NYCurve Yankees Blog

Seattle Sweep

That’s more like it! After the Tigers swept us we have bounced back and swept the Mariners. The offense is finally picking up, but I’m not going to get my hopes up too soon because last time I said that it went right back down.

Darrell Rasner, who took Phil Hughes’ spot in the rotation started and pitched very well. He was in for six innings over which he allowed 5 hits and 2 runs. He struck out four. If the 27-year-old continues pitching like this, he could be a great help to the team this year, especially with the struggling youngsters. So far Rasner has exceeded expectation, hopefully he can keep that up.

Rasner got good run support from the offense, not that he needed it. The Mariners only scored two and the Yanks ended with eight. Captain Derek Jeter had a great day with four hits. Melky Cabrera and Robinson Cano each had a homer as the Yanks closed out the series with a cumulative score of 19 (opposed to the Mariners 4.)

With the sweep we are now in second place of the AL East and within three games of the Red Sox. Tomorrow is a day off, but the action will pick up on Tuesday against the Indians. The game is at 7:05 EST and will be aired on YES. Andy Pettitte will take on Fausto Carmona.

Yankees Beat Mariners

The Yankees beat the Mariners today, creating the thus-far rare sensation of back-to-back wins. The offense and defense both did there part in shutting down Seattle again, for a 6-1 victory. Mike Mussina got his third straight win and was given the “Mooose” call after striking out three straight in the sixth. He ended the day with 5 Ks, seven hits allowed, and only one run allowed. LaTroy Hawkins, Edwar Ramirez, and Jose Veras each pitched a scoreless inning afterwards to close out the game.

The Bomber pitching wasn’t the only thing that was doing well today. The bats were swinging very well, with 13 hits including three by both Damon and Jeter. One of Damon’s hits was a two-run blast in the sixth, that really gave New York the comfortable lead. Hideki Matsui got a couple of hits on the day, which extended his hitting streak to 13 games.

Tomorrow is the final game of the series against Seattle. Darrell Rasner will be taking the mound for the Yankees, in place of Phil Hughes (Hughes was diagnosed with a broken rib today and he will be out for quite some time.) Carlos Silva will make the start for the Mariners. The game is at 1:05EST and will be aired on YES.

Wang Still Undefeated

Chien-Ming Wang continued his excellent season today with another win, this time against the Mariners. He pitched six innings of shutout ball and allowed one run before being taking out in the seventh. Farnsworth, Chamberlain, and Rivera effectively shut out Seattle in the last innings, ending the game with a score of 5 to 1. The Mariners were only able to get four hits the entire game, opposed to the Yankees seven.

Of those seven, we capitalized on five, three early on and two in the eighth. Melky Cabrera also continued his good start with two more RBI today.

Unfortunately this win only brings us to .500. Hank Steinbrenner spoke out before the game, expressing his frustration and the need for the team to win games other than when Wang is pitching. It isn’t the best of starts, but it isn’t the worst either and we are far from out of it. If you don’t believe me, just look at our start last year. Let’s see if we can keep the momentum from today’s game going in tomorrow’s rematch against the Mariners.

Mike Mussina will make the start against Felix Hernandez at 1:05EST tomorrow.

Tigers 8, Yankees 4

And we got swept. The Tigers beat us again, ending the three game series with our third straight loss. Ian Kennedy pitched a little over four innings and allowed fours runs on five hits. Jonathan Albaladejo an inning and some after that and also allowed four runs. He would take the loss. Chris Britton ended the game and was finally able to shut down the Tigers offense, but it was too late.

Magglio Ordonez and Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers really beat us down with five RBIs on five hits. Miguel Cabrera was a single short of getting the cycle. The Yankee offense also started out great with a three-run homer by Bobby Abreu in the first, but things died down after that. We only managed to score one more run which came in the fifth.

And yet again the loss wasn’t the worst news of the day. Phil Hughes will be out until atleast July with a stress fracture in one of his ribs. The question of sending him down is now gone as he will probably be placed on the DL. Although it is not final yet, Hughes’ replacement might be Darrell Rasner. Stay tuned as I continue blogging the whole situation.

I will also as usual continue blogging the games. Next up are the Mariners at 7:05EST tomorrow. It should be a great one as Chien-Ming Wang takes on Erik Bedard. The game will be aired on YES.

Pettitte Takes the Loss Vs. Tigers

The Yankees suffered another loss tonight against the Tigers. Andy Pettitte took the loss and is now 3-3 on the year. He allowed seven hits and five runs in six innings pitched. Kyle Farnsworth would later give up another run to the Tigers. The final score was 6 to 2.

By the score you can tell that our offense isn’t up to par yet. With Posada and Rodriguez out a slowdown is understandable, but come on, we can definetely score more than two runs a game. Our two runs came off a sacrifice by Giambi and a single by Cabrera, both in the first inning.

While the injuries do hurt, that doesn’t give us an excuse to lose. Andy Pettitte put it best post-game when he said,

“You lose those guys it’s going to hurt your team. You realize that but it’s the same old story. Everybody has injuries and nobody’s going to feel sorry for you.”

And with that April 2008 is over and here comes May. Tomorrow we will try our hand again against Detroit with Ian Kennedy on the mound this time. The Tigers will put in Nate Robertson as their starter. The game is at 7:05 EST and will be on YES.

Tigers 6, Yankees 4

The Yankees lost to the Tigers today, but following the recent trend that was not the story of the day. Instead, the big news for today is that A. Rod is heading to the DL as well, joining catcher Jorge Posada. Both players are now on the 15-day DL.

As for the the game, it wasn’t pretty either. Phil Hughes continued looking dreadful as he allowed 8 hits and all of the Tigers’ 6 runs in the 3 and 2/3 innings he pitched. He was booed by the crowd and he faces the risk of being removed from the rotation. General manager, Brian Cashman, later said:

“It’s something we’ll have to talk about, and we’ll talk to the player, too. But right now, I don’t think we’ll talk about that until tomorrow at least.”

Phil Hughes may not look be doing so great right now, but this definetely doesn’t mean he won’t be good in the future. It must be understood that Hughes is the youngest starter in the bigs and he still has a lot to learn. Also, some of the greatest pitchers of all-time have had rough starts to their careers. For example, Greg Maddux went a combined 8-18 in his first two years of pitching and posted ERAs of over 5 in both of those years. So before throwing Hughes to the curb, we must remember that he might in fact be great a few years down the road. Looking at Hughes’ work ethic and perseverance, I really think that he will eventually get his act together.

Tomorrow is game two against the Tigers. Andy Pettitte will make the start for the Yanks and Jeremy Bonderman for Detroit. The game is at 7:05 EST and will be aired on YES.