Yankees baseball blog

Nothin' doin'

Last night, the Yankees actually had an excuse for their frigid bats. And like a golfer taking full advantage of a mulligan, they pointed to the pedigree of Toronto's Roy Halladay. After the 2003 Cy Young Award winner outdueled Yankee ace Randy Johnson and dismissed the Bomber bats with a three-hit shutout, the Yanks dismissed their third straight loss — this time by a 2-0 count — as a matter of circumstance.

"It's easy for people to say, well, we've been scuffling, we haven't been swinging the bats," Derek Jeter said. "But I don't care how we were swinging. "He was better than us today. He deserved to go the full game and shut us out." Continue

Balls drive A-Rod batty

Alex Rodriguez yesterday abruptly cut ties with a memorabilia company attempting to sell autographed baseballs commemorating his three-homer, 10-RBI game against the Angels on Tuesday, claiming he never had given permission for such a venture. The company, known as "A-Rod Authenticated," is a division of Elite Sports Marketing and advertised the "once in a lifetime" opportunity on the radio in New York. The asking price was $399 for the balls, which had A-Rod's signature and his stat line from the game. They were not actually used in the game.

"I reached the people and I said, 'If you're trying to do things without me, that's not right,'" A-Rod said. "I'm very upset about it. ... To go out and sell this crap - that's BS." Scott Monette, president of Elite, declined comment yesterday. But when a caller posing as a potential customer inquired about the balls, she was told that a "presale" was currently being conducted; A-Rod, according to the sales representative, would sign the balls on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. Continue

Feeling ill, Mo can't go

The main reason Mariano Rivera hasn't pitched in over a week is the Yankees haven't been able to get him a lead. The past couple of days, however, it's been because of an illness. The Yankees' closer was unavailable to pitch last night as well as Thursday because of a stomach virus. He saw a doctor during the day and went home to rest.

The team also sent Rivera home Thursday before its 3-1 loss to the Angels because he was feeling ill. Joe Torre said hours before last night's game that Rivera wouldn't pitch. "I don't imagine he'd be any good to us," the manager said. Continue

Yankees handcuffed by Halladay

Through the first six innings, Randy Johnson was untouchable. For one pitch in the seventh inning, not so much. Eric Hinske's two-run homer in that inning spoiled what was otherwise an exceptional night for the Big Unit, who overmatched the Blue Jays for most of the game. The blast proved to be the difference as Toronto edged New York, 2-0, in a speedy complete-game matchup between former Cy Young Award winners.

The decisive seventh inning opened with Johnson picking off Alexis Rios, who singled. Johnson then walked Gregg Zaun and worked the count to 0-2 against Hinske before leaving a fastball over the heart of the plate, which the third baseman slugged just over the right-field wall. Continue

Run-happy bombers off-base

For the second straight game, the Yankees ran themselves ragged in the first inning. For the second straight night, they shot themselves in the foot with a starter's pistol while intending to sprint out of the gate. Derek Jeter was caught dead on a hit-and-run during the first inning of last night's 3-1 loss to the Angels, which muted the club's best chance to take charge of the game. During Wednesday night's 5-1 defeat, third base coach Luis Sojo sent Jeter home with nobody out and the meat of the Yankee order coming up.

This time, it was a call for a hit-and-run which ultimately cost the Yankees runs. Jeter led off the first inning with a walk, and the Angels guessed he'd be running on a 1-and-1 pitch to Tony Womack. They pitched out and guessed wrong, so the Yankees put the hit-and-run on for the next pitch. Angel right-hander John Lackey came to a stop from the stretch, and as soon as he moved his hands, Jeter was off. Problem was, Lackey quickly fired to first, and Jeter was a dead duck between first and second. Continue

Just color Brown a hard-luck loser

Kevin Brown threw a series of pitches, sat down, stretched, yawned, flicked some cherry blossoms off his shoulder and stood up again, ready for another warm-up. If Brown were a hitter, he might have swapped his batting gloves, or switched his personal musical repertoire from rap to country. Funks and slumps must be banished, before they do great harm. So Brown, desperate for change, decided to tinker with his bullpen routine, long before the visiting Angels took the field.

Brown hauled a winless record into the Stadium last night, but his 0-2 start and puffy 8.25 ERA were hardly his only worries. If there is one Yankee who still looks so very uncomfortable in pinstripes, if there is one aging superstar who sorely sticks out in a clubhouse that closely follows the social security headlines, it is Brown. Continue

Godzilla won't sit on slump

Everyone goes through slumps, as Hideki Matsui's quiet past couple of weeks prove. Not everyone takes time off, however. So while anyone else who'd gone 9-for-44 might've gotten last night off, or might at least have considered it, the thought never even occurred to the Yankees' left fielder or his manager. "I've never really looked at it that way," Matsui said through an interpreter after the Yankees' 3-1 loss to the Angels, his 1,597th consecutive game played, counting his last 1,250 in Japan. "I'm not physically tired or anything. I just keep playing, if I can. Even today, I had pretty good at-bats. For me personally, I don't really look at it as a slump."

Whether Matsui's recent dry spell qualifies as a slump or not, he at least took step one toward working his way out of it. He went 1-for-4, dropping his batting average to a season-low .274, but he drove in the Yankees' only run with a double in the fifth and nearly homered in the first. Continue

Brown solid, but Angels defeat Yankees

When a team puts up double-digit run totals in four of its last 10 games, it's easy to believe that things are clicking with the offense. But what happens when that same club puts up a total of 13 runs in the other six games, losing five of those contests? Welcome to the 2005 edition of the New York Yankees.

The Bronx Bombers didn't live up to that moniker on Thursday night, scoring just one run against John Lackey and a quartet of Angels relievers in a 3-1 loss at Yankee Stadium. The loss guaranteed the Yankees of their first losing record in April since 1991, snapping their own Major League record of 13 consecutive years with a winning mark in the opening month. Continue

Party is over for A-Rod

The hoopla surrounding Alex Rodriguez's three-homer, 10-RBI performance in the Yankees 12-4 win over the Angels Tuesday night quickly wore off once the third baseman arrived home. There were no phone calls from friends offering congratulations. No late-night celebrations to commemorate the greatest game of his career. No greetings from well-wishing strangers walking the streets the next day. "I just stayed in my apartment," Rodriguez said. "My wife (Cynthia) made me throw out the garbage like every other day."

Rodriguez came through with another homer last night, a solo shot in the fourth that produced the only Yankee run of a 5-1 loss to the Angels. But the night before was unlike any other game Rodriguez had experienced in his 10-year career. With Tuesday night's outburst he came within one home run of tying Lou Gehrig's club record of four in one game and fell one RBI shy of tying Tony Lazzeri's Yankee and American League record of 11 in a game, set in 1936. Continue

Stott will tinker with Kevin's prep

Pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre will alter Kevin Brown's pregame preparation tonight because of a disturbing first-inning trend. In Brown's two starts this year, he has surrendered a total of six first-inning runs. Throw in his second inning at Baltimore in his 2005 debut, and it's a combined 10 runs over the first two innings of his first two starts.

Stottlemyre plans to make an adjustment in the last four or five minutes of Brown's warm-up, although he declined to specify what he'll do. "He throws plenty early — we'll still do that," Stottlemyre said before last night's 5-1 loss to the Angels. "We'll try to just make an adjustment at the end. ... To get him a little more ready, maybe get his concentration up a little higher and his confidence level a little more going into the game." Brown declined to talk. Continue

Coach: I shouldn't have sent Jeter home

As he came out of the Yankee coaches' room late last night, Luis Sojo wore a dejected look along with his street clothes. The third base coach sent Derek Jeter to his doom in the first inning of the 5-1 loss to the Angels, and he owned up to his mistake. "It was a bad play on my part," Sojo said.

With nobody out and Jeter on first, Bernie Williams lashed a double down the left-field line. Garret Anderson fielded and fired a one-hop frozen rope to the plate as Sojo was frantically urging Jeter to head home. Angels catcher Jose Molina had the dish blocked and landed on Jeter with the tag, killing a rally before it really got going. Even though Jeter is one of the game's savviest baserunners and Sojo said he was running on the pitch, it was an overaggressive play with Gary Sheffield, Hideki Matsui and Alex Rodriguez coming up. Continue

Wang finds Stadium is in league of own

Chien-Ming Wang arrived in the Bronx yesterday, and to say that he's looking forward to making his major league debut on Saturday against Toronto might be an understatement. "I was so excited I couldn't fall asleep until 4 o'clock in the morning," the Taiwanese righthander said through a translator.

Still, the Bombers are hoping that Wang, who takes injured Jaret Wright's spot in the rotation, won't be shaken by a loud Stadium crowd that will include his mother and father. The 25-year-old was 2-0 with a 4.15 ERA in four starts for Triple-A Columbus this season. Continue

Yankees' bats fall silent in loss to Angels

Alex Rodriguez tried to follow up his big night on Tuesday with another show-stopping performance on Wednesday, but it was Garret Anderson who stole the spotlight, leading the Angels to a 5-1 win over the Yankees. Anderson homered, drove in three runs and nailed Derek Jeter at the plate with a perfect throw in the first inning, killing New York's shot at a big inning to kick off the game.

Mike Mussina couldn't continue the trend of solid starts set by Randy Johnson and Carl Pavano, allowing five runs over seven innings of work. The Angels rattled off 10 hits against Mussina, the second consecutive start in which Mussina has been hit for double-digit base hits. Continue

True Yankee or not, A-Rod puts on show

SO the assignment for last night was baseball. Upon receiving it at the end of last week, I began counting. On my fingers, of course. Friday-Saturday-Sunday-Monday-Pedro. No, said the boss, not the Mets. The Yankees. Oh, the other game. Pedro Martinez, the newest charismatic New York baseball star who'd burned brighter than any other this whole season — this whole April! — would perform at Shea. It was my sad duty to trudge to Yankee Stadium to watch faded people like Alex Rodriguez.

My sad duty, indeed. Because if all the baseball buzz had surrounded that old Parks Department facility in Flushing, they all should have heard it in the big ballpark in the Bronx when A-Rod stepped to the plate with the bases loaded in the fourth inning of last night's game against the Angels of all of Southern California. Should have heard it when A-Rod, who had previously cracked a majestic three-run homer to left-center in the first and then a two-run rope over the wall in left in the third, dug in against Bartolo Colon. And then they should have heard it after he crushed, absolutely crushed Colon's full count pitch — his 101st and last — high and far and gone off the fence protecting the black bleacher area in center field. Continue

Phillips fills the void

Alex Rodriguez' three-homer, 10 RBI night was so brilliant, it obscured almost everything else in pinstripes last night, from Carl Pavano's solid outing to Tony Womack's three-hit game. And lost in the glare was another solid performance at the plate from Andy Phillips. One game after clubbing a three-run home run on Sunday, Phillips went 1-for-5 in a 12-4 rout of the Angels, with a fifth-inning double and a run scored. He also reached on an error in the fourth, and narrowly missed a homer in the second, his shot to left just inches foul.

Phillips — the Yankees' brightest hitting prospect — was called up for the injured Ruben Sierra. But thanks to first basemen Jason Giambi and Tino Martinez being the only two regulars under .250, he's found himself playing rather than sitting; and last night likely helped his cause. Continue

Pavano pitches in as rotation starts to get rolling

It may have gone unnoticed last night with Alex Rodriguez knocking balls all over the Bronx. But for a second straight outing, Carl Pavano looked every bit the pitcher the Yankees thought they were getting when they signed the righthander to a four-year deal this past December. "Pav is coming," Joe Torre said last night after the Yankees drubbed the Angels, 12-4, before 36,328 at the Stadium. "He just seems very comfortable."

Pavano, who was signed to help fortify a woeful rotation of a year ago, was coming off his first victory of the season, when he went eight innings Wednesday and allowed one earned run in an 11-2 victory over Toronto. Last night he looked like he picked up from where he left off by tossing seven solid innings, allowing seven hits and three earned runs against a good-hitting Angels team.  Continue

A-Rod powers Yanks to victory

The Yankees have been looking for a spark to get them out of their early-season funk. Tuesday night, Alex Rodriguez did them one better, putting on a fireworks display at Yankee Stadium. A-Rod bashed three home runs and had 10 RBIs, leading the Bronx Bombers to a 12-4 victory over the Angels.

"It was pretty incredible," said manager Joe Torre. "Your mouth has to drop open when you see something like that. That was certainly worth the price of admission." Rodriguez went 4-for-5, producing the third three-homer performance of his career. His 10 RBIs were the second-most in Yankees history, one behind Tony Lazzeri, whose 11 RBIs stand as the American League record. Continue

Call to arms

Whenever Joe Torre assesses his team, he always starts with the arms. It makes no difference if Torre's club is on a 10-game winning streak or has the disappointing 8-11 record the Yankees haul into tonight's game against the Angels at Yankee Stadium. "Everything we do is based on pitching," has been Torre's mantra since arriving in 1996.

After last year's ALCS meltdown against the Red Sox, the Yankees made rebuilding their rotation the No. 1 offseason priority. The price tag for Randy Johnson ($57 million), Carl Pavano ($40 million) and Jaret Wright ($21 million) totaled $118 million and had many believing the Yankees would go post to wire in the AL East and cruise through October. Continue

Player-only meetings OK: Torre

Some organizations have a problem with players-only meetings. However, Yankees manager Joe Torre and GM Brian Cashman don't share the same insecurities as others. Before Sunday's 11-1 pounding of the Rangers that elevated their record to a very disappointing 8-11, the Yankee players, under the direction of captain Derek Jeter, gathered in the clubhouse and reminded each other to stay focused and it's always about the team and not the individual.

Other managers and GMs wouldn't go for such gatherings, fearing their authority was being trampled on. Yet, Torre closed the clubhouse to the media to provide time and space for the meeting and Cashman didn't have a problem with it. Continue

Yanks salute Jeter

Little glances are what give it away, the scout said. During a game's crucial moment, Derek Jeter's teammates always seem to be sneaking a look at him. "That's how you know the Yankees are Jeter's team," said the scout who regularly eyes the Yankees. "Just like everyone understands it's (Jason) Varitek's team in Boston. It's obvious that everyone on the Yankees looks to Jeter for big plays. Body language tells me that they want him up at a tight time. I see them looking at him, they peek at him. Continue

Wang looks ready for Olympian effort

The Yankees are hoping for big things from Chien-Ming Wang Saturday when he takes Jaret Wright's place in the starting rotation. At least they know he has handled big situations before. Wang, 25, the Yanks' best pitching prospect, pitched for Taiwan in the Olympics last year and left a start against the powerful Japanese team - made up of professionals from Japan's major leagues - with a 2-1 lead after seven innings. But Chin-Hui Tsao, a reliever for the Rockies, gave up the lead and Taiwan missed a shot at the medal round.

Wang will pitch against the Blue Jays at the Stadium and GM Brian Cashman said he's eager to see how he fares. "It's unfortunate the circumstances that have created the opportunity, but we're excited for him," Cashman said. "We hope he can assist us. There's an opportunity and he can continue to open some eyes." Continue

Unit comes up big in clutch

Is there such a thing as a Big April Game? When the Yankees inhabit last place in the AL East, the answer is an emphatic YES. So fixed on getting right was Derek Jeter that the captain called a players-only meeting after batting practice in which several of the Yankees spoke. It's believed to be the first such meeting since 1999 when Don Zimmer was filling in for Joe Torre as Yankees manager.

Against that backdrop, the Yankees turned to Randy Johnson and begged their ace to pitch like one, halt a two-game slide and avoid a sweep by the Rangers. Johnson rewarded George Steinbrenner's faith in him by overpowering the muscular Rangers on the way to an 11-1 victory in front of 42,732 at Yankee Stadium. Continue

Jeter calls hush-hush meeting

George Steinbrenner ripped them. Joe Torre used meetings to remind them. Yesterday, it was Derek Jeter's turn to attempt getting the Yankees out of their funk. Jeter called a players-only meeting before yesterday's game. And based on an 11-1 beating of the Rangers that followed the meeting, the captain's actions paid off. Of course, Randy Johnson was on the hill for the winners and that had more to do with the result than what was said.

"What happened in here I am not going to talk about," Jeter said at his locker after going 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs. He is hitting a team-high .361.  Jeter was one of about six players to speak. Among those who spoke were Mike Stanton and Alex Rodriguez, neither of whom felt the need to share what was said. When other players heard Jeter offer a "no comment" on the subject, they clammed up. Continue

Wright to miss 4 to 6 weeks with torn scar tissue

Jaret Wright said an MRI of his right shoulder yesterday showed torn scar tissue around his AC joint, which is the same general area that was repaired surgically in 2001. The Yankees do not believe the injury requires surgery. General manager Brian Cashman said the "earliest" possible timetable for his return is four to six weeks. "Hopefully, to come back in four to six," Wright said, "that would be super."

Cashman said righthander Chien-Ming Wang, 26, will be called up from Triple-A Columbus to replace Wright in the rotation. Wang will arrive as early as tomorrow and will make his major-league debut Saturday against Toronto. Wright, meanwhile, will receive a cortisone shot as soon as the swelling settles around the AC joint, which is located at the top of his shoulder. "Hopefully, he'll respond to that very well," Cashman said. "Obviously, with shoulders, it's always tricky stuff." Continue

Smashing debut

His second-inning double drove in a run, but that will not be Andy Phillips' enduring memory from yesterday's 11-1 Yankee victory over the Rangers. Contributing is one thing. Your first Stadium home run and curtain call is something else. "It was everything I'd imagined," said Phillips, who played first base in his first start of the season. "When you play in this organization you play in your mind different scenarios. ... You always imagine your first game at Yankee Stadium or your first home run at Yankee Stadium.

"It was amazing." Phillips' double to left-center was only the start. In the eighth inning he belted a 1-1 pitch from Matt Riley over the left-field fence for a three-run homer. When the fans would not take their seats, the other Bombers pushed the 25-year-old up the steps for the curtain call. Continue

Yankees, Unit roll past Rangers

The offense clicked, in bunches and in the clutch. The kid inserted into the lineup for his energy provided plenty of it. After many edgy days, there was a genuine laugher at Yankee Stadium. But even after 14 hits, even after Andy Phillips' curtain-raising four RBIs, even after a letup 11-1 win over the Texas Rangers -- it still came back to Randy Johnson.

"The pitcher sets the momentum for the game," said manager Joe Torre. "The players had a little more energy, and I'm sure a different start to the game had something to do with it." "Randy really set the tone," said the offensive spark, Phillips, "the way he came out firing in the first inning." Continue

From bad to worse

ENOUGH was not enough. A week after George Stein brenner issued his written ti rade putting Joe Torre, his coaches and a $200 million roster on notice, the Yankees only have added injury to insult. Oh yeah, they also have produced another week of horrid play, furthering the possibility this is not merely a slow start, but a fast fade toward 1965.

During a 10-2 humiliation yesterday against Texas, Chan Ho Park, who has not been a good pitcher since 2001, shut down the Yankees' offense. The defense again was masterful in almost catching the ball. And Jaret Wright, whose specialty was supposed to be suppressing long balls, allowed three homers to his first 15 batters. But enough with the good news. Wright had to leave in the sixth inning with a right-shoulder injury. And since shoulder injuries to Wright are roughly kryptonite to Superman, the answer is, yes, matters could get worse for the Yankee rotation. Continue

Letting Lieber go hurts even more

How much do you think the Yankees would pay for a second shot at Jon Lieber right about now? It never made any sense, allowing Lieber to leave just because the Yankees, ever the cost-conscious organization, thought $8 million was too much to pick up his option for 2005. The decision just looked dumber than ever yesterday as Jaret Wright took another pounding and then left the game with pain in his surgically repaired shoulder.

Lieber, a pitcher who showed the kind of October toughness the Yankees are always looking for, is 4-0 with the Phillies. Wright, who wound up getting $21 million for three years, is 2-2 with a 9.15 ERA, and headed for the disabled list. The Yankees, meanwhile, just might be in some real trouble. Sure, it's early and all that, but after 18 games, including yesterday's 10-2 loss to the Rangers, you have to ask: What is there to love about this team? Continue

Derek's golden moment

For years, Derek Jeter was considered defensively inferior to the Gold Glove shortstops of the American League. Yesterday was validation that Jeter has reached that lofty echelon. Before yesterday's 10-2 loss to Texas, the Yankees captain received his first Gold Glove, which he earned for 2004. It took nine full seasons to get there, so Jeter is treasuring the award. "It's special," he said. "I take a lot of pride in defense. It's something that definitely in my opinion comes first. Because that's how you win, you win with pitching and defense." Jeter committed 13 errors in '04, the fourth-lowest total among everyday AL shortstops. His .981 fielding percentage was his highest since 1998.

As far as newfangled stats, Jeter's range factor (assists plus putouts divided by innings) of 4.46 was eighth in the AL and his zone rating (the percentage of balls fielded by a player in his typical defensive "zone," as measured by STATS Inc.) of .847 was sixth in the league. But numbers don't always tell the entire story. Continue

Wright takes a wrong turn

Jaret Wright was describing the precise location of his latest injury, pointing to the top of his shoulder and talking about how the sensations were similar to what it felt like when he needed surgery in 2001. Each word looked like it pained him as much as the ache in his arm, which knocked him out of his start yesterday and landed him on the disabled list.

Wright's once-promising career has been marred by shoulder woes and he walked off the mound yesterday to an uncertain future. He will have an MRI and other tests tomorrow, but he was despondent over the injury about an hour after it happened. Continue

Soriano mulls a 2nd stint

He says he still talks regularly with his friends Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams and Jason Giambi. He still owns an apartment in New Jersey. As he took to the Stadium field Friday night for batting practice, Yankee fans arriving early yelled for his autograph in Spanish and English. And the cheers only intensified a short time later when Yankee public address announcer Bob Sheppard called the Rangers' leadoff hitter's name.

Alfonso Soriano has been in a Texas uniform for more than a year, but make no mistake: The Bronx still loves its former All-Star second baseman and Soriano himself still bleeds a little of the pinstripes. "Always," Soriano said with a huge smile when asked yesterday if he looked forward to each Bronx trip. "I feel good when I play here." Continue

Get set for Bean ball

To take Jaret Wright's spot on the roster, the Yankees plan to call up righty Colter Bean from Triple-A Columbus and use him out of the bullpen for a few days. Then, according to GM Brian Cashman, the Yanks might unveil their top pitching prospect, Chien-Ming Wang, in a start on Saturday.

That's the next time Wright's slot in the rotation comes up and Wang, who is 2-0 with a 4.15 ERA at Columbus, has "done well," Cashman said. Wang, a 25-year-old from Taiwan whom the Yankees signed for a $1.9 million bonus in 2000, was 11-6 last season in stops at Double-A Trenton and Columbus. He was 5-1 with a 2.01 ERA at Columbus and also pitched in the Olympics. Continue

Yanks place Wright on 15-day DL

As Jaret Wright walked off the mound at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, the Yankees' list of problems in the 2005 season got a little longer. Tanyon Sturtze and Ruben Sierra are already on the disabled list, Kevin Brown has been hit hard in the early innings of his two starts, the offense is struggling with runners in scoring position, Randy Johnson has been tagged for 16 runs in his last three starts and the bullpen has battled inconsistency all year.

Saturday, Wright felt pain in his pitching shoulder -- the one which has been operated on twice since 2000 -- during his start against Texas. After the game, the Yankees placed the 29-year-old right-hander on the 15-day DL and scheduled him for an MRI exam on Monday in New York. Continue

Familiar formula in Yankees' loss

Jaret Wright was roughed up yet again on Saturday, as the Rangers handed the Yankees a 10-2 loss at Yankee Stadium. But New York may have lost more than a game, as Wright left in the sixth inning with a shoulder injury. The Yankees were out-hit, 19-5, by the Rangers, falling to 7-11 on the season.

Wright opened the game with a 1-2-3 first inning, but David Dellucci drilled a solo homer in the second to put the Rangers on the board. After allowing a pair of singles to start the third, Wright got Hank Blalock to ground into a double play, and it looked like the right-hander would work his way out of the jam. But like Kevin Brown on Friday night, Wright fell apart. Continue

Yankee Hurler Wright Exits Game With Pain

Oft-injured pitcher Jaret Wright left Saturday's game in the sixth inning because of pain in his right shoulder with the New York Yankees trailing Texas 6-1. Wright began the day with a 10.05 ERA, and was having another tough outing against the Rangers. They tagged him for a career high-tying three home runs. After throwing a pitch to Hank Blalock, Wright crouched down on the mound, bringing Yankees manager Joe Torre and a trainer from the dugout. There was a brief discussion, and Wright came out. Continue

Kevin and hell

Two batters — and two hits — into last night's game, Kevin Brown already heard the boos. They were deserved. For those who weren't kept away by the mist, the 49-degree temperature or the stomach-churning prospect of Brown taking the hill, the opportunity to jeer was too easy to pass up.

Before the first inning was over, Brown allowed five hits and four runs — his second straight outing in which he dug a six-foot grave on the mound. The hard-to-like, easy-to-hit righty took the loss in a 5-3 defeat to Texas, which unceremoniously ended the Yankees' modest two-game win streak. Continue

Sierra to miss up to 6 weeks

The good news is that Ruben Sierra doesn't need surgery right now, but the Yankees don't expect him back soon anytime soon, either. An MRI yesterday revealed a partial tear in Sierra's right bicep, and team physician Stuart Hershon estimated it would be four to six weeks until the Yankee slugger returns.

Sierra had swelling and discoloration in the bicep area, so the club disabled him Thursday. The injury occurred on Wednesday when Sierra (.269, 2 HRs, 8 RBIs) lunged for a pitch and fouled it off. General manager Brian Cashman said that if Sierra had ruptured his tendon, "He'd be done for the year." Continue

Bombers look old against Texas' Young

Fittingly, Hideki Matsui was one of the few players who stuck around to talk with reporters following last night's 5-3 loss to the Rangers. After a two-game win streak across the border in Canada, the Yankees returned to the Bronx and promptly went to sleep at the plate. It would be one thing if the anemic effort had come against Nolan Ryan. But last night, the Bombers faced Chris Young, who came into this season with just seven big league starts.

But the 25-year-old righty stifled the vaunted Yankee lineup for 5-2/3 innings. Matsui got one of four hits off Young - an RBI double to right in the fourth - but was left stranded at second as the Texas starter proceeded to whiff Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi and Tino Martinez to end the frame. "(Young's) velocity is not that much, but because of his height (6-10), his fastball kind of jumps at you and looks faster than it is," Matsui said through his interpreter. "He's got a good changeup, too." Continue

Rangers batter Brown early in loss

After allowing six runs in the first two innings of his last start, Kevin Brown and the Yankees were hoping for a better result when the right-hander took the mound on Friday. Technically, it was better, but not by a wide margin. Brown allowed four runs in the first inning against the Rangers, helping Texas to a 5-3 win at Yankee Stadium to open the three-game series.

"It's two starts now that he hasn't started off on the right foot," said general manager Brian Cashman. "We have to find a better way to set the pace." "It's hard to be anything but disappointed with the way things turned out in the first inning," Brown said. Continue

Williams not one to hurt team

Bernie Williams knows the difference between being a liability to the Yankees and fighting through a bothersome left knee. "I want to play. If you start babying it the next thing you know you are playing twice a week," the center fielder said before helping the Yankees to a 4-3 win over the Blue Jays with a two-out RBI single in the fifth at Rogers Centre last night. "I feel it a little bit, but it's nothing to stop me from playing. If I feel something I wouldn't try to hurt the team by playing the hero."

Williams felt something on the outside of the hinge early Wednesday night and came out for pinch-runner Bubba Crosby in the seventh after an infield single. Since it was the same knee that Williams had surgery on in May 2003, there were concerns that it was a serious problem. But Williams explained the surgery was done on the inside and this was on the outside. Continue

Jason, 'roids draw fans' ire

Jason Giambi hasn't encountered too much taunting on the road so far this season, but the fans here - while not large in number - may have been the most demonstrative yet. One fan at last night's game had a large cardboard syringe with Giambi's name written in marker down the middle of it and waved it over his head when the Yankee DH came up for the first time in the second inning. Another set of spectators held signs that spelled out the words "JUICED UP."

There was also the requisite set of "steroids" chants, which Giambi also heard while at Fenway Park. Giambi has been the subject of scrutiny ever since a published report over the winter said his grand jury testimony in the BALCO case contained an admission of steroid use, but he hasn't been subjected to anything too vicious yet. Part of that is likely due to his extra effort to reach out to fans, constantly signing autographs and chatting with them; he signed for about 20 minutes during batting practice yesterday. Continue

Moose gets first win as Yanks hold off Jays

The Yankees did something on Thursday that they hadn't done in more than two weeks: they won two in a row. The victory, a 4-3 decision over the Toronto Blue Jays, came largely in part due to the bullpen, which had its finest night of the season. Five relievers combined for 3 2/3 innings of shutout ball, handing Mike Mussina his first victory of the season.

"Our bullpen won this game for us," Mussina said. "We needed it as a group, and they needed it, to put together a big game like this." Buddy Groom, Felix Rodriguez, Mike Stanton, Tom Gordon and Mariano Rivera strolled out one by one over the final four innings, putting out several fires with the Yankees clinging to a one-run lead. Continue

Yanks put Sierra on 15-day DL

The New York Yankees placed designated hitter Ruben Sierra on the 15-day disabled list on Thursday with what might be a slight tear of his right biceps. Sierra is to have an MRI exam Friday to determine whether he has a tear. He was hurt while swinging at a changeup during Wednesday's game against Toronto. "I felt a little pop in there. The next pitch I got a hit but felt pain," he said. Sierra doubled on the next pitch but was removed from the game before his next at-bat. His swollen arm was wrapped Thursday. "He's got discoloration there. Hopefully, it's not too bad," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "With the blood in there, there's obviously something going on. It's going to be 10 or 12 days anyway." Continue

$30M luxury tax for Yankees

While the Yankees may be near the bottom of the AL East standings, they're still at the top of the luxury tax leader board. With a payroll of about $200 million, the Bombers will have to fork over a record $30,637,531, according to commissioner's office figures obtained by The Associated Press. That's more than 30 times what the Red Sox - the only other team projected to be taxed - have to pay.

Teams with payrolls over $128million are subject to the tax this season, and the Yanks are charged at a 40% rate on the amount over $128 million because they are over the limit for the third time since the new labor agreement was reached in 2003. The Sox, over for the second time, are hit with only a 30% surcharge. The Yanks paid nearly $26 million last season. Conitnue

King Carl

Randy Johnson received the most money among the three new faces in the Yankees' rotation. However, Jaret Wright and Carl Pavano are getting a lot more support lately than Big Unit. One night after the Yankees were held to two runs by the putrid Devil Rays and Johnson paid dearly for making mistakes, the Yankees raked the Blue Jay hurlers to back Pavano on the way to an 11-2 victory in front of 22,838 at Rogers Centre.

The night before Johnson lost the Yankees tallied 19 runs. Johnson may have $48 million coming compared to Pavano's $40 million and Wright's $21 million, but he has a case of the shorts when it comes to runs. Continue

Bombers black & blue

Bernie Williams doesn't expect his left knee to keep him out of the lineup tonight. However, Ruben Sierra isn't likely to be as fortunate. Williams and Sierra exited last night's 11-2 spanking of the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre with a tender left knee and a strained right biceps.

"Right know I feel sore but I will see how it goes," said Sierra, who doubled twice in two plate appearances and drove in a run. He left after a double in the fourth for pinch hitter Jason Giambi when the Yankees batted around. Williams left for pinch-runner Bubba Crosby after an infield single. It's the same knee but not the same spot on the hinge that underwent arthroscopic surgery on May 27, 2003. Continue

Posada, Pavano have big nights vs. Jays

Carl Pavano earned his first win as a Yankee on Wednesday, letting his offense do his work for him in an 11-2 win over the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre. New York bashed Toronto's pitching for 14 hits -- seven for extra bases -- scoring at least three runs in three innings. Seven Yankees drove in runs, including Jorge Posada, who had three hits and four RBIs, homering for the first time in 2005.

The victim of the Yankees' outburst was Ted Lilly, the former New York left-hander. Lilly was hit for three runs in the second, as the Yankees opened the frame with three consecutive doubles. Continue

Sheffield won't be disciplined for confrontation with fan

Yankees outfielder Gary Sheffield won't be punished for his role in a scuffle with fans at Fenway Park last week. Bob Watson, baseball's vice president in charge of discipline, made the decision Wednesday, a day after meeting with Sheffield and the right fielder's agent at Yankee Stadium.

"It just proves that I was right," Sheffield said before Wednesday night's game at Toronto. "I'm just glad I was an example of how to handle a situation without making it worse or hurting the Yankees or any organization for that matter, or any sport. Continue

Big difference in Unit

Eduardo Perez has been facing Randy Johnson since he was first called up by the Angels in 1993, but what he saw last night was not what he expected. When Perez dug in during the second inning for his first shot at the Big Unit, he got a surprise.

"It was different," said Perez, who last faced Johnson in 2003. "I was surprised in the first at-bat. I am used to seeing Randy before, where it's mostly 98 (mph) and 99 all game. That's what I saw (when he was) in Seattle and Arizona. "Today he's more of a pitcher. He wasn't that hard thrower." Continue

This is totally unacceptable

  THIS was more unacceptable than anything that happened at Fenway Park or even during the lost weekend at Camden Yards that made George Steinbrenner lose his mind. This was as unacceptable as April losses go as the Yankees had every advantage money, talent and momentum could provide, and still fell 6-2 last night to the Devil Rays

. This should have been a routine, course-shifting, two-game sweep for the Yankees against Tampa. Instead, by only getting a split, the Yankees are in a last-place tie with the Devil Rays after 14 games and, you know what, that is where they deserve to be. "We just haven't played well," Derek Jeter said. Randy Johnson has now started four times for the Yankees and has just one win. He was brought here to stare down Curt Schilling and, instead, has been outpitched by Bruce Chen, Bronson Arroyo and now Hideo Nomo in his last three starts. Talk about unacceptable. Continue

Flash is flustered again

Tom Gordon sat alone at his locker, staring straight ahead into his stall while he tried to digest the results of another subpar outing last night against the Devil Rays. But unlike in Saturday's loss to the Orioles, when Gordon allowed a decisive three-run homer to Brian Roberts to sink the Yankees, Gordon felt this outing was somewhat more frustrating because he was throwing pitches that in the past frequently turned into outs.

"The pitch I made to Travis Lee is the pitch I've been striking people out with the last couple of years," Gordon said following the Yankees' 6-2 loss to the Devil Rays at the Stadium. "I wanted to get that pitch up and in and it was definitely up and in. It could have been a broken-bat popup or a strikeout. I can't change that. I tried to do everything I can to make a good pitch there and that was a good pitch." Continue

Spin on Derek's misplay

Derek Jeter had a rare awkward moment in the eighth inning last night when Aubrey Huff hit a hopper with a lot of spin on it at the shortstop with runners on first and third. Jeter misplayed the grounder for his first error of the season.

"He hit it off the end of the bat to my right and it bounced back and hit me in the knee, so I didn't look too good," Jeter said. A run scored on the play and two more runs followed, sinking the Yankees' hopes. Continue

Unit's struggles continue in loss to Rays

Randy Johnson's early-season struggles continued on Tuesday, as the Devil Rays handed him and the Yankees a 6-2 loss at Yankee Stadium. The Big Unit allowed six runs in 7 1/3 innings, giving up a pair of home runs to first baseman Eduardo Perez. The loss was the Yankees' ninth in the last 12 games, dropping them back into a last-place tie with the Devil Rays at 5-9.

Jason Giambi got the Yankees on the board in the second, belting a solo home run to right field against Rays starter Hideo Nomo. The homer was Giambi's third of the year. Continue

A-Rod's 2 give Yanks enough

Right about now, George Steinbrenner is probably walking toward the entrance to the barn of his Kentucky Derby hopeful, Bellamy Road, with a motivational statement pegged to horses. After all - if you believe in this sort of thing - The Boss' blistering statement Sunday about the Yankees' terrible start had its desired effect last night as they clobbered awful Tampa Bay, 19-8, before 35,282 at the Stadium and ended a four-game losing streak.

More realistically, though, The Boss probably took advantage of timing - the Devil Rays were starting Rob Bell, who is historically dreadful against the Yanks, and heck, things couldn't get any worse for Joe Torre's team. Continue

Jaret shaky in victory

The Yankees were up 13-0 after a second-inning explosion, but with Jaret Wright on the hill, it just didn't feel like a very safe lead. Not the way he was pitching last night. "When you get a lead like that, it's every pitcher's dream," Wright said following a 19-8 Yankee win. "And I kinda got away from what I did early.''

Those plucky Rays started chipping away at that enormous advantage in the third, and then Yankee Stadium probably started thinking about blown leads. After all, the Yankees did turn in one of the all-time chokes in last fall's ALCS, didn't they, blowing a three-game lead against the Red Sox? "I've never been a part of 13 runs," Wright said. "But you have to stay in it. I went out like it was a 0-0 game and just didn't get it done. Continue

Boss fires 'em up!

