Great Starting Pitching Plus Flawless Defense Equals A Yankee Victory

The Yanks picked a great way to end this 7 game road trip. Outstanding starting pitching from Joba. Flawless defense. What wins championships again? Oh yeah, pitching and defense. I've been waiting to blog about the errorless game streak but didn't for fear of jinxing it. 18 straight games without an error. They broke the record previously held by the 2006 Red Sox. Suck on that Sox fans. Anytime the Yankees can break a record held by the Red Sox is a good time. This team is playing some great baseball. 5-2 on the roadie. Headed home with a 1 game lead in the East. Things are going well in Yankees Universe.

Joba had one of the best outings of his career. I hope the WWE belt was hanging in his locker before the game ended. Hell, he deserved it as soon as he flew through the air and snared that pop up bunt. That was the play of the game right there. It's the best fielding play I've seen by a pitcher in a long time. I can't even think of a better one of the top of my head. It definitely saved the game. What would have been bases loaded no outs quickly turned in to 2 out with a runner on first. What a game saver! I really hope this outing silences all of the dopes out there who think Joba belongs in the bullpen. You can't put a guy with Joba's stuff in the bullpen. You just can't. A SP who can go 8 innings is much more valuable than a RP. Tonight was Joba's longest outing of his career. To pitch that deep into a game you have to be economical with your pitches. Doing that is a weakness of Joba's. Not tonight. 8 innings, 106 pitches. 62% were for strikes. The best thing about his outing was the spike in his velocity. He's been consistently in the mid-low 90s but he was steady rocking 96 and hit 98 close to the end of the outing. Way to get it done.

The Yankee offense should be a little ashamed of themselves. They should have blown the Tribe out. Jeremy Sowers entered the game with an ERA of 7.71. The Yankee O managed 1 measly run off him. They walked 11 times! 11! But they only managed 6 hits. Unreal. The key players (Jeter/Teixeira) kept their hitting streaks alive. Nick Swisher must be really glad that May is over. He was absolutely brutal in May. He opened June with a 2-for-4 performance with 2 doubles. He came close to clearing the bases in the 7th. That was a clutch hit right there. The Yanks had bases juiced in the 6th with nobody out and didn't score. I "tweeted" during the game that I thought Swish would ground into an inning-ender. Glad I was wrong. The bottom of the order, 5 thru 9, was abysmal, going oh-fer 16 with 5 walks. Yikes.

I saw something tonight I never thought I'd see. A team intentionally walked someone to pitch to Alex Rodriguez, with bases loaded no less. What the heck was Eric Wedge thinking? That was Girardi-esque right there.

The Yanks are headed home now to face the Rangers, holders of the AL's best record. A win tomorrow and the Yanks have the best record in the AL. Win or lose, for my money, the Yanks are the best team in the AL right now. Maybe even in all of baseball. They're pitching. They're hitting. They're playing D. They're playing great baseball and most importantly, they're winning.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie