Daily Archives: May 4, 2006

With Joe Torre having finally figured out that he needs to go to his big guns in tie games on the road, the Yankees are set up for a quick two-game sweep of the Devil Rays with Randy Johnson taking on Doug Waechter tonight. The only question is which Unit will show up tonight, the one that has done this in two games against the Blue Jays:

8 1/3 IP, 15 H, 13 R, 2 HR, 6 BB, 4 K

Or the one that has done this in four starts against everyone else:

28 IP, 19 H, 6 R, 2 HR, 1 BB, 21 K

I know one thing for sure. He’s happy that Eduardo Perez has moved to the central division.

For his part, Waechter has made just four starts thus far, failing to make it through four innings in two of them. Does anyone still remember when a 22-year-old Waechter shut out the last good Mariners team in his first major league start in 2003, pitched five solid innings to beat the Yankees in Tampa two starts later, and then lost a tough 2-1 game in the Bronx in his next turn? He seemed like the next big thing back then, the Tampa rotation’s answer to Aubrey Huff, who had what remains his best season that year. Waechter’s still just 25, but that exciting start seems like a lifetime ago. I still root for him to make good, but it seems increasingly unlikely. Here’s hoping if he ever does break through he won’t start tonight.

Hey, I forgot to mention it earlier, but just how digusting was the last pitch of the game last night? Joey Gathwright, a slap hitter was batting against Mariano Rivera, and he kept fouling pitches off. Rivera threw cutter after cutter. Then at 2-2, he tried to go away with a fastball. It was up and away and Gathwright took it for a ball before fouling off a few more pitches. I thought Rivera might try going away again, but no. He throws a cutter on the inside corner at the knees–the best pitch of the sequence. Gathwright didn’t offer at it–he didn’t have a chance. Wow.

In his latest mailbag column, Tom Verducci was asked about Carl Pavano:

Remember, teams such as the Tigers, Mariners and Red Sox also wanted Pavano badly, even indicating that they would have paid more than the $39.95 million over four years that New York did. There is no way to be delicate about this: The Yankees have come to question Pavano’s toughness. Now, injuries are always sensitive subjects, because only the player knows for sure about the severity. But this is two years running where Pavano seems to be doing nothing but playing catch in Tampa. Could all of those teams have been wrong about measuring his character? So far, and until he takes regular turns in the Yankees’ rotation, yes.

Though he’s only be out for a handful of games, how much do you guys miss watching Sheffield?

Lastly, fellow Yankee bloggers, Pete Abraham and Mike Plugh note how even when he does something well, Alex Rodriguez gets precious little love. Is it ridiculous to say that Rodriguez is to Winfield what Jeter is to Mattingly?

No two Yankee hitters have struggled as much of late as Alex Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui. Rodriguez struck out in the fourth inning last night, swining through a hittable slider that Casey Fossum left over the plate; with the Yanks trailing 2-0 in the sixth, he tapped into an inning-ending double play. Normally, Rodriguez is so fluid that it almost seems as if the game is easy for him. However, in the middle of a rough stretch, everything looks difficult for him, from recognizing pitches, to being able to put a good swing on the ball. On the other hand, Matsui had a single but was robbed of two hits. While Rodriguez looked out-of-whack, Matsui’s at bats were encouraging. He was simply running into hard luck, just off. Yet the Bombers eventually tied the game–and received some fine pitching from starter Jared Wright and relievers Ron Villone and Kyle Farnsworth (my boy Farnsworth, was particularly sharp).

The game went into extra innings and Johnny Damon doubled to start the tenth. Derek Jeter followed with a walk, and Jason Giambi’s ground out advanced the runners. Rodriguez had another chance and got ahead in the count, 2-0. He fouled off a slider bearing in on his hands and on TV, he appeared uncomfortable, though Joe Torre had given him a bit of encouragement just before he went to bat. According to Tyler Kepner in the New York Times:

While Rodriguez waited to hit, Torre tried to get his attention. The bench coach Lee Mazzilli whistled him over from the on-deck circle, and Torre gave him a message.

“Just hit the ball on the good part of the bat,” Torre said, repeating what he told Rodriguez. “Just trust the ball will find a hole somewhere. Have an at-bat where you just make good contact.”

Rodriguez stroked the next pitch into center field for an RBI single. Matsui followed with a ground ball single that snuck through the infield, driving in another run. A-ha. Nice and easy. No 500 foot dingers, just two singles. It was enough, as Mariano Rivera closed the door and the Yanks came away with a tidy 4-2 victory in Tampa Bay.

Flipping around the tube last night, I caught portions of the Met game, which was mostly played through a steady rain out at Shea. I was surprised to see how many fans stuck it out, getting soaked in the process. Many simply seemed oblivious to the conditions. Man, you’ve got to be a devoted–or slightly crazed–fan to sit and get rained on for that long, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t have that kind of tolerance. The Mets have an exciting team who has performed well early on, and it’s cool to see the fans have responded to them. Met fans deserve to have a great guy like Carlos Delgado on their team. Great win last night.