Since this is a quick recap, let’s have some fun with numbers:

• CC Sabathia retired 11 batters in a row before the rain delay and had only thrown 51 pitches.
• The rain delay lasted 1 hour and 59 minutes.
• Robinson Cano got his 1500th hit and hit his ninth home run of the season.
• Mariano Rivera has converted 13 out of 13 saves.
• The Yankees only scored six runs this series and still won two out of three games.
• Robinson Cano got the 1500th hit of his career, clubbed his ninth home run of the season and collected RBI #20.
• Vernon Wells picked up his 16th RBI of the season.
• The Yankees’ batters had six hits and seven strikeouts.
• They only had two hits of the extra bases variety – Cano’s dinger and Chris Nelson‘s double.
• The Yankees’ pitchers also threw more strikeouts to Rockies batters (5) than gave up hits to them (4). David Robertson helped that total with three K’s of his own.
• Sabathia was hitless in two at bats with two strikeouts.
• The Yankees are now 20-13 (It’s 2013)

Next up for the Yankees, a series in Kansas City that begins with a Phil Hughes-Wade Davis matchup.

The recap is delayed because I actually went to today’s game.

Normally, I sit in section 413 which is in the shade and on days like today, the temperature difference between the sun soaked seats and covered seats feels like it’s at least a 20 degree swing so my brother and I walked out to left field.

This was our first view:

I was roasting out in the sun and kept getting and hiding from it. I’m pale, I wasn’t wearing sunscreen on my arms because I was expecting to be in the shade and knowing my luck, I’d be purple by the end of the day.

We stayed in those seats until it was 2-1 Oakland in the fourth.

Then we walked all the way from 331 to 305, which were our original seats when we transferred from the old Stadium to the new Stadium in 2009. My brother noticed that our old seats were empty and went to sit in them. I went to ladies room to wash my hands and while I was there Yoenis Cespedes hit a two-run home run to put the A’s up 4-1 in the fifth.

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Weather-wise today is probably one of the nicest days we’ve seen here in the Northeast so far in 2013 and baseball-wise, Phil Hughes easily had his best performance of 2013.

He pitched eight scoreless innings, gave up only four hits, walked two batters, struck out nine and 82 of his 118 pitches were strikes. Better yet, his velocity was hovering around the 93-94 mark in some spots. He pitched like a guy who had confidence in his stuff and after not lasting past the fourth inning in his first two starts, Hughes has lasted longer in his past four starts – today’s included. His shortest outing was his six innings against Toronto on April 28. The two starts prior, he pitched seven innings. He’s also striking out more batters. He had nine in his last start as well.

Offensively, the Yankees were aided by two home runs, one by Chris Stewart and the other by Lyle Overbay. I know, it’s really unbelievable what these guys are doing. Every time you think, okay, the other shoe is going to drop and the Yankees will start losing games, someone provides a spark and they win.

Travis Hafner also contributed with an RBI single in the sixth off A’s starter and old friend, Bartolo Colon. He picked up the loss and left the game after that Hafner single with the Yanks up 3-0. Brett Gardner made the score 4-0 in the seventh with an RBI single which scored Eduardo Nunez who had tripled and lost his helmet somewhere between first and second. I swear, I was going to keep a “Nunez Helmet Tally” in the sidebar of the website this season and I am mad I didn’t do it.

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I’m sorry, I didn’t watch the Yankee game at all. I was too busy nearly having a heart attack watching the Knicks nearly blow a 26-point lead to the Boston Celtics.

Thankfully, they didn’t. They won their game and their series and have advanced to the second round to meet the Pacers.

As for the Yankees, nothing good happened in tonight’s game. Obviously, because they were shut out by a guy who had a 4.65 ERA coming into tonight’s game.

Not that ERA is the be all, end all of pitching stats but a 4.65 is still pretty terrible. CC Sabathia gave up a home run on the first pitch he threw and it didn’t get better for the Yankees after that.

But as they say, and as I’ve said many times before, on to the next one. And the next one is tomorrow afternoon when our old friend Bartolo Colon faces off against Phil Hughes.

Some notes:

• Brett Gardner and Jayson Nix finished with two hits apiece. 
• Adam Warren pitched three scoreless innings, giving up only two hits and striking out four.
• From @yestoresearch: Robinson Cano ties Bill Dickey for 9th on the franchise doubles list with 343.  Next up Mickey Mantle with 344.

This could have been a disastrous loss for the Yankees. Thankfully, they were able to overcome blowing a four-run lead and pick up a win against the Astros tonight. It marks their 17th win of the season and it’s their sixth win in their last seven games.

David Phelps started in place of injured Ivan Nova and made it through one turn before the Astros lineup figured him out and scored four runs in the top of the fourth inning. He allowed six base runners and even hit two batters during that inning.

The Yankees added an insurance run in the sixth inning on double play ground out by Ichiro Suzuki which scored Eduardo Nunez. Lyle Overbay was out at second but because he avoided a quick tag, Nunez scored before he was called out.

Robinson Cano and Ben Francisco hit home runs for the Yankees who have an off day tomorrow before a three-game series this weekend against the Oakland Athletics.

The bullpen, Boone Logan, David Robertson and Mariano Rivera combined to throw 3.1 innings of scoreless ball and Rivera picked up his 11th save in 11 tries.

I guess it’s a good thing this was a game against the Houston Astros because if the Yankees were facing another team, a better one, I’m not sure this win would have been possible.

Hiroki Kuroda, even though he didn’t give up any runs, had a rough first three innings and again, was lucky he was facing the Astros. He settled down and retired 11 of 12 batters after the third inning. He gave up only four hits in seven innings, walked four and struck out eight. He finished with 4-1 record in April and a 2.25 ERA. He’s 3-0 in his last three starts with a minuscule 1.23 ERA.

Another great stat for Kuroda from those last three starts? He’s averaging 7 1/3 innings.

The Yankees offense was able scratch and claw their way to some early runs and they had a 4-0 lead heading into the eighth inning when David Robertson came in. Robertson got two outs then gave up two runs on a home run by Chris Carter.

The bottom of the eighth, the Yankees broke the game open, scoring three runs on a Lyle Overbay solo shot, a Chris Stewart RBI single and a Travis Hafner RBI single.

The Astros, with the help of Yankee reliever Shawn Kelley, made things interesting in the ninth inning when Jose Altuve hit a two-run double to make it 7-4 and to set up a save situation for Mariano Rivera.

Rivera, who was 9-9 in save opportunities in April, made it 10-10 with an easy five pitch appearance to end the game.

The rubber game is tomorrow and features Erik Bedard (0-2, 7.98 ERA) and David Phelps (1-1, 5.29 ERA) who is stepping in for the injured Ivan Nova.

That game was the pits. Do I have to rehash it? Really? Okay, fine.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Andy Pettitte was awful.
• So was the offense.
• Vidal Nuno was pretty good even though it was in mop up duty.
• Um…
• Oh, Kevin Youkilis‘ MRI was negative. Not that it has anything to do with the game but I have to post something, I suppose.
• Hmmm. What else?
• Yep, I got nothing.

On to the next one as they say…

I jokingly referred to this game as a Friday night fright in the game thread, mainly because of the pitching matchup. I figured a game started by Ivan Nova and Aaron Laffey had the potential to be really awful.

When Francisco Cervelli left the game with an injury about 37 seconds (give or take) into the game, I just shook my head. When Ivan Nova left the game in the third inning with an injury, I wanted to crawl into a hole.

What on earth is happening to this team? Can the training stuff just start lining people’s uniforms with bubble wrap? Thankfully, both of their replacements came up big.

Chris Stewart threw out some runners and walked twice tonight. As for David Phelps, all he did was come in, pitch four innings of relief and strike out nine batters. He picked up the win.

Of course, the Blue Jays’ usual suspects, Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista, hit home runs – Encarnacion hit two: one off of Nova and the other off of Phelps but thankfully, the Yankees scored more. Bautista’s came in the eighth against David Robertson.

Luckily for the Yankees, the Jays’ sloppy play helped them out and canceled out those home runs.

Brett Gardner hit a home run in the eighth inning to put the Yankees up two which was good because the Blue Jays made things interesting for their fans by loading the bases in the top of the ninth against Mariano Rivera. Thankfully, Mo settled down and calmly picked up his eighth save of the year.

Funny notes from the game:

• As I mentioned above, Chris Stewart walked twice.
• So did Jayson Nix.
• So did Travis Hafner.
• Lyle Overbay hit a triple.
• Nix also had two strike outs.
• So did Ichiro Suzuki.