AL East Round Up: Easter Bunny Edition

Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

New York Yankees

The Yankees have managed to climb into first place on the backs of their starting rotation. And, they had better! They’ve spent enough on it.  Price tags aside, the Yankee starters have been impressive. Ivan Nova started it off last Sunday with a win over the Boston Red Sox holding them to 2 runs over 7 1/3 innings. On Wednesday in a double header caused by bad weather against the Chicago Cubs, Masahiro Tanaka and Michael Pineda combined for 14 innings and 0 (!) runs. Tanaka started the double dip with a 10 strike out performance! Blue Jay fans can take heart, though. Not everything is as sweet as chocolate for the Yankees this week as the bullpen also had their own implosion. They coughed up 8 runs in their final 2 innings against the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday. Saturday was no easier as the Yankees were spanked 16-1 by the Rays.

***UPDATE*** Some bad news broke today:

Offensively, the Yankees are being led by the likes of Alfonso Soriano, Brian McCann (they went back to back on Thursday, which is great for someone who happens to have both of them on his fantasy team) and Carlos Beltran, who in his 17th(!) season is batting .298 with 4HR. Speaking of Beltran, he took a tumble over a right field wall in Tampa Bay:

Someone should remind him he is not a youngster any more. Who does he think he is? Brett Lawrie? He’s older than I am and there is NO WAY you’d see me going anywhere near that wall! Bryan Hoch at MLB.com tells us that the MRI on Betran’s wrist was negative. Here’s hoping he is OK. Us old folks don’t heal like we used to.

NOTES:

-Bryan Hoch informs us that Mark Teixeira and David Robertson should be returning from the DL Sunday and Tuesday respectively.

– A HUGE Brett Lawrie celebratory high five to the Yankees who pulled off an elusive triple play on Friday night against the Rays: