GAME 64: Yankees vs Nationals

YANKEES (36-27, Second Place in AL East, 2 GB)
Jeter SS
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Cano 2B
Posada C
Matsui DH
Swisher RF
Cabrera CF
Pitching: LHP CC Sabathia (5-4, 3.68).

NATIONALS (16-45, Fifth Place in NL East, 20 GB)
Guzman DH
Johnson 1B
Zimmerman 3B
Dukes CF
Dunn LF
Kearns RF
Gonzalez SS
Nieves C
Hernandez 2B
Pitching: RHP Shairon Martis (5-1, 5.04).

TIME/TV: 7:05 p.m., MY9.

First in War, First in Peace, Last in the NL East: Back when the Washington Senators played, they used that phrase to describe the team (of course it used to be "American League" not NL East). The Nationals are no different. They are 16-45 and are 6-23 on the road. The Yakees have won 14 of their last 17 at home. By the end of the week the Nationals may need a government bailout more than any big company in the country to get them through the rest of the season.
Mr. Interleague: Derek Jeter has the most hits (293), at bats, and runs (162) in interleague play. He is hitting .337 against NL pitching. No wonder why he has had so much success in the World Series.
Bats are Hot: Jeter is 9 of his last 18 with 4 RBI and 4 runs. He has raised his average to .310. Hideki Matsui is 6 for his last 16 with 2 HR, 5 RBI, 5 walks and 5 runs. And Nick Swisher is 15 of his last 46 with 11 runs scored, 8 RBI, 14 walks and 8 extra-base hits.
Not So Hot: Alex Rodriguez is 8-45 in June. He is .178/.339/ .356 in his last 9 games.
Injury Update: Brian Bruney was activated from the DL today. The "Latino Kyle Farnsworth" aka Jose Veras was designated for assignment.

UPDATE 5:32: Forgot to give this its own post, but the NY Times is reporting that Sammy Sosa is one of the names on the list of 103 players that tested positive for PED in 2003. Not really a shocker, I always associated him with steroid users, but this is the first hard evidence that Sosa used PEDs. Sosa was one of the players who tesitified to Congress in 2005. It will be interesting to see what kindof , if any, legal trouble he will be in.

UPDATE 7:12: Three former Yankees are in the Nationals lineup today. Nick Johnson, Alberto Gonzalez, and Will Nieve. Also Ron Villone is in the bullpen for the Nationals. Must be a completely different atmosphere going from the Yankees to the Nationals, meanwhile as I type this CC Sabathia just finished a 6-pitch first inning.

UPDATE 7:56: 2-0 Yankees. Line drive off the glove of Nick Johnson scores in a run. Nick Johnson also has the Jason Giambi moustache look going. I guess Giambi was somewhat of a mentor to him in more ways than one.

UPDATE 8:03: I want to say the Yankees got Javier Vasquez for Johnson. I think that is the answer to the trivia question. The answers to these questions YES has always surprise you though.

UPDATE 8:13: I was right with Vasquez. However, this answer forced Kay to bring up Game 7 of 2004 (shutters). Meanwhile, Sabathia has thrown 46 pitches through 4 innings.

UPDATE 8:32: Anderson Hernandez just hit his first home run since 2006, putting them ahead 3-2. Sabathia's pitch count is still low and don't expect the Yankees to not score another run off the worst team in the majors.

UPDATE 8:51: That's some play by Melky. I thought for a second that ball would fly out of his glove as he landed and tried to avoid a wrist injury. That's a difficult shoe-string catch to make, and the definition of a snow-cone catch. Elijah Dukes still can't believe it.

UPDATE 9:10: RBI double by Teixeira off the left-centerfield wall. That was off our old friend Ron Villone. I believe that's the first run he has given up all year.

UPDATE 9:16: Tough inning for Elijah Dukes in centerfield. Cano drives in Tex to take thelead. But he gets thrown out at third trying to make it a triple. The Yankees retake the lead nonetheless. Cano is 4-4.

UPDATE 9:21: Ramiro Pena is in for Jeter at short. They just showed a replay of Jeter running gingerly down the first base line during his last at bat. This is not a good sign. If anything is wrong, hopefully he misses the next two games against the Nationals. I can live without Jeter playing against the Nationals.

UPDATE 9:32: Bruney comes in and gets out Zimmerman for the final out of the inning. Bruney looks like he lost even more weight. He actually kind of looks skinny. Kind of scary. Oh, he also is rockin the stache.

UPDATE 9:36: They are saying Jeter left the game with left ankle stiffness. Jeter doesn't take himself out of games with "stiffness." It could be Girardi taking precautionary action. We'll see how serious it is during the postgame...oh wait, this game is on MY9, there is no postgame. I don't understand why not. They have it when they play good teams, like the Red Sox or Mets, but why not do it for every team.