Daily Archives: June 6, 2005

A little over three weeks ago, on Sunday May 15 in Oakland, the Yankees put together a two run seventh inning rally against A’s reliever Ricardo Rincon to beat the Athletics 6-4. The victory was their sixth straight win and pulled their record even for the first time in more than a month. The Yankees then went on to win their next four and ten of their next twelve to push their record a full six games over .500.

The last of those games, a 6-3 Friday night victory at home against the rival Red Sox, also involved a late game rally, when the Yanks touched up Tim Wakefield and Alan Embree for five runs in the sixth inning. Basking in the glow of that victory and the 16-2 run that it capped, pushing the Yankees six games over .500, I claimed that the Yankees had “passed the test” by taking two of three from the Mets, sweeping the Tigers, and rallying to defeat the Red Sox. Since then, the Yankees have gone 1-8 against the Sox, Royals, Twins and now Brewers. Clearly my declaration was premature. With last night’s loss, the Yankees, now seven games behind the Orioles in fourth place in the east, have dipped below .500 once again.

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Milwaukee Brewers

2004 Record: 67-94 (.416)
2004 Pythagorean Record: 68-93 (.422)

Manager: Ned Yost
General Manager: Doug Melvin

Ballpark (2004 park factors): Miller Park (95/96)

Who’s replacing whom?

Carlos Lee replaces Scott Podsednik
J.J. Hardy replaces Craig Counsell
Damian Miller replaces Gary Bennett and cuts into Chad Moeller’s playing time
Jeff Cirillo replaces Keith Ginter
Chris Magruder and Dave Krynzel inherit Ben Grieve’s playing time
Derrick Turnbow replaces Danny Kolb
Ricky Bottalico replaces Luis Vizcaino
Tommy Phelps replaces Dave Burba
Julio Santana replaces Matt Kinney
Jorge de la Rosa inherits Brook Kieschnick’s innings

Current Roster:

1B – Lyle Overbay
2B – Junior Spivey
SS – J.J. Hardy
3B – Jeff Cirillo
C – Damian Miller
RF – Geoff Jenkins
CF – Brady Clark
LF – Carlos Lee

Bench:

R – Bill Hall (IF)
R – Wes Helms (3B)
S – Chris Magruder (OF)
R – Chad Moeller (C)
L – Dave Krynzel (OF)

Rotation:

R – Ben Sheets
L – Chris Capuano
R – Victor Santos
R – Wes Obermueller
L – Doug Davis

Bullpen:

R – Derrick Turnbow
R – Ricky Bottalico
L – Tommy Phelps
R – Matt Wise
L – Jorge de la Rosa
R – Julio Santana
R – Gary Glover

DL: L – Russell Branyan (3B)

Typical Line-up

R – Brady Clark (CF)
R – Jeff Cirillo (3B)
L – Geoff Jenkins (RF)
R – Carlos Lee (LF)
L – Lyle Overbay (1B)
R – Junior Spivey (2B)
R – Damian Miller (C)
R – J.J. Hardy (SS)

If the Brewers were to maintain their current .464 winning percentage, they would finish 2005 with their best record since switching over to the National League following the 1997 season, but that’s not the good news for Brewer fans. No, that would be their current Pythagorean winning percentage of .549.

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Another lost weekend. The Bombers dropped two-of-three to the Twins. They are 1-5 on their current 12-game road trip, 28-28 on the season, and six games behind the Orioles. Heard any good jokes lately? Torii Hunter told New York reporters:

“They’ve got some great guys over there,” Hunter said. “But it just seems like they’re not having any fun. Even when you’re losing, you’ve got to have fun out here. It seems like it’s all controlled over there. We play our music no matter what.

“I know they’ve got a lot of expectations on them, and that makes it harder. But to me, that’s no way to play.”

The Yanks start a three-game series against the Brewers tonight.