Yanks Take Homestand Opener; Mets Drop 2nd in a Row in Steel City

For the second night in a row, the Yankees were victorious while the Mets floundered. The Yanks returned to the Bronx to open a three-game set against the Rangers and flexed their muscles in a 12-3 victory.

AJ Burnett got the start and performed well aside from one rough inning. He gave up a 3-run homer in the 3rd to Nelson Cruz, and was very strong outside of that. His final line: 7.0 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 110 pitches. Another solid start from a Yankee pitcher, which has been the key to their success.

Key Highlights:
*The entire Yankees 4th inning, in which they scored 7 runs off Vicente Padilla and Derek Holland. The big play in the inning: Mark Teixeira sliding into second to break up a potential inning-ending double play with A-Rod at the plate. He slid hard into Elvis Andrus, kept the inning going, and the Yanks ended up plating five more runs. The final three came off the bat of Hideki Matsui, who launched a homer into the right field bullpen. Big offensive showcase for the Yanks.

*Jorge Posada launched a bomb of his own, drilling a Warner Madrigal pitch deep into the second deck in right for a 3-run dinger. This one put the game officially away and was a mammoth bomb.

Key Stats:
*1 walk for AJ Burnett. After winning his first two starts, in which he gave up just 1 walk in each, he has given up under 2 walks in a start just once in 8 starts since. His totals: 2 twice, 3, 4 twice, 6, and 7. He walked 4 against the Rangers last week, and only one tonight. He did a much better job challenging the hitters, and trusting the defense behind him, which was great.

*E2 in the Top of the 4th inning. That would be charged to Jorge Posada when he airmailed a throw to second, trying to catch Elvis Andrus stealing. That was the Yanks' first error in 18 games, ending their record streak.

*Jeter: 3-4 at the plate, extends his hitting streak to 16 games.

*Teixeira: 0-2 at the plate, ends his hitting streak at 14 games. He was hit twice by a pitch, and showed some anger after the 2nd one, yelling at Padilla on the mound, sliding hard into second, and being overly emotional in the dugout after Matsui's home run later that inning.

As for the Mets, they were stymied by Zach Duke, and the Pirates made 3 runs of Johan Santana stand up in a 3-1 win. The Mets were once again without the services of Carlos Beltran, who is still battling a stomach virus, and apparently, an SNY Producer may have the Swine Flu. Not good news for the Mets, neither was losing a second straight game to the Pirates.

Santana was solid again, pitching 6 innings. He gave up 7 hits, 3 runs, walked 1, and struck out 3. He threw just 85 pitches. All the Mets could muster was a sac fly off the bat of Luis Castillo in the 5th inning. In addition, Ramon Martinez was injured, hurting his finger, and left the game after just 2 at-bats.

Key Highlights:
*In the 5th, after the Mets took a 1-0 lead, Jason Jaramillo took Santana deep to left with one out to tie the score. Good way for the Pirates to respond and keep things close against a dominant pitcher like Johan Santana. It was his first dinger of the season.

*In the 6th, the Pirates took the lead for good. Nate McLouth and Adam LaRoche hit back-to-back, almost identical doubles to right, plating a run a piece, and giving their team a 3-1 lead. Santana was strong all night up until the 6th, and the Pirates made him pay.

Key Stats:
*0 strikeouts for Pirates pitching. Facing a tough task against Johan Santana, the Pirates pitchers needed to be just as good if not better. The combo of Duke, John Grabow, and Matt Capps threw 9 innings of 1-run ball, and didn't K one Met batter. That's impressive.

*Jeremy Reed: 3-for-3 at the plate. Reed was once again impressive at the dish. 3 hits for him after 2 hits and 2 runs scored last night. Good to see him starting to pick up on the offense, especially when the rest of his team went 5-for-27 at the plate.

That's all for tonight. Yanks and Rangers again tomorrow at 7. Andy Pettitte goes for win #6 against Scott Feldman. Mets at the Pirates also at 7. Mike Pelfrey tries for his 5th victory against former-Yankee Ross Ohlendorf, who is 5-5 for the Bucs.

Yanks Take Series from Cleveland, Mets Drop Opener to Pittsburgh

The Yankees capitalized on some wild pitching by the Indians and got great pitching from Joba Chamberlain in a 5-2 win. The win gave the Yanks 3 of the 4 games in the weekend wrap-around series with the Tribe and ended the road trip with a 5-2 record. Pretty good once again.

Highlights of the Game:
*Bottom 5: With runners at 1st and 2nd with no outs in the bottom of the 5th, Kelly Shoppach popped up a bunt along the 3rd base line. Joba came out of nowhere, made a full-out dive for the ball and caught it for the out. He then immediately popped back up and fired a strike to 2nd for the double play. It will be on highlight reels for a while and stifled a potentially big rally.

*Top 6: Jeremy Sowers walked the bases loaded, and then was relieved by Greg Aquino. He proceeded to A-Rod, Posada, and Cano without giving up a run. Great job by Aquino and poor hitting by the Yanks.

*Top 7: Yanks get revenge...Aquino then walks three straight, and this time, Nick Swisher doubles off the left field wall, just missing a grand slam, and scores two. After they intentionally walk Teixeira to face A-Rod, former Yankee Luis Vizcaino gives up a 2-run single to Rodriguez as the Yanks extended the lead to 5-1

Key Stats:
*#1 has to be the line of Joba Chamberlain: 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 106 pitches, 66 strikes. For everyone who is still whining that Joba should be in the bullpen, tonight's start proves that he does have the stuff to go deep into a game and be economical. Yes, he was facing a weak Indians team without Grady Sizemore, but his stuff was nasty tonight and would've tamed any team. Fastball in the mid-90's, hard-breaking slider, and accuracy. Joba was economical, which was important, got off to a good start too, and really made just one bad pitch.

*#2 will be that Indians pitchers walked 11 batters. The Yankees showed patience at the plate and didn't bite when the Indians' pitchers were wild. Back-to-Back innings, the Yanks had the bases loaded on walks. However, the Yankees were also 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position. That's pretty bad, but they still found a way to win.

*The final key stat would be the #0. As in, 0 errors for the Yanks defense. That's the 18th straight errorless game for the Yankees, who broke the all-time record for consecutive errorless games, surpassing the 2006 Red Sox who went 17 games without an error. Nice team record to have and a big reason why the Yanks have won 15 of their last 19 games now.

Didn't catch much of the Mets game tonight, so this recap will be much shorter from what I did watch and could dictate. Either way, they blew a 5-0 lead and lost 8-5 at Pittsburgh to open their road trip. The story of this game was, once again, woeful pitching by J.J. Putz, after he struggled Sunday against the Marlins. Here's my highlights and stats:

Highlights:
*Big Met highlights would have to be the RBI Triple for Wilson Valdez in the 2nd and his 2-run double in the 4th. For a guy that isn't expected to do great things for the Mets, he plated 3 of the Mets' five runs out of the seventh-hole and ignited the Mets' offense tonight.

*For the Pirates, it would have to be their entire 8th inning. Adam LaRoche started it all with a lead-off double, trailing 5-3. After that, the Bucs put together four singles, a walk, a fielder's choice, and a sac fly to take an 8-5 lead. Great hitting by the Pirates to take advantage of bad pitching by the Mets' pen.

Key Stats:
*Biggest has to be the line of J.J. Putz, who was not effective once again in a big eighth inning role: 0.0 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 12 pitches. That is awful, and something that will not bode well with his manager, especially against the Pirates, and especially after Jerry Manuel told reporters he still will go to Putz in the 8th inning.

*The combo of Daniel Murphy, Gary Sheffield, and David Wright (hitting 3-5 in the order with Beltran missing another game with a stomach virus): 0-10, 3 walks, 1 RBI, 1 R. With Beltran out, the middle part of the line-up needs to step up, and they didn't tonight against Ian Snell and the Pirates. If the Mets are going to be successful with all of their injuries, they need to get production from these spots.