Enter Sandman

So last week, I wrote a post about the Red Sox bullpen and how they have locked down the 7^th, 8^th & 9^th innings. You can read that HERE.  This week, its about the Yankees bullpen locking down the 7^th, 8^th & ….. Usually the 9^th inning.

I love this picture!

9^th Inning:  Mariano is the Yankees go-to guy for the 9^th inning, but this week he showed signs that he may actually be human.  He has now allowed runs to score in the past three games he appeared in.  It started Sunday in Boston when he blew the save, continued on Tuesday blowing the save against the Angels and yesterday again he almost blew the save again.  It this wasn’t Mo, I think everybody would be pulling the hair out of their heads and screaming for Girardi’s job.

Since Rivera is as clutch as you can possibly be, he gets a pass.  The 9^th inning is his and he owns it like no other pitcher.  It is somewhat unusual what is happening though as lefties seem to be hitting him better than before.  The pitch to Abreu on Tuesday which was drilled for a home run was a cutter and so was yesterday’s pitch to Branyan which was also drilled for a big home run.  Both Branyan and Abreu are lefties, who typically have problems hitting Mo’s cutter.  After looking over Mo’s past week, it seems that his cutter is a little flat, but he also had some location issues with it.  For instance, Abreu’s pitch was over the plate and he was able to get the bat head around quick enough to drive the ball, rather than having the cutter end up close to his hands and shatter the bat. 

I’m sure that Mo will bounce back from this, but it should be worth keeping an eye on his cutter against lefties.  Lefties are hitting .269 against Mo this season which doesn’t bode well for his cutter, but I think lefties know which pitch is coming and are cheating a bit and getting out in front of it more.  It could just be the aggressiveness of lefties, rather than a problem with the cutter.  That’s just my theory but all this could just be a ‘blip on the screen’ like Girardi says, and we may not think about this blip again for the rest of the season.  Either way, the 9^th inning is still Mo’s.

8^th Inning:  David Robertson has owned the 8^th inning this season since Soriano went on the DL.  Robertson has a 1.35 ERA and 1.2 WHIP.  His WHIP is inflated as he issues too many walks, but he makes up for it with his strikeouts – 13.7K/9IP! The strikeout ratio is just amazing and blows me away!  Robertson had one bad outing against Oakland on July 24, and since then he has only allowed 1 hit over 7 appearances and no runs.  Prior to the bad outing against Oakland, Robertson had only allowed 1 run dating back to May 11. 

7^th Inning: Soriano was slated to be the 8^th inning, set up man for Mariano when the season started but when he went on the DL his role was taken by Robertson.  Since Robertson has been so hot as the set-up man, it doesn’t look like Soriano will get that role back.  Instead, Soriano took over the 7^th inning and has been dominating since returning to the DL.  He now has pitched 6 innings since returning to the DL and yesterday was the first time he allowed a baserunner since May 13!  Besides the number, Soriano has been stellar and had a great outing on Wednesday in relief of Nova.  Nova left Soriano with a bases loaded jam with no outs and Soriano managed to escape the inning with only 4 pitches.  Although he allowed a run to score, the baserunner scored during a double play and he put the next batter down with no problems.  Soriano had some major issues with inherited runners earlier this season, but it looks like he has figured that problem out, and with him pitching the 7^th, Robertson in the 8^th and Mo for the 9^th – it’s a 6 inning game for the Yankees pitching.

A's And Yankees Preview

The Yankees return home today for a ten game homestand starting with the Oakland A’s.  After the last 8 games on the road playing on astroturf, I’m sure the Yankees are looking forward to a long homestand to get back on track.  The road trip following the All Star Break hasn’t been great for the Yankees as they have split two 4 game series with Toronto & Tampa.  There have been some highlights during these games, but there has also been a number of games where sloppy defense has cost them games. 

