The Yankees came into the game needing Ivan Nova to give them a stand out performance and he responded to the call by delivering over seven frames of two run baseball. Nova was perfect through three innings and allowed only two runs from that point forward. His slider and curve were outstanding and he used those pitches to get his strikeouts. I noticed that Nova used his fastball sparingly because it was not a pitch that was working for him in his mind. However, Nova battled and managed to give the Yankees a great start that was desperately needed from him by management. Also, it gives Nova a huge boost of confidence to know that his slider has not abandoned him and he can use it to get strikeouts. After Nova left the game with one out in the eighth inning, David Robertson came on and collected the final two out on one pitch when he got veteran Omar Vizquel to ground into a double play.
The Yankee offense was spread out today, mostly by guys who are bench players including the big blow of the game by Casey McGehee. After Nix singled in a run in the fourth inning, McGehee belted a three-run home run into the second deck in left-center field. Girardi has pulled all the right strings when it comes to using his bench. Most importantly, the guys sitting on the bench know that their roles on the team, making it easier for them to play when needed. With this victory, the Yankees have now won four straight games and are twenty-one games over the .500 mark. The Yankees are starting to heat up again and that is important to maintain the lead in their division against hot teams lurking in second and third place.
The Yankees will go for the sweep tomorrow, their second straight sweep of the Blue Jays this season. Tomorrow, Phil Hughes will look for his twelfth win against a beat-up Jays team. J.A. Happ will make his first career start against the Yankees.
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