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Friday, April 25, 2008

New York Yankees(12-11) at Cleveland Indians(10-12), 7:05 pm **Live Blog/Game Chatter**

NYY: Andy Pettitte (36, LHP, 3-1, 2.45) vs. CLE: Paul Byrd (37, RHP, 0-2, 4.43)

Lineups…
NY Yankees
LF: Johnny Damon—.244/.362/.462
SS: Derek Jeter—.275/.301/.362
RF: Bobby Abreu—.299/.351/.471
3B (sic): Alex Rodriguez—.308/.357/.551
DH: Hideki Matsui—.324/.438/.500
C: Jorge Posada—.298/.333/.456
1B: Jason Giambi—.161/.333/.375
2B: Robinson Cano—.159/.213/.227
CF: Melky Cabrera—.309/.380/.515

Cleveland
CF: Grady Sizemore
2B: Jamey Carroll
DH: Travis Hafner
1B: Victor Martinez
SS: Jhonny Peralta
RF: Franklin Gutierrez
3B: Casey Blake
LF: Jason Michaels
C: Kelly Shoppach

I’m heading out so no lineups yet.  (Keith sez: lineups now there.) Ed Price is reporting that Chris Britton and Jonathan Albaladejo are being called up.  Keith will be liveblogging tonight.  Go Yanks!

*** Keith in ***

Jacobs Field is now called Progressive Field. And another chunk of baseball’s soul is removed....

Here’s one reason why the Yankees and the Red Sox are better than everyone else in baseball and people who bitch about the attention they get should be beaten with sticks: They still play in Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park.

And yes, that’s A-Rod at third, after Girardi said he wouldn’t play today and would DH tomorrow. Fascinating.

Top of the 1st

Sexy Calves slaps the ball to left, but right at Michaels. I hear boos, so Jeter must be up. El Capitan grounds to third.

The sound on Channel 9 is seriously frelled up (or frakked up, if you prefer Battlestar Galactica fake curses to Farscape fake curses; yes, I’m a geek, but I’m a professional geek, so it’s okay). On the pregame, Kay and Cone were being drowned out by the incidental music, and they’re having trouble being heard over the crowd noise right now.

Abreu clubs a single to left. Byrd has a weird delivery—he pulls his arms back like he’s about to call a touchdown. He also has a good move to first for a right-hander, as he almost nails Abreu on an attempted pickoff.

A-Quad (get it? ha! fonnee!) pops out to short to end it.

Bottom of the 1st

Sizemore grounds it to first, and it takes a bad hop. Kay thinks he deserves the error they give, but that was a damned impossible play even for a good first baseman. Carroll grounds to A-Quad who double clutches and so they’re only able to force Sizemore at second. Carroll safe at first on the forceout. He steals second in short order. Pronk then grounds out to Cano. Carroll goes to third.

Martinez walks on an at-bat in which Pettitte mostly avoided the plate. Cone says he would’ve pitched him the same way, for what that’s worth. Jhonny Cmoe Ltaely socks a single between Jeter and A-Rod to score Carroll and give Cleveland a 1-0 lead. Martinez to second. Pettitte then walks Gutierrez on four pitches to load the bases, which is really not what you’d call, ah, optimal.

Eiland comes out to whup Pettitte upside the head. It works, as Mighty Casey grounds to Jeter to force Gutierrez at second to end it.

That could’ve been worse. How-some-ever, it also could’ve been much much better....

Top of the 2nd

Gojira pops out to Peralta. Jorgie Porgie socks a liner to right that I thought was going for a hit, but it stayed in the air longer than it looked like it would off the bat, and Gutierrez catches it.

JASON!!!!!! Giambi ties it with a shot to dead center field on the first pitch. That was vintage Giambi, and it wasn’t even off Mike Timlin! (Okay, we made that joke already....)

Can’t-o flies out to left to end it. It was a deep fly ball, but still. Sigh.

Bottom of the 2nd

Michaels grounds out to A-Quad. Shoppach gets a single to left center. For reasons passing understanding, he tries to stretch it into a double, being apparently blissfully unaware of a) Melky’s arm and b) the fact that he’s a catcher. Cano has to wait for him to tag him out. Beautiful play by Melky helped by a dumbshit play by Shoppach.

Have I mentioned how much I love Melky?

Sizemore hits a foul pop to A-Rod to end it.

Melky!

Top of the 3rd

Melky pops out to second. Sexy Calves sears a double down the right field line. El Capitan flies to deep right center, but Sizemore catches it on the track. Damon saunters to third. Abreu hits it to left center that I thought for sure was a double, but Sizemore makes a good running catch to end it.

That wasn’t a great inning, but the Yanks all hit the ball hard (Melky had a searing line-drive foul ball during his PA), which bodes well for the rest of the game.

Bottom of the 3rd

Carroll leads off with a single up the middle. Pronk strikes out swinging on a ball at his feet. Martinez then generously swings at the first pitch and bounces it back to Pettitte, who whirls and turns a 1-4-3 DP to end it.

Veddy nice.

Top of the 4th

A-Quad and Gojira both make outs swinging at the first pitch, which is, well, dumb. A-Rod pops out to left, Matsui grounds out to first. Fie.

Jorgie Porgie takes a few pitches and then slugs a single to right.

Kay keeps referring to Progressive Field as “the Prog,” and he sounds like an idiot every time he says it, mainly because he makes it sound like the European city....

CLOG THEM BASES! Giambi hits another home run, this one to right field, to give the Yanks a 3-1 lead! That was a seven-pitch PA. See what happens when you look at pitches, Alex and Hideki? Hmmmmm?????

