Yankees Update - 05/09/09

Rolling Right Along

The Yankees finished sweeping the White Sox, swept the Orioles and took 2 of the 4 game set with the Blue Jays this week. More importantly, the Yankees are ahead 8.5 in the AL East and have a 7.5 game edge on the Angels for the Home field advantage in the play offs. They have a 0.640 winning percentage for the season. This may in fact be the best Yankee team since 1998, because they're on pace to finish with 104 wins.

Looking back, this past August was great.It was the month where this team put its signature on the season by all but eliminating the Red Sox from the AL East contention by going 21-7 scoring 175 runs and allowing 123.

All is good.

7 Guys With 20 Homers

The Yankees tied the MLB record for having 20HR guys on a team. The previous marks were set by the '96 Orioles, '00 Blue Jays and the '05 Rangers. If Derek Jeter (17) can hit 3 more, they'll be breaking that record too. He may not, but it's something to aim for.

This might be the best lineup since 1980 according to the RLYW. Signing Tex might not have been so much a stroke of genius as a stroke of excess, but if there's anything the Steinbrenner years have taught us, nothing succeeds like excess.

Not Relinquishing Leads

The Yankees are 59-1 in games going in to the 7th with a lead according to the NYT.

“It’s not often when you get to save games on the Yankees when your name’s not Mariano,” Hughes said after retiring the final four hitters Saturday to collect his third save of the season in the Yankees’ 6-4 victory over the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre.

Hughes finished a relief relay that included Dave Robertson and Brian Bruney. They did not allow a hit in three innings and preserved the victory for Andy Pettitte, who had a rare second-half sluggish start.

“The bullpen again came in the game and did their job, every single one of them” Manager Joe Girardi said. “Sometimes you need a little bit more from your bullpen and we got it today.”

The Yankees (87-49) improved to 59-1 when leading after six innings. A day after they may as well have wielded white flags in place of bats during Roy Halladay’s one-hit gem, Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano paced the offense with solo home runs.

The bullpen's been pretty amazing as of late. If there's one thing I like about Joe Girardi, it's the fact that he goes with the effective arm rather than choose the veteran guys like Torre did.

If I Had To Nit Pick...

... but Joba is not pitching well. Regardless of the Joba rules and all else, he's simply pitching like crap at the moment.