Mood Music - The Riders of Rohan
Taking both games of today's doubleheader against the Baltimore Orioles, the New York Yankees improved to 63-42, picking up a half of a game on the Boston Red Sox in the AL East Standings. The Red Sox won too, but only once.
After a rough top of the first from Ivan Nova, in which he left his fastball up and relied on the defensive brilliance of Brett Gardner and Curtis Granderson, he settled down into a very solid outing: 7.0 IP - 2 ER - 6 H - 1 BB - 6 K. Aside from not being able to get out Vladimir Guerrero, which is still not such an easy thing to do, Nova looked strong. Despite the game turning into a laugher after the first inning, Nova pounding the strike zone and using all of his pitches effectively is a good sign going forward.
Keep this kid in the majors.
The offense exploded in the first inning, with the Yankees pounding out twelve runs on ten hits. Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher, Andruw Jones, Russell Martin, and Eduardo Nunez all contributed multi-hit games, with both Swisher and Jones hitting home runs.
Making his first appearance since coming off the disabled list, Rafael Soriano pitched a clean top of the ninth.
Freddy Garcia vs. Jake Arrieta tomorrow. And more importantly, we are less than 20 hours away from trade deadline speculation finally being over.
Play of the Game: Robinson Cano's first inning single to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead.
Comment of the Game: Q-TDSK