Jul

19

Yankees look for sweep!

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After coming away with a thrilling 13 inning win on Saturday the Yankees look to sweep the Oakland A’s on Sunday. The 1:05pm start will feature Andy Pettitte and Justin Duchscherer as the starting pitchers.

Duchscherer is 10-5 this season with a 1.82 ERA. With those numbers it is no surprise that he was a member of the 2008 All Star Game. Justin has won 7 of his 9 decisions, with his last start a 7.2 inning no-decision, in which he allowed 5 hits and 2 runs against the Anaheim Angels. The A’s lost that game 4-3. In Duchscherer’s last start against the Yankees, he went 7 strong innings and allowed just 5 hits and a run. He is 1-1 in his career against the Yankees. Newcomer Richie Sexson has the most career at bats against Duchscherer, going 4-14 with 2 doubles and a homerun. Alex Rodriguez is 4-11 career against Justin with a homerun and 5 RBIs.

For the Yanks, Andy Pettitte will look to pick up his 11th win of the season. Andy is 10-7 with a 4.03 ERA on the season. Pettitte is 9-5 in his career against the A’s including a victory against them earlier this season. Pettitte is 6-2 with 2 no decisions in his last eight starts.

Let’s finish the series with a sweet sweep!

Jul

18

Yankees/A’s Game Two

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After a big win Friday night, the Yankees will battle the A’s again on Saturday afternoon at the stadium.

For the A’s, 22 year old rookie Sean Gallagher will throw. Sean is 1-0 since coming over in the Rich Harden deal before the All Star Break. In his last start, Gallagher went 7 innings, allowing just 2 hits and 2 runs in a 9-2 win over the Angels. Gallagher, a 12th round draft pick by the Cubs in the 2004 draft is 4-4 overall, with a 4.25 era. As a Cub, Gallagher had lost his last three starts before coming over to Oakland. No current Yankee player has faced Gallagher in their career.

For the Yankees, Joba Chamberlain will be on the hill. Joba is 2-3, with a 2.62 era on the season. Chamberlain has pitched in 47 games in his career, with 2008 being his first full season in the majors.  He has made five starts at home this season, going 1-1 with a 3.41 era. His last start was on July 11th against the Blue Jays and he went 6.2 innings, allowing 7 hits, and 3 runs in a 5-0 loss. His last win was June 25th at Pittsburgh, a game in which he pitched 6.2 scoreless innings. Frank Thomas is the only current A’s player to face Chamberlain, and he is 0 for 2.

This game is scheduled to begin at 1:05pm.

Jul

17

Yankees/A’s set to battle

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After the AL won the marathon of an All Star Game, the New York Yankees, and Oakland A’s, both coming off four days off will tango Friday night for the first of three at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees are coming off a loss to Toronto, and sitting at 50-45, 6 games back from Boston, and 5.5 from Tampa Bay, while Oakland has lost their last two, and are 51-44, and 6 games out in the AL West.

For the A’s, Joe Blanton will take the mound. After the A’s lost Rich Harden, Blanton along with Dana Eveland will have to take the responsibility of carrying the load for Oakland starters. Blanton has had some troubles this season, but looks to get off to a better second half. Joe is 5-12 on the season with a 4.96 era. In his last outing against the Yankees, he went 6.2 innings, allowing 6 hits and 4 runs- all earned in a loss. Blanton is 3-6 in his last 9 decisions. For Yankee hitters, Derek Jeter is 4-12, Alex Rodriguez 4-7, and Jorge Posada is 2-5, but no one else has had great success off Blanton. Rodriguez has 2 homeruns and 5 RBI’S, in those 4 hits.

For the Yankees, the Moose, Mike Mussina will take the mound. Mussina has been solid for another season. The 39 year old right hander is 11-6 on the season, with a 3.61 era. For his career, Mike is 17-10 against Oakland. Mussina is coming off a 6 inning no decision in a 4-2 loss to Pittsburgh last week.

Time for the Yankees to show what they are made of here in the second half. Let’s get a win!

Jul

12

Yankees/Blue Jays Game Two

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After getting shut out by Roy Halladay on Friday, the Yankees look to get back on track today against the Blue Jays. The 12:07 start will feature Darrell Rasner for the Yankees, and Jesse Litsch for Toronto.

Rasner, 27, from Carson City Nevada is 4-7 on the season with a 4.94 era. He has lost his last three starts and 7 of his last 10. In his last four outings, he has only lasted five innings. Rasner is 1-0 on the season against Toronto, pitching 6 strong innings against them earlier in the season.

Litsch, the Pinellas Park Florida native is 8-5 on the season, with a 4.01 era. He is 0-1 on the season against the Yankees, after getting beaten earlier in the year (he lasted 5.1 innings in that game.) Litsch is 3-4 in his last 7 decisions and went 5.1 innings in his last start, in which he allowed 8 hits, and 6 runs in a 7-1 loss to the Angels. Yankee hitters have very limited experience against Litsch, but Damon, Cabrera, Rodriguez, and Matsui all are hitting over .300 on the year so hopefully they will be able to continue hitting. As for the rest of the lineup, much can’t be said.

Toronto comes into the game in fourth place in the AL East, barely ahead of Baltimore. The Blue Jays are 46-47 on the season, while the Yankees, sitting in third place are 6.5 games back with a 49-44 record.

Here is the lineup for tonight:
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Giambi 1B
Posada DH
Cano 2B
Cabrera CF
Moeller C
Gardner LF
Rasner RHP

Go Yankees!

Jul

11

Chamberlain v. Halladay

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Tonight’s Yankees/Blue Jays game will feature two tough right handers squaring off in the first of a three game set leading into the All Star Break. For the Yankees, Joba Chamberlain will throw, while the Blue Jays will use former All-Star Roy Halladay.

Chamberlain comes into tonight’s action with a 2-2 record and a 2.45 ERA. In his last ten games, he only has one decision, that being a win on June 25 at Pittsburgh. In his last outing, Joba went 6 innings, allowing 4 hits, and 3 runs in a no decision against the Red Sox. The Yankees eventually won 5-4.

Halladay is 10-6 overall, and sits with a stellar 2.88 ERA. Roy is 11-5 in his career against the Yankees and won his last start against New York, going six strong innings. Roy has won his last two starts and is 6-1 in his last 7 decisions.

The Yankees are 49-43 overall, and 22-21 on the road. The Blue Jays are 45-47 overall, and 25-19 at home. The game is set for a 7:07EST start time.

Here is the Yankees lineup for tonight:
Gardner LF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Giambi DH
Posada C
Cano 2B
Betemit 1B
Cabrera CF
Chamberlain RHP

Time for the Yankees to gain some more momentum before the All Star Break! Go Joba!

Jul

10

Next… the Pirates

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The Yankees will take on the Pirates today to make up for the rain out on June 26th. It will be the last interleague game for the Yanks and will serve as a break against division rivals before we start a series with Toronto tomorrow. Momentum is fairly high after sweeping the Rays and splitting the series with the Red Sox, as we now sit only 6.5gb. Let’s see if we can push around the Bucs a bit to extend our winning streak tonight.

Moose will take the mound for the Yankees where he looks to continue his excellent season. Pittsburgh will counter with Paul Maholm, who is on a bit of a hot-streak himself. Maholm is 3-0 with an ERA of 2.74 in his last seven starts. On the season he is 5-5, with an ERA over four. One of those losses was actually against the Yankees, earlier this year. Let’s make it two tonight!

Here is the lineup for the Yankees, we really need some of these guys to pick it up soon (cough Melky, Cano, and Molina):

Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Posada 1B
Cano 2B
Cabrera CF
Molina C
Christian LF
Mussina RHP

Jul

9

Yankees Looking For Quick Sweep

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Today is the second of the two-game series against the Rays. A win for the Yanks would be great because it would move us to 6.5 back and perhaps put a bit of a dent in Tampa’s high hopes. After last night’s wonderful 5-0 shutout, I think it is certainly plausible to predict another Yankee win.

