New York Yankees

After Alex Rodriguez left the game yesterday with a tight groin muscle, everyone feared the worse because it was a muscle near the same area where he had hip surgery.

So, A-Rod went back to see Dr. Ahmad, the doctor that operated on his hip today, and he got good news : tendinitis in his hip flexor, not in the area he had surgery.

The Yankees can't wait to get back to the Stadium tonight, where they are 19-7 on the season.

The road however has been a very different story so far, with the Yanks being only 18-16 away from the big ballpark in the Bronx.

Their most recent road trip made three game stops in Toronto and Baltimore with New York going 3-3 along the way. But it really should have been a 5-1 road trip if you ask me.

The first game in Toronto was all Blue Jays, but the second game was much more winnable for the Yankees, but the offense continued to come up with zeros.

The Yankees have gone 9-4 since opening a stretch of 16 games against mostly sub-.500 teams on May 28. Now, they have come to the end of Easy Street with three contests versus the Astros.

With tougher Interleague matchups coming up against the Phillies, Mets and Dodgers this month, New York will look to capitalize on its final easy series before it travels to Arizona from June 21-23.

Alex Rodriguez didn’t even get an at-bat last night, when the Yankees pinch hit for him in the second inning with Ramiro Pena of all people. After the game, A-Rod said that he left because of his groin, that he injured last week, was stiff. There was no pain, but it was stiff.

Here is more from Chad Jennings :

There was a recent NY Post report by columnist George King which portrayed the New York Yankees as being interested in the services of left handed pitcher Cliff Lee of the Seattle Mariners.

Call him bipolar if you would like. Just in baseball terms, A.J. Burnett can be considered a bit bipolar this season. We have been witnessing two very different sides to the Yankees' pitcher.

Burnett seems to be a different pitcher on the road than he is at Yankee Stadium. The numbers are glaring.

If we could pitch A.J. during home games only, he would be considered an All-Star and possible Cy Young candidate. Throw in his road game performances, and he is an average pitcher.

Once highly touted pitching prospect right-handed Dellin Betances pitched in his first game last night since he had elbow surgery nearly a year ago.

He started for the Single-A Tampa Yankees. His line: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 SO, 1.50 ERA. Coming off of surgery, the walks are the most impressive thing, but he did unleash one wild pitch.

If you haven’t noticed yet I have been running posts on each of the players the Yankees drafted this week. There are 50 of them and I’m going to try to do as many as I can. I might start doing them out of order at some point too. So far we have the first eight draft picks up and I have at least four more on deck for today.

The common thing about these players are that they are young. The Yankees drafted 20 high schoolers in total which is a lot for a draft.

Baltimore rookie pitcher Jake Arrieta had the difficult task of facing the New York Yankees in his major league debut.

However, Arrieta held the powerful Yankees offense in check and picked up his first big league win in the Orioles' 4-3 win Thursday night at Camden Yards.

Baltimore ended a 10-game losing streak to New York and avoided being swept by the Yankees for the third time this season. New York finished their six-game road trip with a 3-3 record.

It seems like Dellin Betances has been in the New York Yankee's system forever.

And for Betances, who was considered a top minor league pitcher, it has been. He is considered one of the true No. 1 type pitchers in the Yankee system.

Drafted in the 8th round of the 2006 draft, Betances was stolen by the Yankees from a full ride to Vanderbilt University with a $1 million signing bonus.