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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***