Yankees Move To Ten Over .500 (Postgame Notes 02 June 2009)

Sometimes you win with pitching, sometimes you win by luck...

...and sometimes you decide you don't like it when the other pitcher hits you, go hard (but clean) into second to break up a double play, score seven runs in an inning, break a close game open, and never look back.

The Yankees won today not so much because they outhit the Rangers (though they did), but because they out scored them--if you look at the line score, the total hits-13-8 would indicate that the game was a lot closer than it was.

To be fair, over the first three innings it was a close game, but then the fourth happened.

The past few years, had a Yankees' batter been hit by a pitch in the way Teixeira was (and he was actually hit twice) the response would have been to simply ignore it.

While, in theory, the turn-the-other-cheek-mentality would nominate the team for sainthood, baseball players aren't, and are not supposed to be, saints. Heroes, yes; saints, no.

So today, Teixeira didn't try to be a saint...but he also took his revenge the right way--playing hard and clean on the basepath.

It's the fight in this team that we've seen all year that makes this the most fun it's been to watch the Yankees in years.


As for pitching, it was not AJ Burnett's best-ever start, but he walked only one over seven, and the Yanks will take that, likely, every single time.

I think the statistic is that the last nineteen of twenty-one games, Yankee starting pitching has pitched at least five innings.

The stat I like more? Since the start of the Yankees' nine game win streak--way back when on May 13th--the starting pitching has lost a grand total of one game. The Yankees have lost more games than just that one, of course, but those losses were taken by the bullpen which indicates 1) yes, the bullpen is an issue, 2) the Yankees aren't getting blown out, and 3) the Yankees are making a fight of it nearly every single time.

The Yanks are 16-5 in their last 21 (.761) and haven't lost two in a row since that five game losing streak that had everyone ready to jump off a cliff.


Do the Yankees have issues? Sure. They need to figure out that bullpen and whatnot, but at the same time, they're winning in a way we haven't seen in ages.

Everyone's contributing; they're playing well in nearly every facet of the game and not only are they beating teams like Baltimore and Cleveland, whom they're supposed to beat, but they are also winning against teams like Texas--and until tonight they had the best record in the AL--and they all count.



Some late night breaking news to wrap this up: Jesus Montero, it has been confirmed, has been promoted to Trenton. If you haven't, check out his stats for the Tampa Yankees. Dude can rake.