Yankees vs A's Friday Night Fights

[RLA68]

1st Inning Sheffield with a 2 Run Hr.
Yanks 2-0

[RLA68]

End of 2...

Yankees 2-0 Moose not pitching bad so far.

[RLA68]

Cano Double
Jeter Walk
Womack Triple
Matsui Sac Fly

= Yankees 5-0 going to bottom of 3rd.

[Providence A's]

woo hoo, we suck! if/when you guys make the playoffs, you can thank the a's and m's for giving you guys life

[joek]

The A's and the M's don't suck. Both of you are just crossing the track at the wrong time. The M's battered the bosux Fri. night, but someone said they had no offense.

[joek]

That is now 6 in a row. One at a time.

[Veovis]

So ummm, now that Cano has found his groove (5 hits in his last two games I believe), would you say he is a WIN METHOD player?

I don't want to jump the gun here, but it also seems that Gordon and Quantrill are rounding into form a bit. Things are looking up.

[joek]

Cano was a WIN METHOD selectee when I first interviewed him. Before the majors and before the minors.
But don't forget Veovis, Cano can't ever be any good, because so many posters say the YANKEES have no one of value down on the farm. However the farm is doing splendid and there will be several bountiful crops down the road.

[Hammer]

I love Cano's stroke. Line drive power... and since lefties have, or get, a natural upper cut swing, I can see him hitting his share of homers as he builds his frame.

However, his fielding still scares the utter piss out of me.

As for the farm... we have plenty of talent down there, it's just a matter of the players doing something with it (I look at Melky, Bronson and Rudy when saying this).

[joek]

There is no question that any young talent becomes viable when the player 'does something' with his abilitites. However, the YANKEES are signing players with a mental head start on the prospect of playing for the team. That alone is the biggest advantage over any other MLB team.

Interesting you question his fielding. In my opinion I think his fielding will be the least encumbrance on Cano becoming a very valuable second baseman for the YANKEES.

[Providence A's]

joek, the a's and m's are in last place...they suck if winning is the goal, then they suck because they're not winning...A's keep finding new ways to lose games and players...looks like Harden will now be headed to the DL

[Veovis]

Phil Hughes. Future Yankees Ace. You can take that to the bank. The kid has been doing amazing so far in his short career. Christian Garcia looks like another good one. We drafted some great talent the last two years. I hope Duncan starts hitting for more of an average.

[joek]

Mr.S. wished to concentrate signings to pitchers. They have their head on straight, if they stay healthy, and keep learning, there are some very brilliant lights in the YANKEE future.

[RLA68]

I am pleasantly surprised with Cano and Wang thus far. I hope whatever we have that we keep them and let have their shot in the majors.

We obviously built the team that won 4 world titles from our system with Bernie, Posada, Jeter, Pettitte, and Rivera just to name the main personnel.

[RLA68]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=250513111

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- One hit, a mere single, was monumental for Jason Giambi at this stage -- such a ridiculous notion for a slugger and former AL MVP.

Giambi finally got a hit to slow his long slump and the New York Yankees produced plenty of offense even without a home run from Tino Martinez.

Gary Sheffield hit a two-run homer and Tony Womack tripled in two runs to lead the Yankees to their season-best sixth straight victory, 9-4 over the slumping Oakland Athletics on Friday night.

And in this game, Giambi's hit meant nearly as much as Sheffield's shot.

"I come to the park every day, saying, 'Hey, today's the day I'm going to get that hit,'" said Giambi, hitless in his previous 18 at-bats before lining a single to right in the ninth. "There's no more pressure on me than I want to play well. I'm my own hardest critic. It seems like the harder you try, the worse you do in this game. I have a lot of confidence in my ability, and I came in with a great game plan from [hitting coach] Donnie [Mattingly]."

Mike Mussina (4-2) won his third straight start, striking out a season-high nine in seven strong innings as the Yankees won six in a row for the first time since last season's playoffs -- just before their historic collapse in the AL Championship Series against the eventual World Series champion Boston Red Sox.

The 37-year-old Martinez, who had homered in five straight games, went 0-for-3 with a walk, two days after hitting a game-tying three-run shot against Seattle. Hideki Matsui drove in two runs for New York.

Giambi went 1-for-4, flailing miserably in his first three at-bats before lining a ninth-inning single to right to end a 4-for-41 slump and raise his batting average to .198. Two days after declining a trip to the minors, the former A's slugger began a stretch of planned playing time in an effort to save his job.

"I'm not looking to try to build Rome in a day, either," Giambi said. "I'm just going to try to stay on that path, working hard."

He hit eighth in the order -- the same spot where he was Sunday for the first time since 1997 while with the A's -- and went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in his first three at-bats.

He struck out looking on three pitches in the second, flied out to right in the fourth and struck out again on a half-swing in the seventh when he was seemingly begging to get walked -- getting booed lustily each time.

Manager Joe Torre will give Giambi a chance to play his way out of this drought. Giambi, the 34-year-old former AL MVP, is expected to be in the lineup for most of this six-game trip West, and the Yankees' brass will re-evaluate the situation after seeing what he does with the added playing time.

"It was nice to see Jason get the base hit," Torre said. "He certainly needed that. ... We'll see. He has a long way to go. The more at-bats he produces, the better he'll feel."

Sheffield hit his sixth homer in the first on a shot to left that cleared the scoreboard, and Womack tripled to right-center in the third.

A's starter Rich Harden (2-3) left in the fourth inning with a strained left stomach muscle after Martinez flied out to center, and it will likely land the right-hander and No. 2 starter on the disabled list. Harden threw two balls to Jorge Posada and then showed signs of trouble, and manager Ken Macha and trainer Larry Davis ran to the mound.

Harden will have an MRI on Monday to determine the severity.

"I'm not too happy right now," Harden said. "We'll see how it is in the morning. You can't tell right now. I kind of felt it in one of the pitches in the last inning."

Jason Kendall doubled twice and drove in a run and Eric Byrnes hit a two-run double for the A's, who kicked off their six-game homestand with their season-worst sixth straight loss. Oakland (14-21), which made the playoffs in four of the past five seasons, has lost nine of 10 overall to fall seven games below .500 for the first time in exactly four years -- they were 15-22 on May 13, 2001.

Keith Ginter added an RBI groundout in the seventh for the A's and Bobby Kielty added two hits.

But Mussina made it hard for Oakland to do much else as he snapped a four-game losing streak in the Coliseum. This was his first regular-season victory here since Aug. 2, 1997, while with Baltimore.

"This is as good as I've felt so far this year," he said. "But once one's over, you've got to prepare for the next one. This was a good win for us."

A's general manager Billy Beane addressed Macha and his coaching staff in a closed-door meeting earlier in the day to discuss the state of the team.

Not surprisingly, first baseman Dan Johnson's name came up in the meeting. Oakland's top hitting prospect began the day batting .305 with six homers and 29 RBI in 34 games for Triple-A Sacramento, and he seems ready for a promotion.