GAME 73: Yankees at Mets

YANKEES (40-32, Second Place AL East)
Gardner CF
Damon, LF
Teixeira, 1B
Rodriguez, 3B
Cano, 2B
Cabrera, RF
Cervelli, C
Pena SS
Sabathia, LHP
Pitching: LHP CC Sabathia (6-4, 3.71).

METS (37-34, Second Place NL East)
Castillo 2B
Cora SS
Wright 3B
Sheffield RF
Tatis LF
Church CF
Evans 1B
Santos C
Pelfrey RHP
Pitching: RHP Mike Pelfrey (5-2, 4.74).

TIME/TV: 7:10 p.m., MY9, SNY

Round 2: They Yankees and Mets meet again, this time at Citi Field. The Yankees lead the series 2-1, and it was an unusual one that took place in the Bronx. The Yankees won the first game on a droppped pop-up by Luis Castillo in the bottom of the 9th. The Mets won the second game as Fernando Nieve shutdownthe Yankees. Then, the Yankees scored 9 runs off the best pitcher in the NL, Johan Santana, and won in a 15-0 rout.

Milestone Watch: Mariano Rivera has 499 saves and needs one more to reach 500. The only other player to record 500 saves is Trevor Hoffman (571).

Heating Up: Johnny Damon is 6 of his last 9 with 3 RBIs. A-Rod is 5 of his last 15 with 5 RBIs. And Brett Gardner is 19-56 over his last 26 games with a .422 OBP.

Birthday Boy: Today is Derek Jeter's 35th birthday. I'm guessing they'll show his birthday stats at some point in the game today.

Bad News for the X-Man: Xavier Nady pulled himself out of a minor league game yesterday with pain in is right elbow again. No tests were done on Nady today, but he is heading back to see Dr. Yocum in California. This news is not good, and Nady may now be lost for the season.

UPDATE 6:31: Tarp down and raining at Citi Field. Derek Jeter is also scratched from the lineup. He is battling a respiratory problem, as a sickness seems to be making its way through the Yankees clubhouse (Melky was sick, and Posada not feeling great). Gardner will leadoff and Pena will play short.

UPDATE 6:55: It is absolutely horrible outside right now. The power just got temporarily knocked out in my house so either it is going to be a long night, or we will play 2 tommorow.

UPDATE 7:28: Just read on Pete Abe's blog that the tarp is getting ready to come off. No word on when the first pitch will be, my guess would be around 8pm.

UPDATE 8:00 Looks like my guess was right as they are minutes away from having baseball start here tonight.

UPDATE 8:17: Yankees have decided to catch those bloopers between the leftfielder, centerfielder, and shortstop today. Nice slidng catch by Damon. And I thought Wright just hit a home run right now but Michael Kay just overreacted then blamed it on the ballpark.

UPDATE 8:25: Bloop single for Ramiro Pena to put the Yankees up 1-0. Sabathia up, I would love to see him get a hit...and he does its an RBI single haha I love this guy.

UPDATE 8:29: This inning is now getting sloppy for the Mets. Damon hit the ball right at the shortstop for a tailor made double play and he throws the ball away from Castillo and into leftfield. 3-0 Yanks now.

UPDATE 8:31: Mets playing like a Little League team now. Another error as the firstbaseman Evans bobbles and drops a groundball right to him. 4-0 Yankees.

UPDATE 8:40: Pelfrey's line last inning: 1 IP 3 hits, 4 runs, 2 earned runs, 3 hits, 2 walks, 1 K. Every infielder except Luis "I dropped the ball" Castillo made an error.

UPDATE 9:04: Sabathia's arm looks pretty good to me. Four strikeouts and no hits or walks after 3.

UPDATE 9:19: A nice backhand play by A-Rod to get David Wright out to end the inning. CC is dealin'.

UPDATE 9:27: There goes CC's bid for a no-no. If anyone was going tobreak it up it was either going to be Sheffield or Wright. Mets lineup is a bunch of nobodys. Sheffield solo homer makes it 4-1 Yankees.

UPDATE 10:02: Eight strikeouts for Sabathia. Ties a season high and any doubts on his arm should be erased now.
UPDATE 10:26: Brett Gardner, yes Gardner, hit a home run to right field. And Citi Field aint no bandbox. That's impressive. Four hits for Gardner, the first time in his career. Now this makes the decision tougher on me on who should be player of the game, Gardner or Sabathia?