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Sweep Dreams: New York Yankees Take Three from Baltimore Orioles in the Bronx

The Yankees finished up a series with the Baltimore Orioles yesterday afternoon. Here are some thoughts recapping the series.

How Sweep It Is

The Yankees swept the three-game series from Baltimore and improved their record to 19-8 on the year. New York has won all but one series this season, but this is their first sweep.

Injury Bug

The dreaded injury bug has been hitting the Yankees lately. First center fielder Curtis Granderson landed on the disabled list with a grade two left groin strain. More recently, catcher Jorge Posada  and closer Mariano Rivera have missed games. Posada suffered a mild calf strain and was expected to be reevaluated today. He has been available only in emergency situations. Rivera has been out with arm stiffness. He should be available for the next series.

Andy Pettitte is also out now due to stiffness in his left arm. It is possible that Pettitte could miss some time, at least one start. If anything was going to keep the Yankees from succeeding this season, it would be the injury bug. Let’s hope these injuries are not too serious.

Love The Bronx

Yankee Stadium has been a pleasant site for the Yankees this season. So far this year, the club is 10-2 at home. Not too shabby!

For more thoughts, visit Double G Sports .

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com


Road Woes Continue as New York Mets Drop Series to Cincinnati Reds 2-1

The New York Mets finished up their series with the Cincinnati Reds yesterday. The Reds took two out of three from the Mets as New York continues to struggle on the road this season.

The Mets are now 15-13 on the season and in second place in the National League East. They are 1.5 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies in the division standings.

Here are some thoughts on the series between the Mets and Reds:

 

Keep It Close

All three games in this series were decided by one run. Add to that, that each game was decided in the final inning and you have a lot of drama.

Monday’s series opener was a 3-2 Reds win that ended in the 11th inning on a walk-off home run. Tuesday’s game went the standard nine innings and the Mets won 5-4 on a home run in the ninth. The finale on Wednesday afternoon went extra innings as well with the Reds getting another walk-off homer, this time in the 10th inning.

 

Road Woes

The Mets continue to struggle on the road, especially of late. After losing two to the Reds, the Mets are now just 4-8 on the road this season. That is the second-worst road record in the National League.

The only team with a worse road record this season is the last place Atlanta Braves who are 4-11 in road games.

 

For more thoughts, visit Double G Sports .

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com


Fantasy Baseball: Double G Sports Loses Again, Fall Into Basement

My Double G Sports fantasy baseball team which is competing in the Battle of the Blogs continues to struggle and has hit a new low. I am now officially in last place in the Willie Mays Division and am ranked 13 out of 20 teams.

This past week I lost to Babes Love Baseball by a score of 13-6-1. It was a team wide struggle as my team had a combined .268 average for the week and my pitching staff worked to a horrific 5.31 ERA. On the other hand, Babes Love Baseball had a weekly batting average of .291 and its pitching staff was 7-0 with a 3.16 ERA.

Babes got good weeks from players like Adrian Beltre and Johnny Damon, but the biggest star of the week for her team was rookie Jason Heyward. Thinking back to the draft, Babes Love Baseball took Heyward right before I was going to. It came back to haunt me this week as Heyward batted .350, scored five runs, hit a double, and three home runs while driving in seven runs. Barry Zito , Dan Haren, and Tommy Hanson all pitched very well for Babes Love Baseball last week.

My team was once again led by the red hot Robinson Cano. The second baseman batted .440 this week with two doubles and four home runs. He also drove in seven runs while scoring six times himself.

Marlon Byrd also had a nice week, batting .393 with three doubles and two home runs. He drove in five. J.D. Drew made the most of his 12 at bats for my team as he has started to heat up a little bit. Drew scored four runs while batting .417 including a double and three home runs.  The success of these three was not enough, however, as key players like Jose Reyes, Hideki Matsui, and Franklin Guttierrez all had bad weeks. None of the three batted over .200 this past week.

Read more about this past week as well as a preview of this week at Double G Sports .

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com


Derek Jeter Becomes MLB’s New Active Hits Leader

Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter reached another milestone this past weekend and did so quietly.

Not much mention was made of baseball’s poster boy after he took over the active hits lead.

As of today, Jeter has 2,781 hits and has overtaken Ken Griffey Jr. for the active lead. Griffey has 2,776 as I write this.

It is quite a feat for Jeter to already catch “Junior.” Griffey already had over 1,000 hits by the time Jeter came to the Majors.

Yes, Griffey’s career has been drastically slowed by various injuries, and we can only assume how much of a star he would have been if healthy throughout. It is still an amazing accomplishment for the Yankees captain to overtake Griffey at this point.

Read more about Jeter’s accomplishment at Double G Sports.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com


New York Mets: Post Philles Series Thoughts

The New York Mets went into Philadelphia as the hottest team in baseball.

They were the talk of the town.

They very well might have left the most embarrassed team in baseball.

After winning the series opener Friday night, the Mets got roughed up the next two games. Not only did they get roughed up, their two best pitchers were terrible. This series loss came after the Mets had won their previous three, including sweeps of the Atlanta Braves and LA Dodgers.

New York is now a half-game behind Philadelphia in the National League East and have an overall record of 14-11. Here are some more thoughts from the Mets—Phillies Series.

 

Welcome Back

Welcome back to Earth, or reality for that matter. The Mets pitchers had been on such an incredible role, you had to know this was coming at some point. What you didn’t expect is that it would come from their two best. Jon Niese started the series off with yet another excellent game. He went seven innings giving up just four hits and one run. Niese struck out seven in the win.

Mike Pelfrey and Johan Santana were scheduled to pitch the next two games, Mets fans had to be feeling good about this.

Crash!

That’s basically what happened next. Pelfrey lasted just four innings on Saturday after giving up six runs on eight hits and a walk. It was Pelfrey’s first loss of the season.

Santana went out on Sunday and was even worse. The Mets ace could not get out of the fourth inning. He pitched 32/3 innings and gave up eight hits and ten runs. He only struck out one Philadelphia hitter. Santana was victim of the long ball, giving up four home runs.

The bullpen pitched well for the most part. It did however have to pitch 91/3 innings in the series. That could turn out to be a issue as the Mets have Oliver Perez and John Maine starting their next two games with no day off.

Read more thoughts from this series as well as whats to come at Double G Sports.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com


New York Yankees: Post-White Sox Thoughts

The New York Yankees finished up a three game series against the Chicago White Sox with a 12-3 win today. The Yankees won the series by winning the opening game as well as the finale, but losing the middle game.

I wanted to share some thoughts that came to mind as the series wrapped up.

New Look Outfield

It appears the Yankees will have a new look in the outfield for up to a month. Center fielder Curtis Granderson left Saturday’s game with a hamstring injury and is now on the disabled list. In his absence Brett Gardner will move from left to center. That leaves Randy Winn and Marcus Thames to platoon in left field. Gardner will now need to be in the lineup every day, including against tough lefties. Someone needs to step up with Granderson out.

Rest Up

Manager Joe Girardi used today’s blow out to give some guys a little bit of rest. Third baseman Alex Rodriguez was given the day off. Some reports are that A-Rod felt something in his leg during Saturday’s game. GM Brian Cashman  said the team thinks it’s “nothing rather than something.”  First baseman Mark Teixeira got a half day off as he was the DH today. Due to the blow out score, Girardi lifted Derek Jeter  from the game early and replaced him with backup catcher Francisco Cervelli. Once this move was made, Ramiro Pena who was playing third moved over to shortstop and Cervelli played third base.

Read more thoughts from the Yankees/White Sox series plus a preview of whats next for New York at Double G Sports .

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com


New York Yankees: Post-Orioles Thoughts

The Yankees wrapped up their nine game road trip last night with a win over the Baltimore Orioles. They improved to 14-7 on the season and remain 2.5 games behind AL East leader, Tampa Bay. There are only two teams in baseball with a better record than the Yankees right now, Tampa Bay and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Looking back on the series with the O’s, here are my thoughts.

 

Back on the Winning Track

After losing their first series of the season to the Angels and losing the first game of this series, the Yankees righted the ship and won the final two games to take the series.

 

Aces

The Yankees top two pitchers performed like it. CC Sabathia pitched the middle game of the series and went 7.2 innings scattering 11 hits. He allowed three runs while walking two and struck out five. Sabathia improved his record to 3-1 with a 3.12 ERA.

A.J. Burnett closed out the series with a stellar performance. He went eight innings, giving up just three hits and no runs. The righty walked one batter while striking out four. With the win, Burnett is now 3-0 on the season with a 2.43 ERA.

Read the rest of my thoughts at Double G Sports .

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com


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