It’s a roller coaster, isn’t it?  Win six…lose three…get a delayed lay up of a win that has everyone questioning the goods on the immortal Mariano Rivera…two kids in Baltimore own the Yankees because the Bombers never hit well against pitchers they’re not used to — just like that NL West road trip in June…In the process, the Yanks have gone from scoring 70 runs in six games to three runs in three games.

And yes, A-Rod is stuck at 499.

Of course you can’t miss the updates — that’s the back cover of today’s Daily News as the world waits for Alex Rodriguez to become the youngest player to ever hit 500 home runs.  The word “jumpy” has been used by the media who have watched him day in and day out and I have to say I agree.  Currently, we are in the bottom of the second inning as the Yankees play the final game of their “three-game” road trip through Baltimore. A-Rod has come to the plate with the bases juiced in each inning and has been hacking away at the wild Daniel Cabrera.    

In his first at-bat A-Rod stuck out after Cabrera walked two and gave up a single to Derek Jeter…there was no taking pitches for A-Rod, he was hacking.  He even looked to be a bit off when he swung through a hanging breaking ball.  In the second inning, he grounded into an inning-ending double play that once again killed a great rally opportunity.  For the second time in as many innings he did not make Cabrera work. 

Still, the Yankees lead 4-0.

The Yanks will certainly score runs while they wait for A-Rod get the monkey off his back.  It’s a big ol’ monkey with a number of heads: the ever-present NYC media attention, the countless hopes that he will rid the record books of Barry Bond’s tainted home run achievements, Jose Canseco’s latest attempt at making some money by trying to dish some dirt, and even the special numbered balls that an opposing pitcher must throw him every time he come to the plate (yeah, completely absurd).

It should all be over for Alex soon. 

Hopefully, the Yankees won’t need too much offense from him before it happens.

Wait. Wasn’t this supposed to be the day the Yanks were gonna get swept by the D-Rays because they were sending Kei Igawa and Matt DeSalvo to the mound for a double header? Wasn’t this the day that was going to make Friday night’s 14-4 loss look good? In fact, let’s hear it straight from George King of the NY Post:

Mike Mussina getting spanked and booed out of Yankee Stadium was certainly disconcerting to a Yankees team whose season is circling the drain. However, it wasn’t the most disturbing development oozing out of The Bronx last night.

No, the knowledge that Joe Torre is handing the ball to Kei Igawa and Matt DeSalvo in a doubleheader today is enough to worry the most optimistic Yankees fan.

After all, Igawa is on the verge of losing his spot in the rotation when Phil Hughes comes off the disabled list, and the self-absorbed and arrogant DeSalvo is best known for bringing books into the clubhouse.

First of all, what the hell is wrong with bringing books to the clubhouse?  When did reading become taboo?  And secondly, George, you’ve been around too long to give up hope like that…to forget the Yankees were still playing the Devil Rays. After wins of 7-3 and 17-5, the Yankees look good again — particularly when you consider that neither one of these starters is slotted to pitch again in the near future. Yes, Igawa and DeSalvo weren’t All-Stars, but neither are most of the Devil Rays. Both pitchers gave their club enough for the offense and Jose Vizcaino to win the games.

That’s right, Vizcaino won two games today and Hideki Matsui homered in each. We also got to see career home run number one for Shelley Duncan and number 497 for A-Rod. Not a bad day at the office…and the deficit to Boston is back to 7.5 games.

To be continued with Andy Pettitte tomorrow…anything wrong with that, George?

He won’t add much more than than Wil Nieves offensively, but Jose Molina does have a reputation for handling pitchers very well.  Details from the Yanks’ Media Relations Department below.

YANKEES ACQUIRE C JOSE MOLINA FROM ANGELS

 

The Yankees announced today that they have acquired catcher Jose Molina from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in exchange for right-handed pitcher Jeff Kennard.

 

Molina, 32, was batting .224 (28-for-125) with 10 RBI in 40 games (37 starts at catcher) with the Angels this season.  He has hit safely in 25 of his 37 starts and has thrown out 7-of-25 base-stealers (28%) this season.  In 2006, Molina appeared in a career-high 78 games (71 starts) and threw out 41% (19-of-46) of base runners while posting five pick-offs.  He batted .240 with four home runs and 22 RBI while recording career-highs in hits (54) and doubles (17).

 

Now in his eighth Major League season, the Puerto Rico native has appeared in 373 career games and owns a .238 lifetime batting average.  He was originally selected by the Chicago Cubs in the 14^th round of the 1993 First-Year Player Draft.  He is one of three Molina brothers currently playing in the Majors (Bengie – San Francisco and Yadier – St. Louis).

 

Kennard, 25, was 1-4 with a 2.73 ERA in 31 relief appearances with Double-A Trenton this season (52.2IP, 49H, 22R, 16ER, 17BB, 47K).  Now in his seventh season of professional baseball, Kennard was originally selected by the Yankees in the 40^th round of the 2000 First-Year Player Draft.

Here we are in the middle of game one of the Yankees/D-Rays double header and I’m back up in the press box. Going into this one there were a good number of media members who had two things on their mind: 1) double headers are brutally long days with three hours to kill between games and 2) Yankee starters Kei Igawa and Matt DeSalvo are going to make things even more painful.

At the start it looked like Igawa was going to make good on those predictions when he gave up solo home runs in the first and second innings…but he wound up putting in five innings, giving up just those two runs.  Somewhere on the Yankee bench Joe Torre must have let out a sigh of relief.  Still, to put it in the words of one MLB official sitting next to me, Igawa “got lucky…he wasn’t that good.” True. With seven hits and three walks in those five innings, he was playing with fire.

But he got the one out he really needed with the bases loaded in the fourth.

That’s when Ty Wigginton (future Yankee?) came to the plate with two outs and Igawa threw him a high strike.  Igawa then followed with a high and wide pitch that Wigginton swung through before taking a ball high.  On the 1-2 count Igawa dealt again and got the D-Ray third baseman to fly out to right.  It was the difference between doing the job and failing as a base hit would have easily plated two.

For Igawa and the impatient media, it was enough to make game one bearable.

At this point the Yankees offense has taken over with a two-run hit by Andy Phillips and a two-run home run by rookie Shelley Duncan, both in the sixth.  It’s 7-2, Yanks.
Game notes through eight innings:

*Posada has no business trying to go first to third on a single (second inning).

*Igawa’s homers and Farnsworth’s seventh inning walk…the crowd booed for both, but seemed a little bored of doing it in both cases.

*Andy Phillips is getting some of the biggest hits on the ball club as of late…his two-run single in the sixth broke the game open.

*Phillips then paid the price for his hit when he got smacked in the head by Shelley Duncan after the rookie’s first major league home run…the smile on Duncan face, however, was priceless.

*In the top of the eighth inning Scott Proctor and Ty Wigginton faced off with a fly out to center as the result. The two players could be traded for each other between games.

Really, I have no business taking time away from my masters hibernation. It’s not that there’s still more work to do, it’s the fact that I have to be awake and coherent in six hours.

It’s a nasty grind. In fact, I’ll show you how far I got yesterday before I whisked away by fate…check these notes:

Melky is the man.

Matsui jumping up and down.

Bowa is insane.

I’m sick of this guy. I mean, seriously, when was the last time you saw a pitcher throw away ball in such a low-action situation. (Farnsworth)

Unfortunately, that one didn’t get off the ground…but tonight? Let’s just say there’s a major itch to scratch.

So A-Rod’s good…no news there. The Rocket knows how to pitch when it counts…even if he’s not really striking batters out these days. Mariano Rivera now has three saves in the last three games…(ummm, Joe, watch those two-inning saves!)…And Jeter’s still getting the big hits…

Yes, five wins in a row is pretty sweet. But the 2007 Yankees have been breakin’ hearts like a prom queen all season and it’s WAY to early to get fooled again. Remember early June? I do. The Yanks were 7.5 games out and everyone thought they were ready to surge. Except they did the opposite. They went out west to face some NL teams they should have clubbed and lost seven of nine. Now they keep us interested with five wins in a row?

We shall see how it shakes out. For now, Chein-Ming Wang goes for the sweep tomorrow afternoon…it’s one day at a time in Yankeeland.

First off, I’d like to offer my apologies to those who have been logging in and not seeing new material…I’ve got a hit counter that tells me my lack of posting has not dissuaded you from checking in. Thanks for your patience — I have been working on a masters degree on the side and I’m in the middle of a particularly hairy part of the course. The next couple of weeks will be busy, but I’ll be around as much as I can (trust me, not posting eats at my soul…).

Anyway, enough about me and on to a quick thought as Sunday’s game is about to start. Bobby Abreu is coming off a monster night where he knocked in five of six Yankee runs and hit a monster home run to right. He’s been on a tear as of late, hitting .484 in July, but perhaps more important than Abreu’s performance was the significance of who he drove in twice: Johnny Damon. The Yankee leadoff hitter went 1-for-3 against the Devil Rays Saturday, but also walked twice.

Certainly, when Abreu is hitting the Yankees are dangerous. But when Abreu has Damon on base and is hitting, the Yankees offense is going to win a lot of games for them. If the Yankees want to rip off a win streak that will give them a realistic chance of catching Boston, both the guys will have to perform.

That’s just a thought or two…and now back to the books.

So this is what it’s like.

The All-Star game without any real care about the outcome because your team is in no serious position to make a playoff push. Kinda takes the drama out of winning home field advantage, eh? And only three Yanks on the team…ouch! Derek Jeter, A-Rod and Jorge Posada (who should be starting over I-Rod). Good choices, and I can’t think of any others who should have gone. Andy Pettitte was in line to get a look at a All-Star slot until he lasted just 1.2 innings giving up seven earned runs on July 1st and then followed that up by getting bombed for eight earned runs in five innings on Friday night. Jim Leyland made the right call there.

Still, it’s not enough to get me interested so instead I’m taking my girl out for dinner tonight. Call it an elitist view of baseball, but if the Yankees ain’t really involved, I don’t really care.

Let’s face it. The All-Star game meant two things for Yankee fans in recent years. 1) A chance to watch game seven of the World Series at Yankee Stadium; and 2) affirmation of the fact that the players on the Yankees were generally the best in baseball. But this year you won’t see Joe Torre bringing his middle relievers to the game just because he can. Those days are done. As it stands, I believe the Barry Bonds angle to the All-Star game will not be enough to make half of New York care.

Sorry FOX, I bet you’ll be getting a little less love from the Big Apple this year…and good luck to Barry in front of his home crowd…I’m sure I’ll read all about it in Wednesday’s paper.

Here we are at the break and things really are just about where they’ve been for a while for the Yanks. They’re ten games behind Boston, A-Rod is still red hot, Jeter and Posada are playing with veteran determination, the starting pitching is getting screwed in the win column, the rest of the team can’t hit much in clutch situations and the middle relief is scarier than Rosanne Barr at a wet tee-shirt contest. The only real difference these days is that after the Yankees’ hot early-June (where they got to within 7.5 games of Boston), Yankee-hater nation has been much quieter, perhaps not wanting to jinx a good thing.

The Yanks at times are listless and at other times insanely talented as they revealed in their 12-0 thrashing of the LA Angels yesterday. One minute you want to swear them off, the next you’re dreaming of a comeback that will make 1978 look like a walk in the park. During these times you believe that the Yankees will remember who they are and flex their muscles for the final two-and-a-half months of the season. Could be wishful thinking.

I find it’s best to follow an approach as stated by the Yankee captain in today’s Daily News:

“We did this a few weeks ago,” Jeter said, referring to the Yanks’ solid play in early June, which included a nine-game winning streak. “We’ve got to do it for more than a week and a half. We have to have a good second half.”

Amen, Derek. But not just a good second half, an incredible second half. One of those second halves where about as much goes right as went wrong in the first half. It’ll probably have to feature Abreu and Damon healthy and on base forty percent of the time…A-Rod staying hot…starters like Wang, Pettitte and Clemens throwing like they have been…rookies like Phil Hughes and the instant cult hero Edwar Ramirez chipping in (and if the latter sticks in the bigs there really isn’t a better name to chant than Ed-WAR)…plus, Cano and Matsui have to step it up a level or two.

A lot of ifs, no doubt. But the Yanks will need a perfect storm of hot players to see the light of post-season action. A notion that seems impossible after losing seven out of nine on the road…but after a 12-0 win, well…let’s just see how it goes.

After Wednesday’s 6-2 Yankee loss to the Twins I heard the same line over and over again in the press box: “Well, you want to win the first two because Santana’s going on Wednesday…win again on Thursday and that’s the best you can expect — three out of four.” Well, that’s just what happened as the Yanks won yesterday afternoon on the strength of Hideki Matsui’s two-run homer.

They now sit at 40-42, 12 games out in the American League East behind Boston. It seems like an impossible task which makes the 8.5 games they trail in the wild card race that much more appealing. But make no mistake about it, if the 2007 Bombers are going to the playoffs, the road will still be through the AL East where they have won the title every year since 1998. Why? Because there are five teams between them and the wild card lead and it’s a lot more likely that Boston will get cold than those five others hunting for playoff gold. And even after winning three out of four, the Yankees are still not doing what they need to do: exceed expectations.

The Yankees will have to win those games against a Santana or any other pitcher who outclasses a Yankee starter…because to take out Boston, the Yankees will have to ‘do a lot better than you can expect’ from here on out.

Yesterday it was Cynthia Rodriguez stealing headlines for her shirt choice.

Thankfully, last night Roger Clemens threw 67 strikes on 97 pitches for career win number 350…enough of a feat to bring the headlines back to baseball. He had that splitter looking fierce and threw the ball just about everywhere he wanted. A great outing and hopefully a sign of what’s to come from the warhorse who can legitimately claim he’s still getting into shape. Sure, his fastball will never be what it was, but he spots it beautifully before going to the splitter later in the count. You can see his brain working while he pitches.

Still, was that the best news for the Yanks last night?

Sadly, no. Andy Pettitte’s short-lived start aside (by the way, expect to see him in relief this week if Joe Torre starts running out of options), the starting pitching has been great for the Bombers. This game was all about the offense, highlighted by Bobby Abreu’s ridiculously long home run to the upper deck in right. The Yanks pounded out 12 hits and more importantly demonstrated patience by drawing six walks — something they have not been doing.

Just about everyone who follows baseball knows that the Yankees are famous for long at-bats, working up a starter’s pitch count and then feasting on weak middle relief. Well, that’s not what this line-up has been doing as they’ve looked jumpy, swinging at pitches early in the count and helping pitchers get them out. Abreu, Damon and Cano are particularly guilty of this while their slumps continue. Perhaps they are trying to make too much happen…

It was a great sign that Damon drew a pair of those bases on balls last night. The Yanks need him on base to score runs and put pressure on the opposition. Ditto the struggling Abreu.

Hopefully they will both start getting on base and give the newspapers a reason to ignore what a player’s wife is wearing.