Former Yanks kill Yanks

The Yanks fell 6-3 to the Indians in a heart-breaker. They were getting no-hit through the sixth and finally took the lead on a two-run double from Swish Dog in the seventh, but gave it right back.

A dropped foul pop-up with two outs in the seventh that fell between A-Rod and Gardner resulted in a walk, and former Yankee Shelley Duncan followed with an RBI single. Austin Kearns followed with a three-run bomb, and it was pretty much over. It was Kearns’ first homer since August 22 of last year — when he was with the Yanks.

Grandy made it a one-run game in the eighth with a solo homer (23) but Carlos Santana sealed the deal with a two-run bomb off Cory Wade in the home half. Wade had thrown eight scoreless innings for the Yanks prior to tonight’s game.

AJ (8-7) threw a pretty good game until the seventh, but he seemed to come apart after that dropped foul ball. He went seven frames and gave up four runs on as many hits with six strikeouts to four walks. He even retired 10 in a row from the first inning to Sizemore’s leadoff walk in the fifth. You can blame Girardi for leaving him in too long, but it was AJ who grooved the fastball to Kearns.

In AJ’s defense, he did say this about the dropped pop up in a post-game interview, “I didn’t even remember it until you said it. It’s on me…The walks kill you, that’s the bottom line.”

Whatever, tomorrow is another game. At least the Rays and Sox lost too, so the Yanks are still 1 1/2 games up in the division.

Cano increased his hitting streak to eight games and is batting 10-for-31 (.323) with three doubles, three triples, six RBI and eight runs over that span.

Jeter returned to the lineup but went 0-for-4 and remains six hits shy of 3,000. He has now hit safely in 14 of 16 games on July 4th, the only other year he didn’t get a hit was 2002. His average dropped to .344 (22-for-64) on Independence Day.

To add injury to insult, Girardi revealed after the game that Mo was unavailable due to a sore right triceps. No MRI or X-Rays are planned, though He did receive treatment before the game, and Mo said He hopes to pitch tomorrow. “I’m not concerned about it, I can tell you that,” He said. “It’s no big deal. If you don’t feel soreness while you are pitching you must be a magician.”

Other news and facts:

• In case you missed it yesterday, SuperNova was sent down to Triple-A, where he’ll continue to work as a starter, to free up a rotation spot for Phil Hughes, who will start Wednesday. Nova on being sent down, ” I don’t think it was the right decision, but there’s nothing I can do about it.” Wow, pure balls. However, he did acknowledge what a tough decision it was and referred to Girardi as “tremendous.” Nova also said there were no hard feelings.
• In addition, Lance Pendleton was recalled and Chris Dickerson was sent down today to make room for Derek Jeter.
• My man Bill Lucey put together a list of Jeter’s career stats. It’s pretty interesting stuff, I highly recommend checking it out. Definitely worth the read. Speaking of Jeet, check out the uni he wore last night with the Trenton Thunder, courtesy of Mike Ashmore. If there’s an uglier jersey out there, I don’t want to know about it.
• On this date in: 1927 — The Yanks outscored the Senators 33-2 in a doubleheader. 1930 — George Steinbrenner was born. 1939 — Lou Gehrig gave his famous “luckiest man” speech. 1959 — Tony Kubek records eight hits in a doubleheader. 1960 — Mickey Mantle hit his 300th home run. 1983 — Dave Righetti no-hit Boston. 1984 — Phil Niekro recorded his 3,000th strikeout, although the batter still reached base.
• Indians pitcher Josh Tomlin has now gone at least five innings in each of his 29 ML starts. He’s the only pitcher to do that since 1919. Good for him.

CC will be on the mound tomorrow against Carlos Carrasco at 7:05 in the middle game of this set.

LET’S GO YANKS!!!