JORGE & YANKEES ARE JUICED UP AT THE TROP!

St.Petersburg, Fla.- Last year the theme was walk off victories. On this first road trip of the season the theme seems to be lose the first game and then take the next two. The Yankees are winning series the hard way but I don’t think any fan of the 27 Time World Champions would have anything against plain old winning. A win is a win as Brett Favre said as a member of the New York Jets. The Yankees come off of this road trip 4 – 2 and 1 game behind the Toronto Blue Jays who have a record of 5 – 1. Wow you know it is early in the season when a team like the Toronto Blue Jays are leading the pack in the AL East. Game 3 at the Trop started out in favor of the Rays as they held a 3 – 1 lead over the World Champions until “Jorge Juiced One” to drive in 2 RBI’s and tie it up. The Yankees did not relinquish the lead from that point in fact they added 4 more runs to the aforementioned lead while the Rays only added 2 runs to come out the loser. Aside from the hitting the thing that kept the Yankees in this game was stellar starting pitching from their number 2 man A.J. Burnett. Burnett gave the Yankees 7 quality innings on their way to their fourth victory of this very young season in which they endeavor on a championship defense. If the Yankees want to repeat they are going to have keep their foot on the accelerator like they have been these first few games.

YANKEES COME BACK STRONG WITH ROUT OF RAYS

St.Petersburg, Fla.- It almost came to be. CC Sabathia almost threw a no hitter against the Tampa Bay Rays this afternoon until Sabathia’s former teammate Kelly Shoppach dumped a base hit to left field in front of Brett Gardner. Sabathia had the no no working through 7 and 2/3 innings until it was broken up. If Yankee fans thought last night’s game was bad it was nothing compared to what Rays fans had to deal with today. To quote the Avis Commercial it was “Total Domination.” Every Yankee in the lineup today had a base hit and that includes catcher Francisco Cervelli who called a great game en route to almost catching his first ever no hitter. David Robertson came out of the pen after Sabathia gave up the hit to Shoppach and he only gave up 1 more hit. So while the New York Yankees had 14 hits and 10 runs in the ball game the Tampa Bay Rays only had 2.
Mark Teixeira’s hitless streak has finally come to an end today in St. Petersburg. In the top of the 5th inning Teixeira doubled to shallow right field to drive in Derek Jeter. He also had 2 more hits in the ball game to finally put the 0 for out of his mind. One of his hits resulted in him going back to the dugout when he hit a ball of the top of the wall in left field. Teixeira was rounding first but one of the slowest runners on the team, DH Nick Johnson was in front of him. When Johnson didn’t know if the ball was caught or not he froze at second base leaving Teixeira caught between first and second where he was caught in a run down in tagged out. As John Sterling would say, “You’re on the Mark, Teixeira!”

YANKEES PAY THE “PRICE” TONIGHT AT THE TROP

St.Petersburg,FLA.- The Yankees were just simply dominated tonight at Tropicana Field by the Rays and it was all at the hands of Rookie Phenom David Price. A Minor Leaguer last year Price showed tonight that he has what it takes to be in the Major Leagues. The Rays used Price out of the bullpen in 2008 as almost a closer in their playoff run and into the World Series which they lost to the Philadelphia Phillies. Price gave the Rays 7 and 2/3 innings while giving up only 2 runs and striking out 7. In the top of the fourth inning the Yankees scored two runs on an RBI Triple by Alex Rodriguez who scored when the ball was thrown down the LF line after Nick Johnson scored from second base. The Yankees were up 2 – 0 in the bottom of the fourth but Javy Vazquez reintroduced himself to Yankee fans by looking like the Javy the Yankees traded away. Vazquez gave up 5 runs in that bottom of the fourth inning and gave up another 3 in the sixth after breezing through 1,2,3 in the bottom of the 5th inning. Looking at the first 2 innings this looked like it was going to be a pitcher’s duel but “The Price was Right” for the Rays as they beat the Yankees 9 – 2 in the first game of a 3 game set.

“OH Curtis!” Yankees Win Game 3 with Late Inning Heroics from Curtis Granderson

Curtis Granderson #14 Of The New York Yankees Hits

Boston, Mass.- Another night, another Yankee win and another save for Mariano Rivera. The Yankees went ahead on a home run from  none other than Curtis Granderson in the top of the 10th and was then followed up by Mark Teixeira’s RBI ground out with the bases loaded to push across a second run in the inning. Also the scoreless relief streak was stretched to 8 innings last night as they got 3 scoreless from Chan Ho Park and a scoreless top of the 10th from Mariano Rivera. In the second game of the series on Wednesday night Alfredo Aceves gave them 4 scoreless innings to get a victory of his own.
Starter Andy Pettitte gave fans a scare on the first play of the ballgame last night on a slow grounder from LF Jacoby Ellsbury. Ellsbury hit a grounder past the 1B Teixeira and it was scooped up by 2B Robinson Cano. Cano and Pettitte were both racing for the bag along with Jacoby Ellsbury running up the line. Cano flipped the ball to the pitcher covering and Ellsbury and Pettitte collided. The collision did not seem to affect Ellsbury but it left Pettitte on the ground near the first base dugout and he seemed to be shaken up. With a few warm up pitches Girardi was satisfied that his starter could go on and Pettitte went on to give them 6 innings of one run baseball.

David Ortiz’s struggles at the plate continue although he got his first hit last night to drive in Boston’s only run of the game. Ortiz also had a few strikeouts to go along with that RBI single. David Ortiz currently has a batting average of .091 and is starting this season much like he started 2009. In 2009 Big Papi did not have a batting average over .200 until May. With the off day today the Red Sox are off to Kansas City where Ortiz has a career .271 batting average against the Royals.

YANKEES COME BACK STRONG IN GAME 2

(Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)

Boston,Mass.-After a tough loss for the Yankees on opening night the Bombers looked to rebound against the Red Sox in game 2. Both starters Burnett and Lester delivered less than stellar performances and both were done after just 5 innings pitched. The Yankees turned to the bullpen early and they held the tie intact. The Red Sox pen blew the lead first when Ohkajima walked Nick Johnson with the bases loaded to force in a run. In the bottom of the 8th with the Yankees on top Girardi pulls Robertson and brings in Marte to face Ortiz after Robertson surrendered the leadoff single to Youkilis. Marte throws an errant throw to first moving Youkilis to second but Marte gets the job done and Ortiz flies out to Granderson in center. Back out of the dugout again Girardi brings in Chamberlain to face Adrian Beltre. Ortiz is still hitless for the season. Chamberlain delivers with a strike out of Beltre being very assertive in the AB. Joba looks like his old self getting back to back strikeouts of Beltre and Drew. The Yankees took a 1 run lead into the top of the 9th inning. Rodriguez flies out to lead off the inning but Cano hits a monster shot to right field to give the Yankees a 2 run cushion. Posada stuck out for the second out of the inning. Scott Atchinson struck out Swisher looking to retire the side leaving the Yankees 3 outs away from their first win. Enter Sandman. Rivera gets Cameron to pop out to Jeter for the first out. Scutaro hit a one hopper off the monster for a double bringing up Ellsbury who is 1 – 8 lifetime against Rivera. Make that 1 – 9 as Ellsbury struck out looking. Now 2008 AL MVP Dustin Pedroia is Boston’s final hope. Pedroia flew out to Winn in right to end the ball game and give the Yankees their first win of the season. Tomorrow at Fenway will be the rubber game of this 3 game set and the possibility of a sweep and  going 0 -8 is now a thing of the past. Final Score: Yankees 6 Red Sox 4.

Live Blog Tonight: Yankees at Red Sox

The Blog will be approximately 7:30 pm. 

Bean Town Blues on Opening Night for Yankees

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Boston, Mass.- 19 game winner CC Sabathia got the ball on Opening Day against Boston’s ace Josh Beckett last night at Fenway. Beckett was tagged for 5 runs in 4.2 innings while throwing approximately 100 pitches in his first outing of the 2010 campaign. Sabathia had a 1 hitter going through 5+ but the Red Sox pushed a few across to bring the game a little closer. CC was followed up by David Robertson out of the Yankee bullpen and he let one of his inherited runners to score tying it up at 5 a piece. The next inning the Yankees scored 2 more runs to make it a 7 – 5 game but new Yankee reliever Chan Ho Park quickly changed that as he surrendered a 2 run homer to 2B Dustin Pedroia that sailed right over the Green Monster in left. Damaso Marte was next out of the pen and last season Marte had what he called a “cranky” shoulder during the season but pitched marvelously in the post season. Marte seemed to be up to his old antics as he threw a wild pitch and then later in the at bat threw a pitch that got passed the catcher Posada to score Kevin Youkilis from third base. With Boston now up 8 – 7 Joe Girardi turned to Joba Chamberlain who for now is the 8th inning setup man. Joba gave up a RBI hit to who else but Dustin Pedroia to drive in new CF Mike Cameron. Chamberlain eventually works out of the jam by getting Victor Martinez to fly out to RF Nick Swisher. With the Yankees down by 2 Boston manager Terry Francona turns to his closer Jonathan Papelbon. Papelbon retires Rodriguez on a routine grounder for out number 1. Cano flied out to Ellsbury leaving Jorge Posada as the Yankees final hope. Posada did not disappoint and sent a single into right bringing up new Yankee Curtis Granderson who homered his first time up. Curtis shattered his bat and grounded out to new Boston 3B Adrian Beltre to end the ball game. Although a tough loss for the Yankees on this Opening Night there were some positives to look at in this game. Starter CC Sabathia had his 3rd pitch, his change-up working to perfection while spinning a 1 hit gem through 5 innings. New Yankee Curtis Granderson got his first taste of the New York, Boston rivalry and speaking of firsts Curtis homered on his first at bat as a member of the Bronx Bombers. To keep with the them of outfielders Brett Gardner also had himself a nice night at the plate and on the base paths. Brett had a few singles and a key steal of home plate on a double steal with SS Derek Jeter. The Yankees will try to run on Victor Martinez and the Red Sox all season long as they were the worst team in the league in throwing out base runners in 2009. New Red Sox Marco Scutaro and Mike Cameron made good first impressions on their new team as the both went 2 – 3 in the season opener. On the other hand LF Jacoby Ellsbury wen 0 – 5 at the plate and he just looked absolutely lost all night long.

Now to get to the lighter side of baseball let’s talk about last night’s radio broadcast of the season opener. We all know John Sterling has catchy HR calls for each of the Yankees and with Curtis Granderson joining the team this year he had to create a call for him as well. This is what he came up with last night, “OH Curtis! You’re something Grandish!” So John what exactly does it mean to be “Grandish” ? Not only does it have a red line under it as I write it in this post which means a spelling error but it is not in any dictionary. Hopefully the great radio voice of the Yankees has something better for the “Grandish” One when the Yankees take on the Red Sox again Tuesday.

The Yankees lose this one 9 – 7 in Boston but let’s remember the Yankees lost 8 straight to Boston last year and still went on to win the World Series for the 27th time. There is still a lot of baseball to be played. 181 games to be exact NOT including the post season.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES

Tampa, FL. ~ This time last year Alex Rodriguez was surrounded by Yankees brass as well as teammates as he read from a prepared statement addressing his use of PED’s. As the Yankee third baseman walked into George M. Steinbrenner Field earlier this week to begin Spring Training he was all smiles because he is now a World Champion. Alex is 34 years old going into the 2010 season and about $216 Million plus a few historic incentives left on his contract. Rodriguez is about to embark upon a most critical segment of his career. These next few seasons are the ones that will define him in history, either as a very good player who did a few special things, or as one of the most sensational, remarkable talents to play the game. Rodriguez will be a Yankee for eight more seasons. A lot can happen between now and 2017.Rodriguez has, in a sense, been reborn. In 2009, he sat beneath the tent at George M. Steinbrenner Field, as broken as a superstar baseball player can be. In 2010, Rodriguez sat beneath the same tent and beamed. ”It’s definitely a much different day,” Rodriguez said. “That’s clear to me. Last year, obviously, was a very embarrassing day, and something that I wouldn’t want to go back and do. But looking back, I certainly thought it was a very important day.” Now, Rodriguez can concentrate on bolstering his .305 career average, adding to his 583 lifetime home runs, working back into top defensive form. He has a chance to accumulate numbers never before seen in the game of baseball.
This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

SPRING TRAINING IS FINALLY UPON US

Tampa, FL.~ With the thought of repeating as World Champions in their heads the New York Yankees open up camp in Tampa, Florida to start preparations for the 2010 season. Yankee fans are still excited about the happenings of last season and want it to happen again in year 2 of the new Yankee Stadium. The number one concern on Manager Joe Girardi’s mind is the lineup. He also wants to lighten the workload of the starting pitcher’s as Spring Training begins this week. I apologize for the lack of posts lately but now that spring training is beginning the frequency of posts will be a lot more frequent.
Other Sports News:

IN SLOW OFFSEASON METS SURE UP OUTFIELD BY ACQUIRING MATTHEWS JR.

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With Carlos Beltran expected to miss the early part of the season the Mets acquired OF Gary Matthews Jr. from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for P Brian Stokes and cash considerations. In addition to paying off a $500,000 obligation for trading Matthews, the Angels will pick up $21.5 million of the $23.5 million remaining on his contract, according to SI.com, which first reported the deal. In exchange, they will receive Stokes, 30, a right-handed reliever and Southern California native who was to compete for a setup role in the Mets’ bullpen. Matthews wanted to be traded to a team that would allow him to start, and the Mets, at least temporarily, can offer him that assurance. But if all goes to plan, Beltran will be back on the field in May. With Jason Bay and Jeff Francoeur entrenched in left and right field, respectively, Matthews will be relegated back to the bench — as he was with the Angels. Matthews should have no problem getting at bats even as a fourth outfielder. 

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