The Captain's Blog

The Stadium slugfest may have been held in the Bronx last night, but during the afternoon in Toronto, the Yankees and Blue Jays compiled more punch outs than Mike Tyson did in his entire career.

After perhaps their most abysmal offensive performance of the year, epitomized by Mark Teixeira’s record tying five strikeout performance, the Yankees will look to rebound against Jays’ struggling starter Brandon Morrow, who enters the game with an ERA of 6.00, although he did pitch very well in his last outing against the Rays. To his credit, Joe Girardi has not decided to panic and has posted nearly the same lineup that struck out and astounding 16 times in yesterday’s 14-inning game. Undoubtedly, all eyes will be on Mark Teixeira as he seeks to wash away the sour taste of yesterday’s horrendous performance.

In Javier Vazquez, the Yankees are also sending their own 6-ERA pitcher to the mound. Vazquez has pitched well in three of last four starts, however, so the Yankees need to hope he can continue that trend. On the one hand, the power laden Jays seem like bad matchup for Vazquez, who has already surrendered 10 homeruns and has always been prone to the long ball. Then again, Vazquez has a vast arsenal of pitches, including a plus changeup and curve, two pitches that most of the Jays’ batters have proven unable to hit. Ironically, if Vazquez reverts to the formula that caused his early season struggles (too much off speed and not throwing enough fastballs for strikes), he could wind up pitching a very good game.

Coming after two tough losses to the Rays, the Blue Jays needed to make a statement and they did. Another win would only make it that much more emphatic.

While the Jays came into the series limping a little, it is the Yankees who now find themselves badly in need of a victory. Aside from the Twins, whom they seem to beat just by showing up, the Yankees have had only one victory (against the Tigers on May 14) against an over-.500 team since April 21. Even though the June schedule provides a host of low quality teams, the Yankees will eventually need to start playing better against better teams if they hope to vie for playoff spot. In the meantime, they now find themselves closer to fourth place than first.