This Week In Yankees Baseball: Sweeping In Seattle

Well, hello there everybody. Welcome to This Week In Yankees’ Baseball! It was a good week for the New York Yankees, as the starting rotation is rounding into form. And the Boys from The Bronx got out the broom and swept away Robinson Cano and the Seattle Mariners. More on that in a minute.

Hiroki Kuroda had some hard luck on Sunday in a 2-1 loss to the Royals. Despite hurling seven innings of five-hit ball, Kansas City´s James Shields was just a little better. Yankees´bats needed an energy drink with runners in scoring position, going only 1-for-17. The good news is that Kuroda is bouncing back in June. He´s sporting a 1.98 ERA this month.

After Monday´s game was postponed, the Bombers headed to Seattle, where the bats started to come to life. The big hit Tuesday came from Jacoby Ellsbury in the eighth, as he singled to bring home Derek Jeter with the deciding run in the 3-2 victory. Vidal Nuno allowed only one run in 5.2 innings.

So manager Joe Girardi handed the ball to Masahiro Tanaka to secure the second game of the series. Tanaka was in top form, striking out 11 in the 4-2 complete-game victory. The top of the lineup came up big as Brett Gardner, Jeter and Ellsbury combined for six hits. And Mark Teixeira smashed his 11th home run of the season. Tanaka held Seattle scoreless until the ninth, when Cano broke up the shutout with a two-run shot.

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On Thursday, Chase Whitley took the mound fresh off of his first victory. Whitley allowed only two runs and five hits in 7.2 innings to win another. Jeter had three hits, Alfonso Soriano had two RBI, and Ellsbury hit a two-run homer as the Yanks won 6-3. Shawn Kelley, back from the DL, came in from the ‘pen to work off some of the cob webs.

So with the sweep over Cano and the Mariners complete, the Yanks headed to Oakland on Friday. David Phelps, who had been struggling as of late, bounced back with a gem. Phelps gave up only two hits in 6.2. Gardner, Ellsbury, Teixeira,Ichiro Suzuki, Brian Roberts and Kelly Johnson all had RBI in the 7-0 shellacking of the A´s.

So the bats are boppin´and the arms are coming around for the Yankees. And they are putting heat on the division-leading Blue Jays. Through Friday´s game they stood in second place, 3.5 games back and only two back in the loss column. Everything considered, that´s not too bad.

How about that!