Looking ahead, the Yanks play the A’s and the Mariners over the next week which should bring them some wins.  The A’s who are 17-33 on the road, come to the Bronx tonight in hopes of getting a win in Yankee stadium for the first time since July 25, 2009.  They have lost the last 12 of 13 games against the Yankees in Yankee stadium, and the last time these two teams met the Yankees swept three games in Oakland.  Since then, the A's have fired their manager due to poor performance. 

Right now, the Yankees have a 10 game winning streak against Oakland.  The A’s had an off day Thursday following a series against Detroit where they split two games & prior to the Detroit series, the A’s swept the Angels outscoring them 20 to 11 over the 4 game set, showing a little offensive life.

STARTING PITCHERS

Friday: Trevor Cahill (8-8, 3.16 ERA) vs. Phil Hughes (1-2, 8.44 ERA)

-Hughes comes into the game following a big win against the Blue Jays earlier this week.  He pitched 6 innings allowing only 2 runs and striking out 5 for the win, and used a new type of curve ball in the process.  Overall he looked sharp compared to his previous start.  Although his first start back from the DL had similar numbers (5IP, 2 runs), this week’s performance showed more control and consistency along with velocity that is considered ‘healthy’ for Hughes.

-Hughes is 2-0 against the A’s with a 1.62 ERA all-time.

-Trevor Cahill is looking to get his first career win against the Yankees as he is 0-3 against them in 3 starts.  In those three starts he has allowed 18 earned runs over 16 2/3 innings pitched. Last season, Cahill pitched against the Yanks in Yankee stadium in the first game of a 4 game sweep by the Yankees, allowing 8 runs over 4 innings

-Texeira is 4 – 8 against Cahill with 2 Home Runs

-Cano is 4 – 9 against Cahill with 1 Home Run

Saturday: Rich Harden (1-1, 5.00 ERA) vs. AJ Burnett (8-7, 4.19 ERA)

-AJ had a rough start in his last outing allowing 3 runs over the first 2 innings but settled in after that a bit to keep the Yankees in the game.  Burnett allowed a season high 6 walks in the start.

-Burnett is 0-1 over his last 3 starts with a 5.00 ERA and 19 strikeouts

-Harden is coming off his first start for Oakland in three years following his reinstatement from the 60 day DL.  He pitched six strong innings, allowing two runs and four hits while striking out six batters.  Overall it was a good return from Harden who used a strong fastball to retired the first 16 of 18 batters he faced.

-Harden has not pitched a complete season since 2004 due to injuries and has been on the DL 10 times over his career.

Sunday: Gio Gonzalez (9-6, 2.33 ERA) vs. Bartolo Colon (6-6, 3,34 ERA)

-Colon quieted the critics in his last start showing that he is not injured and looking ahead to the second half.  In his start against Tampa he threw 6 shutout innings with a season high 9 Strikeouts.  Read more about that Start HERE

-Colon is 0-3 over his last three starts with a 6.39 ERA, but it looks as though Colon is back on track following the DL stint.

-David Dejesus is batting .545 against Colon with 2 Home Runs.

-Gio Gonzalez is coming off a strong start against the Angels of 7 innings of shutout ball.  Gonzalez allowed only 4 hits and struck out 8.

-Gonzalez is one of the few bright spots for this Oakland team as he boasts the 5^th best ERA in the AL and was named to the All Star Team.  He uses a combination of fastballs, curveballs and changeups relying most heavily on the fastball.

-Gonzalez has lost his last three starts against the Yankees, allowing 14 earned runs with 14 walks over 14 2/3 innings pitched

YANKEES NOTES

-Jeter has been slumping lately and over the last seven games Jeter is hitting .200.  Girardi has considered bumping him from lead off when facing righties as he did last night.  Against lefties though, Jeter is hitting .325 with a .419 on base percentage so I would guess that Jeter would remain as leadoff batter against lefties.

-Soriano pitched against Thursday in a rehab game for Class-A Tampa allowing one run on 2 hits over a single inning.  Soriano had also pitched Wednesday, as the Yankees want him to be durable enough to pitch back to back days.  It’s likely he could be activated by the middle of next week

-Chavez played third-base for the first time in Class-A Tampa Thursday, and went 1-3 on the day with an RBI Double. 

