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3 Games; 3 Walk-Offs
You could not ask for a more exciting weekend. The Yankees have played three games of this four game series against the Twins and have had walk-off wins in each of them.
Friday: MIN 4-5 NYY
Hero(es): Melky Cabrera, Brett Gardner
Things were looking bleak for the Yankees when Johnny Damon was tossed by HP Umpire Wally Bell. The strike zone was very frustrating for Yankees hitters and it reached its climax when in Johnny Damon’s 2 at-bats, he struck out twice looking, both on questionable calls. You could say that Minnesota’s loss was all Johnny Damon’s fault as his ejection gave way to Brett Gardner. Gardner, who earlier this year lost the starting CF job to Melky Cabrera (stay tuned), went on to go 3-for-3 in that game with his biggest hit being an inside-the-park-home run. Gardner blooped Twins’ starter Francisco Liriano’s pitch down the LF line and once Denard Span overran it, you knew Gardner would be racing around the bases.
Well that made the score 4-2 Twins, but it would be Gardner again who sparked the Yankees rally as he led off the 9th inning with a triple and then was driven in quickly by Mark Teixiera to make it a one run game. Well after the Twins got 2 more outs and the Yanks added a baserunner, Joe Nathan intentionally walked Robinson Cano to load the bases up for Melky Cabrera. Well the Melk-Man delivered and on the first pitch he saw, blooped a 2-run, walk-off single to end the game.
Saturday: MIN 4-6 NYY
Hero(es): Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixiera
Everywhere around baseball, writers are saying that the person who would benefit most from A-Rod returning to the Yankee lineup would be Mark Teixeira. Well that became very obvious on Saturday as Teixiera went 4-for-4, drove in the Yankees first 4 runs, and ended up a triple shy of the cycle. He raised his batting average over 30 points. In the end however, it would be the higher-paid star that would end the game. In the bottom of the 11th inning, after Mark Teixeira drew a lead-off walk, Alex Rodriguez belted a 2-run, walk-off home run to win the game for the Yankees. It was just A-Rod’s second game at the New Yankee Stadium.
Sunday: MIN 2-3 NYY
Hero(es): Johnny Damon, Mark Teixeira
What started out as a pitchers dual, this game saw some great defense throughout. After A.J. Burnett loaded the bases with nobody out, the Yankees brought in RHP Jonathan Albaladejo to try to work out of the jam. Well facing Denard Span, he threw a fastball down and in and Span hit a sharp grounder to first. However, Mark Teixeira showcased his defensive abilities as he made a great diving stop, but then (as he was pretty much lying down) made a good through to catcher Kevin Cash to record the second out. The Yankees would get out of the jam and then would also get out of a similar one the following inning.
That meant that in a tie game in the bottom of the ninth inning when Nick Swisher lined a base hit, the Yankees would pinch-run Brett Gardner. After a Melky Cabrera sac-bunt (the 3rd one of the game after the Yanks had just 8 the rest of the season) Francisco Cervelli hit one back up the middle. But this is when the Twins’ great defense struck. The ball hit off of the Twins’ lefty as Gardner was approaching third. Well Mijares threw home to Joe Mauer who started running to first and faked a throw. Well that fake was a good one as it caused Gardner to start running home where Mauer made a great diving stop to get him.
That play kept the game tied until the bottom of the 10th when Johnny Damon could wait no longer. After he worked the count full against Jesse Crain (the same pitcher who served up A-Rod’s shot a day earlier) Damon got a pitch down and in and he didn’t miss it. Johnny cranked it into the second deck (tagged the Johnny zone by a Yankees’ broadcaster) to give the Yankees the 3-2 win. It was Damon’s second walk-off hit as a member of the Yankees.
A-Rod To Have Surgery; Out For Two Months
Yankees’ third basemen Alex Rodriguez has opted for surgery. According to numerous sources, A-Rod will have a “hybrid” surgery which will only cause him to miss two months instead of four. To do this, the surgery will be “limited” and will not completely heal him. A-Rod will have the procedure done tomorrow (Monday) morning by Dr. Marc Philippon, one of the best hip-surgeons in North America.
If the Yankees were to let A-Rod play with the torn labrum, he would’ve done more long-term damage to himself. The Yankees were stuck in-between the decision to have the surgery or not, for they are a much weaker team without their slugging-third basemen. But for now, they’ll have to make due with Cody Ransom or whoever takes over at third. But even with that, this seems like the smart move for the Yankees.
On another note, I am sorry for the lack of videos posted on our Youtube account, there have been some technical errors. But, the first video will be posted some time this week.
Week Overview: A-Rod Admission and Other Yankee News
Hey Yankee fans. I’m sorry for not posting for a while, I’ve just been really taken back by all this new news springing up. But I gotta cover it so here it goes; a quick summary of the events that have taken place lately and my thoughts on them:
A-Rod’s Admission:
Alex was very emotional during his interview with ESPN‘s Peter Gammons. He admitted to taking steroids in 2003 and perhaps even years before. A-Rod listed being young, stupid, and feeling an enormous pressure after signing a giant deal with the Rangers, as his reasons. I, along with many players including former Yankee, Jason Giambi, am glad to see Rodriguez come clean with this. It would’ve been much worse had he done what Roger Clemens did, and flat out deny it. Instead, he chose the clean, virtues path of admission. It will allow people to forgive him easier, something I hope all of you do.
First Days at Camp:
At the beginning of the off-season, Yankees GM Brian Cashman had one thing, or rather person, on his mind: CC Sabathia. Sabathia helped the Yankees reach their goals of better pitching, getting younger, and adding some life to the clubhouse! His, and A.J. Burnett’s (’cause lets not forget him), signing(s) represent two things: hope, and anxiousness. Immediately after Sabathia’s signing was announced, every Yankee fan had one thing on their mind: I wanna see him pitch! Well that day finally came this week, as Sabathia took his first pitch in a Yankees uniform, in a bullpen session at, newly renamed, George M. Steinbrenner Field. It was a great moment that again made Yankee fans anticipatory for another date: April 6th.
Other Yankees News and Notes:
Alfredo Aceves withdrew his name from consideration for a chance to play for Team Mexico in the World Baseball Classic. He will instead be at Yankee Camp for all of Spring Training.
Chien-Ming Wang, Jorge Posada, and Mariano Rivera are all recovering from their recent surgeries quite nicely; Wang took a bullpen session today and Jorge and Mo will be ready for Opening Day.
The Yankees signed Brett Tomko to a minor-league deal.
Joe Girardi, Jorge Posada and other members of the Yankee team will, literally, stand by A-Rod during his press conference on Tuesday in Tampa.
Controversy Around A-Rod; Nothing New
Well, it seems as though once again, Alex Rodriguez cannot avoid scandals in the media. It was first reported by SI.com that A-Rod failed a steroid test in 2003, a season in which he blasted, a career high, 57 HRs. This story has already been interpreted many different ways: some say it was only a matter of time, others say they knew it all along, even some think he should be suspended! Well that last one isn’t happening because the test was more of an anonymous survey that MLB held just to see if players were “doping.” They then planned on destroying all testing records (which obviously didn’t work). This means that A-Rod failing the “test” will have no repercussions. He also won’t have any issues with the Yankees organization as all of this happened before he joined the team, and they had no knowledge (he may have not either) of any of this.
So what’s to make of this whole thing? Should we be angry? Sad? Maybe even happy (Red Sox fans)? Well I say, it’s nothing new. A-Rod always has, and always will have scandals surrounding him in the media and to help illustrate this point, I’ve created a little summary of the scandals he’s had in the past:
2001: Signed a 10-year, $252mm contract with the Texas Rangers. The contract immediately drew media attention as it was the largest in MLB history (a record he still owns).
2005: Was bashed for his lousy playoff performance when he only hit .133 in October.
2006: Once again drilled for even worse playoff performance: he only had one hit and was doing so badly that Joe Torre even dropped him down to 8th in the lineup. There were even talks of trading him during the off-season.
2007: A-Rod’s (now ex-) wife, Cynthia, was seen wearing a shirt that said **** you at one of her husband’s games. Later in the year, A-Rod said he had been tested for steroids 10 times, which the media quickly caught onto as no player would be tested that many times unless they had tested positive in the past. A-Rod quickly came back and said that he was merely exaggerating the number.
