Yankees Open Things Up In Style With A Ring Ceremony And A 7-5 Win

What a day for the entire Yankees Universe! It was awesome to see the boys get their World Series rings today. It was awesome to see them cap it off with a win. It was a perfect day all around.

I am glad I took the day off so I could watch it live and not on tape. The pre-game show kicked off on YES at 11:30 and the opening highlight package gave me goosebumps. That didn't compare to the feelings I got from watching the Ring Ceremony. I had tears in my eyes by the end of it. It was awesome to see Hideki Matsui get his ring last and I thought it was very classy of the Yankees to run up to him and show him some love. I love too how they gave Matsui and Swisher bogus rings. Classic and very funny.

I said earlier in the week that it would have been better had the Red Sox been in town for this. Nothing beats showing the Sox up. I definitely don't feel that way now. I don't think the ceremony could have been any more perfect. Having Matsui there had a lot to do with it. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

Andy Pettitte was awesome today. Vintage Pettitte. Andy looks to be in mid-season form already. He allowed his fair share of baserunners but kept them all from scoring. I wish I remembered this stat I heard the other day, but it went something like this: Pettitte had the highest WHIP (or maybe 3rd highest) of all SPs that won at least 14 games last year. You would think a guy that allows as many baserunners as Andy would have a higher ERA. But he doesn't and it's a testament to how good Andy really is. He got some pretty big outs today when he needed to. The bigget were his 5th inning popout of Abreu and the 6th inning DP of Kendrick. The game could have been a lot closer with another pitcher on the hill. Andy has been solid now thru his 1st 2 starts. 12 IP, 11 H, 6 BB, 10 K, 1 ER, 0.75 ERA. Not too shabby.

The game was great until the 9th inning. David Robertson imploded and made the game a lot closer than it was. That was ugly. But as we Yankees fans all know, it's hard to worry when you enter the 9th with a lead and Mariano is in the bullpen. Have no fear, Mighty Mo(use) is here. Mo came in and did what Mo does best. He K'd Torri Hunter and got Matsui to end the game on a pop out to Cano. Thank God for Marinao Rivera. He's the man.

The Yankees offense had a pretty good day. Any time you collectively pick up 13 hits and 9 walks it's a good day. Everyone who had a hit had more than one. Of the 3 guys that didn't have a hit, Swisher walked 3 times and Teixeira walked twice. If a walk is as good as a hit, big-up to those guys. Tex is really struggling. His oh-fer today dropped his average to .111 and he's now hitless in 6 of the Yankees 7 games. He'll be fine though. He struggles early every season and his stats always fill in line with what's on the back of his bubble gum card.

Posada, Granderson, and Cano are continuing to rake. Posada has been the biggest surprise to me. He's 3 hits today bumped his average up to .429. Jorge has 9 hits so far, 6 of which have been for extra bases (4 doubles and 2 HRs). He's also walked 6 times. He has to be seeing the ball really well.

Nick Johnson hit the Stadium's first HR this year. Nicky had a great day at the dish. NJ went 2-3 with 2 walks. Hopefully it's a sign of what to expect from Nick when he hits at home.

The only negative I can think of about the offense today is that they should have scored a few more runs. The offense is good enough that if they have 20+ guys reach base they should score more than 7 runs. They hit 5-16 with RISP today which isn't bad, but the outs definitely hurt. They ended up leaving 12 men on base and everybody came up empty at least once. It's not a big issue. It's more of a small critique.

You still have to be very pleased right now if you're a Yankee fan. The win moves the Yanks to 5-2 and that's impressive considering who they've played (Red Sox, Rays, and Angels). Javy Vazquez makes his 2nd start tomorrow and I really hope it's better than his first start. It's a 1:05pm start which means I'm going to miss the game. Stupid work. It's always getting in the way of the Yankees. Work also means no Twitter. Bummer. I'm not sure if I'm going to DVR the game or just follow along on Gamecast, or both. We'll see. I'm glad Thursday's game is a night game. Day games and I don't get along. Enjoy it.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie