Hiroki Kuroda leads Yankees to win against Astros

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Rob Abruzzese
Hiroki+Kuroda

Monday night’s game was a particularly bad one considering how bad the Astros are so the Yankees needed a good bounce back win and got one thanks to Hiroki Kuroda who lead them to a 7-4 victory Tuesday night.

Kuroda blanked the Astros over seven innings. They weren’t the prettiest innings, but he always managed to escape each time and settled down later in the game. His final line: 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 8 K, 0 HR.

The Yankees offense did it’s part starting with two RBI-singles by Travis Hafner in the first and third innings that made it 2-0. They they scored two more in the fourth and then tacked on three in the bottom of the third that made it 7-2. Those tack on runs were big too as Shawn Kelley allowed two more runs in the ninth before Mariano Rivera bailed him out.

• David Robertson pitched the eighth. He was sharp, but in between a pair of strikeouts there was a single and a ..read more

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Across the AL: Astros’ Lucas Harrell Introduces Himself to Yankees Fans

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Eric Favaloro
Lucas+Harrell

Quality players like Lucas Harrell – who find themselves playing quite well albeit on bad, small-market teams in cities where there isn’t much interest in baseball – are easily overlooked by most fans outside of said cities and/or teams.  Especially with pitchers, playing on a team as bad as the Astros have been in recent years can really disguise a player’s superior level of play.  Lack of offense, poor decisions being made behind him, and the team’s overall incapability of winning games will certainly dilute a pitcher’s perceived value in a baseball world which tends to unfairly focus a great deal on wins and losses.

A bright spot on a 2012 Astros team that lost 107 games, Harrell was (in terms of WAR) Houston’s top player last year.  In his first full season in the big leagues, the 27-year-old right-hander started 32 games, finishing the season with an 11-11 record and 3.76 ERA.  Allowing only 13 home runs in over 193 innings pitched, his .60 HR/9 ranked fifth in all of Major League Baseball.

Yankees fans were able to get a closer look at the Astros’ No.2 ..read more

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Yankees place Kevin Youkilis on the DL, Recall Corban Joseph

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Rob Abruzzese
kevin-youkilis-yankees-no-beard

Joe Girardi said after last night’s game the MRI done on Kevin Youkilis‘ back was clean, but it looks like he’s going on the DL anyway, according to Chad Jennings of the Journal News. Infielder Corban Joseph will take his place on the roster.

Youkilis has missed seven of the last eight games with a back injury that also bothered him last season. He got an epidural this morning will rest for at least the next two weeks. Youk tried to play through the back injury on Saturday only to have a setback.

Brian Cashman said it was a mistake to play him by everyone involved (which I assume means Youkilis, Girardi, and the trainers). Girardi said he has no regrets trying to play him because Youkilis told him he wanted to give it a shot.

Joseph, a 24-year-old 4th rounder from the 2008 draft, has never played in the majors. He has hit .273/.347/.477 in 22 games at Triple-A ..read more

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Yankees get blown out by the Astros

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Rob Abruzzese
Andy+Pettitte

The Yankees were beaten and beaten badly by the Houston Astros in a 9-1 loss Monday night when Andy Pettitte didn’t have his good stuff and the offense just didn’t show up.

Former Yankee Brandon Laird started a first inning rally with a two out single that was capped off by a two-run double by Carlos Corporan that made it 3-0. Brandon Barnes made it 5-0 in the fourth with another two-RBI double.

The Astros knocked Pettitte out of the game in the fourth and Adam Warren was greeted with a two-run homer by Corporan and a RBI-single by Barnes that made it 9-0.

The Yankees got their lone run in the sixth inning when Vernon Wells drove in Brett Gardner from third on a shallow single to left. They blew a bases loaded opportunity that inning, but down by eight runs at that point, with this lineup, and a comeback didn’t seem possible.

• Austin Romine made his season ..read more

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Current Yankees team hoping for some of that 96 Magic

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Elizabeth Finn
1996 yankees

The mood leading up to Opening Day was uneasy.  The offseason had been full of second-guessing and unorthodox moves.  The all-star catcher had been allowed to walk in favor of a light-hitting backstop.  A former slugger looking to prove he had something in the tank was the left field experiment. A former hated rival was still at the hot corner. And the homegrown face of the franchise wasn’t manning his position for the first time in over a decade.

Six months later, they were World Champions.

The 1996 New York Yankees have become something of a fixture in baseball lore.  Their curious mix of reclamation projects paying dividends and a little bit of lightning-in-a-bottle luck led to four championships in five years and a stretch of 16 playoff appearances in the next 17 years.  But to say that their success was unexpected would be an understatement.

The approach was certainly unusual. To attempt to build on the momentum of 1995, which saw the Yankees make the playoffs for the first time in 14 years, the front office shook things up. Career Yankee ..read more

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Contract talks between Cano and Yankees have not restarted, and notes

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Rob Abruzzese
robinson-cano

There has been another report that the Yankees will eventually drop their goals of lowering their budget to below $189 million this offseason. The report seems like mostly speculation and I have not totally bought into the idea that Hal Steinbrenner has abandoned it after working towards it for the past two offseasons.

The idea behind abandoning it does make sense — the Yankees are potentially a $3 billion organization. Getting under the $189 million luxury tax threshold would be the difference of $30-$60 million depending on how you look at it. The effects of the budget have already been negative as attendance continues to drop. So why would the Yankees risk continuing to negatively impact a $3 billion organization over as much as $60 million?

Like I said though, the reports, the recent Jeff Passan article and previously the Wallace Matthews piece, have been based on speculation and have used anonymous sources outside of the organization. If the Yankees were serious about dropping the budget nobody from the organization has said anything about it.

They haven’t shown it either and the best way they could show it would be to ..read more

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Yankees finish off first four-game sweep of Jays since 1995

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Rob Abruzzese
Phil+Hughes

The Yankees had yet another come from behind victory, beating the Blue Jays 3-2 at the Stadium on Sunday as they swept the Jays, this year’s sexy pick to win the AL East, in four games for the first time since 1995. They’ve won six out of seven against them so far.

It was a close pitchers duel between Phil Hughes and the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey. Hughes was great early on, but ran into some trouble in the fourth when Adam Lind tied it at 1-1 with a RBI-single. The Jays then took a 2-1 lead in the sixth when Maicer Izturis, of all people, drilled one off the right field wall for a RBI-double.

Meanwhile Dickey was nearly shutting down the Yankees and held them to just four hits in seven innings. Brennan Boesch homered in the second, a solo shot that made it 1-0 at the time. Then, with the Yankees trailing 2-1 in the seventh, Lyle Overbay hit a two-run shot ..read more

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Yankees come back to beat the Jay 5-4

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Rob Abruzzese
Travis+Hafner

The Yankees trailed 3-0 and then again 4-3, but managed to come from behind to beat the Blue Jays 5-4 thanks to a big game from Travis Hafner at the Stadium on Saturday.

CC Sabathia started and once again didn’t have his best stuff as the Jays scored one run in the third and two more in the fourth to build a 3-0 lead. The Yankees tied it in the bottom of the fourth when Travis Hafner crushed a three-run shot to right center.

The Jays added another one in the sixth on a Brett Lawrie homer, but the Yankees took the lead in the bottom of the seventh on a Vernon Wells RBI-single and a Travis Hafner RBI-triple. The Jays would not score again as CC retired the final nine batters he faced and Joba Chamberlain nailed down the save.

• It was a rare start against a lefty for Hafner, but it paid off big time for the Yankees who have hit just .217/.289/.343 against lefties this year as a team. Hafner ..read more

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Yankees lose Cervelli and Nova but still beat Jays 6-4

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Rob Abruzzese
francisco-cervelli

Francisco Cervelli left in the first inning after he broke his hand on a foul tip and Ivan Nova left in the third with elbow pain, but the Yankees still managed to beat the Blue Jays 6-4 at the Stadium Friday night.

Nova left the game with two men on and no outs and David Phelps came in and promptly let the Blue Jays to go ahead 2-1 on a Colby Rasmus RBI-single. Phelps would give up just one more run, an Edwin Encarnacion solo shot, his second of the game, and pitched a strong four innings that kept the Yankees right in the game leaving with a 4-3 lead. His final line: 4 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, 1 HR.

The rest of the Yankees bullpen gave up one run over the final three innings, but the Yankees got tack on runs thanks to poor defense by J.P. Arencebia and a solo shot by Brett Gardner.

• Cervelli will have surgery to ..read more

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Report: Yankees scrapping austerity budget

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Greg Corcoran
HANK STEINBRENNER MAKES IT RAIN

A month ago I discussed the possibility that the Yankees would abandon the austerity budget plan and continue to spend more than $189 million in 2014. Turns out the Yankees are in fact no longer serious about that goal.

Per Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports, no one within the organization ever really felt this was possible. The money they stood to save by getting under $189 is no longer significant enough to justify a $3 billion organization sending out a cheaper team. A few million dollars wasn’t going to stop them.

I am again relieved by this fact. Truthfully I am surprised that the Yankees are as good as they are this season. I am now more reassured than ever, however, that the Yankees are going to be good in 2014 as well. Steinbrenner is going to be willing to spend however much it takes to make this franchise a winner.

Here’s a quote from Passan’s piece I really agree with:

“The logic holds up well: The Yankees are arguably the greatest brand in American sports, and already with an injury-depleted roster this season, they could suffer ..read more

Posted in Editorial, Yankees News | 16 Comments