4/14 – Yankees at Rays
Some shaking up of the lineup for the Yankees, as Ramiro Pena and Jose Molina are in the order tonight. Joe Girardi wanted to give Jorge Posada a blow as the DH after catching last night’s long game and it doesn’t hurt that A.J. Burnett worked well with Molina the first time around.
That moves slumping Hideki Matsui to the bench for a day, which might not be the worst idea considering this game is played on turf. Cody Ransom has played every inning of the Yankees’ first seven games and Girardi said he wanted to give him a rest. Johnny Damon is under the weather and has been dealing with a personal issue at home involving his mother, so he hasn’t been sleeping much of late.
More later. Here are the lineups:
NEW YORK YANKEES
Brett Gardner CF
Derek Jeter SS
Mark Teixeira 1B
Nick Swisher LF
Jorge Posada DH
Robinson Cano 2B
Xavier Nady RF
Ramiro Pena 3B
Jose Molina C
A.J. Burnett RHP
TAMPA BAY RAYS
B.J. Upton CF
Carl Crawford LF
Evan Longoria 3B
Carlos Pena 1B
Pat Burrell DH
Dioner Navarro C
Ben Zobrist RF
Akinori Iwamura 2B
Jason Bartlett SS
Matt Garza RHP
Bryan Hoch
I hope Burnett is on tonight!
Swisher does it again…
Oh, Burnett is looking good…and Swisher answers the brushback and smacks it out. Sweet.
Swisher seems like the real deal!
Julia
http://werbiefitz.mlblogs.com/
A NO-NO through 6 innings, and only 4 comments??!!!!
R U KIDDING ME??!!!!
9 Outs to Go!!…..
Yeah well he’s lost it now. Still a great pitching performance though. Hold it together for the win AJ!
Maybe everyone is engrossed in watching what was a potential no hitter. Now seventh inings and two back to back hits and suddenly two on and none out. Hang On !!!
Tied ballgame
I made this comment a little earlier when many were tossing blame at the team, management and firing cracks at each other on this blog. Yes we are 3-4. If we win tonight to make it 4-4 ( now 7-2 in the ninth ) then win tomorrow with I think Andy Pettite up and we can get away from a very tough opening away stand of nine games and come back to opening day at Yankee Stadium with a 5-4 record, then it is a super efffort given ARod out and Tex out for 2and a half games. This along with a bad first up effort from CC and two shockers from Wang and Joba considerably unlucky.
I would then give all and sundry better than a pass mark. Don,t forget the hype at Tropicana Field with their opening day, unfurling their pennant from 2008.
This has been a great start compared to the last 3 years at least.
Every one on this blog should tip their hats and say well done.
Aussie Bryan Virgin Aussie Baeseball Nut.
Yea I guess a 5-4 record is OK —-NOT!!!
Not from the Yankees, Maybe from a team like Baltimore, ot Toronto WHO by the way have better records tan the Yanks. I guess if their PAYROL was only about 60 million it would be OK, BUT NOT THE YANKEES!!
They pay for the best and should be at least 7-2 NOW!!!
But remember the MENTAL MIDGET Girardi and Wang have cost us 3 games ( I’ll give Wang 1 loss but Girardi gets 2).
So if the pitchers were conditioned and made ready in Spring training we should have a 8-1 record BUT NOOOOO!!!
These are the Yankees bought by Cashman and readied by Girardi!!!!
OH by the way NICE WIN TONIGHT!!!!
GO YANKEES!!!!!
For all our struggles, with A Rod still out, Teix missing games, and Wang completely off his mechanics; Yankees have Pettite against Sonanstine for a 5-4 road trip to start the season. Call me an optimist but this feels like it could be a good season.
a7989
Your words are a mirror image of mine 5-4 after 9 away games, not bad at all.
Aussie Bryan
I feel somewhere between aussie bryan and ericksontoddr on this one. This trip hasn’t been great but it hasn’t been a disaster. Both of you guys made valid arguments but what swings it for me is that a veteran club like the Yanks usually start slow. Every season this team comes out the gate a bit rusty, but usually comes through. Now I know that isn’t something we can count on 100% but it is a trend.
Yeah, I noticed that too Aussie Bryan. Fellow optimist huh
How can anybody blame Girardi for two losses thus far and Wang for one? Wang has an ERA just south of 29, he’s supposed to be our number 2 and he’s giving up three runs every inning he toes the rubber. I’m okay with the start seeing as we’re playing Cody Ransom who isn’t doing anything hitting or fielding in Arod’s absence. Also what was everybody saying about missing Arod, Tex was going to have to step it up and he’s missed time himself. Key to this roadtrip is getting on a winning streak with Andy tomorrow and let CC open the new ballpark with a win and keep the ball rolling, and prey Wang figures something out very soon, otherwise we may have to skip him a time or two and give Hughes some innings with the big club.
Resting Cody Ransom a good idea. Better idea: encourage him to find another line of work.