The Yankee Clipper: Another Series Win In Beantown

Even though it feels like the Yankees haven't really gotten hot, they have started at an all-time pace. They won their first give series to match the 1926 squad for the best mark in team history. Coming into the series, they had won eight of their first nine series. The last time they had done that was 2003. Now, after taking two of three in Boston, the Yankees have won nine out of their first ten series. The only two Yankees teams to do that? The 1939 team (11 of 12) and the 1928 team (14 of 15). And at 21-9, the Yankees are off to one of the best 30-game starts in the Derek Jeter Era (in 1998 and 2003, the team went 23-7 to begin both seasons). Last year after 30 games the Yankees were 14-16, 5.5 games out of first, and A-Rod had just returned from the DL the game before. So this team is a little bit ahead of last year's pace. Let's talk a little bit about the series that was in Fenway Park this past weekend:

1. Mark Teixeira and A-Rod started to wake up. It was only a matter of time before the middle of the Yankees lineup got rolling. It was this time last year when A-Rod came off the DL so it's really a year since they were this cold. Now they're heating up. Tex had 3 home runs on Saturday (though the last one was off of an outfielder) and A-Rod had a .556/.615/1.000 mark for the weekend at the plate and seemed to look more comfortable at the plate. A-Rod's home run yesterday was number 586 for his career, tying Frank Robinson on the all-time home run list. ESPN New York's Andrew Marchand says this could signal more A-Bombs ahead. Moshe at TYU says they were getting plenty of consistent offense even without those guys. That was, until Robinson Cano stopped hitting in May.
2. The "Sore Four" expands. The Yankees injuries are starting to pile up. Curtis Granderson is out a month. Chan Ho Park hasn't been seen in a month. Nick Johnson is on the DL. Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera are battling issues. Jorge Posada missed a week. A-Rod missed a few games. Alfredo Aceves left Saturday's game with an injury. Robinson Cano left Friday's game with an injury. The wild card for the Yankees was always their health with a veteran team. They've gotten great contributions from guys like Francisco Cervelli and Sergio Mitre helping to fill in for others. But the Yankees need to work on getting guys healthy ASAP and the Post's Joel Sherman writes that these injuries should give the Yankees pause before committing too many more years to older players this off-season.
3. Bad A.J. showed up. Burnett doesn't seem to pitch mediocre games. He's either really bad or really good. And sometimes he'll be really bad for the first inning (like in the ALCS vs. the Angels) and then settle down to pitch well. Sometimes he'll be mowing down the Red Sox in Fenway and then all of a sudden implode. Last night, Burnett's fastball abandoned him, he short circuited, and he made The Futility Infielder, Jay Jaffe "wish that A.J. Burnett would simply wander back to the trailer park and stay there." Ouch. Luckily the Yankees won the series so there were happier things to think about. Like Phil Hughes who continued to impress, especially in the way he challenges hitters now.
4. Francisco Cervelli continues to impress. In 2009, Cervelli hit .233/.290/.346 in the minors between rookie ball, AA, and AAA. He had to be called up to the Majors because the Yankees needed a catcher. He found a way to get a few timely hits, but ultimately made a reputation as being a good backstop. I thought he'd just be a cheaper version of no-hit Jose Molina. I was wrong. "Frankie" is hitting .400/.481/.467 in 2010 and playing great defense. Pitchers look comfortable working with him and the energy he brings behind the plate is electric. Teams have been pitching around other hitters to get to Cervelli and he's been making them pay. Dearly. He has very little power to speak of--only two of his 18 hits have gone for extra bases--but his 12 RBIs in 54 PAs are already more than he had in his 101 PAs all of 2009. LoHud's Chad Jennings writes about Cervelli who kept on hitting. On Saturday, Mike from River Ave Blues wrote that the Red Sox got Cerv'd. They certainly did. You wonder if Cervelli's hot bad continues, whether the Yankees should think about catching him more and DH'ing Posada in Johnson's absence. 
5. Marcus Thames is not an outfielder. Marcus Thames should play the outfield about as much as Jorge Posada should be given the steal sign. With Nick Johnson on the disabled list, there is no excuse for having Thames roaming any outfield for the Yankees. He's totally lost out there and cost the Yankees yesterday. I don't think they would have won the game if they had Barry Bonds in his defensive prime out there, but Thames didn't help out Burnett. For a team that focuses so much on improving their defense, the Yankees truly take a chance putting Thames out in left.

The Yankees head out to Detroit and face some familiar faces in Johnny Damon, Phil Coke and the red-hot rookie, Austin Jackson. Larry at Yankeeist has the recent numbers in this match-up and LoHud's Chad Jennings has the pitching match-ups including tonight's epic Sergio Mitre vs. Dontrelle Willis battle and tomorrow's battle of the bloated ERA's when Javier Vazquez (9.78) comes back from his skipped start to battle Rick Porcello (7.50). The Yankees quest for 28 continues tonight.

Results from our last poll:

Who Has Been The Most Suprising Player For the Yankees Thus Far in 2010?

Robinson Cano	18%
Brett Gardner	18%
Phil Hughes	25%
Francisco Cervelli	18%
Marcus Thames	0%
Andy Pettitte	18%

Picture from The LoHud Yankees Blog