Bronx, N.Y., June 21, 2013 — Following a dreadful road trip where their starting pitchers have slowly been given the impression that to win for the Yankees you need to hold the other team to two runs or less, the team returned home to cash in a win, only to follow that with 14 straight scoreless innings in back-to-back losses. Recent struggles had dropped them from first place in the AL East, and then from second. And a look in the rear-view mirror showed last place in the division was a mere three games away. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 19, 2013 — Although the fact that Wednesday evening in the Bronx was about as pleasant in its own way as was the afternoon on a perfect day for baseball, to most Yankee fans the 24-hour period had a pretty stark divide: good day game, bad night game. Given that the home team won the former and lost the latter, that makes it a pretty simplistic approach. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 5, 2013 — Early on, the Indians/Yankees tilt in the Bronx Wednesday afternoon lent itself to a stark assessment of starting pitching. Yankee ace CC Sabathia was dealing, blanking the visiting Indians through five and retiring 14 of 14 in doing so. Young righthander Corey Kluber, on the other hand, was pounded for five hits, two home runs, and six runs while posting just four outs. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 4, 2013 — With Andy Pettitte back from the DL, Ivan Nova being stretched out in Scranton, and Vidal Nuno the flavor of the month, the skids were well greased for David Phelps’s exit from the Yankee rotation. Six days ago, with the Yanks poised to pounce on the crosstown Mets in Yankee Stadium after two losses in Flushing, Phelps threw 32 pitches and recorded one out, surrendering five ugly runs in a 9-4 loss while failing to finish the first inning. Combined with Adam Warren’s ugly late line in an 11-1 loss to Boston, the time seemed ripe for David to reassume the long man job he held on the Yankee staff for much of last year. Continue reading →

June 3, 2013, Bronx, N.Y. — As 40,000 or so Yankee fans wiped down their pregame-soaked seats before Monday night’s tilt with visiting Cleveland, many looked nervously to the skies. Who could blame them, what with the way the weather not only ended Sunday night’s loss, but also scared the bejeesus out of any sentient being anywhere near Yankee Stadium? Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., May 31, 20013 — If you didn’t already believe that baseball is a bottom line game, a look at Yankee Stadium in Friday night’s fifth inning might have convinced you. Following two home losses to the Mets, the first by five runs and the next by two, here Kevin Youkilis strode to the plate with two down, and the Yanks were still looking for a fourth hit, a figure they had reached in the fourth, then third innings the two nights before. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., May 17, 2013 — On Friday night, Hiroki Kuroda put a stop to that seemingly rarest of 2013 Yankee experiences, a two-game losing streak, and even rarer, a loss in a one-run game. Hiroki was willing (and obviously able) to win a one-run game himself, something it seemed he might have to do given the unexpected trouble the Yanks were having with Mark Buehrle’s slow and slower stuff. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., May 15, 2013 — Well, it was bound to happen, though perhaps not as dramatically as the ugly Wednesday Yankee 12-2 loss to Seattle in the Bronx proved to be. Enigmatic Yankee righthander Phil Hughes had his worst start in … well, forever, failing to survive the game’s first inning, and putting his teammates in a 7-0 hole. Phil garnered his first out in two pitches, then recorded his next 32 tosses later. CC Sabathia was striking out Robert Andino to end the top of the second at 7:29 Tuesday night; 24 hours later, Preston Claiborne, in already for Hughes, put an end to the top of the first with a called third strike at the same moment. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., May 14, 2013 — First base was a place of some strange doings in Yankee Stadium Tuesday night. In the top of the second, Lyle Overbay’s decision to toss ex-Yank Raul Ibanez’s weak ground ball to a tardy CC Sabathia at the bag got the Seattle DH a cheap hit and pushed Michael Morse to third. The Mariners did not score due to one of Sabathia’s 10 strike outs then, but they would take a 1-0 lead the following inning when Overbay booted a Michael Saunders one out before Kyle Seager’s rbi double to right. Continue reading →