Friday Night Lights In the Bronx

The Blue Jays are in town as part of their 11 day road trip.  They are coming off a strong series against the Texas Rangers where they took 3 of 4 games in Arlington.  The Yankees are ready for this three game divisional series after splitting the last 4 games with the White Sox.  The Yankees offense was non-existent the first two games against the Sox due to the White Sox pitchers throwing an obscene amount of breaking balls to keep the Yankees from hitting Home Runs. (Pretty smart strategy).  The Yanks were able to grab the next two games with explosive offensive production, especially during last nights game where they scored 12 runs.

The Yankees now lead the AL East by 1.5 games & have not lost a home series yet!

TONIGHT'S STARTERS

Ricky Romero: 1-3, 3.00 ERA vs. Freddy Garcia: 1-0, .69 ERA

Romero has lost his last three starts, but pitched extremely well in his last game against the Tampa Bay Rays.  Romero struck out 10 batters, and only allowed 5 hits.  The Jays gave Romero no run support and they lost 2-0.  The 2 runs allowed by Romero was from a Ben Zobrist home run.  (Zobrist is dangerous at the plate this year!)

Romero is 2-2 against the Yankees with a 5.70 ERA over his career

• Brett Gardner is hitting .444 off Romero.  Career stat.
• Swisher is hitting .308 off Romero.  Career stat.
• Cano is 2 for 16 against Romero.  Career stat.

Garcia has only started twice for the Yankees this season, but each performance was solid. In his first start against the Rangers, he pitched 6 scoreless innings.  He followed that up with an even more impressive second start against the Orioles, pitching 6 scoreless innings, but striking out 7 along the way.  Not bad for a veteran making a mere 1.5 mil this year!

UPDATED @ 4PM:  Francisco Cervelli is off the DL and back the with New York Yankees. Gustavo Molina has been optioned down to AAA.

Todays Lineup

Jeter SS
Swisher RF
Texeira 1B
Arod 3B
Cano 2B
Jones DH
Granderson CF
Martin C
Gardner LF

YANKEES NOTES

The Yankees have won 21 of the past 35 games against the Blue Jays in Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees pitching has been outstanding as of late.  Following CC Sabathia's performance last night, the Yankees starting pitchers have allowed only 1 earned run or less over the fast 5 games.  Each of those starters has pitched into the 7th inning allowing the overworked bullpen to rest a bit.  Their ERA over these past 5 games is .76.  UNBELIEVABLE!

During the 5th inning in last night's game against the White Sox, the 1st 9 Yankees reached base without any outs.  This is the first time since 2002 this has happened.

Cano is on quite a hot streak.  Although he lost his hitting streak, he still has hit in 19 of the 22 games played this season.  He has also hit safely in the past 16 of 17 games. 

The last save that Soriano has received was against the Blue Jays during that two game set in Toronto last week.

Swisher is batting .458 when hitting right handed this season.

Granderson is batting .318 against lefties this season.

BLUE JAYS NOTES

The Blue Jays are 6-8 on the road this season, after taking 3 of 4 from Texas.

Jose Bautista is ON FIRE!  Bautista has reached based safely in 21 of 22 games played this season.  He is now batting .360 which leads the AL.  Bautista also leads the league with 8 home runs.

Adam Lind was hot during the Jays previous series against the Rangers going 8-17 in those four games with 3 home runs.

Juan Rivera is on a 7 game hitting streak.


SIDE NOTES:  25 Years ago Today, Roger Clemens struck out 20 batters against the Seattle Mariners, becoming the first pitcher to ever strike out 20 batters.  Unfortunately, he was on the Red Sox at the time.

Andrew Brackman will face off against Jake Peavy tonight for the AAA Scranton Yankees.