May 10, 2012, Bronx, N.Y. – A creepy feeling of deja vu hovered over Yankee Stadium with two outs in the first inning Thursday night. The “feared” Sean Rodriguez reached with one out, on via a CC Sabathia hit by pitch rather than an intentional walk, as happened on Opening Day in Tampa. Three batters later Carlos Pena strode to the plate with bases loaded once Yankee third baseman Eduardo Nunez booted Brandon Guyer’s two-out grounder toward the bag. Continue reading →

May 8, 2012, Bronx, N.Y. – With a 5-0 James Shields toeing the mound as the tied-for-first Tampa Bay Rays came to the Bronx Tuesday night, it was incumbent on Yankee righty Ivan Nova to bring out his “A” game. After a leadoff single by Ben Zobrist and a first-pitch ball to Carlos Pena, fans weren’t sure what they would get. Then Ivan dropped his first slider on Pena at 1-2, and we all calmed down. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., April 19, 2012 – There couldn’t have been more than a handful of fans among the 40,000-plus attending Thursday night’s Yankee game who weren’t muttering some version of a similar mantra either to themselves or to their companions: “Phil Hughes is running out of chances. If he has a shot, the first thing he needs is a clean, low-pitch first inning.” Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., April 17, 2012 – There’s almost 1,500 innings per team per regular season in major league baseball, a nice round number easily eclipsed when a team has mutiple games go extra innings. There’s always six outs, in most cases turned in by a variety of methods: strikes outs, both swinging and called; ground outs; fly balls; maybe a runner tagged out on the basepaths. There may be hits; there may be runs; great plays and ugly errors. But every team plays a few games that feature crazy short segments: moments when personalities intrude on the game, when things that don’t appear on every scorecard congregate in one section of a contest. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., April 16, 2012 – After winning a home series against a contending Anaheim team the Yanks were certainly not looking past Minnesota, lightly regarded both because they struggled through a horrible 2012 season, and because they have a dreadful history playing in the Bronx. But their fans may have been. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., April 15, 2012 – The Yanks took the rubber game of their three-gamer with Anaheim in Yankee Stadium Sunday night, but for a contest the Bombers led 8-1 after three, and eventually prevailed in by an 11-5 score, it was closer and less comfortable a victory than you might imagine. The good that you can say about the start from Ivan Nova, reportedly suffering from flu symptoms, is that he is 2-0 on the young season, that he pounced for eight strike outs in six innings, that he didn’t walk any batters until late, and that he allowed just four earned runs. The worst was that he allowed seven deep shots to or over walls while in there. Continue reading →

Bronx, N.Y., April 14, 2012 – In a repeat Yankee fans did not need to see again, Phil Hughes failed to provide a mediocre, much less quality, start as the Yanks fell to the visiting Anaheim Angels 7-1 in Yankee Stadium Saturday afternoon. Struggling to record 10 outs on 85 pitches, Hughes allowed six runs on eight hits and two walks in that time, and the Yanks and Angels evened their series at a game apiece. Continue reading →