The Yanks face off against the AL East juggernaut Baltimore Orioles on a gray and dreary night. AJ Burnett gets another chance to prove that 2011 is not 2010. To-date he has been solid if not spectacular, compiling a 2-0 record and 4.09 ERA with a meager 11.0 innings across those two games. In defense of that IP stat, he was pulled early in his previous outing due to severe head-congestion (cue jokes about AJ's head being full. Of anything.). Opposing him will be Chris Tillman (0-0; 3.38) and Buck Showalter, who is certain to get a cold reception from the Yankee faithful after daring to impugn the Captain. Hope they remember that Buck was a big part of building the last dynasty in the major leagues and give him his due as well.
A win and the Yanks snag first place in the division. A loss and they're a .500 team. Line-ups after the bump - comment on all the action here.
Yankees
Gardner (RF)
Jeter (SS)
Teixeira (1B)
A-Rod (3B)
Cano (2B)
Swisher (RF)
Posada (DH)
Granderson (CF)
Martin (C)
Burnett (2-0, 4.09)
Orioles
Roberts (2B)
Markakis (RF)
Lee (1B)
Guerrero (DH)
Scott (LF)
Jones (CF)
Reynolds (3B)
Wieters (C)
Andino (SS)
Tillman (0-0, 3.38)
45 replies on “Flipping the Birds: Yanks-O’s Gamer I”
Impugn; what a great word.
C’mon, A.J. Let’s see it.
Kemba Walker’s ceremonial first pitch: looper outside the strike zone…but it didn’t bounce.
Starts Roberts out 0-2 but Brian fouls a few off and then pulls a single. Good at-bat. Now don’t fall apart AJ…
AJ Special: wild pitch moves Roberts to second. No outs.
Very good BABIP luck for Yanks – Lee hit a liner to the right side of the field with Roberts on 3rd and one out – Teix skies (which is to say he lifted off the ground a bit) and snagged it. 2 outs and Vlad up
K’s him. Nice AJ. His curve looks sharp and his change induced a couple swings and misses. Good to see him throwing it at all. Curious to see Jeter “jump out of the way” in the bottom half…
Very nice 0-2 Damon-like slap hit the other way by Gardner. Run Forest, Run!!!!
Wieters gunned out Gardner by a lot. I mean, a lot. Wieters has a cannon.
Typical Jeter opposite way hit. Sucks to have Gardner erased but I’m glad he is running aggressively. Teix up, trying to shed the Fenway funk – and JUST missed an RBI double down the line. Darn.
Single up the middle. Three straight hits. A-Rod up, 1st & 2nd, 1 out.
Short-porch special. 3-0. A-Rod looks great so far this year.
A-Rod now tied with Al Simmons & Ted Williams for 11th in career RBIs (1,839) – Hank Aaron and the top 10 up next.
Cano’s career numbers vs. Tillman: 6 for 7.
Cano K’s but then Swish singles. The Yankee line-up has gone wilding on Scott Tillman. Jorge up. I love this line-up. It’s sick.
Posada hits it hard to center but not deep enough into the gap. Inning over, Tillman around 30 pitches. Come on AJ.
AJ’s stuff looks so great. If this guy could freaking command it more consistently he’d be brutal. 2 outs after that strike-out. Reynolds up.
CRAZY STAT ALERT!!!!!!
With 633 K’s since 2009 Mark Reynolds has more total K’s over 3 seasons than any batter in major league history!!
That is amazing.
And he doubles.
Brunett special part 2: Another wild pitch, another runner going from 2nd to 3rd.
Martin barely kept that ball four from being a third wild pitch. Men on 1st and 3rd now, AJ at 50 pitches. The O’s have actually put some very very good ABs on him. Andino with his 0-for-7 season is up. Don’t walk this man you moron.
Teix with a nice play to end the inning…had to switch tvs and yanks are now up in the bottom of the 2nd with 2 outs, someone on 3rd, Jeter up. And Jeter hits it straight into the ground, gets a high enough bounce that he reaches first and Martin scores. And it’s raining…
Teix singles, Jeter to 3rd. He is picking up up right where he left off before his Boston hiatus. 2 for 2 tonight. A-Rod, another 3-run dinger???????
A-Rod walks to load the bases, all with 2 outs. Cano up with his 6-for-8 history vs. Tillman. Kay also notes that Cano has more hits (65) over the past two seasons against the O’s than any player has against any team in the majors over that time…And it’s 2-0.
Rips it – 2 runs score, A-Rod to 3rd. Tillman being pummeled. Showalter going to the pen here in the 2nd. Ouch. Me likey.
Me likey sloppy pitching. More please.
Looks like this one is up to the Yanks to lose. Just got in, and now I’m going to just chill, haha..
Fantastic charging diving catch by Jones on Posada’s bllo to save 2 runs at least. 6-0 as we go to the top of the 3rd – and a quick two outs already.
My goodness. The Yankees could fart and it would get them safely on base tonight. A-Rod with a dribbler that gets him to 1st and Teixeira to second. Cano up.
AJ, inefficiency in the first two innings aside, has looked pretty darn effective. His changeup could be a humongous weapon for him this year. If he really has incorporated a new pitch into his repertoire (and he keeps throwing it more than 10% of the time) he could be a very good pitcher. And then Larry Rothschild should have his number retired as the greatest pitching coach ever.
Not to get ahead of myself or anything.
AJ through 6 innings – 7-0 Yanks. Don’t know how they got the 7th run as I was busy paying taxes…ugh.
Hip Hip HR was run #7. :)
Sweet – tks krueg. And here he goes again. A third Oriole gets to 2nd base and just as he did with the first two, AJ moves him to 3rd with a wild pitch. And then he gives up a 2-run HR to Wieters. 7-2 Yanks.
And Jorge was 0 for 19 until the HR so perhaps he’ll start hitting again…
NP IH.
ARod is about to pass Ted Williams and Carl Yestremsky (however the hell you spell his name) on the all-time RBI list. :)
Another 2-run homer on AJ’s 111th pitch and now it’s 7-4 with one out in the 7th. Game is far from over. On the bright side: if they can keep the lead but not tack on Mariano can take another step toward the career saves lead :) I’m not going ot get on Burnett for this. He took a 7-0 lead into the 7th.
I was thinking they wouldn’t bring AJ out for the 7th. A questionable decision by Girardi. AJ’s strike % was just over 50% at the end of 6 innings.
Meh…another save for Mo.
Mo’s velocity was 93 last week. It’s 88-89 on this cold night. Typically quick 2 outs. Love it. I honestly think there is no athlete I’ve ever loved this much. And I’m not afraid to admit it.
Another K. Another save. Yanks move into first. Woo-hoo!
1st place. All is right with the world.
Ahh first place….
AJ now has more W’s than the Sox. :)
“AJ now has more W’s than the Sox. :)”
Ooooh, that’s a good one.
6 Yankees wins, 5 Mo saves. Wow.
Chuck Norris fell into infinity in a battle of trying to kick his own ass auditioning for the role of playing Mariano Rivera in a movie about Mariano Rivera. Mo picked up the save, striking out Chuck Norris, Chuck Norris, and getting Chuck Norris to ground out weakly to second base with a broken bat.
:) :) :) Was this before or after Mariano Rivera struck out 27 straight Chuck Norrises for a Perfect No-No-Norris?
Yes, IH, there is more to the “broken bat”…
I forgot to add that Chuck Norris grew that Ash tree from a sapling when he was three, having kicked a grown-man in the Ashole that worked as a logger for Weyerhaeuser that wanted to make that proud tree into a pulpy daily newsy that promotes soccer as a sport. Then he felled that tree with one strike from his own hand, and made it into what he named “Thunderbolt” with his burning laser blue eyes. Then he grounded out weakly, when facing Mo.