Indians-Yankees Series Preview: 4-gamer

The Yankees look to turn things around this weekend after an embarrassing series against their rivals. But it doesn’t get a whole lot easier for them; they face the Central division leaders.

On the bright side, the Indians have lost six of their last seven.

On the Hill:
Friday: Fausto Carmona (3-7, 5.33) vs. Ivan Nova (4-4, 4.50)
Saturday: Mitch Talbot (2-2, 4.18) vs. Bartolo Colon (4-3, 3.39)
Sunday: Josh Tomlin (7-3, 3.71) vs. Freddy Garcia (4-5, 3.86)
Monday: Carlos Carrasco (5-3, 4.52) vs. A.J. Burnett (6-4, 4.37)

Yankees notes: A loss, Berkman, Kearns

If you went out last night and missed the Yankees news, here’s a quick news roundup to get you up to speed:

• The Yankees suffered a tough 3-2 defeat in Tampa, as Phil Hughes watched his 2-0 lead disappear when he allowed a three-run homer to Matt Joyce in the sixth inning. The two Yankee runs were scored by the first two batters of the game, as Nick Swisher slugged his 19th homer of the year. Meanwhile, Alex Rodriguez is still stuck on 16 for the year and 599 for his career.
  
• The Lance Berkman deal will be announced later today and the Yankees will likely send reliever Mark Melancon and infielder Jimmy Paredes to the Astros.
  
• After the loss to the Rays Brian Cashman completed another deal, acquiring outfielder Austin Kearns from the Indians for a player to be named later and cash considerations. Here are Kearns’ career stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.

Yanks pick up where they left off against Cleveland, cruise to series victory

Following an 8-0 blowout yesterday, the Yankees clinched a series victory against the Indians tonight with an 11-4 win. The offense broke out in the seventh with a seven-run rally, which was more than enough support for spot starter Dustin Moseley.

Best of All: Moseley pitched six innings of one-run ball to earn the victory and all but sure up the next spot start in place of Andy Pettitte.

Worst of All: Alex Rodriguez is still stuck on 599. He had two opportunities with the bases loaded late tonight, but couldn’t come up with a granny. However, he did drive in his 83rd, 84th and 85th runs of the season.

Coming Up: The Yankees head down to Tampa this weekend for a big series with the Rays, who most consider the second-best team in baseball. Check back before the game Friday night for a series preview.

Burnett, Yanks shut out Tribe

The Yankees blew out the Indians last night, 8-0, as A.J. Burnett tossed 6-1/3 innings and five Yankees had two-hit games. But still, no No. 600 for Mr. Rodriguez.

Best of All: Definitely Burnett’s outing. The best way to prove to Brian Cashman not to waste prospects on a starter this trade deadline is by good starting pitching. Burnett allowed seven hits and three walks, but worked out of trouble with seven strikeouts.

Robinson Cano had his 19th homer in the fourth; he now has 69 RBIs.

Worst of All: Derek Jeter was the only starter without a base hit, as he went 0-for-5 with 2 Ks.

Coming Up: The Yankees can seal the series win with a win tonight. Same time, same place.

Yankees silenced by Tomlin in MLB debut

Four of the last five starters making their major league debuts against the Yankees had earned wins prior to tonight. Josh Tomlin rode that trend to seven innings of one-run ball and a 4-1 win for the Indians, as he outdueled CC Sabathia tonight at Progressive Field.

Best of All: Sabathia brought his A-stuff to the ballpark. If it weren’t for two unearned runs in the fourth, Brett Gardner may have taken a chance in the ninth by tagging up from third to —hypothetically — tie the game. Sabathia hit 96-98 all night with his fastball and threw several filthy changeups. It was his first loss since May 23 against the Mets, but I’m not worried about him one bit.

Derek Jeter had two hits. He was the only guy with more than one.

Worst of All: Only three others besides Jeter had hits.

Alex Rodriguez didn’t hit No. 600 on his birthday (or else he’d be in the headline). He even had a dramatic two-out, bottom-of-the-ninth situation that he was the tying run in to reach the milestone, but he grounded out to short.

Coming Up: With the series tied, the Yankees will have to win the next two to take the series.

Grandy fuels victory with 3rd HR in 2 days

Through 254 at-bats, Curtis Granderson had seven homers. In his last seven at-bats, he has three. After two solo shots yesterday, Grandy wacked a game-winning two-run homer in the eighth off Jake Westbrook to put Javier Vazquez on the winning end of a 3-2 game.

Best of All: It’s about time Granderson’s bat has gotten a jolt. Missing most of May didn’t help, but now it looks like he has some fire in him as he’s riding a six-game hitting streak.

Nick Swisher is still hitting over .300, and he hit his 18th homer of the year in the fourth frame.

Vazquez put together a quality start after his one bad outing in recent memory. Plus, the bullpen took care of business in the eighth and ninth innings.

Worst of All: The Yankees managed only four hits off Westbrook.

Brett Gardner is really slumping. He’s fallen from a .319 BA on July 4 to .295 tonight. Where’d the good Gardy go?

Coming Up: Game 2 is same time, same place. CC Sabathia on the hill against Josh Tomlin making his major league debut.

Yankees-Indians series preview

The Yankees start their week on the road against the lowly Indians after winning six of nine at home to start the second half. The Tribe isn’t playing a lot like the last placed team they are, winning seven of 10 after the All-Star break thus far.

Still, even with their hot stretch, the Indians remain 16 games below .500 and 12.5 games out of first in the AL Central.

Head to Head:
The Yankees took three out of four from the Indians at the end of May, and they did it with offense, offense and a little bit of offense. They averaged more than nine runs per game and the only loss came at the hands of Joba Chamberlain.

Pitching Matchups:

Date:	Yankees starters	Indians starters
Mon., 7:05 p.m.	J. Vazquez (8-7, 4.68)	J. Westbrook (6-6, 4.74)
Tues., 7:05 p.m.	CC Sabathia (13-3, 3.18)	Josh Tomlin (0-0, 0.00)
Wed., 7:05 p.m.	A.J. Burnett (8-8, 4.77)	F. Carmona (10-7, 3.51)
Thurs., 7:05 p.m.	Sergio Mitre (0-2, 3.99)	Mitch Talbot (8-9, 4.08)

UPDATE:
Dustin Moseley (0-0, 4.22) is taking Mitre’s spot start Thursday.

Players to Watch:
Yankees: Alex Rodriguez. He’s sitting on 599 homers. Everyone going to these games in Cleveland are there for one reason: To see A-Rod’s 600th.

Indians: Trevor Crowe. He has led the Indians’ charge in the second half with his .343/.410/.571 hitting line. Also, if I’m remembering this right, Crowe made a sensational grab in center back in May at a game I attended.

Prediction:
This doesn’t seem fair. The Yankees are in an easy part of their schedule, but are playing teams that are overachieving. The Indians were supposed to be a breeze, but now I see they’re hot and I’m having some doubts. I’ll be happy with a series split but don’t be surprised if Josh Tomlin throws eight shutout innings in his major league debut tomorrow night and the Indians sweep.

A-Rod's grand slam heads 11-2 pounding of Indians

Alex Rodrguez broke open a pitchers' duel in the seventh inning with a grand slam following an intentional walk of Mark Teixeira. He is now 5-for-5 with 18 RBIs when opposing teams walk Teixeira to load the bases and it was his 20th career grand slam to give him sole possession of third place on the all-time list.

Andy Pettitte pitched seven innings of one-run ball en route to his seventh win of the year, an 11-2 thumping of the Indians.

Best of all: A-Rod's six RBIs. He now leads the team with 41 with Robinson Cano, who hit a solo shot after A-Rod's granny, trailing by one.

Every Yankee starer had at least one hit and combined for 18 as a team.

Worst of all: Chan Ho Park walked a hitter with two out in the ninth. The walk snapped a streak of 65 batters faced without a walk.

Coming up: The Yankees start a three-game series with the Orioles on Tuesday night. I'll have a series preview posted, as usual. Although, I haven't quite figured out the Internet in my new apartment. I should be able to figure it out.

Late rally propels Yanks past Indians

It seemed as though my pregame prediction of a 1-0 game was going to come true through six innings, with the score in favor of the Indians. But then thunder struck Mark Teixeira’s bat and his three-run homer boosted the Yankees over the Indians, 7-3.

Best of all: A.J. Burnett. W, 8 IP, 5 H, 3 R, ER, 0 BB, 8 K. He looked very sharp, as he improves to 6-2. Need I say more?

Robinson Cano has caught fire as well. He is 13 for his last 21 with nine RBIs and 20 total bases.

Worst of all: Alex Rodriguez went 0-for-3 with a walk. Derek Jeter’s throwing error allowed two unearned runs to score in the seventh. (But he made up for it with a two-run single in the home half.)

Coming up: The Yankees look to take the series Monday afternoon with Andy Pettitte on the mound searching for his seventh win of the year.

Yankees trounce Tribe under my watch, I reveal summer plans for lenNY’s Yankees

I knew it! The Lenny-Fletch tandem improved to 3-0 with tonight’s 8-2 win over the Indians. Nick Swisher’s two-run shot in the second gave the Yankees the early lead, and Robinson Cano’s seventh-inning grand slam put the game away to preserve Phil Hughes’s sixth win.

This was the fourth Yankees game I attended this year. You must understand: I was born and raised in New Hampshire. I went to one game — two if I was lucky — per year for at least 10 years.

Now I feel like I know my way around Yankee Stadium better than I do New York. But hopefully that will change this summer, as I’ll be interning for a small digital marketing agency called eic. I’m receiving academic credit at Quinnipiac University, where I’ll be a junior this fall.

The internship is full-time, and I start Tuesday. On top of that, I’m taking a digital design course online which lasts for the next month or so, so I can, you know, graduate on time. Let’s just say, I’ll be busy this summer.

But I’m not about to put down this blog for the summer. To be honest, I don’t think I could. It’s kind of addicting. As long as I excel in both my commitments and have some extra time on my hands, you’ll have your Yankees daily news and analysis.

Other places you can find me this summer:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• E-mail

Indians-Yankees series preview

The Yankees (28-19) haven’t faced the Indians (17-28) yet this year, and they should be excited to face a city where the main focus is on a basketball player named LeBron James instead of a team in season.

The Indians are 2-8 in their last 10 games, while the Yankees are only two games better in that span. The Bronx Bombers, who’ve scored 13 runs in their last six games, are coming off a series win against the Twins and the Indians just lost a series to the White Sox.

Pitching Matchups:

Date:	Indians starters	Yankees starters
Fri., 7:05 p.m.	F. Carmona (4-2, 3.45)	Phil Hughes (5-1, 2.72)
Sat., 1:05 p.m.	David Huff (2-6, 5.25)	CC Sabathia (4-3, 3.86)
Sun., 1:05 p.m.	J. Masterson (0-5, 6.13)	A.J. Burnett (5-2, 3.55)
Mon., 1:05 p.m.	Mitch Talbot (6-3, 3.73)	Andy Pettitte (6-1, 2.62)

Players to Watch:
Indians: Shin-Soo Choo. He is the only player on the roster with a batting average over .300 (.302) and should be in All-Star Game discussions if it weren’t such a popularity contest.

Yankees: Mark Teixeira. Suddenly, Teixeira has three two-hit games in his last four and is hitting .216. He also has a great track record against the Indians: .367/.444/.628 in 205 career plate appearances.

Also, keep a close eye on Curtis Granderson, who makes his return from the DL tonight.

Prediction:
A four-game series is tough to sweep, but this one might be as easy as they come. The Yankees have their rotation aligned perfectly, and I think a win tonight over Carmona would lead to a sweep. Although the Yankees lost last time I attended a game, tonight I will be attending without my parents. Andrew Fletcher and I will look to improve to 3-0 as a tandem.

Yankees are NOT the most hated team!

Now this is surprising. The Wall Street Journal published an article today based on a study from Nielsen Co. that concluded the Cleveland Indians — not the New York Yankees — are the most hated team in the majors.

Here are the full results (click to enlarge):

The study determined no team receives negative reactions, but the Red Sox are the second most hated team — three spots ahead of the Yankees.

I’m shocked at the results. The Yankees probably have the most fans out there, but I still think they also have the most haters.