Monday, May 12, 2008
NY Yankees (19-19) @ Tampa Bay Rays (21-16), 7:10pm **Game Chatter**
NYY: Andy Pettitte (36, LHP, 3-3, 3.77) vs. TB: Matt Garza (24, RHP, 1-1, 4.91)
Lineups:
New York Yankees
Johnny Popup LF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Matsui DH
Giambi 1B
Bernie Cabrera CF
Hackinson Cano 2B
Molino C
The Former AG 3B
Tampa Bay Rays
Iwamura 2B
TSCC LF
Upton CF
Pena 1B
Longoria 3B
Gomes DH
Navarro C
Hinske RF
Bartlett SS
Go Yanks.
*JONATHAN in*
I’ll can liveblog the first few innings unless Keith shows up.
Keith Abraham is reporting that A-Rod will not be activated this week and thus unable to play in the Mets series.
As the game is about to begin, YES is showing Posada working out before the game doing strength exercises. Can’t wait for him to get back into action.
Top of the first:
Damon leads things off and works the count full. He shatters his bat as he loops a lazy popup to second for an out.
Jeter grounds a hopper up the middle that Iwamura grabs and throws across his body to get Jeter easily.
Abreu flails at an outside fastball and strikes out swinging. Not an impressive 1st inning to say the least.
Bottom of the first:
Andy starts out Iwamura with two quick fastball strikes. On a 1-2 pitch, Andy paints the inside corner with a fastball and strikes Iwamura out looking. Iassogna seems to be calling the corners for both teams so far.
Wow. On the same pitch he struck out Iwamura on, Andy gets Crawford looking. Lookin’ good so far.
Upton grounds out weakly to Cano. Nice inning.
Top of the second:
Garza strikes Matsui out looking with a fastball on the outside corner.
Giambi pops out to Bartlett who happens to be standing where the second baseman would be due to the shift.
Melky also pops up, this time to Iwamura just a few steps out on the outfield grass. WOE seems to be working its thing early.
Bottom of the second:
Pena hits what would have been a hit had Cano not been playing short right field. However, its just a 4-3 groundout.
Pettitte strikes out Longoria swinging on a dirty low cutter.
Iassogna decides to call a ball on a 1-1 pitch that was surely a strike the inning before. Gomes then breaks his bat singling a soft one to center. Cabrera was playing deep and probably could have caught it had he not been. Oh well.
Right away, Gomes is off and running and has second stolen easy on ball one. That was slightly embarrassing. On a 2-2 pitch, Navarro dinks another single in front of Cabrera and one run scores. Bleh. Stupid stolen base hurts…
Hinske lines out to Abreu in right to end the inning.
NY...0
TB...1
Top of the third:
Cano slaps a hard grounder down the third base line and Longoria makes a diving stop. He throws from his knees but not enough on it to get Cano. Infield single.
Molina grounds into a 6-4-3 double play. 
AG lines a single to right. Nice piece of hitting. Too bad Molina wiped the bases clean.
Damon pops out VERY weakly to Garza. Stupid WOE.
Bottom of the third:
Bartlett flies out to slightly deep center.
On a low cutter, Iwamura can’t hold up and the third base ump punches him out.
Crawford singles to left.
On 3-2 to Upton, Pettitte walks him. However, it was really strike three on the inside corner. Iassogna sucks.
Pettitte strikes out Pena on a ball in the dirt. Well done.
Top of the fourth:
Time for some runs. Seriously. The Yankees are putting together some scary stretches of no-run ball. Jeter helps the current stretch by swinging at the first pitch and popping out to first.
Abreu flies out to just in front of the warning track in left.
Matsui works the count full. Garza throws him a curve in the dirt and Matsui will have none of it. He walks.
Giambi hits a hard liner to right but Hinske moves over a few and its caught. Bad luck.
Bottom of the fourth:
Longoria clocks one to right that hits off the top of the wall. A double for the future mega-star.
On the very next pitch, Gomes singles to left and Longoria scores. Not cool, Andy.
Navarro push bunts one down to Giambi who steps on first for the out as Gomes goes to second.
Hinske walks AND Gomes steals third. Double whammy.
The #9 batter triples to left center and two score. 
A single and another run scores. This blows.
Fielders choice as the can’t complete the DP on Crawford.
Upton singles to right center and Crawford goes to third. This is the inning from hades. Is this really Kei Igawa with a Pettitte mask on?
Pena grounds out to Cano to mercifully end the inning.
NY...0
TB...5
I will stop liveblogging now since I’m not doing the team any good.
*JONATHAN out*
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