Around the Division, Hold First With Some Help

Yankees hold onto first place thanks to a 10-5 win against the Cleveland Indians and a Boston loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. The Yankees are now 1.5 ahead of both the Blue Jays and the Red Sox. Tampa Bay also won today against the Twins, 5-2, so they keep their spot 5.5 games behind. The Orioles, however, fall to the Tigers, 3-6 and fall back another game, 6.5. This league still is the tightest in baseball at this time. And with the Dodgers having trouble in Chicago, could very well be in the running for best division with best division leader.

Around the Division. First Place Change!

With a Win for the Yankees and a loss to the Red Sox delivered by the Blue Jays to end their losing streak puts the Yankees in first place by half a game. All Right!!

Red Sox lost tonday 3-6 to the Blue Jays. The Jays were down 2-1 until they scored 5 in the fifth. Sweet. Ortiz still has only 1 home run.

Baltimore won today, 5 straight for them. Being the last place team in the division it is kind of scary since they're only 5.5 games back. Tampa Bay beat the Twins 5-3. So the only team in the East division that lost today was the Red Sox. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Yankees 28 20
Boston 28 21 .5
Toronto 28 23 1.5
Tampa Bay 24 27 5.5
Baltimore 23 26 5.5

Closest division right now. Yikes.

Around the Division, First Place Tie, the Inevitable

Yup, you guessed it. With the Yankees win against the Rangers and the Red Sox loss to the Twins the 1 game ahead leaders have lost their leverage. The division is tied now, not with the League Champs of last year Rays or the good start leaders for 40 games Blue Jays, but the old, never ending, always exciting rivalry. The Yankees have tied for first now. As quickly as this tie has come about, however, it can be taken away just as quickly. The Red Sox play the Twins again tomorrow and the Yankees have an off day. This is either good news or bad. If the Red Sox win, they are just half a game up, but up none the less. If they lose, the Yankees are half a game up without doing anything tomorrow night. Come on Twins, you helped us out 2 weeks ago, helps us a little again.

Speaking of the Blue Jays, their loss tonight puts them at 9 striaght losses. They have been swept now by the Boston, Atlanta, and now the Orioles. Yikes, and I told my friends just last month that they would never hold it. I gave them till the All Star Break to lose it, but they did it a month and a half early.

Also speaking of the Rays, Monday, up 10-0, Blown. Tuesday, Never ahead, outscored 5-1. Wednesday, up 5-0, Blown wide open. Team to be feared? Maybe they're a second half team..?

The Yankees play the Indians to finish off this week. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday in Cleaveland. Lets hope the Indians use all their comeback juice on the Rays. Yikes, then rough schedule in the first half of the month. Rangers again, Tampa Bay again, Boston again (great), then the Mets, who are leading their division right now. Bad month.

Even with the teams beating up each other the AL Ease looks to have the best division thus far. Top 3 have 27 wins, no team 5 under .500.

Game 43, Gainst the Orioles, at home, going for the Sweep

After just 2 outs, 14 pitches, Joba Chamberlain is done for the night. A pitch hit right back to him hit him in the knee and he was taken out 2 singles later. Does this count for a win if the Yankees score in the first and keep the lead. We'll find out.

In the bottom of the first Jeter doubles, Cano doubles to score Jeter, and Teixeira doubles to score Cano. Thats right, Cano's batting second this game. Damon is not in the line up at all tonight. After two outs, Swisher walks and Cabrera doubles to score Teixeira and Swisher but is called out at third on the throw. Trying to stretch it a little to far.

In the second Cano homers with Gardner on base. 0-6. In the fifth the Orioles get 1 from a home run but Matsui evens it back out with a home run of his own. The Orioles get 2 more in the sixth and 1 more in the seventh to make the games final 4-7. 9 straight.

Joba does not get the win. Surprise, Alfredo Aceves gets the win, finishing the first inning and three more. Rivera gets his ninth save tonight, 491 total. Cano went 3-4 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Teixeira went 2-3 with an RBI and scored a run. Rodriguez went 0-4.

Yankees play the World Champions tomorrow. The Phillies in New Yankee Stadium. Burnett, lets have a good game.

Joba Game 2 in streak

So this will be Joba's second start in this 8 game streak. His last outing, in my opinion, was one of the best of his season so far. He pitched for 6 innings against the Twins, only gave up 2 earned runs off of 3 hits and had 6 strike outs. He did not get the W because Coke pitched and lost the lead in the seventh giving up a home run and 2 runs. In this streak, I think Joba is the only starter who did not get a win. So lets get it tonight baby.

Joba starts tonight against the Orioles in New Yankee Stadium at 7:05.

Game 42, Gainst the Orioles, at Home

The first game I can see on gameday in almost a week. Hughes vs. Guthrie. Sweet, lets get your second win Hughes.

Damon walks and that comes back to bite Guthrie. Teixeira hits a double to score the walked base runner. 0-1. In the second Swisher, Cano, and Cabrera add to that lead with back to back to back home runs. 0-4. In the third, after a walk to Rodriguez and Swisher, Cano hits a single to score Rodriguez. Hughes gives up 2 in the forth and 1 in the fifth after a single and 2 home runs. 3-5

After a Rodriguez walk, Matsui single, and a Swisher walk, Cano singled, Cabrera singled, and Cash hit a sacrifice fly. Jeter doubled to clear the bases further, hitting in Cano and Cabrera. Damon hits in Jeter with a single in the next at bat. 3-11. After a home run in the ninth the final is 4-11.

Hughes gets his second win giving up 3 earned runs, 6 hits, with 1 walk and 9 strike outs. Rivera gets his 490th save tonight by pitching for the last batter in the ninth when the lead was still only 2 runs. Swisher went 1-2 with 2 walks, his hit being a home run. Cano went 3-4 with 3 RBIs. Cabrera went 2-4 scoring 2 runs and hitting a home run. Rodriguez and Teixeiras home run streaks come to an end tonight but with 3 back to back to back home runs coming from further down the line up. Good win. 8 STRAIGHT!!

Game 3 at Baltimore Part 2, The Game

The Game, Burnett vs. Simon. Burnetts first game in the season with Pinstripes on.

Hit less until the third inning, Gardner is the first to get on base safely. He is stranded but in the forth Mark Teixeira gets his first home run of the season. Swishers home run in the same inning, with Cano on base, gives the Yankees a 3-1 lead.

After a Baltimore home run in the forth, Teixeira singles, followed by a Cano single, followed by a swisher single to score Teixeira. 4-2 Yankees. In the same inning, after a Ransom walk to load the bases, Gardner reaches on a throwing error and scores Cano and Swisher. 6-2 Yankees. Molina singles on a pop up to second? Anyways it scores Ransom.

Then in the seventh Cano hits a 2 run home run with Nady on base to make it 9-2. And in the ninth Swisher doubles to score Pena from third and Cano from first to make it 11-2. If it stays like this the Yankeed will have made up all the runs scored against them, 5-10, 5-7, 11-2 totals to 21-19.

Well the Yankees had a very rough start to the season but made up for it all in this game. Scoring 11 on 13 hits and allowing only 2 was a very nice game to watch, even though it was just on gameday online.

Burnett is the first starting Yankee pitcher with a Win, allowing the only 2 runs, with 6 strike outs and only 1 walk. After the 5.1 innings he was in the pullpen took care of the rest with no hits in the last 3.2 innings and a Rivera save opportunity.

Nothing like getting through five innings with less than 6 runs scored against you. Improvement for the Yankees!

Game 3 at Baltimore

Today is game three at Baltimore and as I look at the Yankees homepage I can't help thinking how much they're right. Burnett is counted on to avoid an Opening Series sweep. I did not think it would get this bad, avoiding a sweep by the Orioles. Burnett faces Baltimore pitcher Alfredo Simon today at 1:35

In other news Joba's DUI video surfaced yesterday and Joba could not have cared less. He was fine with everyone seeing his video, he knows what he did was wrong and he is moving on. I admire this man. When people get on my case for doing something wrong, I get defensive. Anyways Joba claims he is happy with his "second chance" and is greatful nothing with lasting effects happened while he was under the influence.

Wang, also out of swing, got his first lose last night. He didn't get out of the fourth with 7 earned runs, 3 walks, and ZERO strike outs. I am seeing a pattern with our starters, if it continues, tonight Burnett will pitch 2.2 innings, give up 8 runs, 2 walks with ZERO strikeouts. Now that just cannot happen.

During Sabathia's first start he was seen with a heating pad on his midsection. Many people got concerned because they thought he was hurt, welcome to New York, where our stars get hurt at the best of times. He claims he is not hurt, however, and that the heating pad was just to keep him warm. I hope for his sake is isn't hurt, come next Thursday, if he screws up, he will be hurting like he has never hurt before. Gotta have faith. Have faith...

Game 2 at Baltimore

Well Chien-Ming Wang gets the job of cleaning up Sabathia's mess. Wang gets to show the nation that the Yankees are a team to compete with and not just a bunch of wild pitch throwing, strike outless pitchers. He pitches Game 2 against the Orioles tonight against a familiar face to Wang, Kenji Uehara who pitched against him in an Olympic game five years ago.

We have a neat little set up for the game tonight in Baltimore; Wang for Taiwan, Uehara for Japan, and Matsui also from Japan.

Today is not necessarily a must win but it is very important on how the Yankees preform. Are they going to continue the fight and win the series or are they just going to roll over and die. Boy I sure hope the Yankees win tonight.

I was happy last night when the Cubs lost and Cardinals won. Boy its good to be neutral in the NL Central division. Gets to being pretty scary in the middle of Indiana during baseball season, with teams in Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. With no major league team to claim as their own the Indiana baseball fans must claim their closest cities team as theirs or jump on the Cubs bandwagon which doesn't seem to be working for anybody in the last 100 years. To bad the Pacers may move out of Indianapolis(too small for 2 major teams (Pacers and Colts)). Ones got to go with no home of the Indianapolis Indians becoming a MLB team. Good for me though, I hate Indiana.

OPENING DAY, The Game

The time I have been waiting for all day. 4:05 is just 15 minutes away as I write this (it'll be after the game when i post this but whatever). Yankees at Baltimore.

Starters, Sabathia vs. Guthrie. Both starting with 0-0 but not after today. These are the ones that count, the beginning of the 2009 Season...

Joe Biden threw out the first pitch.
Whoa boy, the Baltimore fans hate Teixeira..wow..

During the third inning, with Jeter batting, Gardner stole second and Jeter hit the ball in the huge hole that was made because of Izturis going to second for the throw from the catcher. Because of that, Gardner rounded second and got on third for Damons sacrifice fly to score him. Yankees strike first in the third. Later in the third triple by Jones scores 2 for Baltimore. Markakis sacrifice fly scores another for a 1-3 lead for Baltimore.

With 3 more runs in the fifth Sabathia left the game with 4.1 innings pitched, 8 hits, 6 runs, 5 walks, and 0 strikeouts. Well it could have been a better start for the Yankee Ace. He left with bases loaded, yikes. It's ok though, Sabathia has all year to get better, to get comforatable with different American League stadiums. Sabathia was 10-10 before the All Star break last year. After the All Star break, he was 12-3, winning all the games he started in August, finishing 3 of them. He just starts late, I guess.

First pitch of sixth inning Posada hit a home run over the center field wall. Cano walks to get on first then Nady hits a double to score Cano because of fan interference. 3-6 now.

To start the seventh, Damon singles and Matsui hit a fastball over the right center wall. 5-6

Fan interference home run by Izturis gets the Orioles ahead by 3 again. I thought that was a play to be reviewed? Hmmmm, fan reaches on the field over Damons glove, results in a home run. I guess the umpires don't review. And five batters after the interfered home run, with bases loaded, Huff doubles to score 2 more. I dont know, to me, that inning was over when the Roberts grounded out after that home run because that would have been the third out. Whatever, Opening Day in Baltimore, lets give them the only win they'll have against the Yankees. 5-10 final score.

With only four hits before the sixth inning, the Yankees bats didn't wake up until the 2 run sixth inning, then in the 2 run seventh. The Yankees had five hits in those two innings, the majority of there hits all night.

Next game Wednesday at 7:05, still in Baltimore.

1 Days Before Opening Day

It starts tomorrow. The ones that count. The beginning of it all. Tomorrow is Opening Day for baseball; the day many of us Americans have been waiting for...

"[I said] keep doing what you're doing. [I] love the way we played in Spring Training, the fundamentals. I thought we played very, very well in Spring Training. The Yankees' ownership group and front office did a great job of assembling this team. Now, it's our turn," Girardi said after the Yankees workout at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. They got there today to have a workout to get ready for their first series of the season against the Orioles.

Sabathia is to start tomorrow but the weather might play a factor in if the game actually happens. Because of the weather, the game might actually be pusher back to Tuesday. Sabathia is ready regardless of conditions or time. "It'll be a good thing, getting out there and mixing it up and trying to help this team get off to a good start," Sabathia said. "[The Yankees] are the biggest stage in baseball. You know it's the toughest division, but I think we've got one of the better teams."

In other news, A-Rod could be back before May. He had surgury on March 9th and is already having batting practice. He should be ready to be back March 27th, well ahead of what it used to be.

Tomorrow is OPENING DAY!! The Yankees square off against the Baltimore Orioles at 4:05 tomorrow in Baltimore. It will be on ESPN!!! Recap after..