Last night, Andy Pettitte pitched a gem, giving up 2 ER over 7 IP. He struck out 7 and lowered his ERA to 4.18. Amazingly, Andy Pettitte has been the best pitcher in the AL since the All-Star break. His FIP of 2.32 is the lowest of any AL pitcher over the last 30 days [...]
During the past week the Yankees’ starting pitching has been disappointing, giving up 39 
runs in the last four games. Andy Pettitte looked to give the Yankees a solid outing as the offense battled the Rangers’ young rookie, Derek Holland.
Andy struggled in the first inning when Young reached on an error by Alex Rodriguez and Hamilton singled. Pettitte walked Nelson Cruz to load the bases with only one out, but got out of trouble when Pudge Rodriguez grounded into a double play. Pettitte settled down and pitched well as the Yankees offense took off. A-Rod singled to start the second inning and Matsui followed with a base hit. The Texas pitching coach went out to calm the young Holland, but Posada followed with a deep fly ball to center field giving the Yankees the 3-0 lead. In the fourth, Jerry Hairston, Jr., who gave Johnny Damon a day off from left field, hit a solo shot to left, extending the Yankee lead.
In the top of the fifth, Chris Davis got the Rangers rolling with a single to Jeter. Teagarden struck out, but a long double by David Murphy scored Davis and the Rangers were on the board. Pettitte walked Andrus, but got Kinsler to pop up and Young to strike out to end the inning and keep the damage to a minimum. Murphy struck again in the seventh, sending the ball over the wall in right center field with two outs. The Rangers had pulled within two, but the Yankees’ offense was not finished. Cano started the bottom of the seventh with a double to left. Hairston walked and Cabrera put down a sac bunt that Jason Jennings, the relief pitcher, mishandled, allowing Melky to load the bases on the error. Derek Jeter came through with his first hit of the night, driving the ball to left and scoring Cano and Hairston. Swisher followed with a double to right, plating Melky. Teixeira capped off the Yankees’ rally by sending Jeter and Swisher home on a single to right, giving the Bombers the 9-2 lead at the end of seven.
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Great win last night; let’s hope they can close the series out this afternoon. Additionally, we need the damn White Sox to get their acts together and grab a game away from Boston tonight, especially since (a) you know if the White Sox get swept they will end up taking at least one game from [...]
From the AP: An appeals court ruled Wednesday that federal agents were wrong to seize the infamous drug list and samples of 104 Major League Baseball players who allegedly tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003.In a 9-2 vote, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with three lower court judges who chastised investigators [...]
Joba Chamberlain has 5 more starts left this season and his next start will come on Sunday against the White Sox (on regular rest). After that, I’m not sure what the plan will be, exactly, as Joe Girardi noted that Joba will still be given “extra rest” as the season winds down in order to [...]
As always, TSJC of RAB commenting fame hits the nail on the head: “Forget the fact that Swish doesn’t bunt with great alacrity for a second. Frank Francisco threw 23 pitches last night. 10 of them were balls. Think about that for a second. Nick Swisher collects walks like they’re going out of style. Frank [...]
The Yankees return to the Bronx was not the homecoming they had hoped for as the 
Bombers’ pitching appeared allergic to third outs and a late rally left them just short of a victory. An extra-rested Joba struggled against the Rangers, who were able to stay 1.5 games behind Boston in the wild card race, as the Yankees lost 10-9.
In the first inning the Yankees looked like they were in control. With two outs Teixeira walked and moved to second on Alex Rodriguez’s single. Matsui doubled, plating Teix and A-Rod and Posada followed with a two-run shot to give New York an early 4-0 lead. Joba got a quick two outs in the second, but (as would be the theme) the third out eluded him. Pudge Rodriguez singled and then stole second base. Chris Davis walked and then Andrus doubled to left, getting the Rangers on the board as both Pudge and Davis scored.
The bottom fell out for Joba in the fourth. Once again, he got a quick two outs and once again Pudge started a rally for Texas. Joba walked the Rangers’ backstop, Davis singled and Andrus followed with another single which scored Pudge. At the end of the inning Texas rattled off five straight singles, resulting in five runs and giving the Rangers a 7-4 lead. Robbie Cano did his best to get the Yankees back in it, starting the bottom of the fourth, with a homerun that barely stayed fair, but that would be it for the Yankee bats until the ninth.
Joba was relieved early and Chad Gaudin came out at the top of the fifth. With one out he gave up a home run to Nelson Cruz and the Rangers increased their lead to 8-5. Gaudin made it through the sixth without allowing any more runs, but after two quick outs in the seventh he walked Borbon and gave up a two-run shot to Michael Young, putting the Rangers on top 10-5. The Yankees, however, were not going down without a fight. Johnny Damon got things started with a single to right. Teixeira walked and Texas brought went to their closer, despite the large lead, who walked A-Rod to load the bases. Matsui sent a line drive into right, scoring Damon and keeping the bases juiced with no outs. Posada then sent a dribbler down the third baseline, scoring Teix with the infield single. Cano sent a nice line drive to left, scoring A-Rod and Matsui, pulling the Bombers within one with no outs in the ninth. Then (and I will get back to this later) Swisher failed to move the runners, popping up a bunt to Michael Young for the first out of the inning. Melky attempted another walk-off thriller for the Pinstripes, but lined out to second and Hairston (running for Posada) failed to get back in time as Andrus completed the unassisted double play, ending the game.
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Last night, Joba Chamberlain was awful. Although he was given a 4-run lead in the first inning, he coughed it up by allowing 7 ER over 4 IP. In fact, I would argue that he delivered one of the more frustrating performances we’ve seen from Yankee pitchers this season (maybe it’s because I was at [...]
Here’s a post that was inevitable. From Joel Sherman (NY Post): Who knows how matters might have played out if the Yankees had actually made their trade for Santana after the 2007 season. But more and more, GM Brian Cashman’s restraint then is being paid off now. Cashman philosophically could not advocate giving up significant [...]
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