The New York Yankees won over the Anaheim Angels by a score of 7-4. Starting for the Yankees was A.J. Burnett and he gave up 4 earned runs on 8 hits in 7 innings of work for the no decision. Phil Coke got the win and Mariano Rivera got the save. It wasn’t his greatest start but it was a nice job by Burnett to battle through and go seven innings. It wasn’t the game the Yankees exactly wanted from him but like most people might say, he “grinded” his way through the game and pitched seven innings. He kept the Yankees in the game and gave the bull pen some rest. He didn’t have great stuff. He had a great breaking ball and a nice slider however and that got him through the game. The fastball wasn’t were he wanted it and he had a tough time locating it even though he had great velocity at 95 mph. He got behind in the count because of that and gave up hits with two strikes that he probably wouldn’t of if he had better control. He never got into a rhythm and never got on a good roll. He gave the Yankees a tie game after seven innings and that’s what you ask your starter to do. We expect him to go out and dominate every game but tonight wasn’t one of them. At first, the Anaheim batters were hitting his first pitch fastball so he changed it up and started throwing first pitch breaking balls. He was throwing a quality slider down and away and threw breaking balls all night at Anaheim. Phil Coke has a rolling tight slider that has improved since last September when he was called up and his velocity on his fastball also has improved. Mariano’s velocity was down and I saw it at 86 mph on the radar gun on the tv. He was throwing his front shoulder out and Jorge reminded him to keep it in and when he did his location got better. He then had action and life through the zone. The Yankees hung with the Angels through out the game and had the inning they needed in the 8th. They didn’t have the big inning like last night but Melky Cabrera and Ramiro Pena broke the game open with consecutive singles that scored the Yankees. Every one in the order is swinging the bat well except Mark Teixeira but it’s May tomorrow so he let’s hope he turns it around. Every one in the line up had at least 1 hit. Derek Jeter had another great night and he’s 6-for-9 on the year with men in scoring position and 2 outs. You can tell Hideki Matsui’s knee is feeling better by the way he is running the bases. Nick Swisher is solid on his back leg and recognizing and seeing the pitches better because of it. At the start of the game, Posada was rushing the ball on his transfer and the Angels were stealing like mad on him. When Posada threw out Napoli in the 6th inning, I feel that was a momentum changer. I felt it.
Throwing out Nap wasn't a momentum changer. Leaving Speier in the game was the momentum changer. He is terrible and our bull pen has been terrible all year long. I knew he'd blow the game. I can't believe how well the ball carries out of right. The whole stadium actually looks tiny with how the ball carries. The day games should be interesting. I look for the Angels to at least win 2 of the 4.
Yes, I heard that you've had a terrible bull pen all year. That's going to be a problem for you guys. I'm not good at the prediction game because every time I predict the Yankees to win, they lose and when I predict that they are going to lose, they win. You guys don't have home run hitters but it might not even matter with the way it carries out to right-field. The Yankees broke the record they have allowed for home runs in their new stadium for the month of April compared to their teams of the past.
