Yankees Notes: Vazquez, Miranda, Gardner, Curtis, Houk

The Yankees won an exciting one today. The final score was 10-6, but the Yankees had a 6-0 lead at one point. The Angels came back to make it 6-5, then the Yanks jumped ahead to 10-5, and by that point, there wasn’t enough time for another comeback.

Here are some notes:

• Javier Vazquez was great for four scoreless innings, but his final line wasn’t pretty: 5 IP, 5 ER, 9 H, 0 BB, 1 K, 2 HR. He just fell apart once he got a big lead.
• Vazquez hadn’t allowed five ER in a game since May 27 against the Twins.
• The Angels were in the game until the seventh inning. The dramatics started with a solo home run by DH/1B Juan Miranda , but really got going when Brett Gardner was ejected mid-at-bat for arguing balls and strikes. That’s when Colin Curtis stepped in, starting the at-bat down 0-2. He battled back to make it a full count before launching his first career home run to break the game open 10-5.
• After the game the Yankees received a bit of bad news when former manager Ralph Houk passed away. He was manager of the team when they won the ‘61 and ‘62 World Series. Houk was also a Yankee catcher, but as a backup to Yogi Berra, he played in only 91 games in eight seasons.

The Yankees split the series with the Angels one game apiece. That caps off a five-game stretch where they played a couple of tough teams, the Angels and Rays, and they came out winning three and losing two. Not bad.

Up next, they have a four game series against the lowly Royals, and they don’t have to face Zach Greinke. I’m thinking they can take three of four easily.

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