Yankees baseball blog

AJ continues losing ways, Yanks lose 4-2

Last season, a winless June sent A.J Burnett's season into a downward spiral from which he never recovered.

Burnett completed a winless July Friday night after the Yankees' 4-2 loss to the Orioles at the Stadium, but the righthander hasn't let his misfortune get him down.

Burnett allowed four runs on five hits and two walks, striking out 10 as he fell to 8-9. He finished July with an 0-3 record and 4.83 ERA in five starts, giving him one win in his last seven starts and two in his last 10.

"It's a strange game," Joe Girardi said. "I thought he threw the ball really well. He made a couple mistakes and it really cost him." (continue)

Yankees eliminated in 6

Derek Jeter — wearing a Yankees hat and no longer the crown of world champion —insisted he wasn’t thinking about his future after the Yankees’ season ended with a 6-1 loss in Game 6 of the AL Championship Series to the Rangers last night in front of 51,404 at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

“I said I wouldn’t address it until the end of the season,” Jeter said of becoming a free agent. “Obviously, the season is over with, but it just ended. It’s disappointing right now. I wish I could give you more but I don’t have more.”

Just like their captain, the Yankees didn’t have nearly enough to handle the Rangers, who dominated the series.

“They manhandled us,” said general manager Brian Cashman, whose offseason will be spent trying to reach deals with Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Joe Girardi, discovering whether Andy Pettitte wants to pitch again, and seeing if he can entice Cliff Lee to leave the team that ushered the Yankees into winter.

Girardi, who like Jeter is expected to return, didn’t shy away from the pain his club felt when Alex Rodriguez struck out looking against Neftali Feliz for the final out. (NY Post)

Yanks heading back to Texas down 3-2

The Yankees will arrive deep in the heart of Texas with a pulse.

Faint, for sure, but enough of a beat that the ALCS stethoscope detected it. Can the pump tick long enough to get the Yankees to the World Series? That’s not the way to wager, but ...

Thanks to their bats emerging from a deep funk, and without Mark Teixeira, the Yankees stayed alive Wednesday with a 7-2 victory over the Rangers in Game 5 that was witnessed by 49,832 at Yankee Stadium and included three homers.

The best-of-7 series led by the Rangers, 3-2, shifts to Arlington, Texas, on Friday night for Game 6.

Phil Hughes, awful in Game 2, will be opposed by right-hander Colby Lewis in a rematch of last Saturday, won by the Rangers.

If the Yankees even the deal, Cliff Lee awaits them in Game 7 Saturday when Andy Pettitte draws the talented lefty for the second time. Lee blanked the Yankees in eight Game 3 innings.

The Yankees started action hitting .198 (26-for-131) overall and .154 (6-for-39) with runners in scoring position in the first four games. And they were without Teixeira, whose season ended Tuesday night via a right hamstring injury running to first.

Curtis Granderson went 3-for-4 and homered in the eighth. (Post)

Yanks go down 3-1, in CCs' hands now

For five innings, AJ Burnett looked like he would be an unlikely hero for the Yankees. In the sixth, Joe Girardi managed to put an end to that feel-good story.

A questionable decision to intentionally put the go-ahead run on base came back to bite Girardi and the Yankees, as Bengie Molina swatted a three-run homer to spark the Rangers' 10-3 win in Game 4 of the ALCS.

Taking a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven ALCS, Texas now stands only one win from its first World Series,.

"We've got to come tomorrow and try to win a game," Derek Jeter said. "We have to take it one game at a time and play a lot better than we did."

The Bombers will ask CC Sabathia to extend their season at least one more game, sending him to the mound this afternoon against C.J. Wilson in a do-or-die Game 5. (News)

Hughes roughed up vs Rangers

When the Yankees face Rangers ace Cliff Lee on Sunday night at Yankee Stadium they won’t be playing for their ALCS lives.

They guaranteed that by winning Game 1 Friday night with a late-inning comeback that was assisted by Rangers manager Ron Washington’s questionable bullpen moves.

However, the best-of-7 affair is even after two games because Phil Hughes never provided the Yankees a chance to win Saturday when the Rangers copped a 7-2 victory in front of 50,362 here.Less than 24 hours after escaping the early ditch dug by an awful CC Sabathia, the hole Hughes placed the Yankees in was too deep to overcome.

