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Monday, October 5, 2009

2009: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (First Half Edition)

I used to a do a quick season review of some of the key games in the Yankees season, although I didn’t do it in 2007 or 2008. With a couple of off days before the postseason starts, I thought it might be a good time to sit back and reflect on some of the 2009 season’s key moments and games. I’m going to split it into two posts, so this one is just focused on the first half. I’m obviously going to miss some along the way, so feel to add to the list in the comments.

Click on the date and score to go to the boxscore of the game.

April 6: Yankees 5, Orioles 10
C.C. Sabathia gets bombed in his Yankee debut, allowing six runs and walking five hitters and not making it out of the fifth, causing me to re-run his CAIRO projection.

April 8: Yankees 5, Orioles 7
Panic city, as the Yankees fell to 0-2.  More troublesome was Chien-Ming Wang giving us a preview of what would end up being a disaster of a season as he allowed seven runs and nine hits before being pulled in the fourth.

April 9: Yankees 11, Orioles 2
A.J. Burnett pitches well as the Yankees finally win a game.  Robinson Cano, Mark Teixeira and Nick Swisher all homer, giving us a preview of what we’d be seeing 243 times in 2009.

April 15: Yankees 4, Rays 3
After splitting the first two games of a three game series with one of the teams the Yankees were expected to be fighting for a playoff spot, the Yankees entered the eighth inning trailing 3-2. Derek Jeter led off the eighth with a double, and Johnny Damon followed up with another one to tie the game at 3. 

What happened in the ninth is still perhaps the most unexpected thing to ever happen on a baseball field.  After a Brett Gardner strikeout, Cody Ransom doubled off Troy Percival.  Yes, that Cody Ransom.  After a Jose Molina lineout, Derek Jeter singled in Ransom to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead, and a perfect ninth by Mariano Rivera sealed the win.

April 16: Yankees 2, Indians 10
The Yankees drop the opener in NYS when Jose Veras and Damaso Marte give up nine runs in the 7th.

April 17: Yankees 6, Indians 5
After a solid first start, Joba Chamberlain got touched up in his second one and the Yankees trailed 5-3, before tallying single runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, the last run coming on Jeter’s third homer of the season.  Jeter hit his third homer of 2008 on June 1.

April 18: Yankees 4, Indians 22
NYS reveals how disgraceful it will end up being as the Indians hit six HRs and score 16 runs in the first 3 innings off Wang and Anthony Claggett, who didn’t have much of a Yankee career before being waived last month.

April 22: Yankees 9, Athletics 7
With a 6-4 lead in the seventh, Sabathia gives up a pair to tie it.  The Yanks and A’s trade zeroes until the fourteenth, when Melky Cabrera takes former Yankee Dan Giese for the win.  This would be the first of 15 walkoff wins.  It was the Yankees’ third straight win, which supposedly gave them momentum heading into…

April 24: Yankees 4, Red Sox 5
At 9-6 entering this game, the Yankees trailed the 10-5 Red Sox by one game in the standings.  Joba Chamberlain worked around nine hits and four walks to hold the Red Sox to two runs, and the Yankees took a 4-2 lead against Hideki Okajima in the top of the seventh.  Jonathan Albaladejo (seriously, check the box score) and Phil Coke held the Red Sox scoreless over the sventh and eighth, and the Yankees were three outs away from the win with Mo on the mound.  Mo had pitched in seven games to this point in the season, and had allowed no runs. 

Still, if you’d watched, you could see he wasn’t quite right.  We would later find out that he was still building up his arm strength after offseason shoulder surgery.  He struck out David Ortiz, which was impressive at the time, although not as much now in hindsight.  Kevin Youkilis singled, then J.D. Drew grounded out to Cano.  Needing just one more out Mo threw a cutter in a bad spot and Jason Bay hit a booming shot out just left of dead center over the Green Monster to tie the game at four.  A Youkilis HR off Damaso Marte in the 11th gave the Red Sox the 5-4 win.

