Wrapping Up The Jays Series, Yanks Take 2 Of 3

Forgive me for not blogging yesterday. The reason I didn't was two-fold. Wednesday night co-ed softball began. We won 13-12 in extra innings. I chipped in with a 4-4 night with a HR. Not bad. The second reason was that after the game I headed down to Coca-Cola Field, home of the Buffalo Bisons, AAA affiliate of the Mets. The reason I went there was to try and get Tommy Hanson's autograph. I got there at about the 7th inning and as luck would have it, Hanson was charting pitches behind home plate. I hit him up in between innings and he hooked me up with 2 signed balls. Thanks Tommy. I appreciate it.

I caught a little of Wednesday's game on the radio and saw bits-and-pieces of it when I got home. It sounded like Pettitte labored thru his 6 innings. At one point I heard Sterling mention Andy had a pitch total of around 75 pitches and if my memory serves me correctly it was in the 4th inning. I was worried that he'd get knocked out after 5 and the bullpen would blow things up. I was pleasantly surprised when I later heard he lasted 6 full innings. I looked at Andy's stats and while he only gave up 2 runs, it looked like he had some control issues, walking 4 and throwing only about 60% of his pitches for strikes. It's not a bad strike percentage, but I like something closer to 70%. Andy has been somewhat decent this year. I am a little worried about his recent control issues. He's walked 4 guys in 3 of his last 4 outings and has failed to make it past the 6 inning mark. He walked a total of 2 guys in his 1st 3 starts and lasted at least 7 innings in all 3 starts. I took a glance at his game logs for last season and he only walked 4 guys once. He needs to cut down on the free passes. If he can do that, he'll be golden.

CC Sabathia was good tonight. That's 2 solid outings in a row. Like Pettitte, CC had some minor control problems but was able to get himself out of it without incurring any major damage. The 7th inning was huge. Tied at 2 with the go-ahead run at 3rd with 1 out and he gets John McDonald swinging and gets Aaron Hill to ground out 1 batter later. CC is finally pitching like we need him too. The ERA is down to 3.70. His ERA wasn't that low last year until after his 20th start of the season. CC will prove to be worth every penny. I'd make a prediction but I'm leery about doing that because I thought Mo was going to finish the year with an ERA under 1. Mo has a lot of work to do to accomplish that. If anyone can do it, Mo can.

The offense is still disappointing me. They were 1-8 with RISP tonight and were 6-13 with RISP on Wednesday. I'm not a fan of the inconsistency. It seems like there are more nights when they are 1 for 8 and they're better than that. Mark Teixeira continues to annoy me. Is it me or does he pop out a lot? We're almost 20% done with the season and he's barely hitting over 200. He is not having a good year. Now if history has taught us anything about Mark Teixeira is that he gets better as the season moves along. This is by far the worst start of his career. If he can keep the average above 200, it would have taken 30 games this year to sustain an average above 200. Last season it took 14 games for Mark to keep his average above 200. In 2007, it took him 16 games. He was never below 200 in 2006. It was 9 games in 2005 and 19 in 2004. His worst start prior to this year was his rookie season (2003) when it took 22 games for him to get his average above 200. He finished that season with an average of .259, a career low. I think we're going to be lucky if Teixeira finishes the year with an average that high. He's 3 for his last 8 (.375) and 5 for his last 19 (.263). Hopefully he's turned the corner. An ohfer-3 night tomorrow and he's back below the Mendoza line. Come on. Get on the mark Teixeira. I hate John Sterling.

Johnny Damon is on fire. He may have only been 1-5 tonight but he was 5-14 (.357) for the series. JD has put together a nice 10 game hitting streak, going 18 for 45 (.400) w/ 13 extra base hits, 5 of which were dingers. He's hot.

Francisco Cervelli has also impressed me so far. I said the other day I'd be happy if he hit 260. I know 6 games is not that big of a sample size but he's now hitting .316. The kid is filling in nicely.

A-Rod has been pretty blah since his return. Throw out the HR he hit on the first pitch of his first plate appearance and he's got 2 hits in 2o at-bats. The Yankees 3 and 4 hitters are brutal right now.

Taking 2 of 3 on the road from the best team in the AL is an encouraging sign. The only East opponent the Jays had faced prior to this series was the lowly Orioles. Now that they are getting into the best of the division they'll begin to fade. The Yanks, after winning the last 2 series, are back to square at 17-17, 4.5 games back but only 3 in the loss column. All things considered, that's pretty good. Tomorrow they open up a 10 game homestand. 4 games against the Twins. 3 against the Orioles and 3 against the Phillies. They just need to go out and try to win each series. A 7-3, or even 6-4, homestand would be a step in the right direction. So it shall be. So it shall come to pass.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie