Yes, Yankees Fans, It's Okay to Root For the Pirates

Yes, I said it. It is okay for Yankees fans to root for the Pittsburgh Pirates this post-season.  However, I will preface my statement...if you under the age of, oh, 55, it is okay to root for the Pirates. If you are over 55, there's a good chance you still harbor ill will against P-Burgh for the 1960 World Series.

I wasn't born yet, so I have never felt any malice towards the Pirates. That being said, I don't like seeing the film of Bill Mazeroski's home run sailing over Yogi Berra's head and over the brick wall in old Forbes Field.

My brother, 9-years old at the time of the '60 series, was mortified when he learned I rooted for the Pirates against the Baltimore Orioles in both the 1971 and 1979 World Series. I hated the Orioles as a kid; they beat the snot out of the Yankees time and time again.

While there wasn't the animosity that exists between the fans of the Yankees and Red Sox (and some players) today, the Orioles did much more damage to the Yankees in the late 1960's and early 1970's than Boston ever did.

The Orioles won the inaugural AL East title when division play began in 1969, and won it again in 1970, 1971, 1973, 1974, and 1979. They won the AL Pennant three times and the World Series once.

But enough about Baltimore, this is about Pittsburgh. This is about a team that had its first winning record in 21 years this season. That's the same length of time since they have been in the post-season. The Pirates lost the NLCS three straight seasons from 1990-1992, twice in the 7th game.

The 1979 team, like the 1971 team, came back from a 3-1 deficit in games to the win the World Series. That was the fifth and final time the Pirates made it to the World Series and won it.

Tonight they enter as the host team for the one game wild card playoff with NL Central division rival Cincinnati. The two teams met in the regular season's final weekend, with the Pirates taking a three game sweep to ensure the first playoff home game since a 7-1 win over the Atlanta Braves in Game 5 of the '92 NLCS. That series ended dramatically with former Pirate Sid Bream just beating a tag at home plate with the winning run after Atlanta rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the bottom of the 9th. (Yes, some young Pirates fans know what it was like to be a young Yankees fans in 1960.) The Pirates also took the season series, 11 games to eight.

Manager Clint Hurdle, one of the front-runners for the NL Manager of the Year award, is in his third year as the Pirates' skipper. Under Hurdle's watch, the team has gone from 72 to 79 to 94 wins. The former Kansas City Royals Sports Illustrated cover boy has only one prior year of playoff managerial experience and that was with the NL pennant winning Colorado Rockies in 2007.

Hurdle's opposing manager, Dusty Baker, helmed the 2002 San Francisco Giants to a World Series title. However, Baker has won only one other playoff series in five additional playoff appearances.

The current squad hopes to get over the next hurdle with a bunch of talented kids and a good mix of veterans, including former Yankees A.J. Burnett and Russell Martin. Burnett led the team in starts (with Jeff Locke), innings pitched, and strikeouts. He is one of four Pirates pitchers that finished with double digit wins, three of which had 10 total, including Burnett.

Martin's numbers were very similar to those he produced with the Yankees. Fans wanted him gone until they saw what Chris Stewart did as a full-time player. Martin came through with walk-off winners in four home games this season and was a big influence on the youngsters.

Pitcher Francisco Liriano, one time known as the "next Johann Santana", looked like his career might done after posting 5+ ERAs in 2011 and 2012. But he resurrected his career in Pittsburgh this season with a career high 16 wins, his most innings pitched (161) since 2010 and his best ERA (3.02) and WHIP (1.224) since 2006. It will be his task Tuesday night to help the Pirates get to the division series when he squares off against the Reds' Johnny Cueto.

With Wandy Rodriguez out due to injury, the Pirates got a big boost when rookie Gerrit Cole was called up in June. Now, Yankees fans can whine about something. Cole was drafted by the interlocking NY in 2008, but he rebuked them. Cole went to UCLA instead and signed with the Pirates after he was the number one pick in the nation in the 2011 MLB amateur draft.

The 23-year old finished the season with a 10-7, 3.22 record in 19 starts and with 100 strikeouts in 117.1 IP. His performance also helped offset Locke's struggles over the last two months of the season.

The biggest star in the Steel City, though, is outfielder Andrew McCutchen. The 26-year old was the 11th overall pick in the 2005 draft and made his MLB debut in 2009. In five big league seasons he produced a slash line average of .296./380/.489, won Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards, and made three All-Star appearances.

The five-tool player averaged 20 home runs, 25 steals, and 91 runs scored a season. He led the NL in hits last season with 194 and had 185 this year. Yes, he can do it all and usually does.

He's aided in the lineup by slugging third baseman Pedro Alvarez (tied for NL lead with 36 HR), outfielder Starling Marte (41 steals), power hitting second baseman Neil Walker, and veteran outfielder Marlon Byrd, who was acquired at the trade deadline from the Mets.

Seton Hall product Jason Grilli, a veteran of 11 big league seasons got his first gig as a full-time closer at age 36 and responded with 33 saves in 35 opportunities. He averaged 13.3 strikeouts per nine innings and was named to his first All-Star game.

Mark Melancon (he and Jose Tabata are the final two former Yankees on the active roster) was Grilli's main set up man and filled in as closer when Grilli went down for six weeks with a strained forearm. He remained the closer for a short time even when Grilli returned until the veteran was back at or near 100%. The 28-year old appeared in a career high 72 games, saved 16 of them and averaged just fewer than nine strikeouts per nine innings.

Vin Mazzaro, Justin Wilson, Tony Watson, and Bryan Morris have all been solid out of the pen as well.

When it comes right down to it, the Pirates are a fun team to watch and to root for. There are no ghosts of Pirates past in PNC Park and no annoying choruses of "We are Family" (at least I hope not.) So here is one Yankees fan that hopes the Pirates get past the Reds, the Cardinals, and either the Braves or Dodgers (sorry Donnie Baseball, I hate the Dodgers.) and whatever American League opponent they may run into. The city of Pittsburgh has been waiting a long time for this.

Yankees Add Bobby Wilson to the Catcher Merry-Go-Round

The Yankees expected Eli Whiteside to possibly play a major part in their catching situation next season. Having already determined to let Russell Martin walk, Whiteside was expected to compete for part of a catching platoon with Austin Romine, Francisco Cervelli, Chris Stewart or whomever else the Yankees might sign in the meantime.

But in that meantime Whiteside got grabbed off waivers by the Blue Jays, and then again on Wednesday by the Rangers. But there's always a non-hitting veteran out there and the Yankees grabbed up another one in Bobby Wilson, formerly of the LA Angels.

Wilson was signed to a minor league deal after hitting .211 last year and has just a .593 career OPS. He is considered a decent defensive catcher.

One good thing Wilson did last year was quit Twitter - a very smart move before possibly playing in NYC for sure.

“I’m done with twitter. Try to be fan friendly and all I get is criticism. I wasn’t blessed with 5 tools. I worked hard to get here.”

Yankees' Martin Goes West...a little

Russell Martin knew he wasn't going to get one of those fancy $13.3MM qualifying offers to stay with the Yankees. He probably didn't mind either; several reports have Martin ready to sign a three-year, $24MM deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Martin took a beating from many Yankees fans who only looked at his overall offensive numbers and ignored his defensive skills and his ability to call a game.

The Yankees now have to decide whether to pursue Mike Napoli, who will certainly want more money than Martin,  trade for a front line catcher, or work with what they've got (Eli Whiteside, Francisco Cervelli, Austin Romine).

Au-revoir Monsieur Martin.

UPDATE 11/30: Martin's contract with Pittsburgh is 2 years for $17MM ($2MM of which is a signing bonus).

Yankees Offer Up a Trio of Qualifying Offers

"Should I stay or should I go now?"

$13.3MM is the magic number this year in determining if Major League Baseball teams will receive compensation if they lose players to free agency.

As part of the new collective bargaining agreement agreed upon in 2011, type 'A' and 'B' free agency was eliminated. In it's stead, the onus is now on teams to make guaranteed one-year contract offers equal to the average salary of the league's top 125 players to any of their free agents in attempt to gain compensation for lost assets. The number for 2013 is the aforementioned $13.3MM.

The onus then switches over to the player to either accept or reject the offer. If an offer is rejected, the player's 2012 team will get compensation if the player signs with a new team for 2013. If the player accepts, the team has the player for one year, whether they really wanted that player or not.

The Yankees made three of the offers today and hope that just two of them are accepted. In reality, at most one will be accepted, which means the Yankees could receive two compensatory picks.

The offers were made to Nick Swisher (I'll guesstimate 10% chance at acceptance), Rafael Soriano (0%), and Hiroki Kuroda (75% - 100% chance if he wishes to play another year in the US). The Yankees do not want Swisher to accept and he will in all likelihood oblige since he is looking for a multi-year free agent deal.

The Yankees would be doing cartwheels down River Ave. if Soriano accepted the offer, but since he just opted out of his current contract with the Yankees, that's not happening either. Soriano's agent, Scott Boras, is said to be looking for a four-year deal based on the 42 saves Soriano compiled in 2012.

And then there's Kuroda, who made $10MM with the Yankees this past season and would probably jump at the increase if he doesn't retire. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports had already reported that Kuroda would be "fine" with a one year deal.

No offers were made to free agents Andy Pettitte, Russell Martin, Raul Ibanez, and Ichiro Suzuki

Players have until 5 p.m. EST on November 9, which coincides with the last day of the general managers' meetings, to make their decision. Exclusive negotiating rights with a team's own free agents ends tonight, five days after the end of the World Series.

1 Inning Martin-izing Lifts Yankees

Photo courtesy of USA Today

There was the usual moaning, groaning, and grousing last night by Yankees' fans on Facebook, Twitter, and the more traditional bars and living rooms.

Why can't the Yankees get a hit with men on? Why are they bunting? Why are they..whatever?

When it came right down to it, the difference in the Yankees 7-2 ALDS Game 1 win over the Baltimore Orioles was the 2012 standby, the home run. It came off the bat of catcher Russell Martin, who hit a career high 21 home runs in the regular season, and ignited a five-run 9th inning that game the Yankees a 1-0 advantage in the best of five series.

It also made a winner of CC Sabathia, who pitched a stellar 8.2 innings to pick up his first post-season victory since Game 5 of the 2010 ALCS against Texas. Ironically, that game finished with a 7-2 score as well.

Sabathia had given up a pair of runs in the 3rd inning, but scattered eight hits and pitched out of any additional trouble he had on the night. He came within one out of a complete game, but his 120th pitch was a two-out double by Lew Ford in the 9th. That prompted Joe Girardi to call on David Robertson to close things out and the right-hander did just that when he blew a fastball past Ryan Flaherty for a third strike.

Both teams had shots to take the lead throughout the game, but the Yankees added to their woes with a couple of base running gaffes. Ichiro Suzuki followed Derek Jeter's game starting single with a gapper to left-center that scoring the Yankees captain for a quick 1-0 lead. With Alex Rodriguez at the plate, Ichiro felt he could steal off O's starter Jason Hammel, but didn't get a good jump and was easily gunned out by catcher Matt Wieters.

With two aboard in the 4th, Mark Teixeira ripped a line drive off the scoreboard in right to tie the game (2-2), but he then tried to stretch a single into a double. Presumably said attempt took place because Chris Davis, normally a corner infielder, was playing right field for the injured Nick Markakis. Teixeira would likely not have run on Markakis' arm, but was still easily thrown out at second base by Davis.

Buck Showalter elected to intentionally walk Curtis Granderson and it paid off when Hammel got Martin to fly out to end the inning.  The Orioles had a great chance to take the lead when they put runners on the corners against Sabathia in the 5th, but the lefty struck out Nate McLouth and got J.J. Hardy to bounce out. Sabathia also picked up his shortstop an inning later, after Jeter's error put two on with two outs, when he got Davis to fly out to center for the third out.

The Yankees finally took control in the 9th against Orioles closer Jim Johnson. After Martin's home run, Raul Ibanez singled through the right side and went to third on Jeter's hit-and-run single. Ichiro Suzuki then cued a ball that died in the grass near the first base line to score pinch-runner Eduardo Nunez for 4-2 advantage.

Alex Rodriguez continued to struggle and struck out for the third time on the night, but red-hot Robinson Cano delivered both base runners with a double to left. The Yankees added one more run on a Nick Swisher sacrifice fly against Tommy Hunter.

Notes

Game 2 will see Andy Pettitte on the mound in October for the first time since he allowed two runs over seven innings in a Game 3 loss to Texas in the ALCS two years ago. Cliff Lee and Neftali Feliz combined on  a shutout and the Yankees pen put the game out of reach when they allowed six  runs in the top of the 9th for an 8-0 final.  Overall, Pettitte is 19-10, 3.83 in 42 career post-season appearances, all starts. He'll be opposed by Wei-Yin Chen this evening.

Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira both know that for the Yankees to succeed they need to break out of the dual slump that has plagued them in post-season baseball in Pinstripes. Last night was a good start as both reached base three times (Swisher, 2 walks, 1 hit, Teixeira, 2 hits, 1 walk) and drove in a run each.

Many Yankees fans were not pleased that Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr. was part of the TBS broadcast booth (along with Ernie Johnson and John Smoltz) last night and for the series. But the man who broke Lou Gehrig's iron man streak showed no bias, and it's absolutely ridiculous if anyone thinks his being part of the broadcast has an affect on the game.

Martin's Big Bang Theory Gets Soriano Off The Hook

Russell Martin game winner (courtesy of Yahoo Sports)

CC Sathabia was doing what everyone is accustomed to CC Sabathia doing, mowing down hitters. It had been a while since anyone had seen the big man pitch like he always did prior to this season. One Oakland Athletic went down on strikes after another, 11 in all. Unfortunately, the Yankees couldn't do much against Oakland starter Jarrod Parker, and had just a 1-0 lead when Sabathia exited after 113 pitches and eight innings.

Good news, bad news...Rafael Soriano came on in the 9th inning for the save, but surrendered a mile high home run to Brandon Moss to tie the game at one apiece. Wait, that's actually bad news, good news. Though Sabathia didn't get to enjoy the fruits of his labor, the Yankees won the game in 10 innings when Russell Martin turned on a Sean Dolittle fastball and hit it into the left field seats for a 2-1 game winning, walk off home run. Sean do little, but Russell did lots.

Martin's best month has been September; he's matched his season high for home runs in a month (4), has produced his top RBI total (12), best batting average (.255, still not so hot) and OPS (.896, nice). David Robertson was the recipient of Martin's big hit after he pitched a scoreless 10th inning to improve to 2-7.

Though he didn't figure in the decision, it was encouraging to see Sabathia complete eight full innings for the first time since August 3. I was upset that Joe Girardi didn't let him start the 9th, especially after Soriano served up his gopher ball, but reconsidered after I learned  Sabathia had thrown 113 pitches to that point. In the past I would have thought, 'no big deal', but there was no reason to tax Sabathia's questionable elbow.

The victory kept the Yankees a game ahead of Baltimore, which defeated Boston 4-2.

Notes

Ichiro Suzuki had hits his first two times up (he finished 2-3) to give him 11 hits in his last 15 at-bats.

Derek Jeter was 1-4 to extend his hitting streak to 15 games.

Yankees Battery Powers Past Tampa Bay

The Yankees best pitcher of the second half picked up his 14th win of the season and his catcher continued his mini-resurgence with his 17th home run of the year in the Yankees 6-4 defeat of the Tampa Bay Rays.  The loss dropped the Rays five games back in the AL East and four games behind Baltimore for the second wild card spot.

Hiroki Kuroda (14-10) was outstanding through the first five innings before he ran into trouble in the 6th inning, and the Yankees bullpen blanked the Rays over the final three innings.  Kuroda faced seven batters in the first two innings and struck out six of them. The only batter to make contact and put a ball in play was Ben Zobrist who doubled with one out in the 1st inning.

Kuroda ended his day with 10 K's, second only to his 11-strikeout performance against the Chicago White Sox on June 30. Kuroda's battery mate, Russell Martin, gave his partner a big boost when the Yankees got on the board with a five-run 3rd inning against Rays starter Matt Moore.

Eduardo Nunez, making another start at shortstop, drew a lead off walk and quickly stole second base. DH Derek Jeter followed with an RBI single to right to snap the scoreless tie. It was Jeter's 199th hit of the season and his only base knock of the day.

Jeter advanced to second base on the play and was sacrificed to third by the slumping Nick Swisher. Alex Rodriguez continued to swing a hot bat with an RBI single of his own for a 2-0 Yankees lead. Robinson Cano then walked and Martin deposited a pitch in the right field seats for a 5-0 advantage. Martin is one home run shy of his total from last season and two behind his career high of 19 that he established as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2007.

Zobrist homered off Kuroda in the 4th to get the Rays on the board, but A-Rod quickly got the run back with a sac fly after Nunez reached on an error and stole second and third in the bottom of the inning.  A loss of Kuroda's control and an oblivious Yankees fan nearly cost the Yankees the lead in the 6th.

Kuroda walked Jonathan Lobaton to start the frame and Desmond Jennings followed with a single. Zobrist hit a foul pop on the right side that 1st baseman Steve Pearce had a chance to put away. The ball was about a row deep into the seats, but a leaping Pearce collided with a Yankees fan who was looking for a souvenir and the ball fell free. The fan apologized and Pearce was forgiving (clearly this was not a "Bartman" incident), but Kuroda proceeded to walk Zobrist to load the bases.

Evan Longoria took advantage of the opportunity with a two-run single that cut the Yankees lead in half. The Rays pushed another run across, but the Yankees traded it for the double play Matt Joyce hit into. With the score 6-4, Kuroda k'ed B.J. Upton, who had the Golden Sombrero on the day, to end the inning.

The Rays put two aboard with two out an inning later, but David Phelps struck out Jennings to escape the jam. The last gasp for the Rays came in the 9th when A-Rod made an error that brought the tying run to the plate. But Rafael Soriano picked up his 40th save when Jeff Keppinger bounced into an inning ending 6-4-3 double play.

2 Bad Pitches Don't Spoil The Whole Game Girl

Russell Martin strokes game winner - courtesy of Buffalo News

If you hadn't known better you would have sworn tonight's game between the LA Angels and Yankees was being played on the left coast.

It was one of those typical games where the Yankees had a lead for most of the game, but then everything went to hell in the last few innings. This time around it was Hiroki Kuroda holding a 2-1 lead on his home mound in the 7th.

Had there been a full moon Friday night, you clearly would have seen a baseball pass by it, much like ET and his bicycle did many moons ago (no pun intended). The ball had launched off the bat of Angels' left fielder Mark Trumbo with two aboard and came back to Earth in the seats behind the Yankees bullpen. The Yankees suddenly were in a 4-2 hole and the once smooth sailing Kuroda had encountered choppy water. (The Trumbo home rnu was bad pitch #2 after hitting Kendrys Morales with a 1-2 pitch.)

It didn't get any better in the 8th when for some reason, Joe Girardi left Kuroda in the game and the Angels tacked on an insurance run on Albert Pujols' bloop double to right. But the Yankees had some magic of their own in the bottom of the 8th inning.

Derek Jeter started things off against lefty Scott Downs by lacing a double up the alley in right-center. Curtis Granderson, hitless against Downs in 12 career at-bats, worked a tough walk to bring Mark Teixeira to the plate as the tying run.

Teixeira had provided the first two Yankees runs with a bullet home run to left off Angels' starter C.J. Wilson in the 3rd inning. While that Teixeira home run got out in a hurry, his home run off Downs to tie the game was a high majestic shot to left field.

Downs finally retired Alex Rodriguez (who heard many boos on the night) and Robbie Cano, before he walked Nick Swisher to end his night on the mound. With right-hander Kevin Jepsen on the hill, pinch-runner Dewayne Wise swiped second base to put the go ahead run in scoring position. Angels' skipper Mike Scioscia decided to intentionally walk pinch-hitter Raul Ibanez to force Russell Martin and his sub-.180 batting everage into a clutch situation.

I'm sure I wasn't the only one wondering why Girardi didn't send Eric Chavez up to pinch-hit, but Girardi stuck with his catcher and his confidence was rewarded when Martin lashed a go ahead single to right. Martin wasn't done coming up big in the game though.

Rafael Soriano came on in the 9th to close things out, but Yankees killer Howie Kendrick reached on a one out single. Soriano retired Erick Aybar on a foul pop, but then uncorked a pitch in the dirt. Though pinch-hitter Maicer Izturis put up the hold sign, Kendrick took off for second base. Martin quickly got to the baseball and fired a strike to an awaiting Derek Jeter to end the ball game. A fired up Martin pumped his fist and celebrated a night in which he threw out three of four would-be base stealers in addition to his game winning hit.


Notes

The comeback would not have been possible had Swisher not robbed Trumbo of another home run in the 8th inning.

