Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Yankees.com: Yanks rally, walk off with win over Jays
NEW YORK—Hideki Matsui woke up a slumbering offense with a game-tying home run, and Francisco Cervelli came through with the winning hit, as the Yankees came from behind to defeat the Blue Jays on Wednesday, 5-4.
With New York’s bats quiet after a two-run spurt in the first inning, Matsui put some life back into the lineup with a two-run shot—his 25th—into the right-field seats off Scott Downs in the eighth inning.
Matsui’s really been an important piece of the 2009 Yankees, rebounding nicely from a very disappointing 2008. And it was nice to see Brett Gardner and Francisco Cervelli combine to provide the winning run. Neither one is likely to be a star, or even a full-time starter, but they both have chances to play roles in the majors, and it’s nice to see the Yankee system creating those types of players.
It was the Yankees’ 14th walkoff win this season, which breaks a tie with the 1961 and 1978 Yankees for most walkoffs in the Retrosheet (1954-2008) era. What do the 1961 and 1978 Yankees have in common? I’ll leave that as an exercise for you, the readers.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Yankees.com: Yankees prevail against Blue Jays
TORONTO—The Yankees weren’t expecting Andy Pettitte to keep replicating his excellent pitching performances the rest of the way. But by the end of a long afternoon, Phil Hughes had impersonated Mariano Rivera with perfection, and for that they were thankful.
With Rivera unavailable on Saturday as he continues to guard a mild injury, Hughes stepped up to record a four-out save and preserve the victory for Pettitte and the Yankees, who dispatched the Blue Jays with a 6-4 decision at Rogers Centre.
Hughes looked awesome. Coupled with a Chicago 5-1 win over Boston, the Yankees’ magic number dropped by 2.
If the Yankees play .500 ball the rest of the season, Boston will have to go 22-5 just to tie. Tomorrow, the Yankees can eliminate the Blue Jays from the AL East race with a win. That probably makes it the most important game of the season.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Yankees.com: Posada’s four RBIs power Yanks past Jays
TORONTO—The Yankees brought their winning ways north of the border on Thursday, with Jorge Posada’s four-RBI evening—including a two-run homer—pacing the Bombers past the Blue Jays, 10-5.
New York needed the production to cover up a short outing at Rogers Centre by spot starter Chad Gaudin, who lasted just 3 2/3 innings before turning the game over to the bullpen.
Gaudin didn’t impress in his audition for meaningful innings down the stretch, but the Yankee offense made it a moot point. Posada hit his 20th home run of the season, giving the Yankees their seventh player with at least 20 HRs. If Derek Jeter can hit three more, the Yankees would be the first team ever to have eight separate players with at least 20 HRs. That doesn’t really mean much, but it’s cool.
The single biggest reason the Yankees missed the postseason last year was the loss of Posada. That he’s been able to come back at his age after a pretty serious injury and surgery has been one of the most important stories of the 2009 season.
In unrelated news, C.C. Sabathia was named AL’s best pitcher in August..
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Yankees.com: Cano seals Yanks’ huge homestand
NEW YORK—The Yankees are getting pretty good at this whole extra-inning thing.
Five days after beating Boston in a 15-inning affair, New York needed 11 innings to beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-3, on Robinson Cano’s walk-off single at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday. The win—the Yankees’ 11th walk-off victory of the season—capped a 6-1 homestand for New York, marking its ninth win in 10 games.
What’s higher, the probability of winning nine of 10 games, or Robinson Cano hitting a walk-off hit with RISP?
The Yankee bullpen came up big after six shaky innings by A.J. Burnett (although it was still a quality start), throwing five shutout innings. Since May 3 the Yankee bullpen has been really good. How good?
4/6- 5/3
IP: 76.7
H: 82
R: 62
HR: 57
BB: 39
K: 73
AVG/OBP/SLG: .272/.357/.503
ERA: 6.69
FIP: 5.73
CERA: 5.57
RSAR: -9
5/4-8/12
IP: 283.3
H: 231
R: 115
HR: 40
BB: 101
K: 268
AVG/OBP/SLG: .220/.290/.378
ERA: 3.43
FIP: 4.30
CERA: 3.40
RSAR: 77
Total
IP: 360.0
H: 313
R: 177
HR: 56
BB: 140
K: 341
AVG/OBP/SLG: .232/.305/.406
ERA: 4.13
FIP: 4.60
CERA: 3.84
RSAR: 68
FIP: Fielding independent pitching
CERA: Component ERA (31 times OBP times SLG)
RSAR: Runs saved above replacement
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Yankees.com: Back-to-back jacks lift Yanks vs. Jays
NEW YORK—The Yankees are streaking, and it’s hard to hold a streaking team down. Just ask the Blue Jays.
Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada hit back-to-back homers in the eighth inning Tuesday to tie the game, then put the Yanks ahead in a 7-5 over the Jays at Yankee Stadium.
His team trailing by a run heading into the eighth, Matsui drilled Jesse Carlson’s eighth pitch into the second deck in right field to tie the game at 4. Moments later, Posada hit a shorter shot just over the right-field wall, where it glanced off a fan.
After a video review, umpires upheld the original call that the fan did not interfere with the ball, and the home run stood. Later in the inning, Melky Cabrera singled home Eric Hinske and scored on Johnny Damon’s RBI single to provide some insurance off Josh Roenicke.
Another exciting win for our Yanks.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Yankees.com: Yanks’ offense does what Mitre can’t
TORONTO—A date with Roy Halladay and a start by Sergio Mitre left the Yankees entering this two-game series with the Blue Jays unsure how they might fare. Certainly, they could not afford to stumble, with the Red Sox looming over the weekend. But their task at Rogers Centre was no easy one.
By the time the Yankees capped their road trip with two wins in as many games against the Jays, however, with an 8-4 win in Wednesday’s finale, they seemed primed for the Red Sox or anyone else. The Yankees, after a stumble earlier on their road trip, are suddenly hot again.
I’m not a believer in momentum, but I do believe that heading into this series with Boston trailing by 2.5 games is a good thing.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Yankees.com: Behind Pettitte, Yanks solve Halladay
TORONTO—For all of the talk surrounding Roy Halladay on Tuesday, the presence of another starting pitcher—Andy Pettitte—seemed a mere afterthought. No matter how well Pettitte might pitch, there was a decent chance it would not be enough.
Turns out, though, Pettitte’s effort was plenty. He allowed just one run over 6 2/3 innings, helping the Yankees beat Halladay and the Blue Jays, 5-3, at the Rogers Centre.
Pettitte since the All Star Break:
GS: 4
IP: 26.2
H: 20
R: 8
ER: 7
HR: 1
BB: 7
K: 29
ERA: 2.36
FIP: 2.30
Not bad for a fourth starter.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
NY Post: GIRARDI CALLS OUT JETER AFTER BAD CALLS BEDEVIL YANKEES
Jeter took a page from the Jose Reyes base-running manual and got nailed attempting to steal third base with nobody out in the first inning. That leads to “B”—though the throw had him beaten by plenty, Jeter was never tagged by Scott Rolen, a point that didn’t seem important to umpire Marty Foster, who issued the first of three questionable calls by his crew against the Yankees.
Whether or not Jeter was actually safe, it was a poor judgement call on his part. We don’t know if Swisher’s hit would have happened if Jeter hadn’t been thrown out, but we do know the Yankees had the tying run on base when the game ended and they could’ve used that out. Jeter’s won far more games than he’s lost this year, so I’m not going to kill him for this mistake.
Overall, it’s hard to complain about where the team sits right now aside from some individual performances. They’re playing at a 95 win pace, and are one game out of first place and 2.5 games ahead of Texas in the wild card race. If, like me, you believe Texas is playing over their head, that shouldn’t be a concern. If, also like me, you are concerned about Tampa Bay, the Yankees are 4.5 games ahead of them. There’s a reasonable argument to be made that Tampa is better than New York this year. But I think it’s hard to argue that they’re 9 games better (which is what they’d have to be over the second half of the season to catch the Yankees on paper).
This road trip will tell us a fair amount about where the team may end up, because Minnesota and LA of A are both good teams and playing them on the road is going to be rough. Meanwhile, Boston will have two games with Oakland and four games with KC (missing Greinke of course). So my hope is the Yankees go 4-2 while I expect Boston goes 6-0, and the Yanks enter the All Star Break at three games back.
However, doing Log5 using current WPCT adjusted for home/road (a bit lazy but all I have time for right now), I get the following expected records for Boston and New York over the next six games.
Boston: 4.2 - 1.8
New York: 3.0 - 3.0
So realistically we should expect that the Yanks may lose a game in the standings. I’d take it.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Yankees.com: Jeter, Tex, Mo headed to All-Star Game
NEW YORK—Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter received the most votes in the American League and first baseman Mark Teixeira edged Red Sox counterpart Kevin Youkilis to represent the Junior Circuit at the 2009 All-Star Game in St. Louis.
Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, just the second player in Major League history to record 500 or more saves, was also tabbed in player balloting to serve in the AL’s bullpen for the July 14 contest in St. Louis.
Jeter and Rivera are Yankees All-Stars for the 10th times in their careers, with Jeter representing the AL for the fourth consecutive year and Rivera making it for the fifth time in the past six seasons. Teixeira is an All-Star for just the second time, having made his only prior appearance in 2004.
All three deserving. I was surprised to see that Teix has only been an All Star once before.
Nice comeback win today after Joba Chamberlain’s worst start of the year. All Star Jeter hit the go-ahead two-run HR in the fifth, turning an 8-7 deficit into a 9-8 lead, then Alfredo Aceves pitched four dominant innings to earn his first save of the year, while providing a much-needed rest to his teammates in the bullpen.
The Yankees are 15 games over .500 for the first time this year.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Yankees.com: Posada propels Yanks to walk-off win
NEW YORK—Jorge Posada ripped a game-winning single to center field off Shawn Camp in the bottom of the 12th inning as the Yankees posted a 6-5 Independence Day victory over the Blue Jays on Saturday at Yankee Stadium.
Camp opened his third frame of work by allowing a double to Mark Teixeira that struck the first-base bag. An intentional walk to Alex Rodriguez followed, and Robinson Cano bunted into a fielder’s choice before Posada came through with the hit to end it. Brett Tomko hurled the final inning to log the victory.
Chien-Ming Wang had an MRI at Columbia Presbyterian and was back at the park by the end of the game.
He is headed for the DL with what is being described as a strain with bursitis. But everybody seems to think that he will be back within a month.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Playing Out the Rest of May 1000 Times
I don't know if tonight's game was the best win of the season, but if it wasn't, it's up there. C.C. Sabathia pitched well again, Brett Gardner made a good throw home to nab a potential Blue Jay run, Hideki Matsui returned from a sore hamstring to hit the go-ahead HR, and Mariano Rivera pitched a perfect ninth with better velocity than he's shown this season (at least according to Pitch F/X). A 4-2 road trip has the Yankees back at .500 and heading home for what my be the defining homestand of the season.If you take out C.C.'s first start of the year, he has put up an ERA of 2.96 over 51.2 innings (FIP of 3.62). We can probably stop worrying about him.
In a post last week, regular reader/poster sam had asked about running the rest of May through Diamond Mind to see what we should reasonably expect. I was finally able to get that run. This is for the final 16 games of the month, using the current 25 man roster. So no Posado or Molino, no Bruney, Marte or Wang, no Nady. The games are:
Four games with Minnesota at home.
Three games with Baltimore at home.
Three games with Philadelphia at home.
Three games at Texas.
