Yanks Finish Sweep Of Tigers With 2-1 Victory

Everyone please with the start to the second half of the season please raise our hand. For those of you that can't see me, and that would be all of you, I'm jumping up and down doing my best Arnold Horshack impersonation. Ooh, ooh. Pick me Mister Kotter. I miss the Sweathogs. Focus JB, focus.

Joba surprised me today. I was more than worried about how he'd do. I was no nervous I left him out of my fantasy lineup because a poor outing would have killed me. Looks like I made the wrong decision. Joba was pretty impressive today. Al Leiter mentioned on the broadcast that this was one of Joba's best outings this season. I can't disagree with that. JC was on. He had me nervous there in the first inning. He walked the 2nd batter, gave up a single to the 3rd, escaped without giving up a run, but threw about 20 pitches. After the leadoff walk in the 2nd, I thought he was done for. But he nutted up and pitched one heck of a ball game. Like CC did the day before, Joba got the big outs when he needed them. Joba's outing was very similar to CC's. I would love to give Joba and CC a lot of credit but the Tigers offense came up empty whenever they had the chance. The Tigers were an abysmal 1-for-26 with RISP in these 3 games. The Yanks should feel a little lucky that they swept these guys considering they won all 3 games by a combined 4 runs. 1 or 2 more timely hits from the Tigers and the Yanks very easily could have lost 2 of 3. Better offenses won't let them off the hook so easily. Regardless, we Yankee fans should be extremely happy with the pitching over the last 3 days. Great job all the way around.

A-Rod blasted another longball today. That's his 5th in his last 6 games. I predicted yesterday that he'd won the HR title this year. If he keeps it up, it won't be a contest. Alex has now homered in 9 of his last 19 games. A-Rod has been on a tear since June 23rd, going 25-for 72 with 10 HR and 24 RBI in that 20 game span. The Yanks are 15-5 since Alex has turned it on. A-Rod seems to be fine. No worries here.

If you were to ask me to describe Mariano Rivera in a word, that word would be automatic. There are a plethora of words you could use but I think automatic sums it up nicely. He's converted his last 22 saves and hasn't allowed a run in his last 13 games, a 13.1 inning stretch. He did walk a guy today so I guess he's human after all. What more is there to say other than he's the greatest of all time. God bless ya Mo.

The Orioles are next up and Andy Pettitte makes the start tomorrow. As I was with Joba, I'm worried. Pettitte has been inconsistent lately. He's good. He's bad. He's good. He's bad. He's generally worse at home than on the road so on paper, we have reason to worry about how Andy will fare. The good news is that the Orioles aren't all that good. The Yanks may need to slug their way to a W tomorrow. Thanks to the Blue Jays, the Yankees are now 1 game behind Boston. The Sox are off to face the Rangers. It's a win-win series for the Yanks. The Rangers trail the Yanks by 5 for the wild card. If the Sox happen to win, it'll put some distance between us and them and that wouldn't be bad. Don't get me wrong though, I'm pulling for the Rangers all the way. The Yanks just need to focus on winning their games. Hopefully, Andy has it tomorrow. Fingers are crossed.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie