On a night of beautiful weather, the Yankees effectively sealed the division, riding behind the stellar pitching of AJ Burnett and two key hits from Derek Jeter.
AJ Burnett looked decent tonight, only allowing one run through 3 innings but needing 51 pitches to get there. Then it rained. A lot. After 2 hours and 11 minutes, the game resumed, and Joe Girardi must have decided it was time to get his worst relievers some work. Ring...Moseley...Gaudin...Albaladejo. Rain or no rain, when these guys pitch 6 innings, your chances of winning aren't that great. They're even worse when you only manage 6 hits and 1 walk on offense.
If there's a bright side, Derek Jeter did have two hits, and is now 13-38 with 5 walks since his work with Kevin Long. It's a small sample, but this suggests that there have been some noticeable (and good) changes in terms of both ground balls and line drives. We'll take it.
Play Of The Game: Lance Berkman's first home run as a Yankee in the 5th increased the Yankees chances of winning by 12%...to a whopping 39%. The only time the Yankees stood a 50% of winning this game was right before the first pitch was thrown.
Quote Of The Game: Goes to noonoo:
My dad let me sip his beer when I was 5. It was Budweiser. I hated it. I think he was trying to turn me off to beer.
I still say tonight's game left a worse taste in my mouth.