Carlos Beltran excited to finally be playing in pinstripes

In 2005, Carlos Beltran told the Yankees he wanted to play for them. There was no room on the roster, so he instead signed a seven-year deal with the New York Mets.

Eight years later, his dreams of playing in pinstripes have finally come true. The Yankees officially introduce Beltran Friday at Yankee Stadium after signing him to a three-year, $45 million contract, one week after Jacoby Ellsbury's presser.

"Having the opportunity to come back again [to New York] really means a lot to me," Beltran said on Friday. "I grew up being a Yankees fan. I grew up being a Bernie Williams fan. As a player — and first of all, as a fan — I used to look up to this organization. They always did what it takes to put good teams out there and win championships."

The Yankees added Beltran, who will wear No. 36 with the Bronx, two weeks ago, right after Robinson Cano signed with the Seattle Mariners.

"This is someone that has always wanted to be a Yankee," general manager Brian Cashman said.

The Yankees have been courting Beltran earlier in the offseason, but talks with the three-time all-star seemed to slow down he was looking for a three-year deal, and the Yanks were only willing to offer two-years. Once the Kansas City Royals joined the race, and another team put a $48 million offer on the team, the Yanks gave him the third year.

Beltran, 36, played for the Mets from 2005-11, when he was dealt to San Francisco. He signed a two-year deal with the St. Louis Cardinals prior to the 2012 season, and reached his first World Series with St. Louis this past October, losing to the Boston Red Sox in six games.

"It's gonna be fun, no doubt about it," Beltran said. "I have good memories in Queens and all I have to say about the Mets is just a lot of good things. I was fortunate to play in a good organization, being able to be around good people. And you know, it’s gonna be different, no doubt about it. At the end of the day, we're gonna go out, we're gonna play, we're gonna try to win.

"That's our job as ballplayers. The reaction is gonna be different. Some are gonna cheer, some are gonna boo, but at the end of the day I'm there to play baseball."

Beltran hit .296 with 24 homers and 84 RBIs for the Cardinals this year, and added two homers and 15 RBIs in the postseason -- a place he hopes to go to with the Yankees.

"I'm really looking forward to October with our new player, Carlos Beltran." said Yankees manager Joe Girardi.

Beltran will be joining a now crowed Yankees outfield with Ellsbury, Brett Gardner, Ichiro Suzuki, Vernon Wells and Alfonso Soriano. However, Ichiro and Wells might not be on the roster on Opening Day, unless the Yanks decide to trade Gardner, which they say isn't happening.

To make room on the 40-man roster for Beltran, the Yankees designated right-handed pitcher Brett Marshall for assignment.

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Yankees Hold Ceremony To Honor Mariano Rivera

Man, how can you play a baseball game after that?

Prior to the Yankees taking on the San Francisco Giants in the finale of their three-game series, the Yanks celebrated Mariano Rivera with a pregame ceremony on what has been proclaimed by New York City Mayor Bloomberg, "Mariano Rivera Day."

With Michael Kay and John Sterling calling to ceremony from the field, the Yankees began the festivities with the unveiling of a new bronze plaque in Monument Park honoring Jackie Robinson. Then the Yankees promptly unveiled in Monument Park the No. 42, as they were officially retiring Mariano's number, meaning no player will officially wear it again.

At the ceremony, the Yankees had plenty of special guests to honor Mariano, including former teammate Jeff Nelson, David Cone, Bernie Williams, Hideki Matsui, Jorge Posada, Paul O'Neill, Tino Martinez and John Wetteland. Along with teammates, former Yankees GM Gene Michael, who signed Rivera, former manager Joe Torre, former trainer Gene Monahan, Rachael Robinson, and Rivera's entire family.

After announcing the cavalcade of stars, the Yanks showed a video tribute on the video board in center field. Afterwards, Mariano walked out of the bullpen to a live performance of, what else, "Enter Sandman" by Metallica. But the legendary heavy metal band wasn't done yet.

The Giants presented Mariano with a few gifts, handed to him by former Yankees, and current Giants coaches, Dave Righetti, Roberto Kelly, Hensley Meulens and Joe Lefebvre. The gifts included a painting of Mo, and a customised guitar signed by Giants legend Willie Mays. Metallica also presented him with a guitar speaker.

Then came the gifts from Rivera's club, the New York Yankees. First giving him a a $100,000 check to the Mariano Rivera Foundation, then a baseball bat rocking chair carried out by Derek Jeter and Torre and, in my opinion, the coolest gift, the Steinbrenners presented him with a Waterford crystal replica of his glove.

The ceremony concluded with Mariano giving a speak to the sell-out crowd in the Bronx.

To my teammates, past and present, I appreciate you guys. I thank you, everyone of you guys.

"To my beautiful country, Panama, thank you for your support," he said, in Spanish, as several Panamanian flags waved in the stands.

"To you fans," he said to the vast crowd, "thank you for 19 years of support. It has been a great run, guys. You have always been here for me and for the organization. You guys will have a part of my heart.

"I want to give thanks to the Good Lord for this tremendous organization," he said, noting that he wanted to George Steinbrenner for giving him an opportunity. "I miss him."

And to finish it all off, "You guys, fans, are the best. Let's play ball,"

Before getting the game underway that I'm sure many people forgot was still happening, Posada took the mound to throw out the first pitch, throwing to, who else, Mariano.

Now, it's Mariano's, but it's also Andy Pettitte's day as he makes his final start at Yankee Stadium before he officially retires next Sunday.

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Yanks Lose In A Very Sloppy First-Half Finale

It's been an up and down first half for the Yankees, from the hot start to the sluggish past month. No player on the Yankees has had a more up and down year than CC Sabathia. After back to back solid starts, CC was looking to finish off the first half of the season in style.

Things just didn't go Sabathia's way as he endured one of the worst starts of his season, giving up eight runs, three earned, on eight hits while walking two and striking out five in only four innings. It was the shortest non-injury or rain shortened outing for CC as a Yankee since lasting only 2 2/3 against the Rays on Oct. 2nd, 2009.

"I have to make better pitches to try to help these guys out," said Sabathia. "They've bailed me out of situations all the time. It's frustrating because you didn't help these guys out."

Sabathia started the game with an easy 1-2-3 first inning, but then Minnesota cracked the code in the second, using four hits, all singles, to tag CC with a pair of runs.

After a Justin Morneau double in the third inning, he advanced to third on a Eduardo Nunez throw that pulled Lyle Overbay off the bag at first, that would have ended the inning. Instead, the next batter, Aaron Hicks, took a changeup from Sabathia and put it into the seat in left to make it a 5-0 game.

Things only got worse for the Yankees, trailing 5-1 after an RBI single by Cano in the top half of the inning, Brian Dozier doubled on a ball that bounced past Ichiro and Vernon Wells in right-center field. After Joe Mauer walked to load the bases, Morneau pitted a ball in between a pack of infielders that would fail to make a play.

"It's unusual," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "Our defense has been really good this year. For whatever reason, it wasn't today. We made some mistakes and gave them extra outs, and it cost us."

The Twins scored two more runs in the inning on a missed ball by Overbay, prompting Girardi to take Sabathia out of the game after four inning with his pitch count reaching 93.

"This wasn't [good]. It's just one game, though, and we've got four days to kind of get away from it and kind of revive everything," Overbay said.

Girardi gave the ball to Preston Clairborne, who fired off a solid 1-2-3 fifth inning, striking out two of the three batters he faced. Adam Warren followed him with two innings of one-run relief, holding the Twins to only four hits.

The Yankees bats didn't do a whole lot to put them into a position to win, managing three runs through the first four innings off of Twins starter Kyle Gibson, who allowed three runs, two earned, on five hits over five inning of work.

Ichiro broke a long Yankee drought in the 7th inning, homering to right field off of Caleb Thielbar. It was the first homerun by a Yankee not named Cano or Overbay since June 26th. His solo shot pulled the Yankee back within four, making it 8-4.

Minnesota added another run in the 8th off Warren, then Girardi went to Boone Logan, who did a good job of setting down Mauer and Morneau to end the inning.

Yet with all the good the Yankees bullpen was doing, they still couldn't pull off anything offensively, losing to the Twins 10-4 in a very sloppy game from the Yankees. There may have only been two errors on the board, but overall it wasn't a good way to head into the All-Star break.

"It was just one of those games where everything we could do wrong, we did wrong, defensively," Wells said. "That was probably one of the uglier games seen in this stadium, for sure."

With Minnesota taking two of the three games in this series, the Twins walked out of the Bronx with a very well series win against the Yankees, who have now lost five of their last eight games.

"Losing is disappointing, no matter how you do it," Wells said. "The way this game played out, with just how ugly it was, it'll be good to quickly forget about."

The Yankees finished the first half of the season at 51-44, trailing the Red Sox in the AL East by 6.5 games, who the Yankees will meet in Boston to start a three-game series on Friday to open up the second half.

"I think everybody in here knows what we're up against and what we need to do to try to make the playoffs and win this division," Sabathia said. "It's just up to us to come out and play consistent and play the way we can play."

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Yanks Look For Final First-Half Win

The bats were quiet on Saturday,touching home plate only once, coming in the first inning, against the Twins and Samuel Deduno. Phil Hughes struck out 10, but come out on the losing end because of a trio homeruns he allowed on the day.

Now on the final day of the first half of the 2013 season, CC Sabathia will take the mound for the Yankees as they look to claim one more victory before setting off for the all-star break.

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

Suzuki 8
Almonte 7
Cano 4
Hafner DH
Wells 9
Overbay 3
Nunez 6
Cruz 5
Stewart 2
Sabathia 1

Pitching Preview:

The last time CC Sabathia took the mound against the Minnesota Twins, he gave up two runs on seven hit, while walking three and striking out nine over seven innings of work to earn the 200th victory of his career.

Sabathia dominated his last start, but was once again a victim of poor run support, taking the loss against the Royals after tossing the complete nine innings while allowing just three runs on seven hits.

The Twins will send out rookie Kyle Gibson to take the mound against the Yankees for the second time this season, after taking the loss on a July 4th meeting in which the Yankees won.

Gibson gave up eight runs on 11 hits and one walk in only 5 1/3 innings pitched back on Independence Day, and he holds a 1-2 record with a 7.27 ERA through first three big league starts.

Yankee Notes:

* Travis Ishikawa elected to become a free-agent in lieu of taking a trip to Triple-A to play with the Scranton/Wilkes-Berre RailRiders. Ishikawa played one game with the Yankees, going 0-for-2 with a pair of strikeouts against the Royals last Monday.

* When the Yankees resume play for the second half of the season, the begin road trip that starts in Boston for a three-game set on Friday. The Yankees have set their rotation for that series: Friday for Pettitte, Kuroda on Saturday and CC on Sunday.

* Alex Rodriguez will make the trip north to join the Trenton Thunder this week for a three-game series against the Reading Phillies. As for today, he'll be batting 2nd, serving as the DH for the Tampa Yankees in his 8th rehab game.

* American League All-Star Game manager Jim Leyland said that he'll be naming three replacement pitchers on Sunday, meaning that there's still a chance Hiroki Kuroda will be at Citi Field on Tuesday.

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Ten Strikeouts Not Enough For Hughes To Beat The Twins

The Yankees have done nothing but own the Twins this season, coming into Saturday's 5-0 against Minnesota. Looking to extend the streak, Joe Girardi gave the ball to Phil Hughes, who had been pitching pretty well lately.

On Military Appreciation Day at Yankee Stadium, the Twins used a trio of homeruns served up by Hughes to come away with a 4-1 victory, their first against the Bombers this season.

Hughes had it going on for him early, picking up five strikeouts through the first two innings. But while he was still throwing the ball well, it was only a few little mistakes that really hurt Hughes.

"I thought it was some of the better stuff that he had all year long," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "His offspeed was really effective. He had the 10 strikeouts. I thought he threw the ball exceptionally well except for a few mistakes."

Robinson Cano gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on a single up the middle the ricocheted off the foot of Twins starter Samuel Deduno, finding it's way into center field to score Ichiro from second.

Hughes gave the run back in the second inning when Trevor Plouffe took him deep to left field, his 10th home run of the season, to tie the game at 1-1.

After the Plouffe homerun, Hughes found a rhythm, keeping Minnesota out of the hit column up until the 7th inning when Ryan Doumit made him pay again, taking Hughes deep to right field to give the Twins a 2-0 lead.

With Hughes still pitching in the 8th, Aaron Hicks dropped down a bunt to the third base side, beating it out to begin the inning. After Clay Thomas was called out for base runner interference, Pedro Florimon took a 2-2 pitch from Hughes deep the right to put Minnesota up 4-1.

Hughes matched a career-high with 10 strikeouts, giving up four on five hits, three of which were homeruns, while walking just one on 108 pitches.

"It's been frustrating," Hughes said. "I guess the one thing I can say is, I've felt good with my stuff over the last three or four starts. After the All-Star break, that's something I can continue to build on."

Hughes, known as a fly ball pitcher, has allowed 18 homeruns this season, ranking second on the ballclub behind only CC Sabathia, who has given up 20 long ball this season.

"As a straight fastball, four-seam guy, if I miss up in the zone, a lot of times it's hard-hit fly balls," Hughes said. "That's just part of who I am, so I have to really concentrate on locating and not leaving balls over the middle of the plate."

Although not all of the blame can be put on Hughes as the Yankees bats gave him nothing in support other than the first inning run. The offense managed eight hits, but only Cano's hit in the first came to be important.

