Yank'd; The Will to Win

    A starting pitcher who had lost his last 11 consecutive starts, was a solid inning away from qualifying for a win, not to mention a straight shut down of the New York Yankees. Justin Masterson, who we all know from coming up with the Boston Red Sox and not doing a bad job in the process. However he was the main piece involved in the Victor Martinez trade. Masterson has good stuff but has just struggled with a team who can't even win games in the AL Central, which is a rather weak division. However, today seemed to be Masterson's day, inducing ground balls with his sinker which would dive down and in to right-handed batters. The 7th inning came around, and while Cleveland had a 3-0 lead over Yanks' starter A.J. Burnett, the Yanks did what they are known for.
    Swisher, who just simply does not want May to end, hit a hard line drive single to center to lead it off. Masterson would then walk Juan Miranda. After the 1st and 2nd with 0 outs situation for Masterson, he struck out the pinch hitting Cervelli. That was a big out, however Derek Jeter was next up, and he made it happen. Jeter delivered with a 2 strike, 2 run single, which made the Yanks minus 1. 3-2 Indians, for Curtis Granderson. The Grandy-Man turned on an inside fastball off of lefthander Tony Sipp, and belted it down into the right field corner. The Yanks had 2nd and 3rd, and two outs for Mark Teixeira. Tex had been up and down, but if there was ever an appropriate time for him to break out, it was right then and there. Marky Tex launched a ball towards the left/centerfield gap which reached the audience with ease. The Yanks took a 5-3 lead with that 3-run gamechanger, and never looked back winning the game 7-3. Mariano Rivera even came in, in a non-save situation. The Yanks needed a for-sure win, and what does MO do, he locks it down.

Tough One to Swallow

    These blog posts are pretty scattered and I apologize to my followers for that, i know i have quite a bit of notoriety, however I live some kind of lifestyle. Sometimes no matter what I have scheduled, i must get down to brass tax and talk about what's going on, on the field. First, my prayers go out to Cleveland Indians starting pitcher David Huff after being hit in the left side of the head off of an Alex Rodriguez comebacker in the bottom of the 3rd. The CAT scan was negative but he'll remain at Columbia Presbyterian with his family and for further evaluations. After my own father had something similar happen in his playing days it is something to worry about, but let's hope he's ok. Having said that, there are a couple of baseball issues that were raised in this 4 hour and 22 minute debacle.
    The Yanks hit, C.C. pitched mediocre, but logged enough innings to qualify for a win and he only gave up 4. Everybody enjoying a hot summer Memorial Day weekend baseball game at Yankee Stadium including viewers at home and the players on the field all thought it was lock-down after a 10-4 lead was in tact. The game was where the Yanks wanted it, but the lead just evaporated after C.C. left the game. Girardi mixed and matched like he always loves to do, but it really did not work out in his favor this time. David Robertson, who has been up and down this year was not very effective, and then on top of that, he leaves the game with a lower back strain. Hopefully he'll be alright, but you have to wonder if this injury stemmed from the ball Mauer hit in Minnesota that ricocheted off of him. They then brought in Sergio Mitre who didn't get it done. After Mitre, it was Marte for 3 pitches, who did his job. That's where Girardi got cute bringing in Joba Chamberlain with a 10-6 lead and he did not fair well at all. Joba would give up 4 runs on 4 hits, and gave the Indians a 12-10 lead! Then Russel Branyan hit a towering homer of Chad Gaudin in the 8th. The Yanks would get one back in the 9th off of an rbi double by Derek Jeter. The Yanks would lose 13-11 to Cleveland in a game that featured 412 total pitches. Not how the Yanks and there fans thought this one would play out.

Back to Earth..For Now

    It appears Francisco Cervelli and Brett Gardner are indeed human after all. After unbelievably hot starts to the season by the rookie catcher and second year outfielder, both have tapered off quite dramatically. With the excruciatingly high number of injuries on this team, the youth and reserves need to play at a high level day in and day out. However, back-up players are not used to carrying as much weight as these guys have had to do. While I'm sure Cervelli and Gardner will pick it back up sooner or later, its pretty unlikely they will do it at the pace they were before.
    At this rate, the Yanks are still able to win around 96 games, (and in the AL East that could still only be second place) but they are going to have to get back to doing what they did throughout April, and that's pitching well, as well as getting runners in scoring position with less than 2 outs across the plate. The Yankees have indeed had a tough schedule thus far. Only 4 out of 10 different opponents they have played have losing records (Angels, Orioles, Mets, White Sox.) The Mets and Angels are definitely better than there records show as well and are both still tough to play on the road. Plus the Yanks have already played multiple series' against Boston, Tampa Bay, and are now getting ready to square up against the Minnesota Twins for the 4th, 5th, and 6th time of the year over the next 3 days.
    The Yanks will then return home and face the Indians for 4 games and the Orioles for 3, should be a favorable homestand. The month of June should be good to the Yankees, getting guys back from injury and facing only 3 teams with winning records as of now. With Curtis Granderson's resurgance in sights, I think all Yankee fans will not take him for granted after we've had to fill his spot with the likes of Randy Winn against right handed pitchers and minor league infielder Kevin Russo against left handers. The Yanks need big Tex to get back to what he's been doing for most of this month and Robby Cano to get back to what he was doing all of April, getting rbi's, but remember it always starts with good pitching..