April 25, 2009: Yankees 11, Red Sox 16
Staked to a 6-0 lead, Burnett gives up five runs in the fourth and three in the fifth, wasting a Yankee offense that scored eight runs off Josh Beckett.  The Yankees tried chipping away but their pen gave up another eight runs.

April 26: Red Sox 4, Yankees 1
The Red Sox complete the sweep, and every talking head dances with glee on the Yankees’ grave.  Oh, how wrong they’d end up being…

April 27: Yankees 2, Tigers 4
Justin Verlander outduels Sabathia (let’s hope that we don’t see those words in the same sentence ever again, unless the order is reversed) at Comerica Park. Trailing 4-0 in the ninth, a Cano double is followed up by Swisher and Cabrera singles, which cut the lead to 4-1 and puts runners on first and third with no outs and brings up Jorge Posada as the tying run. 

Unfortunately, Posada hits into a double play and Ramiro Pena flies out to end the thread.  The Yankees drop below .500 at 9-10.

April 28: Yankees 11, Tigers 0
This game was actually scoreless after six innings.  Before the Yankees wised up, they actually had Phil Hughes start a game.  Can you imagine the foolishness?  Anyway, it was Hughes’s first start of the season, and he pitched six scoreless innings allowing just two hits.  The Yankees exploded for 10 runs in the seventh to turn it into a laugher.

May 1: Yankees 10, Angels 9
The Yankees take a quick 4-0 lead in the first against Jered Weaver, who then proceeds to shut them out for the next five innings. Andy “Battle Cat” Pettitte battles the Angels scoreless through the first five innings, until the Angels rally for six against him and Mark Melancon in the sixth. 

Another three runs give the Halos a 9-4 lead.  It stays that way until the bottom of the eighth when the Yankees score four to cut the lead to 9-8.  With the tying run on second, Johnny Damon is called out on strikes, and it looks like long odds. 

However, the Yankees first four base runners reach in the ninth via a walk and three singles.  The third single (by Posada) plates Teixeira and Angel Berroa (yeah, he was on base, but as a pinch-runner, he did not reach of his own volition) and the Yankees have their second walkoff win of 2009.

May 7: Yankees 6, Rays 8
The Yankees were on a four game losing streak and trailed in the eighth by two. A Jeter single and Damon HR tie the game, but Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria hit back-to-back HRs off Rivera in the top of the ninth and the Yankees lose their fifth straight game.  The homers were Rivera’s third and fourth allowed of the season over his first 49 batters faced. 

For comparison’s sake, he allowed four HRs total in 2008 over 259 batters faced, and also four total in 2007 over 295 batters faced. The Yankees were now 13-15 on the season, and the lead story on Baseball Tonight every night.

May 8: Yankees 4, Orioles 0
After a lackluster start to his Yankee career with a 4.85 ERA and one win in six starts, Sabathia dominates the Orioles pitching a CG shutout, the first by a Yankee since Chien-Ming Wang did it on July 28, 2006.  Also of note, Alex Rodriguez returned from the DL and homered in his first PA.

May 10: Yankees 5, Orioles 3
Down 3-2, Johnny Damon’s two-out three-run homer in the eighth off Jim Johnson gives the Yankees the lead, and eventually the win.

May 15: Yankees 5, Twins 4
Walkoff win # 3 came against one of the best closers in the game, Joe Nathan.  Down 3-1, the Yankees’ odds of winning were probably around the same as a Mike Lupica article about the Yankees that doesn’t whine about payroll.  Brett Gardner led off with a triple, Teixiera singled to drive him in and then Rodriguez walked.  Nathan recovered to fan Hideki Matsui and getting Swisher to ground out. 

With first base open, the Twins elected to walk Robinson Cano, apparently not aware that there were runners in scoring position.  Melky took offense, singling in the tying and go ahead runs.  Nathan had pitched the previous three days which was probably part of the reason it happened.  He entered the game with a 1.29 ERA and left with a 3.07 ERA.

May 16: Yankees 6, Twins 4
Another walkoff, this one in extra innings as Alex “Garbage Time” Rodriguez took Craig Breslow deep with Mark Teixeira on base for the 6-4 win.

May 17: Yankees 3, Twins 2
For anyone that wants to say the Yankees “dominated” the Twins in the regular season, it took three straight walkoffs to win the first three games of this series. This was another extra inning affair, with Damon doing the honors.

May 23: Yankees 5, Phillies 4
Another walkoff.  This time, down 4-2 against the 2008 World Series champs and last year’s perfect closer, Brad Lidge, the Yankees rallied to tie the game on a two-run Rodriguez homer, thne won it after a Cano single and steal and a Cabrera single.  In hindsight rallying of Lidge doesn’t seem that impressive, but it was nice at the time.

June 1: Yankees 5, Indians 2
Chamberlain pitches the eighth.  And seventh. And sixth. And fifth. And fourth. And third. And second. And first, in the longest outing of his career.

June 6: Yankees 7, Rays 9
You ask Mariano Rivera to intentionally walk someone?

June 8: Yankees 5, Rays 3
Phil Hughes makes his first relief appearance of 2009 and picks up his first hold.  This would end up being a pretty significant event even if it came in the seventh instead of the eighth.

June 11: Yankees 3, Red Sox 4
Trying to take their first game against Boston after dropping the first seven, C.C. Sabathia dominates over the first seven innings and the Yankees take a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the eighth.  Joe Girardi sticks with Sabathia while the first three batters reach, then brings in Alfredo Aceves, who gives up back to back sngles then a sacrifice fly to give the Red Sox the lead and eventually the win.

June 12: Yankees 9, Mets 8
Reeling after being swept by Boston, the Yankees returned home to face the Mets.  I suppose you can make a case about feeling sorry for Mets fans, but I’m pretty sure if the roles were reversed most of them would be cackling with glee. 

Anyway, the Mets win this game 99.9% of the time in an alternate universe.  In this universe, Luis Castillo drops a two-out ninth inning infield pop up with his team up by one and the tying and winning runs on base.  Both score. Yankees win, Mets lose. 

June 14: Yankees 15, Mets 0
The Yankees torch Johan Santana, and all the articles about how stupid the Yankees were for not trading Hughes and Melky for him magically stop appearing.

June 18: Yankees 0, Nationals 3
The Yankees lose the rubber game of a series. AT HOME.  AGAINST THE NATIONALS.  Craig Stammen throws 6.1 scoreless innings.  It would be the only outing of his 19 on the season where he didn’t allow at least one run.

June 20: Yankees 1, Marlins 2
Burnett pitches well.  Josh Johnson pitches better.  A Damon error in LF ends up being the difference.

June 23: Yankees 0, Braves 4
The only game I went to in person this year.  Considered by many to be the turning point of the season, as the Yankees would drop this one then win their next seven.

June 23: Yankees 8, Braves 4
Joe Girardi gets ejected, and the Yankees score eight runs over the last four innings to beat the Braves.

June 28: Yankees 4, Mets 2
Hard to believe, but Wang won a game this year.  This was the one, completing a sweep of the Mets.  Even more noteworthy in this game was Mo picking up his 500th career save, and his first career RBI on a bases-loaded walk.  No would have lead the AL in OBP this year if he had qualified.

July 4: Yankees 6, Blue Jays 5
Posada singles in the winning run in the 12th for walkoff # 8.

July 10: Yankees 6, Angels 10
The Yankees stormed into Anaheim before the All Star Break having won 13 of their last 15 games, and jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead. Unfortunately, Chamberlain, Melancona nd Brian Bruney gave up the lead and then some, although they weren’t helped by errors by Jeter and Rodriguez. 

July 12: Yankees 4, Angels 5
The Angels complete the sweep, and make us all mad.