Yankees winning in spite of the offense?

It took only 2 hours and 40 minutes for the Yankees to see Hideki Matsui get pied in the face by AJ Burnett. In case you didn't know, that's the new signature Yankee sentiment given to the player who delivers the game winning hit. Tonight that was Hit-Deki Matsui, who crushed a 2-2 Jim Johnson pitch into the night in the bottom of the 9th. Matsui's home run came with 1 out and no one on in the 9th inning in a 1-1 ball game. Despite hitting the 9th game winning hit of the season and 27th come from behind came, the story of the game was the pitching and the defense.

Andy Pettitte started for the Yankees, meanwhile questions surround him about whether he's slowing down or will fall apart in the second half just like last year. Pettitte temporarily answered those critics with a dominant pitching performance, 7 1/3 innings of 1 run ball and not to mention a season high 8 K's. Pettitte seemed to be mowing down batters and never looked uncomfortable. Any time he reached any sort of jam, he made all the pitches he needed to get out of the situation unscathed. Even after Pettitte left the game, the Yankees relief pitcher Phil Coke was able to get out of a 2nd and 3rd 1 out jam left on by andy Pettitte. The batter Nick Markakis smoked a ground ball to Teixeira, who fielded it cleanly and fired home. Molina applied the tag and Izturis was out at home. Next batter Adam Jones got to see only 1 pitch that inning as the ball was a wild one and got away from Molina. Molina raced down to the ball, slid and threw almost simultaneously to Coke who tagged Roberts for the final out in the inning. Twice the Orioles failed to score that inning with a man on third. All game the Yankees got big outs in big situations, including numerous double plays and great defensive plays.

For the third game in a row the Yankees won by a score of 2-1, showing they are capable of winning games on the strength of their starters and bullpen. The offense came up with some clutch hits when it needed (all 3 games taking the lead late in the game) and of the 6 runs, 5 of them coming on 5 solo HRs- Hinske, Teixeira, Matsui, and Arod twice. But overall the offense has been a bit sluggish out of the gate in the second half. The reason this hasn't been mentioned? The Yankees are 4-0. When the team wins the questions and the concerns will of course disappear.

But this article isn't meant to point out the offensive struggles, but more importantly to highlight the incredible pitching and defense that has propelled this 4 game win streak. In the 4 games since the All-Star break, the Yankees have held their opponents to a total of 6 runs. 6 runs on 26 hits in 36 innings. The starters for the Yankees had quality starts (at least 6 innings of 3 ER or less) in every one of the 4 games and the bullpen only gave up 1 run on the Marcus Thames solo homer off of Aceves on Saturday. The defense has been highlighted by the spectacular work of Mark Teixeira. Mark showed why he deserved the 8 yr 160+ million dollar contract he offered the Yankees in the offseason. He hit home runs in both Friday and Sunday and then came up with outrageous defensive plays in all the games. Molina also showed why he is on the 25 man roster and not Cervelli, saving the Yankees from giving up a run in the 8th. Overall it's been taking a total team effort on every front to win three straight games while only scoring 2 runs in each. The Yankees go for 5 in a row tomorrow and we'll see if they can continue their pitching dominance with Sergio Mitre on the mound.