Saturday, July 26, 2008

A beautiful summer night

Congratulations Yankees fans ... you officially have yourself a World Series contender.

Friday, July 25, was a glorious night to be a fan of the pinstripes. On the field, you had a masterful performance by Joba Chamberlain, a 22-year-old blowing away the Red Sox for seven innings before getting a little (lot of) help from the incomparable Mariano Rivera. In the end it was an exciting 1-0 win that pulled New York within one game in the loss column of Boston.

The Yanks have now won all seven of their games since the All-Star break.

But it gets better. General manager Brian Cashman proved his worth again, pulling the trigger on a deal that added a big bat to the lineup (Xavier Nady) and a big-time lefty in the bullpen (Damaso Marte). And he didn't need to give up any of his big-time pitching farmhands to do it.

So, in summary, this is what we learned about the New York Yankees last night. We have a young right-hander in Joba who had his official coming-out party as an ace in the league, shutting down the defending world champions on the road while turning eternally-annoying Kevin Youkilis into his own personal bitch in the process. Meanwhile, a Yankees offense that has had trouble scoring runs received a new everyday left fielder who hits for average (.330) and pop (13 homers, 57RBIs) annnnd you filled the only hole in your already excellent bullpen by bringing on a left-hander that half the league had been coveting.

These are better days. No wonder Manny's afraid to play us.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dan-

Love the blog. It has kept me sane during my journey. Got to watch tonight's destruction. Beautiful.

I am really loving these Yanks. But, I worry about the bottom of the lineup. A lot of holes down there, including my favorite Melky. Going to need some production down there if we're really going to contend in the AL.

But, at this point, have to be THRILLED.

Talk to you in 3 days when I'm back stateside.

-howie