Welp, the Yanks got a good performance out of Javier Vazquez who gave up two runs on five hits and a couple of walks over seven innings. Only trouble, Rick Porcello was even better, throwing a good sinker, and shutting the Yanks out over seven. The Yanks had four hits for the game.
It was scoreless until the sixth, when the Tigers collected four singles (Jackson, Damon, Cabrera, Boesch) good enough for all the scoring they’d need.
The game moved briskly (two hours and fifteen minutes, wait, this was a Yankees game?) and the Yanks had a couple of chances early–Ramino Pena stranded runners to end the second and fourth; Alex Rodriguez was robbed of an RBI extra base hit in the third. But pitching was the thing, zip, zip.
At least Vazquez was good. One bad inning that’s all, and it was far from a disaster. Still, hard to pick-up a win when your team gets blanked. The Yanks have now dropped three-straight.
Game One, Final Score: Tigers 2, Yanks 0.
[Photo Credit: Leon Halip/Getty Images]
hate to see 'em drop 3 in a row, but if I had to choose between Javy pitching well and losing... or him pitching poorly, with the team winning - this is an occasion where I'd pick the first one, if that makes any sense.
This game was like a "trust fall" - don't worry Javy, just fall back, the offense will catch you.... thud.
[1] It does make sense.
We're still early enough in the season for "good signs" to be as important as "good results". In October, not so much.
HP Ump in the Sox game is fucking the Sox good.
3-2 Jays, bottom 9th, 2 out, man on first, McDonald up.
Sox were down 3-0.
And the Jays hang on to a 3-2 Win.
A little bit of good news.
[4] game ovah!
First time all year the Yankees have score less than two runs in a game and just the second time they've scored less than three.
Meanwhile, we're seeing what happens when Girardi decides to use the DH spot to give regulars partial rest rather than using trying to fill the position properly with something like a Miranda/Thames platoon: bench guys with weak bats have to play the field and it opens a hole in the order for the opposition to exploit. And if Alex Rodriguez had to DH anyway, why not play Russo at third? He's a far better hitter than Pena, even if he lacks the major league experience.
[7] We get to see it again tonight. Jeter DHing.
Just win tonight
[7] We saw it two years ago and it was a such an unqualified failure that we just had to try again, because damnit, he knows it can work!
With a righty going, the Yankees can’t afford to lose Posada’s bat. The better call would have been to use Jorge as the DH and have Jeter play both games at SS.
Adding Thames to the outfield makes no sense either. Bonderman is right handed, so you gain nothing, but lose defense. The Yankees current roster alignment make little sense. Cashman needs to get on the phone and figure something out because the schedule doesn’t get easier.
It’s kind of appropriate that all of the injuries have come to a head in Detroit because it highlights the folly of letting Damon go.
The Yankees really cut off their nose to spite their face on Damon.
The big problem was replacing him with a player made of paper-thin crystal.
But he's younger. I was told that I as supposed to ignore than Johnson was made of glass because he was younger
[14] Not by me.
From Steve Goldman:
[blockquote]
Judging from the coverage, you’d think that the only thing that happened in Monday’s game was Johnny Damon’s home run. There is this weird element of “Ha! You see? This very flawed Yankees team that is on a pace to win only 110 games has been hoist with their own petard!” This is a fact-free storyline, but it’s fun, so what the hey, let’s go with it.
As we’ve discussed in this space previously with regards to Hideki Matsui, retaining Damon was not just a question of respecting his abilities or not. On a purely philosophical level, there can be little doubt that the Yankees appreciated what Damon had done for them in the past and might do for them again in the future. The issue was one of money and the way the player perceived the organization’s intentions. As with Matsui, Damon had an old-economy contract, worth $13 million a year. Part-time left fielder/designated hitters who can’t throw just aren’t getting those kinds of salaries anymore, and they’re not getting multi-year contracts at 36 either. It is very awkward to ask a player to take a 40 percent pay-cut (Damon took $8 million from Detroit) on a one-year deal and remain in your organization. From the Tigers, it was what the market would support. From the Yankees, it would have been an insult.
If the Yankees could not have retained Damon on a one-year contract at a Great Recession discount, then what he does for the Tigers this year is irrelevant. It’s what he does next year and the year after, if he’s around that long, that should concern us, because those are the years the Yankees would have had to cover to retain his services and good will.
[/blockquote]
[16] Thanks for that. Eff Damon.
[16] I dont buy Goldman's thesis that Damon would have been insulted to return on a discount. If true, he wouldn't have continued to hold out hope and try to meet the Yankees half way as the days grew late. The bottom line is Damon is/was just a much better risk than both Johnson and Matsui, so it just made sense to spend an extra million or two to retain him.
Maybe Damon really wouldn't budge, but I wonder if Cashman's heart was in it to begin with? Hindsight might be 20/20, but right now, the Yankees need a DH and Johnny Damon would fit perfectly.
[16] Also, Danon's HR wasn't the only event. Randy Winn and Marcus Thames stranded 11 runners and failed in 2 key ABs. One of them wouldn't have been in the lineup if Damon was retained. That's the point.
[19] And we wouldn't be doing the stupid rotating DH with Ramiro Pena playing every game.
[18] Well, here's where you and I will just have to differ. Assuming as true, that the Yankees offered 2/14 (a 1/8+1/6 if you will) and Damon ended up with 1/8, then the Yankees made a serious, market-fair offer.
Damon and Boras turned that down.
I'm just not going to fault Cashman from moving on to avoid getting stuck in a position of not having his choice of Plan Bs.
We can move on to discussing whether Cashman's plan B was the best that the free agent market had to offer (and this is a legitimate discussion), but if the Yankees' offer was legitimately made, I don't really have any issue with the decision to move forward without Damon.