Everyone's talking about Kyle's outburst last night.


I didn't see it, but if he was actually disrespectful to Torre, what a backwards thing that is considering that Torre has gone back to him over and over again (something that plenty of people have criticized him for - not that that matters) and he gets mad when we're struggling for victories and the winning run is on in the 8th and the Hammer of God is ready? I mean, really, you have to be kidding.

Mike Mussina pitched seven strong innings and A-Rod contributed with three hits and an RBI as the Yankees held on to beat the A's 2-1 on Friday night in the Bronx.

After a 1-7 road trip, with one game suspended, the Yankees were in dire need of a "W" and they got it. The Yankees jumped out to a 2-0 lead early and held it until the A's scored late and made it a one run ballgame.

Kyle Farnsworth was summoned for the eighth and put two runners on and got the second out but was pulled in favor of Rivera. Farnsworth was visibly upset and slammed his mitt against the dugout wall as he left the field.

Mo struck out Jack Cust to end the eighth and saved the game in the ninth by striking out two more and only allowing one runner to reach base as he hit Johnson with two outs.

The Yankees resume the weekend series this afternoon with Kei Igawa on the hill.

Well, the game's not officially over as it has been suspended due to rain. The score is currently 8-6 Yankees in the top of the 8th, with Derek Jeter standing on second with two out and Hideki up at bat.

The game started off pretty easy with both teams matching zeros for the first two innings and Daniel Cabrera looking very strong. In the top of the third however, Cabrera served up a breaking ball right over the plate and Andy Phillips put it over the left field wall to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. Those good feelings lasted all of two outs and Wang walked Paul Bako (the backup catcher!!) and served up a 2-run HR to Brian Roberts (his fifth of the year and third in June). Amusingly enough, the Yankees actually showed a little life and stormed right back in the top of the fourth with back to back singles putting Jeter and Matsui on first and third with no one out. A sac fly from A-Rod and then two walks to Jorge and Abreu loaded them up with one out. Unfortunately, the Yankees were only able to plate one more on a Melky groundout, 3-2 Yankees. That remained the score until the Yankees added an additional run in the seventh when Robbie led off the inning with a double. He was sacrificed over to third and brought home on a Damon single, 4-2 Yankees.

Most Yankees fans feel very safe with a lead in Chien-Ming Wang's hands but last night was just not his night as he melted down in the bottom of the seventh. Nick Markakis started things off with a single and came around on a Kevin MillAH triple (a triple? Well, maybe a more astute RF plays that ball a little better...or even catches it). After a ground out, Wang walked Melvin Mora and gave up a two-run double to Jay Gibbons. Corey Patterson came in to run for Gibbons and promptly stole third and then came home on a Posada error on the throw. After Wang walked Paul Bako AGAIN, Torre finally took him out and brought in Luis Vizcaino. Luis got Jay Payton swinging (very big out there) but gave up a single to Brian Roberts putting men on first and second for Mike Myers. Myers got Brandon Fahey to ground out softly but the damage had been done, 6-4 Orioles.

However depressing as that inning was, the Yankees came right back (were you as surprised as I was?) in the top of the 8th with back to back walks to Posada and Abreu to start off. Melky Cabrera doubled home Posada and if you were listening to the radio broadcast, John Sterling and Susan W. would have you believe that Melky hitting away and not bunting the guys over was a managerial decision by Joe Torre on par with the great feats of Connie Mack. In any case, Robbie Cano came up and did his job, grounding out to the right side and getting the tying run home. After a Phillips groundout, Damon came up and singled, putting men on first and third for Derek Jeter who promptly singled them both in and took second on the throw home. 8-6 Yanks and that's when the game was suspended.

From Peter Abraham:


Via Eric Schultz.

No offense. No offense at all. 5 hits and 1 walk. No Yankee had 2 hits - Jeter, Matsui, A-Rod, Posada and Cabrera each had 1 - and no Yankee had an extra base hit. We struck out 10 times.

Meanwhile, they struck out 0 times. That said, if you throw out the 6th inning, they had 0 runs, 3 hits and 2 walks. However, all innings count and the 6th was where they did all of their damage. Coming into the inning, Clemens had pitched 5 innings scoreless. However, in the 6th, he didn't get an out until the 5th batter. Chris Gomez singled to start it off and then Clemens walked Nick Markakis. Ramon Hernandez singled for the first run of the game for either side and then Aubrey Huff followed with a 3 run homer. Clemens then got 3 of the next 4 batters out to get out of the inning. He was relieved by Brian Bruney and Mo, each of which threw a hitless, scoreless inning. Clemens record is now 1-3 with a 5.32 ERA.