The Yankees signed Kosuke Fukudome to a minor league deal. The Japanse born veteran had been recently released by the Chicago White Sox after hitting just .171 in 24 games. The 35-yr old is in his 5th Major League season and has been on the decline since breaking in with the Cubs in 2008.

Austin Romine was expected to compete for a back up catching job on the Yankees at some point this season, but the 23-year old went down with a bad back in Spring Training. Romine returned to action Friday night with the GCL Yankees. He was 0-2 with an RBI and split the team's catching duties with Eduardo de Oleo.

Joba Chamberlain began his road back from a busted ankle and continued his recuperation from Tommy John surgery with a scoreless inning in Tuesday's GCL game. He's expected to pitch again this weekend.

Andy Pettitte will be getting his broken ankle x-rayed to see what progress has been made.

Mike Trout, with his family in Derek Jeter's private box, had another ho-hum night. Two hits, two steals, and a run scored. He's an incredibly dynamic player to watch.

Yanks Stop the Slop at the Trop

photo courtesy of Yahoo sports

Tropicana Field, aka "The Trop" is a hideous excuse of a ballpark. It's a disgrace; arguably the ugliest ball yard in baseball history. A warehouse with low hanging cat walks, recycled rubber turf, and a ceiling that's easy to lose the baseball in.

Maybe it's no wonder that the Yankees play like total garbage every time down there. After two embarrassing losses in a row, the Yankees shook off the doldrums and emerged with a 4-3 victory  over the Tampa Bay Rays to salvage the finale of the three game series.

The Yankees losing streak at the Trop reached nine in a row after Monday and Tuesday defeats. One more loss would have been the Yankees longest losing streak in one opponent's facility since the Yankees dropped 15 straight at Texas from 1989-1991.

Starters David Phelps and David Price matched zeros for a while, but Phelps was forced to leave the game in the 5th inning trailing 1-0 (and after 81 pitches). The Yankees didn't manage a hit off Price until the top of the 5th and finally broke through on the scoreboard when Mark Teixeira hit his 14th home run of the season in the 7th.

The tie was short lived, however, when Carlos Pena turned on a Boone Logan delivery in the home half of the 7th for a go ahead 2-run home run. Pena is pretty much a one dimensional hitter, but he continues to destroy the Yankees, especially in Tampa. Pena has four home runs and 11 RBI against the Yankees in 2012 alone. And for some reason, the Yankees keep pitching to him.

It appeared a sweep was at hand, but the Yankees had some comeback magic thanks to their old pal Kyle Farnsworth. The righty reliever was Tampa's closer last season, but was on the DL for most of this year and was making just his second appearance of the season.

Farnsworth faced five hitters and not one put the ball in play. Eric Chavez led off the 8th with a pinch-hit walk before Farnsworth struck out Derek Jeter looking. It would be the last time Farnsworth could find the strike zone. He proceeded to walk Curtis Granderson, Teixeira, and Alex Rodriguez in order to force in a run and cut the Rays' lead to 3-2.

Lefty Jake McGee was brought in to face Robinson Cano, but the red hot hitting second baseman lashed a a 2-run single to give the Yankees the lead for good. Rafael Soriano continued his great season in place of Mariano Rivera and retired the side in order in the 9th for his 19th save. The final out? A pop out by Pena.

Notes

No one had more of a miserable series than Russell Martin. The Yankees starting catcher was 0-8 to drop his batting average to an anemic .179 (he weighs 210) and made two costly errors in Tuesday's 7-4 loss. If Martin's back is the reason for his latest round of hitting woes, he should either be DL'ed or rested through next week's All-Star break to see if it makes a difference.

A Mark Teixeira error was the difference in Monday's 4-3 loss, but it was David Robertson inability to pitch effectively when called upon in the middle of an inning that made the difference. With his fastball still inconsistent, Joe Girardi would be better off keeping D-Rob out of crucial situations for a bit.

Happy Yankeeversary

It was a big day in Boston on Friday afternoon, the Old Town Team was celebrating the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park. A veritable plethora of Boston Red Sox alumni was introduced prior to the game with the Yankees. From 91 year old Bobby Doerr to Carl Yastrzemski to Jim Rice to Johnny Pesky to Rico Petrocelli to recently fired manager Terry Francona. On and on it went. Then the teams got down to business and the Red Sox continued to struggle.

The teams wore throw back uniforms circa 1912, which contained no numbers on the back. But like most Yankees-Red Sox contests over the years, the Yankees got the better of Boston. This time the Yankees crashed the Red Sox party with five solo home runs, including a pair of Eric Chavez blasts, and came away with a 6-2 victory. Ivan Nova was very good for six innings and won his third game of the season. He allowed two runs, seven hits, didn't walk a batter and struck out five. David Ortiz's solo home run in the 2nd inning was one of the few mistake pitches Nova made on the day.

Meanwhile the Yankees took advantage of a shaky Clay Buchholz. The right-hander missed most of last season with a back injury and hasn't looked good so far this season. The Yankees led 1-0 in the 2nd when Nick Swisher hit an opposite field blast for third home run and 14th RBI of the season. Two batters later Chavez hit his first long ball of the season.

Chavez struck again in the 4th with a long blast to deep centerfield for his first multi-home run game in six years. One inning later, Alex Rodriguez, who also had an RBI single in the 1st, took Buchholz deep for his second round tripper of the year.

The Red Sox got a run back in the home half of the 5th on Mike Aviles' RBI double, but that was the last run the Red Sox would score against the Yankees pitching. Cory Wade, David Robertson, Cody Eppley (in his Yankees debut), and Mariano Rivera scattered three hits over the final three innings to seal the win. The Yankees weren't done scoring though- Russell Martin added one more home run when he finished Buchholz's scoring line with a solo blast in the 6th.

You Can't Predict Baseball, But You Can Predict John Sterling

Seriously...whoever buys the radio rights next year, Sterling needs to go. You can find a minimum 2-3 screw ups per game now (as in Saturday night's game vs. the Angels). It seems most of it is tied to eye sight or bad eye sight.

His shtick is old, his home run calls are beyond corny, and it's just not a fun listen.

On another note - due to injuries to Francisco Cervelli (concussion symptoms) and Russell Martin (which occurred during the game), Jorge Posada caught his first game of the year. The Angels immediately tested him (on the first pitch), but Posada threw out Howie Kendrick attempting to steal second base.

Red Sox Get Martinized

The prospects for the Yankees winning 2 of 3 in Boston were not good, considering that A.J. Burnett, he of the 13.86 ERA in his last three starts, was going up against Red Sox stud Jon Lester in the series finale Thursday night. But John Sterling is occassionally right, especially when he says you can't predict baseball. Burnett kept the Yankees in the game through his 5.1 innings and Russell Martin delivered a clutch 2-run double in the 7th inning to give the Yankees a 4-2 victory and their first series win against Boston this season.

The biggest story lines coming into the game was how would Burnett fare (or as most people figured, how badly he would fare) and the Major League debut of Jesus Montero. Burnett was going along swimmingly until he threw a high fastball to high fastball hitter Dustin Pedroia, who launched it into the center field seats to the Red Sox a 2-1 lead in the 4th. But unlike most of his prior starts, Burnett didn't melt down. Instead he beared down and tossed a scoreless 5th inning before leaving with two men aboard and one out in the 6th. Boone Logan and Cory Wade stranded the base runners and the Yankees finally broke through against the Boston bullpen in the 7th.

Jon Lester had given the Yankees a number of opportunities to score, but they couldn't get the big hit off of him. What they did do though was work the count and forced Lester out of the game after five innings and 114 pitches. Andruw Jones worked his third walk of the night against former Yankee Al Aceves to start the rally. That brought up Montero, who had already stranded six base runners on the night. He didn't deliver a key hit, but got hit when an Aceves pitch clipped his jersey.

Terry Francona brought on fireballer Daniel Bard to face Martin, but as he has done often thi season, the Yankees catcher came through in the clutch, drilling a pitch up the alley in right-center. Jones scored easily to tie the game and Montero slid across home plate with the go ahead run well ahead of the relay throw home. Eric Chavez then gave the Yankees some insurance with a pinch-hit RBI single to right for a 4-2 Yankees lead.

But you know nothing is easy in a Yankees-Red Sox series and that was exemplified in all three games of the series. Mariano Rivera came in to close things out in the 9th and walked the lead off hitter Jed Lowrie. Rivera got his cutter in enough on the hands to Josh Reddick who couldn't get the "good wood" on it as Kenny Singleton likes to say, and flied to right. Rivera blew away Jarrod Saltalamacchia with a a pair of fastballs for the second out and things seemed to be easy going. But Mariano and company had to sweat this one out. He walked Jacoby Ellsbury to put the tying runs on basis and then gave up a single to his nemesis Marco Scutaro to load the bases. That brought up the AL's batting leader Adrian Gonzalez, who also entered the game with 103 RBI.

Rivera busted one cutter after another in on Gonzalez's hand and body- in fact Gonzalez fouled a pitch into himself that looked like it might have hit him had he taken it. The final pitch of the night was a result of all those inside pitches as Rivera fired a cutter at the outside corner that Gonzalez could only watch. Home plate ump Alfonso Marquez rung him up and the game was over some four hours after it began.

NOTES

Mark Teixeira took a hard breaking pitch from Al Aceves off the back of his right knee and went down in tremendous pain. He's listed as day-to-day, but it would not be surprising to see him miss at least a couple of games. Michael Kay pointed out on the broadcast that the White Sox Paul Konerko had a similar injury and missed four games. In fact he returned in a series against the Yankees and was still having trouble running.

In addition to Montero, the Yankees brought up old friend Scott Proctor, left-hander Raul Valdes, righty Lance Pendleton, outfielder Chris Dickerson, and third baseman Brandon Laird, Infielder Ramiro Pena will likely join the team as well once he finished his minor league rehab assignment.

David Ortiz extended his hitting streak to 15 games.

The Yankees return home Friday night to begin a three game series with the Toronto Blue Jays. Ivan Nova faces Brandon Morrow in the opener.

Hurricane Martin Slams A's

The Oakland A's had already won the first two games of a three game series with the Yankees and had lambasted Phil Hughes to take a 7-1 lead Thursday afternoon. No one could have blamed Oakland for thinking they had a three game sweep wrapped up. But that was before Russell Martin and the Yankees had more grand slams than Denny's serves for Sunday morning breakfast.

Martin, who earlier hit a solo home run, added a grand slam to put the Yankees on top for good 10-7 en route to a 22-9 victory. Robinson Cano's grand slam had cut the A's lead to 7-6 and Curtis Granderson later added some extra icing on the cake with a Major League record third grand slam. Boone Logan struck out all four batters he faced for a well deserved win.

It was Martin though that ignited the Yankees with a 5-5, 6 RBI day. Unfortunately, his battery mate could match his success. Hughes gave up single runs in each of the first two innings and then was hammered and knocked from the game in the 3rd. The right-hander, who came in to the game with a 2.08 ERA in his last five starts, left the game down 4-1 and with two men aboard. Corey Wade then served up a gopher ball to Cliff Pennington for his sixth home run of the season.

Martin hit his solo shot off of A's starter Rich Harden in the 4th and the veteran right-hander would be deprived of a chance to win the game when he couldn't make it out of the 5th inning. Derek Jeter reached on a lead off single and Curtis Granderson followed with a walk. Harden struck out Mark Teixeira, but gave up a single to Alex Rodriguez to load the bases. Cano, who entered the game with a 1.221 OPS this season with ducks on the pond, crushed his second grand slam of the season to cut the A's lead to a single run. When Nick Swisher doubled, A's manager Bob Melvin had no choice to go to his bullpen. It wouldn't help.

Craig Breslow hit Granderson to start the 6th and out later Fautino De Los Santos walked Rodriguez. De Los Santos managed to strike out Cano, but after a wild pitch had moved both runners up, Melvin decided to intentionally walk Swisher to face Martin. The catcher went the opposite way for his third career grand slam to give the Yankees their first lead of the day.

The Yankees offense wasn't done though; they added six more runs in both the 7th and 8th innings, including Granderson's record settting slam and a long solo blast by Andruw Jones. A's rookie pitcher Bruce Billings took the brunt of the damage with seven runs allowed in just 1.1 innings pitched.

Notes

Granderson's home run pushed him over the decade mark in RBI (103) for the first time in his career. The home run (#36) also moved him one behind league leader Jose Bautista. The centerfielder also scored four more times to give him a Major League best 119 runs scored.

Derek Jeter was 3-6 and temporarily reached the .300 mark before making an out his final time up to drop him back to .299. He's had multiple hit performances in nine of his last 11 games.

Robinson Cano extended his hitting streak to 16 games.

Mark Teixeira was 0-4, but had 2 RBI to give him 98 on the season.

Jorge Posada finally made his big league debut at the position he was originally drafted at, second base. The final out of the game was a grounder to Posada, who wound up and fired a bullet in the dirt. Luckily, Nick Swisher made a terrific scoop to save Posada from an error on his one and only chance.

The start of the game was delayed nearly 1 and 1/2 hours by rain.

It was the first multi-grand slam day by the Yankees since Paul O'Neill and Bernie Williams both connected on Sept. 14, 1999 against Toronto.

The 22 runs were the most allowed by the A's since they gave up 29 in a game in 1955.

Twins Have Their Phil Of Yankees

The Minnesota Twins have been perennial contenders in the AL Central for more than a decade, but this year has been a complete disaster. Injuries, sub-par performance...basically anything that can go wrong has for Minnesota in 2011 has gone wrong. It can't help their psyche any to be facing the Yankees right now considering the beat down the New Yorkers have constantly put on the state whose politicians have ranged from Jesse Ventura to Al Franken to Michelle Bachmann (nutty, nuttier, nuttiest?).

The Yankees pounded Kevin Slowey and the Twins Friday night 8-1 to take the first two games of the four game set. The Twins will have a chance to add to A.J. Burnett's misery on Saturday, but there are no guarantees, except for tough times, for the Twins. (Who I picked to win the division)

Last night's game was about the battery of Phil Hughes and catcher Russell Martin. Hughes was at his best and has gotten stronger in each of his most recent outings since he returned from a long stint on the DL with a strained shoulder. After he gave up a solo home run to Trevor Plouffe (what a great name) in the 1st inning, Hughes kept the Twins hitless until the non-related Luke Hughes singled in the 8th.

Hughes had a lively fastball with movement and 70 of his 106 pitches were for strikes., and went the deepest he had into a ballgame all year. In his last four starts Hughes has allowed six earned runs in 25.2 innings (2.10 ERA) and has limited opponents to 18 hits. Half of those came in one outing against the A's.

Martin helped his buddy out by homering off of Slowey in the 3rd and 6th innings. He smacked a hanging breaking ball into the left field seats to tie the game at 1-1 and then with a man aboard turned on a fastball for his 15th home run of the season. Martin, who also homered in his last appearance on Thursday, hit a combined 12 home runs his last two seasons in LA. Both players were complimentary of each other's performance after the game when speaking with reporters. And Hughes has put his arm back in the race for a top three playoff start.

Notes

Mark Teixeira knocked in three runs and reached 1,000 RBI in his career.

Thanks to @yestoresearch for answering my question, "Who was the last Yankees catcher, if any, to hit three home runs in a single game?" The answer - Mike Stanley in 1995 and Bill Dickey in 1936 were the Yankees catchers to perform the feat.

Derek Jeter had two more hits to raise his average to .292.

Yankees Walk To Win

Mark Teixeira snared the last out from the stands.

A.J. Burnett was going through one of those frustrating nights last night that has become the hallmark of his 2 1/2 years as a Yankee. He wasn't putting hitters away, he put his team in a 4-1 hole, and he got into a verbal disagreement with a Yankees fan sitting behind the visitors' dugout. But the Tampa Bay Rays had a bigger issue. They had used nine pitchers the night before- actually the same day, since the game ended after 1 a.m., in a 16-inning loss to the Red Sox. The result was a kid making his Major League pitching debut and a come-from-behind 5-4 win for the Yankees.

