The New York Yankees beat the Texas Rangers by a score of 9-2. A.J. Burnett started and got the win. He pitched six shut out innings striking out 7 batters. What a great outing for Burnett. No one knew when he was going to pitch well again and maybe this is the start of a run for him.(I hope so, I have him on both of my fantasy teams and he’s been benched) In A.J.’s past few performances, his fastball was running back to the middle of the plate when he was trying to pitch down and away. Tonight he wasn’t flying open with his front shoulder and over rotating it and this kept the ball on the corners of the plate. He wasn’t throwing a beach ball down the middle for the batters to smash. His curveball was very good. Left-handed batters were thinking they were getting a fastball but Burnett was throwing a curveball that broke down to the inside. It was diving down and in. When he made his mistakes, he was making them off the plate whereas before he was making them down the middle of the plate. He was conscious of the outer half to the right-handed batters and didn’t make bad pitches that cost him a home run or a deep fly ball. A.J. Burnett also had to feel settled down a little after the Yankees opened the game with two runs. He didn’t have to worry about making any mistakes and he didn’t make any. I’m sure he would of liked to walk less than four guys and lasted in the game longer but he made great pitches and had seven strike outs. How about Mark Teixeira, again? He’s having a great game every time out and words are hard to describe his play now. Great, awesome, terrific. He’s really showing why he’s one of the best hitters in the league. Chien-Ming Wang pitched well in the two innings he pitched. He pitched down in the zone but didn’t have the greatest velocity. He’ll get his velocity back once he develops his arm strength and faces live action more. Player of the Game: A.J. Burnett. I was impressed at how he pitched so well against a great hitting team after having trouble in his last outings.
