CC Dealing, Teixeira and A-Rod Smashing, Yankees Winning (Postgame Notes 19 May 2009)

A Yankees fan could get used to this.

For his third start in a row, CC Sabathia was great--tonight going seven innings giving up just three hits and one earned run; two of the hits and the one run in the first inning.

For the second game in a row, both Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez homered, and for Alex, it was his fourth game in a row with a home run.

The two sluggers are getting it done--while Alex hasn't been getting the singles or the doubles that Teixeira is, he's making up for them with home runs, most of them no doubters in any stadium.

While this game turned into a laugher, for most of the game, it was a tight 2-1 score.

Sabathia's dominant performance might not seem so important, but at the time it was. Baltimore scored one run in the top of the first; the Yankees responded with two via an A-Rod jack in the bottom of the inning, and then neither team did much of anything.

At one point Sabathia retired 12 straight birds while the O's starter Bergesen retired 13 straight Yankees, and it seemed the game would end up a good, old fashioned pitcher's duel.

That, however, did not count on Baltimore's bullpen.

After the first two Yankee baserunners reached in the seventh, O's manager called upon once-highly-touted-closing-prospect Chris Ray. A single, error, double and home run later, he was unable to record a single out, and the score had gone from 2-1 to 9-1.

The good news continued for the Yankees, as Brian Bruney was able to enter in the eighth inning for his first appearance since going on the DL and pitched a one-two-three inning.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what the $200 million team looks like.

A starting pitcher that keeps the team in the game (or, in CC's case, is utterly dealing), an offense that does enough against good pitching and crushes bad, and a bullpen that comes in and does it's job so proficiently that you don't notice.

The Yankees have now won seven straight, and are five games over .500 for the first time this season.