Thanks to a walk off double by Jose Lopez in the 11th that gave the Mariners a 2-1 win over the Red Sox, we're still at 11 games back in the division. Oakland beat Cleveland, so we remain at 8 games back in the wild card, as well. Boston is off today and we have Wang (7-4, 3.51) going up against Daniel Cabrera (6-8, 4.98) at 7:05 PM ET. We actually have to give Wang some runs to work with to end this 4 game slide, though.

Jeter is up for an ESPY in the Best Baseball Player category. You can vote now.

This is my weekly recap of the performance of the YanksBlog.com teams in the Yankees Bloggers Fantasy Baseball League.

Last Week

All well rounded performance propelled James to a 7-3 victory over Aziz (Pride of the Yankees). Actually, Aziz's team was pretty well rounded, as well, but James team was simply better. They mashed 12 home runs (with 3 home run weeks from Alfonso Soriano and Brandon Phillips) and hit .328, but failed to steal a single base. Aziz picked it up there, stealing 3, scoring 40 runs and hitting .325. James' offense was led by the aforementioned Soriano, who hit .471 with 4 R, 3 HR and 3 RBI. Lance Berkman hit .444, as well. Ryan Howard (7 R, 2 HR, 8 RBI, .440 AVG), Howie Kendrick (10 R, 3 RBI, .407 AVG) and Magglio Ordonez (9 R, 4 RBI, 1 SB, .500 AVG) led Aziz's side.

James took 4 of 5 categories on the pitching side, thanks to 4 wins, 50 strikeouts and an incredible 2.73 ERA and 1.03 WHIP. His 4 wins came from Billy Wagner, Kelvim Escobar, Jake Peavy (10 Ks) and Brad Penny. Ted Lilly also picked up 10 Ks (even though he had an ERA of 6.43). The saves came from Jose Valverde (2) and Bobby Jenks (1). Aziz's pitching staff managed to take the saves category with Francisco Cordero contributing 2 and Takashi Saito and David Weathers each chipping in 1. He received wins from Ben Sheets and Homer Bailey.

I had to face the behemoth known as Mike (River Ave. Blues) and I managed to escape with my dignity in tact, thanks to a 5-5 tie. To put it simply: offense was mine and pitching was his. I won R, HR, RBI, AVG and SV. He won SB, W, K, ERA and WHIP. My offense was led by A-Rod (7 R, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 1 SB, .545 AVG) and Dan Uggla (5 R, 3 HR, 8 RBI, 1 SB, .250 AVG). Mike's offense only managed to score 19 runs and drive in 15 with 4 homers and a .263 average to go along with 6 stolen bases. Russell Martin scored 2 runs, hit a home run, drove in 6, stole 2 and hit .304.

As bad as Mike's offense may have been, my pitching was certainly no better. We came up with 1 win, 4 saves, 36 strikeouts, a 5.15 ERA and a 1.37 WHIP. For that, I have to thank Octavio Dotel, Andy Pettitte, Matt Cain and Barry Zito, all of who had an ERA of 7.71 or higher. My 1 win came from Justin Verlander who also gave me 11 strikeouts. My saves came from Mo, Joe Borowski, Dotel and Alan Embree. Mike's 5 wins came from Daisuke Matsuzaka (9 Ks), Francisco Rodriguez, Derek Lowe, Felix Hernandez and Yovani Gallardo (12 Ks). All 3 of his saves came from Kevin Gregg.

Seamus fell to Dave (Pride of the Yankees), 6-3. All 3 of Seamus' wins came on the offensive side with Dave taking the rest and them tying on saves with 1. Joe Mauer was Seamus' offensive leader with 8 R, 2 HR, 9 RBI, 1 SB and a .333 AVG. Dave's greatest contributions came from Vladimir Guerrero (5 R, 2 HR, 7 RBI, .280 AVG) and Paul Konerko (5 R, 2 HR, 4 RBI, .300 AVG).

Seamus failed to pick up a single victory and only picked up 1 save, which came from Todd Jones. Moose registered 11 strikeouts, as well. Dave had wins from Carlos Zombrano (12 Ks), Tom Glavine and Darn Haren with his save coming from Al Reyes.

Top 3 teams in the league:

1. Mike (75-41-4)
2. James (62-52-6)
3. Ben (River Ave. Blues) (62-56-2)

This Week

James (2nd, 62-52-6) vs. Seamus (10th, 44-69-7).

Patrick (T6th, 56-58-6) vs. Dave (4th, 59-54-7).

This is getting depressing. Pettitte goes 7 innings, allowing just 2 ER and we only score 2 runs. How does it ended? Scott Proctor comes in in the 9th and walks 3 guys. First, Corey Paterson to start the inning. Then, Brian Roberts singles and Chris Gomez pops a bunt up to Proctor for the first found. Proctor then walks Nick Markakis to load them up and walks Ramon Hernandez to score the game winning, game ending run. It was a ... walk off walk. Cripes, that is ugly. Hindsight is always fun, but I wouldn't have been sad to have seen Mo used in the 9th instead of Proctor. I mean, I guess, no matter what you have to pitch 2 innings there, so maybe it's 1 for Proctor, 1 for Mo, regardless of it is the 9th or the 10th.

Both of the Yankees runs were driven in on a 2 run home run by Johnny Damon, which also scored Miguel Cairo. Jeter and Cairo were the only Yankees to pick up more than 1 hit with Matsui, Posada (2 walks) and Cano ending up hitless.

The Red Sox lost to the Mariners, so we're still at 11 games back in the division. We're 8 games back in the wild card. The winning streak starts tomorrow today!!! with Clemens going up against Erik Bedard at 7:05 PM ET.

Ed Price has 33 things you may not know about D. Jeter in honor of it being Jeter's 33rd birthday today. Some of my favorites:


Via Bryan Hoch.

From ContraCostaTimes.com:


Via PSD.

ESPN has an E-Ticket piece up on Carl Pavano. It seems odd that they have an article on him now...but whatever, anything to distract myself from the current state of the Yankees.

Update: Just noticed that Steve L. of WasWatching gets a mention in the ESPN article. Good for him.


Also, Carlos Gomez takes a quick look at the bottom third of the MLB draft (and the Yankees pick Andrew Brackman).

It's depressing again in Yankee-town and Mike Plugh puts all my feelings down on paper far better than I could. It's very easy to read his latest post and find yourself consistently agreeing with him.

Stephen Borelli has a story about Mel Allen's departure and return to the Yankees.


We went to Yankee Day at the Florida State Fair before the 1996 season. I don't remember much of it (I actually got dehydrated, so we left a little earlier than we would have normally, and threw up on the way out), but I met Joe Torre, Derek Jeter, Jim Leyritz and Catfish Hunter. My dad and mom/brother met Mel Allen, Hoyt Wilhelm, Ron Guidry, Scott Kamieniecki and probably 1 or 2 others if I recall correctly. Mr. Allen died shortly thereafter, of course.

Via Peter Abraham.

Josh Phelps has been claimed off waivers by the Pirates.

The meeting between Jason Giambi and George Mitchell won't take place until July, at least.

Jeter's hip strain shouldn't keep him out long, if at all.


Via Jim Johnson and Steve.

I think that, usually, when a pitcher (let's say... Matt Morris) allows 13 hits and 1 walk in 5 and 2/3 innings, you score more than 4 runs off him. Maybe not. Wang allowed 6 hits and 2 walks in 6 and 1/3 innings and they scored that much off him.

We struck first in this one, thanks to an RBI groundout from Jeter (scoring Cabrera) and RBI singles from Jorge (scoring Abreu) and Cano (scoring A-Rod). That gave us a 3-0 lead. Wang gave one back in the 3rd on a Dave Roberts double.

Godzilla took that one back in the 5th with an RBI single that scored A-Rod. In the bottom of the 6th, Bonds singled in Randy Winn to make the score 4-2, Yankees.

The bottom of the 7th started with a Bengie Molina line out. 8 outs to go! Next, Pedro Feliz homers to cut the lead to 1. Omar Vizquel singles to put the tying run on first. Mark Sweeney pinch hits for the pitcher and that's the end of the day for Wang as Mike Myers is headed in to face the left handed hitting Sweeney. Myers does the job, getting him to ground out for the second out with Vizquel taking 2nd.

Unfortunately, Myers proceeded to walk Dave Roberts to put runners on 1st and 2nd with 2 outs. That's enough for Myers - in comes Brian Bruney. Today wasn't Bruney's day, unfortunately. First, Randy Winn singled, which scored Vizquel and pushed Roberts to third. Then, he walked Ray Durham to load the bases. Then, he walked Barry Bonds, walking in the go ahead. Cripes! Villone came in and got the final out, getting Ryan Klesko to foul out to A-Rod.

The Yankees threatened in the 8th, putting Cabrera on third thanks to a stolen base and an error by the catcher, with 2 outs for Abreu. Unfortunately, he struck out to end that. Villone didn't have any trouble in the bottom of the 8th, getting 3 straight outs after allowing a lead off single.

So, we enter the top of the 9th down a run. Brad Hennessey enters to face A-Rod. A-Rod deposits one to deep center, out of the park, to tie it up. But, Posada, Matsui and Cano go down in order to end the top half.

Luis Vizcaino is in to pitch the 9th. Vizcaino was awesome, actually, retiring 6 batters in a row to keep it tied in the 9th and 10th. Unfortunately, the Giants pitchers kept the Yankees bats scoreless, as well. Although, there was trouble in the 10th. The Yankees were able to get the bases loaded with 1 out, thanks to the Giants intentionally walking Posada. Matsui and Cano wouldn't get a single run in, though, as they struck out and grounded out, respectfully. Ouch.

The bottom of the 11th saw Scott Proctor enter the game. And he did the job, getting through the 11th and 12th innings without much trouble (save a double by Nate Schierholtz in the 11th). The Yankees hitters went quietly in the 12th and 13th. The 13th ended with Scott Proctor striking out. The only Yankee hitter left on the bench was Chris Basak. If he pinch hit, that would have been his first major league at bat. (Edit: Wil Nieves was also available).

Proctor went out to pitch the bottom of the 13th. Ryan Klesko singles and Molina sacrifices him to 2nd. Feliz flies out to center. 2 outs, man on 2nd. We could do this. Vizquel singles, though, pushing Klesko to third. Old buddy Schierholtz singles to score Klesko, ending the game 6-5.

A question I have is why Mo wasn't used at all. Even with 1 and 2/3 innings yesterday. Still, the pitchers excluding Bruney all did a pretty good job, Proctor did make it to 2 outs with a man on 2nd and the Yankees had already used Wang, Myers, Bruney, Villone, Farnsworth, Vizcaino and Proctor. The only reliever left was Mo. Seamus tells me that Clemens was warming up at one point, as well, but it was also his day to throw, so it may have been nothing. Can't keep losing.

Melky (3 for 7, 1 run) and Abreu (1 for 7, 1 run) each logged 7 at bats. A-Rod was 4 for 6 with 3 runs, 1 RBI and his 28th home run of the season. Posada was 3 for 5 with 1 RBI and 2 walks. Jeter was 2 for 5 with 1 RBI. He left in the 8th with a strained hip, but it doesn't appear to be anything serious. Cano, who left 7 runners on base for the day, was 2 for 6 with an RBI.

Tomorrow we've got Moose (3-4, 5.10 ERA) vs. Noah Lowry (6-6, 3.74 ERA) at 4:05 ET.

From the official site:

Kei Igawa returned from a long minor league stint and looked great until he lost his control in the fifth inning. With the Yankees having a comfortable 5-0 lead, Igawa got wild in the fifth and Vizquel drove in one run with a single and Barry Bonds walked with the bases loaded for the second run. Luis Vizcaino was summoned from the bullpen and almost gave up the lead. Benji Molina took Vizcaino to deep left and Matsui had to make a leaping catch against the wall to end the inning.

The Yankees got their lead early as Cain was wild and walked in a run with Igawa at the bat. A-Rod had his first RBI early and Cabrera added a two run single and Abreu chipped in with a sacrifice fly.

Scott Proctor faced Bonds with the Yankees leading 6-2 and challenged him and lost. On a 3-2 pitch, Proctor unleashed a 95 MPH fastball which Bonds redirected over the right center field fence for his 749th career home run.

Mariano Rivera was brought in to get the last five outs and did so while only giving up one hit. A-Rod was four for four on the night plus a walk and two RBI.

The series resumes on Saturday afternoon with Chien-Ming Wang on the hill for the Bombers.

Ed Price mentions that Clemens, Torre and the rest of the coaches watched the ROGER 2057 video. They all laughed.

From Ken Davidoff:


Via Steve.

From Yahoo! Sports:

On the first day of summer, the Yankees sent Roger Clemens to the hill to try to avoid the three game sweep at the hands of the Rockies.

Unlike the last few days, the scoring started early and surprisingly enough, with the Yankees! In the second, Alex Rodriguez started off with a single and came around to score on a two-run bomb by Hideki Matsui. 2-0 Yankees. Unfortunately, that lead didn't even make it a full half inning as in the bottom of the second, the Rockies hit two solo home runs (Garrett Atkins & Troy Tulowitzki) to even up the score. At that point, the Yankees pretty much reverted to the form they were showing the last two games - very few hits and no real pressure on the pitcher. Rodrigo Lopez ran into a few trouble spots but he got out of all of them with minimal issues. It just seemed that every time that the Yankees mustered a couple of hits, it was with two outs and the next guy up would line out. Story of the series.

Colorado scored two more runs in the fifth when Kaz Matsui (wow, is he having a little resurgence - small sample size, I know but still) singled, stole second and came around on a Matt Holliday single. Man, can this Holliday kid hit. Fastball, splitter, off-speed - you name it, he gets the bat on it. In any case, Rocket was done at this point after 4 and a third. Mike Myers came in and promptly gave up a single to Todd Helton, putting runners on first and third. Scott Proctor came on at that point and got Atkins to fly out but Holliday scored; 4-2 Rockies.

The Yankees made it a closer game in the 7th when Robbie Cano led off the inning with ground-rule double. Miggy Cairo put down a very nice bunt and Melky Cabrera hit a LONG fly ball to score Robbie (any other part of the park and that fly might have been a HR - them's the breaks...at least this series, I guess).

All in all, a disheartening loss. I would have been okay with losing the series - I mean, this is a good Rockies team and hey, you have to lose sometimes. However, getting swept as you head into another interleague series with an unknown quantity starting...that doesn't exactly bode well. Think about it this way - for all the great feelings that the nice Yankees run created in the first couple of weeks of June - a loss in their next game puts them at a game below .500 for the season.

Final point of the night: someone put Damon on the DL. He can't play the OF and he can't get around on fastballs so what can he do? Well, they tried him at first for a little bit today...which makes no sense to me. Why would you put a guy with oblique/rib cage issues at first base where he will have to pivot and lean on any ground ball? I don't get it...but in any case, put him on the DL and play Kevin Thompson in left and DH Matsui. Is there anyone out there that thinks that Thompson won't provide more with the bat and the glove than Damon would right now? It wouldn't have to be much!

Peter Abraham posted a list of draft picks that the Yankees have announced as signed. They are:

184. RHP Adam Olbrychowski, Pepperdine University
244. 2B Damon Sublett, Wichita State University
304. CF Austin Krum, Dallas Baptist University
394. RHP Manuel Barreda, Sahuarita High School
424. RHP Nicolas Chigges, College of Charleston
454. 3B William Pruitt, Stetson University
484. RF David Williams, Rutgers University, New Brunswick
544. RHP Ryan Zink, University of Illinois at Chicago
634. SS Ryan Wehrle, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
664. 2B Justin Snyder, University of San Diego
694. RHP Craig Heyer, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
784. RHP Jason Kiley, Florida Gulf Coast University
814. CF Gary Gattis, Yavapai College
844. 3B Brandon Laird, Cypress College
874. RHP Jeffrey Livek, Carthage College
904. RHP Matthew Pilgreen, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
934. 2B Christopher Carrara, Winthrop University
992. SS Brian Chavez, University of San Francisco
1,021. RHP Fred Jones, University of Evansville
1,269. 1B Christopher Rader, Coastal Carolina University
1,453. C Lawrence Day, University of Connecticut

They also included the following undrafted free agent signings:

SS Robbie Minor, University of Evansville
C Frank Lonigro, San Diego State University
RHP Alexy Still, Rowan University
RHP Mike Hyde, Florida State University
C Freuny Parra, Connors State College

From Peter Abraham: