Yankees Sweep In Kansas

The Good

For starters, we swept the Royals maintaining our dominating control of 1st place.  This weekend Andy Pettitte and Hiroki Kuroda were phenomenal.  Pettitte went 7 innings, 2 runs, and struck out 7 hitters.  Kuroda was even better.  Kuroda went 7.2 innings, and 2 runs, with only 1 strikeout.  One!  Kuroda was so dominating, he wouldn't even bother with strikeouts, instead opting to let the Royals get themselves out through 7.2 innings of work.

Also good, timely hitting.  Vernon Wells' homeruns on Saturday and Sunday put the Yankees ahead in those games.  On Friday, Lyle Overbay went 4-5 with a homerun, and Ichiro went 3-5 with a homerun.  Overbay had 5 RBI's that game.  It was so much effort he took the rest of the weekend off.

The Bad

Phil Hughes' consistency.  After a couple really good starts, he reverted back to his non-dominating ways.  Hopefully Pettitte will show him how to get back on the horse. 

The Ugly

An incident occurred this weekend between the greatest closer in world history (including all ages, medieval and otherwise), and Joba Chamberlain.  For those who aren't aware, you can read about it here.  The basic gist is that Joba was being loud when Mariano was conducting an interview, and Mariano playfully told him to shush.  Joba tells him "Don't shush me.", which is where it could have ended, but no, after Mariano was finished with the interview Joba yells back at him again "Don't ever shush me again."  Mariano was cool about the whole thing, but it didn't mask the fact that Joba was publicly disrespecting the greatest closer of all time, in his retirement year, as he's conducting interviews related to his fair well tour from baseball.  Joba was upset that Mariano shushed him, when he was talking to his family, saying something to the effect of "I don't get to see my family".  I understand the sentiment, I really do, but you know who understands it even more?  Mariano Rivera, a man whose played professional baseball for almost 2 decades, and understands the separation from his family, most of which I presume is in Panama, which is a little further than the mid-west.

If Joba felt disrespected by Mariano, he should have pulled him aside out of the public view and said that he felt disrespected, or upset about it, and they could have talked it through.  Instead he blasts Mariano in public, with the media and fans present.  It's entirely classless, and highlights just how poor Joba's judgement is.  Not to mention that you have to be one sensitive guy to feel disrespected by what Mariano said:  "Joba!  Yo!  Bro!  Shh.  Stop it."  Any time, you hear "Yo bro" in a statement, it's immediately innocuous.  It's clearly meant to be playful.  But I guess those are fighting words in Joba land.

Here's the truth, Joba needs to publicly apologize to Mariano, because he publicly disrespected him.  Not for nothing, but Joba's place in the bullpen is replaceable.  At some point, you have to consider whether a middle-reliever who doesn't have enough sense to handle an issue with a veteran teammate privately is worth keeping around. 

I Hear That Homeruns Can Save Lives

And it's true.  For everyone homerun the Yankees hit, an angel gets its wings.  The RJG blog also donates $2 to the Children's Health Fund.  In other words, only good results from Yankee homeruns. It's why the good Lord has blessed us with so many of them over the years.  This weekend, Ichiro Suzuki, Lyle Overbay, and Robinson Cano all hit homeruns.  Vernon Wells hit 2.  That's $10 going to the Children's Health Fund.

Travis Hafner 6hr = $12
Vernon Wells 9hr = $18
Brett Gardner 3hr = $6
Kevin Youkilis 2hr = $4
Jayson Nix 1hr = $2
Robinson Cano 10hr = $20
Ichiro Suzuki 2hr = $4
Lyle Overbay 6hr = $12
Brennan Boesch 2hr = $4
Francisco Cervelli 3hr = $6
Chris Stewart 2hr = $4
Ben Francisco 1hr = $2

Total 47 hrs = $94