The Yankees pounded the White Sox into oblivion yesterday behind a strong day on the mound from Phil Hughes and another hot game from Robinson Cano.
Hughes tossed seven stellar innings, striking out six, walking just one, and allowed zero runs on four hits. Cano had another banner day at the plate, going 2-4 with a walk, a homer, and three runs batted in. His line now sits at .387/.433/.763/1.196.
Let’s take a look at the series as a whole in terms of positives and negatives.
Offensive positives:
Robbie keeps raking: no complaints here. It’s your world, Robbie; we just live in it.
Tex waking up? He had two multiple hit games in the series so it seems as if the rebound is coming. Nick Johnson has also shown signs of rebounding, with a nice double today and some hard hit balls.
Nick Swisher homered in back to back games and had a nice series. I love Swisher, but when he gets to stick it to Ozzie Guillen, I love it even more. Hopefully, Nick continues hitting well at home to match his awesome road numbers.
Offensive negatives:
None, really. Curtis Granderson was still slumping, but with his injury, it won’t matter too much.
Pitching positives:
Phil Hughes. That’s all I need to say, right? He was just fantastic on Sunday. He sat at 92.66 MPH and reached a high of 95.2. He also mixed his pitches a little better, even throwing his changeup a few times (and he got a strikeout on it!). Phil’s cutter was definitely working, too, as he got five swings and misses on it. Though the lineup wasn’t great, this was a fantastic start from Hughes and he’s really looking great so far.
Sergio Mitre looked great on Saturday. I’m not a big fan of his, but he’s getting results this year. Let’s hope he keeps it up.
Pitching negatives:
Javy. See Stephen’s post for a more detailed analysis there.
The non-Mariano Rivera relievers to continue to struggle. But, it’s still early and I have confidence that Marte and Robertson in particular will improve.
My favorite moment of the weekend, aside from Phil Hughes’ dominance, was definitely Brett Gardner’s home run. First off, he crushed that ball. I think that’s gotta be the hardest Brett Gardner’s ever hit a ball. Secondly, he used his legs in a swing! JMK, he did it! Anyway, his offense has been very pleasantly surprsing and I hope he keeps it up.
Starting tonight, the Yankees have three games against the Orioles before shipping up to Boston for the weekend. The Yankees will send out CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, and Andy Pettitte while the Orioles will deploy Jeremy Guthrie (let’s see if he hits anybody), Brain Matusz, and David Hernandez. Realistically, the Yankees should sweep this series, and it’s possible (probable?) that they take two out of three from Boston again. For the next week, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Yankees went 5-1 or 4-2.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
2 Responses to Yanks Take Another Series
Leave a Reply
TIQ IQ
Nice sum-up, Matt.
Some comments….(1)- It is always risky to predict a sweep, no matter the opposition. I think in the first game, the Orioles will be coming at us high as a kite, from their overthrow of Red Sox domination. There is a lot of young talent in Baltimore, and a back and forth 1-run game that could go either way is a possibility, despite CC’s past domination. But, maybe we better sweep, because the 20 games after this series is, I believe, the absolute toughest stretch on the schedule. All games are against tough leaders or rivals, with only 7 games at home.
(2)-What can we say about Gardener? He is looking like a force to be reckoned with. Was there anything in his past hitting performance to have us expect this? It wasn’t that long ago that people were questioning whether he could hit ML pitching. Wow!
(3)-I worry about whats going on with Arod, and how quiet it is about him. A sore leg? Why so quiet about it?
Yesterday, was very fine though.
#2)-Yes, people were saying he can’t hit leftys and would have trouble hitting major league pitching. If more people had watched him in the minors, they would have seen more then the stats showed. With the help of Long, he has corrected his very long swing, the change has shown very good results.
3)-Yes, I also worry about A-Rod, is it just being a little leg weary?