YANKEES
Damon LF
Abreu RF
Jeter SS
Giambi 1B
Matsui DH
Cano 2B
Cabrera CF
Ensberg 3B
Molina C
Mussina RHP
Mike Mussina (5-3, 4.36) against the Tampa Bay hitters.
James Shields (4-2, 3.14) against the New York hitters.
Notes: The Yankees have lost two straight, three of four and five of seven. … The Yankees have scored two runs in their last 24 innings, hitting 13 of […]

Here’s some of what Hank Steinbrenner told the AP today:
“They’ve got to play smarter and harder. The injuries - when you’re missing Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada, that makes it tough. The injuries make a huge difference. At the same time, you’ve got to get it done. We still have plenty of good hitters. We […]

The season will be 25 percent over after tonight’s game. How do you think Joe Girardi is doing as manager of the Yankees?
Vote in the poll over to the right.

Right on cue, Hank Steinbrenner bashed the Yankees.
Hours before Joe Girardi insisted his team was playing hard after a 2-1 loss against he Rays, here is what Hank Steinbrenner told Kevin Kernan of the Post:
“We’ve got to forget about all the injuries and start playing our butts off. The bottom line is that the team […]

Mariano Rivera gave up his first run of 2008 and it cost the Yankees a game. But blame the offense for this one. The pitchers did.
Meanwhile, the guys at the paper forgot to put the Yankees notebook on the web site. I didn’t think it was that bad.
Thanks to the magic of the internet and […]

Yes, the Yankees are missing Jorge Posada and Alex Rodriguez. You can’t take two offensive players like that out of a lineup and expect the same sort of production.
But you can expect more than one run to work with if you’re a pitcher. You could sense the disconnect in a pin-drop quiet clubhouse last night. […]

YANKEES
Damon DH
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Matsui LF
Giambi 1B
Cabrera CF
Cano 2B
Gonzalez 3B
Molina C
Wang RHP
Chien-Ming Wang against the Tampa Bay hitters.
Edwin Jackson vs. the New York hitters.
Back later with updates.
UPDATE, 6:50 p.m.: As was posted earlier today, Goose Gossage has beeen critical of Joba Chamberlain’s fist-pumping. “There’s no place for it in the game,” Gossage said. “I will stand […]

Alex Rodriguez hit the field at 10:55 a.m. this morning in Tampa. There were five fans and six sportswriters there to watch.
A-Rod ran in the outfield (”90 percent,” he said later), took a bunch of grounders and then took batting practice. He was crushing the ball to right field.
Alex said he was disappointed that he […]

That Joe Girardi is one hands-on manager.
As I write this from The Trop, he’s in the bullpen catching Andrew Brackman. Humberto Sanchez is warming up next.
They had to put a screen behind Girardi because Brackman was all over the place. Bu that’s to be expected considering he’s coming off surgery.

Now Goose Gossage thinks Joba celebrates too much. “When I broke into the big leagues, I didn’t say two words all year,” he said.
That was in 1972. Obviously baseball players should act like they did nearly 40 years ago.
There are few things more tedious than old ballplayers saying that things were better in their day. […]