I'll Have Another

The Yankees have now won their second straight game against the Halos and their third straight victory overall. They won this game with pitching and power. Freddy Garcia gave Joe Girardi an outing that he will take any day of the week with five innings and three earned runs. He only trailed in the first after giving up a two-run single to Alberto Callaspo. After that, the Angels did not take another lead the rest of the game. Garcia has been money in the bank ever since coming out as a starter again. He has dominated in his career against the Angels but this is a very different team than he's ever faced. Trumbo, Trout and Pujols are all Angels newcomers. Garcia now lifts his career record against the Angels to 16-3. Those are sparkling numbers against a team that has been playoff bound for much of the last decade.

The second element that gave the Yankees their 5-3 victory came via power. First, Cano mashed an opposite field home run to tie the game at two. Later, Granderson hit his twenty-fourth home run of the season that gave the Yankees a 4-2 lead. Shortly thereafter, Cano added on with an RBI single that scored A-Rod and the Yankees just kept rolling from there. Cody Eppley was terrific and the late inning formula of Robertson and Soriano retired the side in order.

The Yankees have an 8.5 game lead in the American League East over the Orioles. They have the widest division lead of any first place team in baseball. The strong American League East has been anything but that thus far into the season with the exception of the Yankees. With today's victory, the Yankees are twenty-one games over .500, their largest mark over .500 all season. They are playing great baseball right now and even a blip will not give the rest of the division much of an advantage given the Yankees wide division lead.

Tomorrow afternoon, Jered Weaver who has been remarkable this season will pitch opposite Ivan Nova. Nova has been great since the end of May and looks for his eleventh win of the season tomorrow.