A’S NOTES

-The Yankees welcome back Hideki Matsui tonight into Yankee stadium. Matsui just hit his 500^th career home run!  (including home runs in Japanese league)

Down In the Minors

Soriano pitched for the first time last night since going on the DL and had a decent first outing.  Although it doesn’t mean much as he was only pitching for the Tampa Class-A Yankees, Soriano had a perfect 1^st inning retiring the side 1-2-3.  The second inning is where he ran into some issues though and allowed a home run, a hit and a sac bunt.  Ultimately, he finished the day with 21 pitches over 1.1 innings striking out 1 batter – Not an overwhelming performance from 2010’s save’s leader!

Before going on the DL Soriano had been inconsistent in the mere 15 innings he pitched.  He had a 5.40 ERA with 15 hits over those 15 innings, but also a problematic 11 walks.  Prior to yesterday’s outing, Girardi had told the press that Soriano was looking at a minimum of 3 rehab appearances before even being considered for a call-up to the Yanks.  There was some discussion as to whether Robertson would be kept in the 8^th inning slot, but Girardi wouldn’t confirm one way or another.  It’s Probably best for Girardi to keep tight-lipped about this as Soriano seems to be a bit sensitive.

Eric Chavez played in last night’s Class-A Game as well in his first rehab appearance.  Chavez, who was the DH, went 0-3 on the night with a walk.  He played again today in the afternoon game (DH again) and did much better.  Chavez went 4-5 this and scored 2 runs.  He is scheduled to play again tomorrow as the third baseman.  It is doubtful that Chavez will return to the Yankees terribly soon as he has been out since May 6, and should need a decent amount of at bats to get back in the groove but today’s game was a good start!

Although Ivan Nova isn’t playing in Class-A ball, he was sent down to Triple-A when Phil Hughes was called up.  He has done pretty well in the first two starts for the Scranton Yankees, but last night he left the game in the second inning with an ankle injury.  There has been a good amount of speculation regarding his injury but most reports indicate that it is not serious and probably only a ‘rolled’ ankle.  Assuming Nova isn’t seriously hurt, there is a good chance that he could make a spot start for the Yankees in one of the doubleheader games on July 30.

You Can Read More About Nova's performances down in Triple-A  HERE

Injury Updates

Pedro Feliciano who signed a 2 year, 8 Million dollar contract with the Yankees this past offseason injured himself during spring training.  He is recovering from a torn shoulder capsule and yesterday the Yankees announced that he suffered another setback. He will be shut down for at least another week before he is even allowed to throw a ball again, and it’s doubtful that he will pitch at all for the rest of the season.  Great Signing!

Eric Chavez started out the season hot with the Yankees, but then fractured his foot in May.  He has been working on rehabbing the foot, but then a week or two ago suffered a setback with an unrelated back injury.  In the past week, the Yanks have announced that Chavez has suffered a new injury and is being sent to New York for tests on his abdomen.  Turns out it was a kidney stone and he was sent back to Tampa.  Looks like he has a case of Nick Johnson Syndrome.  Hopefully he can rejoin the Yanks this season, but I wouldn’t count on it.

Rafael Soriano has been working down in Tampa and has been throwing off a mound.  Although he hasn’t faced batters yet, he has been throwing bullpen sessions.  So far he has only thrown fastballs in these bullpen sessions, but has been making progress lately.  I think it’s very likely that he will return to the Yankees following the All Star Break.  He may be with the Yankees when the go up to Toronto next weekend if he continues his progress.  I suppose that drops Robertson back to the 7^th inning guy.

Mariano Rivera has not been placed on the DL but has a nagging elbow issue since blowing the save against the Mets this past Sunday.  Mo says it’s nothing serious and I will give him the benefit of the doubt that he is telling the truth.  Girardi said Mariano wasn’t available last night, but it’s very possible to see him play against the Rays this evening.  The injury seems to be nothing more than elbow soreness.

Damaso Marte who is recovering from a shoulder injury threw a bullpen session yesterday.  Last season he had shoulder surgery and was not expected to pitch this entire season.  It looks like there is a chance, albeit a very small chance, that Marte could rejoin the team later this season.  Don’t hold your breath though.

Joba Chamberlain was sidelined with Tommy John surgery and is light years away from pitching again. I think it’s doubtful he will return next year, and if he does I doubt he would be reliable.  Most pitchers need a full season of recovering before they are effective again.  Poor Joba.

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.

Struggling Sox Come To The Bronx

The Yankees come back to the Bronx today and begin a 7 Day Homestand.  The first games are against the struggling White Sox before the Blue Jays come to town this weekend.  The Yankees are on a three game winning streak.

The White Sox have lost 10 of their last 11 games, and are in last place in the AL Central.  During these past 11 games, the Sox are batting only .193.  They were just swept in a three game series in Detroit and are now 8-14 on the year.

The Yankees have won 18 of the past 26 games against the White Sox (going back to 2001)

The Yankees won 4 of the 6 games they played the White Sox in 2010.

Here are the pitching matchups

Monday Night

AJ Burnett (3-0, 4.37 ERA) vs.  Phil Humber (1-2, 4.42 ERA)

Humber began the season in the bullpen for the Sox and will be making his 4^th start tonight.

Humber’s last outing was at Tropicana Field last week against the Rays where he allowed 4 runs over 5 1/3 innings.  He pitched well except for allowing a home run.

Humber has never started against the Yankees before.

Humber has pitched a total of 21 innings this year in 5 games allowing 9 earned runs and 19 hits.

Humber has a 7.36 Career ERA in Road Games

AJ would be 4-0 if it wasn’t for Mo’s blown save last week.  (As I read this back to myself, I almost started laughing as it sounds so bizarre)

AJ still hasn’t pitched beyond 6 1/3 innings.

Tuesday Night

Ivan Nova (1-2, 7.63 ERA) vs. Gavin Floyd (2-1, 4.00 ERA)

Floyd won his last start against the Rays at Tropicana Field striking out 7 batters.

Brett Gardner has a .600 batting average against Floyd in 6 appearances.

Nova is making his 4^th start of the season and hoping that his fastball can stay down in the zone.  If he can keep his fastball down, he may actually make it into the 6^th or 7^th inning.

Nova has not started a game since April 15.  He was called for one inning of relief work last week.

Wednesday Night

Bartolo Colon (1-1, 3.50 ERA) vs. Mark Buehrle (1-2, 5.40 ERA)

Buehrle is the only lefty the Yankees will see this series

Buehrle is attempting for the 5th time, to get his 150^th win.  He has not gotten a win since Opening Day.

Buehrle’s last game was Friday in Detroit where he took the loss allowing 6 runs over 5 2/3 innings.  He allowed 8 hits and struck out 5.

Robinson Cano’s batting average is .455 against Buerhle over 11 at bats.

Bartolo Colon is still high from his first start last week allowing only 2 runs over 6 2/3 innings.  Colon looked great in his last start and is again trying to claim a spot in the rotation.

Colon has already struck out 20 batters in 18 innings.

Thursday Night

CC Sabathia  (1-1, 2.73 ERA) vs. Edwin Jackson (2-2, 4.48 ERA)

Jackson is not having a good year and has already given up 39 hits over 31 innings, but he has struck out 30 batters.

Jackson has given up 23 hits in his previous two starts.

Sabathia finally got his first win of the season on Saturday after pitching 8 innings and allowing only 3 runs. 

SIDE NOTES:

Robinson Cano has a 13 game hitting streak and is batting .345 in that period.

Adam Dunn is struggling this season.  He has only two hits in his last 30 at bats with 15 strikeouts!

Curtis Granderson has an 8 game hitting streak and is hitting .424 in that period with 9 RBI’s.  Granderson has 4 home runs in the last 5 games!

Hughes threw a bullpen session today before batting practice began and was shut down early.  This doesn't look good for Hughes.

Rafael Soriano was not available yesterday due to a sore back.  No word yet as to whether he is available today.  All we know is that it’s not considered serious.

Countdown to 3000

Derek Jeter now has 2945 hits and needs only 55!  Jeter had 4 hits Sunday against the Orioles.

Jeter is batting .519 in his last 7 home games against the White Sox.

The State of the Yankees

The Yankees tied the series 1-1 after today's win against the Rangers and maintained their half game lead in the AL East.  The Yankees are now 8-5 on the season.

Freddy Garcia pitched 6 scoreless innings and got the win.  Garcia pitched very well, especially for a guy who hasn't started since March 29, nearly three weeks ago.  He doesn't have the speed that he used to, but Garcia is a different pitcher these days.  His fastballs are only hitting 87-88 mph, but his command today was perfect.  Garcia mixed in breaking pitches and offspeed pitches, that kept the Rangers guessing all day.  He only allowed 2 hits, as the Rangers looked confused against him.

The bullpen came in and finished things off with Chamberlain in for the 7th, Soriano in the 8th and of course Mo finishing it off in the 9th getting his 6th save of the season.  The bullpen has looked dominant so far, and today was no exception although Soriano came close to giving up a homer to Beltre today.  The Yankees bullpen has only allowed 3 Earned Runs in the past 23 innings!

The last two games, the Rangers have used left handed starting pitching.  The Yankees bat Jeter leadoff against lefties due to his strong career numbers against lefty pitchers.  Since Gardner is having some trouble offensively, Andruw Jones has been starting in left field.  Without Gardner in the lineup, Nick Swisher gets moved up in the batter order to #2.  He seems to like batting in the 2-spot, as Swish has four hits over the last two games batting second.  This formula seems to be working so far.

Tomorrow night the Yankees will try to win this series before hitting the road to Toronto & Baltimore.  CC Sabathia will get the final start against Alexi Ogando.  Sabathia has yet to get a win despite strong starts and only a 1.45 ERA.  Ogando who is a converted relief pitcher, is 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA.  He has pitched 13 scoreless innings over his previous two starts.  He has never started a game against the Yankees and has only pitched very limited innings in relief, so tomorrow may be a battle of starting pitchers.  Hopefully CC will get a win already!

Burnett will pitch Tuesday in Toronto but after him the starting rotation is a big question mark.  Hughes has been placed on the DL with a "dead arm" so Colon will likely take his spot, but it may be possible to see Nova get the start on Wednesday in order to allow Colon to try and stretch himself out a bit.  Right now, Colon can only pitch about 80 pitches.  Since the Yankees have Thursday off, that should give Freddy Garcia the chance to pitch Friday night in Baltimore, followed by Sabathia who would pitch Saturday giving him 5 days rest.  It's entirely possible that Sabathia may pitch Friday rather than Saturday and Garcia or Colon would start Saturday night. 

Girardi needs to make some big decisions with the starting rotation as the only reliable starters are CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett, although after last season, I don't think anybody likes using "reliable" as a adjective to describe Burnett. 

Soriano Struggles

The big story the other night was Rafael Soriano blowing a 4 run lead and the Yankees ultimately losing the game 5-4.  Although I tend to me overly optimistic when it comes to the Yankees, I don’t see much concern about Soriano (or Girardi) at this point in the season.  So fine, Soriano blew a lead and the Yankees lost the game.  It happens!

Soriano led the league in saves last year and he hasn’t done anything different this year.  In fact, the lead he blew the other night was the biggest lead he has ever given up in his career.  This was a fluke.  He looked extremely sharp on opening day against the Tigers and on Monday against the Twins (round 1).  He is so dominant against the AL central that prior to Tuesday’s game, he had only allowed 1 Earned Run in his last 18 innings against AL Central opponents.

The media seems to be playing this up more than anybody and it’s because they were pissed off at Soriano for not fielding questions at his locker after the game.  Bottom line is the guy is an awesome pitcher who had one bad outing.  The media can analyze his body language all they want, but one bad inning isn’t cause for major concern, especially when the wind chill that evening was 36 degrees!  If the Yankees have a close lead in the 8^th inning, they are still giving Soriano the ball.

