The Captain went 4-for-6 with his first 2 home runs of the season, 10 total bases, 3 RBIs. He is now batting .276 with 2 homers and 9 RBIs. And, you know, that's not bad for a shortstop at this point in the season.
As Suzyn Waldman pointed out on today's radio broadcast, Hanley Ramirez, the 27-year-old Florida Marlins shortstop that many are holding up as a comparison for the soon-to-be 37-year-old Jeter, is currently batting .195, with 1 homer and 13 RBIs.
On the Other Team, Jose Reyes is batting .331, but has only 1 home run, and his 12 RBIs aren't that far ahead of Jeter. And, no, he's still never been a better fielder, just as that previous incredibly overrated Met shortstop, Rey Ordonez, was.
As for the rest of the Yankees, CC Sabathia (3-2) allowed the Texas Rangers to score 3 runs in the bottom of the 1st and 1 in the 2nd. But after that, it was nearly all Yankees, as the Bronx Bombers came back with 2 in the 3rd and another 2 in the 5th, another 2 in the 7th, and 6 in the 8th. (Alex Rodriguez, of course, missed the extra point. Kidding: A-Rod went 1-for-4 with an RBI.)
Curtis Granderson went 3-for-4, including his AL-leading 11th homer (Alfonso Soriano is the only NLer with 11), and 2 RBIs. Mark Teixeira hit his 9th, and Francisco Cervelli his 1st.
Ranger starter Dave Bush only went 4 innings, and the losing pitcher ended up being yesterday's winning pitcher, longtime Yankee punching bag Arthur Rhodes (1-2).
CC settled down a little, and then Joba Chamberlain, Rafael Soriano and Lance Pendleton each pitched a scoreless inning of relief. Yankees 12, Rangers 5.
The Yanks took only 3 games of the 7-game roadtrip, but that's a little deceiving. Yes, they lost the last 3 in Detroit after winning the 1st, but took 2 out of 3 in Texas in front of sellout crowds of over 48,000 each day. (In contrast, only the last of the 4 Detroit games was over 23,000, and that made it to 30,000. How come they got so much more in the only day game in that series?)
The Yanks have looked a bit shaky, but are in 1st place, technically tied with the Tampa Bay Rays but a game ahead of them in the All-Important Loss Column.
And the Captain is hitting, and driving in runs, and getting ever closer to Club Clemente, pop. 27... for the moment.
I still think he'll get it on or before his birthday, June 26.
Jeter 2960 40
Rivera 571 30
A-Rod 618 145
Magic Number 129 (to eliminate Rays, 125 for Scum & O's, 124 for Jays)
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