Daily Archives: April 7, 2008

The Yankees cruised to an easy 6-1 win last night to split their four-game series against the Rays and leave town with a winning 4-3 record. Mike Mussina was sharp, allowing just three baserunners, two hits, and a lone run in six efficient innings of work. He had his best curveball working and was able to throw it at a variety of speeds between 70 and 80 miles per hour while correspondingly varying the severity of the break from a slow 12-to-6 yakker to a quicker pitch that broke in the zone. He also had a good changeup. Moose only recorded three strikeouts on the night, but got 11 of his other 15 outs on the ground, which was largely the product of having his best curve. Fittingly, the one run Mussina gave up came on a hanging curve to Jonny Gomes. Gomes put a lumberjack swing on the pitch, his bat and body tilted at 45 degree angles to the ground, and drove it into the seats in left field.

That was the only run the Rays would get all night as Brian Bruney and Kyle Farnsworth pitched perfect seventh and eighth innings, respectively, combining to throw 19 of 24 pitches for strikes. LaTroy Hawkins came on in the ninth and struggled with his control, his confidence, and a contingent of jackass fans who began chanting “Paul O’Neill” after Hawk’s first pitch of the inning was a ball, but despite throwing just half of his 22 pitches for strikes, Hawkins managed to strand his two baserunners by striking out Gomes to end the game.

The Yankee offense, meanwhile, had it’s most productive game of the year thus far with season-highs in runs (6) and hits (11). Bobby Abreu got things started in the first with a two-run homer to the right-field corner, the third Yankee home run of the homestand to that spot, none of which likely traveled more than 320 feet. After making Mussina sweat out his six innings, the Yanks then added on in the bottom of the sixth when Abreu, who had singled in his second at-bat, tripled off the wall in right center, Alex Rodriguez singled him home, and Hideki Matsui doubled Rodriguez home to make it 4-1 Yanks. Mid-game replacement Morgan Ensberg picked up his first Yankee hit with one out in the seventh bringing Abreu to the plate with a chance for the cycle. Abreu, true to form, drew a six-pitch walk. After Alex Rodriguez was called out on strikes at the end of a seven-pitch at-bat of his own, Matsui singled home Ensberg and Robinson Cano, who was hitless in the game to that point, singled Abreu home to set the final score.

That five run-lead allowed Joe Girardi to bring in Farnsworth and Hawkins without being second guessed, though I was still troubled that for the second game in a row Girardi did not appear to consider using Billy Traber against the all-lefty top of the Rays’ order. That aside, while it was rough watching Hawkins in the ninth, the scoreless frame and game-ending K should serve him well, just as Farnsworth’s easy eighth should him. Good on Girardi for getting those guys in there for some confidence-boosting low-leverage work.

The one wrinkle on the night was that Derek Jeter left the game after two innings with what an MRI revealed to be a strained left quadriceps. Jeter hit into a fielder’s choice in the first and scored on Abreu’s homer, but you could see as he ran to first that his legs weren’t right, and he was stretching out the quad while standing on the bag.

Sez Jeter, “I felt something so I didn’t want to be stupid. . . . You can’t hide not running. If you can’t do that, you can’t [play]. I tried, but I felt something, so I thought it would be best to come out.” When asked how long Jeter was expected to be on the shelf, Joe Girardi said, “it’s gonna be a little bit,” but said that the team did not expect him to hit the DL. Jeter will not play in this afternoon’s opener in Kansas City. As he was last night, Wilson Betemit will be the shortstop while Jeter’s out.

The Yankees will close out their season-opening homestand tonight by trying to salvage a series split against the Rays and thus a winning mark on the homestand. The buzz around the team this first week of games has concerned the poor performance of the offense, which has scored just 2.83 runs per game, the fifth-work mark in baseball at this absurdly early stage. Me, I’m more interested in the excellent performance of the pitching staff.

All three of the Yankees’ wins have been close, low-scoring games, the type of games a team has to be able to win in order to advance in October. The Bombers have scored no more than three runs in any of their wins thus far. Last year, they were 5-35 in games in which they scored three runs or fewer and their third win of that kind didn’t come until after the All-Star break. This year they’re out to a 3-2 start in such games in the season’s first week. Call me crazy, but I see that as a positive.

It could be that runs have just been down all over in the cold, windy Bronx this week, but for those worried about the offense, consider what the pitching staff has done. Removing the performances of Ian Kennedy and LaTroy Hawkins, who allowed 13 of the 28 runs given up by the Yankees thus far in Friday’s ugly series-opening loss, the remainder of the staff has compiled this line:

2.17 ERA, 49 2/3 IP, 40 H, 15 R, 12 ER, 4 HR, 10 BB, 42 K, 7.61 K/9, 1.81 BB/9, 1.23 WHIP

Of course, that doesn’t include the three inherited runners that were allowed to score in Friday’s game by Jonathan Albaladejo (1) and Kyle Farnsworth (2), but were charged to Kennedy and Hawkins, respectively. Still, even if you add those three runs in above, the non-IPK/Hawk staff still has a strong 2.72 ERA.

This is all slightly meaningless, of course, given the small sample (only Chien-Ming Wang has pitched more than six innings thus far), but it’s certainly encouraging.

At the same time, one could argue that the concerns about the offense are legitimate. Look at who’s hitting and who’s struggling. Melky Cabrera, a young player primed for a breakout, is leading the team with a .364/.417/.636 line despite missing two games due to suspension. Alex Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui are both making strong contributions. Bobby Abreu is doing fine. Jason Giambi, Jorge Posada, Johnny Damon, and Robinson Cano, however, are full-on struggling, going a combined 10 for 71 (.140) thus far. You can be confident that Cano will get hot, though given his history it might take until after the All-Star break, but both Giambi and Posada are in their late-30s and have already missed games due to aches and pains (Posada’s throwing shoulder, Giambi’s groin). Neither is in tonight’s lineup. Damon, meanwhile, is a very old 34 and struggled mightily for the first half of last season with a variety of aches and pains of his own. As meaningless as the above pitching stats are, however, these first-week hitting slumps are even more so.

Tonight the Yankees face Jason Hammel, who is only in the Rays rotation because Scott Kazmir is on the DL once again with an elbow strain. Hammel hasn’t pitched since spring training. He had a 6.23 ERA in the spring, has a 6.70 mark in the majors, and a career 6.41 ERA against the Yankees. That is to say, he’s reliably terrible, and is the first pitcher who meets that description that the Yankees will have faced this year (Edwin Jackson isn’t much better in terms of results, but has the raw stuff Hammel lacks). All but one of Hammel’s confrontations with the Yankees (three of four starts and both relief appearances, the latter totaling just one inning) occurred last year. In the best of them, an early September start at the Stadium, he held the Yanks to one run on five hits, walked none, and struck out seven, but he only lasted five innings as he needed 97 pitches to get that far. It’s likely that Joe Maddon was thinking of Hammel yesterday when he used J.P. Howell to eat up three innings, thus saving the rest of his pen for tonight.

Hammel’s mound opponent is Mike Mussina, whose 5 2/3-inning/four-run outing in his first start is about all that can be expected of him at this stage of his career. Certainly, Girardi will need more than just Joba and Mo tonight, fortunately they were the only relievers he used yesterday. It could be that we’ll have our first high-scoring game of the year tonight. Or maybe the crisp Bronx night will keep the bats of both teams frozen for one more game before the Bombers head out to play 18 of their next 20 games on the road.

The first week of the baseball season presented a range of stories that provide no information out of the ordinary. Below are one man’s observations of what can be taken from the general coverage:

• In this, the last year of the current incarnation of Yankee Stadium, we should be nostalgic at every turn, and re-live every great moment in the Stadium’s history. Every living Yankee, past and present, will be asked how he feels about the new stadium, and what he will remember most about the old one.

• Joe Girardi has a tough task in front of him as new manager.

• With so much uncertainty on the Yankees’ roster, with the greatest mix of youth and veterans since 1995, the odds of them missing the playoffs altogether are about the same as winning the World Series.

• Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens aren’t great friends anymore.

• Based on the season previews of all the major local and national outlets, while the Yankees are still a focal point of many discussions, the Mets are not to be taken lightly. And did you know Johan Santana pitches for them now? This is a big deal, supposedly, because he was not a Met last year, they choked in September, and the fragile Pedro Martinez is in the last year of his contract. Everywhere you look, if there’s a Met poster or picture, Santana’s face is on it.

AROUND THE HORN
• Best wishes to Bobby Murcer, whose ongoing battle with cancer kept him off the air on Opening Day. It was a goal of his to be ready to work by March 31, but that didn’t happen. Murcer was always accommodating, classy and gracious, not only in his TV work, but in his collaborations with us on YESNetwork.com. I would not be surprised to see him in the booth by the All-Star break.

• I don’t mean to sound like our good friend Phil Mushnick, but I don’t understand why on Opening Day, there is a predisposition to make such a big deal out of firsts. Of course everything that occurs is the first whatever of the year. Do we need to be beaten over the head with it? They won the game, and that was important. YES did a good job of highlighting the fact that the Yankees have set a new MLB record with 11 straight wins in home openers.

• Speaking of home-opening victories, you’d never know unless you watched the game or went online for a summary immediately thereafter that they did win. Why? Because Wednesday morning, the back pages glowered over Alex Rodriguez’s salary, specifically the report that he makes more than the entire Florida Marlins team. I thought A-Rod handled himself well in what must have been a tricky subject to have to comment on.

• Is it me, or during YES’s Yankees Post Game Show, when there’s a wide two-shot of Bob Lorenz and David Cone, if you look quickly it’s very difficult to tell them apart. They have the same hairline. It’s uncanny.

• Bronx Banter gets a mention in Kat O’Brien‘s story on Yankee fans’ blog sites. Don’t know if our fearless leaders Alex Belth and Cliff Corcoran were solicited for a quote, but it would have been nice to see something there as a differentiator between NoMaas, RiverAveBlues, WasWatching and Replacement Level. We’re a pretty tight fraternity and we all read each other. Maybe I’m biased, but I think and Alex and Cliff would have had plenty to add.

BACKPAGE WATCH: Yankees and Mets even with leads after one week. We’ll see how long that lasts.

Until next week …

Yo, I’m a total nerd. I don’t mind if people call me a nerd because I was never really a dorkasorous dweeb when I was growing up, so I can embrace the label without any personal scars. (The folks that tend to bristle at that label really were nerds and were ostrasized because of it back in their high school days.) One nerdy thing I love doing is hiding out in the microfilm room of the New York Public Library on 42nd street, scrolling through old magazines. On that note, I was geeked to find that I made the NY Public Library’s most recent newsletter.

Oh, and I just had to give a shout out to one of our most loyal readers (and commentors): Happy Birthday to our man Chyll Will.

Show of hands, how many of you out there were excited to see Joba Chamberlain enter the game with two runners on and nobody out in the seventh inning? Joba struck Willy Aybar out on three pitches, including a fastball that hit 101 mph on the scoreboard radar gun. According to Sean Brennan in the Daily News:

Did Chamberlain think his triple-digit fastball got into Aybar’s head?

“I think a little bit,” Chamberlain said. “But you can’t rely on that because then you get too complacent and you leave one over (the plate) and it doesn’t matter how hard you throw to these guys. They can come in 101 and it’s going to leave at 140 and go about 500 feet.”

…In all it took Chamberlain 16 pitches to nail down six outs, and the righthander seems to have grasped the notion that low pitch counts may be more effective than logging strikeouts.

“I’m probably a little smarter,” Chamberlain said. “I’m still young and dumb sometimes but that works for me. I just try to attack the zone and be aggressive. I’m a little more experienced (though), not necessarily any smarter.”

Leave the smarts to Joe G, son, everything else will fall into place.