Having taken the final game in Milwaukee, the Yankees have already exceeded my expectations for the second half of this road trip. Having bollocksed away yesterday’s game, they’re right on target for my expectations of this weekend. Today they get to tangle with Mark Mulder and the alleged Game of the Week curse. Randy Johnson will have his work cut out for him to say the least. One things for certain, we’re not likely to see Jason Giambi starting at first base today.
Monday
May 6, 2024
Since 2002
"This ain't football. We do this every day."
--Earl Weaver
--Earl Weaver
1. Bollixed.
2. Ah hell, html doesn't work?
3. I think it's more a jinx than a curse.
4. I believe in the Fox bugaboo as much as the next guy, but I think the Yanks will pull this one out today. Or if they lose, it will be a close one, blown by the bullpen. At the very least, I think they'll be competitive.
I'm guessing big day for Sheff, and a very good one from The Big Unit.
5. Or, they will contnue to suck.
6. oh man, why does the Yankee game have to have Buck & McCarver? seriously, this is as bad a sign as any...
7. Is it a requirement, for the first game of a series, for the other team's announcers to state that the Yankees have a $200 mil payroll, and that A-Rod's contract is $252 mil? Done in Milwaukie and in St. Louis.
8. No one bothers to mention that the Rangers are still paying a significant chunk, and that some $75 mill of that was used up in Texas, do they?
9. Oh man, Buck just tore into "Scooter" (the animated baseball that "teaches" kids about different pitches) with the help of Jeff "Soup" Suppan. Classic.
10. The FOX gun is popping 97 MPH regularly for Johnson. LaRussa has helped out by sitting Edmonds and Walker.
Torre's sitting Womack but starting Flaherty, which is likely a net loss as he's got the inferior outfield defense (Bernie in CF) but still has a dud in the line-up. Still, Flaherty's hitting 7th, so there's a solid stop six (unless you want to pick on Tino, which would be fair).
11. Wow. Costly baserunning error by . . . Derek Jeter. Don't see that very often. First and Second two out, Bernie hits a hot grounder in the third base hole that tips off Nunez's glove, all hands safe, bases loaded, except Jeter goes waaay to far around third and Grudz fires home and they catch him trying to scamper back to third. Inning over rather than bases loaded, Tino up. Oof.
12. A good long-shot replay shows Jeter got more than half way home before slamming on the brakes.
Meanwhile, Johnson has 5 Ks in 3 IP. Gotta love NL baseball!
13. I wouldn't blame that baserunning error on Jeter at all. I have no idea what Sojo was thinking when he waved him in.
Johnson is on, so far.
14. Was it a mental error, or just bad luck? Sterling's telling me that the ball bounced directly to Grudz. And I have no faith w/ Tino at the moment.
15. The ball trickled toward the abandoned SS spot (Eckstein was backing up the play), Grudz came over to get it. Jeter usually makes his own baserunning decisions.
16. Given the opportunity to atone for his baserunning blunder in the previous inning, Jeter comes up huge in the 4th. With Flaherty (single) and Cano (walk!) on second & third thanks to a RJ swinging bunt, Jeter's up with two outs, hacks into a 0-2 hole, then rips a 2 RBI single up the middle and takes second on the throw home. Matsui doubles Jetes home and the Yanks are up 4-0.
Hey, remember this!
17. RJ is filthy today. I think 5 Ks so far. BTW, the replay clearly showed Sojo windmilling Jeter home.
18. I don't doubt that Sojo sent him, but I still blame Jeter for not double checking. He's the one player I expect to make those decisions himself.
19. Great ten-pitch battle between RJ and Pujols. Randy throwing 98, coming inside. Pujols hanging tough, going full and ripping an 88 MPH payoff slider right into Rodriguez's glove at third.
That was followed by a great split-screen comparison of the swings of Joe D and Pujols from FOX, credit there.
Then Sanders singles, steals second, Grudz singles, they send Sanders and Matsui guns him out with a fantastic throw from left.
Helluvan inning. This game is fantastic!
20. "This game is fantastic!"
The dogs bollocks ?
21. You know, today would have been a good day to keep Posada in there and start Russ Johnson at 1B. Oh well. Flaherty does have a single and a run scored, so no complaint there. Just Tino is looking hopeless right now.
22. Randy's coming out after seven. He's at 94 pitches. Wonder if the last part of Alex's prediction will come true.
23. Cliff... why do you have to say that last part? 2 on 1 out...top of the order
24. I think that comebacker knocking Gordon out might have saved this game for the Yanks. Except for the Sheff thing, Alex nailed this game. Creeeepy!
25. Oh Mariano, you're so smooth. (Watch out, now that I said that he'll blow it in the 9th).
26. yeah cliff he really nailed it...since the pen really blew it. I think the only part he got right was the Yanks winning behind a strong Johnson effort...yeah real creepy, Nostradamus like
27. The Yanks win two games in the last week (knock wood) and he calls them both. I'm sorry if I'm impressed by that.
28. just wanted to be a ball buster, keep the predictions coming
29. Yes, I'm glad that Alex's prediction was dead on, and mine was way off. Mo looked fantastic.
30. ok, great game! I enjoyed that game a lot even if I got nervous in the 8th.
But Cliff I gotta totally disagree on the Jeter running play. The thing is that there was no way for Jeter to judge that ball since it was 180 degrees behind him. It was one thing for him to turn his head a shake when he is at a better angle and headed home but he put his faith there in Sojo which is the fair thing to do. Too bad Sojo is not to trust with that windmill of his.
31. Looking back, I think you guys might be right about that. Jeter couldn't see the play rounding third, he figured it out when he was half way home and that's when he made his own decision and slammed on the brakes, but by then it was too late. It's just so rare that you see him get caught like that that you just assume he's making his own decisions all the time.
32. "The FOX gun is popping 97 MPH regularly for Johnson."
I was listening to the radio broadcast and watching the game on fox (even though it's a pain in the ass that the tv broadcast is on about a 3-5 second delay, I just can't stand listening to the numbnuts on fox). Every time fox had the radar reading 96-98, Waldman would read it off of the St. Louis scoreboard as 94-96. For some reason I trust the stadium's radar more than fox's.
33. Jen, thanks for the reference. I was really wondering about that gun. In any case, he was throwing hard!
34. Alex, that was truly prophetic. As for me, I'd rather be happy than right.
35. I can't blame Jeter for that play around third. He didn't have time to do anything but trust Sojo there. But on the replay, I did notice him give a look up at Luis after he was tagged out. He made up for in the next inning, taking second after driving in those two runs.