Yankees, Sabathia treat Seattle exactly as team with .294 wOBA should be treated in taking three of four to head into the All-Star break on high note

What a difference a year makes. The 2009 Yankees were 51-37 a year ago and three games out of first place at the All-Star break after getting swept by the Los Angeles Angels. The 2010 Yankees are 56-32 and in first place with the best record in baseball, two games up on the Rays, and now get to rest for four days while they reset their rotation. While we can always find something minor to gripe about the team, right now life is good for the Yankees.

The Bombers throttled Seattle 8-2 in taking three of four from the Mariners, buoyed by yet another dominating outing from CC Sabathia, as the big man tossed seven innings and gave up one run. While the Yankees scored their share of runs yesterday, this recent stretch in which they’ve won eight of nine has been dominated by starting pitching, which has been the story of the first half of the season. Yankee starters have surrendered more than three runs only once during the last nine days, and they’ve been holding teams in check all season long, with a starting rotation ERA of 3.71, second-best in the American League. Were they to finish the season out at that number it would be the lowest full-season ERA for the Yankees’ starting rotation in quite some time — even the 1998 team had a 3.85 mark.

Mark Teixeria had his third four-hit game of the season (the last was against Boston on May 8) and is now batting .254, which is fairly significant given how much he’s struggled this season. He’s been on fire in July, and hopefully he keeps it up in the second half — given that he;’s historically hit better in the second half, I feel confident that he will. Marcus Thames drove in a pair on a two-run blast, and Derek Jeter also picked up two RBIs. After singlehandedly winning Thursday night’s game, Alex Rodriguez vanished during the last three, going 2-11 with two walks.

While there’s a lot to be happy about in Yankeeland as the Yanks enjoy some time off, there was some terribly sad news, as longtime (since 1951!) Yankee public address announcer Bob Sheppard passed away. Sheppard had been ailing and hadn’t been able to regularly announce games at Yankee Stadium during the past several seasons, but it’s still a tremendous blow to lose a man who probably had one of the most distinguished voices in history. Yankee fans of all ages have grown up with the comfort of knowing that if there was one thing they could count on during their experience at any given Yankee game, it was the soothing and reassuring presence of “The Voice of God.” Sheppard is an all-time class act, and he will be sorely, sorely missed.

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