Scranton/Wilkes-Barre beat Lehigh Valley 5-3:
Despite the Iron Pig’s early lead, with first inning solo homer by John Mayberry, Scranton used a big third inning to win.  Dog Bernier led off with a double and Mike Lamb doubled him in.  Jordan Parraz singled to short, moving Lamb to third and Terry Tiffee singled to right, scoring Lamb.  A single by Jorge Vazquez, fresh off the DL, plated two more runs as Scranton took a 4-1 lead.  Luis Nunez singled to start the fourth and scored after back-to-back singles by Bernier and Greg Golson as the Yankees took a 5-3 win from Lehigh Valley.  Golson went 3-4 with a RBI and a K, while Shaeffer Hall put together a nice start, going 6.1 innings and giving up two runs on five hits.  He did not issue a walk and struck out three.

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On July 4, 1983, Dave Righetti, current pitching coach for the San Francisco Giants and former MLB ballplayer, owned the ground in Yankee Stadium. All eyes in New York were on one person, Righetti. He had just pitched the first Yankee no-hitter in 27 years.

“I turned around and I was just glad it was over,” Righetti recalls about being on the field after the final out. “It was very hot and I threw a lot of pitches obviously. I didn’t feel like jumping around or anything.”

Righetti was on the field for a long time after the game doing interviews and getting pulled in different directions before making it back to the clubhouse.

“By the time I went in the guys were gone,” he said.

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Having won a season high seven consecutive games, the Yankees started Sunday afternoon’s game hoping to sweep their crosstown rivals at Citi Field.  Unfortunately, some defensive miscues in the late innings and a rare blown save by Mariano Rivera gave the Pinstripes a 3-2 extra inning loss as they leave New York City for a series in Cleveland.

The Mets got to Yankees’ starter Freddy Garcia early.  A double to right by Carlos Beltran in the bottom of the first gave the Mets a runner with two outs.  Beltran scored when Daniel Murphy singled, putting them up 1-0.  Garcia and the Mets’ starter R.A. Dickey, controlled most of the early game, with Dickey taking a no hitter into the fifth.

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Triple-A Scranton lost to Pawtucket 9-3
Terry Tiffee was the standout here for Scranton, going 3-for-4 with a double and a home run. Austin Krum, Brandon Laird, Jordan Parraz, and Doug Bernier also got hits, and Parraz homered and walked twice as well. Greg Smith had a rough start for Scranton, giving up 12 hits and seven runs, all earned, over six innings, with two walks and a strikeout. He also gave up three home runs. In a bullpen appearance, Andrew Brackman gave up two runs in two innings, with a walk and two strikeouts. He also hit a batter and threw a wild pitch.

I spent the weekend moving to a new house, an experience that was…weird. Not the moving itself so much as being cut off from the daily hullaballoo of baseball. I honestly didn’t know anything about what had happened since Friday morning until early Sunday afternoon, not even that the Yankees won the first two games of the latest installment of the Subway Series. It was a very disorienting development, to say the least.

Needless to say, a lot of stuff did happen during my brief hiatus, so let’s run them down:

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The Yankees took their first game from the Mets at Citi Field Friday night, and didn’t let up on Saturday afternoon. Bartolo Colon made his return to the rotation and did not disappoint, shutting down the Mets while the Yankees used a couple long balls and a big sixth inning to end the first half of the season with a bang.  The Mets made a run in the ninth, but the Bombers took a 5-2 victory in the weekend series against their crosstown rivals.

The Yankees had a chance to get on the board in the third, when the suddenly hot Eduardo Nunez led off with a double.  Colon laid down a nice sac bunt to move Nunez to third. Brett Gardner hit the ball to first baseman Lucas Duda who threw out Nunez at the plate.  A ground out from Curtis Granderson ended the inning and the Yankees’ threat.

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Triple-A Scranton beat Pawtucket 7-0
Lots of offensive stars for the Yankees. Both Jesus Montero and Brandon Laird homered, Montero off Scott Atchinson and Laird off Tommy Hotovy; Montero was 2-for-4 and Laird 1-for-4. Jordan Parraz was 3-for-3 with a double, Austin Krum was 2-for-3, and Greg Golson, Gustavo Molina, and Terry Tiffee all had hits as well. DJ Mitchell threw an excellent complete seven-inning game, with no runs, one hit, two walks, and seven strikeouts.

Curtis Granderson, Robinson Cano, Alex Rodriguez, and Derek Jeter are in, barring unprecedented late runs.  How does it look for the other prospective Yankee All-Stars going into tomorrow’s selection show?

