I'm Baaaaack (Sort Of)

Well hello there. Long time no blog. As promised, via Twitter, I'm back. I hope you guys have been well. I'm well. Can't complain. Just wish there were more hours in the day. Oh my Mariano it's been awhile, hasn't it? Just checked and it looks like my last blog entry was in mid-May. May 16th to be exact. The Yankees had just lost their 6th straight game, were sitting on a 20-18 record, 2 games behind Tampa in the AL East. Here's what I blogged:

Not much is going the Yankees way right now. Not much at all. Nobody is hitting. The pitching is suspect. It's not a good time to be a fan of the Yankees. I'm not worried though. well, I'm a little worried but not much. Every team has these funks. If you remember, the Yankees lost 5 straight back in 2009 and went on to win the World Series. There is a lot of baseball left to play. There's plenty of time for these guys to right the ship.

Fast forward now almost 5 months. The Yankees just ended a 6 game win streak. They are 87-54 and 2 games up on the 1927 Yankees, err I mean, the Red Sox in the AL East and they have a 9.5 game lead in the wild card race if they were to fall behind Boston. They lead the league in runs scored and have the 3rd best team ERA in the AL (9th in MLB). Looks like the ship has been righted. It's a good time to be a Yankees fan.

Sorry I've been away so long. It became increasingly tough to find time to blog with 3 kids at home, all under the age of 4. I could barely find time to watch the Yankees play. My wife is a teacher and when school ended our kids stayed up later, usually until around 8:30, sometimes even later. By the time we got them to bed and I did what I needed to do (shower, etc), the games were usually in the late innings. I felt extremely disconnected from the Yankees Universe. When I had the time, I usually took to Twitter for talking about the Yankees. I stayed up on things as much as I could but they didn't get as much attention from me as i wanted to give.

Now that school has started up again the kids are getting back to their 7:30 bedtimes which should allow me to catch most of the game. I'm hoping that everything else in my life cooperates and I'll be able to fire off posts with somewhat regularity. It may not be daily. There may be a day or two that goes without a post. But you definitely won't see another 5 month hiatus. At least that's the plan.

Before I get back into talking about the Yankees I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who's ever frequented the blog and/or interacted with me on Twitter. You guys make being a Yankees fan more fun than it already is. Thanks for that. Special shout out to a few people: Susan, Sara, Lorenzo and Timmy. I appreciate the support and the conversation. There are definitely more people to say thanks to and more people to appreciate. I don't mean to offend by leaving names off. Those 4 just immediately popped into mind. If you feel slighted by being not being named personally, please don't. I didn't intend to offend.

I'll close this return with some Yankee thoughts:

• I owe Curtis Granderson a lot of money. I pledged to give his charity $15 for every of his HRs. He currently has 38. Yeah, I didn't see that coming either. I'm currently in for a $570 donation with 22 games to play. When I was deciding how much to pledge I was thinking he'd hit maybe 25 HRs. Definitely wasn't expecting 40+. CG has to be the current favorite to win the AL MVP. He currently leads the league in RBI, he's 2nd in HR, and what I find most impressive is he's leading the league in runs with 126, which is 26 more runs than the 2nd most (Ellsbury w/100). I'll be shocked if he doesn't win that award. Props to CG and K-Long for turning things around.


• Do people still think Brian Cashman is an idiot? Almost every move he's made this year has panned out: Russell Martin, Freddy Garcia, Bartolo Colon, Cory Wade, Eric Chavez and Andruw Jones have all made significant contributions to the team. Low risk, really high reward. Step off his frankfurter if you're still hating.


• Derek Jeter has had quite the season. It looked like 2011 was going to be a repeat of 2010. The he got hurt and he came back a new man. I don't think anyone saw DJ getting his average up to the 300 neighborhood.


• Welcome to NY Jesus Montero. You haven't disappointed. I'm looking forward to great things during your tenure in Pinstripes.


• Poor Jorge Posada. The only thing he has to blame for his fall is his abysmal performance. It's evident to me that this is his last year in Pinstripes.


• Move over Trevor. 4 more saves and Mariano is officially the king of the hill. He's the G.O.A.T. With any luck I'll get to see him break that record in person when the Yankees are in Toronto. I won't complain if he breaks it sooner. Saves mean wins. I'll take those.


• A.J. Burnett is (mostly) terrible.


• Ivan Nova is not terrible. Can you say Rookie of the Year?


• CC is still the man.


• I did not think David Robertson would pitch as well as he has. Dude truly is Houdini. He does need to cut down on the walks.


• LOL @ the Boston Red Sox. Better than the 1927 Yankees? How dumb does that guy look now?

I'm sure there's more to say but that's enough for now. We're in the home stretch and as I wrote above it's a good time to be a Yankees fan. Enjoy the last 3 or so weeks. October baseball will be here before we know it.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Yankees Lose.......Again

I didn't get to see much of the game tonight. The 6:40 start time kind of made it tough to watch. I had a shot to watch the beginning but my wife, aka Butterfingers, dropped my son's tadpole habitat on the kitchen floor and as she put it, tadpole fecal matter was everywhere. That shifted bath duties to me while she cleaned up. Then it was kids TV shows, put the kids to bed, make the kids lunch, put one kid back to bed, then put him back to bed a 3rd time, then game. By the time I tuned in it was the 8th inning. I'm glad I didn't see much because I probably would have thrown something thru my TV screen. So this makes 6 losses in a row. Ugh.

Not much is going the Yankees way right now. Not much at all. Nobody is hitting. The pitching is suspect. It's not a good time to be a fan of the Yankees. I'm not worried though. well, I'm a little worried but not much. Every team has these funks. If you remember, the Yankees lost 5 straight back in 2009 and went on to win the World Series. There is a lot of baseball left to play. There's plenty of time for these guys to right the ship.

Congrats to Curtis Granderson on yet another HR. CG is mashing. I'm donating $15 to his charity for each of his HRs. I was expecting him to hit about 24. He's more than halfway there and we're not even 40 games into the season. At this rate I'm going to go broke. Hopefully he keeps it up. He's really the only Yankee hitting right now. It's too bad they can't clone him.

I'm too frustrated to blog anymore tonight. Watching these guys lose night after night adds up and it's taking it's toll on me. I may have to storm into work tomorrow, scream at my boss, and demand I not work. More on that tomorrow.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Yankees/Rangers Weekend Wrap-Up

Am I the only one out there who is beyond exhausted? It's been a rough few days and the lack of sleep is catching up with me. I'm pretty sure I fell asleep a few times today while driving to work. I'm also pretty sure that I dozed off once or twice on the way home from the office. I spent the last half-hour sleeping in my kid's bed. I was tucking him in and next thing I knew a half-hour passed. I didn't want to go three days without blogging about the Yankees. I've done a good job of keeping up with it this year and I want to keep that going. I feel asleep on my feet right now so this won't be my best blog ever. Consider yourself warned.

• It was nice leaving Texas with a series win especially after dropping 3 of 4 to Detroit. It made the road trip a little nicer.
• How good is it to see Derek Jeter stinging the ball? He's been swinging a much better bat lately. His grounders are becoming line drives and his line drives are becoming home runs, or at least they did yesterday. Derek all of the sudden has the 3rd highest batting average on the team at a respectable .276. A 6-game hitting streak will do that to a guy. DJ had a nice little road trip going 11-28 (.393). He rose his average 34 percentage points in the process. Is the Captain back? Maybe, but I'm not 100% ready to declare his return just yet.
• CC Sabathia impressed me a little bit yesterday. He was by no means sharp as he walked 4 and threw only 58.7% of his pitches for strikes. He struggled out of the gate, settled down, and battled his way to a decent start. It's nice to know he's effective even when he doesn't have his best stuff.
• Curtis Granderson is bleeding me dry. I pledged to donate $15 to his charity for every HR he hits. I was banking on maybe 25 dingers. He's leading the AL with 11 and we're only a month into the season. Smack my head. I'm glad he's doing it though. Kevin Long definitely knocked it out of the park with CG. Wow. He's been on a tear since last last season. I'm not going to be surprised if he belts at least 50 HRs this year. I'd hate to part with that much money but I won't mind because it will probably mean the Yankees are doing very well if I do.
• Despite the 12-run outburst on Sunday I'm still concerned about the offense. Averages for the most part are going in the wrong direction. There currently isn't one .300 hitter in the bunch. That's surprising to me.

Well, I'd like to keep writing but the wife just dropped a bunch of jobs on me. I was hoping to go to bed in about a half-hour but I'm at least an hour away from sleep city. This is going to be a weird week for me. I have to travel for a training class and I'm not sure if I'll get to see much baseball in the latter half of the week. I would much rather chill in my hotel room watching the Yankees each night than having to go to dinner and all that jazz. I think I feel a cold coming on. *cough cough wink wink* I'm interested to see how the next couple of days play out. If I'm not blogging that's why.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Ivan Nova And Curtis Granderson Lead Yankees To 4-1 Win Over Rangers

I'm not sure how this post is going to turn out. I could feel myself dozing off as Mariano Rivera was picking up his 12th save of the season. Shortly after the game ended I did fall asleep for a few minutes. I have that sleepy feeling in my head and I'm getting drowsy. It's been a long week. But, I wanted to blog tonight because if I don't I know I won't tomorrow. So here goes nothing.

Outstanding job by Ivan Nova. The kid was remarkable. He definitely gets my vote for player of the game. It was the longest outing of his short career. He pitched 7.1 innings, allowed only 2 hits, walked one, struck out one, and the one run he gave up was unearned. Job well done kid. This is the 3rd straight outing where Nova has pitched extremely well. In his last 3 starts, the kid has thrown 20 IP, allowed 13 hits, 8 walks, and 4 runs, 3 of which were earned. He's dropped his ERA from 7.63 to 4.08. As the weather has gotten better so has Nova. I was most impressed today by the number of ground ball outs he had. 16 of the 22 outs he got came from the ground ball. He had it working tonight. Great job.

The Yankees offense was again kind of pathetic. There were a few exceptions but for the most part they were underwhelming. The offensive POG was Curtis Granderson. He belted 2 HRs, his 9th and 10th on the season, and knocked in 3 of the 4 Yankee runs. Curtis has been great at the dish this year. Props to Kevin Long for righting that ship. Unfortunately for my wallet he righted it too much. I made a pledge to Granderson's charity. For every HR he hits I donate $15 in his "Scoring For Schools" program. Curtis is on pace for 54 HRs, which would work out to $810. Yowza. I hope he gets that money too. It goes to a great cause and let's face it, how can I not be a fan of Curtis hitting 50+ jacks? Keep it going Curtis.

There's a bunch of negative things I could write about the offense but that could take all night. I'll save that for another day.

I really wish the Yankees would stop bunting. That would be a dream come true. Speaking of dreams I need to turn in. So very tired.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Yankees/Jays Weekend Wrap-Up

Greetings everyone. I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine, as it usually is with 3 kids in tow, was very busy. I realized that 4pm games are a horrible time for me to watch Yankees games. When it's a 1pm start, I can usually fit most of it in as that's when my kids nap. With a 7pm start I might miss the 1st hour as it's the kids' bed time. I can usually though pay half-attention to it as I get them ready. 4pm games are not my friend. The kids usually wake up from their naps around then and I can't justify ignoring them for 2.5+ hours. I sneak in little breaks and make sure to check my phone for updates but it's tough to catch it for a large chunk of time.

I didn't see much of Saturday's game which is why I didn't blog about it yesterday. I figured I'd save it for a "weekend wrap-up" post. I did catch most of the game today. I did though miss the last 2 innings as I made a trek to Best Buy to see if they could help at all with my dying laptop. They couldn't. I am though in process of hopefully fixing it. I had recovery disks and they appear to have solved the problem. So far so good. Unfortunately using recovery disks meant I wiped out the hard drive so everything on it is gone. Right now I'm installing 2 years of windows updates. I've been doing that for 2+ hours and it's on #68 of 94. Wait. why am I blogging about that? I don't write a tech support blog and that's not why you're here. My apologies. Let's talk Yankees, shall we? I am though going to keep it brief as I've got a lot to do still before calling it a day. And we're off:


Very pleased with how the series with the Jays turned out. It was nice to see the Yankees come back to win two straight to take another series. The Jays are a pesky team and always give the Yanks fits. I will never complain when the Yankees take a series.
Great start today by Ivan Nova. i don't know if it was the bad weather but he's been pretty good since the weather has gotten better. The only gripe I had was with the walks. He walked 4 and threw 60% of his pitches for strikes, which in my book is a so-so strike-to-ball ratio. But as long as he can keep the runners on base from scoring, I'm cool with it. The Jays went 0-9 with RISP today. Kudos to Nova for keeping them from scoring. But, that's a dangerous way to live. He needs to reduce the # of baserunners he allows.
It was nice to see the Yankees win Saturday without hitting any HRs.
I hope A.J. Burnett can continue pitching well now that we're out of April. As a Yankee, A.J. has made 16 starts in April and has a 9-1 record to show for it. He's 18-24 after April. I think he's going to continue to pitch well.
Curtis Granderson hit his 8th HR and I now owe him $120. Way to go Curtis.
Robbie Cano bruised his hand and left Sunday's game early. I don't think it's serious. at least I hope it's not.
Rafael Soriano hasn't given up a run in two, count 'em two, straight games. Yay.
After blowing 2 straight saves Mariano Rivers has saved 3 straight and hasn't given up a run. He's the GOAT.
Pretty good series for the bullpen. They've pitched 8.2 scoreless innings since D-Rob's little fielding snafu.
A-Rod has been struggling since missing a few games with his injury. He's 3 for his last 27 which has dropped his average 96 percentage points. Uh oh.
That about sums it up. I'm sure I'm missing something. I'm tired and I'm not 100% focused. The wife has been asking me to help her put some stuff away and I've been ignoring her to do this. Gotta run.
Peace, love and Pinstripes,
J-Boogie

Ivan Nova Shines, Rafael Soriano Doesn't, And The Yankees Bats Don't Help Anybody Out

Like last night, I don't feel like blogging much after that loss. I could cut and paste yesterday's blog into this one, change a few things, and it would work, but that would be lazy. It was a tough loss and there a plenty of things you can point to as contributing factors but the bottom line is when you don't hit you shouldn't win. Four hits isn't getting the job done. The Yankees could have won a game tonight they shouldn't have but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

I didn't get to see much of Ivan Nova's outing but I saw a little bit here and there in between doing some things around the house. I didn't need to see it to know it was the best start of his career. He looked good and for once the wheels didn't fall off in the middle innings. It was actually the longest start of his career. I'm very encouraged by it. It's too bad he didn't pick up the W.

I did find it curious that Joe Girardi left him in to pitch the 7th. Now don't take that the wrong way. I'm glad he did. It was the right call. But I'm curious why he left him in and not Freddy Garcia a few days earlier. The two had very similar outings through the first 6 innings. Here's what we know: Garcia had thrown 90 pitches thru 6, Nova 85. Nova had pitched 1 inning in the last 11 days. Garcia was virtually unhittable and was pulled with a 3-0 lead. Nova had good stuff and was left in with a 2-1 lead. Garcia is an experienced pitcher who's been there before. It was Nova's deepest start of his career. I thought that Joe should have left Garcia in to start the 7th like he did with Nova tonight. I'm curious why the change in philosophy because if anything, Garcia's situation was a little better. The only thing I can think of is age. Anybody have any thoughts?

Girardi made another curious move in the 9th when he had Curtis Granderson give himself up with no outs and Jeter, they tying run, on 1st. Based on my Twitter timeline there were very few people that were OK with the move. I was one of those OK with it. Now that's not to say I wasn't a staunch supporter of the bunt. I hate giving away outs and am not a huge fan of sac bunts to begin with. All I'm saying is I get the logic behind it. Here's my take on it: It was a lefty-lefty matchup. Granderson is his career was 2-15 vs. Thornton. Granted, Granderson has done much better vs. LHPs since last year and Thornton is struggling, but that matchup still favors Thornton in my opinion. I get why you'd want to put the tying run at 2nd with your 3, 4, and 5 hitters waiting to drive them home. There's no way to know what would have happened had Curtis had the green light to swing away. It could have been a double play. Nobody knows. If not for two unbelievable catches by Brent Lillibridge the move would have worked. Hindsight is 20-20. Bunting may not have been the right move but it wasn't a wrong move, if that makes sense. Damn you Brent Lillibridge.

Who would have guessed that the Yankees starting rotation would be a positive and the bullpen would be a negative? The Yankees rotation has been awesome over the last 5 games. Over the last 5 games the 5 SPs have combined to throw 35 innings, allowing 21 hits and 9 walks, while striking out 26 and allowing 7 ER. That works out to an ERA of 1.80 and a WHIP of 0.86. That's outstanding.

The bullpen, specifically the major players, have been scuffling over the last 3 games. We've seen 2 blown saves by Mariano Rivera. We've seen Joba gave up a 2-run HR. We've seen Rafael Soriano pitch in the last 2 games and absolutely stink up the joint. In those 2 innings he's allowed 4 hits, 2 walks, a HBP, a HR and 3 runs. Simply put that's terrible. And that's putting it nicely. Soriano has been a sore spot in the pen but I'm not ready to give up on him yet. I have some faith but it's wavering.

I was planning on writing a little more but I've been having laptop issues and I'm on a backup computer. I wasted about 20 minutes tinkering with that and in addition to being tired I've grown agitated, and I still have to iron clothes for tomorrow. So I'll leave you with this: As I mentioned above you shouldn't win if you don't hit the ball. The Yankees offense has been non-existent these last few games. Talk about no run support. You can blame the bullpen. You can blame Girardi. But none of that matters in you don't hit the ball.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

A.J. Burnett Pitches A Gem But The Yankee Bats Don't Back Him Up

What a horrible way to kick off a homestand, right? That was such a frustrating game to watch. So frustrating that I don't really want to blog about it. But being the trooper that I am, I will. But there's not really much to say.

Excellent job by A.J. Burnett. He was outstanding. It's a shame that the offense couldn't come through for him tonight. He pitched a gem and walking away with a win would have been nice. Instead he walks away a hard luck loser. A.J. threw 8 really strong innings, giving up 1 run on 3 hits and 2 walks. One could argue that the run he gave up really wasn't his fault. Carlos Quentin's double would have been a single had Curtis Granderson not dove for that ball. Missing it allowed Quentin to take 2nd. He later scored on 2 groundball outs. I can't fault Granderson too much for going for that ball. It might not have worked out but I don't see him going after it unless he thought he had a shot at making the grab. But whatever. It is what it is. It sucks that the team spoiled such a great outing by Burnett. It really is.

There isn't really much to say about the offense since there wasn't any. It sucks that are so many "easy outs" in the Yankees lineup right now. Posada @ .145. Gardner @ .136. Swisher @ .227. And to a lesser extent, Jeter @ .244. That foursome needs to start pulling their weight. It's amazing that the Yankees are 12-7 with half the lineup performing that poorly.

I still would love to know why the Yankees seem to struggle mightily against pitchers they've never faced. Is it lack of preparation? Poor scouting reports? It happens too often for it to be a coincidence. I don't get it. Anybody have any theories? Is it really not the case and it just seems that way? I'm too lazy to look it up.

Phil Hughes had a setback today. Apparently, his bullpen session didn't go too well. It sounds like it went the same as his starts, meaning that there's nothing there. The team is sending him for an MRI. I'm curious to hear about those results.

There's no reason to dwell too much on tonight's loss. I'm treating it like Mariano Rivera does with a blown save. Forget about it, move on and get them tomorrow.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Freddy Garcia Shines Again As Yankees Clip The Orioles 6-3

I'm going to start this blog by saying this will not be my best work. Today is my last day of vacation and I have to return to work tomorrow. I've had a pretty busy week off and I've somewhat tortured myself by sleeping about 5-6 hours per day. I'm in desperate need of some serious sleep and I've imposed a 9pm deadline on myself to go to bed. I've got 15 minutes and I still need to iron some clothes. So this one may be a little rushed but hopefully I'll still get my points across. Here goes nothing.

Freddy Garcia was again outstanding. 6 more shutout innings which runs his scoreless innings streak as a starter to 12. What's most impressive in the 12 innings he's thrown as a starter is that he's only allowed 4 hits and 3 walks. That works out to a WHIP of 0.58. Yes, you read that correctly. Wow. The impressive thing is that he's not doing it with overpowering stuff. He's hitting his spots. He's mixing his speeds and his pitches. He's pitching. It just goes to show that you can be successful without a blazing fastball. Phil Hughes take note. Well done Freddy.

If I were Joe Girardi I would not have pulled Freddy after 6. He was at 91 pitches and if I were running the ship he would have stayed in until he ran into trouble. The leash would have been short and I wouldn't have let him pitch the 8th. Had Girardi followed that strategy we might not have seen Joba implode in the 7th. I can understand and respect why Joe made the switch. I can't fault him for Joba stinking up the joint. As for Joba, it's the same two-step as last season. Step forward, step backwards. I want to see more consistency from Joba. I think we might see David Robertson take over the "7th inning guy" role. Rafael Soriano was unavailable today and I think it was a little telling that Joe went to D-Rob in the 8th and Joba in the 7th. Maybe I'm reading too much into that. We'll see.

Back-to-back blown saves for Mariano. I'm a little shocked but not at the same time. I think the home plate ump was inconsistent with his strike zone and he should have punched out Adam Jones. Regardless, I'm still not use to seeing Mo perform like he did in back-to-back games. As I wrote after his 1st blown save, April appears to be the month where he struggles the most. He's Mariano Rivera. There will never be any worries about him on my end. He's the man.

Props to the top of the lineup. Jeter and Granderson combined to go 7-11 with 4 RBI and 3 runs scored. Jeter picked up 4 hits and raised his average to .257 but he didn't exactly knock the cover off the ball. But hey, they all look like line drive singles in the box score. I'm hoping it's a turning point. Granderson has some serious power stroke going on. He hit HR #7 which banks another $20 for his charity. Dude is going to break me.

2 minutes 'til 9......

Bottom of the lineup was blech. Swisher 0-5. Posada 0-4. Martin 1-4. Gardner 0-5. Combine that and you've got 1-18 with 2 walks and 9 Ks, 4 of which were Gardner. Horrible. I love how Swisher tried to change up his luck by rocking the high socks and then giving up on it. With the exception if Martin, the bottom of the order has been pretty weak. But I'm a minute over my cutoff point so I'll end it there. But you guys know they're weak so we're good.

It's back to the Bronx for a 7-game homestand with the White Sox and Blue Jays. Rain rain go away. I want to see the Yankees play. Later.

9:02pm. Not bad.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Somebody Call The Baltimore Police Because The Yankees Just Murdered The Orioles

Somebody needs to call the Baltimore cops because a crime was just committed in Camden Yards. Wow. Talk about a massacre.

CC Sabathia was on cruise control tonight. Despite scoring 3 runs the Orioles couldn't really touch him. It was a very free and easy outing for CC. Had the Yankees not tore the roof of the mother in the late innings he probably would have gone the distance. It pretty much was a lights out performance. Exactly what you'd expect from the ace. Apparently, when you go winless thru your 1st 4 starts the only way to guarantee yourself the win is to take care of it yourself. CC was a man on a mission tonight. He pitched most of the game with a pitch count well below 10 pitchers per inning. His control was excellent. He threw 73.8% of his pitches for strikes, walking one and whiffing 7. Great job by the big man.

You could slice this 2 ways but you could make a case that CC is off to his best start as a Yankee. It's a close call between this year and last. Thru his 1st 5 starts this year, CC has pitched 33 IPs to a tune of a 2.73 ERA. He's allowed 31 hits and 10 walks (1.24 @WHIP), while striking out 30 and allowing 2 longballs. Last year in his 1st 5 starts, he threw 34.2 IPs with a 3.12 ERA. His WHIP was better at 1.07 (25 hits and 12 walks). He struck out 28 and allowed the same number of HRs. I know it's not a true comparison due to the many different factors between the seasons, but either way you go, he's off to a good start. It's probably a little behind last year but not by much.

The entire offense, with one exception (Nick Swisher) had at least one hit tonight. The biggest blasts came off the bats of Russell Martin (what's new?), Alex Rodriguez (what's new?), and Brett Gardner (say what?). Yeah, that last name is a surprise. BG chipped in with a double and a 2-run HR. His HR was surprising but it came at the perfect time. The O's had just intentionally plunked Martin. And I say intentionally because you don't just happen to hit 2 HRs and get hit right near the head on accident. Gardner avenged that HBP by going yard. Nothing beats that kind of retaliation. Suck on that Showalter.

What is going on with the power surge, right? The 2011 Yankees are definitely Bronx Bombers. They belted another 5, count 'em 5, HRs tonight. They've now hit 35 on the season which is a team record thru their 1st 17 games. They have 4 guys with 6 HRs a-piece (Posada, Martin, Teixeira, Granderson). The biggest surprise though is that Nick Swisher hasn't hit any. It's probably because I'm not dropping $$ to his charity this year. Granderson is getting that love and he's earning it. I was anticipating donating like $300 or so. He's on pace to take about $850 from me. Yikes. Don't quote me on this stat because I'm sure I don't have it right but Granderson has hit the 3rd most HRs in all of MLB going back to some point in August 2010. Wow. Props to Kevin Long. And not just for working his mojo on Curtis but on all of the guys. Now if only he could fix Derek Jeter. That should be his priority numero uno.

Great win tonight. The Yankees handles things on both sides of the field. They came. They saw. They murdered the Orioles. The Yankees don't have an off day until May 9th. They play 15 straight days, get an off day, and then play another 16. Baseball is in full swing. I love that.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Bartolo Colon Shines In A Game I Almost Died Trying To Get To

If you are one of my Twitter followers than you may have seen tweets about this yesterday. If not, here's a story about how I could have died yesterday. The Yankee bits and pieces will be after the story.

I don't live too far from Toronto so I usually try to make it up for at least part of every Yankees/Jays series. I'm also a big baseball memorabilia collector so I usually spend a good part of the morning and afternoon outside the team hotel trying to pick up some autographs. So yesterday, as usual, I left for Toronto at about 7:30am, with an estimated arrival time of 10:15-10:30 depending on traffic. Right from the get go my trip was off to a rough start.

We had a huge thunderstorm that night which dumped a lot of rain. I was about a half-mile or so from my house when my car wouldn't accelerate. I figured it was because rain had somehow gotten part of the engine wet or something. The same thing happened a few years back after a drove through a huge puddle at night, ironically on the way back from Toronto. I knew the problem would resolve itself as the engine heated up and dried the connectors. I had to pull to the shoulder a few times because I couldn't accelerate to the speed of traffic. As a good driver should, I put my emergency flashers on to alert other drivers. Unfortunately for me it wouldn't be the only time I would put my flashers on.

I was approaching Toronto at around 10 or so. I was driving on the QEW, roughly six miles away from the exit I use. It had been a really smooth drive with surprisingly very little traffic. Traffic had been picking up for a few miles which made sense as I got closer to the city. I expected it to really pick up at any moment because there is this one spot on the QEW where you usually run into a sea of red brake lights. For those familiar with the QEW, that spot is right where it becomes the Gardiner Expressway and has an exit for Lake Shore Blvd, right near a red and white water tower that says, Christie's. Right beyond that part of the QEW starts the outskirts of downtown Toronto. It's where there are a few high rises, condos maybe, and a hotel on the right. It's at that point where I usually run into heavy traffic. I was about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile from that point when things went awry.

I was traveling in the left lane and there was a decent amount of traffic. It was raining and there were spots of stop-and-go traffic so I wasn't traveling at a high rate of speed. I had to brake so I put my foot on the pedal, heard a pop, and the pedal dropped to the floor of the car. My brakes had gone out and I couldn't stop the car.

I was taken by surprise by what unfolded that I don't remember the exact details of how fast I was going and things like that. I couldn't have been going too fast because I was able to maneuver the car onto the left shoulder and coast the car to a stop. The flashers went on and the swear words came flying. I had no idea what to do next.

I'm going to skip the details of what I did while sitting there but in short the police, unbeknownst to me, dispatched a tow truck to the scene. I opted to have the car towed to a mechanic in hopes that the car could be fixed. Long story short, I spent seven hours waiting for my brake lines to be replaced. Final cost to fix was $315. At 6:30pm, 37 minutes before gametime, I was back on the road.

As I wrote above, the stretch of road where my brakes failed me was roughly a half-mile or so from the outskirts of downtown Toronto. Had the brakes failed me at any point beyond where I was I very well might not be here. Had I been any further than a 1/2 mile down the road from where I was I would have had no shoulder to coast on. I would have likely had no choice but to rear end someone at a much higher rate of speed. Had I left my house any later than I did I very well might not have encountered my problem until I got off the QEW at my exit. Roughly 10-15 minutes after my brakes had failed cars were passing me at a full rate of speed and they very well could have been free and clear of any traffic until the heart of downtown Toronto. Had this happened on an off ramp I would have rear ended a stopped car, run into oncoming traffic, or run head first into a concrete barrier, going at least 50mph. Lucky for me it happened when it did and how it did. I really shudder to think what might have happened had anything been different. Scary stuff.

I made it to the game just in time for first pitch but ran into a really long line waiting to buy tickets. The first piece of action I saw was Curtis Granderson rounding first on his way to a 2nd inning triple. And from there on I think you all know what happened in the game. I feel like I've been writing this post for awhile now so I'm going to briefly sum up my thoughts.

• Derek Jeter looked awful at the plate. Was very disappointed I saw him go 0-5 with 4 groundouts and 1 GIDP. He's now hitting .219. I keep expecting him to flip the switch but now I'm not sure when/if he will. I thought last year was an anomaly. Now I'm not so sure.


• Curtis Granderson is on fire. Another dinger, his 6th, which coming into today was tied for tops in the AL. I know owe his charity $90 and he's on pace to take $915 from me. I did not see this coming. I'm happy that it's happening.


• Mark Teixeira had 3 doubles and raised his average up to .259. Not bad for a guy who always struggles in April.


• Good to see A-Rod back in the lineup.


• How about that Bartolo Colon? He gets my award for player of the game. He looked really good. I'm not sure if the radar gun in the Rogers Centre was jacked up a little bit but he hit 94 MPH late in the game. Impressive. What I'm finding to be most impressive is the strikeouts. Bartolo has whiffed 20 hitters in 18 IPs. He's mowing them down. He's also pitching to a tune of a 3.50 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP. Did anybody see this coming? Well, one man might have and his name is Brian Cashman. How you like him now haters?

My day might not have gone as planned but I'm glad it ended the way it did. I spent $315 that I wasn't planning on spending. I spent the entire day stranded outside of Toronto not knowing if my car would be fixed in time to see the game or even make it home. I could have died. But seeing the Yankees play and watching them win was a nice ending to a long and crazy day. You can never go wrong with that.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Mariano Rivera Is Human In Yankees Loss That Is 100% My Fault

It doesn't happen often, but it happens. The great Mariano Rivera blew a save and the Yankees lost in extra innings. Like I said, it happens. Apparently, with Mariano, it happens more often in March and April than it does during any other point of the season. Mo's career save percentage in March/April is 84.4%. In May through October it's 90.3%. Hat tip to WFAN's Sweeney Murti for that little nugget which he shared on Twitter. Mo is human. He's going to have these kinds of outings every now and then. But as we've seen many, many times in the past, Mo bounces back and rocks the house. He rocks it long. He rocks it good. Mo is the greatest of all time.

Brett Gardner needs to get his head out of his rump shaker and start playing some baseball. He can't bunt. He can't hit. He can't steal a base. Something needs to change and whatever it is it needs to change fast.

Curtis Granderson is going to make me go broke. He hit his 5th HR and is now on pace to hit 54 HRs. At 15 bucks a pop I'm going to be dropping $810 to his charity. Hey Curtis, slow your roll would ya? Kidding. Keep banging them out of the park.

Now as I mentioned in the title of this post I'm 100% to blame for this loss. Why? Because I opened my pie-hole and put the whammy on the bullpen. During the game the Yes Network sent out a tweet asking for thoughts on the Yankees' bullpen. My reply: "If a starter can go six and leave the game with the lead the game is over. The bridge to Mariano is as solid as it's ever been." Ooops. Yeah, I should have known not to do that. This one is totally on me. My e-mail address is in the upper corner of the blog if you want to send hate mail.

I've got a few more things to say but I'm going to cut this one short. I'm headed to Toronto in the morning and I want to get some sleep. I'm going to the game and also going to do a little autograph hounding. Maybe I'll run into my new BFF Russell Martin. How cool is it that he posted a link to the blog I wrote about him yesterday on his Facebook wall and also retweeted it? Very cool and very appreciated. The blog has never had so many page hits in one day. Thanks Russell.

Not sure I'll be around tomorrow to blog. Also not sure about tweeting. When I was in Toronto last year there was no wifi access at the Rogers Centre. I may tweet via text but I won't be able to see or respond to tweets without wifi. I hope everyone enjoys the game and I'll try to bring back a win and hopefully atone for my stupid comment today. What was I thinking?

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

The Bronx Bombing Continues As The Yankees Down The Rangers 6-5

I'm having some serious writer's block right now. I don't know if it's caused by lack of sleep or what, but I'm blanking on how to open this post. I just let out a huge yawn so it's probably due to a need for sleep. I'm going to try and keep this post short and sweet. Whenever I say that I end up writing a book. Let's see how this goes. Hope it's coherent.

It was a great come from behind win tonight against the Rangers. CC Sabathia wasn't sharp but he pitched well enough to leave with the lead. He battled his way through 6.1 IP and was in line to pick up his 1st win of the season when Joba blew the save. I wrote yesterday that my confidence in Joba was increasing. Today he took 2 steps backwards in that department.

Despite blowing the lead, the "formula" of using Joba, Rafael Soriano, and Mariano Rivera to close the game worked out. Those 3 make up quite the tandem, don't they? Just imagine if Joba and Soriano could be more consistent like Mo.

Man, how good is Mo? It truly is a gift to watch him pitch, isn't it? I have never laughed out loud watching Mo strike out a hitter but I did tonight. He made Ian Kinsler look absolutely stupid. And when I say stupid, I mean stoopid. That was unreal. Vintage Mo. Now in case you didn't know this, Mo's 1-2-3 inning tonight dropped his career WHIP to 0.9997. It's unreal to think that Mo has a career WHIP below 1. It seems like he's getting better and better as he gets older. If only he'd sign a lifetime contract. Somebody make that happen.

This year's offense is definitely worthy of the Bronx Bombers moniker. Three more HRs tonight, which puts the team total at 27 thru 13 games. There was a stat flashed during the ESPN broadcast that the Yankees have scored 61.1% of their runs via the longball. Five of the six runs tonight came off the HR so that percentage went up. The crazy thing about that stat is that it's almost double the league average. Unreal. Now, I don't know why people make such a big deal about them scoring so many runs via the HR. Last time I checked HRs were a part of baseball. Who cares how the runs score as long as they score?

Curtis Granderson is going to ruin me financially. I pledged to donate $15 to his charity for every HR he hit. Curtis is on pace to hit about 50 HRs. That'll cost me about $750. I'd be happy to pay it.

How smart does Brian Cashman look right now? All of his "scrap heap rejects" are doing rather well for the Yankees. And the "rejects" I'm referring to are Eric Chavez, Andruw Jones, Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia. Tonight it was Chavez's turn to do his part. He made a few slick plays at 3rd but the big moment came in the 8th when he singled home the game-winner. EC is swinging a sweet stick so far. His 2 hits tonight raised his average to .467. Granted 15 ABs a small sample size but he's already paying dividends, on both sides of the field.

I'd end the post here but I again want to give a little praise to Brian Cashman. Eric Chavez is hitting .467. Andruw Jones is hitting .333. Freddy Garcia pitched 6 shutout innings in his first start. Bartolo Colon has been more than effective on the hill. Heck, if you want, add in Russell Martin. Russell Russ has been a huge surprise for the Bombers. He's now hitting .289, has 4 HRs and 11 RBI. Boom. Let's even take this one step further. Cashman spoke publicly about not wanting to sign Rafael Soriano. Sori isn't exactly lighting the world on fire. Point Cashman. Show him some love haters. He deserves it.

Off day tomorrow. Correction, the clock just flipped to midnight so off day today. Next stop, Toronto. Toronto is basically in my backyard. I've got something going on Tuesday so I won't be making it up there for the series opener but as of now, I'm going to Wednesday. Can't. Freaking. Wait.

That was not short and sweet.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Double Plays, Walks And Wild Pitches Do In Yankees

The Yankees lost what I think was a very winnable ball game tonight. It was frustrating to watch and there really isn't a whole lot to say about it. It was a sloppy game to say the least.

The Yankees tied a record tonight and unfortunately that's not good. They grounded into 6, count 'em 6, double plays. Talk about rally killers. Hat tip to Matt Harrison for inducing so many DPs. If you can induce that many you're doing something right.

Ivan Nova was well, Ivan Nova. Did alright early but then the wheels fell off around the 5th inning, which pretty much happens in most of his starts. I didn't think he started too poorly but popular opinion said he was a little less than decent. In his 4.1 innings he allowed 4 hits, 5 walks, 1 HBP and a wild pitch. That's not going to get it done. Nova needs to be better, much better.

I'm a little concerned about the Yankees rotation. Phil Hughes hasn't been effective at all and is now on the DL with a dead arm. I didn't know ineffectiveness was a reason to DL a guy. Everyone has maintained Phil's not hurt so I'm not sure how they pulled that off, but whatever, it works. Phil's DL stint means Bartolo Colon now moves into the rotation. That's a move I'm a fan of. Bartolo has pitched well this season and he can easily slide into the starter role. But I'm not sold on him just yet. And we haven't even seen Freddy Garcia yet. Right now the Yankees have 2 reliable SPs and that's all dependent on A.J. Burnett continuing to pitch well. I have confidence in CC Sabathia and that's about it. I'm worried about everybody else, to varying degrees.

The positive tonight was the bullpen. 4.2 innings of hitless/scoreless ball. The highlight was the debut of Lance Pendleton. He faced 9 batters and retired them all. The kid looked good and I was impressed. But it's 3 innings. I'm not ready to crown him the second coming of Mariano Rivera just yet. Who am I kidding? There will never be a second coming of Mariano Rivera. Best there is, was, and ever will be. He's God.

Congrats to Curtis Granderson for hitting his 3rd HR and banking another $20 for his charity. I think we're up to $65. At this rate Curtis is going to break my bank. He's on pace to take $600+ from me. If anyone is wondering what I'm talking about, every time Curtis goes deep, I donate $$$ to his charity, the Grand Kids Foundation. If you're interested in donating along with me, please feel free to do so. If you're ever curious about how much is getting donated, just check out the total in the upper left. To learn more about the "pledge drive" click here.

The Red Sox just lost, again. They're now 2-10. Talk about pathetic. Wow. They're terrible.

Freddy Garcia makes his first start of the season tomorrow. There's rain in the forecast. Wouldn't that be something if he got skipped again? Weather is supposed to be bad so it could happen. 1:05pm start. Hope they play.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

An Open Letter To The Yankees Offense

Dear Yankees Offense,

Please start hitting the ball.

Sincerely,

Yankee fans everywhere

Seriously, outside of Cano, A-Rod, and Russell Martin, nobody is really hitting. Take a look:

Swisher = .219
Jeter = .206
Teixeira = .182
Granderson = .172
Gardner = .167
Posada = .138

Two-thirds of the Yankees lineup is hitting under .219. You're not going to win a lot of games when you hit like that. Just ask the Rays and Red Sox. Burn.

I've seen a lot of talk about Derek Jeter and his offensive struggles. I think a lot of that criticism is a little underserved. I could understand it if he was the only one scuffling but if you look at their numbers; he's doing better than 1/2 the lineup. But DJ has kind of brought this on himself. He didn't exactly light the world on fire last season. The concerns are very valid. But it's early. They'll all snap out of it.

Wake up bats.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Curtis Granderson's Bat And Glove Propel Yankees To Opening Day Win

Happy Opening Day Yankees fans! I'm sure I can speak for all of us when I say that today was a truly awesome day. Baseball is back. The Yankees won. All is right with the world.

As I do every year I took time off from work to watch the opener. I got together with a couple of buddies at a local watering hole for the game. You can't go wrong with beer, burgers and baseball.

The Yankees didn't play their best baseball today and quite frankly I didn't expect them to. I was pleased with what I saw and what I saw was good enough for the win. CC Sabathia was far from mid-season form but he was effective. Things could have got real bad real fast there in the 2nd inning when CC loaded the bases with no outs. But like a good pitcher does he got out of the jam with little damage. Overall a very solid 1st outing for CC. The big man usually gets better as the weather gets better. If that holds true, based on today's start he's going to have one heck of a year.

Great job by the Yankee bullpen. I guess we know now how Girardi is going to play it. It looks like the blueprint is Joba or David Robertson in the 6th/7th, Soriano in the 8th, and the great one to bring it home. My buddies and I were a little nervous when Joba took the mound. He kind of looks like a fat Sergio Mitre, doesn't he? Am I the only one who thinks that? Anyway, he had a solid inning. Half of us were expecting a meltdown. Joba has a lot of work to do to earn back our faith in him. Today was a step in that direction. I think Rafael Soriano is going to have a lights out year. He looked pretty sharp today. He could represent the most solid bridge to Mariano Rivera that we've seen in awhile. Speaking of the great one he's still the man. As if there was any doubt. I can't think of a better way to end the home opener than with Mo picking up the save.

It was good to see Mark Teixeira get off to a good start. Hopefully he can keep it up. I'm cautiously optimistic that he can. Pretty good day for A-Rod. On base 3 of 4 times and he came a few feet from going to deep. You know things are working for Alex when he hits the ball with power to right CF. I thought for sure that ball was gone and on a better day weather-wise it probably would have been. My only criticism of A-Rod is that he should have been busting it out of the box on that shot. He should have been standing on 3rd.

I think the biggest surprise today was the play of Russell Martin. I was shocked when he stole 3rd. I was more shocked when he scored from 3rd on a shallow sac fly. Who knew the dude had such wheels? He was quite the catalyst today.

Player of the game honors goes to Curtis Granderson. He came through with the big swing and picked up $20 for his charity. Allow me to explain: like I did last year with Nick Swisher's charity, I'm donating $ to Granderson's Grand Kids Foundation every time he goes deep. $15 per HR. Others have joined in to donate as well. You can check our progress in the upper left and if you want to chip in you're more than welcome. CG was also pretty slick in the field too. I thought there was no way that he was getting that ball that was hit over his head. He definitely had the best day in my opinion. Looks like his oblique is fine. Thank God and knock on wood.

Overall a great day. A great win. 1 down, 161 to go. I really wish there was a game tomorrow. I'm kind of bummed there's not. Oh well. There's a lot more baseball left to be played. Giggedy giggedy giggedy.

Did I just write my 3rd post in 3 days? Yeah, I think I did. Wow.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Doing It For The "Grand Kids"

Hey everyone. We're less than 2 days away from the start of the 2011 MLB season. I can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday the 2010 season ended. Time certainly does fly. Thank God for that. I must again apologize for my long absence. I'm finding it very tough to find the time to blog with 3 little ones at home. It's very tough. Now that the season is starting I hope to ramp it up a little more. Which brings me to this.....


Some of you may remember from last year that I tried to organize a Yankee fan fundraiser to benefit Nick Swisher's charity, Swishes Wishes. In short, every time Nick hit a home run, we added money to his total. 12 of us combined to donate $41 for every HR, with a little extra thrown in. If everyone lived up to their pledge and sent in their donation (it was on the honor system) then his charity received $1249. Not too shabby. I want to do the same thing this year for Curtis Granderson's Grand Kids Foundation.


Per the site, donations to the Grand Kids Foundation will go towards grants to schools nationwide to help fund educational field trips, art initiatives, science initiatives and the increasing need for foreign language software. The foundation also supports inner city baseball programs through equipment donations. Seems like a great cause.


If you want to contribute, please let me know. I'm going to again track the overall amount on the blog and I'd love to add all pledge amounts to the total (see upper left of blog). I encourage you to participate as it's for a good cause, but no one should feel as if they have to. the more the merrier. I also have no part in collecting any money. It's on the honor system. I am just spreading the word and drumming up support.


My pledge is this: For every HR Curtis hits I will donate $15 to his charity.


I'm looking to donate about $300-400 to his charity. He hit 24 bombs last year so that would have resulted in a $360 donation. Nobody should feel they have to match me. Last year we had people pledge $3 per HR. No amount is too small. If anyone wants to make a pledge, which again you'll be responsible for sending in, please let me know. Just drop me a comment, a tweet, or shoot me an e-mail (see upper left). Again, the more the merrier and no amount is too small.


Thanks in advance. I appreciate it.


Peace, love & Pinstripes,


J-Boogie

Yankees Take Game 5 To Stay Alive, ALCS Heads Back To Texas

If you're a Yankee fan, or a Yankee for the matter, you have to be relieved that the Yankees won today and will live to fight another day. Elimination games are always tough and extremely tense. I wonder who it's more tense for, the players or the fans? I, for one, was extremely nervous even though I was confident that they'd pull out the W. I think it was more tense than normal because I didn't get to see much of it on TV. I caught most of it on the radio and some of it on the MLB app on my phone. I've got to say there is nothing as nerve-racking as following along with MLB gameday. But more on that later.

Big up to CC Sabathia for battling his way through that start. It could have been an ugly game. It's not often you see a pitcher give up 11 hits and only 2 runs. CC made the pitches that he needed to when he needed to. He didn't issue any walks and he got some big DPs. That combination will definitely neutralize a lot of baserunners. It definitely wasn't his sharpest outing but it got the job done. I hope his next start is better than this one. Yeah, I'm confident we'll see him get the ball again. But more on that later.

The Yankees offense wasn't anything to brag about today. They weren't bad. They were definitely better than they've been recently. But it still felt off. But only a little. When they hit the ball they hit it well, racking up 9 hits, 6 of which went for extra bases. But they were 2-11 with RISP. They're not getting the big hits. I'm hoping today is a building block for game 6. Bottom line for me is they need to improve. Great job by Granderson. Ever since he worked with Kevin Long he's been doing fairly decent against the LHPs. The Yankees MVP of this series has to be Robbie Cano. If they pull this off he's a shoe-in for MVP. I'm liking him in the 3-hole too.

Great job by Kerry Wood and Mariano Rivera. I turned the game on just in time to see Wood pick off Elvis Andrus. That made me very happy to see. I don't know what it is about Andrus but he's quickly becoming my least favorite player in MLB. I think it's because I find the whole "antler" thing to be beyond stupid. Just looking at him kind of annoys me. I took great pleasure in seeing Yankee fans mocking the antlers when TBS went to commercial after that pickoff. So glad I caught that. Who knew Kerry Wood was so adept at picking off runners?

So the series is headed back to Texas and the Yankees have another must-win game staring them in the face. As I wrote yesterday they need to worry about game 6 and only game 6. Phil Hughes gets the start and I feel pretty about it. I wrote before the series started that I thought the Yankees had the advantage in the games Hughes started against Colby Lewis. Despite Phil's terrible game 2 start I still think the matchup favors the Yankees. Hughes is better than that and I think he's going to pitch with a lot of confidence in game 6. The real worry is will the Yankee bats be able to hit Lewis? They should be able to and I think they will. Can't wait until Friday.

When I got home from work today my wife immediately sent back out to go pick up some prescriptions for our 2 sick boys. I could listen to the radio on the way there but inside the store I was relying on MLB's app to keep me informed. I had the "gamecast" on while I was filling the order and "saw" Sabathia whiff Vlad Guerrerro. I then took a seat and while I waited I turned on the WCBS feed to listen to John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman. I turned it on and was greeted with 3 straight singles. Being the superstitious guy that I am I turned off the audio and went back to the gamecast. Bases loaded and 1 out and I'm following along on gamecast. That was incredibly tense. First of all, when you don't have picture or sound and you're not getting updates you have no idea what's happening. You wait anxiously for it to tell you the result of the pitch. So with bases loaded and 1 out I get this, "in play, run(s)." So now I'm anxiously awaiting the update to tell me what happened. I'm having thoughts like, "please don't be a grand slam," "aw man here it comes," and other thoughts of that nature. So I wait, and wait, and wait. Give me the update already. What's going on? Tell me!! Ground out, run scores. Phew. Incredibly tense. Thankfully, they filled the order right after that and I got out of there and back to the car. I don't think I could have taken much more of that.

Game 6 is Friday. Let's worry about that and not loom ahead to Cliff Lee. One game at a time. Win and then worry about game 7. Can't wait until Friday.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

A.J. Pitches Well But Yankees Get Blown Out Anyway, It's Do Or Die Time

Aargh. I'm not sure I even want to blog at this point. These games are getting more and more painful to watch. It seems like there is no fight in this dog. They get on the verge of breaking things open and they flounder. The game is close and then the pitching implodes. Same story, different night, same outcome. Their backs are against the wall. They need to pick themselves up off the ground, shake off the cobwebs, and figure out how to get this done. Where's the heart? Where's the fire? They need to find it and they need to find it fast.

Before getting into my game thoughts I'll start with my little sliver of positivity. I'm still not giving up on this team. They've got what it takes to pull this off. They've done it before. They can do it again. They need to take it one game at a time. As I stated in my last entry, CC, Phil, and Andy can rattle off 3 straight. It can be done. But the way this team is playing, they're making it hard to believe.

I thought A.J. pitched a good game and I still believe it was the right call having him start tonight. He gave the team enough and if not for the mistake to Molina, this could have had a different ending. I don't put the Molina HR solely on A.J. though. They never should have walked Moreland to get to Molina. Those IBBs never work out. Fault Joe Girardi and his stupid binder for that one. It's also fair to ask if Burnett should have even been out there to face Molina.

Girardi is having a rough series at the helm. Pretty much every decision he has made has backfired on him. Walking Moreland. Leaving A.J. out there. Bringing in Logan to face Hamilton (twice)--I guess it didn't matter who he brought in. J-Ham has toasted everybody. Bringing in Robertson yesterday. Mitre tonight. It's tough to like the guy right now. He goes too by the book for my taste.

Back to Burnett for a second. A blogged earlier today that the keys to victory were: A.J. not walking anybody, A.J. not hitting anybody, and A.J. not throwing any wild pitches. The 1st 2 runs he allowed came from exactly those 3 things. Funny how that worked out.

What the freak happened to the Yankees offense? Holy RISP-fails Batman! They've had a lot of chances this series to score some runs and by and large have come up empty. Pop outs. Strikeouts. Double plays. If there's a way to kill a rally the Yankees have done it. The 8th inning tonight was the perfect example. Down 4, bases loaded and 1 out. Weak fly out by Swisher and then Berkman with the inning ending ground out.

The only ones hitting are Jeter (.278) and Cano (.467). Two guys unfortunately can't carry the rest. Granderson (.182), Teixeira (.000), A-Rod (.133), and everyone's favorite "Rally Killer" Nick Swisher (.067) need to step it up. Unfortunately, the Yankees are probably going to have to make their postseason run without Mark Teixeira. He appears to be out indefinitely with a hamstring injury. Nothing confirmed but it didn't look good. He won't be returning. Hopefully the rest of the bats show up for game 5 and beyond.

I really hope the Yankees pull off a win in game 5. I'd hate to miss the final game of the season. I'll be at work for the start of the game and at my 3-year old son's "Sports Explorers" program from 6-7. I'd love to bail on that but I don't want the little guy of the fun he has. I'm confident that CC will pitch them to victory. Like I said, they need to take it one game at a time. Don't look down the road. Win and then worry about the next one. Everyone should be confident that they can. Even though it should be, and even though it feels like it, it ain't over yet.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

The Grandyman Delivers In A Big Way

Big win for the Yankees tonight. It wasn't the prettiest of wins but it's a win nonetheless. I'm going to keep this short and sweet tonight because, well, it's past my bedtime. Sorry, need my beauty sleep.

Curtis Granderson came up big tonight. He saved the bullpen's bacon.

I asked this before and still need to know the answer: why is Chad Gaudin pitching in close games?

Mariano Rivera is starting to scare me, but only a little.

The lead in the East is now 1.5 games and the magic # to clinch a playoff spot is down to 5. If I were a Red Sox fan I'd be pulling for a Yankees sweep. But for the most part they're a stupid breed. Not all of them are dumb but I'll bet more than half probably won't realize it's in their best interests to have the Yankees sweep this series.

The Steinbrenner tribute was well done. What better way to cap it off than with a W. RIP Boss.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

CC Dominates & Leads Yankees To 4-Game Sweep Of A's

Didn't get to see the game today but followed along at work as best I could. CC Sabathia is the man. What a dominant performance. I didn't need to see the game to know that. Anytime you throw a 1-hitter over 8 innings you dominate. It was probably his best start of the season. The win puts him at 19 wins for the season and with at least 5 starts left you have to figure that winning 20 is inevitable. If he keeps pitching the way he's been pitching (15-2 in last 18 starts) winning 24 games is certainly possible. Great googily moogily. Going into the last month of the season CC has to be the favorite to win the AL Cy Young. I do have 2 questions for everyone: 1)Anybody think CC isn't worth every penny he's getting from the Yankees? 2)Anybody think CC will opt-out of his contract after next season? If you answered "yes" to either of those questions I think you need to get your head examined. He's 38-13 (.745) in 63 starts as a Yankee. He's won a World Series ring and is poised to win another. No chance he leaves.

Nice day at the plate for Granderson. I heard the 2nd HR. I stopped someone talking to me in mid-sentence so I could hear it on the radio as Sterling made the call. I hope that Nick Swisher's knee injury isn't too serious. I'd hate to see him miss some time.

Other than that I don't have much to say. I kind of like that it was a day game today even though I couldn't watch it. I'm dead tired and might be able to hit the sheets at my self-imposed bed time of 10pm. I struggle to stay on track at night. The magic # to clinch a playoff spot is now 21. Hopefully tonight the Red Sox lose and it drops to 20. It's going to be fun watching that number drop over the next few weeks. October baseball in the Bronx. Gotta love it.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie