One More for the Road

• The Yankees finished their first road trip of the season at 4-2, despite losing the first game in each series.
  

  AJ Burnett delivers one fo the 92 pitches he needed to earn his first victory of the season.

• In their brief history, the Rays have never won an April series against the Yankees.
• A.J. Burnett yielded only two runs in seven innings to earn his first win of the season.  Both runs scored in the first innings, thanks in large part to stolen bases by Jason Bartlett and Carl Crawford. The Yankees have now surrendered 9 stolen bases on 9 attempts.
• Burnett only needed 92 pitches to get through his seven innings. Uncharacteristically, he also only recorded one strikeout, making it only the third time that Burnett pitched at least 7 innings and struck out one or fewer (but second against the Rays). On September 29, 1999, Burnett didn’t record a single strikeout in 7 innings against the Expos, and then on August 17, 2006, he only struck out one batter against the then Devil Rays.
• Despite winning the game, the ball wasn’t bouncing the Yankees way. In the bottom of the 6^th inning, Evan Longoria skied a pop-up that started off behind the plate, but hit a cat walk and landed safely in fair territory. Joe Girardi argued that the ball should have been called foul, but the Tropicana Dome grounds rules seemed to support the umpire’s decision.
• The Yankees were on the wrong end of another umpire’s call in the bottom of the 7^th. Dioner Navarro popped a ball up into shallow center that landed into the sliding glove of Curtis Granderson. Second base umpire James Hoy ruled that the ball bounced, however, and Navarro was awarded first base.
• The sliding grab would have been Granderson’s second of the game. Two innings earlier, he made a similar grab on a sinking liner, once again hit by Navarro. After making the catch, Granderson leapt to his feet and doubled Pat Burrell, who had been running on the pitch, off of first. In his attempt to get back to the bag safely, Burrell slid hard into Teixeira, who briefly voiced his displeasure. In the dugout, Burrell could be seen saying that he was hoping the ball would hit him.
• The two big hits in the game were Jorge Posada’s 2-run HR off of Randy Choate in the 6^th inning as well as Alex Rodriguez 2-run double off of Lance Cormier in the 8th. Arod’s double was his second of the game, both of which just missed sailing over the fence. Arod has now had 4 doubles that just missed going out of the park.
• Derek Jeter, Nick Swisher and Robinson Cano have now hit safely in all six games played this season.

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Game 6: Yankees vs. Rays

The Yankees send AJ Burnett to the mound as they attempt to win their second straight intra-division road series. After the game, the Yankees will return to New York for the first time since winning their 27^th World Championship.

vs. James Shields	PA	BA	OBP	SLG	HR	RBI
Derek Jeter SS	31	0.400	0.419	0.533	1	5
Nick Johnson DH	6	0.400	0.333	0.400	0	1
Mark Teixeira 1B	17	0.188	0.235	0.188	0	0
Alex Rodriguez 3B	18	0.200	0.333	0.467	1	2
Robinson Cano 2B	24	0.478	0.500	1.043	2	6
Jorge Posada C	18	0.222	0.222	0.333	0	2
Curtis Granderson CF	19	0.056	0.105	0.167	0	0
Nick Swisher RF	10	0.222	0.300	0.889	2	6
Brett Gardner LF	1	0.000	0.000	0.000	0	0
Total	144	0.281	0.319	0.511	6	22
vs. AJ Burnett	PA	BA	OBP	SLG	HR	RBI
Jason Bartlett SS	23	0.238	0.273	0.429	1	2
Carl Crawford LF	48	0.341	0.375	0.455	1	3
Ben Zobrist RF	15	0.214	0.267	0.571	1	2
Evan Longoria 3B	25	0.320	0.320	0.520	1	3
Carlos Pena 1B	34	0.111	0.294	0.222	1	3
B.J. Upton CF	34	0.207	0.324	0.207	0	1
Pat Burrell DH	57	0.205	0.368	0.386	2	9
Dioner Navarro C	27	0.200	0.259	0.360	1	3
Sean Rodriguez 2B	4	0.500	0.500	1.500	1	3
Total	267	0.240	0.307	0.403	9	29

• The Yankees look to continue last year’s success playing on Sundays. In 2009, the Yankees were 16-9 (19-9 including the playoffs) on the last day of the week.
• Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano should be happy to see James Shields. Jeter (32 PAs) is batting .400 off Big Game James, while Cano (24 PAs) is hitting a lusty .478/.500/1.043 against him.
• On the other hand, Curtis Granderson is probably less than thrilled by the matchup against Shields. Granderson is 1-19 against the Rays’ righty.
• Yesterday’s game was the 94^th time in their history that the Yankees scored 10 or more runs while shutting out the other team. The White Sox, with 69, have the next highest total.
• The Rays are unveiling their new  powder blue alternate uniform tops, which will be worn on every home Sunday during the season.
• Alex Rodriguez remains stuck on 583 HRs. His next long ball will move him past Mark McGwire for sole possession of 8^th place on the all-time list.
•  Mark Teixeira turns 30 today.

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