Yankees host Phillies in World Series rematch

By Gary W. Marchese Jr.

Bronx, NY (Jun 15) – The New York Yankees will begin a three game series with the Philadelphia Phillies tonight.  It will be a rematch of last year’s World Series that the Yankees won four games to two.  The Yankees are currently 3-0 on a nine game homestand, this is the first of three of this series.  It will be a marquee pitching matchup with CC Sabathia taking on Roy Halladay.  Here are the lineups, news and notes for tonight’s game. 

Yankees LIneup:Jeter(SS), Granderson(CF), Teixeira(1B),Cano(2B), Swisher(RF), Posada(DH), Gardner(LF), Cervelli(C), Pena(3B)

Phillies Lineup:Victorino(CF), Utley(2B), Polanco(3B), Howard(1B), Werth(RF), Ibanez(LF), Francisco(DH), Castro(SS), Ruiz(C)

Alex Rodriguez is out of the lineup but is available to pinch hit.  He is going through all the regular drills and if he comes out of it fine tonight he will be the starting third baseman tomorrow.  Sergio Mitre has been placed on the disabled list with a oblique injury and Boone Logan has been recalled from AAA Scranton Wilkes-Barre.  The Yankees have won eight games in a row at home, which ties the longest streak in the New Stadium. 

The Yankees are a season high 17 games over 500 and have won six of their last seven, 11 of their last 14 and 14 of their last 19 games.  The Yankees batters tied a season high of 10 walks on Sunday against the Astros.  Phil Hughes recorded his team leading ninth win.  Jorge Posada has a career 278 batting average with 251 home runs and 987 RBI.  There are 13 former major league catchers in the hall of fame and only Yogi Berra has better numbers than Posada in the three categories. 

Jorge Posada is ninth all-time in home runs amongst players who played at least 50% of their games as a catcher.  He is seventh on the all-time Yankees list in home runs having passed Graig Nettles on Sunday.  A lot of times I think Posada gets overlooked but when you take those numbers he stacks up their as a hall of fame catcher.  His defense has never been his strong point but as a hitter he definitely is worthy of consideration.  If he does make it one day along with Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter who are locks and Andy Pettitte is borderline it would be an amazing feat for a set of teammates.  They all broke the record for longest amount of years played of any major sport this season.

Jeter leads the major leagues in RBI(39) from the leadoff spot.  He has 80 hits as a lead off hitter and is second in the majors only to Ichiro Suzuki who has 90 hits.  Jeter hit his 24th career lead off home run on Sunday tying Rickey Henderson for first on the all-time Yankees list.  According to the Elias Sports Bureau only Jimmy Rollins of the Phillies and Ichiro Suzuki of the Mariners have more for their respective teams.  Rollins has 34 and Suzuki 31.  Jeter is batting 349 with 10 multi-hit games over his last 20. 

The Yankees are a major league best 26-5 when they score first in a game.  The Yankees have hit a major league leading six grand slams this season.  Posada(2), Granderson, Cano, Rodriguez(2).  They last led the American League in 2004 with nine grand slams and the major leagues in 2003 with nine grand slams.  The Yankees have signed 13 of their 2010 draft picks.  You can find the list on the Lohud Yankees Blog or at Yankees.com.

Posted by gmarchesej on June 15, 2010. Filed under MLB News,News and Sports with Gary W. Marchese Jr.,Sports,US Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.