The game is at 1:05EST and Sidney Ponson will make the start for the Bombers. I know it is always a nail-bitter when he starts, but thus far this season (with both the Yanks and the Rangers) the starter has actually done pretty good. He is 5-1 this season with an ERA of 4.19. His stats aren’t the greatest, but he is doing enough to get the team the victory most of the time and that is what matters. His only loss of the season came against the Rays on May 26, but hopefully that will drive him to do even better today.

For the Rays Edwin Jackson takes the mound. Jackson has been amazing in his last three starts, with an ERA of 2.57 and a win. His season record is 5-6 and his ERA is 4.08. Against the Yankees he is 1-1 with a 3.00 ERA this year. Our batters have faced him in three games this season so maybe that experience will prove beneficial in today’s game.

Here is your Yankees lineup for tonight:

Gardner LF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Giambi 1B
Posada DH
Cano 2B
Cabrera CF
Molina C
Ponson RHP

Here is a something Jeter said earlier today about the game: “People make a big deal, obviously, because it’s Tampa.” Never though you’d hear that, did you?

Jul

8

Rays Coming to New York

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The Yankees and Rays will kick off a two game series at Yankee Stadium today. The game will begin at 7:05EST and features Andy Pettitte for the Yanks and Scott Kazmir for Tampa. Both pitchers last started against the Red Sox and both of them left with not-so-great performances. Currently Pettitte is 9-6 with a 4.22 ERA and Kazmir is 7-3 with an ERA of 2.63. Both pitchers have played the opposing team several times and they both boast great stats in those games.

Sadly for the Yanks that means that the offense has historically done poorly against Kazmir. We really can’t afford that in tonight’s game as we sit 8.5 games behind the Rays. This game is definetely a different situation than both teams are accustomed to at this time of year, but there is still a lot of baseball to be played. Let’s hope for a victory tonight and maybe a sweep tomorrow, that will get us right back in this thing.

Here is the Yankee lineup for tonight:

Cabrera CF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Posada DH
Betemit 1B
Cano 2B
Molina C
Gardner LF
Pettitte LHP

Jul

5

Yankees look to split series

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The New York Yankees will look to split the four game series with their arch rival, Boston, on Sunday. The 8:05pm start will be featured on ESPN, as both teams look to gain ground on the red-hot, first place Tampa Bay Rays.

Tim Wakefield will be on the mound for the Red Sox. Wakefield is 5-6 on the season, with a 3.72 era. He is 2-5 in his last 10 decisions, with his most recent start (against Tampa Bay) ending in a loss 3-1. Wakefield is 9-16 in his career against the Yankees. The knuckleball specialist has struggled against New York in his career with several guys having good numbers against him. Here are a few Yankees numbers:

Abreu, .316
Cano, .310
Damon, .302
Jeter, .311

For the Yanks, Joba Chamberlain will throw. Joba is 2-2 with a 2.22 era. He has not lost a game since early May, but only recently moved to the starting rotation. Chamberlain is 1-0 in his career against Boston.

With the Yankees bats against Wakefield, and Chamberlain’s dominance, look for the Yankees to settle the series at two! Go Yankees!

Jul

5

Yankees/Red Sox Game 3

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The Yankees need a win today. Losers of two straight to the Red Sox, and 9 behind the Rays, we are in a desperate state. With the offense sporadic, and the pitching questionable, both of these issues need to get fixed.

The 3:55 FOX game-of-the-week features Justin Masterson of the Red Sox against Mike Mussina of the Yankees. Masterson is 4-2 on the season, with a 3.75 era. Justin took a loss in his last start to the Rays 5 days ago. On the season, he has only made 8 starts, going atleast five innings in all of them. On the road this year, Masterson is 1-2 in three starts. He has never faced the Yankees in his career. Time to mash him!

Mussina knows all the old tricks of the Red Sox. 10-6, with a 3.87 era on the season, Mike is 19-17 in 54 career starts against Boston. Mussina has lost his last two starts, but is 6-3 in his last nine decisions. In his last start against Texas, he was a tough luck 2-1 loser.

Look for Mussina to pitch well today, and the bats to finally start to roll off the young rookie pitcher! Time for a win today Yankees! Have a great Saturday Yankee fans!

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