The bigger story was CC Sabathia.  He pitched great and didn’t get the win.  His fastball was down and had movement.  He pitched 7 scoreless innings and even retired the last 17 batters he faced!  Hopefully this second no-decision for CC will keep him fired up for Sunday night in Boston.  The Yankees will need a quality start as Beckett is on the mound.  Regardless of Beckett’s numbers this season or last season, he is a Yankee killer

UPDATE @ 6:20 PM

Soriano pitched this afternoon for the 8th inning in the final game against the Twins.  He pitched 1 scoreless inning, allowing only a leadoff single.  He threw a total of 11 pitches - 9 for strikes.  I wouldn't be too concerned with Soriano at this point.

Side Note

Brian Duensing seems to have some bad luck when he faces the Yankees.  On Tuesday he pitched very well after the first two innings.  Both Arod and Texeira are red hot right now and hit home runs early, but Duensing didn’t let it bother him and continued pitching into the 7^th Inning allowing only 6 total hits and striking out 7.  Even though the Twins won the game, Duensing didn’t get the win.

Last year Duensing pitched in Yankee stadium on May 25 and faced off against AJ Burnett.  Duensing only allowed 1 run against the Yankees and again, didn’t get the win.  AJ actually pitched a shutout against the Twins.  This was the last win Burnett got until July as he didn’t win one game for the entire month of June.

Things Going As Planned

The bullpen situation for the Yankees has gone pretty much as planned.  Plug Joba in to fill the 7th inning, then Soriano for the 8th and Mo to close it out.  Last night Joba looked sharp and didn't allow any hits in the 7th inning.  Soriano continued to prove himself as a great signing by Cashman and Mo continues to be.... Mo!  With three relievers to dominate the last three innings of a game, the Yankees have essentially created a game that lasts 6 innings.  As long as the Yankees can take a lead early in the game, there is little chance they will lose the game.


Side Notes

Ivan Nova looked sharp last night.  His fastball had movement and was always down in the zone.  He had no problems the first time through the order, and although he got himself in a little jam in the 4th inning (Jim Thome is still a threat!), he pitched himself out of trouble, causing Mauer to ground out on a curveball to end the inning.  If Nova continues to battle batters the second and third time through the lineup, he will have a great season.  We already know how dominant he is the first time through the batting order.

The Yankees have now won the last 18 of 20 games against the Twins.... poor Gardenhire!

Tonight they play again and it looks like Jeter will get the leadoff spot in the order as Andruw Jones will be starting in the outfield giving either Granderson or Gardner the day off.

Arod is continuing the hot streak from spring training, hitting another A-Bomb last night.  I think I speak for most fans when I say..... Save a little for October!!!

The New Set-Up Man

The Yankees made a great signing this offseason with the three year deal they gave Rafael Soriano to be the new set-up man for Mo.  Soriano was a 30 year old free agent when the Rays decided they were cutting payroll and didn't re-sign him as their closer.  The Yankees picked him up on a three year deal worth 35 Million.

It seems like the Yankees are dropping Joba from the 8th inning role and plugging Soriano in.  I can't wait to see how this plays out, as it seems as though the Yankees just cut games down by two innings with Mo & Soriano.  With Robertson, Joba, Mitre, Feliciano and Logan to fill in the rest, the Yankees bullpen can have a monster season.  (still need a #4 & #5 starter though)

Soriano's numbers don't lie, as he was one of the best closers in the American League last season.  Last season he had a career high 45 saves for the Rays with an ERA of 1.73.  He struck out 57 batters (down from 102 in 2009) and only allowed 36 hits over 62.1 innings.  By all accounts, he had a great season.

His numbers against the Yankees were very strong as well.  Over 7 appearances, he only allowed one run on three hits with 5 strikeouts and held the yankees to an opposing batting average of .125 

Soriano had his first appearance in spring training last night and pitched a scoreless inning.  No different than Mo, Soriano does his own preparation in Spring Training and takes it slow.