By the time Hughes recorded his ninth out the Rangers led, 5-0.Making his second postseason start and working on six days' rest the 24-year-old didn’t resemble the pitcher who blanked the Twins across seven innings in Game 3 of the ALDS.Thanks to a fastball that had enough juice but was poorly located, Hughes was punished for seven runs and 10 hits in four-plus innings. (News)

Yanks comeback from 5-0 deficit, beat Rangers 6-5

Before the first pitch of Friday night's game, the sellout crowd at Rangers ballpark waved white towels in a show of support for the home team.

By the time the Yankees were done batting around in the eighth, those fans may as well have been waving them as a sign of surrender.

Following seven sluggish innings that made it feel like September all over again, the Yankees erupted for five runs in the eighth, stealing a 6-5 win from the Rangers in the opening game of the ALCS. "Everybody just tried to have good at-bats, because you never know what can happen," said Marcus Thames, who capped the rally with what proved to be the game-winning hit. "I heard a couple of guys say, 'We stole one tonight.' It was huge."

Thames was the seventh straight Yankee to reach base to start the inning, one that began with the Rangers leading 5-1. Brett Gardner started things off with an infield single, sliding into first base to beat Jorge Cantu's throw to Texas starter C.J, Wilson. (News)

Hughes puts nail in Twins' coffin

Mission 28 is on schedule.

The Yankees completed the second part of their four-step plan to repeat as World Series champions, advancing to the ALCS with a 6-1 trouncing of the Twins at the Stadium Saturday night.

"This is it, man," a champagne-soaked Nick Swisher said. "The first one is getting in the playoffs, the second step was winning the first series, so we're on to step three right now. We're in a great situation."

Phil Hughes was brilliant in his first career postseason start, shutting Minnesota out over seven innings of four-hit ball. Hughes walked one and struck out six, helping finish off the Bombers' second consecutive three-game division series sweep of the Twins. (News)

Berkman drives Yanks over Twins

Standing at his locker last weekend at Fenway Park, Lance Berkman said that one big hit in the postseason would erase the frustration of his two months in pinstripes.

He was right.

Berkman doubled his fun with two huge hits, leading the Yankees to a 5-2 win over the Twins Thursday night in Game 2 of the AL division series.

Andy Pettitte backed up his fellow Texan with seven strong innings of two-run ball, moving the Yankees one win away from the ALCS.

"Three words - Texas Two-Step," Nick Swisher said. "It was amazing for Andy to go out there like that, and his Texas neighbor provided the pop for him." (News)

Tex puts Yanks over the top vs Twins

It took a few innings for the Yankees to shake off their September slumber, but once they did, they did what they've been doing for years.

They beat the Twins.

The Bombers climbed out of an early hole for a 6-4 win over the Twins in Game 1 of the AL division series, stealing home-field advantage away from Minnesota in the best-of-five matchup.

"That's the game plan," Nick Swisher said. "In these five-game series, there's no time to mess around."

Mark Texieira's two-run home run off Jesse Crain in the seventh proved to be the game-winner, Teixeira's second game-winning playoff homer against the Twins in two years. The Yanks eliminated the Twins in '03 and '04 as well as last year. (News)

Wild Card Yanks lose finale to Red Sox

They enter the Second Season with the stigma of Wild Card stamped across their foreheads.

Yet, according to Andy Pettitte the Yankees walk into the only part of the calendar that means anything in the Yankees’ universe with their 2009 World Series rings easy to see.

Dropping an 8-4 decision to the Red Sox in front of 37,453 at Fenway Park Sunday afternoon gave the Rays the AL East and reduced the Yankees to the Wild Card participant in the best-of-five ALDS that opens Wednesday against the Twins in Minnesota.

“We tried to win this thing and we didn’t get it done,’’ said Andy Pettitte, a candidate to start Game 2 Thursday at Target Field versus Carl “American Idle’’ Pavano after Cy Young favorite CC Sabathia draws lefty Francisco Liriano in Game 1. “We didn’t play good down the stretch but we are going to Minnesota and I am excited about it. The bottom line is that we are the World Champions until somebody beats us. Everybody thought this was going to be tough and you have to embrace it.’’  (NY Post)