NYCurve Yankees Blog

Chamberlain v. Halladay

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!

Next… the Pirates

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

Yankees Looking For Quick Sweep

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?

A-Rod Loses Chump Change

If A-Rod had not opted out of his contract last year he would have made 100k a piece for making the All Star team and being first in votes. I’m sure he doesn’t really care about it because it is nothing compared to the $27 million he is making this year. The comfort of a long contract is probably worth losing the 200k as well. Anyway, he has bigger things to worry about right now with his divorce and the swarming Madonna rumors…

Rays Coming to New York

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

Yankees win game/ split series

With the first place Tampa Bay Rays looking as if they are not going to lose another game, the New York Yankees set their sights on the current wildcard leader Sunday night, the Red Sox. Thankfully we came away with a win to split the four game series at the stadium. As the Rays won their 7th straight game, the Yankees knocked off Boston 5-4 in ten innings. Tampa is now 5 games up on Boston, while the Yankees sit 9 back, but just 4 back of the AL Wildcard.

Alex Rodriguez’s solo shot in the bottom of the second put the Yankees on top first. The home run was his 18th of the season. Boston then grabbed three runs in the fifth off a wild pitch and a Dustin Pedroia single to make it 3-1 Red Sox through 5. Derek Jeter got an RBI single in the 6th to cut the lead back down to one. Kevin Cash would double home Julio Lugo to increase the Sox lead back to 2 runs. The Yankees would come back though as Robinson Cano hit a two run triple that tied the game in the 7th at 4-4. The game remained 4-4 until the 10th inning when Brett Gardner drove home Robinson Cano.

Mariano Rivera picked up the win for the Yankees, pitching a scoreless 9th and 10th, allowing just 1 hit, and striking out 2. Joba Chamberlain pitched six strong innings for the Yankees, allowing 4 hits, and 3 runs. For Boston, Johnathon Paplebon took the loss, giving up 2 hits in 0.2 innings.

The Yankees will take Monday off before starting a two-game series with Tampa Bay before traveling to Toronto before the break.