New Poll Question: How'd AJ get the black eye?

If you saw the game last night, you probably saw that big bruise around AJ Burnett's right eye.( I apologize if you didn't, I couldn't find a decent picture of it online) After the game, he and Joe Girardi had no comment on how it happened. So that's just going to let me speculate on how it happened. Here's what I've come up with:

1) AJ pulled a David Wells, went out bar hopping the night before a start and got into a fight.
2) After doing something wrong, he got frustrated and somehow hit himself in the face.
3) Joe Girardi pulled him aside and told him that he needs to start pitching better...or else. And to drive the point home, he punched him in the face.

Let us know what you think in the poll in the top right hand corner of the page. The poll closes at 7:05 next Wednesday, the day of AJ's next start, assuming he doesn't receive any more mysterious injuries.

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Awesome

While the Yankees blew a 6-run lead and shouldn't have even been in extra innings, that's not what I'm taking away from this. What I'll remember from this game is my boy Kerry Wood pitching a solid 8th inning. That awesome catch that Curtis Granderson made is gonna be remembered for a long time. Jorge absolutely crushed that ball to center in the top of the 10th, and to top it all off Greg Golson.

I'm sitting here watching Golson make that catch, and I'm screaming at the TV as usual, "Just throw it to the cutoff man. Just hit the cutoff." I didn't think there was a snowball's chance in hell that Golson would throw out Crawford and was imagining him throwing it over everyone and Crawford tying the game. Then Golson just throws this absolute lazer to A-Rod to get Crawford to end the game. Not one person on the field (except maybe Golson) thought he was gonna throw Crawford out. After it happened, Jeter, A-Rod, Gardner, and Mo were all completely shocked.

But the important thing is that the Yanks are back in first. They've snapped their longest losing streak of the year, and they have a chance to win the series tomorrow and extend the lead to 1.5 games.

SEE YA!

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Offense slugs Yanks to victory

I took in today's game in the Bronx. First things first, it was hot. Like really really hot. I was loving it when the Yankees were up 5-0 and Javy was dealing. It was going to be an easy Yankee win and take about two and a half hours. Then the 5th inning happened.

But the Yanks offense was able to help Javy out and get him over the .500 mark. But I'll tell you some of the stories that you wouldn't get from watching on TV.

First of all, I was sitting in Section 203, home of the Bleacher Creatures. The roll call that takes place at the beginning of every game is cool when you hear it from another part of the Stadium but it's another thing to actually participate in it. I recommend doing it at least once.

Funny story about Colin Curtis's home run. After we were done trying to figure out why Gardner had been thrown out, I turned to my dad and said, "Now Curtis is gonna step up and hit a three run homer." Four pitches later, and Curtis is taking a curtain call after belting his first Major League home run. I'm not on the level of Paul the Octopus, but you know, baby steps.

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Hughes Hit Hard

It's been a tough few days for the Yanks starting rotation. First Burnett gets hit hard and hurts his hand on a clubhouse door. Then Andy Pettitte is out for about a month with a groin strain. And now Hughes gives up 6 runs in 5 innings in what is probably his worst outing of the season. I know the Yanks have been doing really well so far, but the Rays are only 2 games behind in the AL East. This race is going to get really tight in August and September if the Yankee pitching starts falling apart.

I'll be at the game tomorrow afternoon. And if I can get UberTwitter on my BlackBerry to work, I'll be tweeting @jgeant.

SEE YA!

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Hughes is HUUUGE

Yankees 8 10 0
Tigers 0 6 1

WP: Hughes (5-0)
LP: Bonderman (1-2)

Player of the Game: Once again, it's Phil Hughes. He went 6.2 IP, allowing no runs on 4 hits and one walk. Hughes is turning into the ace the Yankees project him to be.

Play of the Game: Completely forgot about this before, but I'm adding it now: Joba Chamberlain's under flip and flop. Very impressive play by the big man.

Turning Point of the Game: Brett Gardner's stolen base in the first inning. It put him in scoring position to score on A-Rod's single and give Hughes all the run support he would need.

Game notes:

• Yanks were able to pick up the split of the doubleheader, and at least give them a chance to split the series with a win tomorrow.
• Hughes has been absolutely amazing so far this season. He hasn't given up more than 2 runs in a start all year. If he keeps pitching like this, the rest of the league better watch out.
  
• Francisco Cervelli continues to step up when called upon. A 2-4 game tonight bumps his average up to .408. It's gonna be tough for Joe Girardi to not give him more playing time, especially with Johnson on the DL, which would open the DH spot for Posada.
  
• Mariano Rivera pitched for the first time since April 30, despite the fact that it was not a save situation.
  
• I started working on this post when the game was 3-0, and this game got out of hand very quickly.
  

Tomorrow:
Yankees at Tigers, 1:05 PM


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Perfect Pettitte

Yankees 7 14 0

Image via Wikipedia

Angels 1 7 0

WP: Pettitte (3-0)
LP: Pineiro (2-2)

Player of the Game: Andy Pettitte was brilliant on the mound today. One run and six hits over eight innings will stop any team in any division.

Play/Turning Point of the Game: Francisco Cervelli continues to come up with key hits including today's 2-run single to give Pettitte a 3-0 lead.

• Today's win prevents the Yankees first back-to-back losses of the season, and keeps the hopes of winning a sixth straight series alive.
• After today's win, Pettitte leads the team in wins and ERA. Not bad for a 37-year old who considered retirement in the offseason.
  

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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 4: Yankees at Rays

Yankees

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Johnson DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Jorge Posada C
Nick Swisher RF
Marcus Thames LF
Curtis Granderson CF

RHP Javier Vazquez

Rays

Jason Bartlett SS
Carl Crawford LF
Ben Zobrist RF
Evan Longoria 3B
Carlos Pena 1B
B.J. Upton CF
Willy Aybar DH
Dioner Navarro C
Sean Rodriguez 2B

LHP David Price

Welcome back, Javy: This is Vazquez's first start in his second stint with the Yankees. While everyone remembers how his Yankee career ended, it did start well in 2004.

The Price is Lefty?: David Price enters his first full season as a member of the Rays rotation, and starts his first game tonight. He went 10-7 with a 4.42 ERA last season, but finished with a record of 4-1 with an ERA of 3.45 in his last 7 starts.

Winn will they play?: While Randy Winn has come in the past two games as a defensive replacement in right field, he still doesn't have an at-bat. Ramiro Pena and Francisco Cervelli have not made it off the bench yet, but Girardi did say that Cervelli will play this weekend.

Right into the fire: The Champs didn't get any breaks with the schedule this year did they? After starting with three games in Boston, they have to play the Rays in Tampa in another three-game set.

John's traveling today and tomorrow, so you're stuck with me: @jgeant

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I Don't Want to Miss a Thing: Yanks win classic game

Angels 3 8 2
Yankees 4 13 3

WP: Robertson
LP: Santana

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Alex Rodriguez. He has gotten the Playoff (Rally) Monkey off his back and now is beating it to a pulp. (Don't come after me PETA.) He only had one hit, but it was a big one as it tied the game in the 11th inning after the Angels had gone ahead. After another right-center field home run to tie the game, it's almost to the point where we expect this from A-Rod.

TURNING POINT OF THE GAME: Just another a great moment this postseason gave the Yankees and the fans the feeling that we were going to win this game.

PLAY OF THE GAME: While it may have been an anti-climactic way to end the game, the error that allowed Jerry Harriston, Jr. to score was obviously the most important play of the game.

GAME NOTES:

• I can only imagine the scene at Yankee Stadium after that game. I'm sure it was worth the pneumonia John probably caught after sitting in the cold for 5 straight hours.
• With a game like this, it's a huge lift for the Yankees and a bit of a downer for the Angels. But as the saying goes, momentum stops with the next games starting pitcher. So it's up to Andy to stay the course with a solid start on Monday (which is tomorrow now).
  
• The Yankees pitchers stranded 16 runners on base and the bullpen allowed 5 hits and only one run in 6.2 innings of work.
• If you take a step back from the excitement of this game, it was pretty sloppy defensively and both offenses wasted a lot of opportunities. The teams combined for 5 errors and 28 runners left on base. It's not exactly clean baseball but, in the Yankees case, a win is a win is a win.
• Even though it didn't matter in the outcome of the game, the Aybar play was the right call. I HATE the neighborhood play. There are ways to touch the base, protect yourself, and get rid of the ball. If Little Leaguers and High Schoolers can do it, why can't Major Leaguers?
  
• The game lasted 5 hours and 10 minutes. Just for something to compare that to, the Yankees-Red Sox 15 inning game lasted 5 hours and 33 minutes.
  
• Two thoughts from watching the YES Network post-game show: 1) Only Michael Kay could wear that hat and get away with it. 2) Great, now we get to listen to Mike Francesa yell at the people who call into his show on Sunday mornings, too.
  
• And I think this was probably the best pie from AJ. He had the element of surprise going for him because no one knew who he was going to pie. He could have gone for Melky or A-Rod, but decided to go for Harriston.
• Photo from ESPN.com
  

NEXT GAME:
Game 3 ALCS:
Yankees at Angels
Monday 4 PM ET (which means I will be sprinting back to my dorm from class)
Pettitte vs. Kazmir

SEE YA!

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How sweep it is

Yankees 6 8 2
Twins 4 5 1

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Mark Teixeira. He broke his 95-at-bat homerless streak in the fifth inning to give the Yankees another insurance run.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

PLAY OF THE GAME: It wasn't a spectacular game, so I'm going to give it to Teixeira's home run.

TURNING POINT OF THE GAME: Dave Robertson getting Joe Mauer to get out of the 4th innings, where the Twins had already scored 2 runs. Robertson did not help himself that inning, but was able to get Mauer, a Yankee killer, to end the inning while the Yanks still had the lead.

GAME NOTES:

• The Yankees not only swept this series, but the season series against the Twins.
  
• Another big day for the bottom of the lineup as Cabrera, Ransom, and Gardner, each had a hit and combined for 4 RBI's.
• The lineup is really clicking now. Let's just hope it carries over into the Angel's series, because we never play well against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of California of the United States of the World (LAAACUSW for short).
• The Yankees made 2 errors. The won't get away with that against the Angels.
  
• This win brings the Yankees within half a game of the Red Sox for first place in the AL East. The Sox play tonight against Kansas City and Greinke isn't pitching , so odds are the Yankees will still be a game out at the end of the night

TOMORROW:
Yankees at Angels

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Mariners 8- Yankees 4

Mariners 8 12 1
Yankees 4 7 1

WP: Miguel Batista (5-2)
LP: CC Sabathia (7-5)


PLAYER OF THE GAME: Ichiro. He went 2-4 with 2 RBIs and 2 runs scored and sparked the Mariner's offense to the win in the final game of the series to avoid the sweep.

Ichiro Suzuki joined the Mariners in 2001" style="border: medium none ; display: block;" width="300" height="451">Image via Wikipedia

PLAY OF THE GAME: Russel Branyan's home run. It's the first home run to hit the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar in center field. Weird how the first player to hit the bar, and the first player to hit the black seats at the old Stadium (Ken Singleton) were both visiting players.

TURNING POINT OF THE GAME: The top of the fourth inning when CC surrendered 3 runs to make it 6-2 Mariners.

GAME NOTES:

• This loss snapped the Yankees 7-game winning streak.
• The error by Teixeira was his first in 106 games.
• Hideki Matsui and Robinson Cano combined to go 5-6 with 3 RBIs and 2 runs scored, while the rest of the lineup only managed 2 hits.

TOMORROW:
Blue Jays @ Yankees 1:05 pm(?)


SEE YA!

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