23-yr old Alex Torres was one out away from getting out of a 9th inning jam, but it was not meant to be. He gave up a lead off single to Curtis Granderson, but struck out Mark Teixeira for the first out. (Teixeira, like players and managers on both sides, had trouble with home plate umpire Ed Hickox' balls and strikes calls and it affected his final two at-bats, both of which were strikeouts.) Granderson swiped second with Robinson Cano up and moved to third when Cano grounded out to second.

Rays' manager Joe Maddon decided to intentionally walk Nick Swisher to set up a matchup with the less productive Andruw Jones. The move backfired though, when Torres unintentionally gave Jones a free pass to load the bases. Then, everything exploded in Maddon's face when Torres missed with a 3-2 pitch to Russell Martin to force in the go-ahead run. Mariano Rivera then pitched a 1-2-3 9th inning for his 24th save.

Trailing 1-0, the Rays came right back with a three spot in the bottom of the 1st inning. Burnett got off on the wrong foot by walking Johnny Damon and then allowed a single to Ben Zobrist. Evan Longoria brought both runners home with a double to left-center for a 2-1 Rays lead. Casey Kotchman singled to move Longoria up a base, but Teixeira's Gold Glove defense temporarily saved Burnett from further trouble.

Teixeira gloved B.J. Upton's grounder, froze Longoria at third and started a 3-6-3 double play. (It helped that Upton, as usual, didn't run hard to first). Burnett didn't take advantage of his good fortune though, when he fielded Sean Rodriguez' chopper and threw wildly to first for a run-scoring error.

Rookie starter Alex Cobb held the Yankees to three hits over six innings, but the Yankees chipped away at the lead in the 8th against Cesar Ramos and former Yankee reliever Kyle Farnsworth. Cano singled to start the frame and Swisher followed with a walk. Farnsworth retired Jones, but gave up back-to-back singles to Brett Gardner and Martin to produce a run, and another scored on Eduardo Nunez' fielder's choice.

David Robertson struck out two of the three batters he faced in the 8th inning to raise his record to 3-0. He now has 59 strikeouts in 37.1 innings.

Yankees Top Cubs In Spite Of Themselves

Ray Liotta, er, Russell Martin takes Carlos Pena's best shot

The Yankees did everything they could today to give the ball game away, but held on a 4-3 win over the Chicago Cubs. It evened the series at a game apiece, with the rubber game another nationally televised affair on ESPN Sunday night.

The Yankees squandered offensive opportunities, ran the bases poorly, committed errors, threw wild pitches, hit batters, and still came out on top even after Mariano Rivera surrendered a solo home run to Reed Johnson in the 9th and a follow up single to Alfonso Soriano.

The Yankees had Ryan Dempster on the ropes all day, but it took until the 6th inning and the game tied 2-2 to finally take the lead for good. Eduardo Nunez reached on a lead off single and moved to second base on an odd bunt from A.J. Burnett. The ball rolled foul, but first baseman Carlos Pena didn't pick the ball up and it rolled back into fair territory for a successful sacrifice. Brett Gardner's single put runners on the corners and drove Dempster from the game. Reliever James Russell got away with a pitch to Curtis Granderson, who narrowly missed his 22nd home run, but delivered a sac fly and a 3-2 Yankees lead. With a chance to possibly score more and Mark Teixeira at the plate, Gardner was picked off first base to end the inning. But Gardner would more than make up for his gaffe a short time later.

Yankees starter A.J. Burnett was effective for the most part, his one mistake a flat fastball that Pena turned in a game tying (2-2) home run. Burnett almost became a victim of bad luck in the bottom half of the 6th when the wheels came off the Yankees defense. Burnett's breaking ball broke into Pena for a hit batter with one out and Nunez booted Reed Johnson's ground ball to put the tying and go ahead runs on base. Joe Girardi went to Cory Wade to face Alfonso Soriano, who hit a sharp grounder to third. Alex Rodriguez made a nice play to snare the ball, but Robinson Cano dropped the throw to second for the second Yankees error of the inning.

The dangerous Geovany Soto stepped in and hit a bullet to left that Gardner caught on the run and then fired a perfect one hopper to Russell Martin at home plate. Pena came barrelling in high and slammed into the Yankees catcher, who had a firm grip on the baseball for an inning ending double play. Martin was sure not only to show the ball to the umpire, but Pena as well in a "I took your best shot" moment.

The Yankees got a much needed insurance run in the 9th when Nunez doubled home Cano, but Nick Swisher continued the Yankees tough day on the bases by getting throw out at home plate to end the inning. The run proved to be huge when Reed Johnson hit a hanging cutter from Rivera into the left field seats to make it a one run game. (FOX's anti-Yankee Joe Buck announced the game was tied with much glee, but then had to sadly retract his statement) But after Soriano followed with a single, Rivera got Soto to bounce into a double play and struck out Jeff Baker to nail down the win.

Notes

In addition to Gardner and Swisher, Granderson was thrown out attempting to steal and Rodriguez was nailed trying to stretch a single into a double.

The Yankees were 3-12 with runners in scoring position, plus two sacrifice flies.