Daily Archives: July 1, 2010

At 10:00 PM, it is now almost three hours after my children typically fall asleep. As I tiptoed out of their room for the sixth time tonight a few minutes ago, having been slyly manipulated by the two-year-old and head-butted and throttled into submission by the one-year-old, I found my skull pounding all over except for this void in the front-center of my brain, from whence everything important I once knew was surely flooding into the abyss.

These kids have worn me down to nothing but a steaming pile of nerves. If the Yankees were slogging their way through nine innings of not-hitting Ryan Rowland-Smith right now, I would probably be standing in a pile of broken electronic equipment. But they already did that today, and thanks to CC, Mo, and Arod, they won, 4-2, so they are the least of my troubles.

For seven innings, the game sped along without much offense to gum up the works. The Yankees threatened a big first inning when Jeter sharply singled off Hyphen’s foot and Swisher whacked one in the left center gap. I actually thought a blowout was in the offing. But weak results from Teixiera and Rodriguez and a nifty over-the-shoulder catch from Josh Wilson at SS robbing Robbie of a ribbie limited the Yanks to one measly run.

From there, nothing much happened except an un-rob-able bomb from Cano in the fourth. Even though the Mariners have a weak offense, their recent binge on Yankee pitching coupled with a slumping Yankee lineup placed a lot of weight on CC’s big shoulders. He responded marvelously. He allowed two corking rips to Milton Bradley, but avoided any trouble apart from one tough spot in the second. With Bradley on third and one out, CC really bore down to keep Josh Wilson from tying the game. After seven pitches, including a great change-up which Wilson spoiled with an emergency hack, CC got the harmless pop out and preserved the lead.

It stood 2-0 in the eighth when CC walked the leadoff man on four pitches. Not a good sign, but I also didn’t want to see Joba Chamberlain in that spot, so really not much to do but watch and wait. CC couldn’t get a glove on Ichiro’s grounder through the box, but he still had a good shot to get out of it as he faced Branyan with runners on first and second and two outs. Then Posada gagged a ball to the backstop which turned Branyan’s subsequent single into a game-tying basehit.

Strangely, I felt supremely confident in the heart of the Yankees order headed to the bottom of the eighth. Perhaps it is because I own Aardsma in fantasy baseball and know how much he blows. When Arod muscled a short homer over the right field wall, I realized I never really even had time to get mad at the guys for coughing up the lead. And then when Mariano was shaking hands after his 13-pitch ninth inning cakewalk, it was a good day. The video of the last strikeout of Josh Wilson should be put in a time capsule – the cutter moving off the outside edge toward infinity; Wilson’s bat pointlessly waving in the other direction.

Sabathia was the stopper they needed him to be, and Arod came up big on demand as well. Good day at the ball park. Bad night for bed time (and recaps).

Milo Manara

No shame in getting shut down by the likes of Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez. Now, it’s time for CC Sabathia to make like Obelix and return the favor.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

Okay, you want something healthy? Dig this tasty-looking tomato, mozzarella and farro salad from food52. Food goddess Jennifer Hess (who writes the devastatingly delicious site, Last Night’s Dinner) gave it a try and liked it muchly.

R.I.P. Rammellzee

Over at New York Magazine, a guy named Harry Hanrahan put together a list of the 100 greatest movie insults of all time. He would have been wiser to just call it 100 great movie insults because his choice of movies shows an extremely limited range (only one Groucho line and no W.C. Fields or Mae West).

Still, it’s a smile, with lots of cherce cursing.

Enjoy:

Cliff Lee was good on Tuesday night, limiting the Yankees to a pair of Nick Swisher solo home runs and two meaningless ninth-inning tallies on his way to a complete game victory. Felix Hernandez was great Wednesday night, limiting the Yankees to a trio of walks and just two hits, one of which was a pop-up to second that Chone Figgins lost in the gloaming and Colin Curtis hustled into a double, on his way to an 11-strikeout complete game shutout. Lee and Hernandez thus became the first two pitchers to throw back-to-back complete games against the Yankees since 2000 and Hernandez became the first visiting pitcher to shutout the Yankees at the new stadium.

Meanwhile, the Mariners scored seven runs against the Yankees in each of the last two contest. Phil Hughes, who was not only pitching on nine-days’ rest but also fighting off a cold, gave up all seven on Tuesday. Last night, Javier Vazquez turned in a bare-minimum quality start (6 IP, 3 R), striking out eight but using up 113 pitches in the process, then the bullpen coughed up four more Mariner runs in the final three frames. All but one of those Seattle runs came on home runs. Milton Bradley hit a solo shot of Vazquez in the second. Michael Saunders had a pair, a solo of Vazquez in the third and a two-run jack off Chad Gaudin in the eighth. Lefty-swinging Russell Branyan, just reacquired before this series to give the Seattle lineup some thump, did his part with a two-run shot off Damaso Marte in the seventh. The other Mariner run came with two outs in the third when Vazquez hit Branyan with an 0-1 pitch, Bradley reached on an infield single, and Jose Lopez singled Branyan home from second.

The lone legitimate Yankee hit was a double down the left field line by Mark Teixeira to lead off the fourth. He never got to third base as Hernandez retired 17 of the next 18 men (the exception being Curtis’s dropped pop-up) until Ramiro Peña, who entered the game with the subs in the top of the ninth, walked with one out in the bottom of the ninth and Hernandez up past 100 pitches.

Amazingly, this was just the second time all season that Lee and Hernandez registered back-to-back wins, though the first time was just two turns ago. In their last six combined starts, Lee and Hernandez have gone 5-0 with five complete games. In the sixth game, Hernandez allowed just one run in nine innings, but the Mariners lost in 13.