Cleveland @ New York preview
Yankee Stadium
Last Meeting ( May 30, 2010 ) Cleveland 3, NY Yankees 7
Mark Teixeira picked the perfect time to hit a milestone home run and get himself out of a drought. Now the New York Yankees can focus their sights on winning a four-game series from the Cleveland Indians.
Teixeira’s blast on Sunday was the 250th of his career and ended a homerless streak of 56 at-bats. It came at the perfect time, as New York rallied from a 3-0 deficit and officially washed away the aftertaste of Saturday’s 13-11 loss to one of baseball’s worst teams.
Andy Pettitte takes the mound on Monday looking for a rare home victory against Cleveland. He hasn’t beaten the Indians in Yankee Stadium since 1996 – his second year in the league. Since then, he is 0-4 with a 5.60 ERA in his last six home starts against the Tribe.
Of course, some of the previous Indians teams were much more powerful than the current version. All-Star outfielder Grady Sizemore is scheduled for arthroscopic knee surgery this week and is expected to miss six to eight weeks - or perhaps longer.
He joins shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera as Indians with lost seasons. Cabrera fractured his left forearm diving for a ball and will be out until well after the All-Star break.
Only a few of the remaining hitters strike fear in opposing pitchers’ hearts. Shin-Soo Choo, the best offensive player on the team, is hitless in his last 17 at-bats. Third baseman Jhonny Peralta hasn’t been much better, going 1-for-11 in this current series.
The Yankees on Sunday became one of six teams this season to already amass 30 victories. Of the six, half are in the AL East - and that doesn’t even count the Boston Red Sox, who enter the day stuck on 29.
Derek Jeter seems to have pulled out of his hitting funk that had his average down to .267 on May 22. Since then, the captain has hit in seven straight games and has his average back up to .297.
Jeter’s next double with be his 450th and will move him ahead of Bernie Williams into sole possession of second place on the team’s franchise list. He is still 84 behind leader Lou Gehrig, though. Jeter also has 1,099 RBIs for his career, tying him with Don Mattingly for ninth on the franchise’s all-time list.
Any history on Monday will likely be made off Tribe starter Mitch Talbot, who has been the most pleasant surprise on the rebuilding team.
Acquired in an offseason trade from the Tampa Bay Rays, Talbot is coming off a win against the Chicago White Sox as he allowed two runs in seven innings. He already has one-third of the Indians’ total victories for this season.