



LINEUPS

Indians

CF Sizemore
LF Dellucci
DH Hafner
C Martinez
1B Garko
3B Blake
2B Peralta
2B Rouse
RF Michaels

Yankees

CF Damon
SS Jeter
RF Abreu
3B Rodriguez
DH Giambi
2B Cano
LF Cabrera
1B Mientkiewicz
C Nieves


Carmon has entered 3 games in relief against the Yankees and pitched to a 2.70 ERA. He had a tryout as the heir apparent to closer Bob Wickman last year, but failed miserably.

This is Rasner's 1st appearance against the Tribe.

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Gettin' Iggy wit it

The Yankees continued to take their road trip frustrations out on the Cleveland Indians tonight. One night after battering Jake Westbrook, the Bombers singled and double Jeremy Sowers to an early shower. Better than that, Kei Igawa had his best performance of the season, with 6 very good innings.

The Yankees started early with a lead off walk to Johnny Damon and a wind blown double by Derek Jeter, the first of his 3 hits on the night. Bobby Abreu's sac fly brought home Damon for a 1-0 lead.

The Indians took a 2-1 lead in the 3rd, but the Yankees bounced right back and bounced Sowers in the process. Jeter started it with career double #350, and came home on Abreu's single. AfterAlex Rodriguez hit into a force out, Jason Giambi put the Yankees ahead for good with an RBI double. Robinson Cano, Josh Phelps, and Damon each added RBI singles for a 5-run inning.

Igawa threw 92 pitches, 62 for strikes, in allowing 2 runs on 5 hits, with a walk and 5 strikeouts. He had his best control of the regular season in doing so. The bullpen continued to excel as well, with Scott Proctor, Sean Henn, and Chris Britton each tossing a scoreless frame.

The offense decided to add some more as well. A-Rod continued his torrid April with a 2-run HR, his 9th, in the 6th inning. Giambi followed with a solo shot (3) of his own for back to back blasts.

~~~

A-Rod has had a hit in all 13 games played and leads the majors in RBI with 23, in addition to HRs. The RBI record for April of 29 is well within his reach.

Entering the game, the Yankees bullpen had the 2nd best ERA (2.39) in the AL, 2nd only to Cleveland (2.32).

Chien-Ming Wang is scheduled to throw for Tampa tomorrow, and hopefully will be activated from the DL early next week. Hideki Matsui is very close to starting a rehab assignment as well.

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Yankees vs. Indians Preview (4/18)

7:05 Start Time



Jeremy Sowers 0-0, 2.08



vs.



Kei Igawa 0-0, 7.84




LINEUPS

Indians

CF Sizemore
RF Michaels
DH Hafner
1B Garko
3B Blake
SS Peralta
LF Dellucci
2B Barfield
C Shoppach

Yankees

CF Damon
SS Jeter
RF Abreu
3B A-Rod
DH Giambi
C Posada
2B Cano
1B Phelps
LF Melky


Sowers beat the Yankees last year in his only career appearance against them. He allowed 2 runs over 7 innings. Both runs came off the bat of a Jason Giambi HR.

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Finding Mr. Wright

or Fill in the cliche of your choice ________________________________

No matter how you put it, Chase Wright did the Yankees a tremendous solid last night. Sh*t, now I sound like Stuart Scott. The kid went out and threw 5 innings - not so great, but not so bad, and the Yankees offensive exploded against Jake Westbrook for 8 runs in two innings, and went on to a 10-3 win.

Wright worked through some early innings jitters, and picked up the victory after allowing 3 runs, including a Travis Hafner HR, in his 5 inning stint. After walking the first two batters of the game, Wright retired the next 3 hitters, with a run coming home on a ground out by Victor Martinez.

The Yankees quickly got that run back plus another in their half of the 1st, and then rocked Westbrook in the 2nd. Doug Mientkiewicz hit his first home run since June of last season to increase the lead to 3-1. Johnny Damon doubled and came home on a Bobby Abreu single, and then Alex Rodriguez crushed a Westbrook offering on to the netting in front of the retired numbers in left field. A-Rod's major league best 8th home run made it a 6-1 game. And the Yankees weren't done yet. After a Jason Giambi single, Jorge Posada hit his 200th career HR into the right-center field bleachers. Indians manager Eric Wedge finally sent Westbrook (0-2) to the showers and Wright had all the cushion he needed.

Pitching in front of his parents, siblings, and friends, the 24-yr old, who had only pitched 2 games above single 'A', gave the fans, and himself, a night to remember.

~~~

A-Rod also had an RBI single in the 1st and now has a major league high 21 RBI for April. The record is 29.

The Yankees clicked on all cylinders last night, in a good recovery from Sunday's tough loss to Oakland. Brian Bruney, Mike Myers, and Chris Britton combined for 4 shutout, hitless innings after Wright departed.

Hafner's home run was his 1st in Yankee Stadium.

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Tonight's Lineups (4/17)

Indians

CF Sizemore
LF Michaels
DH Hafner
C Martinez
1B Garko
RF Blake
SS Peralta
2B Barfield
3B Marte


Yankees

CF Damon
SS Jeter
RF Abreu
3B A-Rod
DH Giambi
C Posada
2B Cano
LF Melky
1B Mientkiewicz

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Yankees vs. Indians Preview (4/17)

Finding Mr. Wright. Or hopefully not too Mr. Wrong anyway.

Chase Wright makes the big jump from Double-A to the majors tonight. Can you imagine pitching in front of the Trenton Thunder fans one week and 40-50,000 fans in Yankee Stadium the next?

Wright is getting this chance because of his magnificent two starts for the Thunder. He hadn't allowed a run in 14 innings and struck out 19. This came on the heels of a great 2006 season at Tampa where he was 12-3, 1.88.

He'll be nervous as all hell tonight, but neither he nor the Yankees have anything to lose...except the game of course.

Jake Westbrook (0-1, 7.36) goes for the Indians tonight. Once upon a time, Westbrook was a Yankee, appearing in 3 games back in 2000. That June he was dealt along with Zach Day and Ricky Ledee to the Tribe for David Justice.

Westbrook had come to the Yankees the previous year for Hideki Irabu. Ted Lilly and Christian Parker were later added to the deal by the Expos. Westbrook has had a pretty good career in Cleveland, averaging about 15 wins the past 3 seasons. This will be his 1st start since signing a 3-year, $33 million extension over the weekend.

Derek Jeter (.348), Hideki Matsui (.500), Jorge Posada (.333), and Jason Giambi (.346) have all smacked Westbrook around pretty well. Hell, even Doug Mientkiewicz is hitting .200 off of him.

~~~

Chien-Ming Wang is expected to pitch for Tampa on Thursday, and if all goes as planned, be activated from the DL the following Tuesday.

Jeff Karstens threw 4 innings for Tampa yesterday and may be activated for the Red Sox series this weekend. The Sox will be starting Curt Schilling, Josh Beckett, and Dice-K in the 3 game set. Hate that team.

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