Wednesday, June 27, 2007
6/27/07: New York Yankees (36-38) at Baltimore Orioles (33-43) - 7:05 PM ET **Liveblog**
**Larry In**
Lineups!
Yankees
DH Johnny Damon
SS Derek Jeter
LF Hideki Matsui
3B Alex Rodriguez
C Jorge Posada
RF Bobby Abreu
CF Melky Cabrera
2B Robinson Cano
1B Miguel Cairo 
SP Clemens (1-2, 5.09)
Orioles
2B Roberts
SS Gomez
RF Markakis
C Hernandez
DH Huff
3B Mora
1B Millar
LF Gibbons
CF Patterson
SP Bedard (5-4, 3.60)
Are you ready to step up? Because the Yankees apparently aren’t.
**Larry OUT!**
**Cutter IN**
Thanks Larry. Good luck with the game tonight. Don’t screw up.
And now to anoint a new temporary mascot:
Pre-game chatter: As you probably know by now Larry has the Gameday for tonight’s game in Baltimore. So check it out even if you have the game on the tube. And let’s hope his presence brings the team good luck.
Top of the 1st: Damon leads off and an out of some sort is expected. A DH as leadoff seems completely against logic to me. Damon strikes out looking. What a surprise.
With a lefty on the mound, I’d say the Yankees might not reach the 3 runs/game they are averaging on this road trip. Jeter strikes out swinging. This game is starting off swimingly.
Matsui in the 3-hole today doesn’t make much sense to me. I guess, it doesn’t make much sense most days but still. The Yankee batters are at least working Bedard’s pitch count up. But Matsui strikes out looking. Fantastic. Wonder if they care.
Bottom of the 1st: Think Clemens can match Bedard k for k? Guess not as Roberts grounds out to Cairo.
Gomez lines one up the middle. That was put on a tee for him. Not a good sign. Oakland is up 3-0 in the first. Have to root against them Indians now. Clemens induces the 4-6-3. That’s nice.
Top of the 2nd: I’ve seen that Select Dental commercial about 5,000 times now. I can recite word for word. And the guy who plays the husband is definitely gay. A-Rod strikes out looking. This game sucks already.
Posada rules. He lines a single to left center. The rest of the lineup will probably strike out, however.
Abreu exceeds my expectations, but just barely as he flies out to left.
The strike zone seems a bit stingy for both teams. Melky grounds out to second.
Bottom of the 2nd: Hernandez flies out to center.
Tapper to 3rd off Huff’s bat and A-Rod makes the play at first. Ooo, its thundering outside here in NYC. If the liveblog stops suddenly, its because my building got hit by lightning.
Mora knocks one off Clemens leg, he scrambles after the ricochet and gets it to first from his knees in time. Good play and he looks alright.
Top of the 3rd: Cano strikes out looking on 3 pitches. Helluva job, Robby.
Wow, 3-0 to Cairo. Does he inspire fear in opposing pitchers? Now 3-1. Cairo grounds out to 3rd.
Damon grounds out to 1st. I know Bedard is good. But he really doesn’t have to be because the Yankees’ offense is terrible. They have 3 hitters in this lineup. The rest suck or are sucking.
Bottom of the 3rd: Jackass grounds out to Cano.
Gibbons flies out to Melky.
Patterson flies out right to Abreu. 1-2-3 inning.
Top of the 4th: 7-0 A’s in the 2nd already in Cleveland. Jeter swings at the first pitch and flies out to right center.
Matsui dinks one to 3rd. Mora has to come in and loses a grasp on the ball in an attempt to get it to 1st quickly. Ruled a hit. He wasn’t even bare-handing the ball.
A-Rod grounds to 3rd and Mora gets the out at 2nd but A-Rod beats the throw to first. Inning alive…..for now.
Posada strikes out looking on a pitch right down the middle. I have no idea what he was thinking there. It looked like he was taking all the way….. 
Bottom of the 4th: Roberts singles to left. Matsui caught it on a bounce running in. I had flashbacks of the dive that broke his wrist.
Flyout to center.
Roberts has been dancing off first this whole time and he gets a huge jump, stealing second with no problem. Markakis grounds out to first and now Roberts is only 90 feet away from home.
Hernandez walks on 3-2. Clemens had him 3-0 to start.
Huff ends the inning with a groundout.
Top of the 5th: Abreu grounds out to second. Yawn.
Melky bunts to third, but too hard and he’s out at first. Double yawn.
After falling behind 0-2, Cano actually works a walk with 4 straight balls. Color me amazed.
But the pitcher is up. Kay is describing Cairo as a life saver for the Yankees because of Doug M.‘s injury. That’s not what I would call him, although he filled in admirably. Hey look, another weak grounder to short, thrown to second for the out. Kill me.
Bottom of the 5th: Sox lost in extras out in Seattle. Doesn’t matter much anymore does it? Mora grounds out to Jeter.
Jackass pops out to Cano. And, if I may shed the sarcasm for a moment, I really don’t think the AL East is out of reach. Stranger things have happened. But I don’t see it happening unless changes are made to the roster.
Gibbons walks.
Patterson, who isn’t good, doubles to the corner in right. Men on second and third.
The Rocket gets a ground out to Cano. No runs were scored….
Top of the 6th: Damon hits a come-backer to Bedard who makes the stab and throws to first.
Remember when the Orioles were a pretty good team back in the 90’s? Those were some good games between these two teams. Now, well, its like watching two old dogs fighting over table scraps. Bedard strikes out Jeter. Yawners.
Matsui swings on 3-0 and pops up to shallow center. This offense is boring as hell.
Bottom of the 6th: It really is amazing that the Yankees are so offensively deficient right now. You’d think with the few very good hitters that they have in the lineup, they’d average more than 3 runs a game this passed week. Trainers are out to look at Roger for some reason. And now play continues. Although the umpires had to have a meeting about how many balls there are. Only one. Gomez singles to center. Torre is just dying to put Vizcaino in.
A walk. I can see where this is going….
A not so hard hit grounder up the middle and Jeter of course can’t get it so a run scores. Men on 1st and 2nd. 1-0 Orioles
Huff homers to left center. 4-0 Orioles
Game over, in theory.
And I bid you good day.
**Cutter out**
***Keith in***
There is a brutal thunderstorm here in the Bronx. If this were a home game, they’d have called it by now. Food for thought, that….
Top of the 7th
Faced with a four-run deficit, it’s time for the Yanks to step up. But these aren’t the Yankees, these are the Washington Nationals. A-Rod strikes out, Jorge grounds out, and Abreu (though he sees eight pitches in the at-bat) grounds out.
The word of the evening is “sad.” Or maybe “pathetic.”
Bottom of the 7th
Clemens out, Bruney in. Let’s see how few strikes he throws…..
He faces the top of the order. Roberts grounds out on a 1-1 pitch to Cano. A quick out.
Another 1-1 pitch gets hit, this Gomez to Abreu. Two quick outs.
Markakis swings on the first pitch, and pops out to A-Rod. That may the best inning of Bruney’s life. Okay, it probably isn’t, but right now it seems that way….
Top of the 8th
I mentioned this in the comments earlier, but it’s worth bringing up here: during the fifth, when a Daily News beat writer joins Sterling and Waldman in the radio booth, the name of Shea Hillenbrand came up, and John Sterling, so help me St. Brigit, said he’d be a good fit with the Yanks because he’s had high on-base percentages “always.”
It impresses me how spectacularly wrong Sterling is capable of being. I mean, it doesn’t get any wronger than that. Man oh man.
Bedard out (rejoice!), Walker in to face Melky. He inspires no confidence by quickly going 0-2.
That’ll teach me to doubt Melky. He gets a base hit to center field. I bet he never leaves first base for the rest of the inning.
Cano—who I want to nickname “Can’to,” but that doesn’t really scan—strikes out, to the lack of surprise of the entire Western Hemisphere.
Phillips in to pinch hit for Cairo, who swings at the first pitch and flies out to deep left. Heavy sigh.
Sexy Calves up to make the third out. I wrote that sentence before Damon actually stepped up to the plate, but it seemed a reasonable prediction, and sure enough, he grounded into a force out. My prediction about Melky was equally valid.
You know, I considered the possibility of renewing my Sunday season ticket package—had it in 2002 and 2003—this year, and wound up not doing it. I’m suddenly grateful.
Bottom of the 8th
Bruney out, Mo in.
Say what?
WHERE THE HELL WAS MO LAST NIGHT WHEN WE FUCKING NEEDED HIM?????????????????
And then Mo goes 3-0 to Hernandez. That’s just so encouraging….
Then he goes to 3-2 and induces a groundout.
Huff flies out to Melky. Sterling has yet to grow tired of pointing out that, if the Yanks don’t score tonight, they’ll have averaged one run per game for the past four games. Be nice if he mentioned how stupid it is that Mo didn’t pitch last night, but that would require, y’know, thought.
Mora grounds out.
Top of the 9th
El Capitan, Gojira, and A-Rod due up, which is who you want up in this situation, at least.
Walker out, Bradford in.
El Capitan starts things off with an infield single. That brings up Gojira in a perfect GIDP situation.
Instead, it’s “just” a forceout. So now there’s an out and a slower runner on first.
A-Rod up. Let’s see if he has the ninth-inning mojo going tonight. Apparently, he does: he gets a single. First and second, one out for Jorgie.
Jorgie runs the count to 3-2 for maximum cliché value—and then strikes out swinging. Sigh.
Abreu up. Let’s see if he bunts….
No, instead he grounds out weakly, which is the touchstone for the 2007 New York Yankees.
Ballgame over. Now three games under .500 and sinking fast. Losing two in a row to the Orioles is like—well, being swept by the Rockies, honestly.
I was hoping that my come-in-to-liveblog-in-midgame mojo might be working—prior to this, the Yankees only lost when I liveblogged the game from the very beginning—but there’s apparently only so much I can do. It was worth a shot.
Goodnight everybody!
***Keith out***
Comments
I distinctly remember hearing the chant “Yankees suck” and disagreeing with it. Now…not so much.
To the Yankees:“Do not go gentle into that good night.”
Congratulations Larry!
Do you have enough access at the stadiums yet to nail Torre with a tranquilizer dart and then rewrite the lineup?
I don’t think i can watch today.
Bedard vs this lineup… it’s a mortal lock for loss number 39. It’ll be a very good night if they manage a single base hit this evening. This is what it’s come down to…
From the last time I saw Bedard, he’s got a tendency to try to get too fine with his pitching, and will walk a bunch of guys with two outs.
I was so worried that Torre might play Philips versus the lefty instead of my mainest man Miggy. I mean without Arod and Miggy driving runs in where would we be?
Melky just hit a home run into the left-centerfield seats in batting practice and walked out of the cage with is arms raised like he’d just won a game. I’m guess he doesn’t hit many BP homers…
The Cairo obsession is dumb, and bad for the team.
And what have the recent bench coaches added? As I posted three years or so ago, Zimmer may have been the brains behind the throne. Certainly Girardi, Mazzilli and Mattingly have added nothing, so it appears to me. At least Zimmer, brimming with input and ideas, crazy as many may have been, made Torre think. Does anyone get the feeling that Mattingly is regularly offering Torre options, or anything much at all, during the game? Your green tea, Joe. Thanks Donny.
Last night the Yanks were hitting a lot of line drives and grounders in BP, they seem to be hitting a lot of bombs today. That could be a positive sign.
Larry, grasping at straws. But then we need something.
or tilting at windmills
Just ran into John Sterling.
I’ve been out of the loop the past couple of days, so maybe I missed it.. What happened to Abreu hitting #3 infront of A-Rod? When the Yanks got hot, that is all Suzyn Waldman would talk about. “Alex loves Abreu hitting in front of him” yadda yadda..
“I’ve been out of the loop the past couple of days, so maybe I missed it.. What happened to Abreu hitting #3 infront of A-Rod?”
I think that bunt (if you missed it, Abreu bunted in an extra innings tie game with a runner on first and no one out, the lead runner got nailed, Yanks didn’t score, and eventually lost) really pissed Joe off.
I can’t believe they’re paying me to watch Roger Clemens pitch. This is awesome.
Well, Clemens and Bedard are in the outfield warming up, so I’m out. I’ll be back if there’s a rain delay.
Good luck, Larry.
OK, Melky and Cano are playing long toss down the third base line. Cano is standing 30 feet behind home plate, Cabrera is standing on the warning track.
They’re hitting each other on the fly.
Amazing.
I really need to learn how to throw. Damon’s arm makes mine look like a slinky. I’m confident in having strength to be above softball-league average throwing, but my performance is terrible.
Well, gameday’s pretty cool - plenty of data.
What do they do when the pitch is miscalled by the umpire? Put the pitch on the nearest point on the strike zone?
4 outs 4 ks for the Bombers
from Rob Neyer’s Blog:
“I’m 100 percent sure that Joe Torre is trying to win.
Well, maybe 99 percent sure. I know just enough about quantum physics to know I can’t be 100 percent sure about anything.
But I’m 99 percent sure that Torre is trying to win. After all, someday he’s going to be elected to the Hall of Fame as a manager, and there aren’t many Hall of Fame managers who weren’t really, really trying to win.
You had to wonder last night, though. You had to wonder, while watching Scott Proctor walk home the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning, with Mariano Rivera never having thrown a single pitch in the game.
As a friend wrote me last night, a few seconds after Corey Patterson trotted home with that winning run:
‘It’s just insane. There is no logical reason why, facing a situation WHERE YOU CANNOT GIVE UP A RUN, OR YOU LOSE (and fall two games under .500), you would choose Proctor over Rivera. This is managing to a statistic—the save—rather than to win. According to Torre’s logic, you use Proctor when you simply can’t give up a run, and you use Rivera when you can. Absurd.’
Indeed. I’ve been harping on this since (at least) Game 4 of the 2003 World Series, when the Yankees lost a 12-inning game and Rivera never left the bullpen. But Torre keeps making the same mistake, over and over and over again.
Last Saturday in San Francisco, the Yankees lost a 13-inning game. Rivera never left the bullpen. In fact, every relief pitcher pitched except the Yankees’ best relief pitcher.
Granted, Rivera had thrown 20 pitches the night before. So we’ll cut Torre some slack there. But last night? Rivera hadn’t pitched at all since that 20-pitch outing last Friday. Last night he was as well-rested as you’d ever want your closer to be. No slack on this one.
In Torre’s autobiography he wrote, “I’m more concerned about winning the game than trying to cover my butt.”
Really, Joe? Next time you’re on the road and the game’s tied in the ninth, prove it.”
What are the chances that Pettite gets so pissed off this year that he doesn’t exercise his option to pitch next year and walks?
Pretty agile for a fat old guy.
“What are the chances that Pettite gets so pissed off this year that he doesn’t exercise his option to pitch next year and walks?”
The chances are big
Cano swung and missed to the first 2 pitches off the strike zone and stared at strike 3.
Cairo should take 3 pitches when the count is 3-0
Damon sucks. The HR last night was a fluke.
The gameday pic of Clemens makes him look like he needs more fiber in his diet.
If a pitch is called a strike, we mark it in the zone. If it’s a ball, it’s out of the zone.
We don’t show up the umps. Ever.
Francona went to Paplebon with one out in the bottom of the ninth with the game tied because there were runners on the corners. It seems he understands.
Does MASN have an interview every inning? I don’t give a fuck about hearing the cliches their manager is going to give them, so why the hell do they force us to listen to a couple bimbos blather on the whole half inning?
the fucking sox have a manager.
“We don’t show up the umps. Ever.”
I guess that’s the spirit of the game.
So it seems like every out A-Rod makes is a K or a groundout to third (or a deep fly, but ok). Is there any significance to the latter?
I dunno, I mean, weren’t we asking Torre to go to Rivera to START the ninth?
So it’s not like Francona didn’t start the inning without using his best reliever.
He just was smarter than Torre in WHEN to go to his best reliever.
Man, Bedard is really sneaky with those…. fastballs down the middle? Are you fucking kidding me?
That was down the pipe Jorge
I meant to say “smarter than Torre in that he actually WENT to his best reliever after initially screwing up and not doing so.”
Meanwhile, the Yankees are just absolutely excrutiating to watch right now.
It’s funny, I honestly enjoyed it more when they could hit but couldn’t pitch, as the pitching problems at least made sense (rookies and injuries).
There is no reason, even with the Giambi and Damon injury, that the Yankees can’t score more runs.
Rivera has pitched so little this season, and the Yankees’ situation is so desperate that it makes Torre’s usage pattern all the more inexcusable.
So… if Matsui didn’t break his wrist on that play last year, then he probably dives for that, right?
A real left fielder catches that one.
^ Yes.
Most likely, j, yeah.
Why is Andy Phillips on this roster? In what situation does he play?
My yes was in response to #41.
Melky gave Abreu the finger on that to make sure he stayed away.
Phillips was probably called up because they knew Torre was going to foolishly never play Phelps, so they thought that Phillips, who is a good defender at first, would sort of force Torre to use his better bat than Cairo, because if Cairo is not the only good defender at first, then there’s no reason to start him over the better hitter, right?
However logical that seems, Torre determined that he still likes Cairo better.
So lame.
Melky is the CF we should have caught that ball yesterady. Wasn’t Abreu’s fault at all.
By the way, almost all of us understood that Giambi’s absence had NOTHING to do with the win streak.
However, a lot of the media types did, so they better effin’ not use “there’s no Giambi” as an excuse for the Yankees’ crappy hitting.
Clemens is on pace to pitch 8 scoreless innings. WE NEED IT ROCKET!
Matsuzaka is pitching like an ace now.
It’s hilarious that giving up A RUN for a Yankee pitcher is “oh fuck, we’re screwed.”
Ree-donk-you-lus.
WHAT??? REALLY???
Cano walks.. oh my god.
In Joe’s defense, he gave Phillips one full game to hit and he didn’t. I mean, what do you want from him?
Did Cano really just work a walk after being down 0-2? Way to clear the pitcher’s spot!
I love this idiot out of town announcers who know why the Yankees are struggling.
“With Giambi out, Cairo has had to take over at 1B.”
In Joe’s defense, he gave Phillips one full game to hit and he didn’t. I mean, what do you want from him?
And, hilariously enough, that is almost certainly how Torre looks at it.
“I GAVE him a shot! He’s now dead to me!”
The Sox dropped their 3rd straight.
Now MASN is interviewing Daniel Cabrera and had to cut away from this game to give us highlights of his fucking AB in interleague. This is the worst channel I’ve had to watch a game on. By far.
highlights of his fucking AB
Which weren’t even highlights.. they were shots of him looking at strike 3.
You know, as bad as the Yankees lineup is, I’m looking at teams like the Mariners or the Orioles or the Athletics - the Yankees should be scoring more runs than these teams!
John Sterling just said, I swear to God, that Shea Hillenbrand would be a good addition to the Yankees because he’s had a great OBP “always.”
*boggle*
Clemens is going to K this chump, the Yanks are going to score 10 runs in the 6th and we’re going to go on to win the division. You heard it hear first!
Is the new Die Hard movie out yet?
Wishful thinking
John Sterling just said, I swear to God, that Shea Hillenbrand would be a good addition to the Yankees because he’s had a great OBP “always.”
patterson gets some cheapass hits. why can’t we do that?
Sox lose.
John Sterling just said, I swear to God, that Shea Hillenbrand would be a good addition to the Yankees because he’s had a great OBP “always.”
*boggle*
I just checked. Did you remember that Hillenbrand has played in TWO freakin’ All-Star games?!?!
Talk about boggling the mind.
I wish to note that, while I don’t dig the guy that much, Clemens is amazing.
To pitch this well at his age…it is staggering.
And the Yankees can’t give him any fucking run support.
Ree-dunk-you-lus.
I want Damon to take 3 strikes on 3-0
Take the payoff John
You know what I’d like, if Abreu isn’t going to bat third?
Just move everyone up one spot.
How cool would it be to have A-Rod bat behind Jeter and before Posada?
The team’s three good hitters {GASP!} batting back-to-back-to-back!?!? NONSENSE!
At least Bedard has 88 pitches now.
ITS FUCKING UNBELIEVABLE THAT MATSUI GOT A GREEN LIGHT ON 3-0.
TORRE MUST BE FIRED.
Brian, I was thinking the same thing. It seems like Torre is still holding out for the real Matsui and Abreu to show up. The Jeter-ARod-Posada-Matsui combo should be able to score some runs.
Okay, this obviously pisses me off, but I get a SLIGHT tinge of happiness of seeing how devastated Sterling is by all this. 
HOW THE FUCK CAN YOU GIVE MATSUI THE GREEN LIGHT ON 3-0 AHEAD OF AROD!! DIE YOU FUCKERS
91 pitches
haha, dakranker and I with eerily similar posts.
When Matsui POPPED UP on a 3-0 pitch, with only the best hitter in baseball on deck, you could just tell that Sterling was sooo disgusted. It was awesome.
oh jesus fucking christ, now what?
Melky almost did his inside the park homerun thing..
It would be great if the yanks could put up 20 or 30 runs in the next inning.
WHERE THE FUCK WAS THAT PITCH?
Melky almost did his inside the park homerun thing..
If he was a mortal kombat character, that would be his special move.
Melky deffense hasn’t been good lately. He has no value anymore.
THERE GOES THE SEASON.
Cement Shoes advertised by Jeter
Game over.
Ah, one run. An insurmountable lead.
I can only imagine what Clemens must be thinking. And I bet it is unpleasant.
Guidry sort of sucks as a pitching coach.
AWESOME!
i was thinking in the beginning of the game that huff’s stats suck, but it just made him seem all the more due
That is pretty hilariously awful.
Anything good on TV tonight?
Cutter, mind if I cut in on the liveblog? I’m listening to this monstrosity anyhow….
Next entry: A Little Exercise about Reliever Utilization (plus Playoff Odds through June 27)
Previous entry: Gameday
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