Daily Archives: June 8, 2006

Just like they did the last time he pitched against them in the Bronx, the Yankees hit three home runs off Curt Schilling last night. This time, however, all three were solo shots (by Johnny Damon leading off the game, Bernie Williams again batting lefty, and Robinson Cano snapping a 158 at-bat homerless streak). Otherwise, Schilling faced the minimum, walking none and allowing only one other hit, a Damon double in the third that was erased when Damon wandered off second expecting a Melky Cabrera fly out to center to drop in front of Coco Crisp.

Still, the Yankees carried a 3-1 lead into the sixth thanks to Jaret Wright’s first-inning Houdini act. After giving up singles to three of the game’s first four batters, the last off the bat of Manny Ramirez driving Coco Crisp home with the game’s first run, Wright walked Trot Nixon to load the bases with one out. With his team on the verge of giving Curt Schilling a big early lead, Jason Varitek hit a ball right back to Jaret Wright, who body-blocked the ball, picked it up and threw home to start an inning-ending 1-2-3 double play.

From there Wright settled down until the top of the sixth when he walked Ramirez, and allowed singles to Trot Nixon and Varitek, the latter plating Ramirez. Wright then clipped Mike Lowell on the jersey to load the bases, ending his day. With none out, the bases loaded and the Yankees clinging to a slim 3-2 lead, Joe Torre called on Scott Proctor to face the bottom of the Red Sox order.

Proctor got ahead of Kevin Youkilis 0-2 before getting him to fly out to center for the first out. That tied the game at three. Proctor the got ahead of Alex Gonzalez 0-2 only to have Gonzalez foul off three pitches and take what looked like strike three on the inside corner to everyone but home plate ump Tim McClelland and Gonzalez for ball one. Gonzalez then fouled off one more pitch before yanking a fastball down the middle past Alex Rodriguez for an RBI double. The ball, which was hit hard and took a sharp hop over Rodriguez’s glove, actually tipped off the pinky of Rodriguez’s mitt. Initially ruled a double, the scoring was briefly changed to an E5 before being reversed yet again. Proctor then fell behind Crisp 3-0, but the Red Sox’s lead-off hitter swung at the 3-0 pitch and grounded out and Mark Loretta flew out to left on Proctor’s next pitch.

Down just a run, the top of the Yankee order went down on seven pitches in the bottom of the frame, capped by Giambi striking out on three pitches.

Joe Torre stuck with Proctor to start the seventh against the Sox big guns. David Ortiz lead off with a double and the Yankees somewhat wisely decided to walk Manny Ramirez rather than let Manny’s personal whipping boy, Proctor, pitch to him. A better move likely would have been to pull Proctor there and then, but as was revealed after Proctor surrendered a game-breaking three-run homer to Jason Varitek five pitches later, the next man in line was Scott Erickson.

Erickson started his day by giving up a single to Lowell and cracking Kevin Youkilis on the elbow with a wildly errant fastball. He then allowed both runners to score on a two-out Crisp single, running the score to the eventual 9-3 final.

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No word yet on the fate of tonight’s game, but the rain has been much lighter in the city today and things appear to be drying up a tad on the streets. Having postponed yesterday’s contest and with double headers scheduled in both of their remaining series with the Sox (five games in four days in Fenway in August and four games in three days in the Bronx in September), you know the Yankees want to get this one in. If so, we’ll see the matchup we were supposed to get last night with Jaret Wright taking on Curt Schilling.

A mismatch on paper given that the Yanks are throwing their fifth starter against Boston’s ace, I have an odd feeling that the Yankees have a decen shot tonight. Part of that is that Jaret Wright has impressed of late, at least by fifth starter standards. His aggregate line over his last six starts is now:

33 2/3 IP, 36 H, 13 R (12 ER), 2 HR, 8 BB, 17 K, 1.31 WHIP, 3.21 ERA, 3-1

That’s plenty solid given the Yankees major league best offense. Jaret’s remaining bugaboo is length. He’s finished the sixth inning in just half of those starts and hasn’t answered the bell for the seventh in any of them. That seems unlikely to change against the Red Sox. Then again, Wright’s shortest outing in those six turns was five full and he left that game due not to poor performance (he had kept the Red Sox scoreless on 73 pitches), but because of a tweaked groin.

That was the only time Wright has faced the Sox thus far this year. Schilling, meanwhile, has faced the Yankees in two of his last five turns with markedly different results. Most significant about Schilling is that he hasn’t walked a single batter in his last four starts, which is a mighty powerful way to counter the Yankees historic on-base pace. That said, save for his last outing against the Yankees in Fenway, he hasn’t been particularly efficient in any of those outings, so while they might not get to ball four, there’s little reason for the Yankees not to continue to work the count tonight.

In his column “OBP is Life,” which appeared over at BP yesterday, Joe Sheehan points out just how well the Yankees have been getting on base this season:

The Yankees have achieved their success by leading the majors in runs scored with 344, and they’ve done that by leading the planet in OBP with a whopping .375 mark. You can’t understate how impressive that figure is. The post-1900 record for OBP is .385, set by the 1950 Red Sox. (Six teams, including three John McGraw/Hughie Jennings Orioles squads, topped that figure between 1894 and 1897.) Just 19 teams have ever had a .375 OBP, and none have done so since those ’50 Sox. Since then, a mere two teams have cracked .370: the 1994 Yankees and the 1999 Indians. The latter is the only team in the last 56 years to score 1000 runs, while the former went into the season-ending strike second in the AL in runs scored.

…In the divisional era, having a .360 team OBP gives you a better than 70% chance of being a playoff team. The Yankees have more going for them than just a high OBP, but it’s that high OBP–in fact, a historic one–that drives their offense and their chance of winning a ninth consecutive AL East crown.

The Bombers can thank Jason Giambi for boosting their team OBP. Giambi is the subject of my lastest column for SI.com. Check, check it out.

In his latest mailbag column, SI’s Tom Verducci writes:

The injuries will catch up to the Yankees. Teams often get a short-term boost from these situations because everyone senses a feeling of urgency. But losing front-line players eventually catches up to you. The Cubs and Derrek Lee come to mind. But I will say that the Yankees needed an infusion of youth on their roster. Look at the past four or five teams to win the World Series: They were not loaded with players in their mid-30s and older. Teams like the Yankees and the Giants were breakdowns waiting to happen. Don’t forget, the Yankees’ money also gives them an edge in the international market, where they have signed such “homegrown” players as Orlando Hernandez, Alfonso Soriano, Chien-Ming Wang, Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera, etc. Their draft picks have not worked out nearly as well.

I keep thinking that Soriano will wind up back in the Bronx before the summer is over.

It is gray and rainy again this morning in New York, but it’s not nearly as wet as it was yesterday. The sun was actually peeking through the clouds when I left my apartment in the Bronx this morning. Curt Schilling and Jaret Wright will give it another try tonight, weather permitting. I believe they’ll get this one in. A day of rest isn’t the worst thing in the world right now, for either team.

Ben Kabak has an interview with Yankee beat writer Peter Abraham over at Off the Facade. Check it out.

Melky Cabrera has done a nice job of late, but if the Yankees are going to be without Gary Sheffield for a long period of time, I have little doubt that they’ll be in the market for another outfielder before the trading deadline. Several days ago, Will Carroll had the following to say about Sheff over at Baseball Prospectus:

The injury to Gary Sheffield is devastating. I dug and dug to get the information on what was actually going on with Sheffield, knowing that while the Yankees were not lying about the injury, they weren’t giving anyone the whole story. Just as I was putting the pieces together, having two of my best advisors pointing me in what was the correct direction, Sheffield’s wrist made my work moot. Sheffield’s injury was not a bruise or a fracture, but a soft tissue injury. The torn ligament and translocated tendon have only an outside chance of repairing themselves without surgical intervention, but the chance that they could–along with the timetable of surgery–means it makes sense to wait. If Sheffield had surgery now, he wouldn’t be back in time for the playoffs and waiting a month just pushes it a bit further into the off-season. Yes, you’ll note that if he waits that will possibly affect him next season, but that’s not really the Yankees’ concern given his contract situation–or is there some handshake agreement that helped Sheffield stay patient on the chance he gets better? We don’t know. Sheffield has a small chance of avoiding surgery, so adjust your expectations accordingly.

It’ll be interesting to see what the Yankees do, huh?