Daily Archives: September 19, 2005

Doity, filty, stinkin’ boids. C.M. Wang squares off against the Orioles’ talented southpaw Erik Bedard tonight in the Bronx. Yanks must to take at least three of four against Baltimore, both this week and next week. Hopefully, they come out on the good foot and nab a “w.” Whatta ya say, let’s go boys!

My assumptions panned out this past weekend, with the Indians sweeping the Royals and the Yanks and Red Sox taking two of three in their respective series. As a result the Yankees are a game and a half out in both the East and the Wild Card race.

Meanwhile, the Indians have moved within 3.5 games of the White Sox and still have all six head-to-head match-ups remaining (including a three-game series that starts tonight in Chicago). That’s bad news for the Yankees’ Wild Card hopes as they still trail the White Sox by five games.

Tonight our heroes play the first of eight remaining games with the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles team that the Yanks will face in the Bronx tonight is drastically different from the one that last visited the House that Ruth Built back in late June. That team arrived in New York with a .543 winning percentage, but, starting with a pair of loses to the Yankees, went on to post a 18-33 (.353) record through the end of August. Along the way they changed managers, traded their left fielder, released their would be ace starter, and lost a pair of would-be hall of famers to a combination of injury and steroid suspension.

Things have been looking better for the O’s since the calander changed to September. The birds have posted a .500 record on the month, but that’s largely been the result of a pair of series wins against the lowly Mariners and Rangers, which produced a four-game winning streak last week. They’ve also dropped series to the Red Sox, Blue Jays and Devil Rays. The Yankees hope to complete the divisional sweep this week.

Tonight’s Oriole starter, Eric Bedard, has pitched reasonably well since being activated from the DL in late July, but has walked a lot of men and had trouble going deep into games. His opposite number, Chien-Ming Wang, has looked good in his two starts since being activated, though he has yet to really deliver on his pre-injury promise. Here’s hoping he has a breakthrough tonight after a pair of warm-up starts against those gall-darn Devil Rays.

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Every loss hurts more. The Yankees fell to the Blue Jays on a bright sunny afternoon in Toronto 6-5 leaving Yankee fans to grind their teeth for the rest of the day. Although the team went 5-1 on their road trip, this was a sour ending as they blew an opportunity to move to within a half-a-game of Boston. They did, however, lose a game in the wildcard standings to Cleveland, who crushed Kansas City. It wasn’t so much that the Yanks lost, it was they way they played: tight and sloppy. After two important wins on Friday and Saturday, this was another example of a game they let slip away.

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