Can’t-o grounds to first to end it. And again I say: Fie.

Bottom of the 4th

Peralta grounds it up the middle, but Cano was practically standing on second base, and makes a nice backhand play to nail him. At least he’s contributing somewhere…

Gutierrez strikes out swinging. Mighty Casey goes to 3-2 and then walks.

This is my first time hearing David Cone announce, and his knowledge of pitching mechanics is really fun to listen to.

Michaels fists the ball to center, Mighty Casey to second. Shoppach hits a broken-bat grounder to Jeter—amusingly, the bat barrel and the ball both travel on the same arc, but El Capitan catches the right one and throws Shoppach out at first to end it.

Top of the 5th

Melky grounds out to short. Sexy Calves flies out to left. El Capitan grounds to second to end it.

That was short, but not sweet.

Bottom of the 5th

Grady—who’s looking much better since his days on Sanford and Son—pops out to right. Carroll grounds to Giambi, who takes it himself.

Kay and Cone are talking about Madonna, whom Cone was a big fan of in his younger days, and whom he met while a Met (har). He said he didn’t hit on her because Ron Darling beat him to it. I, meanwhile, am trying to find a spike to drive through my eye.

Pronk singles to left. Martinez does likewise, Hafner to second.

Fuck me sideways. The Man Who Can’t Spell His Name hits a homer to left to give Cleveland a 4-3 lead. Fie and fie again.

Pettitte has lost it. He goes to 3-0 on Gutierrez, manages a strike, and then Gutierrez smashes a home run that lands in the left-field bleachers a millisecond after he swings to make it 5-3. Blargle.

And now for the moment I’ve been waiting for all game: MIGHTY CASEY HAS STRUCK OUT!

(Hey, after that half-inning, I’ll take my jollies where I can get ‘em....)

Top of the 6th

Abreu grounds to Carroll on the second pitch, and I’m looking for that spike again…

A-Rod swings at an awful pitch and grounds to third.

Goooooooooo! There goes Tokyo, go go Godzilla!!!! Matsui slugs a home run to right field to cut Cleveland’s lead to 5-4.

Byrd out, Rafael Perez in. That was a quick hook by Wedge....

Oh my fucking God, Ore Ida is using Quiet Riot’s “Cum on Feel the Noize” for their ads. My childhood has been raped—raped, I tell you!!!!

Perez does his job, getting Jorgie Porgie to ground out to third to end it. But I have a good feeling about the seventh, as Giambi’s due up. (And wow, is it nice to be able to type that....)

Bottom of the 6th

Pettitte out, Billy Traber in. To quote Colonel Sherman Potter, I have a queasy feeling in my gizzard…

Michaels flies out to Melky. Shoppach strikes out swinging.

With Sizemore up, Kay is talking about how popular Grady is with the female fan base. I wonder if he knows about this web site...

Traber walks Grady, a lefty, after getting two righties out. I’m thinking he’s miscast as a LOOGY, don’tchathink?

Sizemore steals second with the greatest of ease, aided by Posada bobbling the ball as he transfers it. Carroll gets ahead 3-0, but Traber comes back with two good pitches to bring the count full, and then Carroll clubs a single to left to score Sizemore and make it 6-4. Fuckity fuck fuck fuck.

Carroll steals second with the greatest of ease. (I should make this a macro.) This isn’t on Posada’s arm, by the way: both bases were stolen on Traber. You could have Ivan Rodriguez at his prime back there, and there’d still be two SBs in the inning. Pronk then draws a walk.

Martinez grounds to A-Quad to (finally!) end it.

Top of the 7th

That extra run’s a pain, as now Giambi can’t tie it with one swing....

Giambi tries to at least make it a one-runner, but the laser shot to right falls short of a homer, and Gutierrez catches it for the first out of the inning and also the first out of Giambi’s evening.

HOLY SHIT! Cano draws a walk! Ka-freakin-zow!

Melky, however, blows it completely by hitting into a 6-4-3 DP. Sigh.

Bottom of the 7th

Traber out, Jonathan Albaladejo in.

Peralta grounds out to A-Rod, who makes a nice play on a tough hop. Gutierrez and Blake think this sounds good, so they both ground out to A-Rod, too.

Now that’s what you want from your bullpen....

Top of the 8th

Sexy Calves grounds back to Perez. He sucks.

El Capitan flies out to right. He sucks donkey balls.

Abreu strikes out swinging. He sucks big green rocks through a straw.

Fie and also fooey.

Bottom of the 8th

Michaels grounds out to A-Rod. That’s the fifth straight grounder to third the Indians have hit. They may want to try another approach…

Albaladejo decides to give A-Rod a rest by walking Shoppach. Grady decides to ground to Giambi instead, but Jason actually catches it and steps on the bag, Shoppach to second.

Carroll flies out to Melky to end it, and I would just like to declare my man-crush on Albaladejo, and not just ‘cause he has the best last name on the Yankees.

Top of the 9th

Perez out, The Other Guy Named Rafael in.

A-Rod pops out to Martinez.

Kay claims that Mark Shapiro, Cleveland GM, said that Borowski is a better closer than Betancourt because you can tell a good closer by how he reacts after a blown save. The fact that Betancourt is a demonstrably better pitcher has nothing to do with it—nor the fact that Betancourt will have far fewer blown saves to “handle.” Sheesh.

Gojira strikes out. Jorgie Porgie flies out to center to end it.

Well. That sucked.

Goodnight, everybody!

*** Keith out ***