The game is not on TeeVee up here, so the Yanks have a chance to win! Let's go, boys!

Man, I hope Nova gives them six good innings, 2 runs or less.

went with the fresh Nova at Pick-A-Bagel this morning, simply delightful

and Hawk Harrelson is the worst EVER

Interesting strike zone.

Delicious Nova so far!

That's a helluva start by Nova. Good location with the fastball and a couple of nasty hooks.

You just can't stop Thamey.

I love Thames

That's MR. Thames to y'all.

Wow.
That was very, very impressive.

WOW.

Now THAT was a GORGEOUS double play.

Wowzers. Great dp.

Eat shit, AJ.

Smoked (by) Nova.

Why do I have the urge to smash my computer screen.

A Cervelli hit! I though those were extinct.

Goddammit Gardner, WTF were you thinking there???

Better than a bunt!
Small ball, baby.

Ah, I see ... waste a bunt attempt so you can get a hit down 0-2!

Sneaky!

steal
Steal
STEAL

dammit, don't wait for the GIDP!

[19] He was drawing Konerko in, so Beckham would have to slide over a step, and...
Nah.

Well, at least that's a *different* kind of DP for the Cap'n ...

Goddam it. DPs are not our friend today.

i've never had Nova before. looks like i was missing out...!

[24] Nova with four bagels... so far!

Hey, lookit that. Was Brett paying attention?

Brains with the bunt single. Nice.

[25] now, bagels i love! won't have a good NY one til Turkey Day time...

Seriously, I think Nova is overrated (the fish, not the pitcher). I very much prefer belly lox, which is saltier and less delicate, more taste.

i hope Brett wasn't paying attention to that... : /

Brains doing his fuckwit impression. Anti-nice.

Hm. Maybe not such a good idea.

Not brains.

Show 'im how it's done, Brett!

awful, jeter.

Sigh.

Those 2 swings by Jeter are as bad as you can get. Ugh.

Well, at least every Jeter at bat brings down the price of signing him this off-season ...

Nasty location. Beautiful.

i blame smoltzie for that...

Dang. Good throw, too.

What pitch was that, the RBI? Gameday says it was an 88 mph fastball, which can't be right.

Should have had him, really.

Good job, kid.

In no particular order.
Colter Bean. Chris Britton. Freddy Guzman. Sydney Ponson. Al Reyes.
Shane Spencer. Romulo Sanchez. Ron Villone. Brett Prinz. Erick Almonte. Jesse Orosco. Felix Rodriguez. Ivan Nova.
Yankees who have worn #47 since 2000.

[41] He struck out someone earlier on an 88 mph per pitch. A change up according to Singleton.

[41] Changeup...Nova has a very hard change.

[45] [46] Interesting. So, it doesn't break much for a change, I guess. That's why Pitch f/X gets it wrong.

Watching this game with my scout's eye, Nova has been much more impressive in this outing because he has added a very good breaking ball to the mix. If he really does have a fastball, change and curve like he is showing today, he will be a very useful major league pitcher.

On the negative side, Derek Jeter's bat continues to look incredibly slow. His struggles continue to look more and more like a decline and less like an off season. If Singleton noted that Jeter may need to figure out a way to speed up that bat. Having to bat Jeter leadoff against right handers is weakening this team.

Very good news from Andy.

well, that inning sucked.

chad at lohud erred and said the chisox tied it at deuce. let's hope his palantir is cloudy...

[50] That's weird. And yeah, he thought it was 2-1 earlier. How do you make that mistake?

[47] It seems to break a fair amount on the TV. I think the velocity may be more at issue.

Boone up, not Kerry. Interesting.

[51] Perhaps he is anticipating outcomes so he can post more quickly. In this case, maybe he hit publish by accident.

[54] No, he'd given the White Sox a run the previous inning.

that's ivan's first walk...

Oh, Pierzynski, that's why Logan was warming. Joe was thinking about Pierzynski.

88 pitches. he coulda finished this inning. that's twice now GI Joe has taken Ivan out early...

Tight game, but I like Nova so much more than AJ or Javy.

Can we keep him, daddy? Please.

[57] i think he coulda gotten AJ out... oh well, great game for Nova!

5.1, 88 pitches, 7 K, 1 BB, 5 hits, 1 ER

Why?

once again, Chad *still* thinks the game is tied. weird...

dammit.

Nunez' glove is a bigger concern than his bat. That's a killer error.

did Boone just say: "that's bullshit"?!

[64] yeah, and they gave him a hit! hometown call, i suppose...

Coffee Joe and the Wheel of Bullpen Roulette.

Lovely, just lovely ...

I HATE AJ Pierzynski.
Hit my ass. E5, And no, I don't want anyone to hit my ass.

kerry wood pitching in chicago...

Let's go, Kerry. Time to earn that big paycheck.

[62] Just noticed...he has it tied in two posts, so very weird. Maybe he is covering the game on gameday or something that has the score wrong.

Oy.

oh, that's really really great. very good start. assfuk.

[73] Not entirely Wood's fault, you have to admit.

So, Cervelli can't figure out when to run on a steal, can't reach 2B on a SB attempt and tries to block wild pitches with his backhand.

What the hell do the Yankees see in him?

What the hell is he griping about? From the side it looked belt-high.

yes, brains was definitely at fault there, too...

both strikes were strikes.

please get outta this.

This blows.

damn. i needed a replay on that. i guess he really didn't go...

ugh.

Kerry looks very calm.

Bring Logan BACK in, Joe.
Good work, dude.

This is what happens when you lift an effective starter for no apparent reason.

whew!

Nice job.

I like Kerry Wood.

Phew.

6 outs to Mo.

Good recovery by Wood, but the idea of trying to prevent Nova from getting a loss is kind of absurd. How dispiriting would it be if Nova worked so hard only to have his game blown up by bullpen roulette?

[82] No shit. As much as seeing AJ blast one off Nova would have went me howling into the street. Joe's got to leave him in for fuck's sake. The next 3 innings are going to be rough.

Granderson has been hitting in some hard luck lately.

Big ballpark.

chad must be reading the banter! he's back at 2-1.

let's make it, i dunno, like, 7-1. or 9-1. or Eleventy-1.

After watching how bad his pitches looked over the first three innings, I would have never guessed we'd still be seeing Floyd in the seventh. It's been very hard for the Yankee lineup to maintain any level of consistency all month. Just when you think they may have broken out, they go right back to struggling.

Way to clear the Cervelli!

Girardi sure knows how to push those buttons

Last batter for Floyd, gotta be.

He's still awful!

You can't stop Cervelli. Pointless to try.

Try the 'ol double steal, I say. It's a win-win.

Huge, because now we increase the chance of finding the Crappy Bullpen Pitcher of the Day. One extra spin for Oz.

I like Gritner's strategy here.

I don't even know what a strike is any more.

Yanks just can't get the big hit again today.

Wake the fuck up, Blue. It's right down the fucking middle.

Umpires must hate Cervelli too.

dammit, lost him...

Joba. Interesting choice.

No pitcher is allowed to finish an inning.
Walking Omar was a gigantic shame.

Honestly, how can you lose a hitter like Vizquel?

Yeah! Time for a Joba blown game. Haven't seen one of those in a while. It may not be easy, but Girardi is going to find the bullet in the chamber.

Good stroke, but Joba survives.

jobber hitting 99mph.

rios reminds me a lot of Bernabe.

This kid looks like he could get wild.

Oy.

I've never seen Jeter with such bad body language. It's almost like he is first realizing what weve been worried about all season.

Ha.

Tell the ump to kiss your ass, Captain.

He's gonna walk Swisher so that WP doesn't matter.

Rare bad AB from Swisher this season. Yankees really need another run.

[115] wrong.

robbie bringin' the power!!!

Hah!

Why isn't Jeter on Third?

How could Jeter not be on third?

Next chamber, please.

No IF Fly rule?

You're due, Curtis!

jeter shoulda been on 3rd and shoulda scored. : /

No, YOU'RE DUE, Austin.

If not for some bad baserunning by Jeter, the Yankees would have a gift insurance run.

Hmmmm.
Bad call.

bollocks.

So much focus has deservedly gone to the shaky rotation, but this offense hasn't been very good for about a month now.

yeah, that braves 9th was exciting. i watched it.

let's hope for less excitement here...

christ. there's your E5.

You can't have a shaky defensive 3B in a penant race. Girardi should have gone to Pena. Major mistake.

Could we have a BUIF that can hit a little AND field a little. Please.

YEAH!!!!

nice throw, frankie!

[130] They're scoring pretty well in August. Not quite what you'd hope, but I think they're scoring 5 runs/game.

Fine...guess I have to give him credit now.

shit sox claimed mike napoli. it's not expected that a trade will be made. i guess we'll see...

andruw.

Big big big batter here.

[130] They're 4th in the ML in runs scored in the last 30 days, fwiw.

Wow, Tschida is really not good at this. Not consistent, let alone accurate.

[136] But 13 games, or half, at three runs or fewer. That's too many.

[141] Signing that eye chart of a name his whole life has had quite the adverse effect.

[139] 6'3", 230 lbs. yeah, i'd say that's very very big.

[142] And 9 games at two runs or fewer.

andruw has 9 sb's this year, so maybe all the throws over were warranted.

100mph. i can do that.

[144] Sigh.

Wow ... I think that was Joba's 1st 100 since that day in Texas.

sweet!

Goooooooood Joba.

Great pitching by Joba...would be great if he could sustain the stuff he exhibited today.

You us something good, Rook!

[145] One more followup...of the Yankees 24 games with 2 or fewer runs scored, 9 have come in this month, or nearly 40%.

The sky is falling. The sky is falling.

The much-maligned Francisco Cervelli...

that vizquel, terrible glove.

brains 4-4 and an important thrown out runner.

4-4 day for Frankie?

[154] Right, so I guess they also have more big-scoring games than most months. So I'm nto exactly sure what your point is. Consistency?

i really love it when we're on the road and there's pro Yankee cheers going on! : )

Dick Allen is the best hitter not in the Hall of Fame.

Way to go, Wheels.

holy speed.

i thought he was out at first glance. let's see a replay...

SAFE!!!

Hysterical.

[159] The have 44 runs, or exactly 1/3 of their August total, in four games. Yes...I am talking about consistency. If you really look at it closely, the offense has not been very good this month.

[161] not sure where that came from. left field, i guess. but, i agree! will you put a post of that on your captain's blog?!

good call at 1st.

1st pitch, no. 2nd pitch, no. You are agonizing, Brett. WTF!!!!!!
That big lead is doing you wonders, though.

[166] Well, the offense has been pretty good. It just hasn't been consistent.

safe!

Well done, Gritner.

[167] They are talking about it on YES. It would be an interesting topic for a blog post, so I have to add to that to the list.

Just too good, AJ, sorry.

All for naught.

Argh.
Is that why Kotsay is in the game? Or why is he in now?

Fuckity, fuck, fuck.

oh, damn. really nice play by kotsay. paulie prolly wouldn't have made it.

i hate kotsay. he has the hottest baseball wife of all-time. (imho)

Jeter is now batting under. 270. When you don't hit the ball hard, fielders have a habit of making nice plays.

[175] paulie got pinch run for. i think he walked. lillibridge pinch ran, promptly got thrown out.

[179] Oh, right, thanks.

[169] I don't think you can be pretty good, when you are pretty bad half the time. Consistency is an element of pretty good, IMHO.

i'm so thankful for the opportunity to watch Mo pitch today! : )

Brutal.

always so weird when mariano walks a batter...

Looks like the layoff has sapped Mo of some of his command. Great at bat by Beckham, but I don't get painting the corner with Mo.

[181] Yeah, I guess I'd say it depends on how good you are the other half.

I love Juan Pierre. On other teams, I mean.

[186] Really bad for one half and really good for the other makes you a .500 team. The Yankees record in August is 13-13.

Atta boy, Robbie!

ooh, nice getting the lead runner.

Risky play for Cano. Pierre is likely to take 2B anyway, so I am not sure it was worth it.

In Mo we trust.

All rise. Awesome!

Praise be Mo!

Thanks be to Mo.

Literally I cannot believe Frankie caught that pop-up ....literall

Thanks be to Mo.

beautiful!

Thank You, Mo. i love you!!!

we won the series.

[196] y

[199] : )