Hughes Dominates, A-Rod Finds His Stroke, And Girardi Is Still A Bonehead

The answer is awesome. But what's the question? Is it, a)in a word describe Phil Hughes's outing today against the Rangers. Or is it, b)in a word describe A-Rod's day at the plate? Or could it be, c)in a word describe today's Yankees/Rangers game. If you answered d)all of the above then you my friend, are a genius. Phil Hughes = awesome. A-Rod = awesome. Yankees = awesome. If only all tests in life were that easy.

I'm glad today's game wasn't close. It didn't give Joe Girardi much of a chance to screw it up. Judging from the comments I got yesterday (thanks guys), everyone seemed to share my opinion for the most part. I've cooled down a little bit. I don't necessarily think Joe needs to be shown the door at this exact moment, but he needs to be put on notice. He's making some pretty boneheaded moves. You could argue taking the bat out of Melky's hands for 2 pitches was a factor in them losing yesterday. I think it definitely played a part. How big of a part we'll never know. I always thought if Girardi as a really smart baseball guy. Not anymore. Not after the last 2 games of that homestand. I really hope someone questioned him on that call.

A-Rod had a monster day at the plate. He entered the day hitting .189, with 7 of his 10 hits being HRs. His 5-for-5 performance today raised that average 70 percentage points. Talk about being locked in. This should be a huge confidence booster for Alex. I know one huge game out of 17 isn't enough to go on, but he looked real good at the plate today. The only thing that's been missing this year for Alex was his timing. That wasn't a problem today. I don't see it being a problem from here on out.

Phil Hughes was outstanding today. If only he could pitch all of his games in Texas, right? In 2 career starts, Phil has thrown 14.1 IPs, allowing only 3 hits and 4 walks, while striking out 12 and allowing no runs. That's pretty damn impressive considering how hitter-friendly the Ballpark in Arlington is. He very well could have thrown a no-hitter in his first start there if not for getting injured. Phil looked great today. He was ahead of most batters, threw 65% of his pitchers for strikes, and only walked one. Frequent readers of this blog know I'm a big Hughes guy. Always have been, always will be. I've said it before and I'll say it again, in the long run he'll prove to be a better starter than Joba. I really he think he will be. Hughes has had a pretty solid year so far. He's now made 6 starts and only one has been bad. In his other 5, he's thrown 28 IPs and has allowed 24 hits, 12 walks and has struck out 25. He's gotten much better with the walks over the last 2 starts, allowing only 2 in 13 IPs. Roll those starts together and you've got a guy who's 3-1 and a 2.89 ERA. Not too shabby. The only think I want to see him improve on is his pitch count. He hasn't always been economical with his pitches. I hope he takes his start today and puts it into his memory bank. Draw from the experience and remember how you got things done. He's definitely earned another start in my book. Too bad Joe Girardi is running things. Who knows what he'll do?

Overall today's game was excellent. They got outstanding performances on both sides of the plate. Every Yankee that stepped up to the plate picked up a hit. Yes, even Nick Swisher. For those keeping track at home, that's 8 hits this month for Nicky Swish. In May, Swisher is hitting 8 for 65 (.123) with 1 2B, 2 HR, 8 RBI (3 of which were from today), 14 BB, and 24 Ks. Let's compare that to the other option the Yankees have right now, Brett Gardner. In limited action, Brett is 10 for 32 (.313) with 1 2B, 2 3B, 2 HRs, 4 RBI, 6 BB and 2 Ks. Now I'm not saying it's time to give the everyday CF job to Gardner (while moving Melky to RF), but it's worth looking at. It would definitely make the Yankees better defensively and it would arguably make them better offensively also. Sure Swisher walks a lot more, but you'd think he'd score more than 5 times. Gardner has 8 runs under his belt this month. I'd expect BG to score more hitting at the bottom of the order with the top of the order driving him in more often that the bottom of the order driving in Swisher. Again, I'm not saying they should make the move, but if they don't, they should at least consider moving Swisher down in the order to take advantage of his high OBP. He's not exactly driving in the runs. But again, it's Girardi we're talking about here. WWJD? What would Joe do? My money is on the wrong things.

It's JC in the place to be tomorrow. Go get 'em Justin.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Fire Joe Girardi Right Now

All I have to say is thank God that Melky Cabrera didn't successfully lay down a sac bunt. As soon as I saw him square up on the 1st pitch I started screaming for Girardi's head. When he squared up again after Ramiro Pena's successful steal of 2nd I was even more livid. My wife thought I was going to blow a gasket I was so ticked. I would have been beyond pissed if it didn't end up working out the way it did. If Melky makes an out, game is likely over.

I understand the goal is to get the guy into scoring position so they could try to tie the game. I get that. And most of the time I'd be fine with the sac bunt. But not when the next 2 hitters are Hideki Matsui and Nick Swisher (a move I correctly predicted in advance). Matsui and Swisher are not delivering right now, plain and simple. It would have been stupid to take the bat out of one of your team's hottest hitters and put it in the hands of 2 of your coldest. What did those two do when they had their shot? Matsui whiffed and Swisher grounded out weakly to first. I didn't see that coming. It was a stupid move to have Melky try that in that exact situation.

Girardi made pretty much the same call yesterday and even though it worked out, it doesn't mean it was the right call. I wrote about that yesterday. It was a stupid move yesterday. It was a stupid move today. I really have to question Girardi on this. He's done some stupid thing before but I think this takes the "pie." I'm curious to know if I'm the only one feeling this way. Anybody care to chime in?

Mo just pitched a scoreless 10th. The top of the Yankee order is due up. Anybody in the mood for some pie??

J-Boogie

Never Say Die, Show Me The Pie

One word: wow! The Yankees win another exciting game in their final at bat. Today's win is the 4th walkoff win this homestand. I love it. Best of all, both the Red Sox (suck it Johnny) and the Blue Jays lost. The Yankees have won 10 of their last 11 and are now tied for 2nd with the Red Sox, and only a half game out of first. Things are good right now in the Yankees Universe. Things are very good. Question: Name the only AL team that has a winning record both at home and on the road? Better question: Name the only with a winning record on the road? If I have to tell you the answer, you shouldn't be here.

I'm pretty exhausted right now so I'm going to write this post a little differently than I normally do. The 2 kids are running me ragged and sleep is hard to come by. It's my own fault, so don't feel sorry for me. I'm a night owl. I like to stay up late (midnight - 1am), even though I know full well that I'm going to have to get up between 6-7 when my 21 month old wakes up. I put a self-imposed bedtime on myself tonight and it's coming up in about 15 minutes. So here goes:

Mark Teixeira: Another multi-hit game! That makes 8 this month, 6 of which have come in the last 10 games. I think it's safe to say that his slump is gone. It's long gone.

A-Rod: He has 10 hits this season. 7 are HRs. Alex has come up huge this season with 2 clutch dingers. His average may be crap but he's kicking some ass. He's going to have a monster year.

Nicky Swish: Hit the freaking ball already. You have 7 hits this month. Brett Gardner has 8. My love affair with you is rapidly coming to an end. Swisher has struck out 43 times in 42 games. Which brings me to.....

Joe Girardi: I don't understand why they had Melky lay a sac bunt with no outs and a runner on 2nd? You're giving up an out and relying on Swisher (who Ks a lot and isn't hitting) to get the runner home from 3rd with 1 out. I didn't get that. Sure it worked out, but the odds were against it. I thought it was a head scratcher.

T-minus 5 minutes til bedtime....

Melky: Way to come through, again. I'm not your biggest fan, far from it, but you're earning that playing time. Maybe you can be more than a 4th or 5th OF.

Phil Coke- Stop pointing to the sky on deep fly balls.

Andy Pettitte - When I looked at Andy's final line I was surprised to see he only walked 2. Andy threw a lot of balls. Despite that, he pitched a pretty decent game, making one mistake to John Mayberry. Which brings me to...

Fox: Nice job finding the "real John Mayberry." Classic.

I'm 1 minute past my deadline. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's game. CC vs Cole Hamels. CC has been getting progressively better. His ERA has gone down after each of his last 3 starts. I really want to see him end this homestand on a really high note. Win the game, take the series, and hopefully move into sole possession of 1st place. And just like that, it's 6 minutes past 11. I suck at this.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

All Good Things Must Come To An End

I knew the Yanks were in for a rough night when Jimmy Rollins went yard on the first pitch of the game. I just had that feeling. It would have been nice to run the winning streak to ten, but as they say, all good things must come to an end.

Speaking of all good things coming to an end, I unfortunately think Chien-Ming Wang's best days are behind him. I really hope I'm wrong on that, but his return tonight didn't encourage me. Now I'm not saying he won't win 13-15 games, but the days of 19-win seasons are gone. Sure he lowered his ERA 9.5 points, but he still allowed 6 hits and 2 ER in 3 innings of work. His strike-to-ball ratio was so-so and his night would have been a lot worse had Robbie Cano not made a great play on the double play to end the 8th. Wang needed to come in and keep the Yanks in the ball game. A 4-run deficit in Yankee Stadium can be wiped out pretty easily. A 6-run deficit is a different animal. I really hope Wang can figure things out.

I thought A.J. Burnett pitched a decent game. Not bad, not good. The Stadium wasn't kind to him tonight. Holy long balls Batman. I'm really starting to hate the new ballpark, purely because of all the HRs that are hit. I know that the Yanks will benefit from it too, but I still don't like it. But I didn't think Burnett was bad. He kept the team in the game for the most part. All you can do on a night like tonight is hope your offense can bail you out. He left down 4 which isn't insurmountable. But he's definitely got to be better than he was. A.J. is now winless in his last 7 starts. Carl Pavano has more wins than Burnett. Writing that makes me sick.

Another 2-hit game for Mark Teixeira. His average is up to .257. It's crazy to think he was under 200 about a week and a half ago. He's raised his average 66 points in the last 10 games. Tex has 148 ABs this year. Last year after 150 ABs, Tex was hitting .240 with an OPS of .733. He finished the season with a .308 average and an OPS of .962. It's hard to believe he's ahead of last year. I'm impressed.

The bottom of the order (5-9) went 2 for 19. That won't win a team many games. Nick Swisher's average continues to free fall. He's pretty much the polar opposite of Mark Teixeira except that Swisher's downward spiral has lasted all month. He had 6 hits in the last 4 games of April. He has 7 hits in the month of May. Swish is 7 for 57 since 5/1. His .123 average in May has lowered his average from .312 to .238. I still prefer Swisher to Nady but if Swisher keeps this up, and the back of his baseball card suggests he will, then I hope Nady comes back soon. Heck, even Brett Gardner has as many hits as Swisher does this month. That's sad.

The night wasn't a total loss though as both the Red Sox and Jays lost. So no harm, no foul.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

And The Bus Just Keeps On Rolling

Another game, another Yankee victory. The winning streak is at 8 and everything is working well. Well, almost everything. A-Rod's batting average is still below the Mendoza line. His 1.006 OPS though is 39 percentage points above his career average. Alex only has 37 ABs under his belt. He has 7 hits, 5 of which are HRs. It's going to be scary when he starts hitting the ball. the good thing about Alex is that he's providing protection for Mark Teixieira. I don't think it's a coincidence that Teixeira breaking out of his slump coincided with A-Rod's return. I also don't think it's a coincidence that the Yankees are 10-2 since A-Rod's return. I would love to know where the team would be if A-Rod started the year healthy. First place in the East? Without a doubt. But he didn't start the year healthy and thus they're 2.5 back, 1 in the loss column. We're sitting pretty if you ask me.

Big up to Phil Hughes for a great start. Odds are said this was Phil's last start for a while as Chien-Ming Wang will probably make the next start. Not a bad way to end things, eh? Phil for the most part was dealing. He set a career high for Ks, whiffing 9. The biggest thing I liked about his performance was that he only walked one and threw 64% of his pitches for strikes. It was his highest strike-to-ball ratio of the season. The only other time he was over 60% was when he got shelled for 8 runs in 1.2 innings. The difference this time was he got a lot more people to swing and miss. He was ahead in the count a lot which makes things much better for the pitcher. I want to see him build on this. He's got the stuff to dominate. One day he'll be a permanent staple of the Yankees rotation. For my money, he'll be better than Joba.

Back-to-back-to-back. When things are going well, stuff like that is going to happen. The offense is doing much better as of late. Over the last 8 games, they're hitting 23 for 66 (.348) with RISP. They're 11 for 22 with RISP over the last 3 games. Nice. Very nice.

I'm loving this team right now. The best part of all of it is the team chemistry. As a Yankee fan, I don't ever thing I've seen a guy get a post game pie in the face. I love it. Yesterday, the team held its first Kangaroo Court since at least 1995. If you question just how good the team chemistry is, read the article. It's awesome and is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

Joba tonight. Big question is what does he do with Aubrey Huff? I'm hoping he doesn't do anything. Sure Huff's display of emotion was contrived, whereas Joba's fist pumps are more spur-of-the-moment and are genuine, but it's not needed. Take care of him by striking his ass out. That's what I'd like to see, but sadly, I'll miss it. The game is again on My9 and those games aren't carried on Verizon FIOS. I don't think they're carried at all in the Buffalo market. The channel that normally carries the games sold its station to a religious outfit and I think they started showing their 24-7 religious programming just the other day. So all of Buffalo should be screwed. Hopefully another affiliate in the area picks it up. I need my My9!

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

CC On Cruise Control As Yanks Hammer The O's

I didn't see the game tonight (stupid FIOS) but I am very pleased with the box score. I was following along by watching the MLB Network. I love their nightly coverage of baseball. You really can't beat it. Anyway, as the game progressed, I couldn't help but think about the closing of my last post:

I'm a little worried that the offense will go missing because they're facing someone they've never faced before, and they often struggle when that happens. Good news is CC Sabathia is on the mound for the Yanks. If there is anyone that can keep a struggling offense in a game it's CC. CC was awesome in his last 2 starts, winning both games, and allowing only 2 ERs in 17 innings. He pitched a CG SHO 2 starts ago against this same Orioles team. I'm expecting him to continue his hot streak.

For the most part, I pretty much nailed it. With the exception of A-Rod's 1st inning HR (4 straight games baby!), Bergesen pretty much shut the Yankees offense down. And what did CC do? He just pitched another gem. 7 innings, 3 hits, 1 run, 1 walk and 7 Ks. Again, I didn't see the game so I'm not sure how sharp he looked, but going by that line, he must have had another great outing (3 straight games baby!). I just looked at the game log. He allowed hits to the 1st 2 batters he faced and then was pretty much perfect. CC = awesome! 3 games, 24 IPs, 12 hits, 3 ER, a 1.13 ERA. Yeah. That's awesome.

That makes 7 straight for the Yanks. The Red Sox beat the Jays and the Yanks are now only 2 back in the loss column. The Jays are finally getting into some stiff competition and they're going to fade. Teixeira is hitting. A-Rod is back. Bruney is back. A healthy Wang should make a start this week. Posada is on the mend. Things are going very well right now. They're only going to get better.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Yanks Keep Rolling Rolling Rolling

I wrote in my post yesterday that I wanted to see the Yanks start rolling teams and stop winning the close ones because eventually those games will start to go the other way. I was real excited when they put 6 on the board in the first, thinking they were well on their way to a blowout. Last night was the season finale of 24. Normally, I would have DVR'd it and watched it later but I knew if I didn't watch it, I'd have it spoiled for me. So I didn't see much of the game. I saw the first inning and I saw the last inning. Lucky for me, that was where most of the game took place.

Mark Teixeira is finally looking like Mark Teixeira. He's been on a tear since A-Rod returned to the lineup. In those 10 games, Tex is hitting .342 (13-38) with 5 HR and 13 RBI. His average has jumped 41 points (.198-.239) and his OPS has jumped 138 points (.735-.873). I think it's safe to say that the slump is behind him. Thank God Alex is back.

Speaking of Alex, to quote my friend Tom via a text message, "Wow. A-Rod heating up." A-Rod has now homered in 3 straight games. A by-product of hitting in the new Yankee Stadium? Possibly. But I'll take it. The only thing that's not there right now with Alex is the average. His .395 OBP is ahead of his career average (.389). His .563 SLG percentage is just below his career average (.578). He's only hitting .188. He's definitely heating up, or at least warming up. It won't be long before that batting average is on par with what's on the back of his baseball card. Once that starts happening, it's over. The Teixeira/A-Rod tandem is going to be unstoppable.

Finally, congrats to Phil Coke on picking up his 1st career save. It was scary for sure. Saying I was worried was an understatement. I was fully prepared to see him blow that lead. I thought for sure we'd see another Yankee walkoff. I'm glad though he got it done. Hopefully, that's his one and only save. That job needs to be Mo's and Mo's only. I don't trust anyone else. I'd be OK with Brian Bruney doing it once in a while. Bruney is expected to be activated off the DL today. The million dollar question is who gets shuffled off to Scranton. I'm hoping it's Edwar Ramirez or Jose Veras. As much as I dislike him, I think I'd rather see Veras stick around. To me, he's the lesser of two evils. I think Veras's stuff is better than Edwar's. If Jose could just get the ball over the plate, he'd fare much better. But I could live with either one going down. I'm curious to see who gets the boot.

The Yanks look to continue the winning ways tonight against the lowly Orioles. I'm a little worried that the offense will go missing because they're facing someone they've never faced before, and they often struggle when that happens. Good news is CC Sabathia is on the mound for the Yanks. If there is anyone that can keep a struggling offense in a game it's CC. CC was awesome in his last 2 starts, winning both games, and allowing only 2 ERs in 17 innings. He pitched a CG SHO 2 starts ago against this same Orioles team. I'm expecting him to continue his hot streak.

Sadly, I won't get to watch tonight's (or Thursday's) game because it's on My9 and for some insane reason Verizon FIOS doesn't carry the local affiliate that shows those games. I'll be following along on the gamecast or I'll be listening to Sterling and Waldmyn (ugh) on XM. i hope those of you that get to watch it, enjoy it.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Another Win, Another Walk-off

Wow. Another Yankee walkoff win. That makes 3 in-a-row and that runs the winning streak up to 5. These games are certainly exciting and fun to watch. The only thing that worries me is that they're playing a lot of 1-run games. They won't always come out on the winning side. The law of averages suggests in the long run that it will balance out. So let's start blowing teams out. I have a feeling that's the direction were headed.

I thought A.J. Burnett pitched a decent game yesterday. I'm surprised by the number of walks he had (6) considering he threw about 60% of his pitches for strikes which is not good, not bad. The worst part of it is that he walked the Twins #9 hitter, Nick Punto and his .194 average, twice. You can't walk the #9 hitter, especially when he's a light hitting SS hitting below .200. That was the most frustrating part if A.J.'s performance. A.J.'s walks are up and his Ks are down which is puzzling, and slightly concerning. His career strikeout-to-walk ratio is about 2.23 to 1. This year he's well below that average at 1.72 to 1. He hasn't been that bad since he first started out. Since '04 his K/BB ratio is 2.7 to 1. It's definitely an off year for A.J. so far.

Props to Brett Tomko for saving the Yankees' bacon yesterday. That was huge right there. Albaladejo had a big whiif to end the 7th but promptly began suck again in the 8th. Tomko bailed him out. BT gets my game ball. Albaladejo on the other hand, ship him out already. He's way too inconsistent for my liking. Problem is that's he's better than some of the other scrubs they got back there. I'm talking about you Edwar, and Jose Veras while I'm at it. Hurry back Brian Bruney.

Memo to Brett Gardner: if you're going to try something like that (scoring from 2nd on a ball hit between home and the mound) you better score. That was a pretty stupid play considering there was only one out. I hope Brett doesn't start to suffer from the same problem that Melky does when it comes to his arm. Melky throws out a bunch of guys, gets a rep for having such a great arm, and now he a lot of throws he shouldn't. Brett is getting a rep for being a speed demon and I'd hate to start seeing him try to make things happen when the situation clearly calls for something else. He's lucky.

Finally, how 'bout that Johnny Damon? J-Dilla is having a monster year. Coincidentally, he's playing for a contract and that for some reason always brings out the best in guys. Whatever works, right? In his last 12 games, JD is 21 for 50 (.420) with 7 doubles, 1 triple, 5 jacks, 12 runs scored, and 15 RBI. Could JD make a run at the MVP? Me hopes so.

Andrew Euguene Pettitte looks to finish off the sweep tonight. I hope they win this one handily and not with another walkoff. Like I said, things like this always find a way to balance out in the end. So let's start crushing teams!

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Kickstart My Heart

Man oh man. I didn't think today's Yankee victory could top yesterday's Yankee victory, but I was wrong. I was happily wrong.

Mark Teixeira has finally arrived. This series against the Twins so far is proving to be Teixeira's coming out party as a Yankee. Mark went four-for-four today and was two-for-four yesterday. His average has jumped 35 percentage points and he's now sitting at .238. More importantly, he's 9 for his last 16 w/7 RBI. Barring a huge slump, I think it's safe to say his days of being below the Mendoza line are behind us. It's on now. We can expect a lot more of: "A tex message to the left center field bleachers. You're on the mark Teixieira." Oh John Sterling. You are such a tool.

I love the tradition that A.J. Burnett seems to have started with the pie to the face of the guy who hits the walkoff. I love it. It brings a whole new dynamic to the team. I don't ever recall a time where they've all seemed to be so loose and having so much fun. Yesterday's victim was Melky Cabrera. Melky is having a pretty solid year. I still don't think he deserves to be on the roster but there really isn't a better option. But if Melky can keep doing what he'd doing, I won't complain. He just needs to start hitting with runners on base. Melky is hitting a whopping .239 with runners on base. That's a huge drop from the .385 average he has with the bases empty. He's even worse with RISP, hitting .167. With RISP and 2-outs, he's hitting .133. The Melkman needs to be better than that.

A-Rod was today's victim of Burnett's antics. How great for Alex! Coming through in a big way. It was insane how much that mirrored his last walk off. It felt like deja vu all over again. As I watched him round first and put his hands up, I couldn't help but think of that walkoff. I'm pretty sure if you ran those two split-screen it would like almost identical. Alex hasn't exactly been tearing the cover off the ball since his return. But he got the job done today. Hopefully that kick starts things.

The Yankee bullpen is still terrible. Like they have been in recent years, they continue to be plagued by a lefty that can't seem to get out the lefty in a big spot. Phil has now given up 4 HRs this season, 3 to lefties. He's only given up 6 hits to lefties, but 4 have been the longball. Phil's problem is that he gives up a lot of fly balls. I don't think I've ever seen anybody point up in the sky indicating a pop up, or in Coke's case a deep fly ball, as much as I've seen Coke do it. Coke will be fine if he can find a way to keep the ball in the park. Giving up 1 HR every 4 innings is not a good ratio. And I'm really puzzled by the moves Joe Girardi is making. Specifically, why is he using Jose Veras when the team has a lead? I know that everyone out there pretty much sucks, but come on Joe, Veras?

Joba looked good today. It looks like his arm strength is just about there as he was hitting 96 on the gun. He still needs to work on his control. 61% of his pitches today were strikes, which isn't bad, but he walked 4 and that got his pitch count up. It would be nice to see Joba, or any starter, pitch deeper into the game. They need to have the bullpen pitch as little as possible. His stuff is good enough that he can afford to throw more strikes. He should have gotten the win today. That's the 3rd time this year the pen has blown the lead for Joba. Friggin' bullpen.

Despite pitching only 5 innings on Friday, I thought Phil Hughes had an alright outing. He battled his way through that game. It could have been a lot worse for the Yanks had Phil not wiggled his way out of trouble. He worked out of a 2-on no out jam in the 2nd. He had the bases loaded in the 4th with 1 out and only let 1 run score. It wasn't a great outing but I think on the whole it was a positive. I hope Phil's confidence goes up after that. It could have been a lot worse.

The Yanks are on a roll right now. They've won 4 straight and have won 6 of their last 8. The 2 walkoff wins have to be huge for the clubhouse. It's hard to believe that they have the 5th best record in the AL. A-Rod missed 28 games. Wang has an ERA of 34.50. The bullpen is one of the worst. There's been a good number of injuries. After all that, they're only 3 back in the loss column behind the Blue Jays. I am very happy with the current state of the Yankees.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Wrapping Up The Jays Series, Yanks Take 2 Of 3

Forgive me for not blogging yesterday. The reason I didn't was two-fold. Wednesday night co-ed softball began. We won 13-12 in extra innings. I chipped in with a 4-4 night with a HR. Not bad. The second reason was that after the game I headed down to Coca-Cola Field, home of the Buffalo Bisons, AAA affiliate of the Mets. The reason I went there was to try and get Tommy Hanson's autograph. I got there at about the 7th inning and as luck would have it, Hanson was charting pitches behind home plate. I hit him up in between innings and he hooked me up with 2 signed balls. Thanks Tommy. I appreciate it.

I caught a little of Wednesday's game on the radio and saw bits-and-pieces of it when I got home. It sounded like Pettitte labored thru his 6 innings. At one point I heard Sterling mention Andy had a pitch total of around 75 pitches and if my memory serves me correctly it was in the 4th inning. I was worried that he'd get knocked out after 5 and the bullpen would blow things up. I was pleasantly surprised when I later heard he lasted 6 full innings. I looked at Andy's stats and while he only gave up 2 runs, it looked like he had some control issues, walking 4 and throwing only about 60% of his pitches for strikes. It's not a bad strike percentage, but I like something closer to 70%. Andy has been somewhat decent this year. I am a little worried about his recent control issues. He's walked 4 guys in 3 of his last 4 outings and has failed to make it past the 6 inning mark. He walked a total of 2 guys in his 1st 3 starts and lasted at least 7 innings in all 3 starts. I took a glance at his game logs for last season and he only walked 4 guys once. He needs to cut down on the free passes. If he can do that, he'll be golden.

CC Sabathia was good tonight. That's 2 solid outings in a row. Like Pettitte, CC had some minor control problems but was able to get himself out of it without incurring any major damage. The 7th inning was huge. Tied at 2 with the go-ahead run at 3rd with 1 out and he gets John McDonald swinging and gets Aaron Hill to ground out 1 batter later. CC is finally pitching like we need him too. The ERA is down to 3.70. His ERA wasn't that low last year until after his 20th start of the season. CC will prove to be worth every penny. I'd make a prediction but I'm leery about doing that because I thought Mo was going to finish the year with an ERA under 1. Mo has a lot of work to do to accomplish that. If anyone can do it, Mo can.

The offense is still disappointing me. They were 1-8 with RISP tonight and were 6-13 with RISP on Wednesday. I'm not a fan of the inconsistency. It seems like there are more nights when they are 1 for 8 and they're better than that. Mark Teixeira continues to annoy me. Is it me or does he pop out a lot? We're almost 20% done with the season and he's barely hitting over 200. He is not having a good year. Now if history has taught us anything about Mark Teixeira is that he gets better as the season moves along. This is by far the worst start of his career. If he can keep the average above 200, it would have taken 30 games this year to sustain an average above 200. Last season it took 14 games for Mark to keep his average above 200. In 2007, it took him 16 games. He was never below 200 in 2006. It was 9 games in 2005 and 19 in 2004. His worst start prior to this year was his rookie season (2003) when it took 22 games for him to get his average above 200. He finished that season with an average of .259, a career low. I think we're going to be lucky if Teixeira finishes the year with an average that high. He's 3 for his last 8 (.375) and 5 for his last 19 (.263). Hopefully he's turned the corner. An ohfer-3 night tomorrow and he's back below the Mendoza line. Come on. Get on the mark Teixeira. I hate John Sterling.

Johnny Damon is on fire. He may have only been 1-5 tonight but he was 5-14 (.357) for the series. JD has put together a nice 10 game hitting streak, going 18 for 45 (.400) w/ 13 extra base hits, 5 of which were dingers. He's hot.

Francisco Cervelli has also impressed me so far. I said the other day I'd be happy if he hit 260. I know 6 games is not that big of a sample size but he's now hitting .316. The kid is filling in nicely.

A-Rod has been pretty blah since his return. Throw out the HR he hit on the first pitch of his first plate appearance and he's got 2 hits in 2o at-bats. The Yankees 3 and 4 hitters are brutal right now.

Taking 2 of 3 on the road from the best team in the AL is an encouraging sign. The only East opponent the Jays had faced prior to this series was the lowly Orioles. Now that they are getting into the best of the division they'll begin to fade. The Yanks, after winning the last 2 series, are back to square at 17-17, 4.5 games back but only 3 in the loss column. All things considered, that's pretty good. Tomorrow they open up a 10 game homestand. 4 games against the Twins. 3 against the Orioles and 3 against the Phillies. They just need to go out and try to win each series. A 7-3, or even 6-4, homestand would be a step in the right direction. So it shall be. So it shall come to pass.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie