Man, it’s a hot one out there. Damned Mets are hot, while the Yanks are decidedly not.
Still, the Bombers remain tied for first place with the Rays. The Can’t-You-Hear-Me-Knockin’ Sox are just a game back.
Hope everyone is staying cool.
[Picture by Bags]
It’s official, the Yankees are in a team hitting slump. Since opening up a can of Whoop-Ass on Roy Halladay on Tuesday, the Yankees have scored a total of four runs in three games started by 47-year-old Jamie Moyer, Phillies’ sixth-starter Kyle Kendrick, and Mets fill-in Hisanori Takahashi, and two of those runs came on solo homers off Moyer.
Through the first five innings against Takahashi Friday night, the Yankees managed just a walk and two singles. One of those singles, an infield hit to second base by Derek Jeter, should have been ruled an error as Mets first baseman Ike Davis dropped the throw on a bang-bang play on which the ball hit Davis’s glove an instant before Jeter’s foot hit the bag. That, by the way, stands as Jeter’s only hit in the last four games. He is “2”-for-21 with two walks and a caught stealing in his last five.
Nonetheless the game was a compelling one, because Javier Vazquez nearly matched Takahashi pitch-for-pitch. In fact, through the first seven innings, the difference in the game was a matter of mere inches on a play at home with two outs in the top of the first.
Vazquez got the first two outs of the game on six pitches, but the red-hot David Wright spoiled things with a two-out double into the left-field corner. Ike Davis followed with a single into right. As Wright rounded third, Nick Swisher uncorked a strong throw to the plate. However, while the ball was in the air, Francisco Cervelli inched just slightly up the first base line for the catch. Wright saw that and slid to the far side of the plate. Cervelli caught the ball and lunged, but just missed Wright’s left arm, which Wright then stuck out to catch the tip of the plate with his fingertips.
Watching it live, I thought Wright had failed to touch home, but on replay I noticed a telltale streak of dirt across the point of the plate, which was otherwise sparkling clean given that the game was just 11 pitches old. Cervelli was convinced he had tagged Wright, but replays proved he didn’t.
That was it for seven innings. Vazquez pitched around a two-out single in the second, then didn’t allow another baserunner until the sixth, when he walked two men only to have the first of them, Angel Pagan, caught stealing by Cervelli from his knees. Vazquez then struck out Davis to end that non-threat and pitched around a two-out walk in the seventh as well. His final line was a sparkling 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 4 K, with all three of those walks coming in his final two innings.
The only downside to Vazquez’s outing was that one run, which slipped in by the smallest of margins, and the Yankees’ complete inability to do anything to support him.
The Yankees didn’t get a man past first base until the sixth, when, with one out, Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira delivered consecutive hard singles up the middle to put men on first and second. Takahashi got Alex Rodriguez to ground out for the second out, and while that moved the runners up, it also allowed Takahashi to pitch around Robinson Cano, who walked on eight pitches. That brought up Jorge Posada, who was essentially the entire Yankee offense through the first five innings, owning both the walk and the only legitimate single. However, Posada chopped Takahashi’s 0-1 pitch to the third base side of the mound where David Wright charged it and made a great, bare-handed play that proved a bit excessive as he threw Posada bout by about 15 feet.
With Elmer Dessens on in relief of Takahashi, who passed 100 pitches during the Yankees’ sixth-inning rally, Cervelli, likely still burning from that play in the top of the first, led off the seventh with a double. With the lefty starter out of the game, Joe Girardi then called on Curtis Granderson to pitch-hit, but Jerry Manuel countered with ace LOOGY sidearmer Pedro Feliciano, who struck out Granderson. Brett Gardner did what Granderson couldn’t grounding to the right side to get Cervelli to third, but it was of little use after Granderson’s out, particularly as the slumping Jeter tapped out to Feliciano on the first pitch to strand Cervelli at third.
Then things fell apart. Girardi went to Chan Ho Park to start the eighth, and Park coughed up two runs to the first three hitters he faced before recording a single out. Boone Logan cleaned up that mess, but then yielded a run of his own in the ninth to make it 4-0 Mets.
For their part, the offense got a man to second in the eight when Nick Swisher led off with a single then ill-advisedly took second on a fly out to left, benefiting from another dropped ball on what was ruled an assist and an error, but stranded him there when Feliciano struck out Rodriguez and got Cano to fly out.
With lefty Raul Valdes on in the ninth, the Yankees built another rally on one-out singles by Cervelli and Granderson, forcing Manuel to call on his closer, Francisco Rodriguez. Gardner greated Rodriguez with a 12-pitch battle that saw him foul off seven pitches including five 3-2 offerings before finally getting ball four to load the bases, but Rodriguez struck out Jeter on three pitches, the last an unsuccessfully checked swing, and Swisher fouled out to Wright to end the threat and the game.
The Yankees are now 12-12 in games against left-handed starting pitchers and are on a three-game losing streak having gone 2-5 in their last seven games against teams with winning records. They also now face having to beat the Mets’ two-best starters, Mike Pelfrey and Johan Santana, each of whom shut the Bombers down in Queens four weeks ago, in order to win this series.
On the bright side, the Yankees continue to share first place in the AL East with the Rays, who lost for the sixth time in their last eight games last night. Oh, but the Red Sox won and are now just a game out of first place.
Gulp.
Friggin’ Mets. I wish they’d decide what they are. They finished April with an eight-game winning streak that lifted them into first place, but by the time the Yankees made their way over to Queens on May 21, the Muts had fallen all the way down to last place in the National League East, a full seven games behind the Phillies. The Mets took two of three from the Yankees that weekend and, including those two wins, they have gone 18-5 since, vaulting past the slumping Phils and climbing within a half game of the similarly surging first-place Braves.
What gives? Well, a seven-game winning streak built on series sweeps of the Orioles and Indians has played a part, but the Yankees can’t talk trash about that having just beat up on those two teams to slip into a first-place tie themselves.
Replacing John Maine and Oliver Perez in the rotation with 23-year-old Jonathon Niese (who had been on the disabled list with a hamstring strain) and journeyman knuckleballer R.A. Dickey (who had been in the bullpen) has also been key. Maine and Perez both hit the DL with ERAs over 6.00, while Niese and Dickey, in eight combined starts since mid-May, have gone 7-0 with a 2.28 ERA. Hisanori Takahashi, another repurposed reliever, has also been a solid addition to the rotation having turned in three quality starts in five tries, going 2-1 with a 3.81 ERA. Add in a Cy Young-contending season from Mike Pelfrey and his new split-finger fastball and incumbent ace Johan Santana, and the Mets rotation, which seemed in ruins a month ago, is suddenly a strength.
Then there’s David Wright. On May 7, he was hitting .287/.416/.568 with seven homers, earning an honorable mention in my debut Awards Watch column on the MVP races soon after. Then, from May 8 to May 29, he hit just .187/.256/.320 with one home run and 31 strikeouts in 20 games, a rate of one K every 2.8 plate appearances. Since then, over a period of just less than three weeks, he’s hit .431/.477/.724 with four home runs and just 12 Ks (5.4 PA/K). It’s oversimplification to say as goes Wright, so go the Mets, but the parallels are certainly indicative of his importance to the team. Of course, Wright needs someone to drive in, and on that count, Jose Reyes’ resurgence has been perfectly timed. Over that 18-5 stretch, Reyes has hit .371/.419/.577 with eight steals in nine attempts.
Those performances from Reyes and Wright have been especially important because Jason Bay, since tripling his season home run total by going deep twice off CC Sabathia, has hit just one more dinger in his last 19 games, going .234/.306/.351 over that span. Similarly, rookie Ike Davis, who was driving the offense when the Yankees were in Queens, has hit just .235/.278/.425 since, though he’s been hot the last few games, getting two hits in each game of the Cleveland series, three of them for extra bases.
The pitching matchups for this weekend’s Subway Series finale are identical to the previous series in Queens four weeks ago. In that series, Javier Vazquez and Takahashi dueled to a draw in a 2-1 Yankee win Friday night. Then Pelfrey and Santana shut the Yankees down the next two nights as Phil Hughes and CC Sabathia struggled. Hughes and Sabathia have been better of late, but they have their work cut out for them rematching against the Mets top two starters.
Tonight, the Yankees look to rouse their bats from their recent two-game slumber as they take on 35-year-old Japanese “rookie” lefty Takahashi. There’s been a general impression lately that the Yankees are struggling against left-handed starters. There’s something to that as the team has hit just .252/.337/.426 in games started by a lefty versus .290/.374/.451 in games started by a righty and is just 12-11 in games started by opposing lefties, but I’m not sold. Overall, the Yankees have hit .277/.363/.460 against left-handed pitching and .277/.361/.434 against righties. I think the issue is rather the quality of the lefties they’ve been facing rather than the handedness of those pitchers. Nine of those losses were started by Johan Santana, Jon Lester, David Price, Rickey Romero, Brett Cecil, Jon Danks, Jamie Moyer, Scott Kazmir, and Dallas Braden. The other two were games were lost by the Yankee bullpen and had little to do with the either starting pitcher (one was Sergio Mitre vs. Detroit spot-starter Brad Thomas, who pitched just three innings, the other was the game in which David Huff got hit in the head by an Alex Rodriguez line drive in the third inning).
Takahashi’s first major league start came against the Yankees. His second came against the Phillies. In those two games he allowed no runs in 12 innings and struck out 11 against one walk. In his next two starts, against the weak-hitting Padres and Marlins, he gave up 11 runs in 9 1/3 innings while striking out six against four walks and yielding three home runs. His last time out, he allowed just one run in seven frames to the Orioles, but struck out only two. As for Vazquez, as I reported on Monday, he is 4-2 with a 2.94 ERA over his last six starts, including six scoreless innings against the Mets, and has won each of his last three starts, posting a 2.57 ERA while striking out 22 in 21 innings against just five walks and 11 hits (albeit with four of those hits leaving the park).
Wrapping up boxing week, here’s one that Diane suggested:
And, well, I couldn’t resist…
When your team is grappling with the Rays for the best record in baseball, there is not much that needs to be overhauled. But fine tuning is always a consideration, especially considering the high standard that Tampa Bay has established over the first two and a half months of the season. Then there is the presence of the Red Sox, who have quietly moved within sniffing distance of first place. Those factors, coupled with the long-term concerns over the groin and the hip (not again!) of Alex Rodriguez, should have the Yankees thinking about their infield depth and their overall bench strength.
Kevin Russo and Ramiro Pena, the two current backup infielders, have hit about as well as Chicken Stanley on a good day. If A-Rod has to miss significant time later this season, or if he has to be relegated to extensive DH duty, the Yankees will find themselves with a gaping hole at the hot corner. So lo and behold, two significant names have found themselves designated for assignment over the last week. They are Jake Fox, late of Oakland, and Akinori Iwamura, formerly of Pittsburgh. Both players happen to be having lousy seasons (their combined OPS figures would fall short of one of Barry Bonds’ hallmark seasons), but both are far better hitters than they have shown. Either man would give the Yankees a better backup option at third base, while also providing depth at other positions.
The 27-year-old Fox is not much of a corner defender, but he can hit like a third baseman–at least when it comes to power. (Fox slugged a respectable .468 for the Cubs in 2009.) He can also play the outfield, serve as a DH against left-handers, and perhaps most significantly, is capable of putting on shin guards and a face mask. He would make an ideal third catcher, far better than the offensively-overwhelmed Chad Moeller.
The projector is broken, so no show today. We’ll be back on Monday for Stanley Kubrick Week. The plan is to do a theme week in this space, if not every week, then every other week. So if you’ve got any suggestions, feel free to let us know and we’ll do our best to soup it up. It doesn’t have to only be for an actor or a director. It could be for a cinematographer or just a theme–Worst Date Movies, Laugh-Out-Loud Movies, Best Late Night Movies–you name it.
Whadda ya hear, whadda ya say?
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen as unsightly a Game 7 as the one played last night between the Lakers and Celtics for the NBA title. At one point, Jeff Van Gundy said that it was one of the worst displays of offensive execution and one of the hardest, toughest defensive efforts too. The defense played by both teams was terrific, and the offense was horrid. Hear that clang? More paint being chipped off the rim. Kobe Bryant, Ray Allen, name the player, they all missed a ton of shots. Ron Artest turned out to be one of the heroes for the Lakers and he missed a lot of shots too (it is somehow fitting that a junkyard dog like Artest would be the key to victory in such an ugly game).
It was the kind of game that made you want to sit up and yell at the TV, “Can’t anybody make a jump shot?”
Bryant didn’t only miss, he forced the action and took bad shots in traffic. He turned the ball over. Phil Jackson said that Byrant was pressing; after the game, Bryant, who was named the Finals MVP, said that he was exhausted. It would have gone down as his worst moment as a pro had the Lakers lost. But the Celtics didn’t bury Los Angeles when they had the chance–up nine, up thirteen–and in the end the Lakers were just too long, and they dominated the boards.
Sure, the Lakers got some calls, but for the most part the refs let both teams play. And in the end, the Lakers survived their own offensive futility by hitting a few big shots down the stretch (including the expected lollipop three pointer from Derek Fisher) and finally made their free-throws.
It wasn’t pretty at all. In fact, this game felt like the demon child of the Pistons-Knicks Era style of mug-’em hoops. By the middle of the forth quarter, all of the players looked more like heavyweight fighters in the 15th round, as if they were moving under water. It was an agonizing game to watch, and yet as bad as the offense was, the game was always competitive, never boring. And the entire season came down to the final minutes between the Lakers and Celtics. In our imaginations it should have looked better, prettier, more spectacular, but you couldn’t have asked for more passion or determination.
Just for someone to nail an open jumper.
Lastly, great night for Queens, so okay, Ron Ron, I’ll say it: Queensbridge, baby:
[Photo Credit: Ronald Martinez, Jae C. Hong, Christian Petersen, Lisa Blumenfeld: Getty Images]
Chat about today’s World Cup match here, if you please.
The Yankees just lost 7-1 to a recently reeling Phillies team. The same team Boston pummeled into submission a few days ago. Thanks to Tim Hudson, New York will retain their share of first place, but after beating Roy Halladay on Tuesday, this series result needs to be scraped off the bottom of our shoes.
The Yankees did not hit. They did not field. Andy Pettitte pitched admirably, but admirably was nowhere near good enough. He needed a shutout to win tonight, and his two-out two-run goofball to Shane Victorino was enough to beat the hapless, batless Yanks. The fact that Joba Chamberlain came in and ruined any chance at a pie party was just more shit to scrape. (I had written the first paragraph in the top on the ninth, and when I saw Joba’s mug on the computer, I guessed 6-1. Almost.)
Yanks go for the series win tonight with Andy Pettitte on the hill. Game 7 of the NBA Finals later…Here’s hoping for a good sports night.
[Picture by Larry Roibal]
Let’s Go Yan-Kees!
You can get with this:
Or you can get with that:
The Choice is Yours.
I grew up with the Roger Moore Bond but think Connery was vastly superior.
Wax Poetics via the Washington Post:
This one isn’t in the new book of boxing poetry and song lyrics but still, Uncle L’s crossover hit is still worth dropping here:
Dear Todd,
The wife and I sat in your box seats last night and we thought of you. Before the first pitch, she turns to me and goes, “There’s no other place in the world I’d rather be right now–at the ballgame, with a hot dog and my honey.” Bro, how lucky am I? I’d like to think Marsha told you the same thing when you guys were at the game too.
Sitting to our left were two older women who live near where you grew up in Syracuse, New York. They were in town for the game, decked-out in Yankee gear–shirts, jackets, and hats. They wore Yankee bracelets on their wrists, and brought their own popcorn.
Your boy AJ Burnett pitched and he stunk up the jernt. After the game, Posada blamed himself saying that the two of them couldn’t get on the same page. AJ couldn’t control his breaking ball, walked a bunch of guys, gave up a couple of dingers–including one that was worth watching from Ryan Howard. The last straw came when he didn’t cover first base on a ground ball to Teixeira–it’s hard to believe you left us before you could watch Tex play first for the Yanks.
The good news out of Wednesday night’s game is that, through the first seven innings, every Yankee hit was a homer, Alex Rodriguez returned to the lineup and contributed and RBI double, and the bullpen was dominant, pitching in 5 2/3 scoreless innings allowing only a walk and striking out six.
If 5 2/3 innings from the bullpen sounds suspicious, you’re beginning to figure out the bad news. Here’s another clue for you all: the relievers were Boone Logan and Chad Gaudin, the last two men on the Yankee bullpen depth chart.
Yup, A.J. Burnett got lit up and bounced after just 3 1/3 innings, burning through 87 pitches (just 55 percent of them strikes) and leaving the Yankees in a 6-1 hole half-way through the fourth inning. Burnett simply had no command of his pitches, particularly his fastball, as he walked four men, hit a fifth, and uncorked a wild pitch in his short stint. When he got the ball over the plate, he gave up a bases-clearing bases-loaded triple to Shane Victorino to blow the game open in the second, and back-to-back solo homers by Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth to start the third.
The first run Burnett allowed came after 38-year-old Raul Ibañez walked on five pitches then stole his first base of the year, giving Burnett the most stolen bases allowed by any pitcher in the majors thus far this year. Burnet allowed 23 steals in all of 2009, but has already allowed 19 this year, the 19th coming in the fourth inning after Victorino led off with a five-pitch walked then stole second.
Placido Polanco followed Victorino with a fly out, then Chase Utley hit a hard shot down the first-base line that Mark Teixeira smothered only to discover that Burnett broke late for first base and wasn’t there to take the throw. Certainly Burnett couldn’t have anticipated Teixeira’s fine play, but it seems like more than a coincidence that Joe Girardi chose that moment to take Burnett out of the game to heavy booing from the Yankee Stadium crowd.
Logan stranded Victorino and Utley, but the story of the game was Jamie Moyer, who was flat out dominant. Other than solo homers by Robinson Cano in the second and Jorge Posada in the fifth, Moyer didn’t allow a baserunner until the seventh, when Alex Rodrguez drew a one-out walk and was promptly erased by an inning-ending double play. With two outs in the eighth, Kevin Russo reached on an infield single that scooted under Polanco’s glove at third and was fielded too deep in the hole by Wilson Valdez for Valdez to record the out. Brett Gardener then flied out to end the inning.
That was it. That was all the Yankees managed in eight innings against Moyer, who at 47 years and 211 days became the oldest pitcher ever to record a win against the Yankees, trumping Phil Niekro, who picked up a win against his former mates in a rare relief appearance in the second game of a double header back on August 1, 1986. Ron Guidry took the loss for the Yankees in that one and Pat Tabler scored the winning run for the Indians on Julio Franco’s double. Three days earlier, Jamie Moyer pitched a gem for the Cubs to beat the Mets at Shea, the first game he ever pitched in New York. Yankee manager Joe Girardi (who, like YES announcers Paul O’Neill and Al Leiter and four of Girardi’s coaches, is younger than Moyer) was in his first year of pro ball at low-A Peoria at the time. Most impressively, Moyer’s performance was only his second best of the season, just outranking his complete game against the Padres on June 5.
Moyer threw 106 pitches in those eight innings and, despite a four-run lead, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel used the opportunity to give his closer, Brad Lidge some work. Facing the top of the order, Lidge got two quick outs (one on a high called strike three to Derek Jeter that was well within the rulebook strike zone but above where umpires typically call strikes, much to the chagrin of pitchers and myself), but Mark Teixeira drew a two-out walk, launching a rally that got Jorge Posada to the plate as the tying run only to strike out on one of the 900 sliders Lidge threw in the inning. Game over, Phillies win 6-2. Rubber game tomorrow. Andy Pettitte on the hill, I like the Yankees’ chances.
The Yankees look for a quick series victory over the Phillies tonight as A.J. Burnett takes on 47-year-old Jamie Moyer. Moyer has been all over the place this season. On May 7, he became the oldest pitcher in major league history to throw a shutout, blanking the now-first-place Braves on two hits and no walks. In his last start, he gave up nine runs to the Red Sox before recording an out in the second inning, getting the hook four batters into the second. In between those two extremes, he posted a 3.51 ERA with three quality starts and one complete game in five tries but went just 2-3 due to the slumping Phily offense. Moyer has struck out just four men in his last four starts while inducing just one double-play.
As for Burnett, as I wrote in my “Howzit Goin’?” on Monday, despite the feeling that Burnett has been struggling (he allowed ten runs over 12 2/3 innings in his last two starts), on the season, he’s actually performing right in line with his career numbers (2010 ERA: 3.86; career: 3.84). His strikeouts are down, but so are his walks and wild pitches. This is A.J. Burnett: erratic, but generally effective. Just look at how he fared against the Phillies in the World Series last year:
Game 2: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 9 K
Game 4: 2 IP, 4 H, 6 R, 4 BB, 2 K, 1 HR, 1 HBP
I’m mostly impressed that he’s managed to avoid the DL in nearly a year and a half with the Yankees.
As Alex reported earlier, Alex Rodriguez returns to the lineup, but only as the DH as Joe Girardi didn’t like what he saw from Alex’s lateral movement during drills on Tuesday. Kevin Russo finally gets a start at third base against a righty, just his second start at third this season. With Rodriguez at DH, Jorge Posada moves behind the plate as Russo effectively replaces Francisco Cervelli as the eighth-place hitter. Nick Swisher returns to the two hole. The full lineup can be seen in Alex’s post below.