Brett Gardner – .274/.357/.410, 42 R, 4 HR, 18 RBI, 19 SB, 2.9 WAR

Brien made the argument for Gardner’s candidacy a couple weeks ago and I think we’d all like to see him selected, if only to further reveal the absurdity of Girardi’s platoon.  However, our argument for Gardner is usually built around advanced metrics (for instance, he ranks sixth amongst AL outfielders in WAR and first in UZR).  Though gaining ground, these still aren’t the favored measures of most players and coaches.  What does work to Gardner’s advantage, from a tactical standpoint, is his defensive flexibility and his speed, which you could see Ron Washington considering when he gets down to his final selections.

Last year, the AL carried only three extra outfielders.  Alex Gordon (843 OPS, 3.1 WAR) is probably a lock to represent the lowly Royals.  (Who else, seriously?  Aaron Crow?!?)  Carlos Quentin (886, 2.3 WAR) is having a nice year, when few other White Sox are.  Which leaves Gardner in the mix with the loser of Josh Hamilton (854 OPS, 1.2 WAR) vs. Jacoby Ellsbury (813, 3.5), as well as Matt Joyce (898, 2.4), Brennan Boesch (837, 1.9), and the suber-sub Ben Zobrist (821, 4.0), who could be elected to play any number of positions.  Further complicating matters is the fact that both the Orioles and Twins must have a representative.  For the Orioles, the battle is probably between Matt Wieters and Adam Jones (802, 1.5), another outfielder.  For the Twins, it’s probably Michael Cuddyer (799, 1.4) vs. Scott Baker, who has better numbers, but is part of an extremely deep class of starting pitchers.  Unfortunately, I think the best case scenario for Gardner is being one of the options in the AL Final Vote poll.

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Triple-A Scranton beat Norfolk 9-7
Five members of the Tides had two hits, but the Yankees scored all nine runs by the fourth inning, lighting up Norfolk starter Chris George, and held on through the end. Kei Igawa was, well, Kei Igawa, giving up three runs through six innings with five walks (ugly) and three strikeouts. Eric Wordekemper gave up two runs on three hits and no walks through 1.1 IP along with a strikeout, and Randy Flores gave up two runs in 1.2 innings on four hits and a walk, with no strikeouts. The offensive heroes for the Yankees were Jesus Montero and Jordan Parraz, both who went 2-for-4 with a walk. Montero doubled.

On Thursday afternoon, the Yankees had a chance to sweep the Milwaukee Brewers and they did not let it pass them by.  CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira both had historic days, as Sabathia set a personal best for strikeouts in pinstripes and Teixeira knocked his way to another milestone.  The offense continued to put on a show as New York swept the Brewers out of the Bronx with a 5-0 victory.

Brett Gardner led off the bottom of the first with a walk and stole second base. Nick Swisher followed with a walk and both runners moved over with a double steal. Robinson Cano drove a double to left, plating two runs and giving the Yankees an early 2-0 lead.

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It is a foregone conclusion that Ryan Braun will be an All-Star in 2011.  At 27, it will be his fourth consecutive All-Star Game.  He has been elected to start in every one.  And, if the most recent polling stands, he will be the National League’s leading vote-getter in 2011, the first Brewer to ever earn that distinction.  And it is something of a distinction, as Milwaukee is the smallest media market in the major leagues.

In April, Braun and the Brewers agreed to an extension which will keep the Hebrew Hammer in Milwaukee until at least 2020.  Only one player in all of professional sports is under contract for longer than that (Ilya Kovalchuk of the New Jersey Devils is the answer to that trivia question).

While there is certainly risk associated with any contract of such duration, if Braun remains relatively healthy and his production abides the average aging curve, it could be one of the team-friendliest deals in recent MLB history.  Braun will never make $20 Million in a single season, a salary bar easily eclipsed by a number of inferior players, and 17% of his extension will be paid, without interest, in small installments, deep into his retirement (the deferred money will still be on Milwaukee’s books in 2030).

The conventional wisdom for athlete’s with ambition and business acumen has been to maximize both salary and media exposure.  Alex Rodriguez, famously, signed the two largest contracts in the history of his sport and moved from the fifteenth largest media market in the country (Seattle) to the fourth (Dallas) to the first (NYC, of course).  The was a similar logic behind the recent moves of Carmelo Anthony (from #21 to #1) and Lebron James (from #28 to #8), both of whom maximized salary through the NBA’s “sign-and-trade” clause.

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