Update: Gagne says he didn't do it.

The official site has this:


Now, thankfully, Mo appears to be fine. Who threw the baseball, you ask? Peter Abraham says it was Eric Gagne. After hearing this, my research led me to this photo of what appears to be Gagne practicing for the opportunity.


(Seriously, though, someone needs to raise the wall or throw in another direction. I would have thrown my body in front of that ball, had I been standing in the Yankees bullpen).

The Yankees last night avoided their usual "Red Sox hangover" as they moved to within 3.5 games of the A.L. East lead with an 8-5 victory over the Orioles. The 3.5 game defecit is the closest the Yankees have been since April 21. The Tigers also lost a thriller in Cleveland, thanks to Casey Blake, giving the Yanks a 3.5 game lead in the wild card race. The Yankees' magic number to clinch the wild card is now 9.

Last night showed some good signs for the Yankees offensively. Lately the lineup as a whole had not been hitting and they've had a tough time scoring for usually 7 or 8 innings out of a game and if they do score they were usually putting up a 5 or 6 spot in an inning and hoping that'd be enough. Last night they scored in every inning except the 1st and 6th, while every Yankee starter had a hit in the game except for Giambi. Matsui broke out of a slump with a tiebreaking solo shot and Jeter, Posada, Abreu and Doug Mientkiewicz all had multi-hit games.

Phil Hughes had a rough first inning, allowing two runs before recording an out, but eventually settled down and had a pretty good outing. He finished with a line of two runs on six hits with 3 K's in 5 and 2/3 innings. Edwar Ramirez got some work in, allowing a run on 3 hits in one inning, and Luis Vizcaino turned in an impressive 1 and 1/3 inning of scoreless ball.

The 9th inning was a little scary, as Kyle Farnsworth couldn't seem to get anybody out. Farnsworth allowed a run and left the game with two runners on, inducing a save situation in an inning where he entered with a 5-run lead. Torre yanked Farnsworth for Mariano Rivera, who struck out Melvin Mora to end the game after allowing an RBI single to Aubrey Huff.

The series will resume tonight at 7:05 ET as Mike Mussina will face Jon Leicester. Mussina is coming off a solid start in his return to the Yankees' rotation. Leicester will be making just his third start of the season, carrying a record of 2-1 (he also has 5 relief appearances) and an ERA of 6.32.

The DVD for The Bronx is Burning will be released on September 25. Here is a listing of the bonus features, from the press release:


To promote it, Graig Nettles and Mickey Rivers will be doing a pair of signings in NYC on the 25th. Here's the info:

The second round of playoffs in the Yankees Bloggers Fantasy Baseball League has come to a close.

5. Patrick defeats 1. Mike (River Ave. Blues), 5-4

It's crazy how close this match was down to the very end. I didn't get any offensive explosion as Posada, Jeter, A-Rod and Matsui combined to go 2 for 12 with 1 R, 1 HR and 3 RBI (all of the good stats coming from Jeter). But, it was just enough.

Up until the top of the 8th inning in the Yankees game, with 2 outs, Mike was leading this game by the score of 5-4-1. He had stolen bases, ERA and WHIP in the bag. He held onto a small lead in batting average and was leading RBI by 3. We were tied in runs. But, then, that wonderful, wonderful man, Derek Jeter, came up to the plate. I love that guy. *tear* Just when you think he can't do anything else. He adds another chapter by winning the game for me in one swing of the bat. That one swing gave me 1 run and 3 RBI, precisely what I needed to win, by giving me the lead in runs and taking away the RBI category by tying it, allowing me to pull ahead 5-4-1. Talk about late dramatics. Crazy.

This was definitely a close one. I won runs by 1, home runs by 5, wins by 2, saves by 3 and strikeouts by 5. Mike won stolen bases by 10, batting average by 1, ERA by 1.56 and WHIP by 0.19. We tied in RBIs at 32. Mike's pitching staff maintained a super low 1.30 ERA with a 1.05 WHIP.

For the week, Prince Fielder was my offensive leader, hitting .381 with 3 homers, 3 runs and 6 runs batted in. Mike was lead by Jose Reyes (5 R, 1 RBI, 4 SB, .375 AVG) and Grady Sizemore (7 R, 2 RBI, 2 SB, .286 AVG).

Pitching wise, Scott Kazmir was a giant this week, picking up 2 victories and 21 strikeouts with a 0.00 ERA and 1.14 WHIP. I also had wins from Joe Borowski, Jair Jurrjens, Justin Verlander and Joe Saunders. Huston Street had a 4 save week while Mariano picked up 3. Fausto Carmona had a huge week for Mike, as well, with 2 wins, 12 strikeouts, a 0.60 ERA and 0.60 WHIP. The other wins came from Yovani Gallardo and Derek Lowe with saves from Joe Nathan (2), Francisco Rodriguez and Kevin Gregg.

2. James defeats 3. Ben (River Ave. Blues), 5-5

In another close one, James defeated Ben on the first tiebreaker, ERA, to advance to the final. James team had an ERA of 3.44 vs. Ben's 4.69. Ben's team led 4 out of 5 offensive categories and James' led 4 out of 5 pitching categories.

Garrett Atkins (5 R, 2 HR, 4 RBI, .429 AVG) and Brandon Phillips (6 R, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 2 SB, .364 AVG) had great weeks for James. Alfonso Soriano had 3 home runs while Chipper Jones hit .538. Adam Dunn was Ben's leader, hitting .421 with 7 runs, 3 home runs and 8 runs batted in. Chone Figgins also had a great week, hitting .400 with 5 runs, 4 runs driven in and 5 stolen bases.

Like Kazmir for me and Carmona for Mike, James found a friend in Jake Peavy this week. He had 2 wins, 15 strikeouts, a 1.88 ERA and 0.84 WHIP. Ted Lilly (11 Ks), Joe Blanton and Kelvim Escobar also were credited with wins. Billy Wagner (2) and Bobby Jenks had the saves. Ben's lone win came from Brett Myers who also pitched in 2 saves. Ryan Dempster had 3 saves of his own, while Chad Cordero had 2. C.C. Sabathia had 13 strikeouts.

This Week

Here is this week's championship match up:

2. James (Regular Season Record: 117-89-14) vs. 5. Patrick (109-103-8)

Previous match ups:
Week 5: Patrick wins, 6-3-1.
Week 14: Patrick wins, 6-4.

James' strengths: saves (3rd), ERA (1st) and WHIP (3rd).
Patrick's strengths: runs (1st), home runs (1st), RBIs (1st) and strikeouts (3rd).

James' weaknesses: none.
Patrick's weaknesses: stolen bases (10th), ERA (T8th) and WHIP (10th).

The winner of this game will the champion of the league. Good luck.

Peter Abraham:


Roger Clemens:


Jim Johnson:


Chip:

Let's take a look, now that Joba has finally allowed an earned run.

Joba: 13 G, 2-0, 0 S, 0 BS, 18 IP, 10 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 HR, 5 BB, 23 K, 0.50 ERA, 0.83 WHIP, .159 BAA.

Gagne: 14 G, 1-1, 0 S, 2 BS, 13 IP, 21 H, 11 R, 11 ER, 1 HR, 4 BB, 15 K, 7.62 ERA, 1.92 WHIP, .356 BAA.

From MLB.com:

The game started out with two seasoned warriors living up to their reputations. Clemens vs. Schilling was all it was supposed to be. Clemens pitched six strong innings allowing only one unearned run and two hits. It was his first start in about two weeks after his recent elbow problems. Schilling was just as masterful until the eighth. He had allowed only one run until then, on a home run from Cano in the fifth to tie the score. Doug Mientkiewicz got a single but Melky Cabrera was retired. Torre pulled a rabbit out of his hat and pinch hit for Jose Molina with Posada already in the game as DH. The trick worked as Giambi smashed a double high off he green monster to put runners on second and third with only one out. On the first pitch to Damon, Schilling jammed him and Pedroia fielded the ball and held the baserunners before throwing to first for the second out.

Derek Jeter battled Schilling and eventually won the battle by launching a three run homer well over the green monster to give the Yankees the lead at 4-1. They would need all the runs.

Joba Chamberlain followed Clemens and was greeted with a double by Eric Hinske. The big right hander toughened and, after Hinske was sacrificed to second, he got Lugo to strike out and retired Ellsbury on a grounder to first to end the seventh inning.

In the eighth, Joba got the first two outs by retiring Pedroia and Big Papi but Mike Lowell then hit a homer off Joba, the first earned run he has given in his Major League career. He then struck out J.D. Drew to end the inning.

The Yankees couldn't add any extra insurance and Rivera was summoned for the bottom of the ninth. Jason Varitek worked a walk and then Rivera got Hinske and Crisp on ground balls to move Varitek to third with two outs. Julio Lugo doubled up the alley in left, scoring Varitek to make the score 4-3. Ellsbury was hit with the first pitch and Pedroia battled a walk to load the bases. With the drama at a fever pitch, Big Papi was up to bat and on a 2-2 pitch, Mo jammed him with a cutter and got him to pop up to Jeter in short center field to end the game.

The Yankees remain with a 2 1/2 game lead in the Wild Card with the Tigers winning again earlier in the day.

The Yankees now return home for three with Baltimore and then four with Toronto.

Not because I want the Yankees to win or anything like that, but for my fantasy teams! In the Yankees Bloggers League, I've got Posada, A-Rod, Jeter and Matsui. In the YanksBlog.com League, I've got Posada, Cano, A-Rod and Jeter.

The only one that's done great in the past week is Posada. A-Rod (4 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 2 SB, .261 AVG) and Cano (3 R, 1 HR, 4 RBI, .250 AVG) have been alright, but I could really use the offensive boost today.

Tyler Kepner has a great entry of bullet points related to the Yanks/Sox series.

This is great:


heh. I found this interesting, as well:


Finally, Dave and Aziz link to this Daily News article where the writer catches up with Bernie and we hear a bit about how he feels being out of the game at this time of the year.

From the official site: