WHY THE YANKEES WERE SWEEPLESS IN SEATTLE

Tonight was another one of those annoying low scoring, deep into extra innings games. It seems like the Yankees have had a ton of them this season while losing just about all of them. This time it was against the Seattle Mariners. The pitching on both sides was fantastic, but the M's were a little better last night as the Yanks failed to sweep the Mariners in Seattle, something they've yet to accomplish since 1999. 2 times last night the Yankees were close to possibly winning this game. Once by Curtis Granderson in the ninth who was robbed by a leaping Ichiro and once by Mark Teixeira who was robbed of possibly a double or by Michael Saunders in the 11th. But...it wasn't their night.
It was a 2-1 final in 12 innings in this one. Mike Carp scored the first run for the M's in fourth on an Ivan Nova wild pitch. Nick Swisher chased Jason Vargas, who pitched a great game, with a solo shot in the seventh. And finally, in the 12th inning, Luis Rodriguez, yes Luis Rodriguez, hit a walk off solo bomb off Cory Wade to lead off the 12th. By the way, Luis Rodriguez has nine career home runs in 400 career games.Obviously the Yankees offense was pretty much non-existent. As a team they went 4 for 38 (.105 average). They also went 0 for 4 as a team with RISP, and they left six man on base. It's just one of those games, nothing you can do about it. It was the last West Coast game of the season, so maybe they really wanted to get out of Seattle.

Both starters were great in this game. Let's start off with Ivan Nova. He continues to make his case to be the number two starter in the playoffs by going 7.1 innings, allowing five hits, four walks, and five strikeouts on just 87 pitches. Jason Vargas also pitched a great game for the Mariners, he went 6.2 innings, allowing just three hits on one walk and six K's. If you love pitchers duels, this one's was for you.

Final Score: Mariners 2 - Yankees 1

The way the Yankees lost this game would make this a stupid loss. But I'm already over it, and I wrote this about 10 minutes after the walk off homer landed in the seats. The Red Sox lost yet again yesterday, thus the lead in the AL East is still at four games. The Yanks have an off day today, their final one of the regular season, to travel to Toronto to take on the Blue Jays. CC Sabathia (19-8, 2.93 ERA) is scheduled for the Yanks to pitch, against Brett Cecil (4-9, 4.37 ERA) for the Jays. Let's go Yanks!



--Jesse Schindler, BYB Staff Writer




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WHY MO'S SAVE TAKES THE SPOTLIGHT

The world talked about Mariano Rivera today. 600 Saves is a big deal and with the Red Sox losing today, all of Yankeeland is alittle bit sweeter right now. I wanted to give you my thoughts on last night's game with Mo getting 600.

The Yankees did a lot of things right last night. They were able to shut down the Mariners offense with the strong pitching from AJ Burnett. They picked up some clutch hits, and the bullpen shut it down the rest of the way. But all of those things, the legendary Mariano Rivera picking up his 600th Save was the greatest.
When Mo came in to pick up the Save, he punched out Willy Mo Pena for the first out of the inning. Then he allowed a single to Ichiro, followed by a strikeout of Kyle Seager. Two outs in the inning. Just one out away between Mo and another milestone. Ichiro then made a mad dash to second on the 1-0 pitch, but was thrown out by Russell Martin--Who had been out since the middle of Saturday's game in Anaheim--for the third and final out of the game, thus wrapping up number 600 for the great Mariano Rivera.

Congrats Mo, and hopefully you still have plenty more saves left in the tank. Mo is just two saves away from setting the all time record held by Trevor Hoffman.

Tonight is the final West Coast game of the regular season. Ivan Nova (15-4, 3.94 ERA) will start for the Yanks as he faces Jason Vargas (8-13, 4.49 ERA). Let's go Yankees!




--Jesse Schindler, BYB Staff Writer




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WHY MARIANO'S HISTORY IN THE MAKING

"They are family away from your family. It was great seeing them all come to the mound." - Mariano Rivera

The good thing about Mariano Rivera is usually, when he comes out to close a game, he does. Once in a blue moon, he doesn't but 600 times, he's done it for sure and now it's in the record books. Next up, He needs to tie Trevor Hoffman for the all-time saves record and then, 602.People don't like saves and I say, it's part of baseball now, get over yourself. Saves never used to be the way baseball was. Starters pitched till their arms fell off, racking up 23 to 30 complete games and relievers were few. Over time, that changed and then came Mariano who brought it to a new level, a fun level, a historic level. 600 saves is huge, I don't care what anyone says. If it wasn't we'd be ignoring it.

The Yankees won last night in Seattle when most of us were asleep. The big play of the game had to be Russell Martin pegging out Ichiro Suzuki in the 9th inning. Definitely the play of the game.

Robinson Cano had a homer and 2 RBI's and like clock work, it was Rafael Soriano, the greatest setup man ever, David Robertson and then came Mariano. At one point Robertson loaded the bases on a walk, but then in Robertson form, struck out the next batter. It was glorious.

The other big story was AJ Burnett, who actually pitched decent and he lives another day. AJ Burnett pitched 6 innings and allowed just 4 hits and walked only 2. He also struck out 11.But the story today is Mariano, congrats Mo, you deserves all good things that come your way.

We may have a more extended recap on last night's game later today. Look for it here on BYB.

Final Score: Yankees 3 - Mariners 2.

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