"It's just a matter of finding a way to get things going," Lyle Overbay said. "We're definitely not going to hit the home runs, and we can't wait for the three-run homer and all that stuff, but we can do other things. We have that kind of team in here. It's a matter of going out and doing it."

Twins starter Samuel Deduno also had a lot to do with keeping the Yankees' bats quiet throughout the afternoon, giving up just four hits and three walks after permitting the two hits and a run in the first inning.

"He's got some funky movement on his ball," Yankees catcher Austin Romine said. "His ball cuts, and he mixed in his curveball to keep us off balance."

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Yanks Look To Start A New Streak With Hughes On The Mound

Sitting on the cusp of victory, a two-run homerun off the bat of Adam Jones, served up by baseball's greatest closer, Mariano Rivera, the Yankees lost out on a chance to not only dish out a sweep of the Baltimore Orioles, but it also snapped a season-high 6-game winning streak.

The Yankee will now try their hand at starting a new winning streak with the Kansas City Royals coming to town. These two teams have already met once this season, with the Bombers coming out of KC with a three-game sweep.

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


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

Pitching Preview:

A couple weeks ago, Phil Hughes was on the verge of possibly losing his starting job, but he hasn't done much to hurt his reputation since then.

Hughes held the Rangers and Twins to a combined three runs on 11 hits in 15 innings. Facing the Twins last Tuesday, Hughes allowed only run on six hits over seven innings in the Yankees 7-3 win.

"They had a lot of lefties in the lineup, and I felt like I was able to get my fastball inside to those guys, for the most part," Hughes said. "I made a few critical pitches when I had to to get out of some jams, the offense did their job, and it was a good win."

Hughes has also faced the Royals once already this season, back on May 10th. He allowed six runs on seven hits in 5 2/3 innings, picking up the victory.

Jeremy Guthrie takes the mound for the Royals, looking for his first win since June 10th against the Detroit Tigers. Guthrie began the season off on the right foot, going 3-0 with a 3.06 ERA in April, but has hasn't been as good since then, going 4-6.

Guthrie's last start came against the Indians in which he held them scoreless through the first five innings before giving up a couple hits in the sixth, eventually followed by an inside-the-park home run when left fielder Alex Gordon crashed into the left-field wall.

Yankee Notes:

* Derek Jeter played in his second game for the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Berre RailRiders on Sunday, reaching base three times, including a single a single to left field.

"It's good [to get a hit], better to get a hit than get an out," Jeter about his first rehab hit. "As long as I'm seeing the ball good, I'm fine. The results at this particular point I don't think is the No. 1 priority."

Jeter batted leadoff for the RailRiders, serving as the team's designated hitter a day after playing five innings at shortstop. Jeter drew a walk in his first at-bat, then collected his lone hit in his second trip to the plate. After striking out in his third at-bat, Jeter worked another walk in the seventh in his final plate appearance.

Reaching base three times, Jeter got a chance to work out his recovering ankle and said he wasn't at all worried about running the bases and testing his ankle.

"I'm not concerned with that," Jeter said at his postgame news conference. "I've done a lot of that down in Florida. It's good to get back into a game, but I don't have a checklist."

Jeter will be back in the field at shortstop on Monday night for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He's hoping to get some more chances after only one play on Saturday; a grounder hit directly at him, nothing that made him run to the side.

* Travis Ishikawa was claimed off of waivers from the Orioles yesterday, he'll be starting at first base for the Yankees in his first game. Ishikawa will be the 25th position players used by the Yankees this year. David Adams is no longer on the 25-man roster, yet nothing has been officially announced.

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Blown Save By Mariano Snaps 6 Game Winning Streak

Everything was going great for the Yankees until the 9th inning rolled around. Hiroki Kuroda pitched seven solid shutout innings. The offense had scored one run, just enough to keep them ahead for the most of the game. And Mariano Rivera was pitching the 9th, only two outs away from his 30th save.

But setting down Manny Machado on a ground out for the first out of the inning, Nick Markakis, who missed a game-tying homerun by a couple feet on the previous pitch, singled up the middle. Then, in a turn of events that seems to change the mood of the entire day, the Orioles offensive struck in one brief, quick moment.

Mariano threw a cutter on the inner-edge to Adams Jones, who made him pay by crushing a go-ahead, two-run homerun into the Baltimore bullpen to hand Mariano his 2nd blown loss of the season.

"You don't see it happen very often. That's the bottom line. He's been so good for us again this year," manager Joe Girardi said. "Every time it happens, you're kind of shocked. That's how good he is."

"I don't know exactly what the pitch was," Girardi said, "but I'm quite sure it wasn't where he wanted it."

"I wanted it to be more in. Didn't get in enough," Rivera said. "It wasn't really a mistake, just good hitting."

Rivera would eventually take the loss, and took all the attention away from Kuroda, who had pitched very well throughout the afternoon, taking the no-decision after pitching a win-worthy outing.

"The way Hiroki was pitching, I mean, he was doing outstanding. He did great. It would have been a good game to win," Rivera said. "This would have been a great game to save, and I didn't."

Nevering letting more than one O's batter reach base in any inning, Kuroda worked well all afternoon. He had just about all of his pitches working, doing his best to keep the ball down in the zone.

"I was trying to keep us in the ballgame," Kuroda said. "And with the one-run lead, I think I was able to do that."

Girardi pulled the plug on Kuroda's day after seven innings, permitting only three hits and a walk, while striking out four Birds on 88 pitches. His splitter was sharp and his fastball location was on point throughout the afternoon.

The Yankees used their bats to backup Kuroda, giving him only one run in support off of Baltimore's starter Jason Hammel, but they worked him well by racking up his pitch count, chasing him from the ballgame after only five innings.

Most of the damage, and the only run, came in a 32-pitch 2nd inning in which Zoilo Almonte worked an 11-pitch walk to begin the inning, then gave up a single to Lyle Overbay on the 10th pitch of the at-bat, moving Almonte to 3rd on the hit and run.

After a flyout by Luis Cruz, Eduardo Nunez, playing in his 2nd game off the DL, lined a ball deep enough to left field, letting Almonte score the only Yankee run.

From there. Kuroda took over, holding the Orioles bats silent up until he was removed from the game after the 7th inning. David Robertson did he best to earn some more All-Star game votes by throwing a 1-2-3 8th inning.

But after the blown save in the top of the inning, the Yankees went down swiftly in the bottom of the 9th against Jim Johnson to snap a six game winning streak and failing to pull off the sweep against their division counterpart.

"You don't want to go out there and get swept, especially against the teams in your division in games you need to win," Markakis said. "The way Kuroda threw the ball and, like I said, the conditions, we'll take it."

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Will the real Phil Hughes please stand up.

Phil Hughes was once a Yankees 1st round draft pick. He was expected to the future ace of the Yankees pitching staff. So far in his 7 big league season, he's shown that he has the ability to be the big man in the club house, but he hasn't given enough consistency to show he can do it.

In the midst of a contract season, Hughes has gone out in several starts and pitch like a man looking for a lot of money, and in other starts he looks like a man that might have a tough time finding a job next season.

The biggest question surrounding Phil Hughes is that maybe he's just not capable of pitching in the AL East and at Yankee Stadium.

Lifetime against the AL East, Hughes has posted a record of 20-21. So clearly he can at time have success as well as having just as much complications with pitching against the Yankees division foes.

Hughes allowed one unearned run over 7 innings on Thursday

Sure, the record doesn't exactly reflect on Hughes' true pitching abilities but I'm not doubting that the Yankees will take a good look at those numbers when deciding if they should bring him back this winter.

Something else I'm sure the Yankees should take a big look at is Hughes' stat line at home, compared to on the road.

Hughes is known as a flyball pitch and that's something that won't help you when pitching in Yankee stadium. Hughes has allowed 66 home runs in 355 2/3 innings pitched at Yankee Stadium, but only 34 in 344 innings pitched on the road.

"I think every pitcher is going to maybe give up a few more home runs in our ballpark than maybe some of the other ballparks that you go to, especially on the west coast. There just aren't as many home runs hit here," Girardi said. "I think he's the same guy (wherever he pitches)."

Well, pitching on the west coast must be what works for Hughes, as he fired off a stellar performance last night Seattle. Tossing seven plus innings, allowing only one unearned run on three hits, while striking out seven.

Watching Hughes pitch through the first few innings in Thursday night's game, I really noticed how precise he was, keeping the ball down in the zone and hitting a lot of his spots given by Romine behind the plate.

It was certainly a different Hughes than the one we've seen so often this season, and even in his last start against the Mariners in which he didn't even make it past the 1st inning.

Phil Hughes might not have turned out to be the next big pitching prospect for the Yankees, but he's still a guy with a lot of pitching ability. Although his ability doesn't give him success in his own home ballpark or against his team's division rivals, they Yankees should still look at re-signing him.

All he needs is a little work on keeping the fastball down and adapt his style to pitch in Yankee Stadium. But if he can't get that fixed, then he's just not meant to be a Yankee.

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