2008: The media caught on to a possible scandal involving A-Rod and pop-signer Madonna. It was reported that A-Rod spent many late nights at her house doing, what he said was, “helping her son with baseball.” All of this was happening during his divorce with his wife, and mother of his two daughters, Cynthia.
2009: You already know.
So as you can see, this is nothing new for A-Rod as he has had to deal with controversy in the media quite a bit in his great career. The only challenge now, is figuring out an effective way of dealing with it and not letting it slip into his mind (as it has in the past). The one positive thing I would like to say about this topic however, is that as we’ve seen in previous years, A-Rod always follows up big (see 2007).
Yanks Make Small Moves
On a day in which the Yankees made a big splash, they also made a lot of little ones too. They signed Angel Berroa, Jason Johnson, and John Rodriguez to minor league deals. Berroa, 30, will likely compete with Cody Ransom for the job as the Yankees’ utility man. Johnson, 35, will compete for the fifth-starter spot in the Yankees’ rotation and is known for inducing ground-balls. The Yankees signed John Rodriguez for a little over $400k.
Who Should Cleanup For The Yanks?
This is one of the lesser-talked about things of the Teixeira deal (which is expected to be announced sometime next week): Who will bat cleanup? Teixeira or A-Rod? Well you can break it down a couple of ways:
1. Who’s the better hitter?
Well that question is pretty much a given; A-Rod. Yes Teixeira also is an excellent hitter, but A-Rod is better. Over his 6-year career, Teixeira has a .290 AVG, 203 HR, and 676 RBI. In that same time, A-Rod has a .301 AVG, 255 HR, and 734 RBI. Those are true statistics of a number 4 hitter.
2. Who will benefit more from having the other one batting behind them?
This question is a little hard to determine. Obviously, both would benefit greatly by having the other bat behind them. But the question is, which one would benefit more? I look at it as who is more comfortable in what spot? Well, A-Rod, after he left Seattle, has been a number 4 hitter and has batted cleanup for the Yankees ever since they got him (with a couple of stints as #3). Teixeira on the other hand, has spent most of his career as no. 3. While he was in Atlanta, he batted behind Chipper and that worked out o.k. However, when he got to L.A. and started batting 3rd, in front of Vladimir Guerrero, he reached his peak. Tex batted .358 with 13 HR and 43 RBI in 54 games as an Angel. If he could do that in front of A-Rod, that’s an unstoppable 1-2 punch. One that’s as good (if not better) than the Ortiz-Manny combo that the Red Sox had a couple of years ago (they didn’t have it at all in 08).
However, in the end, this isn’t a question for the media to decide; it’s up to Joe Girardi.
Teixeira Signing A Lot Like A-Rod Deal
When Mark Teixeira turned down the Red Sox’ offer for the Yankees’ something about it seemed very familiar. In fact, it was just like when the Yankees traded for Alex Rodriguez in February of 2004. A-Rod, like Teixeira, was a star player and a great hitter who played for the Rangers (Teixeira didn’t go from the Rangers directly to the Yankees like A-Rod). In fact, they both played on the same team in 2003. A-Rod was traded and Teixeira signed as a free agent, but they both could’ve gone to Boston, but didn’t. In the offseason between the 2003 and 2004 seasons, the Rangers were shopping Alex. The Red Sox picked him off the shelf and began to move towards the cashier. However, the deal came up a bit short.
Right around that time, someone said, “hey, wouldn’t it be great if Alex Rodriguez came to New York and just moved to third base?” It seemed unlikely though, as the Rangers had just named A-Rod the captain of their team. But the Yankees swooped in and within about a week, they traded Alfonso Soriano to the Rangers for A-Rod (one of those rare, good player-for-good player deals instead of prospects).
For a while, the Red Sox were seen as the front-runners for Teixeira, just like with A-Rod. However, the Yankees jumped in right at the end and nabbed him for $180 million, $10mm more than the Red Sox were offering.
A-Rod has put up very good numbers in his time so far in the Bronx (.303 AVG, 208 HR and 616 RBI in 5 seasons). However, he’s also attracted a lot of controversy too. Lets just hope that Teixeira only does the first one.
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