Forget what the shrinks say. When The Boss yells, the Yankees listen. Sort of. Just a day after George Steinbrenner tongue-lashed his struggling team for its dismal start this season, the Bombers lowered the boom on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The Yanks led 13-0 after two innings, and wound up winning a slugfest over Tampa, 19-8. Steinbrenner blew up Sunday after the Yankees' fourth loss in a row put their record at 4-8. He issued a blistering statement that read like an angry daddy berating his underachieving kid. Continue

Sturtze stumbles onto DL

Tanyon Sturtze said he first felt the pain in his side Saturday in the Yankees' loss to the Orioles. "I felt it on a pitch to (B.J.) Surhoff," Sturtze said. "He flew out to the outfield. It was the last pitch to Surhoff." At first, Sturtze felt it was nothing more than a minor irritation, something he could knock out with a little rest and treatment. Even before last night's series opener against the Devil Rays, Sturtze thought maybe one more day of rest would suffice. But after being examined by the Yankee medical staff, Sturtze was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left oblique muscle. Continue

Brian: No deal for now

Yankees GM Brian Cashman said there was no disagreement with George Steinbrenner's thoughts about the team's terrible play in the first 12 games of the season. But that doesn't mean that Cashman has already started scouring the trade market for help.

"Any changes would come from within right now," Cashman said before last night's 19-8 win over the Devil Rays. "This time of year, you don't usually make changes from outside. It's atypical for trades to happen now and I haven't heard from a GM about a player who might be available since spring training." Continue

Yanks ride big inning to win over Rays

Back on their home turf, the Yankees put their disastrous road trip behind them by taking it to the Devil Rays, downing Tampa Bay, 19-8, on Monday to snap a four-game losing streak. New York collected 20 hits, five of them by Alex Rodriguez, who belted a pair of homers and drove in six runs. Tino Martinez added six RBIs of his own, one of six Yankees to have more than one hit in the game.

The Yankees took the drama out of this one very early, ringing Rob Bell and Lance Carter for 13 runs in the second inning. Rodriguez hit the first of his two homers to get the scoring started, while Martinez capped the frame with a grand slam. The 13-run inning was the biggest for the Yankees since June 21, 1945, when they scored 13 in the fifth inning of a 14-4 win at Boston. Monday marked just the third time they have scored 13 in an inning, the first at Yankee Stadium. Every Yankees hitter had at least one hit and scored at least one run in the inning. Continue

Getting bossy

The Boss will blow when The Boss will blow, like he does money on players no longer good enough to earn it. It's never the owner's fault, only that of the people who advised him, or the performers upon whom he lavished more millions than the Yankees need to spend. At the exact time Joe Torre was sounding an alarm in the locker room yesterday, George Steinbrenner, that great communicator, thought he had to have his media guru call all outlets with a challenge to his players, manager, and of course, the Boss's favorite and easiest target, the coaches. Continue

It's time to get down with funky George

You just wonder when it was, exactly, that George Steinbrenner began to pen his tirade, when he and his editor, Howard Rubenstein, got on the phone together and started making their special brand of poetry. Was it when Kevin Brown threw his sixth pitch of the game, the first of several disastrous deliveries that led to Baltimore's six runs in the first two innings? Was it when the Orioles added two more in the seventh? Continue

First taste of Kevin awful

Six months after losing Game 7 of the ALCS and two weeks after tweaking his back at the end of spring training, Kevin Brown finally pitched in a game that counted yesterday. And still, it looked like he could have used a little more time off. Brown promptly allowed six runs in the first two innings against the Orioles. He was solid from then on - the Orioles only mustered two more hits against him, one a weak flare - but the damage was done. The Yankees lost, 8-4. Continue

3 new faces,same old result

Shuffling the lineup has been a daily occurrence for Joe Torre, but yesterday he didn't just move around the same names. Jorge Posada, Jason Giambi and Bernie Williams all sat, replaced by John Flaherty, Ruben Sierra and Bubba Crosby.

Torre had a good reason for benching all three, but he normally wouldn't play so many backups on the same day unless he was looking for a spark for his erratic lineup. The fill-ins weren't bad, but the plan didn't come off the way Torre would have liked as the Yanks lost again. Continue

Boss unhappy

George Steinbrenner is tired of waiting for his New York Yankees to get going. Now he's angry. Miguel Tejada hit his eighth career grand slam, and the Baltimore Orioles roughed up Kevin Brown and completed a three-game sweep of New York with an 8-4 victory Sunday. The last-place Yankees (4-8) have dropped four straight and eight of 10 overall.

"Enough is enough. I am bitterly disappointed as I'm sure all Yankee fans are by the lack of performance by our team," Steinbrenner said in a statement issued immediately after the game. "It is unbelievable to me that the highest-paid team in baseball would start the season in such a deep funk. They are not playing like true Yankees. They have the talent to win and they are not winning. I expect Joe Torre, his complete coaching staff and the team to turn this around." Continue

Yankees suffer sweep at hands of O's

The Yankees' nightmarish road trip came to an end in a fitting way on Sunday, as the Baltimore Orioles completed a three-game sweep of New York with an 8-4 victory. The Yankees finished the six-game swing through Boston and Baltimore with a 1-5 mark, falling to 4-8 for the first time since 1991.

Kevin Brown took the mound for his first start of the season, his first meaningful outing since he was rocked in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series. In that game, Brown allowed five runs in 1 1/3 innings against the Red Sox. Sunday, Brown got off to a similar start. Continue