The Yankees waited through a two-hour-fifteen-minute rain delay last night to lose their fourth straight game to the Red Sox. Phil Hughes lacked the command of his pitches he had in his previous start and was out after using up 94 pitches and walking four in just four innings. The Sox built a picket fence against Hughes, scoring once in each of his frames. Alfredo Aceves, who was called up earlier in the day, appeared to lock things down from there, and the Yankees pulled within one by scoring three quick runs in 
the fifth after Joe Girardi got himself ejected for arguing a called third strike on Derek Jeter. Johnny Damon followed Girardi’s ejection with a two-run homer down the right-field line, and Mark Teixeira followed with a slump-busting solo homer into the visiting bullpen, but Jason Bay got two of those runs back with a two-run jack off Aceves in the seventh. Teixeira answered with a solo shot on the first pitch from Ramon Ramirez in the eighth, giving Tex switch-hit homers in consecutive at-bats, but both the ensuing rally in that inning and another in the ninth were quelled by Jonathan Papelbon and the Yanks fell 6-4.
Home plate umpire Jerry Meals wasn’t helping Hughes, which is one reason Girardi got himself tossed, but Jon Lester wasn’t bothered by the rain delay, the steady mist falling throughout the game, or the strikezone (which did appear to be a bit more accomidating when he was on the mound). He worked seven strong innings and tied a career high with 10 Ks. His only mistakes were the home runs by Damon and Teixeira, which suggests that Girardi’s stunt, prompted by his disapproval of Meals’ strikezone throughout the game to that point, temporarily unnerved the Boston lefty.
Adding injury to insult, Jorge Posada felt his right hamstring grab while running the bases in the sixth inning. He’ll have an MRI today and will not be in the lineup tonight as the Yankees try to save some face by sending Joba Chamberlain to the mound against Josh Beckett in the finale of this short, rain-threatened series.
The Posada injury is a major blow. If he misses significant time, it will mute the addition of Arod.
In many ways, this season feels just like last year. The team continues to squander opportunities, play bad defense and fail to sustain any level of success. As a result, it's no surprise to look up and see the Yankees once again hovering around the .500 mark. If this keeps up through May, I think the Yankees need to consider a change.
I'm focusing on the positive: Tex's HRs, Damon maybe bouncing back, Aceves, and Coke.
I was there tonight. I spent something like 8 hours at the ballpark, because I went early to see it for the first time. At least the Stadium is a major plus.
Really? You liked the new park? Please, elaborate.
This is bullshit. I know its extremely unsportsmanlike, but I want Joba to drill Youklis. Maybe that will fire up the Yanks. At least Texeira is starting to hit, but if Posada goes down for awhile we are in deep trouble.
Come on Yankees!
Pete Abe thinks the Yanks will have to call up one of the AAA catchers and make a 40-man roster move. Kevin Cash, the veteran, is on the DL in Scranton. I guess that means it's Chris Stewart again.
Chris Stewart, IIRC, had a cup of coffee last year and was terrible on offense and defense. I was kind of puzzled that the Yanks traded for him after he left via minor league free agency.
While I'm all for giving young players a chance, in this case, I'm thinking they should consider signing a Moeller-type veteran.
Let's face it, anybody-but-Posada is going to be a black hole at bat. I know, there are degrees of black holedom, but it's going to be such a huge drop-off that worrying about whether it will be a 46 story drop onto the pavement or only a 41 story drop seems pointless.
[5] I don't think anybody's going to drill Youkalis today -- he left the game grimacing, sore back. I bet they leave him out of the order tonight.
glad i fell asleep for the end of this one.
How about a recap of the last of the ninth? I would not exactly say hitting a homer with your team trailing is slump busting. Slump busting would be hitting a single in your team's last at bat with two men on base and the score 6-4.
[3] You picked a hell of a game to go to.
[4] You sound surprised. I think the response to the stadium has been overwhelmingly positive. I've been there 6 times so far and taken a bunch of people and they all loved it. Also, the people I've sat around all seemed very happy with it. The media hasn't been as impressed, but the "average gfans" they seem so concerned about really seem to like it (at least from my experience).
Now, if we can just find away to get a team that can play appreciably better than .500.
Its just a gorgeous ballpark. I'll get into a little bit more tonight, but that's the story. Beautiful, beautiful place. My only real issue was that they told us *nothing* during the rain delay. I had to rely on people on the outside to tell me that ESPN and YES saw the 9:20 window or whatever the hell it was.
I think this was my least-favorite game of the season thus far.
[1] "If this keeps up through May, I think the Yankees need to consider a change."
William, what does this mean, though? The only thing I can imagine it means is: fire Girardi. Or maybe, make Wang healthy faster and heal Posada while you are at it. Perhaps, 'tell Teixeira to do more of that 'May home run' stuff? Urge Sabathia to get into gear immediately?
Sometimes you play the cards you're dealt. The bullpen, which was supposed to be a strength, will lose to most teams' bullpens right now, Posada DOES just about cancel A Rod's return. That's a bad, bad hurt.
All this is reminding me of just how superbly Torre managed the 2007 Yankees when we had NO pitching through the spring ... and we steamrollered into the playoffs, to meet the midges of Cleveland.
The sense I get about the ballpark (haven't been) is that there is a rip-off going on the premium seats and the concessions, but since most people never sat in premium seats anyhow, the assessments coming here are for the ordinary people seating, and stubhub and other outlets have those trending down in price towards league norms. NYC is always more expensive, anyhow. In just about everything.
[12] Last night really hit me hard that this team just isn't all that good.
[6] I like to refer to the "Chris Stewart Game" where Stewart and Hughes got crossed up so often that it was determined that Phil must be blind. And then Stewart and the relievers got repeatedly crossed up for the rest of the game.
[15] The problem is they seem like they should be better. But you're right, maybe they're just not.
Glad I went to bed after the third inning. Hughes did seem to be getting a bit squeezed by the ump, that Lester was getting the benefit of. Maybe the ump's thinking is that rookies have to earn it. Which is BS. Call the game the same for both teams.
Posada injury: shudder.
I'm still pissed that they even played the game. The person who made that moronic decision should be fired.
From our vantage point in the leftfield grandstand, Hughes didn't look good at all. Seemed to be missing quite a bit. But we didn't have the greatest angle either.
[13] It means shake things up. Whether that's fire Girardi (a reasonable possibility if this team continues to muddle at .500); promote Jackson; return Joba to the pen; make a trade; etc.
Hughes was missing, but the strike zone was very small (esp. around the knees). He seemed to me to be slightly off, not bad, but certainly not as good as his last outing.
All this is reminding me of just how superbly Torre managed the 2007 Yankees when we had NO pitching through the spring … and we steamrollered into the playoffs, to meet the midges of Cleveland.
It helped having a 900 run offense :)
Even when they were down in 2007, they were outperforming their pythagorean record.
Actually, they were under-performing their pythag in 2007. However in 2004. they were over-performing their pythag.
[19] It's the GM's call unless it's the last trip in for the opposing team.
[4] i went for the first time on friday and i also think it's great. and i went expecting to hate it.
first of all, the place isn't nearly as plastic as it looks on tv. when you walk up from the subway and you see the old stadium and the new one, the new one looks so much nicer and more real- at least it isn't oddly whitewashed. when you look at it on tv or in photos, it looks so wide that it's hard to tell how tall it still is, but in person, looking up at the open windows from outside and inside, it's huge. then you walk in to the concourses and it's just so much nicer- roomy and open with a lot of standing room. you can walk all around the whole place, and one of my favorite spots was the top of the sports bar in the bleachers. i like the dark blue seats a lot better than the lighter blue of the old stadium. the frieze looks better in person than on tv (it looks like metal instead of plastic), and from the upper deck seats where i sat it frames the view really beautifully. i also appreciated the soft yellow lighting as it got dark outside. the bathrooms were clean and smoke-free (although the lower deck bathrooms were noticeably nicer than the upper deck ones, particularly since there were no splashguards upstairs). and while you and others intimated that the lights and sounds barrage you, i didn't think it was any worse than the old stadium. i didn't even mind the wraparound banner, although i agree they'll have to move the mini scoreboards closer to home.
i thought there were only a few things i'd like changed. the bleacher area is too grey, especially when there aren't that many people sitting in a certain area, so i think they should color the bleachers the same dark blue as the rest of the seats. i think the big "YANKEE STADIUM" sign is ugly and unnecessary. a full out of town scoreboard would be nice but that isn't a huge deal. and i think they'll have to close some of the open spaces with plexiglass or something because you can really feel the wind blowing out through the concourses, especially in the upper deck.