Keeping it up

After losing two out of three to the World Champion Phillies, it was nice to see the Yanks come out and hit like crazy on Monday. A-Rod went five for five without a home run. When is the last time we've seen him get five straight hits without a home run. Phil Hughes kept up his excellence in Texas going eight innings and not allowing a run. Maybe we should trade him there, who knows, with the way he's pitched in that ballpark maybe we could get Josh Hamilton. Kidding. But still, Hughes has looked decent in his last two starts.

The Yankees are playing very good baseball all around. Too bad Brian Bruney can't find his way off the DL. Should be interesting to see what the Yankees do regarding Chien-Ming Wang especially because Hughes has done well for the most part. It would be nice to sweep Texas and try and gain first place over the stinkin Red Sox.

On Fire

The New York Yankees are absolutely on fire. They have won seven games in a row, three of them being walk off wins. A-Rod has homered in four straight games, and Mark Teixeira is sizzling hot. C.C. gave them another great outing last night. All of this is being done without Chien-Ming Wang in the rotation, without Jorge Posada behind the plate, and without Brian Bruney in the bullpen.

The Yanks are doing what they needed to do. They came home for a 10 game stand against teams that they really need to beat to get over that 500. hump, and they are succeeding. It wasn't hard to tell that as soon as Alex came back the Yankees would see much more production from Mark Teixieira. Pitchers have to show him pitches because they don't want to walk him and face A-Rod with men on. So far, the two have been quite a tandem, getting homer after homer, and RBI after RBI. Phil Hughes is on the mound tonight vs. the O's, he could use a good outing. Keep it up Bombers.

Updates

Big win last night for the Yankees. They have now won two in a row, four out of six, and two straight series. This is what they need to do to get on the right track. With a 10 game homestand coming up, and a pretty easy schedule, the Yankees really need to take this upcoming two weeks to get way above 500. Mark Teixeira is starting to hit a little bit better and C.C. really seems to be in a groove. As the Yanks begin to get players back from injury, this season can really turn around quickly.

It would be nice to see them get a good win tonight at home vs. the Twins.

Last night was an excellent night for me in all aspects: Bruins, goodbye; Celtics, lose, and Red Sox lose (David Ortiz 0-7, 0 HR since September....steroids.

Win the Series

In the MLB, there are 162 games. No team is going to win every game, or even close to every game. The goal of the New York Yankees at this point has to be to take each series, and win that series.

Great start to the weekend on Friday night. Without argument, the best Yankee game of the year. Alex Rodriguez, first pitch he sees all year, hits a three run jack. That moment set the tone for the Yankees. One swing, and the game was over. C.C. threw a complete game four hit shutout. That is the reason the Yankees got him, and most definitely had his best start of the year.

A rough outing on Saturday for Phil Hughes was quickly forgotten about after the Yankee's comeback victory on Sunday. Joba allowed three runs in the first inning, but calmed down after that and finished with an acceptable start. Damon hit his ninth home run, which is unbelievable at this point in the season for him. A 5-3 victory gave them their second win in three games, and hopefully they can continue to win every series that they play in.

A day off today, the Yanks are back at it tomorrow.

A-ROD'S Return, Selena Roberts, and Manny Ramirez

Well folks, the day has finally come. Alex Rodriguez is back. The struggling Yankees need anything they can get right now, and getting arguably the best hitter ever is surely something they will accept. A-Rod, as usual will have tons of pressure on him to perform. Hopefully the news of Manny Ramirez will help take some of the heat off Alex. Not that there EVER is heat off Alex, but who knows.

Hopefully A-Rod being back in the lineup helps Mark Teixeira. I really believe it will, and it would be nice to see Mark get hot.

The Selena Roberts book about Rodriguez came out recently. What is the reason for her to write this book? Why is one woman trying so hard to demoralize this guy? She didn't write anything that people don't know. We know A-Rod doesn't say the smartest things, we know that some of his teammates don't like him, and we know that he did steroids. Do we really care anymore? Anyone can pick a person and just tear him apart by pointing out every negative thing that he has done in life. Roberts is ridiculous and I have grown to despise her over the past few months through this whole situation.

Is anyone really surprised that Manny Ramirez failed a drug test? I sure am not. I was shocked when I saw that he was suspended for 50 games effective immediately. However, no ones use of steroids surprises me anymore. Now the Red Sox fans can stop their excuse of "the Yankees are cheaters." Well , it looks as though most of these guys are cheaters. Because I'm sure during the steroid era the NEW YORK YANKEES were the ONLY team using these things. Steroids must ONLY have been in New York. Get a grip on reality Boston. David Ortiz hit over 50 home runs a few years ago and hasn't hit one since September. If that doesn't sound like a steroid user I do not know what does.

C.C. NEEDS a good start tonight, Go Yanks.

Update: The NBA Playoffs

Both series that were played last night are now tied at one as expected. I'm pretty sure no one expected the Lakers to lose a second straight game to the Rockets at home. Although the Rockets do match up very well to the tough LA team, they weren't taking last night's game. Kobe Bryant had a stellar performance dropping 40 points and taking just 27 shots. They said on TNT last night that when Kobe scores one point for every shot he takes, the Lakers are nearly unbeatable. Last night he had 1.48 points for every shot he took, and was just too good for the Rockets. Ron Artest was ejected from the game after running and getting into Kobe's face. It originally appeared as though it was all Artest to blame for what happened. However the replay showed Kobe throw what looked like an elbow to Artest's neck. Craig Sager reported that Kobe's elbow is going to be reviewed by the league's office for possible fines or suspensions. Wouldn't that be something if Kobe missed a game because of this? The Rockets were led last night by an unexpected hero. Carl Landry shot seven of nine for the field and dropped 21 points. He had one of the best games of his career for the Rockets who still fell short. The Rockets however, must be happy with taking one out of two from LA at home. As they head back to Houston for game three, they definitely will have some hope. The problem is, the Lakers are the best road team in the game, and I expect them to win out in this series as long as Kobe Bryant does not face suspension. The combination of Bryant, Odom, Gasol, and Bynum is just too much for Houston Rockets.

The Boston Celtics won game two last night in Boston vs. the Magic in weird fashion. Paul Pierce, the captain and leader of the team had three points in 16 minutes while Eddie House had 31 points in just 28 minutes. Rajon Rondo also had an unbelievable game as he dropped 15 points, had 11 rebounds, and 18 assists. The Magic were never really in this game. Stan Van Gundy said to his team during a timeout, "Wake up, it doesn't even look like you're trying to win this game." Stan's comments seemed true when watching the Celtics demolish Orlando without Dwight Howard. As the series goes back to Orlando, look for the Magic to get a second life and win game three. They were better than Boston all year with a healthy Kevin Garnett. Without Garnett, the Magic should be able to win this series.

Yankee Positives and Negatives

Well, the Yankees have now lost four in a row. Last night was one of the most upsetting losses of the year to watch. I watched the feed on MLB.tv as I don't get the YES network here in Rhode Island. I turned the game on just as Teixeira got his biggest hit of the year. A bases clearing double in the bottom of the eighth tied the game up at three, and it really looked like the Yankees were going to win at this point. They had a runner on third with two outs in the ninth but couldn't come through. After Phil Coke gave up a solo shot to Carlos Pena in the top of 10th, the Rays never looked back. Mark Teixeira was up with a man on third with just one out, but could not even hit a deep enough fly ball to bring him in. Matsui flied out to left for the last out, and there it was, the fourth straight Yankee loss.

As it is 27 games into the season, I'm not going to panic. But it really has been a tough season so far for Yankee fans. One can surely argue the positive. The Yankees had their best April since 2006 and did it without arguably the best hitter ever in baseball. They are playing 500. ball without their third baseman, right fielder, catcher, #2 starter, and top two set up man. As Pete Abraham wrote in his Yankee Blog, their situation would spell serious trouble for any team. When A-Rod comes back tomorrow, will some pressure be taken off Teixeira? How will he respond to this? Will Chien-Ming Wang be back anytime soon? How will A-Rod perform after all of his off-season trouble with steroids, and now his hip injury? Many questions remain to be asked for the New York Yankees. One thing is for sure though, until they get some help in the bullpen, they are not going to be winning many games. They have one reliable guy in the bullpen who is healthy right now, and even he can only pitch in the ninth inning.

The State of the Yankees

The Yankees suffered a disappointing loss last night to the Boston Red Sox. The game was delayed about 2 and a half hours. Phil Hughes came out and allowed a run in each of his first four innings. The Yankees, who trailed 4-0 fought back with back to back home runs off Lester late in the game, but couldn't take advantage of a bases loaded situation in the ninth off Papelbon.

This Yankee team is so plagued with injuries that it is just getting ridiculous. Now Jorge Posada may be seriously injured. He will undergo an MRI today, but he said he felt a "grab" in his hamstring. Losing Jorge would just be another of many huge blows to the Yankees so far this season. They showed last year that is hard to get wins without Posada playing almost every day. Just add him to the list of : A-rod, Bruney, Nady, Marte, Teixeira (bad wrist but playing), Swisher (just got back in the lineup last night). No matter how good a team is, with the amount of injuries they have, its just so hard to put together wins.

The Yankees brought up Alfredo Aceves yesterday and he did very well for them. He showed some promise in long relief, and I'm guessing Girardi wants to keep him around for a little while to see what he has.

Meanwhile, it's good to see some bad blood developing between the Yankees and Red Sox again. I don't like how friendly the teams have been with each other the last few years. Joe Girardi accused the Red Sox first base coach of stealing signs and told him that "someone was going to get hurt." JD Drew was then beamed in the seventh inning.

Joba back on the mound tonight, hopefully we can rock Josh Beckett again.

A Great Night in Sports

As far as sports goes, last night was one of my favorite nights in recent memory. The Yankees, who always struggle with the Angels had a comeback 7-4 victory to win their third straight game. The Red Sox lost 13-0, and got just one hit off Matt Garza and the Tampa Bay Rays. The Celtics got edged in triple overtime in Chicago to the bulls 128-127.

The Yankees now sit at 12-10 for the month of April. This is their best month of April since 2006 and they did it without Alex Rodriguez. They also did it with Chien-Ming Wang's three horrific starts. A very uncharacteristic start of the season for Wang, got him sent down to Tampa. Due to this, Phil Hughes was brought up and had an EXCELLENT first start. The Yankees always seem to play best in the middle of the summer as opposed to April and May, so if they can continue to stay above 500. now, they should be en route to win the Al East if all goes well.

Once again, I am falling in love with Chicago Bulls. Joakim Noah's steal and dunk plus the foul last night was a wonderful moment in the NBA. The Bulls deserve to win this series and I really think that they will do so in game seven. Ray Allen put in an impressive performance to say the least by scoring 51 points last night, but the Bulls just fought to hard and seemed to want it a little more. Game seven Saturday night should be one for the ages at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston.