Burnett Gets Win Over Liriano In Yankees 4-3 Victory

Today, the Yankees and Twins faced off earlier this afternoon. AJ Burnett took the Hill against Francisco Liriano. After yesterday’s game being canceled due to poor weather, Freddy agarcia’s turn in the rotation was skipped. The Yankees won in a close 4-3 game. AJ allowed just two runs in 6 innings pitched, both runs being allowed in the 4th. So far, it’s hard to be disappointed with AJ. He is now 2-0 recording an impressive ERA not much over 3. To compliment AJ’s fine work, the Yankees offense kicked it well into gear. Andruw Jone’s RBI Double and Brett Gardener’s RBI single brokered a 3 run fourth that helped the Yankees for good.

Game 6 Postponed

For the many of you who were excited to see the Yankees go head to head against Carl Pavano, you’ll have to wait. Thanks to the terrible weather in New York, the game will be made up at a later date. Word is that tommorow we will see a double header in order to make up today’s game. If that is the case, both Freddy Garcia and AJ Burnett will take the hill tomorrow. Hopefully this doesn’t happen to often. After all, April Showers bring May Flowers!

Gardener and Jeter Need To Swing More

So far this season, there has been a lot of top headlines. Mark Teixiera, and Alex Rodriguez are both having phenomenal starts. Teixiera already has hit 4 homeruns and is defense is looking as sharp as a needle. A Rod is currently batting .333 and has hit 2 monster home runs. Also we have seen many surprises with our rotation. CC, AJ, and Nova have all put up respectable numbers in there first appearances. However, I think now we should take a good look at two struggling hitters, Derek Jeter and Brett Gardener. From what I can see, both hitters are having plate discipline problems. However, I think these plate discipline problems has to do with the fact there not swinging the bat. Gardener swung the bat in his previos game against the Twins, but before that he was not swinging and just hoping for a walk. Jeter has been a top headline. After working with hitting coach Kevin Long, people noticed a change in his swing. Now, Jeter doesn’t pick up his foot so he can eliminate having slow bat speed, for it’s typical for a players bat to slow down as he ages. The bottom line is that if you don’t swing the bat, you’ll never get a hit. Having plate discipline is a great virtue, but if you have to much of it, it can come to haunt you. The Yankees need to solidify there first two spots of the line up soon. If they can’t do this, then you might be seeing both Gardener and Jeter batting eighth and ninth. We know both of these guys can hit the ball well, we just need the players and coaches to know this.

Yanks Will Take on Pavano and Twins

Garcia, 35 years old, was limited to just 23 starts and five victories between 2007 and ’09 due to problems in his shoulder. He had a bounce back year with the White Sox showing signs ps staying healthy, and pitched to a 12-6 record and a 4.64 ERA. Garcia narrowly outpitched fellow veteran Bartolo Colon to earn the fifth starter’s role in Spring Training and is looking forward to his first start in pinstripes.

Today, Garcia will take the hill against former Yankee Carl Pavano. We all know the story about Pavano and how he missed nearly every start in his four year contract with New York. After battling fierce injuries and leaving the Bronx, he has proved to be a top of the line pitcher. In fact, he was so good last year, the Yankees made an offer to bring him back. He turned the offer down and resigned with the twins. Today, the Yankees will face off against that very pitcher. Both Mauer and Thome will be resting today. Hopefully, the Yankees can gain an early lead on Minnesota and hope for a win.

Yankees Can’t Hold Lead In Loss To Minnesota

Last night, the Yankees faced a frustrating 5-4 defeat. Going into the eight Sabathia had pitched 7 inning of shut out ball. In the eight the Yankees brought out Rafeal Soriano. With just two outs remaining, he loaded the bases. He then walked in a run making the game 4-1. Girardi called upon David Robertson to finish things off. With the bases loaded, a single was hit to right field that Swisher couldn’t get to. All of the runners had taken off which allowed three to score. It was now a tie ball game going into the ninth. In the tenth, all seemed well until Joe Mauer drove In an RBI single. Tonight Carl Pavano will take the hill for the twins. Let’s remind him what the Yankees are all about.

Yankees and Twins Preview: 4/5/11

Tonight, the Yankees will take on the Twins at 7:05 ET and will be aired on the MLB Network. CC Sabathia will take the hill against Brian Duensing. Tonight will be CC’s second start of the season. It was originally gonna be Freddy Garcia that would make the start, though the Yankees are strategically messing around the rotation in order to have CC start against Boston on Sunday. In CC’s last start he pitched ok, giving up 3 runs in 6 innings. Here is tonights projected line up.

1. Derek Jeter SS
2. Nick Swisher RF
3. Mark Teixera 1B
4. Alex Rodriguez 3B
5. Robinson Cano 2B
6. Jorge Posada DH
7. Russel Martin C
8. Andrew Jones LF
9. Curtis Granderson CF

The Yankees are currently 4-1 and are looking for there fourth win of the season. If CC is pitching well, the Twins better hope Duensing is on top of his game. Brian Duensing hasn’t been around to experience Minnesota’s struggles against the Yankees, but He understands that what he does today will draw the picture of how valuable he could be for the Twins. As you can also see, Joe Girardi has sat Brett Gardener so Andrew Jones could hit against left handed pitching. He said yesterday that he would sit either Gardener or Granderson. Curtis had a better game so he decided to play him in Center field today. The Twins are hungry for a victory in New York, but the Yankees are anxious for a fourth win. In order for the Yankees to win, we need tha Yankees bats to light up early and put up a show of fireworks in New York.

Posada’s Adjustments to DH

During the winter, it was made clear that Jorge Posada would play DH. The original plan was to have Montero be the starting catcher with Francisco Cerveli as his back up. However, things changed. The Yankees were able to acquire Russel Martin, a former Dodger. Martin has made a few all star appearances and the Yankees found it necessary to give Montero more time in the minors. Since the Yankees have a 28 year old All Star catcher they thought it would be wise to rest Posada’s legs and put him at DH to lengthen his career. So far we couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season. Posada has been demolishing the ball from both sides of the plate, and is showing very positive signs. Many were concerned with how Posada would adjust to his new role. Posada has wiped away all of people’s concerns these last few games. “He worked hard this winter” said Rodriguiz, “he spent extra time in the cages working on becoming a better hitter. We can only hope that Jorge continues putting up these numbers. If the Yankees have this kind of bat in the last third of the line up, the Yankees will be in for a great season.