14-15; 3 games out
Sometimes life delivers natural foreshadowing. I picked up on it when I extended my spring break in order to go to the final Opening Day, only to see it rained out. Uh oh. Sure enough, "uh oh" was right. First off, despite ranking 3rd in the AL East with runs scored, fans who watched the games realized that those runs were hardly evenly distributed. It seemed like the offense struggled game after game, and even a quality start wasn't enough to guarantee a win for the starting pitcher. And speaking of starting pitchers, two of the Yankee Big Three--Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy--got off to abysmal beginnings. They were winless (and actually didn't deserve any), compiled sky-high ERAs, and what's worse, they appeared to lose confidence. At the end of the day (and despite Girardi saying otherwise just a few days beforehand) poor Ian was sent down to the minors. As for Phil?
Ha. Mr. Hughes was the latest to join the Yankee DL club with fractured ribs. His companions include Brian Bruney (foot), Jorge Posada (shoulder), and Alex Rodriguez (quad). What a great crew to have benched for at least two weeks. Robinson Cano and Jason Giambi might as well join them, as the two hitters are in miserable slumps, batting .154 and .150 respectively. Yeesh.
Shining points to start the season have been the bats of Jeter, Mastui, and Melky, along with the arms of Ace-Ming Wang, Joba Chamberlain, and Mariano Rivera. But alas, three hitters and one starter can't carry the whole team, and Joba and Mo are irrelevant without a lead.
April ended by being swept by the Tigers, but May opened with a sweeping of the Mariners (which included getting to both Bedard and King Felix). Let's hope the Yanks can take advantage of this momentum shift and move past the hardships of the opening month.
Minnesota Twins
13-14; 1.5 games out
As is natural, I haven't been following the Twins as closely as the Yanks, but boy have I been impressed by what I've seen. The rotation is holding its own without Santana; Baker and Blackburn (especially Blackburn) have been incredibly impressive. Boof Bonser has been shaky but passable, Livan Hernandez has done his job, and Francisco Liriano...is back on the DL. Perhaps he returned to the majors too soon? Unfortunately, I feel that unless he gets better, the Twins' amazing luck may run out before the All-Star Break.
Also noteworthy is the defense of Carlos Gomez. His offense may not have some around yet, but luckily he has Mauer, Morneau, Monroe, and even Punto (!) to help him out.
The Twins also opened May with a sweep, and as a result, they lead the AL Central. Let's keep this going for as long as possible and cause a massive upset in the division!
-------------------------------------------------
I apologize for the lack of updates; the past week has been very busy. For one, it was our annual alumni weekend, and I found myself doing a lot of things to set up for that while hanging out with the old guys. And now the upcoming week is my final full week as a undergrad. Wow how time flies. So yes, with less on my plate now, expect more timely posts.
