Daily Archives: May 14, 2009

Couple of big dudes on the mound on Thursday night in Toronto. You know from CC, baseball’s answer to Andre the Giant. But Brian Tallet, is just as tall and he looks even taller because he’s not as wide as Sabathia. Sporting a scrubby mustache, Tallet looks like he stepped out of a time machine from 1987. He could be Frankie Viola’s cousin, or an extra from the movie Copland.

Either way, both men pitched well, each allowing just a couple of runs. But Sabathia was just that much better as the Yanks earned a satisfying 3-2 win over the Jays. There wasn’t much hitting. Alex Rodriguez’s timing is not back fully–he hit a couple of deep fly balls and put some good swings on a few other pitches that he just fouled off and was robbed of a double by Scott Rolen. But Brett Gardner made a nice throw from center field and scored the game-tying run in the seventh (he was driven in on a classic bloop single to right by Derek Jeter).

Hideki Matsui’s solo home run was the difference and our man Mariano Rivera worked a perfect ninth, striking Rod Barajas out swinging to end it.

The Yankees improve their record to 17-17 and finish the six-game road trip 4-2.

Baby steps, but it’s a start.

We’re all waiting for the Yanks to go on a run. That would entail winning a mess-o-games in a row. They’d have to start with tonight. Tonight would be nice.

Roy Halladay dominated the Yanks two nights ago. Time for CC Sabathia to return the favor. His last start was stellar. He’s expected to be on par tonight.

C’mon, big fella. You’re the Rock.

I take a closer look at the AL-leading Blue Jays over at SI.com today:

Thus far the Jays have split their first two games against the struggling Yankees. Their one win came behind Halladay, but their loss on Wednesday night saw Richmond and Murphy get their BABIP comeuppance, Hill leave the game after fouling a ball of his shin and the offense manage just two runs despite receiving four free passes from Andy Pettitte. They’ll face CC Sabathia on Thursday night, with Sabathia coming off a complete-game shutout at Baltimore.

The Jays play two-thirds of their games against the AL East in the second half, but they have six games against the second-place Red Sox over the remainder of May, three games against the defending NL champion Phillies in June and a run of 13 games against the Phillies, Rays, Yankees and Rays again leading up to the All-Star break. We’ll have a much better idea of how good Toronto is by the end of that stretch . . .

Meanwhile, here are Ted Berg and MetsBlog’s Matt Cerrone on tonight’s pitching matchup:

I still love this scene.

Another old friend of Bronx Banter, poet, historian, and editor, Glenn Stout, has just started a blog. Glenn’s new book, Young Woman and the Sea: How Trudy Ederle Conquered the English Channel and Inspired the World, the story of the first woman to swim the English Channel, is due out this summer. I’m in the middle of reading it. Did you know that women were not allowed to swim during the Victorian Age? Thinking about it now, it makes sense, but man, I never knew that. Terrific book, by the way, and not just for young women. I’ll get together with Glenn to talk about it as the release date approaches.

For now, bookmark Glenn’s blog, Verb Plow. He’s sure to fill it with thought-provoking goodies.

Jeff Pearlman, author of one of two new books about Roger Clemens, wasn’t impressed with the Rocket’s performance earlier this week on ESPN radio.  No suprise there, but I have to admit, I like the defiance that Clemens is displaying.  It may be pathetic, delusional, or both, but it is keeping in line with his personality, and for that reason, I think it’s amusing as hell.  Clemens has turned into Slim Pickens riding the bomb.

Hey, don’t mess with Texas, right?