After not pitching for about three weeks, CC Sabathia made his first start of the second half tonight. He looked more dominant in his six innings of work than he had looked for most of the season. He was pitching stress-free innings and getting outs consistently. Girardi did the right thing by taking Sabathia out after the leadoff man in the seventh got on base. He was working with a three run lead almost straight from the get-go and the skipper did not want to put his ace at risk. Instead, the Yankee bullpen did its job and recorded the final nine outs of the game with a five run lead by the time the ninth inning rolled around.
Andruw Jones came into today's game 0-9 in his career against Cecil. Tonight, he took him deep for a three-run homer and gave the Yankees a lead that would never get handed over to the Blue Jays. The offense tacked on runs in the eighth inning to essentially put the game out of reach for the Blue Jays in the ninth. The Yankees are playing their best baseball of the season. They have an enormous lead in the AL East and have no pressure to acquire a starter by the deadline even though it's tempting. Ryan Dempster looks like a possible fit in the Bronx. He is having a career year in Chicago for the struggling Cubs. If the asking price for the right-hander isn't too steep, Cashman should make a move to bolster the Yankee rotation until Pettitte makes a return in the beginning of September.
In the finale tomorrow, the Yankees will look to sweep the Blue Jays as they send Kuroda to the mound. Kuroda's one start against the Blue Jays was ugly but his past few months have been great so it will be interesting to see how that translates against a team he struggled against in his last start against them.
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