Comeback Kids

Getty Images / Al Bello

What was looking like an apparent loss for the Yankees and CC Sabathia last night, turned into their first great comeback of the season. With a little help from Brett Gardner and a major blast from Travis Hafner, the Yankees were able to overcome a 3-0 deficit in the seventh inning to beat the Diamondbacks, 4-3.

This was one of those nights where CC did not have his best stuff, yet was still brilliant. After giving up a two-run homerun to Paul Goldschmidt in the first inning, he settled in, using a variety of different pitches and speeds to keep the game within reach. Following the Goldschmidt home run and a single to Cody Ross, CC would retire his next 10 batters and would not give up another run until the fifth inning, when AJ Pollock hit a sacfly to score Josh Wilson who tripled on a line drive. He continued through the next two innings getting groundball outs and strikeouts with a bevy of pitches ranging anywhere from 74-90 mph.

Then, in the seventh inning, the Yankees' offense came through. Ben Francisco, who got his first hit of the season, singled on a grounder to left. Brennan Boesch followed with a double on a fly ball which moved Francisco to third. Eduardo Nunez walked on a groundball in the dirt from Diamondbacks starter Wade Miley to load the bases. Miley then walked Jayson Nix, scoring Francisco, and gave up a line-drive single to Gardner which brought in Boesch and Nunez, and tied the game at 3.

CC would return for the 8th and pitch a 1-2-3 inning, giving the Yankees another opportunity to take the lead. And on his first swing, Hafner nailed a 96 mph fastball from David Hernandez to right center field. Mariano Rivera closed out the ninth inning, getting his fourth save in 4 opportunities.

AP Photo / Kathy Willens

The Yankees appear to be on a nice roll now. The pitching staff has really settled in and the offense is coming through in key spots.What has to happen now is figuring out what adjustments need to made with Phil Hughes and Ivan Nova. It's been the veterans carrying the load while the young arms are continuing to struggle. Tonight, as Hughes pitches for the sweep, the key for him will be to get good movement and location on his changeup for strikeouts, and to keep his pitch count within reason. So far this season, when the starters have pitched beyond 5 innings, the Yankees have won. Hughes has yet to get into the fifth; hopefully tonight he will give this team length and secure his first win.

Hughes goes up against Patrick Corbin whose 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA. Game time is 7:05 pm.

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Clock Is Ticking On Phil Hughes

The Associated Press

There's really no way to say this except to be brutally honest: if Phil Hughes does not find a way to win games, he's going to find himself working out of the bullpen.

I could be way off about that, but it's what I believe to be true. Hughes laid another goose egg yesterday afternoon to the Orioles, helping the Yankees to a 5-3 loss. He gave up 3 home runs, 2 walks and 9 hits pitching in only 3 innings. In his two combined starts this sesson, Hughes has allowed 17 hits and 8 earned runs in a measly 7 innings.

Granted, Hughes is coming off of a back injury that had him sidelined during Spring Training. And he did pitch earlier than expected following the Yankees' horrific 1-3 start, so perhaps he simply needs more time to get his pitching groove back. But the Yankees may not be willing to show much more patience for Phil when they are relying on pitching to win games, and when they have David Phelps waiting in the wings.

Phelps was originally slated for last Saturday's start against Detroit which was eventually given to Hughes. Today, Phelps came in in relief and pitched brilliantly, allowing only one hit and striking out 6 in 4 innings. This was the kind of pitching performance that helped him earn in a spot in the rotation out of Spring Training. This will be the kind of pitching performance that will earn him a spot back on to the rotation in replacement of Hughes.

There is another variable to this situation, however. Ivan Nova was horrible in his first outing against Detroit and the Yankees appear to have a short leash on him also. If he bombs out in his second start, whenever that is, Phelps could replace him giving Hughes a reprieve. But if Nova bounces back with a solid win, the pressure will be on Hughes to make a decent game of it in his next outing.

And the Yankees offense wasn't great today, as the bats were cooled by Orioles pitcher, Jason Hammel. Only Travis Hafner, Vernon Wells and Francisco Cervelli were able to get hits, with Hafner and Wells both hitting solo home runs.

Hiroki Kuroda will get the start in Sunday night's game against LHP Wei-Yin Chen. Game time is 8:05 pm.

