Charge the Mound…

Yankees 2007 — Game 69
Sunday June 17, 2007 at 8:05 p.m.
(Record: 35-32)
New York Mets

[New York. June 19, 2007.] The Yankees offense (and Wang) carried the Yanks to a victory in the rubber game of this series against the Mets.  Wang pitched great and the Yankees continued to tee-off against their opposing pitchers – this time it was their old friend El Duque.

Mets      000 000 101 [2 6 0]
Yankees 221 010 02X [8 11 0]

WP: C. Wang (7-4)
LP: O. Hernandez (3-3)

Home Runs:  Alex Rodriguez (27); Johnny Damon (4); Jorge Posada (9)

Three Stars
#3. Johnny Damon - I feel like it has been a while since I called on Johnny for a star.  He deserves this one with his two hits — including two RBIs and a home run. 

#2. Chien-Ming Wang - Another excellent start for the Yankees ground-ball specialist. 

#1. Alex Rodriguez - After Alex’s early home run, it just looked like a win for the Yanks. 

Yankees 2007 — Game 68
Saturday June 16, 2007 at 1:05 p.m.
(Record: 34-32)
New York Mets

[New York. June 19, 2007.] It did not take long for the Yankees to start hiting again.  They pounded Glavine and the other Mets pitchers — scoring 11 runs on 15 hits.

Mets       111 200 012 [8 14 1]
Yankees 022 222 01X [11 15 0]

WP: L. Vizcaino (3-1)
LP: T. Glavine (5-5)

Home Runs:  Ruben Gotay (3); Alex Rodriguez (26); Ramon Castro (4); Derek Jeter (5)

Three Stars
#3. Robinson Cano- Robby appears to be hitting the ball well again.  Two hits tonight and his average is hovering around .275.  He needs to get that back over .300.

#2. Alex Rodriguez - Truly, Alex does not have a problem hitting well in a big game.  Two more hits, another home run and even a stolen base. 

#1. Derek Jeter - Four hits, a home run and two key RBIs.  Jeter carried the Yankees offense in this win over the Mets. 

Yankees 2007 — Game 67
Friday June 15, 2007 at 7:05 p.m.
(Record: 33-32)
New York Mets

[New York. June 19, 2007.] What happened to the Bats?  Roger pitched a great game — allowing only two runs, but the Yankees were shut down by a wild Perez and lost for the first time in a while — 2-0.

Mets      001 010 000 [2 7 0]
Yankees 000 000 000 [0 5 0]

WP: O. Perez (7-5)
LP: R. Clemens (1-1)
S: B. Wagner (15)

Home Runs:  Jose Reyes (3)

Three Stars
#3. Miguel Cairo – Cairo was one of only two Yankees not to strike out in this game.  Yes, he is the third star.

#2. Detek Jeter - Derek was the only Yankee with two hits — and, other than Cairo, was the only Yankee not to strike out.  In a game like this, that’s a second star!

#1. Roger Clemens - Another Yankees pitcher with the number one star.  Too bad this one was in a losing game.  Roger pitched unexpectingly well — striking out 8 in 6 1/3 innings — as he worked through some jams and only allowed two runs to the Mets.  Unfortunately he was out-pitched. 

Yankees 2007 — Game 66
Thursday June 14, 2007 at 1:05 p.m.
(Record: 33-31)
Arizona Diamondbacks

[New York. June 19, 2007.] Pettitte follows Mussina and Wang’s performances with a brilliant outing of his own.  The Yanks beat the Diamondbacks 7-1 this time and have now won nine in a row.  Some may say the Diamondbacks are a weak team — but compared to the other teams in that conference, they were considered the elite.

Arizona  010 000 000 [1 5 3]
Yankees 202 000 30X [7 12 1]

WP: A. Pettitte (4-4)
LP: D. Davis (4-8)

Home Runs: None

Three Stars
#3. Hideki Matsui – Hideki continues to hit and help the Yankees win.  He connected for three hits and three RBIs as the Yankees blew past the Diamondbacks.

#2. Alex Rodriguez - Another monster game for Alex — this time without the long ball.  He had three hits, two runs scored and two RBIs.

#1. Andy Pettitte - Andy brought his ERA down to 2.93 after pitching eight innings and surrendering only 4 hits and 1 run.  He is finally at .500 — with his unfair 4-4 record.

Yankees 2007 — Game 65
Wednesday June 13, 2007 at 7:05 p.m.
(Record: 32-31)
Arizona Diamondbacks

[New York. June 19, 2007.] Mussina follows Chien-Ming’s excellent outing with one of his own.  The Yanks beat the Diamondbacks 7-2 and win their eighth straight game.

Arizona 010 001 000 [2 7 0]
Yankees 012 400 00X [7 10 0]

WP: M. Mussina (3-3)
LP: L. Hernandez (5-4)

Home Runs: Jorge Posada (8); Alex Rodriguez (25) Hideki Matsui (7); Conor Jackson (5)

Three Stars
#3. Hideki Matsui – Hideki had two hits, three RBIs and a home run.

#2. Alex Rodriguez - Alex also had two hits, three RBIs and a  home run (his 25th).

#1. Mike Mussina - Mike pitched 7 2/3 innings and only allowed six hits (no walks) and two runs.  Hopefully he is hitting his stride. 

Yankees 2007 — Game 64
Tuesday June 12, 2007 at 7:05 p.m.
(Record: 31-31)
Arizona Diamondbacks

[New York. June 19, 2007.] Chien-Ming Wang gave the Yankees another stellar performance and Bobby Abreu gave Wang all the offense he would need in hitting a first-inning three-run homne run.  The Yankees won this one 4-1 and hit the .500 mark.

Arizona  000 100 000 [1 7 2]
Yankees 300 000 10X [4 5 0]

WP: C. Wang (6-4)
LP: B. Webb (6-4)
S: M. Rivera (8)

Home Runs: Bobby Abreu (4); Chad Tracy (2)

Three Stars
#3. Mariano Rivera – A perfect ninth to notch the save.  There will hopefully be more of these to pad Mariano’s awful stats.

#2. Chien-Ming Wang - Wang is starting to looking like the Yankee ace.

#1. Bobby Abreu – A huge first inning home run off one of the best pitchers in the National League guided the Yankees to the victory. 

[New York. June 11, 2007.]  We just finished our first weekend of the “real” interleague matchups.  Last month, we were greeted with the “rivalry” interleague matchups.  So, shall we start the debate as to which Major League Baseball Conference is superior?  These two interleague weekends have given us 84 total interleague games.  Luckily, there were no postponements.  Each of the 14 American League teams played in two series (6 total games each).  Since there are 16 National League teams, 10 played 6 games and the other 4 played in only 3 each (remember, those four had to play each other to keep it all even).  To preempt any arguments about where the games were played — there were 42 games played in National League parks and 42 games in American.

In those 84 games so far, the American League won over 60% of the games.  To be exact, the American League was 51-33 (.607) in those games, thus, the National League was 33-51 (.393).  Even though interleague play has only just begun, these numbers appear to be consistent with the overall power of the leagues.  But for the Mets, it is hard to imagine any of the other National League teams consistently beating any of the American League power-houses (the Red Sox, Yankees, Tigers, Indians, Angels, etc.).  And those Mets, they just lost two out of three against the Tigers.  That series puts the two leagues in perspective.  The Mets shut out Detroit in game one with an amazing outing by their number five starter, Jorge Sosa.  But, when they sent their top two starters out there in the next two games, they lost both, surrendering 23 total runs in those two games.

A summary of each teams current record, along with their interleague record, is as follows:

American League [51-33] (.607)

AL East
Boston 40-22 (.645) 4-2
Yankees 30-31 (.492) 4-2 
Toronto 30-32 (.484) 3-3
Baltimore 29-34 (.460) 3-3 
Tampa Bay 28-33 (.459) 2-4

AL Central
Cleveland 37-24 (.607) 3-3
Detroit 36-26 (.581) 5-1
Minnesota 30-31 (.492) 3-3 
White Sox 27-32 (.458) 2-4
Kansas City 24-40 (.375) 4-2

AL West
Los Angeles 40-24 (.625) 5-1
Seattle 33-26 (.559) 4-2
Oakland 34-28 (.548) 5-1
Texas 23-40 (.365) 4-2

National League [33-51] (.393)

NL East
Mets 36-25 (.590) 3-3
Atlanta 35-29 (.547) 1-2
Philadelphia 32-31 (.508) 3-3
Florida 31-33 (.484) 4-2
Washington 26-37 (.413) 3-3

NL Central
Milwaukee 34-29 (.540) 2-4 
St. Louis 27-33 (.450) 1-5
Cubs 27-34 (.443) 2-1
Houston 26-36 (.419) 3-3
Pittsburgh 26-37 (.413) 0-3
Cincinnati 25-39 (.391) 3-3

NL West
San Diego 36-26 (.581) 2-4
Arizona 37-27 (.578) 1-2
Los Angeles 35-28 (.556) 1-5
Colorado 31-32 (.492) 3-3
San Francisco 28-34 (.452) 1-5

We will be back after the next set of interleague games to discuss.  I know St. Louis fans will argue that their team won the World Series, but that was a seven game series.  The data above gives us the analysis of 84 games thus far.  And trust me, I wish the National League would win 60%, so long as my American League team was in the 40%…

Yankees 2007 — Game 63
Sunday June 10, 2007 at 1:05 p.m.
(Record: 30-31)
Pittsburgh Pirates

[New York. June 11, 2007.] Clippard was hit hard, but the Yankees offense, especially Bobby and Alex, made his rough start forgettable.  It was good to see Chacon again.  He run with the Yanks was a good memory.  They the Yanks went out and knocked him around.

Pittsburgh 020 400 000 [6 9 0]
Yankees    302 302 30X [13 14 0]

WP: S. Henn (2-0)
LP: S. Chacon (2-1)

Home Runs:  Alex Rodriguez 2 (24)

Three Stars
#3. Sean Henn – Henn relieved Clippard and stopped the bleeding.  He allowed the Yankees’ offense to take over and earned a win with his effort.

#2. Alex Rodriguez – Alex hit another two home runs (he now has 24) and carried the Yankees to another victory.

#1. Bobby Abreu – Bobby rolled out four hits in four at-bats (and also walked once) and drove in three runs.  He looks to be in the third spot indefinitely. 

Yankees 2007 — Game 62
Saturday June 9, 2007 at 1:05 p.m.
(Record: 29-31)
Pittsburgh Pirates

[New York. June 11, 2007.] The Rocket is back.  Roger pushed the Yankees to their fifth straight win.  Yankee fans can only hope they have this Roger ever five days.  A critic would say that there is no real hope until Roger faces a real offense — but this is his fourth tune-up start and he looked good.

Pittsburgh 100 200 000 [3 6 2]
Yankees    300 012 21X [9 11 0]

WP: R. Clemens (1-0)
LP: P. Maholm (2-9)

Home Runs: None

Three Stars
#3. Bobby Abreu – Bobby was two for four, stole a base, walked, had an RBI and a run scored — all without striking out.  That sounds like the Abreu of late last year.

#2. Robinson Cano – Cano continues to earn starts but then fall back to mediocrity.  This could be a sign.

#1. Roger Clemens – Of course.  A quality start.  That’s all the Yankees ask of Roger and he delivered for the first time (in his first start) this season.

Yankees 2007 — Game 61
Friday June 8, 2007 at 7:05 p.m.
(Record: 28-31)
Pittsburgh Pirates

[New York. June 10, 2007.] After Melky misplayed the ball in center, giving Duffy an inside-the-park home run and the Pirates a 4-2 lead, the game looked to be lost.  What the Yankees finally showed then was a little fight.  In the end, the Yankees won 5-4 with a walk-off infield single and pulled within 3 games of .500.

Pittsburgh 010 010 200 0 [4 11 0]
Yankees 000 002 200 1 [5 12 0]

WP: M. Rivera (2-3)
LP: M. Capps (3-3)

Home Runs: Xavier Nagy (10); Hideki Matsui (6); Chris Duffy (3)

Three Stars
#3. Hideki Matsui - Matsui’s two-run home run in the sixth was big in that it showed that the Yankees could actually hit on this night.  The 2-2 tie he brought the Yankees back to would not last, but the home run ignited the Yankees bats which pulled out this 5-4 game.

#2. Derek Jeter - Who else would you expect to hit a bases-loaded, one-out, bottom-of-the-tenth walk-off single?

#1. Mariano Rivera - The good old days — Mariano pitched more than an inning (two actually) to earn the win in this Yankees walk-off victory.