New York Yankees

Yesterday was indeed a weird day for the Yankees. First there was Alex Rodriguez ’s run-in with Oakland pitcher Dallas Braden after he stepped on the mound returning to first after a foul ball, then there was a triple play, and all of this happened in just barely over two hours.

Yes, a Yankee game lasted only two hours and seven minutes. Oh, and to make things weirder, the Yankees lost with CC Sabathia on the mound.

The New York Yankees accomplished a rare feature in their 4-2 loss against the Oakland Athletics on Thursday afternoon. Pitcher CC Sabathia was pitching very well, but did not get enough run support to top the A's.

Sabathia pitched to Kurt Suzuki. The ball was chopped to Alex Rodriguez, who rushed to third and stepped on the bag to get Daric Barton out.

Rodriguez then beamed the ball nicely to Robinson Cano awaiting at second base to force Ryan Sweeney out.

The Yankees may have lost by 2 runs against the Oakland A's, but this afternoon's game will be remembered for one defensive play.

In the bottom of the 6th inning of today's game, Kurt Suzuki stepped to the plate with  Ryan Sweeney on 1st and Daric Barton on 2nd base and nobody out. Suzuki, in the first inning, drilled a 3-R Run home run against CC Sabathia to give Oakland the early lead.

He is not the savior, and he was never a prodigy, but he was a talented right-handed pitcher who had a popping fastball and killer, knee-buckling curve.

The fact that Phil Hughes carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning of last night's game on the road, against an American League West opponent in his second start of the season, seemed familiar to Yankee fans.

Things are going as well as you could ever hope for the Yankees this season.

They have won each of their first five series this season, the first time they’ve done that since 1926, and are sitting in first place with an 11-3 record.

They also have their ace, CC Sabathia , on the mound today as they try to go for their seventh win in a row.

Here are some notes and quotes.

Phil Hughes was absolutely dominant on Wednesday night against the Oakland Athletics. He had his best stuff of the season, possibly his career, last night as he came ever so close to no hitting the A's.

Hughes' control was terrific. His stuff was electric. The young pitcher took a no-hitter into the eighth inning before giving up an infield single to Eric Chavez on a ball hit up the middle that went off Hughes' forearm. Hughes could not find the ball in time and Chavez was on with the A's first hit of the night.

On Wednesday night, Phil Hughes made his second start of the season against the Oakland A's and was looking for an even stronger performance from his first start.

Any stronger of a performance, and you would have thought that it was Ron Guidry and not Hughes pitching on the mound.

In case you fell asleep before or during the game and think I am exaggerating, I am not kidding because Hughes in fact, was that good Wednesday night.

Brett Gardner continues to produce, at least against right handed pitching.

In last night's win for the New York Yankees against the Oakland Athletics, Gardner was 2-3 with a walk and a run batted in. What is more, the RBI came with two outs in the ninth. The Yankees held a precarious one-run lead after Phil Hughes had taken a no-hitter into the eighth inning, and Gardner's RBI added an insurance run.

Gardner was less impressive in the opening game of the three-game series in Oakland on Tuesday night when he went 0-3 against a left handed pitcher.

Earlier in the day I wrote about former Yankee pitchers Edwar Ramirez and Chad Gaudin getting their rings yesterday and I wrote that the Yankees really haven’t let everyone know when they’ll be getting their rings.

I certainly wasn’t foreshadowing anything, but earlier today Xavier Nady got a nice surprise when the Yankees general manager Brian Cashman showed up at Citi Field before the Cubs, Nady’s current team, took on the Mets and gave him him his ring.

One of the best Clint Eastwood movies from his Western days was "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly." Fantastic. Rent it if you have not seen it. In fact, get a bunch of Clint movies one rainy day and park yourself on the couch.

This movie title is going to be the same as this Yankee theme. It will be a bi-weekly segment on the most recent Yankee two week stretch of games.