When the Yankees were sitting in last place at 11-19, I didn't think I'd see them get their 20th victory before their 20th loss. However, this is now the case as the Yankees beat the Mariners in Seattle for their 9th straight victory to improve their record to 20-19. The Yankees are now above .500 for the first time since they started the season 3-2.

I guess unlike most humans, Bernie Williams does not need to be in the lineup consistently in order to get a feel for the ball. Bernie hit a key grand slam in the 7th to put the Yankees up 5-2 en route to an eventual 6-3 victory. Chien-Ming Wang was lights out after a shaky first inning, at one point retiring 17 consecutive Mariner hitters as he recorded his second Major League win. Mariano Rivera put the cap on it once again, striking out Greg Dobbs to record his 7th save of the season. I will also add that Tino Martinez did not homer in this game, which might be a more newsworthy story at this point than it would have been had he hit one out.

The victory brought the Yankees within 5 games of the division leading Orioles. The Yankees will go for 10 in a row tomorrow night in Seattle.

The New York Yankees won their eighth straight game and have reached the .500 mark at 19-19 with three games upcoming against the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field starting tomorrow night.

Randy Johnson did not have his best stuff at all and struggled all day. He gave up three runs in the first inning aided by his own error on a simple come backer to the first batter of the game. However, Tino Martinez aided the cause with two homeruns inlcuding a tieing two run shot in the fourth. The Yankees got the A's starter Haren out of the game in the seventh and were able to score two runs against Ricardo Rincon to take a two run lead. Jason Giambi came up with a key two out double to put the Yankees ahead and Robinson Cano followed with one of his four hits to extend the lead to two runs.

As for milestones, the Yankees are now at .500. It was Randy Johnson's 250th career win. Mariano Rivera recorded the 342nd save of his career to pass Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers into seventh place on the all time career saves list and Joe Torre recorded his 1800th career victory as a manager, including 906 as the Yankees manager.

The entire Yankees bullpen did not allow a runner on base. Tanyon Sturtze pitched a perfect seventh inning followed by Tom Gordon in the eighth and Mo to finish the game in the ninth.

Tino Martinez has been just awesome. His two homeruns today give him twelve on the season and tie him with A-Rod for the major league lead.

In last nights thrashing of the A's one fan got carried away and dumped his beer on Jason Giambi.

The fan was immediately removed from the stadium.

Michael Kay put it correctly when he said, "...until a player is seriously injured, that's when people will wake up."

Amid rumors that he may be sent down to the minors or eventually traded or even released, Joe Torre has announced that Jason Giambi will be the starting DH for the Yankees tonight in Oakland. Torre said on "Mike and the Mad Dog" that the Yanks need to test him out for the next few days to see what Giambi still has left in him, meaning that he will probably be in the lineup for at least the next 4 or 5 games. Torre also has said that a horrible game or two at the plate will not cause Giambi to be immediately taken out of the lineup.

I have mixed feelings on this decision by Joe Torre. I want Giambi to get better and show everybody that he still has some talent left in him, but this also means taking playing time away from Bernie Williams, who is starting to warm up a bit at the plate. However, I do not think that a trip to the minors for Giambi would be the best solution either because in my opinion demoting a player is not the best way to "raise" a player's confidence level, especially a guy like Giambi who has taken so much pride in what he's done in the past.

Giambi will get a good test tonight with Rich Harden on the mound for the A's. If he can keep up with his fastball, he can keep up with anybody's. It is important to see if Giambi's problems are the result of a timing issue or a slow bat. Giambi is getting blown away by with fastballs that he used to drive into the upper deck.

One thing Giambi does do though is get on base. No matter how bad he hits during the season, you can always expect his on base percentage to be at or near .400. The fact that he draws walks leaves me to believe he does still have an eye at the plate. It's not like pitchers are pitching around him anymore. At least they shouldn't be.

Some people are saying that this move doesn't make sense because there isn't enough room in the order, especially with Ruben Sierra coming off the DL soon. That being said, can it really hurt to have another capable bat on the team? I don't know how optimistic I should be about Giambi, but if he does produce it will have a huge positive impact on the team.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Bronx, NY

What a great time I had with my family on Wednesday at the Yankees game. It was a splendidly beautiful day weather wise and the Yankees came through with their fifth straight win 13-9. I wasn't feeling too good after the top of the first inning and we were down 5-0. But the sign of a good team is the ability to come from behind, and we did. We scored five to tie it at the end of one.

We pulled ahead briefly 6-5 until Ichiro homered off of Pavano. Raul Ibanez put the Mariners ahead 9-6 with a mammoth shot to the uper deck in right field. The renewed Yankees hero, Tino Martinez homered for the fifth straight day and tied the game. Later Jeter hit one and Sheffield hit a two run shot to put the Yankees up 12-9. Posada added a solo shot in the eighth to close out the scoring at 13-9.

The positive is that the Yankees can win by bashing anyone. With our power we can come back from huge deficits. We are never out of a game. The negative is that Carl Pavano did not look good at all, he really got rocked, giving up nine runs in four inning, all coming on home runs. An A-Rod error in the first could have ended the inning with a double play, but alls well that ends well.

Tonight we start off the west coast swing with Oakland, and Mike Mussina going for the Yankees. The just completed homestand proved that both Oakland and Seattle are not that great of teams. The Yankees should be able to win two of three from both. They will need to win five of six to get above .500.

Well my day at the game with my brother and two sisters was just great. I hope we get to go again sometime during the rest of the season.

The Yankees have released Steve Karsay.

And so ends his run with the Yankees at around 3 and 1/4 seasons. In this span, he pitched in 91 games (78 in 2002 - 13 since). In that 2002 campaign, he went 6-4 with 12 saves and a 3.26 ERA. Solid numbers. However, from then on he was plagured by shoulder problems that would keep him off of the mound for much of his remaining time in the Bronx. Unfortunate.

The Yankees got another impressive victory tonight over the Mariners, their fourth in a row. They got another solid pitching performance, this time from Chien-Ming Wang, who gave up 3 runs on only 4 hits in 7 1/3. Tino Martinez homered for the 4th time in as many games. Carl Pavano and the Yanks will go for the sweep against the Mariners tomorrow afternoon in the Bronx.

I think it's great to see what Martinez has done for the Yankees so far in the month of May. He's been swinging the bat like he did for us in the late '90s lately. After his two-run shot off Aaron Sele, Michael Kay reported on YES that he had homered 6 times in 20 at bats. Thats' a .300 average for homering (if that makes any sense). For an old man whose bat everyone has said slowed down, he's been hitting quite well. Martinez is now tied for 8th in the American League in home runs with 8. If he keeps this up, we just might have to keep him around for a couple more years.

What does Womack have to do?

I was reminded (by Cliff Corcoran) of how a lot of Yankee fans are intent on not giving Womack any sort of chance or praise. Even in his praising of Womack, he tempers it with comments like "Let me reiterate, this is not to say that the Yankees should have signed Womack this winter..." and a final harsh shot of "He does appear to be a very useful player, even if he's actually not."

If Womack wasn't useful, he would not be a starter as long as he has been. He's a useful player who can competently play multiple positions and be a modest offensive presence. Are the days of useful utility guys really that far gone? Are we really that spoiled? Must everyone hit .300 or hit 20 home runs?

Must we have a lineup of Posada, Pujols, Soriano, A-Rod, Jeter, Matsui, Beltran, Guerrero and Sheffield (... wait, we have 5 of those guys already... nuts)? I mean, are we really that spoiled? I mean, I've love to have them, of course (and feel very fortunate we even have 5)... but, I can appreciate the "lesser" guys as well without having to think of what could be or what might have been, which is the type of "praise" Womack seems to get a lot of.

In my limited viewing of him, Womack has done nothing this year but play hard and he's done pretty well as far as what can be expected. He's played two positions, he's played 30 games, he's hit .282 (4th on the team) with a .331 OBA. He's hitting .367 with runners in scoring position. He's T31st in the AL in batting average and 47th in OBA. He's T37th in hits.

He deserves some clean praise. Not to be measured against "better" players (Polanco) or star players (Soriano), but expectations and how he is performing within the team and circumstances that are actually controllable. That's all I'm saying.

There was a lot I liked about tonight's performance by the entire Yankees team. Randy Johnson was not awesome but very gutsy when he needed to be. He didn't go after some weaker players in the lineup and it cost him. However, he stayed in to the eighth and struck out Bret Boone with the go ahead run in scoring position. The Yankees scored in the ninth and Rivera saved the game.

Also, Tino Martinez has the home run stroke. He has hit five in his last eight games and has seven already this season. The best however, was the bottom of the eighth inning. The Mariners replaced Gil Meche with old Yankee Jeff Nelson to start the inning. Joe Torre pinch hit for rookie Robinson Cano with Rey Sanchez who delivered a leadoff single. Jeter followed with a perfect sacrifice bunt and Tony Womack got a single up the middle for what proved to be the winning run. They are showing signs of winning baseball. They have had four consecutive well pitched games even though Pavano lost last Friday night. The relief pitching is getting better and the hitting is coming in clutch situations.

The only thing I don't really like is Jason Giambi. He is now on the interstate at .197. He simply can't do it anymore. The Yankees are going to have to get another bat even though Ruben Sierra will be back. They have two more with the Mariners at home then go to the West Coast to play Oakland and Seattle again. They just to keep thinking about taking two out of three until they get to .500

Well I can't wait until Wednesday and I see them in the Bronx. I will report back after that. Keep up the chatter about possible trades.