Bronx, N.Y., April 3, 2021; Yankees 5, Toronto 3 — Two teams showed some early-season struggles in the Yankees’ 5-3 victory over the Blue Jays this afternoon. The Yankees gifted the visitors with single runs in the top of the third and seventh innings that each felt much longer than they were (16 and 11 minutes, respectively), while Toronto’s Marcus Semien ended Corey Kluber’s day with a fifth-inning blast to left less than a minute after that frame had begun. But although 11 hometown hits produced less than they should have, they were a welcome sight for Yankee fans more concerned with their offense than they have any right to be on April 3. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., September 1, 2019: Yankees 5, Oakland 4 — Fans waiting for the Yankees to bring the hammer down on the visiting A’s after the miserable way the Bombers were treated in Oakland last week needed two things to succeed: infinite patience, and faith in their big bats. The Yanks came from behind late on both Saturday and Sunday afternoons, under clear and cool skies in the Bronx. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., July 20, 2019; Yankees 11, Colorado 5 — Although the 11-5 Yankee victory over Colorado in steamy Yankee Stadium Sunday afternoon could be called a blowout, despite the Rockies’ spirited five-run rally in the sixth, the biggest reason the home team took this one was that they stuck to fundamentals. They cleared no fences with their 14 hits, and were charged with no errors. And for five innings, Masahiro Tanaka was as good as could be. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., July 14, 2019; Yankees 4, Toronto 2 — Restoring a little order to their season, the Yankees not only took a three-gamer from Toronto with a 4-2 win Sunday afternoon, they finally hit their first home run of the season’s second half, via Mike Tauchman’s towering blast to right in the home seventh inning. Continuing a solid sophomore season piloting the pinstripers, Aaron Boone gets credit for his choice of Tauchman to play left. Through the first six innings, Mike had gone down swinging and popped a stunningly inept bunt to third baseman Vlad Guerrero, Jr. But his long ball late in this game provided a huge insurance run. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 26, 2019; Yankees 8, Toronto 7 — Two things were revealed during a gorgeous afternoon in Yankee Stadium Wednesday. First, the hawk is apparently not a fan of day games, or maybe just not of the sun. And second, the Yankees can score runs with base hits, along with bashes, even if DJ LeMahieu is not the guy at the plate. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 22, 2019; Yankees 7, Houston 5 — How many days will Yankee fans refrain from booing Giancarlo Stanton following his four-rbi performance Saturday night against Houston in their 7-5 win? It was a contest in which he also played a stellar left field. Admittedly, he had plenty of help from his teammates on both sides of the ball. As a matter of fact, in a season where defense has not been this team’s strength, their collective play in the field may have been their finest showing of the year. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 21, 2019; Yankees 4, Houston 1 — The best news, after four straight days of squeezing games in around far too many raindrops, was that New York area weather made a dramatic reversal midday Friday, and the 41,000 that showed for Friday’s game were treated to an exciting game of baseball in an evening perfect for it. No [enforceable] law says the summer solstice is required to deliver a gorgeous day, but we got one nonetheless. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 20, 2019; Yankees 10, Houston 6 — The fact that the skies cleared and the sun shone after all-day rain 30 minutes before game time turned out to be a tease, but yet another Yankee offensive explosion just before the rains came back definitely wasn’t. The Bombers put up their third six-run inning in two days. They used two of these bombardments to put an exclamation point on their sweep of division rival Tampa Bay Wednesday afternoon. And Thursday’s gave AL playoff rival Houston a rude welcome to start a four-game set in the Bronx. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 17, 2019; Yankees 3, Tampa 0 — Bristling with one of the best pitching staffs in the game, the Tampa Rays came to town Monday for the first of three against the Yankees, a team whose mound members have struggled of late. Just up a half game in the AL East, the Bronx boys needed someone to step up. Veteran righthander Masahiro Tanaka not only came through, he did so in back-in-the-day fashion. Continue reading →