News and Notes

• Fan Voting for the All-Star Game ends tonight at midnight. Mark Teixeira is a mere 40,000 votes behind Kevin Youkilis for the starting first base spot. If Youkilis wins the vote, the Red Sox will have had the starting first baseman in the AL Lineup for four straight years. We cannot take four years of more of the same, so Vote for Teixeira as many times as possible. There is a loophole: You don't have to put in a valid e-mail address to vote, so you can just make one up. This allows you to vote more than the maximum 25 times. ESPN said who they thought should be voted in for the AL and NL lineups. Derek Jeter is there starting shortstop. Considering this is ESPN, I am honestly surprised they deemed a Yankee worthy of the All-Star Game.
  
• Aroldis Chapman, considered the best Cuban pitching prospect, has defected. Chapman is considered the "best player to defect since Jose Contreras." Yeah, we all know how that turned out. He pitched for Cuba in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. He was 0-1 in 2 starts with a 5.68 ERA. He struck out 8 in the 6.1 innings and showed off a 100-mph fastball. According to the article, there are some questions about his other pitches. 8th inning reliever anyone?
• Major League Baseball has now added another player to the All-Star teams. So now 33 players will represent their teams for their respective league.
  
• Lou Pinella got ejected last night for the first time this season. Really? It took him until July 1 to get ejected? That has to be a personal record.
  
• We saw Public Enemies last night, and it was very good. Johnny Depp was born to play criminals and Christian Bale traded the Batman growl for a Southern accent.
• I'm watching the Shaquille O'Neal introductory press conference, and it is nothing like a Yankees press conference. It's set up more like a talk-show. And Shaq is rocking a pink tie and a pink shirt, only he could actually pull that off.

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Nationals 3- Yankees 2

Nationals (17-46) 3 7 0
Yankees (37-28) 2 4 0
Box Score

WP: John Lannan (4-5, 8.1 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K)
LP: Chien-Mien Wang (0-5, 5.0 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K)
S: Mike McDougal (1, .02 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K)

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Lannan. Another unknown pitcher baffles the Yankees. Bad news: I have never heard of the Nationals starter for tomorrow.

PLAY OF THE GAME: Mark Teixera's diving play in the sixth inning. It would have been even better if he turned a double play, but it was still rather impressive.

TURNING POINT OF THE GAME: Nick Johnson's triple in the 5th inning. Melky Cabrera's misguided attempt at a diving catch allowed the Nationals to score two runs instead of one, and that was the difference in the game.

GAME NOTES:

• The Yankees just lost to a team that only had 16 wins on the season, and it is June17. Washinton was 30 games under .500 until tonight.
  
• John Lennon may have been killed in New York City, John Lannan thrived in the Big Apple He had a no-hitter into the fifth inning and only allowed 4 hits and 1 walk.
  
• A-Rod needs a day off. He can't buy a hit right now (and if anyone in the league could actually buy a hit, it would be him.) He is batting .167 this month with 2 home runs and 9 RBIs. Not exactly what you want out of your cleanup hitter.
  
• Wang didn't pitch poorly, but not well either. In my humble opinion, he deserves another start. He should have only given up one run if the Yankee defense had shown up tonight. There were no errors, but there were two ground balls that Cano should have gotten to and the play that Melky should have made.
  
• Our research department (AKA John) tells me that both times Chien-Mien Wang has pitched against the Nationals, the Yankees have lost 3-2. The last time, in 2006, Wang lost the game in the bottom of the ninth inning after throwing 107 pitches. If I remember correctly, the Yankees bullpen was extremely depleated because of some poor starts and extra inning games and they needed Wang to try and go all 9, and he surrendered a 2-run homerun to Ryan Zimmerman.
  

TOMORROW:
Nationals at Yankees, 1:05 PM at Yankee Stadium
Craig Stammen (0-2, 5.86 ERA) vs. Joba Chamberlain (3-1, 3.84 ERA)

SEE YA!

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Yankees 5- Nationals 3

Nationals 3 6 1
Yankees 5 8 1

WP: C.C. Sabathia (6-4, 7.2 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 K)
LP: Ron Villone (3-4, 1.0 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 K)

PLAYER OF THE GAME: And the belt goes to....

Robinson Cano, 4-4, 2 RBIs, including the go-ahead double in the seventh inning.

PLAY OF THE GAME: Melky Cabrera's diving, shoe-string, snow cone catch.

TURNING POINT: Teixeira's RBI double in the 7th. Big Tex's double tied the score while putting himself in scoring position to score the eventual go-ahead run.

GAME NOTES:

• The Nationals have now lost four straight and thirteen of sixteen.
• The Yankees are now 15-5 in their last 20 home games.
  
• A-Rod continues to slump by going 0-3 tonight. He has not had a full day off since coming off the DL, maybe now is the time.
• This is the second game in a row that the Yankee starter has gone at least 7 innings. That's what you expect every time with a rotation like this.
  
• Mariano Rivera tied Allie Reynolds on the Yankee career strikeout list.
  
• Tonight was the 22nd come from behind win for the Yankees.
• Jeter left the game with "left ankle stiffness." We'll wait to see what the real story is and get a post up immediately if not sooner.
  

TOMORROW:
Nationals at Yankees, 7:05 p.m.
John Lannan (3-5, 3.51 ERA) vs Chien-Mien Wang (0-4, 14.34 ERA)

SEE YA!

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