Three games at Cleveland.
A total of 16 games, 10 at home.
So I ran the rest of May 1000 times. On average, the Yankees went 10-6, broken down like this:
Four games with Minnesota at home (2.4 - 1.6).
Three games with Baltimore at home (2.0 - 1.0).
Three games with Philadelphia at home (1.7 - 1.3).
Three games at Texas. (1.9 - 1.1)
Three games at Cleveland. (1.9 - 1.1)
Here's a look at the different records the Yankees had over this stretch on a percentage basis:
| W - L | Count | % |
| 15 - 1 | 8 | 0.8% |
| 14 - 2 | 19 | 1.9% |
| 13 - 3 | 85 | 8.5% |
| 12 - 4 | 121 | 12.1% |
| 11 - 5 | 196 | 19.6% |
| 10 - 6 | 198 | 19.8% |
| 9 - 7 | 167 | 16.7% |
| 8 - 8 | 120 | 12.0% |
| 7 - 9 | 55 | 5.5% |
| 6 - 10 | 26 | 2.6% |
| 5 - 11 | 7 | 0.7% |
| 4 - 12 | 2 | 0.2% |
I would sign up for 15-1 right now, but would also settle for 14-2 if pressed.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
NY Times Bats Blog: As Halladay Silences Yanks, Wang Nears Return
That was pretty obvious Tuesday, when the Yankees did not have a single flyout until the ninth inning. Pure domination, but the Yankees are used to it. In his last 19 starts against them, Halladay is 13-2 with a 2.09 E.R.A.
There is no shame in losing to Halladay, but the Yankees could have made a statement if they had won. The Blue Jays own the division for now, at 23-12, six and a half games better than the Yankees, who had their usual dose of veterans nursing injuries. Derek Jeter was out with a pulled oblique muscle, and Hideki Matsui left with tightness in his right hamstring.
At least, for the Yankees, there was Chien-Ming Wang, who tossed six shutout innings for Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre against Charlotte, whose lineup included an old friend, Andy Phillips (he’s batting .342).
It doesn’t sound like they will DL Jeter yet, but I think that’s a mistake. Good news about Wang anyway, although I’d like to see if his velocity and movement were also improved.
Losing to Halladay in and of itself isn’t really a huge deal, but the Yankees have the pitching edge on paper the next two games and it would be nice to see them win them both.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
WOE (50-44) @ Blue Jays (46-48), 1:07pm **Game Chatter**
NYY: A. Pettitte (10-6, 3.93 ERA) Tor: A. Burnett (9-8, 5.23 ERA)
Lineups:
Punchless Judy
D. Jeter, SS (.287/.349/.399)
B. Abreu, RF (.271/.344/.432)
A. Rodriguez, 3B (.313/.394/.585)
J. Giambi, DH (.249/.384/.518)
J. Posada, C (.270/.357/.421)
R. Cano, 2B (.248/.285/.362)
M. Cabrera, CF (.244/.304/.350)
W. Betemit, 1B (.250/.275/.423)
B. Gardner, LF (.182/.282/.182)
Toronto Blue Jays
J. Inglett, CF (.310/.365/.458)
D. Eckstein, DH (.269/.356/.351)
L. Overbay, 1B (.269/.369/.400)
R. Barajas, C (.273/.323/.471)
K. Mench, RF (.210/.282/.290)
S. Rolen, 3B (.263/.356/.426)
A. Lind, LF (.263/.288/.474)
M. Scutaro, 2B (.261/.348/.324)
J. McDonald, SS (.173/.232/.192)
Saturday, July 12, 2008
WOE (49-44) @ Blue Jays (46-47), 1:07pm **Game Chatter**
NYY: D. Rasner (4-7, 4.94 ERA) Tor: J. Litsch (8-5, 4.01 ERA)
Lineups:
Punchless Judy
D. Jeter, SS (.286/.348/.391)
B. Abreu, RF (.272/.345/.436)
A. Rodriguez, 3B (.311/.394/.578)
J. Giambi, 1B (.253/.389/.526)
J. Posada, DH (.276/.356/.429)
R. Cano, (.249/.286/.361)
M. Cabrera, CF (.241/.303/.349)
C. Moeller, C (.254/.338/.381)
B. Gardner, LF (.129/.200/.129)
Toronto Blue Jays
J. Inglett, RF (.307/.364/.445)
M. Scutaro, 2B (.258/.347/.322)
L. Overbay, 1B (.272/.374/.405)
M. Stairs, DH (.257/.344/.412)
B. Wilkerson, CF (.229/.324/.323)
S. Rolen, 3B (.267/.361/.433)
A. Lind, LF (.264/.289/.458)
G. Zaun, C (.248/.356/.382)
J. McDonald, SS (.167/.231/.188)
Maybe they’ll get 3 hits today.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Two
Yes, it was Halladay. But does it really matter who they’re facing anymore?
Friday, April 4, 2008
Hughes The Man
There was plenty of reason to be happy about the Yankees’ 3-2 victory over Toronto last night, but the biggest reason was a very strong outing by Phil Hughes. Hughes was perfect until the fourth, when the incomparable David Eckstein led off with a double. We get it, he’s scrappy. Enough. Hughes showed me something this inning by striking out Vernon Wells and Frank Thomas with Alex Rios sitting on third after a stolen base and an error with one out.
Hughes gave up another run in the fifth but was great in the sixth, when he was pulled after 87 pitches, 58 of which were strikes. Hughes probably had another inning in him, but if he’s on an innings limit this year, expect this to be the norm. Hughes’s velocity wasn’t particularly impressive, as his fastball sat around 91 most of the game, but it seems that he has something deceptive in his delivery that makes him hard to hit so I’m not overly worried about that.
Billy Traber made his Yankee debut and fanned Lyle Overbay before giving away to the freshly-mulleted Brian Bruney. Bruney got the last two outs in the seventh then handed off to Joba Chamberlain who pitched a scoreless eighth. Mo pitched around a leadoff single in the ninth to nail it down. Of note was a play by Derek Jeter with one out and with Wells on second, where Jeter got to a sharply hit ball by Overbay up the middle for the second out. I don’t think Jeter would have made that play last year, although it looked like he was shading up the middle slightly.
On the offensive side, not a whole hell of a lot happened. Dustin McGowan was tough, throwing mid 90s gas with a tough breaking pitch and holding the Yankees scoreless over the first five innings. McGowan tired in the sixth and the Yankees scored on a wild pitch and a sac fly. Bobby Abreu blooped in the go-ahead and eventual winning run in the 8th and that was that.
Toronto’s front three starters are as good as anyone in baseball’s so I’m not worried about the lack of offense in this series. The Yanks took two of three and played pretty well all around. Next up are the new and improved Rays.
Update: Enjoy this while it lasts.
| Player | TM | LG | Pos | INN | Ch | PM | ZR | Avg ZR | AvgPM | Diff | RS | RS/162 |
| Jeter, Derek | NYY | AL | SS | 27 | 11 | 10 | .909 | .832 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 34 |
Ch: Playable Chances
PM: Plays Made
ZR: Zone Rating (PM/Ch)
Avg ZR: Average Zone Rating for league/position
Avg PM: Avg ZR times Ch
Diff: Difference between PM and AvgPM
RS: Runs Saved
RS/162: Runs Saved pro-rated to 162 games
Update Part Deux: Jonathan noticed that we got a plug from Kat O'Brien at Newsday.com.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Blue Jays 5, Yankees 2
The Yankees couldn’t solve A.J. Burnett and fell to the Blue Jays 5-2 last night. The story of the game was how Burnett stifled the offense for the most part. Mike Mussina came within one out of a quality start before giving up a fourth run with two outs in the top of the sixth. Moose wasn’t great last night, but he pitched ok. His defense didn’t really help him as Jason Giambi showed why he’s ideally the DH. The other problem I took out of last night is that Toronto’s not projected to be one of the better offenses in the league this year and Moose still only managed to strike out two while walking two while getting hit around some.
According to Fangraphs, Moose allowed 20 balls in play last night. 9 were grounders, which was good, 6 were fly balls, and 5 were line drives. A 25% line drive rate is not a good sign for effectiveness. Nor is the fact that Pitch F/X thought his fastball was a changeup as he hovered around 85 mph for most of the night. To be fair, he seemed to be getting squeezed on the outside corner, although it always seems like Moose is getting squeezed, but I didn’t see enough last night to make me not worry about what he’ll be able to do this year.
LaTroy Hawkins relieved Moose and gave up the last Blue Jay run, Kyle Farnsworth gave up two hits but pitched a scoreless eighth and Ross Ohlendorf pitched a scoreless ninth, but the Yankees couldn’t capitalize when they got the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth as Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi, and Robinson Cano all flied out against Jeremy Accardo and the Yanks fell to 1-1.
Yanks go for the series victory tonight with Phil Hughes facing Dustin McGowan. Should be a fun pitching matchup.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
A Good Start
Well, for at least one more day we can dream of the Yankees going 162-0. The Yankees edged Toronto 3-2 in a well-played game by both teams. Chien-Ming Wang pitched 7 effective innings, although he didn’t seem particularly sharp at times. Roy Halladay matched Wang pitch for pitch and inning for inning and run for run until the seventh, when the Yankees scratched out their third run. Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera finished it off, and the Yankees are tied for first place.
So much attention has been paid to Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy and Chamberlain, but Wang is probably the key guy in the rotation this year. After his disastrous post-season and poor spring training it was good to see him pitching pretty well.
I’ve written way too much about the Yankee defense during the last few years, surely to the point where a lot of you are sick of reading about it. Melky Cabrera made a couple of fine catches in center field, justifying his zone rating and projection. An OF of Bobby Abreu, Melky and Johnny Damon has a chance to be the best defensive Yankee OF since the late 90s. Even the much-maligned Jason Giambi played a solid defensive game. I’m not expecting either good defense or good health out of Giambi this year, so whatever he can contribute will be a big boost.
In the big picture, it’s just one game, but it’s great to have meaningful baseball back, and it’s even better when it starts out with a win.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Despite Kyle
With the New York Yankees heading into the top of the eighth inning in a 1-1 tie against the Toronto Blue Jays, Joe Torre once again went to Kyle Farnsworth in last night’s game. He promptly gave up single to Frank Thomas followed by a throwing error to first on a pick off attempt that allowed pinch runner Howie Clark to move to second. It was at this point that Yankee fans collectively moaned, “Here we go again.” And for good reason. After getting Overbay to line out, Farnsworth surrendered a hard line drive double to left field off of Aaron Hill’s bat which scored the go ahead run for the Blue Jays. The Yankees were able to get two runners on with two outs in the bottom of the inning but Cano’s struggles with RISP continued as he struck out swinging to end the threat.
At that point, it seemed like the Yankees were going to lose a tough game again, wasting another well pitched start from Pettitte. But in the bottom of the ninth, the Jays pretty much handed over their lead by allowing two singles, two stolen bases, and a balk to tie up the game (and throw in a play at the plate which didn’t go the Yankees way). Two ground outs from Jeter and Abreu would move the game into extra frames. Vizcaino would pitch an effective top half of the 10th allowing only one base runner and striking out Greg Zaun to end the inning. The Blue Jays would then get retaliation against Ha-Rod by beaning him to give the Yankees a lead off runner. A-Rod would move to second on a wild pitch and then, after Matsui struckout, the Jays would walk Posada to get to Robinson Cano. Despite some guy in the Liveblog thread claiming that “Robby just can’t hit in big spots,” the Yankee second basemen sliced a game winning, walk off single to end the game.
The Yankees have started to win the games they couldn’t win in the first half of the season; that is, close games. Since the All-Star Break, the Yankees have won five out of six games, the last four of those wins by two runs or less. Now, we would all prefer the Yankees to win every game by 5+ runs, but sometimes you happen to face a pretty darn good pitcher. After a shaky first inning Halladay was pretty much lights out, giving up 5 hits and 3 walks in his 7 innings of work. Pettitte did everything the Yankees could have asked him to do by keeping the team in the game through 7 innings. While he wouldn’t factor into the decision, his performance was a big part of the win. The Yankees will need many more of these outings if they hope to make the playoffs, especially when facing off against studs like Roy Halladay.
Perhaps lost in the hoopla of the walk-off win was the fact that Johnny Damon continues to struggle at the plate. He’s hitless in his last 3 games going 0 for 11 and dropping his line to .238/.339/.330. Equally bad in his last 3 games has been Bobby Abreu. Bobby is 0 for his last 13 with 4 Ks, including an 0-5 night at the plate tonight. The Yankees can’t afford one dead bat in the top of the order, let alone two. If they are going to keep this current hot streak going, Abreu will need to get back on his game and Damon will either have to be dropped down in the lineup or go on the DL, if he is indeed still hurting.
Nonetheless, the Yankees are starting to show some of that fire that we used to see a lot of prior to this season. They won a game in which they faced a great pitcher and which they were losing after 8 innings. They showed heart and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Tonight, the Yankees can celebrate a great comeback win….despite Kyle.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Five Straight Losses and Counting…
The Yankees just keep coming up with new ways to lose. In yesterday’s 3-2 loss at Toronto, it took a steal of home in the seventh and a sac fly in the 8th to blow the game, as Andy Pettitte again pitched well in a loss.
It will get better at some point, because it can’t keep getting worse, can it?
Monday, October 2, 2006
Getting Ready
Bernie Williams’s tenure as Yankee manager ended up being unsuccessful, as his team fell to the Blue Jays 7-5 yesterday afternoon. Jaret Wright wasn’t particularly good, but overall on the season he was about average as far as the value he provided the team. His peripherals indicate that he’s been lucky, but hopefully that luck continues through the rest of October.
For the last few weeks it’s been almost destined that the Yankees would meet Minnesota in the ALDS. However, a slumping Tigers team managed to blow their big division lead and now will come to the Bronx instead. It seems like a far more favorable matchup for the Yankees, but as RB in DC from BTF reminded me, so did the Angels in 2002.
I’ll have a detailed statistical preview up later today or tomorrow hopefully. Here are the tentative matchups and starting times.
Game 1: Wang vs. Robertson, 8 p.m. on Fox
Game 2: Mussina vs. Verlander, 8 p.m. on ESPN
Game 3: Johnson vs. Rogers, 8 p.m. on ESPN
Whether it’s on ESPN or Fox, the real losers are the fans.
And congratulations to Joe Mauer for winning the batting title. He didn’t sit out as he could have, and earned it by going 2 for 4. To do it as a catcher makes it even more impressive.
BTW, there’s a new poll on the left where you can make your ALDS prediction.
Update: Reader Ryan S. put together a playoff bracket card for anyone who wants to do a baseball postseason pool. Here’s the link.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Yankees clinch the AL East
Despite losing 3-2 to Toronto, the Yankees got to celebrate their ninth straight AL East title when Minnesota eliminated Boston. Their work is just starting, but try and enjoy this for a few days.
T - 1, and Counting
Last night’s 6-3 win over Toronto coupled with Minnesota beating Boston means the Yankees’ magic number for clinching the AL East is down to one. Unfortunately, the Yankees came out of yesterday’s game banged up, with Jeter, Damon, and Giambi all getting nicked up.
Somehow, Jeff Karstens continues to pitch decently. Last night, he worked around control issues and lots of hits, but managed to take the game into the seventh inning (Jaret Wright would be proud) and allowed only three runs.
Today seems like the ultimate House Money day, with Roy Halladay going vs. Sean Henn, and with Damon, Jeter, Giambi, and Posada all resting. I’m curious to see what Gary Sheffield can do at first base, but I don’t know if his first game back should be against one of the top pitchers in baseball.
In other news, Yankees.com has this shocking piece of news.
Pavano likely out for season
I can’t believe this.
Friday, May 23, 2003
Forget about what happened tonight
Forget about what happened tonight; with Bernie out and Rivera not here yet, facing Toronto’s ace and with Pettitte pitching, the Yankees were pretty much set up to lose.
This week has been one for all the know-nothings who have said before…well, every season the past few years…that the Yankees are a sure thing, and that Baseball ain’t worth watching anymore, ‘cause you know who’s gonna win. Well, in case you haven’t noticed, the Yankees haven’t won in over 2½ years, and things ain’t looking to great for the Bombers right now. For the next month and a half, they will be without two of their best hitters. Further, their best hitter is hovering around the Mendoza line, their new high-priced Japanese import is playing like their old high-priced Japanese import, and the OBP goodness of Nick Johnson has been replaced with the game-shortening batting skills of Todd Zeile. There are many teams who would like to have a lineup as good as the Yankees will have over the next two months, but those teams tend to dream of a winning season, not a World Championship.
The lineup won’t kill them, good pitching could carry this team until the bats come back. Unfortunately, while the Yankees can expect good starts from Mussina and solid starts from Clemens and Wells the rest of the season, Pettitte and Weaver have pitched with a consistency similar to Orbitz. The bullpen setting up Rivera is a motley mix of crappy pitchers. You’ve got overpriced crap, imported crap, flukey crap, and Proven Closer™ crap. You’ve also got Jason Anderson and Antonio Osuna, who haven’t done much to piss me off yet, but when those are your best setup men, you’re in trouble. Thats the kind of bullpen that inspires a manager to go out to the mound and talk his spent pitcher into staying out another inning. It’s the kind of bullpen you would have figured Jeff Torborg had been stuck with, the way he kept his starters out there.
So, for the next six weeks, the Yankees will be fielding a team that, while it doesn’t suck, certainly doesn’t scare anyone. Well, maybe some Yankees fans, but not many other people. Steven Goldman told us “Don’t Panic!” earlier today, but after hearing about Bernie’s injury, he changed his tone to “Yeah, go ahead and panic.” Will they make a trade? Of course. They’re sure to bring in some bullpen help, and if Rivera doesn’t hit, they’ll go out and get a center fielder (Jose Guillen?). But they won’t bring in any stars—they don’t have the prospects to pull off a trade like that, and it doesn’t appear likely that any team will be looking to dump a star anytime soon. They might bring in someone expensive, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them trade for an overpriced closer-type like Ugueth Urbina. If they’re sharp, they’ll realize that relievers are somewhat fungible, and they’ll grab someone decent for not much. But George likes the names, so we’ll wait and see.
Of course, there is reason to be positive…well, not negative. Their schedule through the All-Star Break has a healthy serving of Devil Ray, Oriole, Indian, Tiger and Met, and Giambi and Matsui are better than they’ve performed. Of course, Enrique Wilson is better than they’ve performed, but you follow what I’m saying. It’s not really that unthinkable that those two, particularly Giambi, could explode over the next month and a half and carry the Yankees to a 7 game lead in the East. Even if the Yankees struggle, they probably won’t lose the season here. This is really bad, but it’s not fatal by any means.
Mussina will have his hands full tonight with the offense of the Jays, while the Yankees will try to touch up failed closer Kelvim Escobar. Should Escobar pitch well tonight, don’t be surprised if he’s coming out of the Yankees’ pen in a couple of weeks, giving the pinstripers TWO mediocre relievers with a lot of saves in 2002. Gotta catch ‘em all!
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