Here’s what King Dallas of Bradenia had to say about the quality of the Yankee Stadium heckling after yesterday’s game, during which he allowed one run over five innings before leaving the game with cramps: “They get an ‘F’ in my book.” He joked that Yankee fans “had a while come up with some good stuff” and that he “was expecting more.” He speculated that perhaps steamy weather was to blame, but we have a theory on why fans didn’t overwhelm him with boos and shower him with beer bottles: Those fans, and pretty much everyone else, stopped caring about Braden and his etiquette, oh, the day after A-Rod dared cross his mound.
Though, on a semi-related topic: CC Sabathia sure owns the Yankee Stadium mound, doesn’t he? Perhaps more impressive than his outing yesterday — and it was quite impressive, with no runs and one hit over eight innings — is the streak he’s on in the Bronx: He hasn’t lost in his last 21 home starts, dating back to July 2, 2009. Over that period, he’s 16-0 — the team is 19-2 in his starts — with a 2.05 ERA. The streak ties him with Whitey Ford for the longest unbeaten streak by a Yankee in any single stadium.
This was Sabathia’s day, to be sure, but we’ll note that Curtis Granderson homered twice, accounting for three of the Yankees’ runs in the 5-0 victory. (There’s an interesting discussion about Granderson going in the comments section of this Was Watching post — the post points out Granderson’s improved second-half numbers, though there’s some debate over whether those numbers are misleading.) In any case, the Yanks’ A.L. East lead now stands at one and a half, with Ivan Nova taking the ball this afternoon against Toronto.