Daily Archives: April 17, 2010

By the end of his two-inning stint in the Bronx, Scott Feldman must have felt like Marty Feldman in Young Frankenstein. The Texas Rangers’ ace received first-hand evidence of the Yankees’ ability to grind through opposition starting pitchers like no other ballclub. Feldman, a sinkerballing right-hander who usually has a knack for throwing strikes, needed 61 pitches to work through the first two innings of a matinee at Yankee Stadium. Feldman escaped the first inning unscathed, but allowed two runs in the second, as the Yankees launched a 7-3 win over the Rangers.

The Yankees did not exactly crush the ball during the rally–they mixed in two infield hits with a walk–but their ability to foul off pitches and prolong at-bats clearly frustrated Feldman. Feldman also hurt himself by failing to throw out Brett “The Jet” Gardner on a softly tapped grounder down the first base line. With two outs and the bases loaded, Nick “The Stick” Johnson waited out Feldman, drawing a walk on a 3-and-2 count to score the first run of the game. The slumping Mark Teixeira followed up by hitting a ground ball into the second base hole. Joaquin Arias made a diving stop on the outfield grass, but was unable to complete the play with a throw to first. Tex’s relatively soft infield single gave the Yankees an early 2-0 cushion.

The Yankees used another infield single to add to their lead in the third inning. After Curtis Granderson’s opposite-field double knocked Feldman from the game and pushed Jorge Posada to third, Gardner slapped a ball to the left side of the infield and easily beat Elvis Andrus’ throw to first base. (Fast as a flash bulb, Gardner would finish the game with three infield hits.) The Yankees then pulled a page out of the “Billy Ball” playbook by having Gardner attempt to steal second with the idea of drawing a throw from Rangers catcher Taylor Teagarden. Opting to throw through, Teagarden badly short-hopped Joaquin Arias, as Gardner stopped midway between the bases before continuing to second base. With the ball trickling into the outfield, Granderson scored easily from third, giving the Yankees a 4-0 lead.

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It’s gray but not raining.  Yanks and Rangers.

Let’s Go Yanks.

CC you later, Texas. After nine games against very good, and very disciplined offenses, it was friggin’ beautiful to see the Texas Rangers swing at everything. And they missed almost everything, so that made it even better. The rain shortened the affair to a 5-1 Yankee victory in only six innings, but the only consequence of the premature end was to cap the number of whiffs for CC at nine. Had the weather been dry (and had Jeter made a very makable play in the first inning) we’d be looking at a second consecutive deep dominant game and quite possibly a nifty little 16 or 17 inning April scoreless streak.

CC had all his pitches working tonight. Check out how he worked over the Rangers for the nine whiffs. It was a classic case of a brilliant starting pitcher turning the lineup over like a flapjack. As he got into the fifth, he had tempted three lefties to chase the slider. And three righties went fishing for the change-up (he also froze Cruz on a fastball in the first). Then a string bean named Arias (a previous changeup fisherman) held back long enough on another well placed two strike changeup to guide it into centerfield for a base hit.

If you have access to the game, watch CC’s reaction as the ball floats up the middle and past Jeter. He was pissed. He had this guy dead to rights, and then he’s standing on first base. He knew at that moment, he had gone with plan A long enough. But with all his pitches working, plan B was dynamite, and if he needed it, he could have come close to completing the alphabet. The next time a righty got two strikes, CC suspected Teagarden was sitting on the change-up, so he dropped in an impeccable slider for the backwards K. Then when he got two strikes on a lefty, he encouraged Hamilton to expect the slider away, and promptly buried him on the inside corner with the heater.

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