Robinson Cano

The first road game for the Yankees in the 2009 Playoffs was taking on the red-hot Minnesota Twins.

After three games of dominating pitching and late-inning clutch hitting, the Yankees disposed of Minnesota in a series sweep and moved on in the playoffs.

Starting on Friday, the Yankees will take on the Los Angeles Angels in the American League Championship Series.

The Angels are no strangers to the Yankees in the playoffs, and quite frankly, have been a pain in the Yankees' rear-ends in recent time.

Among the 134 pitchers Derek Jeter has faced at least 20 times in his Hall of Fame career, he has the lowest batting average against Scott Kazmir (.111) and Jered Weaver (.118).

That's not a good sign.

What is a good sign is the way the Yankees beat the Angels the last two times they played them on Sept. 22 and 23 in Anaheim—previously a graveyard for New York victories.

The Halos ousted the Bombers from the playoffs in 2002 and 2005, but this year, the two teams split the 10 games they played and were first and second in the Majors in runs scored.

Carl Pavano robbed the Yankees of $38 million from 2005-2008 and on Sunday night, New York will look to make him pay for it.

The 33-year-old right-hander is the only thing standing between the Bombers and their first trip to the American League Championship Series since 2004, and there's more on the line in Game 3 than just the satisfaction of sweeping the Twins and exacting revenge on Pavano.

The New York Yankees have reached the halfway point of the season at 48-33, four games better than last season at this time (44-37), and have won 10 of their last 11 games entering their Monday afternoon tilt against the Toronto Blue Jays.

With the team at the exact midpoint of the season, now is a great time to assess how the players are performing this year.

Welcome to the latest edition of Bombers Banter, the New York Yankees round table.  As the Bombers battle Boston for the division lead and the best record in the AL, we look ahead to interleague play and discuss the Yanks' abundance of starting pitching, as well as the new Stadium.

If you would like to take part in future Bombers Banter discussions, post your e-mail address on my bulletin board.

The New York Yankees once again put on a late-inning show on Sunday afternoon.

Down 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning, the Yanks batted around and scored three runs against the Tampa Bay Rays, going on to beat them by a score of 4-3.

The Yankees turned in one of their most complete performances of the season on Memorial Day as they destroyed the first-place Texas Rangers by a score of 11-1.

With Chien-Ming Wang's return on the horizon, Phil Hughes made a strong case to remain the rotation by shutting out the hot-hitting Rangers through eight innings, while Alex Rodriguez led the offensive explosion with a five-hit day.

Here are the grades from Sunday's victory in Arlington.

The Philadelphia Phillies were playing like the defending World Series Champions up until the ninth inning.

The game on Saturday afternoon seemed all but over when Alex Rodriguez stepped up to the plate with closer Brad Lidge on the mound.

There are a number of excellent second basemen in the major leagues.

A few of the best would have to include Ian Kinsler of Texas, Placido Polanco of Detroit, Brian Roberts of Baltimore, Dustin Pedroia of Boston, Jeff Keppinger of Houston, Freddy Sanchez of Pittsburgh, Chase Utley of Philadelphia, and Brandon Phillips of Cincinnati.

But at this time in his career, at age 26, the New York Yankees have the best of the entire bunch in Robinson Cano.

Cano carries a career batting average of .304 and a career on-base percentage of .336.

Through the first 23 games Yankee second baseman, Robinson Cano, was on fire.  After the Yankees 10-9 win over the Angels on May 1, Robbie was hitting .378 and had an incredible number of multiple hit games.

He also had five home runs and 17 RBI to that point.

In the five games since he has one hit in 21 at-bats and no RBI.

Of more concern is what seems to be a change in demeanor and concentration.

Watching Cano hit last night against Tampa Bay, he did not appear into the game.