CC Rocks, Godzilla Rolls, Yanks Win Again

I made it through 4 innings last night before I turned the game off. The Yanks were up 6-0 and the game seemed well in hand. I woke up this morning at 6:40 to the sweet sounds of John Sterling saying, "It is high. It is far. It is gone. Yankees win. Thuhh Yankees win." Yeah, it's what I use as the alarm clock on my cell phone. At about 6:40 and maybe 17 seconds tops, I was online pulling up Yahoo to check the final. 11-1 Yankees. Suh-weet.

The Red Sox had lost earlier so the lead is a comfortable 6.5 games. Right now, there are 2 teams I have concerns about, and don't be mistaken, those concerns are very small. Very very small. The only teams I'm concerned about are the Red Sox and the Rangers. I think the Rays are too far behind (10.5 games) the Yanks to have a shot at catching them. So that leaves the Sox and Rangers as the only two teams in my eyes that could even come close to spoiling a return to October baseball for the Yanks. Both teams would have to catch the Yanks to trip them up. I don't really see that happening. Even if the Yanks play a game under 500 the rest of the way, they'll still have 95 wins. The Sox would need to go 30-18 (.625) and Rangers would need to go 31-18 (.633) to catch them. The Yanks would have to collapse and 2 teams would have to play out of their shoes to catch them. Sorry, but I don't see either happening.

CC had a great outing last night. He was extremely sharp in the 4 innings I saw. His final line is also pretty impressive. 8 innings of 3 hit ball. 10 Ks and only 2 walks. A little more than 70% of his pitches were strikes. CC is having a pretty good August. 3 starts, 3 wins, an ERA of 2.38. It's not quite as good as his August last year (5-0 in 6 starts with a 1.12 ERA) but it's close when you take into account he was pitching in the NL against some inferior offenses. Those 6 starts were against the Pirates (twice), the Nationals, the Astros, the Padres, and the Braves. This is when CC is really going to shine. He's 13-7 now and probably has 9-10 starts left. 20 wins is definitely in the mix. CC is proving to be worth every penny the Yankees gave him. As i said in the title of this post, CC rocks.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Matsui had such a great night. 4-5 with 2 HRs and 5 RBI and 4 runs scored. Godzilla is having a monster month. He's hitting .343 with an OPS of 1.092. Talk about crushing. The whole Yankee offense, with maybe one exception is having a good August. Check out these numbers (AVG/OBP/SLG):

• Jeter 304/316/482
• Damon 367/392/796
• Matsui 343/378/714
• Teixeira 348/444/630
• Swisher 237/465/367
• A-Rod 273/385/477
• Cano 404/426/635
• Posada 314/351/571
• Melky 184/226/367

Pretty damn impressive, eh? As a team, for the month, the Yanks are 302/366/532. They have the best numbers in each category of all the AL teams. We just need to figure out a way to get more out of Melky. Melk has been very streaky this year. He needs to turn this around. Since going 4-5 on August 2nd, he's 5-40 (.125). Not good Melky. Not good.

Another late one tonight. Pettitte on the hill. Thankfully it's the weekend. I should be able to watch most, if not all of it. Now if I could only find a (legal) way to get my kid to sleep past 6:30.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie