August 11, 2013, Bronx, N.Y. — There were a few contrasting threads running through today’s Yankees/Tigers game. On the one hand, Andy Pettitte allowed a first-inning run for a Yankee record eighth straight time, and failed to go five innings despite throwing 100 pitches. On the other, recent Cy Young recipient Justin Verlander, despite consistently pounding 95 mph heat, was reached for four runs in the same amount of innings against a Yankee team struggling to score. Continue reading →

August 9, 2013, Bronx, N.Y. — There were several threads running leading up to Friday night’s Tigers/Yankees game in the Bronx. The Tigers had taken a stranglehold on the AL Central thanks to to a 12-game winning streak, while the Yanks had fallen to just one game over .500 coming off a depressing 2-6 road trip that crashed and burned in a heap thanks to a three-game sweep in Comiskey Park against the last-place White Sox. Nasty weather threatened to cancel or at least mess up matters, a shame for the home side, who had Ivan Nova scheduled, coming off some great outings. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., July 6, 2013 — The Yankees leapfrogged the Orioles Saturday afternoon and retook second place, even if six full games back of Boston, with their second straight one-run win. They’ve won six of six, and have largely repaid the O’s for last weekend’s Camden Yards sweep. New York may sweep the Birds in response tomorrow, but as the season goes they don’t need to. They’ve dominated Baltimore in the Bronx. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., July 5, 2013 — The trip the Yanks made from Minnesota back to the Bronx after Thursday’s win covered a lot more distance than the amount of miles separating the two cities would have you believe. Yes, they traversed several states and a time zone, but so much more. In the Twin Cities, they scored runs in bunches in a way they have not in more than a year, so time was one barrier they crossed. But the biggest jump of all became apparent several innings into the battle with the Orioles in Yankee Stadium Friday night. Yes, they were back in the AL East. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., June 25, 2013 — Sunday afternoon Yankee Stadium was ready to rock to its first 2013 walkoff win, as Rickey Henderson singled hard to left center, driving in Bucky Dent and John Flaherty in the third inning so the Bombers could defeat the Clippers 2-1 in the 67th annual Old-Timers’ Game. That would be the final score, but it was not to be a walkoff, primarily because the 40-, 50-, and 60-year-old “kids” refused to stop playing, even though not one of these Classics has gone beyond three frames for decades. They played five. Continue reading →

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 →