What did we learn last night during the Yankees’ 2-1 victory over the A’s? For starters, Mike Mussina still has a little mileage left as he took the Yankees six deep on 84 pitches, giving up just one run. Farnsworth and Mo handled things from there and the Yankees are ‘now 1-0 in their last one one-run games’ as Derek Jeter roughly said from his locker. Very true. Alex Rodriguez talked about how the Yankees were able to get ahead early and then play tack-on…what!? Really? The Yankees scored both their runs in the first inning — one on an A-Rod double and the other on a Posada single…I guess Posada tacked-on an RBI behind A-Rod’s…eh, whatever.

Anyway, just so the rest of the world knows, it seems that there isn’t a reporter out there who really believes the Yankees are making the playoffs. Particularly a few A’s reporters who told me the only baseball happening in New York this October will be in Queens. Personally, I’m not so sure…

Here are a few final thoughts on the game:

*I passed GM Brian Cashman’s office several times coming to and from my seat in the press box…he was staring intently at his computer, perhaps Googling “Available Baseball Managers”. Although, in all honesty, that won’t be his decision.
*Watching Jeter pull off one of his jump throws from deep in hole is worth the price of admission on any night.

*Nick Swisher took a digger into the tarp roll trying to catch a foul ball in the bottom of the sixth. An unnamed SNY reporter turned to me and asked: “Do you think Abreu would even try that?” No.
*A-Rod now has two photos of his wife and kid on the inside of his locker…were they there before the NY Post story? Can’t say I recall it that way.

I feel like I could cut and paste yesterday’s post: starting pitcher (Roger Clemens) pitches well enough to win (6IP, 4ER)…bullpen does well enough to leave the game in the hands of the Yankees’ offense…the world’s most expensive offense gets shut down (or shutout)…Damon and Abreu go hitless…and the Yankees lose to the O’s (4-0), a team they need to beat…

Brutal.

So let me take this opportunity to address a few words to George Steinbrenner (an avid reader of Inside the Stadium, I’m sure): PLEASE do not get an itchy trigger finger and fire Joe Torre. PLEASE. This is not his doing. The hitters are not hitting…this is not his fault and it’s not worth uprooting the entire structure of the team. If you gotta fire anyone, let’s start with the new guy, Hitting Coach Kevin Long. Or put him back in the minors where everyone seemed to love him. Even if the hitting drought can’t be pinned on Long, it would still send a message. The Yankees aren’t hitting…someone’s gotta go.

Thanks, George. That’s all I gotta say on that one…

And Kevin (who I know also reads this blog), sorry dude. Like Colon Powell with Iraq, someone’s gotta take the fall.

The walk off walk.  Easily the worst way to end a game.  Even the winning team just kinda trots in and calls it a night.  And this was the case last night for the Yankees in their 3-2 loss to the Orioles.  Who do you really point a finger at though?  Andy Pettitte was once again his All-Star-to-be self, giving up just two runs in seven innings.  Kyle Farnsworth even pitched a scoreless inning.  And if the Yanks were winning, we wouldn’t have seen Scott Proctor in the ninth — a situation that turns the man’s nerves to butter. 

Yes, if you’re catching the drift here it’s all about the offense producing.  It seems that as Bobby Abreu and Johnny Damon go, so do the Yankees…and right now neither of them are going.  Remember when Abreu was hitting almost .500 in the month of June?  The Yankees were winning.  Remember when Joe Torre switched Damon to DH? He was constantly on base and the Yankees had shaved the Red Sox lead to 7.5 games.  I even opened my big mouth to give a ‘told you so’ to Yankee-hater Nation.  Well, once again I must have jinxed the whole thing because these two key elements of the Yankees offense have gone stone cold and the team is losing.  My bad.

Now that the Fogg of a NL West road trip is over and the Yanks are in the friendly confines of the AL East they may begin to hit again.  That’s what I was thinking going into last night anyway.  They certainly don’t hit well against pitchers they’ve never seen before – an age old problem for the club — and that’s what they saw a lot against the Giants and Rockies.  So last night could have been a hangover from that…but the Yankees are going to have to start winning each series they play in if they want to see the light of post-season play. 

And to do that, they’ll require some life and energy out of their lead-off and three-hole hitters.

Before I post details of latest Yankee sponsorship deal, I want to let all of you who have visited over the past week know that I’m here and alive. We ran into server problems over the past few days and before that I’d taken a couple of planned days off. Thanks for coming back.

Anyway, enough about me and more about the Yankees taking foreign money — this time from China. Looks like these two kids they just inked will pay for themselves.

Now, just how much Chinese signage will cover the outfield walls? And will we have hoards of Chinese media if either of these kids make the bigs? If it’s anything like the Matsui turnout, I’ll be standing while scarfing down my press meal…but maybe we’ll get better stir-fry.

Here’s the official release from the Yankees’ Media Relations department.

YANKEES SIGN FIRST-EVER CHINESE-BASED SPONSOR

The New York Yankees today became the first Major League club to enter into a sponsorship agreement with a company from the People’s Republic of China, announcing an agreement with China’s largest dairy company, the Yili Group, to advertise within the Yankees’ local territory.

As part of the agreement, Yili will receive advertising exposure at Yankee Stadium and in Yankees Magazine, the official game program of the New York Yankees. Yili will receive prominent branding visibility on July 6 when the Yankees introduce left handed pitcher Kai Liu and catcher Zhenwang Zhang, who became the first players from the People’s Republic of China to sign with a Major League club with approval from the Chinese Baseball Association on June 19. Earlier this year the Yankees and the Chinese Baseball Association entered into an historic working agreement.

Randy Levine, President of the Yankees, said, “We are very pleased to welcome Yili to the Yankees family as our first sponsor based in China. The Yankees have always been committed to international baseball and international business and China is very important to us. This agreement with Yili is yet another example of how far-reaching the Yankees brand has become and how dedicated we are to growing baseball, and the business of baseball, in China.”

Michael Tusiani, Yankees Senior Vice President of Corporate Sales and Sponsorships said, “Securing a sponsorship with Yili Group is a very unique and exciting opportunity for the Yankees organization. Moreover, we hope to continue to generate sponsorship interest from global-based companies, including those based throughout Asia.”

The Yili Group is the leading dairy industry enterprise in China. In 2005, Yili products became the official dairy products of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games with Yili becoming the first food brand supporter of the Beijing Olympics. Yili Group was recognized with the 2005 CCTV Best Employers of China award and the 2005 China Best Corporate Citizen Acts award.

Womei Beijing Advertising, one of China’s leading advertising agencies, represented Yili Group while Sportscorp China assisted the Yankees in securing the sponsorship.

Two out of three from the Mets? Not bad when you can take a series from a division leader. In fact, the Mets (37-30) are now only two games better than the Yankees (35-32). I point this out for only one reason…pure spite. For every single Mets fan who told me about how great their team was three weeks ago and about how the Yankees were a $200 million piece of trash, this feels kinda good. Now, I’m not really a spiteful man. Oh no. In fact, I wish the Mets well and always will. And their team is even far more entertaining personality-wise than the Yankees. But when I think about every Mets fan who believed the season was done in May, this is pretty sweet.

Still, good luck to Willie and his club the rest of the way. Seriously. I like their vibe.

So, let’s look at what’s ahead for the red hot Yanks who finished 9-1 on this 10-game home stand. They fly tonight and open a three-game set in Colorado followed by three in San Fran and another three in Baltimore before heading back home. On paper it looks favorable for the Yanks. Of those teams, only Colorado is over .500 and that’s by one game. Yet, who are we kidding. With the Yankees this season it really hasn’t been about the opposition, has it? It’s been about them overcoming their personal demons (cough, Giambi…cough, cough Pavano…injuries…Abreu’s slump) and playing to their abilities. If they continue to do that, they should have a successful road trip.

Furthermore, Botson is on the road playing Atlanta, San Diego and Seattle, three teams all respectably over .500. In fact, San Diego (40-28) has the best record in the NL (something I had no idea about until just now…but I do know from fantasy baseball that Jake Peavy has been sick this year). This could be a good chance for the Yanks to shave another game or two off their deficit in the AL East.

However, let’s not forget we’re only a couple of weeks removed from some awful Yankee baseball. And now we’re seeing the return of Kei Igawa to an otherwise strong Yankee rotation. Igawa has been impressive in the minors giving up just four runs in 20 innings while striking out 21 over his past three starts. Will Igawa have learned enough in Yankee minor league boot camp to keep those minor league pop-ups from becoming major league home runs?

Time will tell, but the Yankees would love to continue their hot run with five solid starters.

It was a slow and boring game last night, eh? Or maybe that’s just how it feels when your team is getting shut out and the other club is embarrassing your pitcher who has a slow delivery to home. Five stolen bases for the Mets…three for Jose Reyes, who also hit one off the upper deck facing in right and drove in the other Mets’ run with a single. 2-0 Mets. Without Reyes and the glove of his buddy Carlos Gomez in left, this game could have gone all night.

Really, speed did kill last night. Gomez’s catch to rob Miguel Cairo of a potential three-run home run and Reyes just running wild was enough to suck the momentum away from the Yankees. In fact, after Gomez’s double play catch in the fourth (why was Matsui at third instead of only going half way? He would have scored either way if the ball landed safely…) the only Yankee hitter to reach was Derek Jeter who doubled in the eighth. Talk about a blow to the gut. This is why managers love defense so much.

Joe Torre talked about the Yankees being thrown off kilter by the Mets’ speed, but also maintained that one game is just one game. Still, you like to win the opener if you’re going to achieve the goal of winning a series.

Meanwhile, on the Roger Clemens side of things, the 44-year old hurler remained mum on getting all those bases stolen off him. He simply complimented Reyes and Gomez and talked about continuing to get in shape…all told, 6.1 innings, two earned runs and eight strike outs really isn’t that bad.

And now, a few random notes from the game:

*You know how the Yankees will play dramatic highlights of Paul O’Neil and then pan to him in the YES network booth? Ditto Bobby Murcer? Well, it’s only natural that after seeing footage of Tino Martinez that you would expect to see the former Yankee first baseman taking in the game from a luxury booth. Right? Wrong. After showing a full minute of Tino highlights the Yankees panned to a little girl in a pink Yankee hat. Strange.

*Once again, I feel it’s only appropriate to listen to the theme from Superman while Derek Jeter bats in the late innings of a close game. Yes, leave it on for the full at-bat. He doubled last night…

*Before the game the Rutgers women’s basketball team got shown off behind home plate and seemed particularly excited to get hugs from Jeter. They then sat in George Steinbrenner’s box for the game. Classy move.

I can’t really put my finger on why I haven’t posted this week, the most exciting week of baseball for the Yankees all season…not to mention that the Mets are coming to the Bronx this weekend. Everything is rosy in the Bronx. I mean everything! Abreu, Melky, A-Rod, Mussina, Mo…

On no.

Did I just jinx them?

I guess you could call it the mentality of the overly superstitious. Perhaps it is a bit too self-important of me…but the bottom line is, in all honesty, that while the Yankees have won nine in a row and climbed within 7.5 of Boston all I’m thinking is ‘I told you so.’ But is it too soon to start cashing in on everyone’s Yankee-bashing from May? Am I going to make the same mistake they made in judging a season from the first two to three months? Will I jinx the Yankees? These are the kind of questions that prevent one from posting…

At the end of the day I don’t really blame anyone for riding emotions of April and May — emotion is what sport is all about. Yet at the same time I kind of do point a finger because New York and Boston fans are supposed to be WAY smarter than your average baseball fan. That means that Mets and Red Sox fans who were already celebrating the fall of the Yankees, and Yankees fans who believed them, should know that the season isn’t close to done in May or June.

With that said, the Yankees are still only two games over .500 and they are STILL 7.5 games back. That’s some pretty decent real estate when you consider the Yanks can’t win every game and the Red Sox will pick up the pace.

Nothing’s won, nothing’s lost at this point in the year (I tell myself).

Or am I just trying to cover up for being a jinx?

I was talking to friend of mine — a Red Sox fan — last night after the Yankees finished smoking the Pirates over three games, cutting their deficit in the AL East to single digits. Feeling a little more at ease about the state of baseball in the Bronx, I asked him, “When do you start feeling nervous about the Yankees?” It was a question of honest curiosity more than anything else, particularly after the Red Sox championship season three years ago.

His reply told me that 2004 hasn’t changed everything, “I never stop feeling nervous about the Yankees.”

I smirked and realized some habits just don’t die easy.

It certainly is rosier here in Yankeeland as the Bombers have rolled up six in a row highlighted by the return of Roger Clemens, the resurgence of Bobby Abreu and a percolating A-Rod. The swagger is back. You can feel it in the clubhouse…you can see it in Joe Torre’s eyes — the man doesn’t constantly look like someone’s just shot his dog. Or as the Yankee skipper likes to say, winning helps the team’s “personality”.

Still, It’s not really about the Red Sox right now. It’s an internal battle to break .500. Then the focus switches to winning two of three or three of four every series. Nonetheless, one couldn’t help keep one eye on what Randy Johnson was doing to the Red Sox out in Arizona on Sunday. Just a way to gauge the temperature in the standings.

And of course, it never hurts to also stick a baseball thermometer in a Red Sox fan…just to see if they’re sweating yet.

No question about it, I wanted to be a fan for this one.

A Saturday afternoon game, Cap Day, Roger Clemens on the hill…and a pair of family tickets in my hand. I ran up to the Bronx early today with my buddy and occasional contributer to this blog, the Sultan, for a pre-game meal, a drink or two and the Yankees-Pirates game. Sure, the tickets were worth money on Craigslist, and I had even gone as far as to reserve a seat in press row for the game…but in the end this one was too much fun to pass up.

We got to the Bronx at 11:45 and headed over to the Feeding Tree (a Jamaican restaurant two blocks from the Stadium on Gerard Avenue). Sultan ordered the curried goat and I had the jerk chicken which we both washed down with a couple of Red Stripes…the food was so good that we also got chicken patties for mid-game snacks ($1.40 each). A Red Stripe, jerk chicken and a chicken patty? Already I was ahead of those eating in the press dining room.

We made our way to the seats in the Tier MVP area between first and home for a great profile view of the pitcher-batter encounter. Sure there are “better seats” in the Stadium, but I’ll take the elevated profile any time.

After finding the one vendor that didn’t sell light beer in our area (Beck’s stand outside gate 13 in the Tier section), we grabbed a couple brews and buckled in to watch the game. Both Sultan and I traded guesses on how the Yankees would introduce Clemens for his return: video highlights, special announcement…having the ground open under the mound while he’s elevated to the field on a platform with a smoke machine working overtime… No. None of that. He just strolled out there after the national anthem and began warming up.

Now, I’ve already read ESPN.com’s recap of the game that claimed it was a playoff atmosphere in the Bronx to greet the Rocket. That was hardly the case. There was some warm applause and general excitement, but that hardly passes for a playoff game at Yankee Stadium…maybe in Kansas City, but not in New York.

Clemens went out there and did what everyone thought he would — went five or six innings (six) and gave up a few runs (three) while striking out a handful (seven). Not bad for an old man. The rest of the Yankees did their part as the knocked out eleven hits and kept the pressure on the Pirates pitching with five stolen bases. They also manufactured two runs via a pair of sac flies.

See what you can do without Jason Giambi in your lineup?

The game went as planned as Clemens left with the lead to sound of Elton John’s “Rocket Man” and Brian Bruney, Kyle Farnsworth and Luis Vizcaino combined for three scoreless innings. The Yankees have now won five in a row.

Not a bad day to sit in the stands in the Bronx.

A fun night up in the Bronx. It was one of those games the Yankees had to keep fighting to win, but somehow, you had a feeling they would. Down 2-0, then 4-2, the Yanks tied the game in the seventh on Jorge Posada’s RBI single and won it in the tenth when Derek Jeter hit a slow dribbler to second to plate Robinson Cano. Not a bad end to Derek Jeter figurine night (see photo).

Personally, I received limited edition figurine number 8,113 of 20,000. As you can see, it emulates Jeter’s patented jump throw, but what you may not be able to tell is that the face looks a lot more like an aged Mickey Mantle than the Yankee Captain. I mean, there are even pronounced wrinkles on it for some reason. Clearly, the art student who designed this masterpiece didn’t have time to look at one of the 12 billion photos of Jeter online…that said, you may be able to find limited edition number 8,113 on Ebay very soon…

So Andy Pettitte got robbed of another win tonight and remains 3-4 on the season. His ERA bumped up from 2.96 to 3.11 because Melky Cabrera misjudged a ball coming right at him in center field which could have been the third out of the seventh inning. Instead, it went for a two-run inside the park home run. After the game Johnny Damon, Derek Jeter and Joe Torre all came to Cabrera’s defense saying that the ball “knuckled” on the young outfielder making it very tough to catch. I guess so…I haven’t played center field since eighth grade so who am I to judge.

Anyway, the Yanks hung in and Mariano Rivera went two scoreless innings to pick up the win. Torre told reporters after the game that Mo was off limits for tomorrow. Seems like the pre-season plan of keeping Mariano to one inning at a time is out the window — a plan that the Yankee closer was just fine with when speaking from his locker after the game.

And now, a few notes from the game/post-game:

*The Yankees have switched from using a Rocky I montage to a clip from Rocky VI where Sly looks way too old to be inspiring…hopefully that’s not commentary on the Yankee team as a whole.

*Yankee Stadium shook as Posada tied the game in the seventh…Yankee fans have been looking to celebrate something for a while.

*While Derek Jeter batted in the eighth inning I had my headphones plugged into my laptop and was rolling through everything in iTunes. As Jeter dug in, the theme from Superman came on and it fit like a glove. The Yankee P.A. guys need to roll this every time he comes to the plate in late-inning situations…and then leave it on throughout the at-bat.

*The Superman theme still comes in second behind the greatest entrance in pro sports, Mariano’s Enter Sandman.