CC and BG Shine As Yanks Trounce Mets 9-1 In Subway Series Round 2 Opener

Forgive me for not posting about last night's game like I said I was. My lunch break kind of got away from me. But here it is in a nutshell: Andy Pettitte sucked and he's lucky the offense showed up for him. Moving on....

CC Sabathia = the man! He was absolutely dominant today. He threw 7 innings, 6 of them were perfect. He was on all night. His control was excellent, no walks and his strike-to-ball ratio was exceptional (67 strikes-32 balls). I think it's safe to say that any issues he was having with his bicep are of no concern. CC has been awesome lately, worth every penny that the Yankees are paying him. Over his last 10 starts, CC is 6-1, throwing 70 innings, allowing 49 hits, 16 walks, and has an ERA of 2.70. He's gone at least 7 innings in 9 of those starts and the one he didn't was the game he left early with the injury. It's very telling in my opinion that Francisco Cervelli caught him tonight. There's no good reason why Posada didn't catch him tonight. Maybe it has something to with the fact that CC throws so much better to Cervelli. CC's hot streak started 10 games ago. He pitched a 4-0 CG shutout. His catcher? Francisco Cervelli. Over his last 10 starts, Cervelli has his been his battery mate 7 times. CC is 4-1 in those starts. His ERA to Cervelli is 2.33 with a WHIP of 0.89. With Posada, he's 2-0, with an ERA of 3.94 and a WHIP of 1.06. On the year to Posada, CC is 3-1 with an ERA of 4.46 and a WHIP of 1.39. You make the call.

On most nights I'd say give that WWE championship belt to CC, but not tonight. I'd give it to Brett Gardner. Holy cow what a night BG had. Brett went 5-for-6 with 3 singles, a triple, a home run, a stolen base, 3 runs scored and 2 RBI. Oh what a night. Gardner's average on the season is now above .300. His OBP is now around .375. How can the Yankees not start this guy based on how he's playing? He's earned the spot if you ask me. I just looked at his splits and I understand not playing him against LHPs. But he is absolutely tearing it up against RHPs, hitting .314 with an OBP around .380ish. Sorry Melky, but take a seat. Or Nick Swisher. Either one.

Is A-Rod back? The last 2 games would certainly suggest that. You can tell he's hitting the ball well because he's hitting a lot up the middle and a lot to right-center. Alex is 4-for-7 with 2 HR and 6 RBI over these last 2 games. Oh yeah, add 4 walks to that. The Yankees really need Alex to play like Alex. We all saw how Mark Teixeira took off once Alex returned. Tex has cooled off a little bit and it's no surprise his cool streak has coincided with Alex's cold streak. Now that Alex is heating up, Teixeira should see better pitches. I'm looking for Mark to go on a tear soon also.

That makes 28 runs for the offense over the last 3 games. That's impressive. I am still concerned about the hitting with RISP. They might have scored 9 runs tonight but they were 3-for-14 with RISP. That's not good. You don't normally win a lot of games when you hit that poorly with runners in scoring position. They're 11-for-45 (.244) with RISP over the last 3 games. I'd like to see a little more efficiency when it comes to hitting with RISP. Heck, 2 more hits with RISP over the last 3 would have bumped that average to .288. Those 2 hits could make a big difference.

That makes 3 straight for the Yanks. I'd like to say the ship has been righted, but I'm still a win or two away from that. The good news is the Yankees are familiar with the next 2 starters they face, Tim Redding and Livan Hernandez. Redding was once a Yankee, he says while laughing his ass off. He made 1 start, pitched 1 inning, giving up 6 runs. They've faced Livan 6 times and they've pretty much battered him around. I don't want to say the Yanks will sweep this series, but it's not out of the cards. Hopefully, the Yankees can stay healthy. It sounds like there's a flu bug going 'round the clubhouse. It claimed the Captain as a victim tonight. I hope they can get past that without anybody else getting it.

Lastly, Xavier Nady is done for the year and he'll probably miss all of next year also. I've never been a big Nady guy but that sucks. I don't like seeing anybody go down like that. It's too bad, Brian Cashman couldn't deal him before the season started. Oh well. Get well soon X.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie