Games 83/84 Wrap-Up: NYY 6 BOS 1/BOS 9 NYY 5

(Have a day, Mr. Jones.  Courtesy of The AP)

I wanted to get greedy and have the Yankees take both games yesterday after they cruised to a 6-1 win in the first half of the doubleheader, but I'll take a split.  It still leaves them 1 up in the series after winning Friday night's game and still leaves them with an opportunity to take 3 of 4 with tonight's game still to be played.

Game 1 Notes:

- The Yanks got 5 in the 1st off of Beckett to kick off Friday night's game and got 4 in the 1st yesterday off of Franklin Morales on back-to-back Nick Swisher (3-R) and Andruw Jones (solo) HRs.

- They extended the lead to 6-0 in the 4th when they went back-to-back again, Jones starting it this time and Jayson Nix finishing it.

- Freddy Garcia was fantastic in just his 2nd start back in the rotation.  He held Bahhston to just 1 run through 6.2 innings of work.  His stuff looked good, he was efficient, and he struck out 5 and didn't give up a lot of solid contact.

- The offense got nothing against reliever Justin Germano after they knocked Morales out, but they didn't need any more.  Garcia was solid, and Cody Eppley and Chad Qualls combined for 2.1 scoreless innings to finish out the win.

Game 2 Notes:

- The Yanks got yet ANOTHER early lead in the second game on a Mark Teixeira 3-run homer in the 1st.  That's 12 1st-inning runs in this series in 3 games.

- Unfortunately Phil Hughes couldn't make the 3-0 lead stand up.  He wasn't horrible last night, but wasn't as sharp as he was in previous start.  He gave up a run in the 3rd, a run in the 5th, and 3 in the 6th to give the Sawx a 5-3 lead.

- Hughes' defense didn't do him any favors behind him.  Errors by Darnell McDonald in the 5th and Derek Jeter in the 6th kept innings alive for Bahhston and drove up Hughes' already high pitch count.

- Boone Logan and Cory Wade combined to give up 4 more runs in the 7th to put the game out of reach.  Logan looks shot at this point after being used in over half the team's games to date, and Wade still looks very hittable.  He'll be back in Triple-A today.

- Jones hit his third HR of the day in the 7th, and Eric Chavez hit one in the 9th to bring the final score to 9-5.  After scoring 10 runs on 0 homers on Friday, the Yankees scored all 11 in both games yesterday via the long ball.  Crazy.


F*ck Yeahs:

- Garcia: 6.2 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K.  On the road against a team who has destroyed him before, I wasn't expecting much out of Freddy yesterday and he did a great job.

- Jones: Combined 3-9, 3 HR, 3 R, 3 RBI, 2 K in both games.  The dingers are nice, they're what he's there to do, but add to them a catch at the wall that turned into a double play in the first game and a nice diving catch in the second game and it was a helluva day for the old vet.

Oh Nos:

- Defense: 4 errors in the second game were killers.  The pitching wasn't nearly as good as it was in the day game, but you can't give teams that many extra at-bats and expect to win, especially when you aren't pitching well.

- A-Rod: Combined 1-6, 3 K, 0 R, 0 RBI.  Played third base in the first game, pinch hit in the second, did nothing in either.  Got blown a way by fastballs a couple of times.

Next Up:

Ivan Nova vs. Jon Lester in the final game of the series and it's on national TV.  Nice exposure for Nova.  Let's see how he handles it.