And The Bus Just Keeps On Rolling

Another game, another Yankee victory. The winning streak is at 8 and everything is working well. Well, almost everything. A-Rod's batting average is still below the Mendoza line. His 1.006 OPS though is 39 percentage points above his career average. Alex only has 37 ABs under his belt. He has 7 hits, 5 of which are HRs. It's going to be scary when he starts hitting the ball. the good thing about Alex is that he's providing protection for Mark Teixieira. I don't think it's a coincidence that Teixeira breaking out of his slump coincided with A-Rod's return. I also don't think it's a coincidence that the Yankees are 10-2 since A-Rod's return. I would love to know where the team would be if A-Rod started the year healthy. First place in the East? Without a doubt. But he didn't start the year healthy and thus they're 2.5 back, 1 in the loss column. We're sitting pretty if you ask me.

Big up to Phil Hughes for a great start. Odds are said this was Phil's last start for a while as Chien-Ming Wang will probably make the next start. Not a bad way to end things, eh? Phil for the most part was dealing. He set a career high for Ks, whiffing 9. The biggest thing I liked about his performance was that he only walked one and threw 64% of his pitches for strikes. It was his highest strike-to-ball ratio of the season. The only other time he was over 60% was when he got shelled for 8 runs in 1.2 innings. The difference this time was he got a lot more people to swing and miss. He was ahead in the count a lot which makes things much better for the pitcher. I want to see him build on this. He's got the stuff to dominate. One day he'll be a permanent staple of the Yankees rotation. For my money, he'll be better than Joba.

Back-to-back-to-back. When things are going well, stuff like that is going to happen. The offense is doing much better as of late. Over the last 8 games, they're hitting 23 for 66 (.348) with RISP. They're 11 for 22 with RISP over the last 3 games. Nice. Very nice.

I'm loving this team right now. The best part of all of it is the team chemistry. As a Yankee fan, I don't ever thing I've seen a guy get a post game pie in the face. I love it. Yesterday, the team held its first Kangaroo Court since at least 1995. If you question just how good the team chemistry is, read the article. It's awesome and is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

Joba tonight. Big question is what does he do with Aubrey Huff? I'm hoping he doesn't do anything. Sure Huff's display of emotion was contrived, whereas Joba's fist pumps are more spur-of-the-moment and are genuine, but it's not needed. Take care of him by striking his ass out. That's what I'd like to see, but sadly, I'll miss it. The game is again on My9 and those games aren't carried on Verizon FIOS. I don't think they're carried at all in the Buffalo market. The channel that normally carries the games sold its station to a religious outfit and I think they started showing their 24-7 religious programming just the other day. So all of Buffalo should be screwed. Hopefully another affiliate in the area picks it up. I need my My9!

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie