A Go Figure Sunday ended on the good foot for the home team. Here’s what you need to know: Alex Rodriguez and Alfonso Soriano homered, Mariano gave up two dingers, blew his third save opportunity in a row (the first time that’s ever happened in his career), and Brett Gardner hit a game-ending shot into the middle deck of the right field seats.

Rodriguez’s home run led off the second inning. It was a long pop fly, really. He hit a high, outside fastball for a line drive single in his second at bat and didn’t see where the ball went so he stood there at the plate looking like a dope (remember he pulled the same was-that-a-foul-ball? move when he hit a homer once at Fenway Park).

Lil’ Sori hit a solo home run, the 2,000th hit of his career and while Andy Pettitte was mediocre again, the Yankee bullpen held things together–Shawn Kelly and Boone Logan were especially good. They had a 4-2 lead in eighth when David Robertson gave up a solo shot and then an infield hit. Rodriguez made a nice play moving to his right and threw to second to get the lead runner. Never mind that the ump botched the call.

Gardner did him one better when he tracked a deep fly ball by Torii Hunter, caught it, and slammed against the wall. He flipped the ball to Soriano who threw it to the infield and doubled off Austin Jackson, who stood on second base confused as to what happened (he must have seen Gardner flip the ball and assumed that he had not caught it).

A relief, then, to have Miguel Cabrera lead off the ninth. Against Mo, again.

And Mariano had two strikes on him. But then made a lousy pitch and as we know, Cabrera doesn’t miss those. Another homer.

One out later…

Mo threw another horseshit pitch, this one to Victor Martinez who launched it deep into the seats in right.

So another save blown. And Michael Kay almost hyperventilated telling us that it’d never happened before, three in a row.

But Jose Veras, ah, Jose Veras, pitched for the Tigers in the bottom of the inning. Hunter made a nice catch to rob Eduardo Nunez of an extra base hit, Vernon Wells got out in front of a breaking ball and hit a long foul before striking out, but then Gardner hit the second pitch he saw into the second deck.

Gatorade bath and all those hurt feelings made better.

Final Score: Yanks 5, Tigers 4.

Andy, man, he’s looked old this summer. But he’s on the hill today against Justin Verlander.

Brett Gardner CF
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Robinson Cano 2B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Lyle Overbay 1B
Alfonso Soriano LF
Curtis Granderson DH
Eduardo Nunez SS
Chris Stewart C

Never mind reality:

Let’s Go Yank-ees

[Photo via: Aberrant Beauty]

“Bob Wills Is Still The King”–Waylon Jennings

[Photo Credit: Shawn Bradford]

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Phil Hughes didn’t pitch well. Neither did Joba Chamberlain. The Yankee hitters didn’t score much. Should I go on?

The Tigers put up 9 runs on 17 hits. About the only one who got relief for the Yanks is Alex Rodriguez who had the day off. Had he played, fans would have certainly had a fat target on which to direct their frustration.

Final Score: Tigers 9, Yanks 3.

And moving on…

[Painting by Matthew Davis]

Once again, it’s our pal Phil Hughes. On a humid summer day. Against a powerful-hitting team. Yeah, so, I know, it doesn’t look good for him. And I’ve been as down on him as anyone but you know what? Screw it.

The man needs some love. And today, he’s getting it from my corner of the Bronx.

Day-off for Rodriguez:

Brett Gardner CF
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Robinson Cano 2B
Alfonso Soriano DH
Curtis Granderson LF
Eduardo Nunez SS
Lyle Overbay 1B
Jayson Nix 3B
Austin Romine C

Never mind the odds:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Leroy H. Woodson via This Isn’t Happiness]

“Clementine”–Duke Ellington

[Photo Via: Sea Dollar]

What you need to know is that Ivan Nova pitched another good game and Rick Porcello wasn’t bad either. You should know that Alex Rodriguez was cheered and booed in his return to The Stadium, the boos becoming more piercing as the night wore on and he whiffed in three of his four at bats. You need to know that the Yankees had a two-run lead in the ninth and Austin Jackson on second with one out when Tori Hunter came to the plate.

Hunter’s one of those guys who has never had much luck against Mariano. So, what happens? He blisters a cutter back up-the-middle. It’s headed directly for Mo’s nuts, on one clean hop. But Rivera fields the ball, hops in the air, turns to second to freeze Jackson and then throws the ball to first for the second out.

Okay, now for one more for the money.

Miguel Cabrera, 0-4 in his career against Mo, popped the first pitch up in foul territory. Lyle Overbay edged his way near the camera well, reached over, extended his glove, the ball just out of his reach. If only he…damn.

Still, Mo got ahead 1-2 and then Cabrera fouled a pitch off his left knee. He called time, and hobbled around for a few minutes. Play resumed, he got back in the box, Rivera threw practically the same pitch and Cabrera fouled this one a few inches lower, same leg. He didn’t swing at the next pitch, a cutter outside but was ready when Mo made a mistake. Cause this next one may have been down  but it right over the plate. And Cabrera being the stud that he is, did not miss it. In fact, he murdalized it, and the fucking thing sailed well over the fence in center field. The game was tied.

Mo’s second straight blown save, some hurt feelings all around, and a bummer of the first magnitude. Yet it was hard not to be impressed. Cabrera is a beast, and hey, at least Mo didn’t get beaten by a chump.

Prince Fielder followed with a double and after an intentional walk Mo got out of it. His boys didn’t do dick in the bottom of the inning and the Tigers left two men stranded on base in the tenth.

Jayson Nix, who replaced Rodriguez in the ninth cause he’s a better glove, walked to start the bottom of the inning against Al Alburquerque. Curtis Granderson, not bunting, singled to right, Nix to second.

So I sat on my couch and asked Overbay not to hit into a double play (using my late night, inside voice, my pleading voice). He got ahead 2-1, swung through a tight, darting slider, fouled another pitch off, and then swung through a splitter, to strike out. The pitch was in the dirt, so low that got passed the catcher allowing the runners to advance. Nunez was walked intentionally for…Chris Stewart.

And I wondered if maybe a squeeze wasn’t in order. Stewart hit into a double player earlier in the game, you know.

Here’s out it went: Fastball, inside, ball one. Fastball at the knees for a strike, 1-1.Slider, inside, swung on and missed, 1-2. Outfield shallow, infield tight. Fastball, outside corner and he just stares at it for strike three.

Grimace, teeth grind, walk of shame.

Gritty Gritner took a strike and then slapped a little ground ball between third and short, an innocent little grounder, but one that found the hole and got into the outfield, which permitted the game-winning run to score.

Yanks 4, Tigers 3.

Exhale, y’all.

The Yanks limp home to the Bronx. Alex Rodriguez’s return is the only thing breathing life into a weekend series against a formidable Tigers team.

1.  Gardner CF

2.  Suzuki RF

3. Cano 2B

4. Soriano DH

5. Rodriguez 3B

6. Granderson LF

7. Overbay 1B

8. Nunez SS

9. Stewart C

It’s Nova…

Never mind the bollocks: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

Leigh Montville on John Henry buying the Globe:

The news last week that The Boston Globe was sold was not a great surprise. The New York Times had been shopping the newspaper for a couple of years and various bidders had been mentioned in a number of stories. The news that John Henry, principal owner of the Red Sox, was the winning bidder also was not a great surprise. He has become part of the fabric of the city, a 63-year-old rich man about town, a close-lipped maker and shaker, lives in a mansion, is married (again) to a younger local woman. This was another addition to an interesting business portfolio.

The price that he paid for this addition was the great surprise.

“I can’t believe he bought our newspaper for $70 million,” I, a one-time sportswriter at The Globe, said to another one-time sportswriter at The Globe. “He gets all that real estate. He gets all of those trucks. He gets the rights to all of the stories, all of the pictures, the 22 Pulitzers, all of the past, plus the computer present and future of the pre-eminent voice in all of New England. The Times paid $1.1 billion for The Globe 20 years ago. He gets it for $70 million? The stories say that’s about four percent of whatThe Times paid.”

“He just gave Dustin Pedroia a $110 million contract extension for eight years,” the other one-time sportswriter said. “So he’s paying $50 million more for the starting Red Sox second baseman than he is for the pre-eminent voice in New England…”

This fact made the two of us feel very old.

Oh, man, real good stuff on Robert Towne over at Cinephilia and Beyond. And even more at Screenplay How To.

Here’s a place worth visiting: Stranger in Town. Like for George Jones and Elvis Costello; Leonard Cohen and Pete Seeger; Lee J Cobb in Death of Salesman; Rodney on Johnny; Dick Gregory and even Mort Sahl.

[Photo Via: Tokyomo]

Twenty-five years ago today…

The Wife’s favorite comment this season is, “Who?!?!” Cause she can’t keep track of all these dudes. Over at SI.com, Joe Lemire on trading places nature of the 2013 Yankees:

Every so often, Yankees traveling secretary Ben Tuliebitz will pick up the P.R. department’s game notes, scan the list of all the players who have participated for the club this season and stumble across a name he hadn’t considered for a while. Cody Eppley? Ben Francisco? It’s easy to forget those players were 2013 Yankees, but both were on the Opening Day roster, an ancient document of little present-day use.

“This has been the craziest year for me,” said Tuliebitz, who is in his seventh season as traveling secretary. “I have a checklist of all the things I need to do, and it seems like every time I start crossing something off my list, I have to add something because we’re going to call this guy up and send this guy down.”

…It’s Cashman’s job to choose the players and Tuliebitz’s job to get them there, no matter the logistics. Veteran first baseman Travis Ishikawa, for instance, was home with his family in the Bay Area when the Yankees plucked him off the waiver wire, so Tuliebitz said he arranged for Ishikawa, the player’s wife and their two young children to fly cross-country. Ishikawa arrived a day earlier than his family in order to play on July 8. His family made the game, but they weren’t around much longer — Ishikawa played just the one game before being designated for assignment on July 11.

Adams arrived at the ballpark at first pitch on Monday night after his flight landed two hours before the 7:10 p.m. CDT start and rush hour traffic impeded his progress from there. That’s still better than his return to Triple A two weeks ago. The team was playing in Louisville, but all New York-area flights there were canceled because of storms, so Adams instead was booked on a flight to Cincinnati. The bad weather delayed that flight five hours, so he was bunkered down in Newark airport until 1 a.m., landing in Cincinnati at 3 and then taking a car service the last hour and a half to Louisville.

Man, is this ever good.

Things fall apart. It looked there for the taking. Alfonso Soriano hit a two-run home run in the first, the Yanks built up a 4-0 lead and it didn’t matter that they left a ton of men on base (and in scoring position, no less) because C.C. Sabathia was dealing. Until the 7th, that is, when the first two men reached and then Paul Konerko hit a double to score a run. But C.C. got out of the inning, thanks in part to an alert play by Robinson Cano, with the lead. And that lead held until two outs in the 9th. Mariano retired the first two batters then gave up a double and with two strikes to Adam Dunn, a single to left field which scored the tying run.

Blown save. Oy. Mo did pitch a scoreless 10th inning, though. And Robinson Cano looked to bail him out when he hit a solo home run in the top of the 12th but Adam Warren botched the save in the bottom of the inning–couple of base hits and a game-winning triple did him, and the Yankees, in.

Final Score: White Sox 6, Yankees 5.

A tough loss on a rough trip. That’s 1-5 against the sad-ass Padres and White Sox. Which makes the Yankees, what? Sad asses. Plenty of bruised feelings to go around.

[Photo Credit: David Banks/USA Today]

It’s C.C.

Brett Gardner CF
Alfonso Soriano LF
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Vernon Wells DH
Curtis Granderson RF
Eduardo Nunez SS
Lyle Overbay 1B
Austin Romine C

Never mind the speeches:

Let’s Go Big Fella!

[Image Via: Belles d’amour]

Howard Bryant on the changing nature of the MLBPA:

After the release of the Mitchell Report in December 2007, players were still resistant to the reality that they themselves were the biggest victims of their members’ transgressions. But now, the steroid discussion no longer seems to be a philosophical conversation but a personal one. Players now consider PEDs a violation of their personal baseball code, no different from standing in the batter’s box too long after a home run or repeating what was said in the clubhouse. In the past, they had framed the drug conversation as an imposition of public relations pressure placed by grandstanding outsiders — the public, the media, the front office or Congress.

Now, players are demanding an accountability from one another that didn’t exist in previous years. For the first time, players no longer view steroids as a victimless crime. Users aren’t cheating the public as much as they are other players.

“So, let me get this straight,” an American League player said. “Guy uses steroids. He then puts up better numbers than I do. He goes to free agency and gets the years and the money, takes a job I don’t get and now I have to scramble during the winter to find another slot. Then, he gets busted for steroids and we use my union dues for his lawyers, his defense and his appeal? And that makes sense to you? That bulls— is fair?”

[Photo Credit: AP]

“The Ruins of Detroit” by Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre (via Air and Angels)

Yeah, Hard Luck Hiroki didn’t pitch poorly. It was that damn 3rd run he gave up before getting the final out in the 7th. Otherwise, man, he pitched another competent game. But the Yankees had Chris Sale on their hands, a formidable, hard-throwing lefty. They scored a run and would have had another if the home plate umpire didn’t blow a call at the plate. When your team doesn’t score those moments are critical because the Yanks scored another run in the 9th but Alfonso Soriano whiffed with the tying run on base and that was that: another loss. And the downward spiral continues.

Final Score: White Sox 3, Yanks 2.

[Photo Credit: David Banks/AP]

It’s Hiroki–Our Guy!

Brett Gardner CF
Alfonso Soriano LF
Alex Rodriguez DH
Robinson Cano 2B
Vernon Wells RF
Jayson Nix 3B
Eduardo Nunez SS
David Adams 1B
Austin Romine C

Never mind the boo boids:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo via This Isn’t Happiness]