Center Fielders Steal the Show

Who would have thought that the ejection of hot-hitting Johnny Damon in the 3rd inning of Friday night's game would be exactly what the Yankees needed to stage an improbable comeback against Minnesota?

Brett Gardner was tasked with replacing the red hot Damon and came up big almost instantaneously with an inside-the-park home run to put the Yankees on the board in the 5th. It was the first inside-the-park home run for a Yankee since Ricky Ledee legged one out in 1999.


Phil Hughes departed after 5 laborious (but gutty) innings trailing 3-1. The Yankees were down 4-1 when Derek Jeter delivered a solo shot in the 7th to cut the lead in half.

Cue the 9th inning dramatics.

Brett Gardner got things going once again with a triple to lead off the 9th. It is a testament to Gardner's speed that he was able to make it to 3rd given the fact that he wiped out rounding 1st and still managed to make it with relative ease. Mark Teixeira then stroked a single through the right side of the infield and drove in Gardner, making it 4-3 Minnesota.

Despite home plate umpire Wally Bell's best efforts to ring him up, Alex Rodriguez worked a walk. Twins' closer Joe Nathan proceeded to strike out Hideki Matsui and Justin Morneau (who hit two home runs on his 28th birthday) robbed Nick Swisher of a hit. Ramiro Pena came in to run for A-Rod and the Yankees had runners on second and third with two outs. With first base open, Nathan opted to take his chances with the on-deck batter and intentionally walked Robinson Cano to work to Melky Cabrera. Melky swung at the first pitch and lined a two-run single into left-center field, providing his team with an exciting walk-off victory (the second walk-off hit Melky's delivered already this season).


The Yankees find themselves back over the .500 mark at 18-17 and kept pace with Toronto, remaining 4.5 back in the division. Joba Chamberlain and Nick Blackburn will square off for Saturday's afternoon affair at the Stadium.

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And for those of you interested, there is a really nice story behind Gardner's (unconventional) home run.

Read about it here. (Courtesy of Sean Brennan of the New York Daily News)

I worked an autograph signing with Brett Gardner back in October and can certainly attest to the fact that he is a good guy and easy to root for. I've made no secret of my feelings about Gardner as an everyday player, but that doesn't mean I'm not pulling for the guy!

Quick Hits

Sorry for the lack of updates lately- Final exams have kept me busy recently.

Since my last update:

- The Yankees were swept by the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

- Chien-Ming Wang, Brian Bruney, Cody Ransom, AND Damaso Marte were all placed on the disabled list.

- Mark Melancon made his highly-anticipated M.L. debut.

- The Yankees reduced ticket prices at the new Stadium.

- The Bronx Bombers played a three game series in Detroit, winning 2 out of 3.

- Phil Hughes was called-up from the minors and pitched beautifully, tossing six scoreless innings and notching his first big league victory since the 2007 postseason.


- Melky Cabrera officially (for the time being, at least) regained the starting center field role, pushing Brett Gardner to the bench. Melky has come up huge recently. As of today, Cabrera is batting .321 to Gardner's .222. He's got 4 homeruns (0 for Gardner), 10 RBI (versus Brett's 4), and Melky has even managed 2 stolen bases.

- Who's hot? Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera, Hideki Matsui, Jorge Posada, Nick Swisher
- Who's not? Mark Teixeira, Brett Gardner, Jose Veras, Edwar Ramirez

- The Yankees finished-up a rain-shortened series against the pesky Angels, taking 2 of 3 at the Stadium. I was at the series opener and am happy to say that the new place finally sounded like Yankee Stadium ought to. That might have something to do with my location; it was my first game in the grandstand seats with the real fans. May rolled around and with it came an exciting walk-off victory. Behind by 5 runs in the 8th, the Yankees rallied and won the game with a walk-off, two-run single courtesy of Jorge Posada. The Yanks lost the final game of the series.


- The bullpen remains a serious concern.

- Xavier Nady hopes to be back by the end of the month thanks to an innovative procedure, detailed here by Peter Abraham of The Journal News.

- Alex Rodriguez is progressing with his rehab and could be back with the team by the end of the week. Of course, no A-Rod update is complete without some controversy. Selena Roberts' "A-Rod" expose is hitting bookshelves today after a number of excerpts were leaked. I, for one, am sick of this story already, and it's only just begun.

- And as if all that weren't enough, the Red Sox are in town for their first taste of the New Yankee Stadium. Let's just hope the weather holds up and the Yankees have a sweep of their own in them!

Wednesday Walk-Off

I spent a rain-filled afternoon (and early evening) at Yankee Stadium for Wednesday's series finale against the A's.


Thanks to some generous soul on Razorgator, my friend and I sat field level, a mere thirteen rows from Nick Swisher, for an unbelievably low price. Arriving early for batting practice turned out to be hugely successful. First, we managed to secure an autograph from Joba Chamberlain (after a pleasant wave from Hideki Matsui).


Then we received a baseball each from a random assortment of Oakland Athletics.


And to top it all off, we appeared on the new Jumbotron. Let me tell you, it is TRULY terrifying to find yourself prominently featured for a good 30 seconds to a minute on a 103-by-58-foot, 1080p HD big screen at Yankee Stadium, your face alight with 8,601,600 LED lamps.


The game got underway under grey, stormy skies. Hideki Matsui and Melky Cabrera hit back-to-back homeruns in the 2nd inning and Derek Jeter added his fourth homer of the season in the 4th.


But CC Sabathia was unable to hold any leads provided by his offense, and left the 7-7 tie game with two outs in the 7th. The Yankees loaded the bases with no one out in the bottom of the 7th but failed to deliver.


The Yankees emptied their bullpen as the game continued on into extra innings. Phil Coke, Jonathan Albaladejo, Mariano Rivera, Damaso Marte, and Edwar Ramirez each pitched an inning or less of scoreless relief before giving way to Jose Veras, who has struggled mightily thus far this season. Veras, however, provided 3 1/3 hitless innings, racking up 4 strikeouts and taking the game, still 7-7, into the 14th inning.

After celebrating the 14th inning stretch with a second rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," Nick Swisher led off the bottom of the inning with his third walk of the ballgame. After a fly out by Hideki Matsui, Melky Cabrera stepped up to the plate. To this point, Melky had one walk-off homerun in his career, back in July of 2006. My sister and I just so happened to be on hand that rainy evening to witness Melky become the youngest player since Mickey Mantle to hit a walk-off homer for the Yanks. Could Melky send me home happy once more?

Flashback to '06- Melky's Walk-Off

Yes indeed! Melky smacked a two run homerun to right field and celebrated the first walk-off victory at the New Yankee Stadium.


Despite the rain, it was a truly memorable day spent at the ballpark, and a great victory to build on heading into Boston.