Follow Rasheeda Cooper on twitter: @ra_cooper

Yankees Lineup for 4/10/13

Ichiro will get a day of rest while Brennan Boesch gets the start in right field. Here is tonight's lineup:

Brett Gardner CF - .257/.333/.400
Robinson Cano 2B - .303/.361/.667
Kevin Youkilis 3B - .367/.441/.700
Travis Hafner DH - .333/.419/.556
Vernon Wells LF - .360/.467/.720
Brennan Boesch RF - .250/.250/.667
Eduardo Nunez SS - .250/.304/.300
Lyle Overbay 1B - .250/.276/.429
Chris Stewart C - .200/.200/.200

Ivan Nova RHP - 0-1, 7.71 ERA

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Yankees Lineup for 4/9/13

Francisco Cervelli will catch Andy Pettitte tonight. Here is the lineup:

Brett Gardner CF - .167/.242/.267
Robinson Cano 2B - .222/.300/.481
Kevin Youkilis 3B - .370/.433/.630
Travis Hafner DH - .391/.481/.652
Vernon Wells LF - .381/.500/.762
Ichiro Suzuki RF - .182/.240/.182
Eduardo Nunez SS - .267/.333/.333
Lyle Overbay 1B - .174/.208/.217
Francisco Cervelli C - .308/.438/.615

Andy Pettitte LHP - 1-0, 1.13 ERA

The Big Bats Come Alive In Cleveland

The Associated Press 

Last night was a big night for Travis Hafner, who was visiting Cleveland for the first time since signing with the Yankees during the offseason. Hafner spent 10 years with the Indians, and the home crowd showed their appreciation with a standing ovation when he was introduced during their Opening Day ceremony.

Then, Hafner went to work in the first inning, hitting a 3-run home run off of Ubaldo Jimenez to give the Yankees an early 3-0 lead. The home crowd then serenaded him with boos.

It was the first hit of Hafner's 2-for-3 night in the Yankees 11-6 beating of the Indians. It also marked his 100th home run at Progressive Field. Hafner would go on to single in the third inning and take two walks; both leading to runs scored.

Robinson Cano finally broke through his slump. He put four runs on the board for the Yankees, two of which came off of solo homeruns. Cano would go 3-for-4 for the night complementing his homers with a double to left field.

And Vernon Wells had yet another stellar offensive outing, going 3-for-4 with 2 singles and a double.

Hiroki Kuroda came into the game with a 3-0 lead but gave it up in the first inning. He walked his

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first batter Michael Bourn, then gave up a single to Asdrubal Cabrera. Jason Kipnis would follow with a sacfly to right scoring Bourn. Singles to Nick Swisher and Michael Brantley, and another sacfly to Mark Reynolds would lead to 2 more runs scored.

But Kuroda managed to hold the Indians to 3 runs into the 6th inning. In the end, he gave up 5 hits, 3 runs, walked 4 and struck out 6. After the game Kuroda reaffirmed to the media that there was nothing wrong with the right finger that was injured in his first outing against Boston.

Tonight, Andy Pettitte gets his second start against RHP Carlos Carrasco. Game time is 7:05 pm.

Follow Rasheeda Cooper on twitter: @ra_cooper

Yankees Lineup for 4/8/13

Eduardo Nunez rejoins the lineup. Here are this afternoon's starters:

Brett Gardner CF - .160/.250/.280
Robinson Cano 2B - .130/.200/.130
Kevin Youkilis 3B - .409/.480/.727
Travis Hafner DH - .350/.409/.500
Vernon Wells LF - .294/.429/.706
Ichiro Suzuki RF - .111/.190/.111
Eduardo Nunez SS - .364/.462/.455
Lyle Overbay 1B - .211/.250/.263
Chris Stewart C - .167/.167/.167

Hiroki Kuroda RHP - 0-1, 13.50 ERA

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Noteworthy News

Good morning fanatics!!! While the Yankees managed to wrap-up their series in Detroit with a win, there was other noteworthy news from Yankeeland that made headlines over the weekend. Here are some stories you might want to check out:

• Wallace Matthews of ESPN New York discusses how the Yankees may have made a mistake in letting go of Nick Swisher.

• The NY Daily News' Bill Madden reports that Robinson Cano has admitted that contract pressure is affecting his game.

• Zack Meisel of MLB.com discusses the reunion of the Yankees with Nick Swisher and Travis Hafner with Cleveland. He also reports on Jason Giambi's return as the Indians' DH.

• Rant Sports' Thom Tsang discusses how Vernon Wells turned back the clock during Opening Week.

• Paul Hoynes of The Plain Dealer provides pitching matchups, team updates and injury updates for the Yankees vs Indians series.

Follow Rasheeda Cooper on twitter: @ra_cooper

Formula Works Against Verlander In Yanks Win

AP Photo / Carlos Osorio

It would take solid pitching and early runs to keep Detroit's Justin Verlander from dominating today's game. Fortunately, the Yankees were able to do both and secure their second win of the season, shutting out the Tigers 7-0.

CC Sabathia was not entirely on top of his game this afternoon, but he he gave the Yankees a strong outing, giving up only 4 hits and walking three in 7 shutout innings. CC mixed up his pitches today throwing more changeups than usual and putting more velocity on his fastball. He was only able to induce 4 strikeouts which is a low mark for him, but he managed to keep the bats of Detroit's lineup to grounders and fly balls; it proved to be enough to prevent the Tigers from scoring any runs.

But most notably, CC completely shut down the "meat" of the Tigers' lineup. Two of his 4 strikeouts came against Prince Fielder who struck out swinging in the first and fourth innings. All three of Miguel Cabrera's at-bats against CC ended in groundball plays. For the afternoon, Cabrera would never get on base.

David Robertson came in to pitch the 8th inning and would pick up where CC left off. Although he gave up singles to Torii Hunter and Fielder for his first hit of the afternoon, he struck out Cabrera and Matt Tuiasosopo swinging and induced a pop-up from Victor Martinez.

And although it was not a save situation, Mariano Rivera pitched the ninth inning. He too gave up 2 singles to Omar Infante and Ramon Santiago, but induced a groundout and flyout from Brayan Pena and Austin Jackson, respectively. He closed the game with a strikeout that caught Hunter swinging.

The offense got to work right away against Verlander. Although there were no runs produced in the first inning, Kevin Youkilis doubled on a fly ball to center field. In the second, Francisco Cervelli doubled on a flyball to left scoring Ichiro Suzuki, who was on first base after a force out. After Lyle Overbay flied out to left, Jayson Nix hit a monster home run to left. The Yankees were up 3-0 and never looked back.



AP Photo

Two more runs came in the third as Eduardo Nunez scored on a sacfly from Ichiro, and Vernon Wells scored on single from Cervelli. Nunez came in to pinch run for Travis Hafner on third base. Before the game, Nunez told Girardi that he could not go, as the pain and inflammation in his bicep muscle continues to prevent him from swinging a bat. He is however, available to pinch run.

In the ninth, after singles to centerfield, both Nix and Brett Gardner scored on another single from Youkilis.

And the Yankees are getting all that they've needed from Youkilis, Hafner and Wells. In place of Alex Rodriguez at third, Youkilis is batting .409 with 9 hits, 4 runs and 4 RBIs in his first 22 at-bats. Hafner is hitting to a .350 clip, having gotten a hit in all 6 games thus far. Wells is hitting .294 with 5 hits and 4 RBIs on two solo home runs.

Tomorrow, Hiroki Kuroda will keep his place in the lineup following his fnger injury, to face the Cleveland Indians against former phenom Ubaldo Jimenez. What I'm looking forward to, as I'm sure many of you are, is to see what Nick Swisher will do against his former team. Needless to say I'm hoping this won't be a good series for him. Game time is 4 pm.

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Yanks Pitching Woes Continue; Can CC Rebound?

AP Photo / Carlos Osorio

If the Yankees expect to make any noise in the AL East this year, the pitch staff  had better turn things around and quickly. Yes, I know we're only 5 games and one week into the season, and yes, their now 1-4 record was the same as last year when they went on to win 95 games. But it bears mentioning, again, that with as many power hitters as the Yankees have missing from this lineup until who-knows-when, pitching has to lead this team to wins. It's just that simple.

Yesterday's 8-4 loss to the Tigers came again on bad pitching. I won't put all of the blame on Phil Hughes though; he actually pitched well through the first 4 innings, limiting Detroit to just one run. But it all fell apart for Hughes in the top of the 5th. Detroit's Austin Jackson singled to left field; Torii Hunter followed with a double to center, scoring Jackson; Miguel Cabrera followed with a single to center scoring Hunter. The three were the only hitters Hughes would face in the iining, as Joe Girardi decided to pull him and bring in Boone Logan. The 2 runs would give Detroit a 3-1 lead.

Boone Logan, who has been awful in relief so far against Detroit, gave up a single to the very next batter Prince Fielder, moving Cabrera to 3rd. Victor Martinez followed with a sacfly scoring Cabrera, and a single to Andy Dirks prompted Girardi to make another pitch change for David Phelps. Phelps would then give up a single to Jhonny Peralta which scored Fielder.

The Yankees would go on to score 3 runs in the 6th inning on singles by Travis Hafner and Lyle Overbay, as Detroit starter Max Scherzer had walked several batters. Detroit lead 5-4 at this point, but Phelps gave up 2 more runs in the inning. Joba Chamberlain replaced Phelps for the top of the 8th and gave up a single, 2 walks and threw a wild pitch. He would provide Detroit's final run of the game giving up a sacfly to Dirks which scored Cabrera.

This afternoon, CC Sabathia makes his second start against Justin Verlander. Sabathia did not pitch

AP Photo / Matt Slocum

well in his first start against the Red Sox, and has shown to be a slow April starter in recent years. What the Yankees will need from CC today is for his four-seamer and slider to be dead on. In his first outing, his fastball sat in the mid to high 80's; he'll need to improve that to at least the low 90's to stand any chance against the top of Detroit's lineup. Both Cabrera and Fielder have a combined 15 RBIs and 3 home runs against CC.

The start of today's game is at 1:08 pm.

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Andy and Mo Shine In Win

The Associated Press

It's been said for several weeks now that the Yankees would need to rely on pitching to secure wins in the absence of their superstar offense. After losing the first two games to the Red Sox, their pitch staff came through tonight in a big way to secure their first win of the 2013 season.

And it's only fitting that tonight's great pitching came off of veterans Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera.

In their 69th win/save combination, Andy and Mo were able to control the Red Sox offense, leading the Yankees to a 4-2 win and preventing what could have been their first sweep of the season.

Andy pitched 8 straight innings of stellar baseball, out-duelling righty Ryan Dempster by mixing all four of his pitches--fastball, curveball, changeup and slider--with exceptional placement and control. In the first, it seemed as though he might have a rough night, giving up two singles to Shane Victorino and Mike Napoli and then throwing a wild pitch that got past catcher Francisco Cervelli. On the wild pitch, Victorino attempted to score, only to be stopped by a fast-acting Cervelli who was able to recover the ball and make it to the plate in enough time to block it and get Victorino for the final out. Andy rolled from there.  He would end the game giving up only one run, two walks and three strikeouts.

In the ninth, Mo also struggled a bit, giving up a walk to Dustin Pedroia who would eventually score

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on a groundout by Will Middlebrroks. But Mo settled in, getting his first save of the season by catching Jackie Bradley, Jr. looking on his signature fastball cutter.

And the offense came through for the veterans in a big way. Lyle Overbay hit a 2-run single in the second inning, scoring Travis Hafner and Eduardo Nunez. Brett Gardner came through in the third with a first pitch, line-drive home run to right field. And Cervelli gave the Yankees their final run in the seventh with a monster home run to left center.

Tomorrow, the Yankees travel to Detroit to face the Tigers. Ivan Nova will get the start against Doug Fister. Game time is 1 pm.

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Welcome Sights in Yankee Loss

The Associated Press

Hiroki Kuroda was forced to leave tonight's game against the Red Sox in the second inning after suffering an apparent contusion to the middle finger of his right hand. The blow was inflicted by a "comebacker" from Shane Victorino who, thus far, has hit nothing short of fantastic against Yankee pitching.

Seeing Kuroda walk off the field stung like the most painful bee sting you could ever experience. With the majority of the Yankees' regular starters in the lineup down with injuries, it will take stellar pitching to keep this team in contention, so seeing one of the best pitchers in their rotation go down does nothing to reassure fanatics that this team can stay afloat; I'm sure what it did was cause an already panicked fan base to dub the 2013 campaign as the Season of Murphy's Law. In the short term, you believed that the Yankees would probably lose their second game of the season which they did, 7-4. Cody Eppley provided little in relief of Kuroda, giving up 4 runs in the third to give Boston a 6-0 lead. The inning was all Boston needed to secure their second win and the series.

But from every negative comes a positive, and tonight, hope came from the bats of Travis Hafner and Vernon Wells.

In the 4th inning, Hafner knocked a blazing line-drive single into the Yankees bullpen; his first of the

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season and the first for the team. Wells, who went 3-for-4 tonight, crushed a 3-run home run to left field off of Alfredo Aceves. The homerun was also his first of the season.

Both homers are a welcome sight for a team that, in missing it's 3 top home run producers--Alex Rodriguez, Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira--will lose a bounty of homers that have been their bread and butter for the last few seasons.

Even more important, this is what the Yankees were hoping to get in signing Wells and Hafner; particularly Hafner as he will be the team's DH for the majority of the season. As for Wells, all 3 hits tonight came on fastballs; the first from starting pitcher Clay Buccholz at 93 mph. He looks like the Wells from a few years back when he was the star of the Toronto Blue Jays lineup. Wells was always an excellent fastball hitter, but his production had gone down in recent seasons as he's been plagued with injuries. Seemingly healthy, the Yankees are hoping that he's regained some of his bat speed and can provide much needed offense in the middle of the lineup. If tonight is any indication, the team will get from Wells exactly what they signed him for.

Tomorrow, our beloved Andy Pettitte will try to avoid a sweep against righty Ryan Dempster. Game time is 7:05 pm.

Follow Rasheeda Cooper on twitter: @ra_cooper