Yankees baseball blog

A-Rod's near-miss makes shea shiver

The ball zipped through the in field and slipped beyond Luis Castillo's glove, meaning the best-case scenario and the worst-case scenario in New York baseball in 2008 were about to collide brilliantly with one another. Terrific and terrifying would take a few swings at each other under the last rays of Sunday sunlight, before the clouds would burst. Derek Jeter was on first base; with the Yankees trailing the Mets 3-1, his run was meaningless. Alex Rodriguez was now ambling to the plate, taking half-hacks with his bat. Continue

Darrell Rasner rebounds with good performance in loss to Mets

Darrell Rasner straightened out his command Sunday, but the Yankees failed to deliver the shaky starter his second win in seven starts. Rasner pitched out of trouble to hold the Mets to two runs on eight hits and three walks in five innings, but the Yankees could not muster more than a run in their 3-1 loss at Shea. "It's too bad today," Johnny Damon said. "Rasner has become our hard-luck loser."

Rasner has had a few unfortunate defeats in his last seven starts, but admittedly has struggled with his fastball. After starting the season 3-0 with a 1.80 ERA, the righthander is 1-6 with an ERA of 5.68 in his seven starts since May 26. Continue

Hideki Matsui hits DL as Sidney Ponson arrives for Yankee rotation

The Yankees needed to create roster space for Sidney Ponson to be activated to pitch Friday night's second game. And putting Hideki Matsui on the disabled list was a move they were unable to avoid. Matsui's sore left knee had kept him out of three straight games, and they placed him on the DL for the third time in as many seasons before the nightcap of the two-stadium doubleheader.

"He hit and felt better hitting, but the running is still an issue so we're going to DL him," Joe Girardi said after the Bombers' 15-6 loss in the Bronx opener. "Obviously, he's had some issues with it the last five or six days and you hope that by giving him this extra week or so, that it settles down ... and we'll have him the rest of the year. Continue

A split decision in subway showdown

The contrast on the mound at Shea Stadium last night could not have been more stark. While the Yankees were stumbling upon a possible quality starter in Sidney Ponson, the Mets now have to wonder if that term still applies to Pedro Martinez after the Bombers' 9-0 rout in Game 2 of the two-park doubleheader.

A journeyman reclamation project signed specifically with yesterday's unique twinbill in mind, Ponson gave the Yanks a split, and ended their three-game skid in the Subway Series, by scattering five hits and striking out four in six shutout innings. Continue

Yankees ride express train into Subway Series against Mets

Six weeks later, the subway has changed course. When the Yankees and Mets played in mid-May, the Bombers were reeling and the Mets pounced with two wins in the Bronx, part of a five-game losing streak that dropped the Bombers to a season-low 20-25. Now, it's the Mets who are limping in, having dropped two of three to the lowly Mariners to fall to 38-39.

"We know the Mets are going to be geared up for this," Johnny Damon said. "They're trying to turn their season around just like we were a couple of weeks ago. They're going to be ready to play us, and I know we're going to be ready also after they kicked our butts earlier this season." Continue

Second chance

- According to a witness who was in the Vinoy hotel bar the night Sidney Ponson was reportedly out of control on the eve of a start against Tampa Bay in St. Petersburg, the newest Yankees hurler wasn't loud and didn't appear drunk on May 25.

"He was hanging out and not being loud," the witness told The Post before the Yankees' 10-0 victory over the Pirates yesterday. "Some other people he was with were loud but he wasn't. If he was guilty of anything it was being in there the night before he pitched." Continue

Yankees roll over Pirates, 10-0, as Joba Chamberlain gets first win as starter

There were no more pitch counts to worry about, no rules or regulations to prevent Joba Chamberlain from doing what he does best. So that's what he did. With his team fresh off an embarrassing loss the night before, Chamberlain delivered the type of performance the Yankees were hoping he would when they moved him into the rotation last month.

Chamberlain tossed a career-high 62/3 shutout innings, leading the Yankees to a 10-0 win over the Pirates in front of a sellout crowd of 38,952 at PNC Park. Chamberlain (2-2) allowed six hits and walked one, striking out seven to pick up his first win in five tries as a starter. Continue

Damon sits; DL possible

Johnny Damon has his fingers firmly crossed that the pain coming from the left arch doesn't land him on the disabled list for the first time in his career. "I hope not," Damon said when asked if the shelf was a possibility. "I don't know, but Sunday it was real bad. Toward the end of the game it wasn't good."

Damon, 34, first felt discomfort in the foot Sunday during batting practice, but with Hideki Matsui's left knee barking, Damon played through the 4-1 victory over the Reds at Yankee Stadium, going 0-for-4. Continue

Yankees blown away by Pirates in first game at Pittsburgh since 1960

Joe Girardi tends to take an optimistic approach to every game, even on nights when the Yankees have little to be positive about. Tuesday night, the manager had none of that. The Yankees' 12-5 loss to the Pirates marked the worst game the Bombers have played in more than a month, and the manager's take on the embarrassing loss pretty much told the entire story. "The whole game bothered me," Girardi said. "We stunk. That's the bottom line. We stunk." Continue

Derek Jeter showing lower numbers than normal this season

If there were ever a year when Derek Jeter could be called overrated, this has been it. The Yankees' captain, the highest-paid shortstop in baseball, has a .279 batting average, a whopping 37 points below his career mark, while his 10 doubles and 39 runs scored put him well below his usual pace. Fourteen shortstops in the majors have more extra-base hits than Jeter's 17. Continue