Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Yankees (33-32) @ Athletics (34-30), 10:05pm **Liveblog/Game Chatter**
NYY: Darrell Rasner (27, RHP, 3-3, 2.58) vs. OAK: Justin Duchscherer (30, RHP, 5-4, 2.32)
Lineups…
New York Yankees
J. Damon, LF(.325/.392/.504)
D. Jeter, SS(.271/.328/.373)
B. Abreu, RF(.294/.359/.472)
A. Rodriguez, 3B(.321/.396/.589)
H. Matsui, DH(.323/.404/.459)
J. Giambi, 1B(.257/.395/.556)
J. Posada, C(.299/.365/.494)
R. Cano, 2B(.227/.268/.331)
M. Cabrera, CF(.269/.321/.397)
Oakland Athletics
J. Hannahan, DH(.236/.349/.354)
B. Crosby, SS(.264/.321/.378)
J. Cust, LF(.249/.409/.465)
E. Chavez, 3B(.286/.342/.457)
M. Ellis, 2B(.244/.329/.404)
C. Gonzalez, CF(.263/.282/.447)
D. Barton, 1B(.227/.336/.340)
T. Buck, RF(.165/.235/.330)
K. Suzuki, C(.251/.315/.302)
It’s the official Opening Day lineup for the Yankees for what, the fourth time this year?
Darrell Rasner has lost three starts in a row despite a perfectly respectable 3.26 ERA over those three games. Blame the WOE for that, as they’ve backed him up with a run a game after scoring 21 in his first three starts. Like I’ve said several times, he’s probably not 2.58 ERA good, but he could be 4.00 ERA good.
Justin Duchscherer’s transition to the rotation has been a rousing success. He has allowed five unearned runs so his ERA may be a little misleading, but he’s held opposing hitters to line of .212/.280/.285 over 215 plate appearances. That’s Mariano Rivera territory and it’s coming as a starter. Amongst pitchers who have pitched at least 50 innings this season, only Shaun Marcum, Cliff Lee, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Ervin Santana have been better on a rate basis as far as runs saved above average. It helps to have the Oakland defense behind him, as they’ve been 10 runs above average according to zone rating, but his FIP is 3.23 which is right in line with his 3.15 RA. His HR/FB ratio is probably unsustainably low at 3.9%, he’s normally in the 10% range on that, so maybe there’s a correction coming.
Even though I know it’s dumb, I’m superstitious, so I’ll be liveblogging tonight as well. Come and read me whining about stupid stuff and making fun of John Flaherty’s hair for nine innings! Go Yankees!
Top of the first:
Have I mentioned how f’ed up John Flaherty’s hair is? The dude made millions. He can do better than that.
I don’t feel like typing Duchscherer a lot today so he’s going to be Duke. Damon leads off and takes a strike and then a ball then flies out to CF.
Jeter grounds to short for out number two. Flaherty voices something I was thinking, about how Duke and Rasner are similar types of pitchers. I don’t think Duke pitches much above 88 most of the time, but he throws strikes with several pitches, just like Rasner.
Abreu goes the other way nicely for a two out single.
A-Rod falls behind quickly 0-2. He whiffs.
Bottom of the first:
Hannahan grounds out and then Rasner fans Crosby. Jack Cust walks with two outs and that brings up Chavez. Rasner dropping some nice 74 mph curves tonight.
Chavez flies out to Johnny Popup to end the inning.
Top of the second
Matsui lines it sharply but right to Crosby for the first out.
Baseclogger time. A booming fly to RF and that one’s gone! Giambi homers and the Yankees go up 1-0! That does NOT clog the bases though.
Posada hits one on the ground to Mark Ellis who throws him out easily. Cano follows up with a hard grounder down the first base line that Barton makes a nice play on. If Cano didn’t have bad luck…
Bottom of the second
Rasner’s got the one run the Yankees are going to give him. Can he make it stick?
Did you know that Mark Ellis is probably the best second-baseman in the AL? He is. He does a Cano impression here as he grounds to 2B for the first out.
Rasner freezes Gonzalez with a cutter or slider on the outside corner for strike three. I know Rasner doesn’t have great stuff but he’s turning into one of my favorite pitchers to watch.
Curve gets Barton swinging and there’s three quick outs. See, worrying about Phil Hughes’s velocity is silly. If he can command like Rasner, he can succeed throwing 92-93.
Top of the third
I can probably skip the tops of the rest of these innings without missing much, but I’m a warrior.
Melky grounds out, then Damon walks on a full count. Duke looks like he may be hurt as Bob Geren and the trainer go out to check on him, but he shakes them off.
Is it me or does Geren have more hair now than he did as a player? Sy Sperling?
The Captain lines one to right center field for a single and Damon scampers all the way to third. First and third, one out and Abreu with a chance for TEH PRODUCTIVE OUT! Which will certainly make John Sterling happy. Abreu takes a called strike three on the inside corner, and Sterling dies a little bit.
Rodriguez gets ahead 2-0, then fouls one off and takes a big slow hook for a called strike. Rodriguez looks very uncomfortable against the Duke and takes a cutter on the inside corner for strike three. Wasted opportunity, the running theme of the 2008 Yankees.
Bottom of the third
Rasner goes after Buck to start off the third. Slow roller to first and Giambi gets it easily but apparently though Andrew Brackman was pitching as his easy flip goes about a foot above Rasner’s glove and Buck reaches on the E-3. Posada backing up keeps Buck at first.
Suzuki hits a shallow fly and Cano makes a nice running catch in foul territory behind first base. One out.
Hannahan lays down a nice bunt and beats it out easily and that’s the first hit of the game for Oakland and they now have two on with one out and the notorious Bobby Crosby up. He lines one hard past a diving A-Rod for a double that ties the game at 1. Hannahan holds at third and Oakland is set up to take the lead with one out and runners on first and second.
Cust follows up with a single through the right side that plates two and Oakland now leads 3-1. Boo.
Chavez singles to left. At least it doesn’t drive in a run, but that’s four straight hits for the A’s.
Make it five straight hits. Ellis singles in Cust and the A’s now lead 4-1. Boo again.
Gonzalez corks one to left center and Melky can’t get it. That plates Chavez and Ellis and Oakland now leads 6-1. Is that my bed I hear calling?
Grounder to Giambi and this time he doesn’t mess it up, as he fields it while standing on first to get the out. Two down.
Fly ball to Damon finally ends a nightmare inning.
Top of the fourth
That whole inning really sucked. It raised Rasner’s ERA by almost one full run.
Matsui leads off. Over/under on Yankee baserunners for the rest of this game is 3. Matsui leads off with a single that bounces to Buck’s right. 2 more baserunnrs to go over the next 6 innings. Giambi takes one to the warning track in CF and Gonzalez is there for out number one.
Posada grounds into an inning-ending double play.
Bottom of the fourth
Here’s the Yankees’ 2008 season expressed in pseudocode:
WHILE (W + L
<= 162)
IF (TEAM = "Yankees" AND W >
L) THEN L = L + 1;
ELSE W = W + 1;
END IF
END WHILE
Suzuki hits a shallow blooper to short RF that Abreu can’t get to for a leadoff single.
Cutter on the outside corner gets Hannahan looking, but Suzuki steals second as Posada cannot handle it cleanly.
Rasner crosses up Posada and throws a fastball over his head and that gets Suzuki to third and now the Yankees are going to bring the infield in. Yeah, cutting of that seventh run is going to be key to winning this game.
Crosby pops up to short, and there’s the second out.
Cust singles in Suzuki and Oakland’s up 7-1 now.
Bold prediction, I’m not making the ninth. Chavez singles to LF and that’s it for Rasner. He was due for one of these I guess. Ross “Not a Long Reliever” Ohlendorf is coming in. This should just about cement the game.
***Pitching Change****
Four pitch walk loads the bases. This could be my last batter.
Ohlendorf has thrown 5 pitches. One was a strike. Pitch six is popped up to Melky to end the fourth.
Top of the fifth
How many times this season have the Yankees scored more than six runs, anyway?
In a stunning turn of events, Cano grounds out. Melky makes some kind of out as does Damon, but I didn’t see them.
Bottom of the fifth
Daric Barton doubles to right center. Buck walks and then Suzuki singles in Barton and the A’s now lead 8-1. This game sort of stinks. Something strange happens where the Oakland batter doesn’t hammer the ball and reach base safely. They’re saying it’s called an ‘out’.
I’m giving up on the liveblog, although I may come back if this become a game again. .500 is just a few innings away.
Comments
Flaherty’s hair really is alarming. He looks like an adult version of Alfalfa.
billy wagner. sandman my balls
Yes! Please win the game D-backs…was wondering why Pelfry is better than Hughes and IPK. Glad Mo is better than Wagner.
you’re right rlr. it’s a very curious doo
mets blow the game but they could still end up with a rousing walk-off win which would be kind of annoying.
schädenfreude ist Spaß
Mets are suspiciously like 2007 Yanks- sleeping Giants with all Mediots writing them off. I hope they tank as I hate them with all my heart but I think they have a serious run in them.
some seriously old school pitching going down tonight
I can’t find it in my heart to hate the Mets. They’re like the retarded little brother who needs a hug…
One of the ESPN.com writers was speculating that the Yankees would make a play for Chad Cordero later in the summer and I was wondering what you guys would think of that. He’s 26 years old coming off three good seasons but those are NL seasons and he’s had a shoulder injury this year… career ERA 2.80, career WHIP 1.20, K/9 8.20. What would it take to get a guy like that (or Fuentes, etc.)? I don’t buy the idea that our bullpen is a house of cards without Joba, but you always want to get better and we have a glut of tradeable pitching in the system that might fall under the category “sell high.”
Cox went on the DL. Does anyone know why?
You can always use more Cox on the DL to keep Pavano company.
[10] Not only do we have a glut of pitching, but we have a glut of relief pitching. I’d rather see what we have in-house before trading for a Cordero type. Fuentes is different because he’s a lefty. On the other, it’s not lack of a lefty that’s been Yankees’ problem this season…
why bunt with micah owings. i don’t get dat
Was just thinking that, eelz. Clearly, Owings went to the Cano/Cabrera school of bunting, too.
Cordero’s had some non-trivial arm issues recently hasn’t he? I know his velocity is way down, plus he may gripe about not being the closer. I’d rather just try the kids.
I agree with YM about Fuentes though. I’ve liked him for a while and would love to see the Yanks get him.
See the link on Pete’s blog? I now love Kobe Bryant.
YankeeMonkey: do you live in NYC area? Do you have friends/coworkers who are Mutts fans? Have you been around those people in, say, October of 2004, or October of any year since 2001 for that matter? You hate your slow cousing when he struts around acting like he’s the shit. The Mets aren’t retarded- they are your slow cousin who dresses in ugly orange gear and you suspect may be retarded but probably isn’t.
I think the members list needs rates stats.
Did anyone read Jim Caple’s article on ESPN that MLB should expand to Japan? Shouldn’t he be fired for such a suggestion? Look how late the game is just having baseball on the West Coast.
Top 9th: Arizona
- C. Aguila in left field
- S. Drew singled to center
- B. Wagner relieved B. Wagner
Hmm. Either The Mets cloned Billy or he performed quite a revolting act on the mound after that Drew single.
wagner does blow but i don’t think he’s that talented
Jeter is really beginning to annoy me.
PagsRags:
Yes, I do live in NYC. One of my best friends is a Mets fan. I still can’t hate ‘em 
You have a high Jeter tolerance then.
Jeter OPS watch: .698
he just abused rodriguez.
holy shit it’s tony stark
More than usual, I should say. He’s always annoyed me a lot more than he annoys most folks.
clog em all.
Giambi stinks. Cut him.
Where is everyone?
i’m kinda digging the flaherty singleton combo. it’s nothing special but it’s smooth and kinda relaxing. if Yanni was a yankees broadcasting crew he’d be Flaherty/Singleton.
Oh, we were just waiting for something good to happen.
Giambi, that bum.
Final Score.
Baseclogger clogs all the bases.
Stache power.
he a good hitter
Is Yanni a kind of laxative?
Is Yanni a kind of laxative?
If he hits the brown note.
so funny
They should tell Robby to do 50 push ups every time he makes an out on with no strikes on him.
The Raz kicks so much azz.
Razzle Dazzle.
Rasner is filthy. When did he learn to get on top of that curve like Koufax?
Must_Make_Outs_Fast
Hi. My name is The Razz. My job is to get people out and keep my team in the game.
I’m beginning to make hardcase Yankees fans like me.
Razz I am.
OTF- the kid went straight to your heart, huh?
Jeter will make the non-believers rue their words.
OTF: You forgot to add “I get no run support from my sucky team.”
He’s gettin it done Irv. Not a lotta that going around this season. ‘cept for Moose.
I thought it was supposed to be unpleasant to rue something. But no! I happy!
Jeter will make the non-believers rue their words.
It’s not that I enjoy being annoyed with Jeter, but he hasn’t given me much choice this season.
Rally! :banana:
First to third on a single? Are these the Yankees?
every time i hate on jeter he does something to make me take it back
i thought you were only allowed go 1st to 3rd if mike scioscia was your manager
this season, it’s been about every third time.
Good work, Skeets.
Prehensile tail biting upcoming for Miss Monkey
Bad work, Bobaloo.
haha
I love when Waldman slurs like she’s been sippin’ the hootch. It’s more fun to imagine her just totally loaded.
Aargh! WOE is us.
Wow Alex.
Sterling dies a little bit.
He’s not the only one.
that was whack
Bad work, Alexander.
I love when Waldman slurs like she’s been sippin’ the hootch. It’s more fun to imagine her just totally loaded.
If you’re going to imagine her at all, you better be loaded yourself.
scouting report on how top pitch to A-rod.
Hanging Slider right down the middle
I love when Waldman slurs like she’s been sippin’ the hootch.
This team may drive me to absinthe soon.
Struck out looking twice in a row with a runner on third. ABs like that are why this team looks so F’in bad this year.
Okay Rasner, ya got yer one run son.
Dear Nimrod,
You may not want to look fastball every pitch against a lad that throws one 20% of the time.
OTF’s Katt Thurm.
Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder.
Oh god, Don. That’s terrible.
*giggles*
That was spazztastic.
The Giambi giveth and the Giambi taketh away.
Oh, Jason. So good at the bat, so bad afield.
Nice play Cano!
Waldman: “in a lot of places that’s probably in the stands, or, uh, probably in the stands.”
The Jason, he giveth and he taketh away.
Later folks. Gotta work soon. Go Razzzzzzz ma tazzzzzzz.
Hey, no breaking up a no-hitter with a bunt. Curt Schilling told me.
Yea, I’ll second OTF. Go Yanks.
Hey, the site is hiding my own comments from me! Which means they will soon make less sense than normal. I’ll never know.
Seriously, I love this. Because I hate myself.
There goes the 1-0 game. How dare Rasner allow that to happen.
Muthafucka
holy shit Bobby Crosby has 21 double already? how did that happen?
Damn.
That looked like a pathetic bloop on the GameCast. Was it so?
That was joyless.
Oh well. I may tune in later.
Sterling can’t get past the missed productive out.
I hate this team- they are so….decent.
Here we go I can see the Mediots now: D.Wright refuses to lose- willed the team to victory.
My bad- excuse the anti-Met paranoia. The Raz is coming dwn to earth.
Pags, buddy, you’re got to relax. Who the f cares about the Mets anyway? Let them do their thing.
And seriously, how can you hate on D Wright? Kid’s harmless (and a pretty darn good ballplayer to boot).
Baseball is not a fun game.
People who I never blocked, because I never block anyone, are showing up as blocked for me.
this sucks.
haha working on a ohlendorf has a sweet moustache
So I guess Rasner is now getting sucked into the same regressive vortex that has kept the Yanks spinning around .500.
Next entry: Relentlessly .500
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