Things Are Not Looking Good For Boone Logan

If you didn't read the title of these pre-game notes, then here you go: Things are not look good for the Yankees' left-handed specialist Boone Logan. Logan has been dealing with elbow problems ever since hurting his elbow on what he says what the pitch that Mike Napoli hit for a game-tying grand slam against the Yankees last week.

Logan was taken for a MRI over the weekend and even had a cortisone shot injected in his left elbow, but things are getting better, and now the Yankees are sending the results of his MRI to Dr. James Andrews, which is never a good thing for a pitcher to be connected to Dr. Andrews.

In the meantime, prior to tonight's game against the Baltimore Orioles, the Yankees have called up left-hander Mike Zagurski, who threw six inning for the Oakland Athletics Triple-A team this season, before spending the last few weeks in Triple-A Scranton for the Yanks, where he posted a 3.08 ERA in 26 1/3 innings.

Logan was hoping he could return to the mound by the Friday when the Yankees open up a three-game series at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox.

“I think he ruled out until we say otherwise,” Said Yankees general manager Brian Cashman. “If you go zero to 10, zero being down and out, and 10 being fully recovered, he hit zero the other day. He’s still stuck at zero. I don’t think he’s made any progress.”

To make room for Zagurski on the 40-man roster, the Yankees transferred DH Travis Hafner to the 60-day DL, effectively ending his season, said Cashman. Hafner has been out since late-July because of problems in his right shoulder. After signing for just $2M this offseason, Hafner hit .318 with 6 homeruns in April, but his production fell dramatically, hitting just 6 more homeruns and dropping his batting average to .202 before getting hurt.

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Kuroda Faces The Angels In Series Opener

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These days, it's going to take a lot to overshadow anything Alex Rodriguez does on the field. In the 9th inning yesterday, Mariano Rivera and Brett Gardner found a way to do that.

Rivera gave up a pair of homeruns in the 9th to Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez to tie the game, marking the third consecutive blown save by Rivera, just the first time in this legendary career that he's blown a save in three straight chances.

Then in the bottom half of the 9th, Gardner ended the game with one swing of the bat, taking Jose Veras deep to right field, sending the Yanks home with a 5-4 win, and their first series win since July 5th-7th against the Baltimore Orioles.

Now the struggling Los Angeles Angels come to town, having lost five of their last seven games, and were swept by the Texas Rangers last week on walk-off homeruns in all three games of the series.

The Yankees and Angels have already met once this year, back in Anaheim, when Los Angeles took two of the three games against a Yankees team that had been struggling badly at the time.

Tonight's Lineup, 7:05 EST @ Yankee Stadium:

Gardner CF
Suzuki DH
Cano 2B
Rodriguez 3B
Overbay 1B
Soriano LF
Granderson RF
Nunez SS
Stewart C
Kuroda RHP

Pitching Preview:

The Yankees bullpen was forced to put in a heavy workload over the weekend, with Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes lasting only 4 1/3 in each of their starts on Saturday and Sunday. The bullpen will get a chance to have an easy night with workhorse ace Hiroki Kuroda taking the mound.

Kuroda has been dominant on the mound over the past five weeks, going 3-1 with a 1.13 ERA and with 28 strikeouts in six starts over that span.

"He has pitched extremely well and he should have a lot more than 10 wins," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said after Kuroda's last start.

Kuroda didn't have his best stuff in his last outing, tossing seven innings of three-run ball against the Chicago White Sox, but was tagged with the loss after the Yankees failed to provide him with any run support, as usual in most of his starts.

"I wasn't really sharp out there, but I think I was able to get the big outs," Kuroda said.

Garrett Richards gets the ball for the Los Angeles Angels, making just his fourth starts for LA since taking over for Joe Blanton in the Angels in the rotation. In those three starts, Richards has an ERA of 2.50.

Richards came away with the no-decision in his last start after tossing giving up three runs on six hits, while walking one and striking out five in six innings of work, despite not having his best stuff.

Yankee Notes:

* Yankees manager Joe Girardi said before the game that Derek Jeter, who's currently on the DL with a Grade 1 calf strain, is scheduled to go through "tee and toss" drills today. "Then tomorrow I'm going to do some dry swings," he said. "In the pool."

When the Yankees leave for Boston on Friday, Jeter is expected to head south and continue his rehab at the Yankees' minor league complex in Tampa, Florida. Girardi was asked if Jeter would return to the lineup when he becomes eligible August 17th, and he said, "I'm not sure."

* Travis Hafner was eligible to return to the Yankees today after being on the DL since July 27th, but he's not ready yet, says Girardi. "He feels better and he's continuing his rehab," Girardi said. "But he's not ready to do baseball activities yet." Hafner might not return until September 1st, when rosters expand to 40-men.

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Saturday Notes: Jeter and Hafner

Derek Jeter will play shortstop on Sunday:

The Captain is coming back.....again. Derek Jeter take part in simulated game on Saturday and Yankees manager Joe Girardi told reporters after the game that everything went well and as long as Jeter feels going Sunday morning he'll be back in the lineup, playing shortstop.

"It's obviously someone we've been waiting for for a long time," Girardi said. "We had him for one day. We won that game, so hopefully this ratio continues."

Jeter returned for one game on July 11 and went 0-for-2 with an RBI groundout before straining his right quad, forcing him back on the DL after the All-Star break. Jeter was eligible to come off the DL on Saturday.

"You can be in great shape, but playing shape's a little bit different because you're getting used to standing around, starting and stopping, so we had to do all that," Girardi said. "As of right now, he came out very well. So we'll see how he feels tomorrow."

Hafner lands on the DL with shoulder injury:

While Jeter comes back, Travis Hafner goes down. The Yankees announced after the game that they had placed Hafner on the DL with a rotator cuff strain.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said before the game that Hafner wouldn't play on Saturday before of soreness in his shoulder, saying that he suffered the injury during Friday night's loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.

"He has not complained of his shoulder, he has not been getting treatment really on his shoulder," Girardi said. "So I don't know if it was one swing yesterday or what, but it leads me to believe it was one swing."

Hafner has been struggling badly for the past couple of months,  batting .318 with six home runs April, but his average has dropped to .205, his OPS to .684 and he's launched just six more home runs in nearly three months.

"I suspect that it's beating him up and that's probably working against him right now that he's not playing as well as he's capable of playing, but we still have confidence," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. "I know that every time he comes to the plate he's capable of a lot.

"We still believe in him," Cashman said, "but we're going to run whoever's the best option for that day unless we come up with better options."

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Yanks Go For 4th Straight Win With Hughes On The Mound

It took much longer to get it done, but the Yankees walked out of Friday's game with a 2-0 win over the Minnesota Twins. Rain was an issue all night long, causing a hour and 13 minute rain delay in the 4th inning, but once play resumed, the Yankees were able to put a pair of runs on the board and held on for the win.

Today's Lineup, 1:05 EST @ Yankee Stadium:

Gardner CF
Suzuki RF
Cano 2B
Wells DH
Overbay 1B
Almonte LF
Cruz SS
Gonzalez 3B
Romine C
Hughes P

Pitching Preview:

Phil Hughes dealt with the weather in his last start, leaving the game after the 4th inning because of a one-hour rain delay. Manager Joe Girardi removed Hughes from the game because he didn't feel comfortable with putting him bringing him back out after the long delay.

Though his outing was cut short, he still allowed two runs in four innings to the Royals. He's already faced the Twins this season, holding them to one run on six hits over seven innings in a July 2nd meeting in Minnesota.

For the second time this season, he'll be facing off against right-hander Samuel Deduno. Deduno took the loss for the second straight outing, Monday at Tampa Bay, allowing five runs on 10 hits, while walking two over six innings.

When facing the Yankees on July 2nd, he pitched well enough to earn the victory, allowing just three runs on five hits over six innings, but the Twins bullpen couldn't hold on for him.

Yankee Notes:

* Alex Rodriguez met with MLB investigators Friday to talk about his involvement with the Miami Biogenesis clinic. He was also suppose to play a rehab game with the Single-A Tampa Yankees on Friday, but it was rained out.

* Travis Hafner is still not in the lineup after taking a ball off his foot while taking batting practice prior to Wednesday's game against the Royals. Hafner is listed as day-to-day.

* Jayson Nix will head to Tampa on Monday to begin the next phase of his rehab. It's unclear if he'll return from the DL after the All-Star break when he becomes eligible to come off.

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Bats Big Again, Yankees Sweep The Twins

Nothing is more American than baseball. And nothing is more New York Yankees than winning. Searching for their fourth straight win, the Yankees sent David Phelps out to the mound hoping he could give them that win, and he delivered.

Phelps looked nothing like he did in his last outing against the Orioles, when he gave up nine runs in 2 2/3 innings, holding the Twins to only four runs over 6 2/3 innings and was also given much support from the his offense to lead the Yankees to a 9-5 win.

"It was good -- the offense picked it up a lot, which was great to see," Hafner said. "The important thing was getting four wins, which is tough to do. Overall, we played well. Hopefully, now offensively we can keep it going."

The Yankees jumped all over Twins starter Kyle Gibson early in the game, scoring three runs in the 1st inning and two more in the 3rd.

