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The Yankees won 1-0 for the second time this season last night behind a season-best performance by Jaret Wright (6 IP, 4 H, 0 BB, 10 K–Wright’s first 10K outing since September 1998), but the big news of late has been the series of roster moves the team has made over the last several days. With another move expected today, the Yanks have added a pair of outfielders, demoted a pair of relievers, and bounced one of their starters to the bullpen.

After an outstanding first-half in Columbus (2.84 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 4.87 K/BB in 14 starts), 29-year-old Kris Wilson was promoted on Wednesday, ultimately at the expense of 27-year-old Matt Smith. Smith has yet to allow a run in the major leagues, hurling 12 scoreless frames across three stints with the big club this year. Wilson pitched two perfect innings against Cleveland on Wednesday and was immediately given Shawn Chacon’s spot in the rotation.

Chacon had struggled mightily since being activated from the disabled list, posting a 10.34 ERA, 2.10 WHIP and walking almost twice as many as he’d struck out in four starts. Chacon’s first start off the DL wasn’t pretty, but it wasn’t a disaster (5 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 2 HR, 3 BB, 2 K). Unfortunately, his next start was. Staked to a 9-2 lead after four innings against the lowly Washington Nationals in his next turn, Chacon was only able to get one more out, surrendering four runs in the fifth and getting the hook after having needed 100 pitches to get through 4 1/3 innings (incidentally, he was replaced by Matt Smith, who allowed both inherited runners to score before getting an inning-ending double play). Thanks to the contributions of T.J. Beam, Everyday Scott Proctor and, to everyone’s surprise, Mariano Rivera, the Yankees wound up losing that game 11-9 and Chacon officially took up residence in Joe Torre’s doghouse.

Skipped the next time through the rotation, Chacon turned in a Jaret-Wright-like effort (not the insult it sounds like) against the Marlins (5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 HR, 1 BB, 0 K), then was skipped again only to get beaten about the head and neck by the Indians in his next turn, surrendering seven runs on three homers, three walks and three other hits in just an inning and a third. The Yankees went on to lose that game 19-1 thanks once again to Beam and Everyday Scotty Proctor, with Mike Myers lending a hand as well.

The way I see it, the removal of Chacon from the rotation is a classic case of Joe Torre prematurely losing trust in a pitcher in response to an embarrassing loss (or in this case, two, both of which were as much the bullpen’s doing as Chacon’s). Chacon began the season with a pair of rough starts and two more unpleasant relief appearances, but then ran off a string of four starts in which he allowed exactly one run in each, lasting a minimum of 6 1/3 innings in the first three. In the fourth he was removed with two outs in the fifth inning after being hit in the leg by a Mark Lortetta comebacker that eventually resulted in his DL stay. Even with those poor early season outings included, Chacon’s ERA following the comebacker game was 3.68.

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Last year, the Devil Rays hit the All-Star break at 28-61 (.315), then went 39-34 (.534) in the second half thanks in large part to the mid-season promotion of Jonny Gomes and a fantastic second half from Scott Kazmir. This year, the Rays will reach the break with a record at least ten games better than a year ago and are once again set up for a strong second half.

The Yankees last faced the Devil Rays in early May when nearly half of the D-Rays starting line-up was on the DL. The day after the Rays left New York, they activated shortstop Julio Lugo and third baseman Aubrey Huff. Huff struggled through May, but turned it on in June, hitting .359/.400/.543, bringing to mind the extra 100 points of OPS he added after the break last year, aiding the Ray’s strong second half showing. Lugo has followed a similar course this year (.349/.439/.604 in June after a dreadful May), though he was actually less productive in the second half last year.

A month later, the Rays added to Huff and Lugo by activating second baseman Jorge Cantu and center fielder Rocco Baldelli. Bringing Cantu back into the fold has allowed the Rays to finally bench Travis Lee (.201/.286/.296 this year) by moving Ty Wigginton, who previously started at third for Huff before moving to second for Cantu, to first base. Baldelli, meanwhile, has come back from a year and a half on the DL due to an ACL tear and Tommy John surgery and lit into American League pitching, hitting .330/.387/.567 (though his center field defense has been atrocious, if error-free).

Of course, none of those four players could be expected to keep up that level of production, and there’s a strong chance that Huff and Lugo, both of whom are in their walk years, could be traded. But a large part of the Rays’ improvement has simply been benching or other wise disposing of the players those four have replaced: Lee, Thomas Perez (.172/.200/.250), new Kansas City Royal Joey Gathright (.201/.305/.240), and the since released Sean Burroughs and Nick Green.

What’s more, activating those four aren’t the only improvements the Rays have made over the past two months. They’ve finally ended the Damon Hollins’ experiment in right field, replacing his all-or-nothing approach with the superior all-or-nothing approach of Russell Branyan (both have 10 homers, Hollins in 208 at-bats, Branyan in 114). More significantly, they finally cut bait on Toby Hall (.262/.298/.382 career and the Rays’ starting catcher since 2002), swapping him to the Dodgers for former Yankee prospect Dioner Navarro (5 for 14 with a double and three walks since switching team and .283/.367/.382 overall in his young major league career). In addition to already being a better hitter than Hall, Navarro is also eight and a half years younger.

The Navarro deal also saw the Rays swap out Mark Hendrickson (sweet mercy) for ex-Met Jae Weong Seo, which gives the Rays a starting pitcher with a higher ceiling who is also three years younger. The Seo-Hendrickson exchange is one of three changes the Rays have made to their rotation since we’ve last seen them, having also farmed out 25-year-old failed prospects Doug Waechter and Seth McClung for 24-year-old Jamie Shields and 28-year-old Tim Corcoran. The significance here isn’t the additions of Shields and Corcoran (no relation) so much as, once again, the removal of the players they’ve replaced, a pair of pitchers who couldn’t get their ERAs below 6.60.

Tonight the Rays send Seo to the mound to face Jaret Wright. Wright was lit up by the Mets in his last start, getting the hook after just 1 2/3 innings, just the second time all season he failed to make it through five full innings, the other being his first start all the way back on April 15. Seo, who had been demoted to the bullpen with the Dodgers, has made two appearances since coming over from L.A., the first a pair of scoreless relief innings in Florida, the second a Jaret-Wright-like five-inning outing against the Nationals.

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The Yankees look to split Cleveland with a split tonight following the match-up of lefties Randy Johnson and Cliff Lee. The Yankees took Lee deep three times at the Stadium in mid-June (Melky’s first career tater plus dingers by Alex and Bernie), but all three were solo shots as Lee allowed just two other hits and one walk over 6 2/3 to pick up an 8-4 win. Johnson did even better against the Tribe the night before, holding them to one run on four hits and no free passes before getting tossed for coming inside to since-departed Unit-killer Eduardo Perez in the top of the seventh. After looking sharp in that outing and the two that followed it, Johnson got roughed up in his last start against the Mets, though it’s worth noting that even in that ugly eight-run outing he only allowed one dinger and struck out seven in six innings. Lee, meanwhile, has been solid of late, posting a 3.09 ERA in June and winning his last five decisions, thanks in part to an average of 8 2/3 runs worth of support across his last six starts.

With Robinson Cano on the DL and Johnny Damon out tonight due to an abdominal strain, the Yankees would seem to be a better offensive team against lefties right now given these numbers against the wrong-handed:

Jeter: .378/.471/.568
Rodriguez: .288/.461/.727
Bernie: .329/.375/.494
Cairo: .324/.390/.459

But while facing a lefty makes two of the team’s best hitters better and their two biggest liabilities productive, it has the opposite effect on the rest of the line-up. Andy Phillips has surprisingly struggled against lefties this year, Jorge has a .407 OBP against them, but curiously loses his power when batting righthanded, Melky has also been a weaker hitter from the right side, the Yankees don’t have non-left-handed replacement for Damon (paging Kevin Thompson!), and their lone remaining lefty, Jason Giambi, is, of course, a lesser hitter against his own kind (though in Giambi’s case “lesser” means a .371 OBP and .500 SLG).

The Yankees got whooped last night, but while the Indians 19-1 victory was both impressive and disheartening, it was by no means historic. In fact, the Indians gave the Yankees and even worse beating less than two years ago, on the Bombers home turf no less. That game, the 22-0 score of which was historic, came just two games after the Yankees had scored nine runs in the ninth inning against the Blue Jays in Toronto. Last night’s pasting came just two games after the Yankees erased 4-0 second inning deficit with a 16-run outburst against the Mets. In both cases, the two outbursts cancel each other out.

If there’s anything to be learned here at all it’s that the pitchers involved (Javy Vazquez, Tanyon Sturtze, C.J. Nitkowski and Esteban Loaiza in 2004; Shawn Chacon, T.J. Beam, Mike Myers and Scott Proctor last night–Ron Villone and Kyle Farnsworth, the only pitchers in either game to emerge unscathed, allowed just two baserunners, both against Villone, in 3 2/3 innings last night and thus escape criticism here) should be treated with suspicion from here on out. Of course, Myers entered the game with a two-month scoreless streak (covering just 9 2/3 IP given his LOOGY role), so one could argue his rough outing was merely a bit of statistical correction. Still, Vazquez and Loaiza went on to play key roles in the disaster that was Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS, Nitkowski had just 7 2/3 innings left in his career, and Sturtze spent most of the next season plus sabotaging the Yankee bullpen from within.

The good news is that after being stymied by rookie Jeremy Sowers–the odd rookie who may actually be as good as he looked against the URPing Bombers–on Monday and embarrassed last night, the Yankees still have a chance to split their series at the Jake with two of their best pitchers lined up for the final two games. Tonight the man on the mound will be Mike Mussina, who pitched four no-hit innings in his last start only to have his no-no stopped short by a rain delay. Moose has allowed just one run on five hits in his last 11 innings while striking out ten. What’s more, he should be well rested after throwing just 53 pitches in that rain-shortened start. The only concern with Moose is the tight groin he experienced in that start, though all reports indicate that the injury is no longer bothering him. On the hill for the Tribe will be Paul Byrd, who held the Yankees to one run over seven innings three weeks ago in the Bronx only to lose 1-0 to Chien-Ming Wang and the Yankee bullpen (in that case Myers, Farnsworth and Rivera).

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Preseason playoff favorites, the Indians are now, one game shy of the season’s half-way point, 18 games out of first place in the AL Central, 15.5 games behind in the Wild Card race, and three games below .500. While simply matching their Pythagorean record would improve their record, and thus the above standings, by six games, the Indians, an organization overflowing with young talent, has decided to take a longer view of their future.

The result is that starter Jason Johnson, signed to a one-year deal this past winter but dragging the team down with a 5.96 ERA was released and top pitching prospect Jeremy Sowers was called up to fill his spot. Veteran first baseman Eduardo Perez, signed to platoon with Ben Broussard–and excellent strategy that resulted in a .303/.343/.636 line from Perez and, with Perez taking all of the at-bats against lefties, the 29-year-old Broussard’s best season–was flipped to Seattle for 20-year-old middle-infield prospect Asdrubal Cabrera, making room for perennial minor league masher and righty-hitting first baseman Ryan Garko on the Cleveland roster. Meanwhile, with both corner outfielders on the DL, the Tribe has called up Franklin Gutierrez, one of their top outfield prospects, and have been starting him in right field. The Indians have also returned veteran backup catcher Tim Laker to the minors in exchange for Kelly Shoppach, the 26-year-old catching prospect obtained from the Red Sox in the Coco Crisp deal. Shoppach has been receiving his fair share of starts behind the plate, while the Indians have been working star catcher Victor Martinez into their first-base picture in order to keep his bat in the line-up on “off” days.

These moves are at the most a couple of weeks old (Gutierrez for Casey Blake in right) and in some cases (Garko for Perez) happened just a couple days ago, so there’s little to say as of yet about how these players are panning out, though the Yankees will get a good look at one of the more compelling little Indians tonight when they face Sowers in what will be just his second major league start.

Sowers was drafted by the Indians out of Vanderbilt University in June 2004 and made his professional debut in 2005 working his way all the way from the single-A Caroline League to the triple-A International League in his first pro season. After a rough spring training with the big club this March, Sowers returned to triple-A, where he had made just one start the year before, and went 9-1 with a 1.39 ERA in 15 starts despite an unimpressive K:BB ratio of 1.86 that was due largely to a low strikeout rate. His major league debut came at home a week before Sunday against the Reds.

In that game, Sowers pitched well in four of his five innings, but was undone by a fourth inning in which a lead-off walk was plated by a Ken Griffey Jr. homer and an infield single also came around to score on a home run by Adam Dunn. The end result was an ugly 7.20 ERA and a 4-2 Indians’ loss, but one can hardly blame a rookie for giving up taters to Griffey and Dunn. Meanwhile, the walk was the only one he surrendered while throwing 61 percent of his pitches for strikes, striking out three Reds in his five innings of work.

The Yankees jumped all over Alay Soler on Sunday, but they could easily come down with a case of the URPs against the 23-year-old Sowers, who is a very highly touted prospect who gets by on guile, changing speeds and breaking pitches rather than heat and sheer physical ability.

Looking to keep pace with Sowers will be Chien-Ming Wang, who turned in a gem his last time out against the Braves, needing just 91 pitches through eight innings, while holding the Braves to two runs over that span. Wang has steadily improved as the season has worn on, posting a 4.80 ERA in April, a 4.28 ERA in May, a 3.19 overall ERA in June and a 2.39 ERA in his last five starts, each of which saw him pitch a minimum of seven innings.

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The Yankees need to win tonight’s finale to win the current series and salvage a split of their season set with the Mets. In their way stands 26-year-old Cuban defector Alay Soler. The plump righthander started the year in A-ball where he dominated in six starts, earning an early May promotion to double-A Binghamton. There he was similarly convincing in three more turns, posting an aggregate minor league line of 49 2/3 IP, 29 H, 8 R, 0 HR, 12 BB, 55 K in nine starts.

By that point, the Mets had seen more than enough of Jose Lima and punted him, calling up Soler straight from double-A. Soler has since been infinitely less impressive in his seven major league starts. Much like his fellow countryman, Friday night’s starter Orlando Hernandez, Solar’s best start came in Arizona when he pitched a two-hit shutout. Still, Soler walked three and struck out just two in that game. In that sense, the start before that in which he struck out seven Dodgers in seven innings, walking just one and allowing just one run on a solo homer was more convincing. Most recently, Soler got roughed up by the Red Sox in Fenway for eight runs on ten hits and a pair of walks in just 4 1/3 innings.

The Yankees counter with Jaret Wright, whose last two starts have produced this line: 11 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 0 HR, 6 BB, 10 K. Most encouraging there is the increased strikeout rate as Jaret had struck out just 24 in his previous 53 2/3 innings of work. Wright lasted six full in his last outing and the Yankee pen is both rested and coming off a collection of solid outings as detailed at the end of my last post. Let’s just hope the Yankees don’t come down with the URPs (Unfamiliar Rookie Pitcheritis).

As was readily apparent when the Mets put men on second and third before Randy Johnson had even thrown five pitches, yesterday, the 16th anniversary of Andy Hawkins’ 4-0 no-hit loss, just wasn’t the Yankees’ day. David Wright doubled those two runners home to give the Mets an early 2-0 lead. The Yankees would tie it up in the third after Alex Rodriguez delivered a bases-loaded single for the first run, but the tying run scored on a double play off the bat of Jorge Posada and Andy Phillips flied out to strand Jason Giambi at third with the go-ahead run.

Johnson, who had looked so good in his last three games (20 1/3 IP, 13 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 22 K), gave the lead right back and then some, following the Yankees’ aborted rally with a four-pitch walk to Wright. A Julio Franco single and a walk to Chris Woodward of all people loaded the bases and a first-pitch single to left by Ramon Castro plated Wright and Franco as Melky Cabrera’s throw tailed slightly up the first base line. After Johnson battled Eli Marrero for his second strikeout of the inning (Randy needed 13 pitches total for the two Ks), Jose Reyes delivered the third single of the inning into left field to plate Woodward as Cabrera’s throw sailed far over the head of Jorge Posada and all the way to the backstop allowing Castro and Reyes to move to second and third. Paul Lo Duca then followed with yet another single to left as both Castro and Reyes scored. That made it 7-2 Mets and a Marrero homer off Johnson in the sixth pushed it to 8-2. The eight runs off Johnson were the most he’s allowed in a single start since 2003.

Meanwhile the Yankees were busy killing every rally they mustered against Mets starter Steve Trachsel. In the bottom of the first, yet another misguided hit-and-run attempt turned a no-outs, first-and-second situation for Jason Giambi into a two-outs, man on second situation for Rodriguez when Giambi took a 3-2 pitch low and away for strike three and, with no one standing in the right-handed batters box, Johnny Damon was thrown out by ten feet on his way to third. Rodriguez walked, but Posada flied out to end the inning. As I already mentioned, Posada’s double play cut short the game-tying third-inning rally. In the seventh it was Jeter who hit into a double play with men on first and second and no outs. Giambi followed by grounding out to strand the Miguel Cairo at third.

The Yankees finally got one back in the eighth when Rodriguez, who went 2 for 3 with 2 RBIs and a walk, led off the inning with a solo homer off the disgruntled Aaron Heilman, but that was all they’d get. 8-3 Mets.

Rookies T.J. Beam and Matt Smith mopped up admirably, Smith having now thrown ten scoreless innings to start his major league career. With that, every member of the Yankee bullpen save LOOGY Mike Myers, who has yet to appear in this series, has thrown a minimum of one scoreless inning in the past two days for a collective line of 8 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K. Myers, meanwhile, hasn’t allowed a run since surrendering a three-run home run to David Ortiz on May 1 and currently sports a 0.68 ERA.

Finally, I’ve just noticed that T.J. Beam’s full name is Theodore Lester Beam. Better hope he never plays on a team with David Jonathan “J.D.” Drew. These men are rebels. Together they could destroy our fragile initialing system altogether.

That is all.

The Mets have the best record in the National League, 3.5 games better than the Cardinals, lead their division by 11 games over the Phillies, and are two games better than the crosstown Yankees. Of course the Metropolitans play in a weaker league and a far weaker division than the Bombers. Still, when these two teams faced off in Shea Stadium in late May, they played a trio of one-run games and the Mets took the series two games to one having outscored the Yankees by a single run. It was every bit as close as that sounds, with the first two games being decided in the victor’s final at-bat and the third ending with the tying run on base.

At the time, the Yankees were at their most banged up, with Jorge Posada and Kyle Farnsworth unable to participate thus reducing the available roster to 23 men. Since then both teams have jettisoned the dead weight from their rosters (though Robinson Cano’s injury has reinstated some to the Yankees’), the Yankees releasing Scott Erickson and designating Aaron Small for assignment, the Mets designating Jose Lima, trading Jeremi Gonzalez, Kaz Matsui and Jorge Julio, and, for good measure, releasing Bartolome Fortunato, the other pitcher obtained in the Kazmir trade who, like Victor Zambrano, had been placed on the 60-day DL following Tommy John surgery.

As a result, the Mets that the Yankees will face this weekend, despite their just-concluded sweep at the hands of the streaking Red Sox, are a better team than the one the Yankees saw in May. The Mets have the second best offense in the National League, led by old Yankee-killer Carlos Delgado, 23-year-old David Wright, who is one big postseason away from rivaling Derek Jeter as the city’s biggest sports star, Carlos Beltran, who is serving up crow to his doubters daily by having the best year of his career, and Jose Reyes, who’s finally drawing walks thus becoming a weapon rather than a liability in the lead-off spot. To that tremendous core, they’ve added Jose Valentin at second base, slugging .529 in place of Kaz Matsui’s .200/.235/.269 performance, pushing Xavier Nady’s .497 slugging all the way down to the seventh spot in the order.

The Mets also have the second stingiest pitching staff in the NL, trailing only the Petco-assisted Padres. Tom Glavine, experiencing a Mussina-like resurgence, and Pedro Martinez give them a pair of Hall-of-Fame aces in the front of their rotation, both of which the Yankees will be fortunate to miss this weekend. Meanwhile the Mets bullpen has been the best in baseball, posting a staggering 3.19 ERA with only frustrated starter Aaron Heilman currently sporting an ERA above 2.80. Yes, even Darren Oliver has pitched well this year, posting a 1.02 WHIP and a 2.45 ERA as the long man in the pen.

Incidentally, I find Heilman’s to be an interesting case. Originally ticketed to be the fifth starter, he was passed over for the job by Willie Randolph in favor of rookie Brian Bannister despite a 1.59 spring ERA. As the primary set-up man in the bullpen He posted a 1.42 ERA through May 22, during which span he was twice passed over for openings in the rotation when injuries to Bannister and Victor Zambrano lead to the desperation employment of Jeremi Gonzalez and Jose Lima because Randolph claimed that Heilman had become too valuable in his role to move out of the pen. The Mets finally came to their senses, releasing Lima on May 20, but instead of relenting and moving Heilman to the rotation, where he’d both be most valuable and most happy, they reached down to double-A to promote Alay Soler. Since then, Heilman has posted an 8.66 ERA.

Tonight the Yankees send Mike Mussina, who won a tense duel against Dontrelle Willis his last time out, to the mound to face old Yankee warhorse Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez. El Duque, who last (and first) faced the Yankees as a member of the eventual World Champion White Sox last year was traded to Arizona this winter in a package for another ex-Yankee Javier Vazquez only to return to New York just days after the last meeting between these two teams in exchange for misbegotten Kris Benson trade booty Jorge Julio. Since then he’s made six starts for the Metropolitans, the best being a three-hit complete game against his ex-teammates in Phoenix and the worst being his last, when he was sent packing after surrendering six runs while getting just five outs in Toronto. Sounds about right from the fiery Cuban with the Milk Dud head. His starts are like a box of chocolates. Indeed, his style is much the same, hitters never know what they’re gonna get, how hard, or from what angle. With Moose working his Bugs Bunny change and Duque always a threat to lob in an eephus, tonight’s match-up should be a lot of fun to watch, no matter who comes out on top.

Meanwhile, for the first time since the ’80s, the Mets are threatening the Yankees’ grip on the back pages (remember, the Yanks were repeat Champions entering the 2000 World Series while the Mets were considered serial chokers). These three games could go along way toward reestablishing order should the Yankees prevail in a convincing manner. On the other hand, if the Mets take the series, clinching just their second season series victory over the Yankees in the now ten-year history of interleague play (the other coming in 2004), los nuevos Mets just might wind up painting the town orange and blue all over again.

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The All-Star voting closes tonight at 11:59pm, so with the Yankees enjoying a day of rest after Alex Rodriguez’s big bang I thought I’d share my ballots.

American League

1B

With no designated hitter spot on the ballot due to the fact that the game is taking place in an NL park, this spot is mighty crowded. In fact, with Jason Giambi now a full-time DH due to the long awaited arrival of Andy Phillips, Paul Konerko is the only full-time first baseman worth looking at here (though I do have to give a shout to Kevin Youkilis, the Red Sox’ Andy Phillips).

Here are the key stats on Konerko, Giambi and the three top designated hitters, all of whom shift to first base in NL parks, along with the number of games they’ve played at first thus far this year (all stats prior to yesterday’s games).

Travis Hafner’s career line is .296/.399/.568. Last year he hit .305/.408/.595 with 42 doubles, 33 homers, 108 RBIs and a .345 EQA and finished fifth in the MVP voting. The year before he hit .311/.410/.583 with 41 doubles, 28 homers, 109 RBIs and a .335 EQA. Travis Hafner has never been selected to an All-Star team, even as a reserve. This has to end this year. David Ortiz is the vote leader, but he’s the least worthy of the five candidates above. What’s more, Hafner is David Ortiz. He’s a hulking, late-blooming lefty 1B-turned-DH who was tossed aside by his previous team. The primary differences between the two are that Ortiz has had the media exposure and postseason opportunities Hafner hasn’t and Hafner is a year younger than Ortiz and is thus Ortiz, in a rather startling parallel, has made Hafner’s improvements in production a year ahead of his Cleveland counterpart. At any rate, given the defensive shortcomings of his rivals and the relative insignificance of first base defense, Travis Hafner is my pick hands down.

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It’s as close to sunny in downtown Manhattan as I’ve seen it in what feels like at least a week, so the Yanks and Braves should be taking the field in about a half an hour. Alex, in a blatant attempt to make our Wednesday workdays feel even longer, is at the game, which pits young Chien-Ming Wang against veteran John Smoltz, a pitching match-up I’d love to see. Alas, I’ll be watching it on Gameday with the rest of you working stiffs. Those in front of a TV or even a radio please help with details and descriptions.

Melky Cabrera, coming off a 3 for 4 day that saw him drive in both of the Yankees runs, one via his second career homer, is back up in the two spot. Bernie’s in right batting sixth, followed by Phillips, Cairo and, in the day game after night game, Stinnett.

Jaret Wright and Horacio Ramirez are pretty evenly matched, but go figure that their pairing would result in a pitchers duel. That’s exactly what happened last night, with the Braves clinging to a 1-0 lead after six frames, that run scoring in the second when Jeff Francoeur singled home Andrew Jones’ lead-off double.

Jaret Wright completed the sixth inning for the first time since June 2, equalling his longest outing of the year, allowing just three other hits, all singles, and two walks while striking out four. Ramirez, meanwhile, had held the Yankees scoreless on four hits and a walk through the end of the sixth despite striking out just one.

With Wright at 90 pitches and three lefties due up in the seventh, Joe Torre brought in Ron Villone, who promptly doubled the Braves lead by surrendering a lead-off home run to Adam LaRoche on his first pitch of the night. Villone then got the next three men to ground out and the Yankees finally broke through against Ramirez, getting LaRoche’s run back in bottom of the seventh on singles by Jorge Posada and Melky Cabrera.

Cabrera’s RBI single was proceeded by groundouts by Bernie Williams and Andy Phillips, which pushed Posada to second and third respectively. The contrast between Phillips’ and Cabrera’s at-bats was a telling look at the frustrating nature of baseball that so tortured Paul O’Neill during his 17 year career. The first pitch to Phillips was a fastball inside that Andy laced past Chipper Jones at third, but just foul. Phillips then swung through a slider inside to fall behind 0-2. He then fouled a fastball straight back to stay alive. Ramirez then tried to get him to chase a breaking pitch low and away, but Andy laid of that one and two more up and away out of the zone to run the count full. Ramirez finally came back inside where Phillips could really rip one and after fouling off Ramirez’s seventh pitch, Phillips laced another shot between Jones and the third base bag only to have Jones backhand the ball and fire to first for the out. Phillips’ at-bat was the hardest any Yankee had made Ramirez work all night, but despite getting the pitch he wanted and hitting it well, Phillips had nothing to show for it. Cabrera then came up and hacked at the first pitch he saw, a slider that looked headed for his front shin, producing a weak looping grounder that headed straight for Jones, only the ball took an odd last hop and Chipper booted it, conspiring with favorable official scoring to give Cabrera an RBI base hit. Such is baseball.

Villone came back out to start the eighth, but was again greeted by a hit, this time an Edgar Renteria single. After Chipper Jones lined out to left, Joe Torre brought in rookie T.J. Beam to face Andruw Jones. It was an impressive move on Torre’s part, trusting a rookie to face one of the league’s top hitters late in a one-run game (though I wonder if he would have done it up by one run rather than down by one run). The tall, lanky Beam rewarded Torre’s faith by striking out Jones on a sequence of hard, mid-90s heaters for the second out. Unfortunately, Beam forgot about Renteria on first and while Beam worked to the next batter, Brian McCann, Renteria practically waltzed over to second. Behind McCann 2-1, Beam intentionally walked the lefty to face righty Jeff Francoeur. Beam got ahead of the free-swinging Francoeur 1-2 only to have Francoeur pick the 1-2 pitch practically out of the dirt and loop it into shallow center for another RBI single. Mike Myers came in to get the lefty LaRoche for the final out.

Again down two runs, the Yankees failed to do anything with a lead-off single by Derek Jeter in the bottom of the eighth when Jason Giambi was unable to beat out a squibber down the third base line, Alex Rodriguez struck out swinging on a slider down and in from Ramirez and Jorge Posada launched a pitch to deep left that settled into the glove of Ryan Langerhans for the third out.

Still, Joe Torre didn’t back off, going to Kyle Farnsworth in the ninth. Unfortunately, Farnsworth’s recent struggles continued. Pinch-hitter Marcus Giles lead off with a single and moved to second on a wild pitch. With one out, Wilson Betemit singled to left and third base coach Fredi Gonzalez sent Giles home. From deep in left field, Melky Cabrera fired a strike to Jorge Posada that had Giles beat easily, but Posada, likely anticipating Giles’ arrival, flinched, booting the ball and allowing Giles to score. Betemit moved to second on the play. Farnsworth then struck out Renteria on a full count, but his second pitch to Chipper Jones skipped past Posada for a passed ball that moved Betemit to third. That prompted a mound visit from Ron Guidry. As Farnsworth and Posada waited for Gator to arrive, Farnsworth turned his back on Posada and walked off the back of the mound. When Guidry arrived, Farnsworth returned to the mound and Posada stormed off toward home plate. After Guidry returned to the dugout, Jones doubled Betemit home and Joe Torre replaced Farnsworth with Matt Smith. Smith intentionally walked Andruw Jones, unintentionally walked Brian McCann, and struck out Francoeur to end the inning.

Down 5-1 in the bottom of the ninth, Melky Cabrera hit his second career home run with two outs, but that was all the Yankees could muster against newly appointed closer Jorge Sosa to fall 5-2 after beating the Braves by the same score the night before.

For what it’s worth, Cabrera’s homer was his first from the left side of the plate and was a convincing short-porch shot on a pitch down and in. Cabrera finished the night having gone three for four, driving in both of the Yankees’ runs and scoring one of them. Cabrera and Jorge Posada combined for five of the Yankees’ nine hits. On Monday night, Jason Giambi drove in all five of the Yankees’ runs, scoring two of them and he and Andy Phillips combined for five of the Yankees’ nine hits. For those inclined to read something into that, those similarities are fun, but meaningless.

This afternoon, the Yankees get their third exciting pitching match-up in four days with a hot Chien-Ming Wang taking on John Smoltz in the series’ rubber game. Weather permitting, of course.

After Moose v. D-Train on Sunday afternoon and Johnson vs. Hudson last night, Jaret Wright vs. Horacio Ramirez is going to be a heck of a let-down tonight. You all know about Wright. He has exceeded some very low expectations by simply being able to take the ball every five days and upped the ante by actually keeping the Yankees in the game in most of his starts, but his limitations, particularly when it comes to innings pitched and strikeouts, are glaring. Ramirez, meanwhile, is young and left handed, but otherwise unexceptional. He does a pretty good number on lefties and gets more than his share of ground balls, which is fortunate for the Braves as Ramirez’s peripherals are as unimpressive as Wright’s. The upside is that with Miguel Cairo forced into the line-up by Robinson Cano’s hamstring (Cano’s just been placed on the DL with Nick Green being recalled to back-up Miggy . . . gulp), Bernie still the go-to choice in right field, and Andy Phillips on another hot streak, an unimpressive lefty is just what the doctor ordered for the Yankees’ offense.

Say what you want about Leo Mazzone’s ineffectiveness as the Baltimore Orioles’ pitching coach thus far this season, but the Braves, who won their division 14 straight times (not counting the strike year of 1995) with Mazzone rockin’ in their dugout, are about to miss the playoffs for the first time since 1990 when Mazzone was hired mid-season to be the Braves’ pitching coach. And the reason the Braves are languishing in dead last place below the mismanaged Nationals and post-fire sale Marlins? Yup. It’s the pitching.

The only NL teams to have allowed more runs per game than the Braves are the Brewers and Pirates, while the Atlanta bullpen’s 5.06 ERA is essentially tied with the Reds’ (5.07) for the worst in the NL and second worst in baseball (the Royals’ pen is on a whole other level of suck). What’s most dispiriting about the Braves’ pitching is that there’s not a large range of performances there. Other than failed closer Chris Reitsma’s 9.11 ERA (now on the DL), and swing-man Lance Cormier’s 6.23 on one end and new closer Ken Ray’s 2.80 on the other, everyone on the current roster falls between Chad Paronto’s 3.80 and Jorge Sosa’s 5.18. Yes, John Smotlz and Tim Hudson fall toward the low end of that spectrum, but neither has been the stopper this team needs. Absent that kind of ace, the Braves have been on a dramatic downward spiral all month. After pulling out of a losing April to finish May three games over .500, the Braves have gone a staggering 4-19 in June, low-lighted by a ten-game losing streak that was snapped by the Devil Rays on Friday. Indeed, before that weekend series in Tampa the Braves were 2-18 in June.

It’s the end of an era in Atlanta. John Smoltz, the only man other than manager Bobby Cox and Mazzone to have participated in all fourteen playoff appearances, is a free agent after this season and has said he would accept a trade. Andruw Jones, who has been with the team since he was a teenager in 1996, Cox and GM John Schuerholz are all signed through 2007 only. Could be Chipper Jones, signed through 2008 with a 2009 option that will likely vest itself, will be the last man standing. I for one welcome the release of the Braves’ grip on the NL East division, but with the end finally here, the fact that this team only won one Championship and failed to reach the World Series in their last six postseasons leaves even me with an empty feeling.

That said, here’s hoping the Yankees party like it’s 1999 and sweep the Bravos over the next three games. Robinson Cano is not in the line-up tonight due to the left hamstring injury he suffered yesterday while running out a double, though early reports are that he will not have to go on the DL. Instead, Joe Torre gives Miguel Cairo the start at second, but sullies his lineup by batting Miggy second once again. Jason Giambi, who missed the first game of yesterday’s double-header with a bad back played last night and is back in there tonight. Bubba Crosby gets the start in right as Tim Hudson and Randy Johnson give the Yankees their second marquee pitching matchup in as many days.

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One of the big stories this offseason was the Marlins’ second fire sale in the past decade, but buried beneath the outrage was the fact that the Marlins actually made a large number of smart baseball decisions in purging their roster of aging, overvalued players while stocking their system with prospects. Now, in last June, the team everyone had written off over the winter is in third place in the NL East, three games ahead of the perennial division champion Braves, and sports a Pythagorean record just a hair shy of .500.

That’s impressive enough, but what’s been even more impressive is how this team has gelled. Don’t look now, but the Marlins have gone 20-7 since May 22 including a 10-game winning streak that was halted on Wednesday and climaxed with a three-game sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays last weekend. The secret to that recent success has been pitching. The Marlins have held their opponents to less than three runs in 13 of those 20 wins and allowed more than three runs in just three of those 20 victories, a 5-4 win over the Cubs, a 6-5 win over the Braves, and last night’s 8-5 victory over the Orioles.

So who are these guys? Here’s a quick look at the Marlins’ rotation along with their ages and 2006 salaries:

Dontrelle Willis, 24, $4.35 million

You know D-Train, he was the 2003 NL Rookie of the Year and just missed out last year’s Cy Young. ‘Nuff said.

Josh Johnson, 22, ML minimum ($327,000)
Replacing: Josh Beckett, 26, $4.325 million

Drafted by the Marlins in 2002, Johnson was solid in double-A last year and finished the season with four appearances for the Fish. This year, without the benefit of a stint in triple-A, he’s posted a 2.01 ERA while striking out 7.93 men per nine innings in nine starts. Josh Beckett, meanwhile, has a 5.09 ERA and just 7.41 K/9 for more than ten times Johnson’s salary in Boston, while trading Beckett netted the Fish their starting shortstop, top pitching prospect Anibal Sanchez, and two other minor league arms, one of whom, Jose Garcia, has joined Sanchez in double-A and just may be pitching his way past his more highly touted teammate.

Ricky Nolasco, 23, ML min.
Replacing: Al Leiter (retired) and 23-year-old Jason Vargas, the latter of whom is starting for the Marlins’ triple-A club with good peripherals, but an ugly ERA.

Nolasco came over from the Cubs in the Juan Pierre deal along with Sergio Mitre and Renyel Pinto. The 25-year-old Mitre was in the rotation until he hit the 60-day DL with inflammation in his pitching shoulder. The 23-year-old Pinto did not allow a run in four big league innings earlier in the year and is pitching very well save for a high walk rate in triple-A Albuquerque. Nolasco turned in a strong season in double-A last year and has posted a 3.15 ERA in 60 innings for the Fish thus far this season with a solid 6.45 K/9. Pierre, meanwhile, is hitting .242/.290/.306 for the Cubs, fulfilling my prediction of a Womackian future for the 28-year-old who is pocketing $5.75 million of the Cubs greenbacks for his services.

Scott Olsen, 22, ML min.
Replacing: A.J. Burnett, 29, $55 million/5 yrs

The left-handed Olsen, like Johnson, is a home grown product who pitched well for the double-A Carolina Mudcats in 2005. A strikeout machine in the minors, the 22-year-old Olsen has struck out 7.79 men per nine innings with the Fish in twelve starts this year and held hitters to less than a hit per inning, but has struggled some with his control, resulting in a 4.70 ERA. Burnett, meanwhile, has made just three starts for the Jays thus far this year due to repeated problems with his surgically repaired pitching elbow. In those three starts, Burnett has a Beckett-like 5.06 ERA thanks in part to his surrendering four home runs in 16 innings.

Brian Moehler, 34, $1.5 million

Moehler, tonight’s starter, was retained as a budget rate, league-average insurance policy. He’s not held up his end of the bargain, posting a 6.29 ERA while allowing 97 hits in 73 innings.

From that alone this fire sale thing doesn’t look too shabby, does it?

The trend continues around the diamond. The best player the Marlins traded this offseason was 34-year-old Carlos Delgado, who is still owed $52 million over four years, only $7 million of which the Fish picked up in the deal. In that trade they acquired not only pitching prospect Yusmeiro Petit, but 25-year-old first baseman Mike Jacobs, who tore the cover off the ball in 100 at-bats for the Mets last year (.310/.375/.710) and is representing this year with a .269/.357/.486 line and ten homers as the Marlins’ first baseman.

They dumped an overrated and overpaid ($10 million over two years) 30-year-old Luis Castillo on the Twins for a pair of minor league arms and handed the second base job to 26-year-old minor league free agent Dan Uggla, who had lit-up the Southern League with the Diamondback’s double-A franchise in 2005. Uggla has the early lead in the NL Rookie of the Year race, hitting .313/.366/.532 with 13 homers while playing a Gold Glove-level second base.

At shortstop the Beckett deal netted them 22-year-old Sox prospect Hanley Ramirez, who caused a sensation over the first two months of the season before a recent slump that is strangely in synch with his team’s winning streak torpedoed his numbers. Ramirez was hitting .340/.417/.484 with 16 stolen bases in 19 attempts on May 23, but has hit just .139/.187/.257 since then. Still, that deal not only netted them those three aforementioned pitching prospects in addition to Ramirez, but it allowed them to unload 32-year-old Mike Lowell’s contract ($25.5 million over three years left), thus opening third base for their 23-year-old future Hall of Famer, Miguel Cabrera. The Marlins wisely recognized the fact that it would be easier to find viable corner outfielders than a third baseman that can hit like Frank Robinson or Albert Pujols (Cabrera’s top two PECOTA comps).

In Cabrera’s place in right field the Fish have installed 22-year-old home-grown prospect Jeremy Hermida, who is hitting a solid, if somewhat powerless .286/.385/.429. The good news is that at 22, Hermida has time to develop his power stroke. In the opposite pasture, the Marlins finally found a home for 27-year-old former catching prospect Josh Willingham, who has hit.268/.352/.470 and will be activated from the disabled list for this weekend’s series.

With those six stacked at the top of the line-up, of whom only Cabrera at the insane low price of $472,000 is earning more than the league minimum, the Marlins have installed 27-year-old veteran Miguel Olivo behind the plate for the modest sum of $700,000 and have been able to give 25-year-old Reggie Abercrombie an extended look in center. Of the six rookie Marlins in the everyday lineup, only Abercrombie has failed to rise to the occasion, but given the success of the others, they’re able to remain patient with the man they, perhaps erroneously, still hope is their center fielder of the future.

So maybe the bench is a bit thin (Helms has pop, Amezaga can play anywhere, Borchard and Ross once had promise and are still in their 20s, Treanor is a holdover) and the bullpen is a bit of a hodgepodge (veterans Borowski and Herges, 2005 A-ballers Martinez and Tankersley, holdover Messenger, rookie Logan, and the truly off-the-radar Fulchino), but you have to commend a team that’s able to purge $60 million in active payroll and tens of millions more owed in subsequent seasons, get 3 ½ years younger as a team and actually improve its long-term outlook in the process. Willis and Cabrera are young enough that they will peak along with the new crop of players, rather than ahead of them. It may have looked ugly this offseason, but with the Braves having finally tumbled off their perch and the Mets relying on a crop of old fogies (Pedro, Glavine, Trachsel, El Duque, Wagner, Valentin, ex-Marlin Cliff Floyd and 2005 Marlins Delgado and Paul Lo Duca), these Fish just might surprise a lot of people in a few years. If so, one might have to wonder if the Marlins have stumbled upon a new method of small-market management in which a Championship is followed by a fire sale which leads directly to another Championship within the decade, repeat. Remember, Burnett and Derrek Lee were picked up in the post-1997 purge, as was Preston Wilson who was flipped for Pierre, and Ed Yarnall who was flipped for Lowell, while Josh Beckett was drafted second overall in 1999 after the Marlins finished 1998 with the worst record in baseball (the expansion Devil Rays got the number one pick). Also, don’t forget that the Marlins won two Championships in their first eleven years of existence, while no other expansion team has ever won more than two titles (Mets, Blue Jays) and seven expansion clubs of equal or older vintage are still looking for that first ring. Kinda makes you think, don’t it?

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Inspired by Catfish Stew, here’s a list of my least favorite Yankees from the last twenty years:

25. Tim Stoddard Stoddard was 6’7″, 250 pounds and looked like Wally Walrus from the Woody Woodpecker cartoons. What’s not to like about that? Well, Wally was the bad guy in those cartoons and Tim posted a 6.38 ERA out of the Yankee pen in 1988 earning his release that August. Worse yet, Stoddard was all the Yankees managed to get in return for Ed Whitson, who would surely make this list if I extended it back further. Just a series of unpleasant memories there.

24. Xavier Hernandez The Yankees began to turn things around in 1993 with the additions of Paul O’Neill, Jimmy Key and Wade Boggs. Going into 1994, Hernandez was supposed to be part of the solution as a young (28) rubber armed reliever who had just turned in two excellent seasons for the Astros. Plus his name started with an X. How cool is that? Turns out his arm wasn’t really made of rubber after all and those 207 2/3 innings over two seasons in Houston resulted in a 5.85 ERA in his lone season for the Yanks, which was itself cut short by injury in late July. I suppose I should have blamed Houston manager Art Howe, but I was less enlightened then. Speaking of which, it didn’t help that the Yanks dealt no-hit fan favorite Andy Stankiewicz (“Stanky the Yankee”) to get Xavier.

23. Rich Dotson One of many Stump Merrill-era hurlers on this list (a term I use for those lean late-’80s, early ’90s years regardless of whom the manager was, Dotson, for instance, never actually pitched for Merrill). The Yankees sent fan favorite Danny Pasqua to the White Sox in the deal to acquire Dotson. In his only full year with the Yanks, Dotson posted a 5.00 ERA (79 ERA+ in those days) and things got so bad the following season he was released in June . . . only to resign with the White Sox! It was a trick! We wuz robbed! Dotson, of course, pitched better for the Chisox over the remainder of the 1989 season than he ever had for the Yankees, but at least he had the decency to burn out after that. Oh, it bears mentioning that Dotson wore his hat high on his head so it boxed up in front. Some players can pull that off. Dotson couldn’t.

22. Terry Mulholland Believe it or not, the Yankees were just Mulholland’s third team, though he was already in his early thirties back in 1994. Mulholland’s offenses are similar to Hernandez’s. Thought to be part of the solution in 1994, he was so very much part of the problem, struggling to stay in the rotation and posting a 6.49 ERA, which remains his worst single season ERA more than a decade later.

21. Randy Keisler With his jug-handle ears and bulging eyes, Keisler looked ready to crap himself on the mound and when he pitched like crap he had the nerve to bitch about being sent back to Columbus. Normally I’d sympathize with a young player’s gripes about getting a fair shot with Steinbrenner’s Yankees, but a) keep your mouth shut rook and make your statements on the field and b) Keisler, who made his major league debut at age 24, was such a hot prospect the Yanks just flat released him after he missed the 2003 season due to injury.

20. Carl Pavano I was ready to like Pavano despite the ridiculous contract the Yankees gave him, but once what was supposed to be a minimum DL stay last June turned into a full calendar year of inaction amid rumors of the Yankees questioning Pavano’s fortitude, he’d hung himself with the rope I was prepared to give him. He’d rank higher, but there’s still time for Meat to redeem himself.

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Thanks to ol’ buddy Arthur Rhodes, all that stands between the Yankees and a series win in Philadelphia and a split of their southern dip in the NL is Cole Hamels. A tall, slender lefty, the 22-year-old Hamels is the posterboy of pitching prospect hype, having gone 11-3 with a 1.54 ERA, 208 strikeouts and just 88 hits in 152 innings over his first three professional seasons. Of course, all but the final 19 innings in that stretch occurred in A-ball. And then there’s the fact that he only made four starts in 2004 due to issues with his pitching elbow.

Hamels started this season back in the Florida State League, but was so dominant he was jumped straight to triple-A, where after three even more impressive outings he was promoted to big league rotation. After holding the Reds scoreless across five innings while striking out seven in his first turn, Hamels looked rather human against the Brewers in his next start, allowing four runs on five hits and four walks in six and a third while striking out five. He then landed on the 15-day DL with a strained left shoulder. Hamels only missed the minimum and has made three starts since returning to action. The good news for the Phillies is that the control issues that have plagued him on occasion throughout his career and over his first two starts (9 BB in 11 1/3 IP) seem to have gone away (5 BB in 14 1/3 IP in June), but his overall results have not responded in kind. Hamels beat the Diamondbacks in his first start off the DL, but lasted just 5 2/3 innings and struck out just two. In his next start he struck out eight, but lasted just five innings and yielded four runs on six hits while taking a loss against the Nationals. In his last turn he was summarily beaten about the head and neck by the Devil Rays, who touched him up for his first two big league homers allowed and a total of six runs (five earned) on seven hits against just three Ks in 3 2/3 IP.

Is Hamels hurt? Was he rushed? Is he just a tad overrated to begin with?

It’s unlikely that we’ll find the answer to any of those questions tonight as he goes up against Jaret Wright, who’s five-inning limit should at least be properly motivated tonight when he’s pulled for a pinch-hitter. After a consistent streak in May in which Wright allowed no more than three runs in no less than five innings for six straight starts, Wright has allowed a total of nine runs across his last ten innings. Given his ugly peripherals, it seems reality has caught up to the Yankees’ fifth starter. I wouldn’t expect to see that trend reverse in the hitters’ haven that is Citizen’s Bank Park. Let’s just hope he keeps enough men off base that he can pitch around “Blastmaster” Ryan Howard. I’ll be covering my eyes during those at-bats.

Despite all of the upheaval on their roster, the Yankees have been alarmingly consistent thus far this year, avoiding slumps, but also failing to go off on any dazzling winning streaks. The Yankees have lost more than two games in a row just twice this year (a fact they hope will remain true after tonight), with both losing streaks having maxed out at four games. On the flip side, they’ve won more than three in a row just three times, with two five-game winning streaks, one four-gamer and just one other of as many as three in a row.

The Phillies’ season has followed a very different course. They started the season losing six of seven, then from the end of April to mid-May won 13 of 14, beginning that run with a nine-game winning streak. That was immediately followed by a five-game losing streak and coming into Sunday’s game against the Devil Rays, the Phillies had lost eight of nine. That last spell included a six-game losing streak that was snapped with an 8-5 win yesterday.

The Phillies’ big problem is starting pitching. Randy Wolf hasn’t thrown a pitch all year, Jon Lieber is currently on the DL, lefty phenom Cole Hamels has also spent time on the DL, while the current version of the rotation includes reliever Ryan Madson and rookie Scott Mathieson, who was in the Florida State league last year. The only Phillie starters to take all of their turns thus far this year have been Brett Myers and Cory Lidle. The result is a rotation that has been the second worst in baseball, just barely allowing fewer runs per start than that of the neighboring Baltimore Orioles.

Good thing then that the Philadelphia bullpen has been so strong. The Phillies’ 3.25 Bullpen ERA has been the best in baseball thus far this year, with ex-Yankee Tom Gordon leading the way with 18 saves, a 1.61 ERA and 17 hits, 8 walks and 37 strikeouts in 28 innings. Behind Gordon the Phillies have a strong pair of veteran LOOGies in Rheal Cormier and old Yankee whipping boy Arthur Rhodes. The problem is that this pen is built to win now (Rhodes is 36, Gordon is 38 and Cormier is 39), but the Phillies have a losing record and are 9.5 games behind the NL-best Mets. Good thing there’s not much competition for the NL Wild Card (the Phils trail the unlikely Reds by three).

Curiously, given the extreme divergence in performance between their starters and relievers, the Phillies are a terrible defensive team (third worst defensive efficiency in the majors) playing in an extreme hitters park. The primary offenders on defense are Utley and Howard on the right side of the infield (Bell and Rollins have been excellent on the left) and, to a lesser degree Burrell and, believe it or not, Aaron Rowand in the outfield. I’m not sure what’s going on with Rowand, save for having seen about eleventy zillion replays of that catch against the Mets during which he broke his face on the chain link fence in center, but it is interesting to note that Rowand’s Rate stats haven’t been as strong as one would expect over the past three seasons, with the former World Champion rating as simply average in both 2003 and 2004.

Today the Phils send their best starter, Brett Myers, against Randy Johnson, who rebounded from a tremendously discouraging start against the A’s to enjoy one of his best starts of the year last time out only to get tossed for throwing at old nemesis Eduardo Perez with one out in the seventh inning. Myers, meanwhile, had turned in ten-straight quality starts before getting mugged in his last two starts by the Mets and Nationals, resulting in a combined line of 5 2/3 IP, 16 H, 12 R (11 ER), 1 HR, 2 BB, 5 K.

The Phils typically have four fantastic hitters in a row in their line-up in Utley, Abreu, Burrell and Howard. Fortunately for Johnson and the Yankees, three of them are lefties. The right-handed Burrell, however, will bear some watching tonight.

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The last time the Yankees played a ballgame in Washington, D.C. was September 30, 1971. Jim Acker gave up two runs in the bottom of the eighth to cap a comeback by the Senators, who had trailed 5-1 after five in their final game in Washington. With the Yankees trailing 7-5 in the top of the ninth, Felipe Alou and Bobby Murcer grounded out only to have the Senators’ fans pour onto the field forcing the game to be forfeited to New York, giving the Yankees a winning record of 82-80. The next year the Senators would play in Texas as the Rangers, swapping divisions with the Milwaukee Brewers. Both the Brewers and Rangers would finish in last place.

Thirty five years later the Yanks are back in DC and back in first place (a game up on both the Red Sox and Blue Jays), but the Washington club, wearing red caps that match those of the 1971 Senators, is still awful.

The Nationals don’t do anything particularly well, and their two best players are a pair of former Yankee prospects, Alfonso Soriano, who is just two behind the injured Albert Pujols for the major league lead in home runs with 23, and Nick Johnson, who in his peak age-27 season has yet to miss a game due to injury for the first time in his career. Nick the Stick is hitting a robust .309/.436/.554 and has walked nine times more than he’s struck out.

The Nationals actually have a fairly dangerous top five in their order, with Soriano inexplicably leading off and followed by Jose Vidro (hitting .309 with a .365 OBP, but virtually without any power), Johnson, 21-year-old phenom Ryan Zimmerman (on pace for 44 doubles, 22 homers and 100 RBIs), and the combative and injury-prone (read: undesirable) Jose Guillen. Guillen has an unimpressive stat line, but has gone 5 for 13 with two doubles, a homer and three walks since being activated following a stay on the DL due to a hamstring injury.

Of course, things drop off a cliff after the five spot. The last three men in the Washington line-up are lead by Royce Clayton’s .259/.315/.339. They’re so bad that when Livan Hernandez pitches he’s the best of the last four hitters in the Nats’ lineup. The Nats’ bench, meanwhile, is filled with multi-position players, but other than Daryle Ward, whose likely just enjoying a small-sample surge, none of them can really hit.

Then again, the Nats play in one of the most extreme pitchers parks in the majors, which is why their weaker hitters look so darn awful, and why their unexceptional pitching staff appears to be loaded with solid individual performances. The top three in their pen, closer Chad Cordero and righty set-up men Jon Rauch and Gary Majewski have done the job, as have rookie starters Shawn Hill and Michael O’Connor and rookie ROOGY Saul Rivera. What’s more, Ramon Ortiz, who was dreadful pitching his home games in the hitter-friendly Great American Ballpark last year, has been on a solid streak of late that has included three games at RFK but also three on the road, while former Yankee farmhand and Expos DL mainstay Tony Armas Jr. has been both active and effective and is still just 28 years old. Last year’s ace John Patterson is due to come off the DL soon and the Nats response just might be to deal innings eater Livan Hernandez. He may be their best bottom of the order hitter, but he’s their worst starter.

So things are looking slightly up for the Nationals. They have real owners at long last and plans for a new ballpark. Jim Bowden has hired Davey Johnson as a special advisor to save him from himself. Johnson and Zimmerman are a fantastic pair of corner infielders in their 20s, they’ve got a crop of young pitchers who are contributing to the big club, and to top it all off, Alfonso Soriano is taking walks. Yes, the 30-year-old converted second baseman who entered this season with a career rate of one base on balls per 22.23 plate appearances has been taking ball four once every 12.62 trips this year.

Tonight the Yanks send Jaret “Five Innings Are Just About” Wright to the mound to face 25-year-old righty Shawn Hill. The Canadian Hill made his major league debut with the Expos in 2004, pitched terribly and then missed all of 2005 following Tommy John surgery. Back in action this year, he excelled in eight starts for the Double-A Harrisburg Senators, made one triple-A start and was then called up to replace Zach Day in the rotation. He’s since made three starts for the Nationals, all of which have been quality, but two of which have resulted in hard-luck losses. In the two he’s made at home, Hill has allowed just one run on seven hits over 14 innings.

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I don’t have much to say about yesterday’s 8-4 loss to the Indians. Moose had his first truly bad start of the year, with the Indians six-through-eight hitters doing the bulk of the damage. The offense tried to come back thanks to homers by Alex Rodriguez and Bernie Williams, but Aaron Small and Ron Villone put the game further out of reach and Rodriguez struck out with men on the corners in his next trip to add fuel to a very nasty fire.

The most compelling things about the game for me were Melky Cabrera’s first career home run–Melky was batting righty and appeared to get under a pitch up in the zone which just cleared the left field wall around where he made “the catch” (check the highlights, it could be a while before he hits another)–and Matt Smith’s appearance in the seventh inning in which lefties Travis Hafner and Ben Broussard both battled him for identical eight-pitch walks (swinging strike, foul strike two, ball one, foul, ball, ball, ball) prompting a two-out mound visit by Ron Guidry, after which Smith got Ronnie Belliard to fly out on two pitches to strand both runners.

In other news, it’s almost two weeks old now, but I only recently stumbled across this article by Yahoo!’s Jeff Passan on the Yankees’ infamous 1991 number-one draft pick Brien Taylor. While it borders on rubbernecking at times, I found the article compelling and somewhat timely given the recent draft and the influx of homegrown players on the Yankee roster (ten of 25, not counting Crosby and Proctor, who came over from the Dodgers as minor leaguers).

The Yankees will visit two more of their home grown stars this weekend in Washington, but I’ll have more on the Nats, Nick and Sori later today. For now, I’ll share this on the Nationals’ recently fired bullpen coach John Wetteland, courtesy of The Griddle. Apparently the 1996 World Series MVP was having a bit too much fun with his charges out in the pen (who include former Yanks Mike Stanton and, until a recent DL stint, Felix Rodriguez) and former MLB discipline czar and current Nationals manager Frank Robinson didn’t appreciate that.

Despite being arguably the American League’s best pitcher thus far this season, Mike Mussina has pitched in a lot of hard luck. If you don’t believe me, consider the fact that he and Randy Johnson have the same number of wins despite the fact that Moose’s ERA is more than two and a half runs better than Unit’s. Indeed, in his last start he lasted seven innings, allowed just six baserunners and struck out seven, but earned a loss as four of those six men scored and the Yankee bats could only muster up two runs in his defense. The Indians have scored just one run over the last two nights, and with Moose facing off against Cliff Lee (5.12 ERA, 1.44 WHIP) the sweep would appear to be in order, but for some reason my confidence is low. Then again, this team hasn’t given me any reason to doubt them thus far.

With Derek Jeter having played the field the last two days and Bubba Crosby having homered to lead off the Clippers’ contest last night, Bubba has been activated and Nick Green (I swear he really was on the roster for the past week) has been designated for assignment. Having Bubba’s legs and glove around for the Yankees upcoming six games under NL rules should be handy. I can envision a reoccurring late-game strategy that has Bubba running for Giambi, then moving into right field while Andy takes over at first and hits in the right fielder’s spot, or better yet, hits in the pitchers spot and a new reliever hits in the right fielder’s spot. Throw in Kevin Thompson as a righty foil to Bubba’s leftyness (though I’d prefer to see Kevin get a few starts, that would make Bernie the righty bat off the bench, which would be fine) and the Yankees have a pretty solid bench for their second interleague stint of the year.

Meanwhile, despite being hit on the elbow by Jason Johnson’s pitch last night, Jorge is back in the day game after the night game, with Joe Torre posting the same line-up as last night (no start for Kevin today). Hey, it worked last night!