Game 40: Yankees vs. Rays

YANKEES (25-14)
Derek Jeter SS
Brett Gardner CF
Mark Teixeira DH
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Francisco Cervelli C
Marcus Thames RF
Juan Miranda 1B
Randy Winn LF

RHP A.J. Burnett (4-1, 3.31)

RAYS (28-11)
Jason Bartlett SS
Carl Crawford LF
Ben Zobrist RF
Evan Longoria 3B
Carlos Pena 1B
B.J. Upton CF
Hank Blalock DH
John Jaso C
Reid Brignac 2B

RHP Wade Davis (3-3, 3.38)

The First Place Rays: This is the start of another two-game series, this time against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Can the real Mariano please stand up?: Rivera hasn't been pitching like the Greatest Closer of All Time the past few days. With the blown save on Sunday and the loss last night, he's given up 4 runs (2 earned), 3 hits (one homer), and a walk in his last 1.1 IP

On Scene: John is at the game tonight, so he'll probably throw in some tweets from the game @jphealy.

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Rays Burned by AJ

Yankees 7 9 0

Image via Wikipedia

Rays 3 9 0

WP: Burnett (1-0)
LP: Choate (0-1)

Player of the Game: AJ Burnett. In his second outing of the season, A.J goes 7 innings and holds the Rays to 2 runs. On back-to-back (belly-to-belly) days, the top two pitchers in the rotation shut down the Rays and win their second consecutive series to start the season.

Play of the Game: The Curtis Granderson double play. The sliding catch and then throwing behind Pat Burell to get the out was very impressive.

Turning Point of the Game: Jorge Posada's go-ahead home run in the 6th inning off of former Yankee great Randy Choate. The catcher's homer got the Yanks offense going and Granderson, A-Rod, and Swisher helped tack on insurance runs.

• While you never want to lose a game, it does happen, so teams focus on winning series. The Yankees have done that so far this season, taking both series on the road against AL East rivals. And the fact that they did it after losing the first game of both series is even more impressive.
• With weird off-days and a 10-0 win yesterday, Mariano Rivera came in today despite the fact that it wasn't a save situation. Mo just needed to get some work in, and there's an off-day tomorrow, so it was the perfect situation to let him just throw.
  
• Joba came out of the 'pen as well today for the 8th inning and surrendered a RBI triple to Carl Crawford. Maybe it was because it's been 5 days since the electric performance in Boston or maybe it was because it wasn't as "exciting" a situation. If it was the latter, the Yanks might want to watch that because they don't need Joba making a guaranteed victory a close game with a poor outing.
  
• Curtis Granderson has made a good first impression with Yankee fans, so he should get a warm welcome at the Stadium on Tuesday.
  

Off-day tomorrow, but be sure to check in because we always have something to say.

SEE YA!

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Game 6: Yankees at Rays

Well I guess neither me nor Jim was able to get to a computer yesterday afternoon during CC's bid for a no-hitter. According to Joe Girardi and Dave Eiland Sabathia was leaving the game no-hitter or not. Yeah, right. Anyway here are the lineups for today's game via Chad Jennings.

YANKEES
Derek Jeter SS
Nick Johnson DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Jorge Posada C
Curtis Granderson CF
Nick Swisher RF
Brett Gardner LF
RHP A.J. Burnett

RAYS
Jason Bartlett SS
Carl Crawford LF
Ben Zobrist RF
Evan Longoria 3B
Carlos Pena 1B
B.J. Upton CF
Pat Burrell DH
Dioner Navarro C
Sean Rodriguez 2B
RHP James Shields

Rubber Game: The Yankess look to win their second consecutive series today after losing Friday night and winning yesterday afternoon.
Robbie Cano, don't ya know?: James Shields sure does. Cano is off to a hot start already and is 11-for-23 (.478) against Shields with 2 home runs and 6 RBI.

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