Ichiro doubled off the right field wall to open up the ballgame, then Zoilo Almonte, batting second for the first time, single to right to set up runners on the corners with Robinson Cano up. Cano drove a fly ball to deep left field, giving Ichiro enough to tag and score from third.

Travis Hafner followed with a double to down the left field line, then Vernon Wells, playing in place of Brett Gardner, who was given the day off, didn't disappoint his manager, singling into center field to bring home a pair of runs to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead.

Wells was at it again in the 3rd inning, doubling into the left-center field gap to plate Hafner. Wells finished 2-for-4 with three RBI's. Luis Cruz singled to left field a couple batter later, picking up his first hit as a Yankee and driving home Lyle Overbay in the process.

Minnesota threatened to score in the first few innings, but didn't get onto the scoreboard until Justin Morneau uncorked his first of two homeruns on the game, a solo shot to right field.

The Yankees answered that homerun in the 6th inning when the managed to put up four more runs on the Twins, including a two-run double by Ichiro, who went 3-for-5 in the game, batting in Gardner's normal leadoff spot, and was a homerun shy of the cycle.

The Twins tried there best to make a late comeback in the 7th inning when they put together a couple base hits and score a pair of runs off of Phelps to knock him out of the game with two outs in the 7th. He finished with four runs on eight hits, while walking none and striking out five.

"I thought his location was better; I thought his curveball was a little bit better," Girardi said of Phelps. "He used his changeup. I thought he was a little bit better with his cutter, too."

Joba Chamberlain was brought in, but gave up a single to the first he he faced and was quickly lifted by Joe Girardi. Boone Logan replaced Joba and he, too, gave up a couple hits and a run.

In another jam in the 8th, Girardi lifted Logan in favor of Shawn Kelley and he quickly struck out the first two hitters he faced, then was able to induce a ground out to end the inning. David Robertson tossed a 1-2-3 9th inning to seal up the Yankees win.

"We were glad to see June go away and July start," Wells said. "The important thing is scoring runs and adding runs on, taking advantage of mistakes. We're getting pitches up in the zone, and we're not missing them. This is obviously a good thing heading back home, where we can obviously do some damage in our park."

Next up, the Yankees will head back home for series against the Orioles starting on Friday at Yankee Stadium. Ivan Nova will be making Hiroki Kuroda's scheduled start and he'll be facing off against Miguel Gonzalez at 7:05 EST from the Bronx.

"We're going home for a long stretch and we're bringing some momentum with us," Phelps said. "It would have been real easy to just take what happened in Baltimore and carry it into here, but we've got a good group of guys and we put it behind us."

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CC delivers a big complete game win.

The Yankees current homestand may not have been going great before the Indians came to town. Being swept by the Mets and losing two of three against Boston, the Yankees took advantage of having the Indians in town knowing how much they've beat up on Cleveland this season.

CC Sabathia took the mound for the Yankees looking to build on best start of the season against the Red Sox last Friday. Sabathia did just that, pitching a complete game against the Indians and striking out nine in the Yankees 6-4 win.

The Yankees jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the 1st inning after Cano rolled into 2nd when he lined a ball that hit off the glove of Michael Bourn in center field. Travis Hafner came up a couple batters later and launched a two-run homerun into the second deck of Yankee Stadium.

Brett Gardner added three more runs off of Cleveland's starter, Corey Kluber, in the 2nd. Lyle Overbay and Jayson Nix both collected base hits, then Chris Stewart singled to left, bringing home Overbay. Gardner followed with a three-run homerun well over the right field wall.

New York's offense quieted down after the 1st two innings, letting CC do his thing. Sabathia held the Indians scoreless through the first five innings, and had a perfect game going through 4.2 innings before Mike Aviles blooped a single in front of Vernon Wells in left field.

In the 6th, Cleveland broke through with a couple a runs when a couple of singles were followed up by a Jason Kipnis singled that brought home Drew Stubbs. Nick Swisher followed by grounding into a fielders choice that scored Michael Bourn, making a 6-2 game.

Cleveland tightened up the game in the 7th inning when Michael Brantley singled on a soft line drive to right field. Yan Gomes followed with a two-run homerun to left field for his 6th of the year, cutting the Yankees lead to 6-4. But that would be all the Tribe could manage.

CC gave it everything he had to finish off the Indians in the 8th and 9th innings, to capture his 1st complete game of the season. Sabathia went 9 innings, allowing 4 runs on 7 hits, while walking one and striking out 9 on 116 for 84 strikes.

The Yankees will now get on a plane and head out on their west coast road trip, in which they'll be visiting the Mariners, Athletics, and Angels. Phil Hughes gets the start in Thursday's game in Seattle. First picth is scheduled for 10:05 pm ET.

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