Game 156. Yanks one-hit O’s, 5-0.

Michael Pineda was dominant as he teamed up with three relievers for a one-hit shutout of Baltimore Monday night, 5-0.

Derek Jeter drove in three runs, and Jose Pirela tripled and singled in his first two MLB at bats to lead the Yanks.

Pineda retired the first 13 batters he faced before J.J. Hardy got the Orioles only hit of the game. Pineda (W, 4-5, 1.93) went 7 1/3, 0 R, 1 H, 1 walk and 8 k.

Shawn Kelley 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 walks and 2 K. 4.38.

Rich Hill 1/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 walk and 1 K. Overall ERA 3.60.

David Phelps 1/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 walks and 0 K. 4.38.

The Yanks got 2 in the third when Ichiro reached on an error, Pirela tripled in his first MLB bat to knock in Ichiro and Jeter drove in Pirela on an RBI groundout.

They got two more in the fifth on a 2-run double by Jeter (hit #3460).

Chase Headley’s HR in the 8th (his 12th overall) finished off the scoring.

Earlier in the day, the Yanks picked up OF Eury Perez and DFA’d Josh Outman. The team has used a franchise-record 57 players this year.

The win ensures that the Yanks will not have their first losing season since 1992. They are now 81-75 with six games left. One more win and they have a winning season, if not a play0ff-bound one. They remain two games ahead of Toronto for second place in the AL East. They are four out of the last wild card spot with just six games to go.

Game 155. Gardner gets 15000th team HR in 5-2 win.

Brett Gardner hit the 15,000th HR in Yankees history, Brian McCann added two more, and Masahiro Tanaka got a win in his return from the DL (Chaz Roe was DFA’d) as the Yanks beat Toronto 5-2 on Sunday.

Mickey Mantle got HR #5000, Claudell Washington #10000 and now Brett Gardner #15000 in Yankees history.

For the fourth straight game, Derek Jeter got two hits. He came into the home stand on a bad slump, but in the last home stand of his career, has put together some nice games. He had two hits today, including an RBI double, raised his average to .255, and now has 3459 hits for his career. It was his fourth straight two-hit game, all on his final home stand.

Tanaka, limited in his # of pitches due to just coming off the DL, went 5 1/3 and looked, well, like TANAKA. 1 R, 5 H, 0 walks and 4 K. He improved to 13-4, 2.47. If only for those 10 weeks he missed.

He gave up his only run in the top of the first,  but McCann’s first HR of the game tied it in the bottom half of the inning.

Gardner’s 17th HR of the season (and who thought he’d hit THAT many this year?) made it 2-1 in the fifth, and the HR was the 15,000th in Yankees history. They are the first team to hit 15,000 HR in their history.

The Yankees got 3 in the 7th on doubles by Gardner and Jeter and McCann’s 2nd HR of the game. McCann’s 22nd HR gave him the team lead. With Ellsbury out, McCann’s 3 RBI gave him 71 for the season, and the team lead there as well.

Dellin Betances gave up a run in the 8th.

After Tanaka left,

Warren 1 2/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 walks and 3 K. 3.07

Betances 1 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 0 walks and 1 K. 1.42.

David Robertson picked up his 38th save. 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 walk and 1 K. 2.79.

The win put the Yanks 2 up on the Jays for 2nd place in the AL East at 80-75. Two more victories means a winning season. They haven’t had a non-winning season since 1992. They may still win less games than last year, when they won 85.

They are 4 1/2 out of the last wild card spot with just 7 games to go and must jump three teams. An almost impossible task to accomplish.

Game 143. Yanks come back to win 8-5.

Chris Capuano was terrible, getting just one out, but the Yanks came back from a 4-0 first inning deficit to win 8-5.

Capuano got just one out, a strikeout, but gave up 4 R on 4 H and 2 walks. His overall ERA went to 4.90.

The Yanks got one run back in the bottom of the first on a HR by McCann (18).

They got two more in the third on a two-run single by McCann to cut it to 4-3.

Chris Young hit his 9th HR of the year, and first as a Yankee, in the fourth to tie it up.

An Rbi triple (it should have been a double and error) by Teixeira (triple? by Teix?) and rbi single by Headley gave the Yanks two in the fifth to put them up 6-4.

Doubles by Ichiro and Young drove in two in the eighth. McCann had 3 RBI in the game, and Young had 3 hits and 2 RBI.

On the down side, Derek Jeter was 0 for 4 and his average slid to .256. The last five weeks have been tough to watch. It’s proof that yes, it’s time.

After Capuano was knocked out in the first, the pitching line went like this:

Whitley 2 2/3, 0 R, 1 H, 1 walk and 2 K. ERA 5.13.

Claiborne (W, 3-0, 3.20) 2 Ip, 0 R, 2 H. 0 walks and 1 K.

Warren 1 2/3, 0 R, 2 h, 0 walks and 0 K.  3.07.

Betances 1 1/3, 0 R, 1 H, 0 walks and 1 K. 1.39.

Rogers 1 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 0 walks and 0 K. Overall ERA 4.83.

The win puts the Yanks record at 74-69. They remain in 3rd place in the AL East (forget the division, they are 11 back and Baltimore’s magic # for clinching is down to 8). As far as the last wild card spot is concerned, they are 4 1/2 back with 19 to play.

Even if a miracle occurred and the Yanks did make the playoffs, the news isn’t good. While Masahiro Tanaka continued to progress in pitching a simulated game and there is a chance he may pitch in one or two games before the season is out, it is looking more and more like Brett Gardner will be shut down for rest of the year with an abdominal strain. Carlos Beltran’s elbow is acting up again. It looks like he’ll need offseason surgery, but can it hold up for 19 more games? It’s looking like the answer may be no and he may be shut down for the year. Martin Prado’s hamstring is preventing him from playing.

 

Game 135. Another painful loss, 4-3.

The Yanks had a 3-0 lead entering the bottom of the sixth in Toronto. Brandon McCarthy was working on a two-hit shutout.

Then the game slipped away. McCarthy got two outs but then gave up back-to-back HRs to Melky Cabrera and Juan Bautista to make it 3-2. He then got out of the inning.

Instead of pulling him, manager Joe Girardi left him in for the seventh. Mistake. Edwin Encarnacion homered to tie the game and McCarthy walked the next batter. Dellin Betances got two strikeouts, but in the interim, the runner stole second. Betances then gave up a single which turned out to be the game-winning hit before getting another strikeout to finish the inning.

Toronto won 4-3. The loss puts the Yanks 9 back of Baltimore in the division with just 27 games to play. Worse yet, it knocks the 70-65 Yanks 3 1/2 games out of the last wild card spot and now to get there they would need to pass three teams—Cleveland, Seattle and Detroit.

Brett Gardner led off the game with a HR (16). The Yanks got a run in the fourth on a Cervelli single and another in the fifth when Gardner (who missed the cycle by just a single) tripled and scored on a throwing error.

McCarthy went 6+, 4 R, 5 H (but 3 were HR), 2 walks and 4 K. He falls to 8-14, 4.19 overall, 5-4, 2.80 as a Yankee.

Betances 2 IP, 0 R, 2 h, 0 walks and 4 K. 1.46.

The Yanks are off today.

Derek Jeter got hit #3445 of his career, but has been slumping lately. 16 for his last 85.

The Yanks did make a minor move, acquiring pitcher Chaz Roe.

Game 132. Ouch. Yanks edged out by Tigers, 3-2.

This one really hurts, because after today, there are only 30 games left. Not only that, the Yanks lost a game to Detroit, 3-2 and they have to leap-frog Detroit and Seattle to get that final wild card spot.  Losing to one of the teams you need to leap-frog isn’t good.

And they scored just two runs against someone making his first MLB start.

Hiroki Kuroda pitched well, but as is typical in his career, didn’t get the support he deserved.

Kuroda went 7, 2 R, 4 H, 1 walk and 4 K. ERA to 3.88. You’d think that’d be enough, but not with this year’s offense.

Detroit got a run in the 2nd, but the Yanks tied it in the 3rd when Wheeler singled, advanced to 2nd on an error and scored on an Ellsbury single.

The Yanks went up 2-1 in the fourth on a single by Prado, double by Beltran and McCann groundout.

Detroit tied it in the fifth.

With two on and two out in the top of the 9th, McCann just missed a 3-run HR. He went on to strike out.

Betances had pitched the 8th, 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 walk and 2 K. 1.50.

In the bottom of the 9th, Shawn Kelley (L, 2-5, 4.60) came on. Leadoff double. A walk. Two strikeouts gave hope, but then he gave up a GW single.

Earlier in the day, Masahiro Tanaka threw a 3-inning simulated game and reported normal soreness. The rust was there, as would be expected, but once the rust comes off, he could be back in a few weeks. But too late?

The Yanks picked up Josh Outman from Cleveland for a PTBNL. Outman is 16-11, 4.49 in his career. The lefty is 29, 30 in a few weeks. ERA+ 95. His 162 g. average is 56 games, 12 of them starts, 6-4, 4.49. This year, in 31 relief outings, he was 4-0, 3.28.

The loss drops the Yanks to 69-63, 7 behind Baltimore for the AL East title with 30 games to go. They are 3 back of Seattle for the last playoff spot.

Realistically, the Yanks need to go 20-10 in their final 30 (the last 30 of Jeter’s career) to have a shot.

 

Game 131. 8-run 3rd leads Yanks, 8-4.

The Yanks got nine straight hits off of David Price in the third inning, and used the 8-run inning to defeat Detroit 8-4 Wednesday night. The win put the Yanks at 69-62 for the season, six behind Baltimore, 2nd in the A.L. East.

They are 2 1/2 games out of the final wild card spot.

Shane Greene continued to be a revelation. He went 7 IP, 2 R, 5 H, 1 walk and 8 K. He improved to 4-1, 3.09.

Adam Warren 1 IP, 1 R, 1 h, 1 walk, 1 K 3.47.

Dellin Betances 1 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 0 walks, 1 K. 1.52.

Derek Jeter got hit #3443 in the victory.

In 18 starts and one relief appearance between the two of them, fill-ins Brandon McCarthy and Shane Greene are a combined 9-4 with an ERA of around 2.80. They have filled in fine.

The Yanks signed Chris Young to a minor-league deal for some OF depth down the stretch. He hit .205-8-28, OPS+ 79 for the Mets this year and will be 31 next week. His 162 g. average for his career is .233-23-71, 19 SB, OPS+ 93. Low average, some speed and pop, lots of strikeouts. You hope he can run into one. A 20/20 guy if healthy and a regular, he was an All-Star for Arizona in 2010. In 12 postseason games, he has hit .326 with 5 HR. He is mostly a CF who has played a little of the corners. The Yanks released P Alfredo Aceves (just reactivated from a suspension) and INF Corban Joseph from their minor league deals.

 

 

 

Game 118. Yanks lose to O’s, 11-3.

The Yanks’ offense stumbled again, as they only got five hits, and the bullpen let the game get away in an 11-3 loss to Baltimore Monday night. It was the Yanks’ third straight loss and dropped them 7 behind Baltimore in the AL East. It also dropped the Yanks 3 behind the 2nd WC, Detroit. Yes, Detroit. KC took over the AL Central last night.

Earlier, the Yanks sent Bryan Mitchell down and brought up Chris LeRoux. LeRoux probably won’t stay long, since Michael Pineda is coming back to start on Wednesday.

The Yanks managed just five hits in the game. They scored in the first on a Gardner triple and Jeter groundout. The other two runs they scored came on a botched hit-and-run play that turned into a double steal (with Beltran stealing home) and the other run scoring on two errors after Headley stole second on the back end of the double steal that started with a rundown. Unfortunately, we keep waiting for the offense to produce and at this stage of the season, it appears it is what it is, and that isn’t good enough.

Chris Capuano (overall 1-3, 4.13) kept the Yanks in the game. 6 IP, 4 R, 6 H, 0 walks and 7 K.

Adam Warren 1 IP, 3 R, 3 H, 0 walks and 1 K. 3.53. What is concerning about Warren is that he has been slumping badly lately. In his last 9 outings, 7 1/3 IP, he has given up 8 runs.

The same for Chase Whitley. 2/3 IP, 4 R, 5 H, 1 walk and 0 K. 5.51. In his last 11 outings, 28 1/3 IP, his ERA is 9.53.

Needless to say, that’s a problem as well.

Rich Hill got the last out. 1/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 walks and 0 K. 6.75.

Jeter did get hit #3432 in the game.

Oriole 3B Manny Machado suffered a knee injury in the game and it looked gruesome. We’ll see how bad it is, but it could Baltimore down the stretch and in the postseason.

Hopefully the Yanks get on a hot streak. They are three out of a playoff spot with 44 games to go, and 9 are against Baltimore. There is no time to waste.