It was the second time around against the meat of the order that Chase Whitley got tagged. Not destroyed, but had for 3 runs.
David Huff relieved him and then Mother Nature relieved herself. The rain came and didn’t leave and in the end, the Yanks lost 3-1 in 5 innings.
Somehow, it was a fitting way to go into the All Star Break. They are 47-47.
[Photo Credit: Tara on the wander]
Man, the kid was good. Stands up tall on the mound, works quickly, has poise. Even when he got into trouble, he didn’t rattle. Shane Greene gave the Yanks exactly what they needed on Saturday afternoon as they beat the Orioles, 3-0.
Now, if only Chase Whitley can do likewise today.
Never mind the break:
Let’s Go Yank-ees!
[Picture by Bags]
Nice to see that the Banter faithful were out enjoying their Friday night instead of suffering through another characteristic 2014 Yankee loss.
Good starting pitching, good relieving, no hitting.
It all amounted to a 3-2 loss as the Yanks sink 5 games back of the AL East-leading Orioles.
Our man Hiroki–the last man standing–pitched well so it was dispiriting that he didn’t get more run support. But this is the way things go for a .500 ball club.
[Photo Credit: Bill Peppas]
Well, Hell. Eerything was going so well. David Phelps held the Indians scoreless through the first 6 innings and had a modest 3-0 lead. But he was relieved of his duties after giving up a couple of hits to start the 7th and by the time the inning was over, the Indians led, 4-3.
Biggest play of the game might have been the single that came immediately after Phelps left the game. Ground ball up the middle might have been a double play, but Matt Thornton reacted and knocked the ball down. Instead of getting through to Jeter, it was an infield single to load the bases. The triple that followed tied the game. “It’s reaction,” Girardi said. “But if you could think real quick, you’d say, ‘Matt Thornton, get out of the way.’ Then you’ve got a double play ball. It changes the complexion of the game. It changes who we use. It just changes everything. But it happens. It’s a reaction, it happens, and you want your pitchers to try to field balls, but that happened to be one that is the double play ball we’re looking for.”
Thornton on that play: “I know where Derek’s at in that situation. I know that we’re pinching up the middle there, but the ball gets hit hard back at you, that’s instinct. Love to look back and be able to jump out of the way of it, but that’s not how it works. … Anyone who’s been on the mound and had the ball hit back to them, you’re going to react to it. I reacted just slow enough to slap it, and not quick enough to get it. It changes the momentum of the game there big time.”
The Indians scored 5 more times in the 8th just to rub it in and what appeared to be a series win was lost.
Just like the Yanks lost their ace, and more than likely, the 2014 season.
We’ll keep watching, of course. There’s entertainment to be had, and this is our team, and we love baseball, so we ain’t going anywhere. Still, the Tanaka news was a Holly Hunter punch right between the eyes, wasn’t it?
Final Score: Indians 9, Yanks 3.
Did ya think the Yanks were going to lose last night? I did. But then, I’m not an Indians fan and I’m sure they felt like they were going to lose, too. But after yesterday’s injury news–some dire (Tanaka), some minor (Gardner), some freakish (Beltran)–my Yankee spirits were dampened.
The Yankee bullpen was terrific after Brandon McCarthy gave them a good start. Brendan Ryan turned in some beautiful plays at short. A pair of homers by Mark Teixeira kept them afloat and in the 14th inning Jacoby Ellsbury hit a solo home run that proved to be the game-winner. Ellsbury’s shot came on an 0-2 curve ball with 2 out.
Final Score: Yanks 5, Indians 4.
[Photo Credit: Stephanie Klavens]
So, Tanaka might be in a slump but hell, he’s still damn fun to watch. Even after he gave up the second home run. I think watching him struggle some makes me like him even more. As well as he pitched early on he’s never felt dominant, not giving up so many dingers. Last night, Swisher’s homer wasn’t a solo shot and it cost Tanaka. Didn’t help that after scoring 3 early runs the Yankee hitters went sueno.
Final Score: Indians 5, Yanks 3.
[Photo Credit: Jurgen Heckel]
The Yanks scored 5 runs off Justin Masterson in the first couple of innings last night then held things together for a 5-3 win. Dellin Betances pitched the final 2 innings in a steady rain to get the save but the story of the night was the nice start by Shane Greene. Making his big league debut, Greene featured a 95-mph fastball, sharp slider, as well as a change-up. He handled the Indians for the first few innings and worked out of a jam in the 6th. David Huff was pressed into duty to pitch the 7th as manager Joe Girardi wanted to rest the likes of Adam Warren, Shawn Kelley, and Matt Thornton.
Brett Gardner, Brian McCann and Ichiro! each had 3 hits. And Derek Jeter’s bit of misdirection helped turn a double play.
[Photo Credit: Nate Bittinger]
Apparently there was an early Score Truck sighting (a rare breed this season) as the team decided to do a few things done early today; of import to the game was scoring nine runs off of surprisingly happless starter Ricky Nolasco and his understudy in the first four innings with contributions from just about everyone in the lineup (except Beltran, who might want to reconsider surgery to remove those bone chips in his elbow at this point). Of note, the Captain got hit number 3,400 for his career with a single in the ninth; the eighth player in baseball history to do so. That’s rather significant when you stop to take that in. Hiroki Kuroda pitched into the sixth and gave up four runs; he was fairly cruising in the early innings when the Yanks were scoring, but he started getting pretty iffy near the end. The tired bullpen (which has been a source of mostly inspiration for the Yanks this season) gave up a few more runs to turn a laugher into a near picklement, but managed to hold off a disastrous wave of bad karma (that seems to be the notion of the weekend), with Tha Hamma saving it once again for a 9-7 win. If this continues, the Yanks might convince themselves they can make a run at the playoffs (uh-oh…) and make some moves to help them in their endeavor. Let’s not hold our breaths on that just yet, though clearing some current roster flotsam might be in order.
Among the other things the Yanks did early was trading a sort-of young lefty starter in Vidal Nuño (who’s pitching had grown old a whole lot quicker) for righthander Brandon McCarthy from the Arizona Diamondbacks. If the name strikes a bell, he’s the same pitcher who was on the almost tragic end of a line drive through the mound a few years ago with the Oakland A’s and has since bounced around a couple of places and was having as much luck with the Diamondbacks as Nuño was with the Yanks. What the Yanks hope McCarthy brings, besides a veteran presence (he’ll be 31 on Monday, helluva birthday present) is a consistent ability to miss bats, a low walk ratio and a high propensity for ground balls; something the 26-year old Nuño was sorely lacking in a hitter-friendly park (and will likely continue to haunt him in a new hitter-friendly park). Both pitchers were having a rough time to the tune of plus-5 ERAs, though with McCarthy it seemed more a product of a porous defense. He still has to deal with the same issue of pitching in a hitters park, but the defense will be somewhat more of a help (more often than not, you hope). McCarthy will take Chase Whitley’s spot in the rotation, with Whitley moving to the bullpen and Shane Greene for now taking Nuño’s spot.
The other early move, which had become as much of an unfortunate necessity as sending down Port Jervis a few days ago was, was to DFA Alphonso Soriano. Sori had become a virtual black hole in the lineup, and this was coming like a Pinto stuck on a train track with a diesel engine bearing down on it, but it’s sad considering the trade for him brought about some positivity in a frustrating season last year when he made an immediate impact with several key homers and extra base hits (he finished with 17 HR for the Yanks, 34 for the season with 101 RBI in total with nearly identical numbers in each league) and nearly helped push the team over the hump and into the playoffs. Also, as thelarmis noted, Sori needed 11 stolen bases in order to join the exclusive 300-300 club (300 HR/300 SB). Sori is said to be considering retirement at this point, so it’s likely he’ll never reach the door for that club. And all nostalgia aside, it was the right thing for the Yanks to do as they were getting practically nothing from him in any part of the lineup and looking very bad in the process. For all the complaining and such we’ve done about Jeter’s visible decline this season, the decline and fall of Soriano, who was also a perennial All-Star at one point in his career, has been far more pronounced from last season to this.
I think in the balance he will be fondly remembered mainly for his early career when he was a young phenom international free agent signing who played in Japan and spoke Japanese as fluently as he spoke his native Spanish, wore his socks up to his knees and swung the bat like he was trying to smack the opposing team clear out of the old Yankee Stadium in one fell swoop. One can only think of what may have happened if Cashman had not answered the phone that February ten years ago…
Boy you said a mouthful, RI.
I’ll skip all the gory details and just note that when Francisco Cervelli, filling in for Brian McCann who had a sore foot before the game, tossed the salad in the bottom of the eleventh with the bases loaded and the score tied at one, soccer suddenly became a really interesting sport. All things considered, the Yanks would probably do well to switch to MLS at this point, wouldn’t you agree?
If you still care to know (and I can’t possibly imagine why you wouldn’t), Yanks lost 2-1.
[photo credit: AP/Peter Dejong]
How do you spell relief?
The Yankees’ bullpen saved the day again after the offense plated 6 runs (Brian Roberts, 4 hits; Frankie Cervelli, 3 hits).
It was enough for a 6-5 win, their second in a row.
Hope everyone had a great holiday.
[Photo Via: This Isn’t Happiness]
Last night, Masahiro Tanaka gave up 4 runs for the first time this season and what happens? The Yanks win, anyway.
Carlos Beltran’s 3-run home run started it as the Bombers tagged their old pal Phil Hughes for 7 runs, enough to give them a 7-4 win.
The best part of the night was that Zelous Wheeler, called up in place of the struggling Port Jervis Solarte (Zelous for Yanjervis, that alone makes it memorable), got 2 hits in his first MLB game. The first hit–a homer. Wheeler is a squat guy–since the Yanks were in Minnie, a Kirby Puckett analogy came up–had reason to smile, and his teammates did too. Sometimes, a team will mess with a rookie when they get their first hit or home run, ignoring them for a moment when the kid returns to the dugout. The Yankees didn’t do that. They greeted Zelous’ grin with big smiles of their own as if to say, “We needed that.”
And they did.
[Photo Credit: Jim Mone]
Don’t write when you’re angry, don’t write when you’re angry, Rays 6, Yanks 3, awwwww, five-game losing streak, don’t write when you’re angry, don’t write when you’re angry.
We’ve seen this before, man. Decent starting pitching, good job from an overworked bullpen, little to no offense. The home run Brian Roberts hit in the 9th inning was good enough to send the game to extras but served only to prolong the inevitable as the Yanks lost, 4-3 to the Rays.
The Yankees offense has been horseshit, the injuries to the starting pitchers can’t be patched-up too much longer. How long can the bullpen hold themselves together?
Yeah, the rest of the league–both leagues, really–are in a similar boat and that gives us perspective. But since when is being a fan about being rational?
I don’t think the team is horseshit. I don’t get the feeling that they aren’t trying. Still, how about shaking things up? Time for Brian Cashman to give Girardi and Company some help.
Because I’m a teacher by trade, I can’t just sit idly by and allow my children to spend their summer galavanting in the cul-de-sac or staring mindlessly at a television screen for ten weeks. Sure, that was good enough for me, but like all parents everywhere, I want better for my children. Summer is a time for cultural enrichment, so this vacation we’re exploring one of the greatest stories ever told, the Star Wars saga.
We’ve watched three of the movies so far. I started them with Star Wars and Empire, but jumped back to Episode I and we’ll watch Episodes II and III next, saving Return of the Jedi for last. (My youngest daughter, Kate, wasn’t happy about this; she really can’t wait to find out what happens to Han Solo, who’s currently frozen in carbonite, but my son Henry loved the idea of meeting Darth Vader as a little boy and can’t wait to see him next as a teenager.)
I want my children to know the story of Luke and Obi-Wan and Vader not just because I grew up believing in Wookies and trying to turn my lights on and off by using the Force, but because few stories are so ingrained in American culture. When Red Sox president Larry Lucchino invoked Star Wars lore in response to New York’s signing of José Contreras in 2002, famously referring to the Yankees as the Evil Empire, it warmed my heart. Sure, there are lots of heroes on the Yankees — Derek Jeter as the obvious Skywalker figure, Don Zimmer as Yoda, perhaps even Joe Torre as Obi-Wan — but the Yankees are better when they’re villains.
Or perhaps, more accurately, they’re more villainous when they’re better. These Yankees? They’re more like Jar Jar Binks than Darth Vader, and never is that more apparent than when they’re matched against the Red Sox. Late Saturday afternoon, as Masahiro Tanaka (this season’s version of Boba Fett) was cruising through a dominant performance against the Sox, I felt victory was certain and imagined that I might be writing about a sweep on Sunday night.
It didn’t work out that way. The Red Sox scraped out a run in the second inning off of Yankee starter Chase Whitley when Mike Napoli, who makes like Babe Ruth when facing New York, led off with a double and scored two batters later on a Stephen Drew single. An inning later things got a bit uglier when David Ortíz (Jabba the Hutt) launched his 450th career home run (a three-run shot) almost 450 feet (actually, just 424) into the second level of the bleachers in right field.
Overcoming a four-nothing lead for these 2014 Yankees seems almost as daunting as successfully navigating an asteroid field. (The odds, as we all know, are 3,720 to 1.) But Jeter never wants to hear the odds, does he? He came up with two outs in the bottom of the third and Ichiro just ninety feet from home. He battled Boston starter John Lackey (remember the bartender from the Cantina on Tatooine?) for eleven pitches, finally rifling a single between first and second to plate the Yankees’ first run.
In the fourth inning Mark Teixeira hooked a solo homer around the right field foul pole, and two batters later Carlos Beltrán socked a no-doubter into the stands in right, and suddenly the Yankees were down by just one at 4-3.
And then came the fifth inning. Whitley walked Jackie Bradley, Jr., on four pitches, so Joe Girardi lifted him in favor of Shawn Kelley, who walked Brock Holt on four pitches. Kelley finally managed to throw a couple strikes to Daniel Nava, but he walked him anyway to load the bases with none out. Just when it was looking like the Rebel Base was in range, everything was about to explode.
Dustin Pedroia, the cutest little Ewok you’ve ever seen, singled to right to drive in two for a 6-3 Boston lead. After David Huff came in and got Ortíz to pop up to shallow left, it looked for a moment like he might be able to minimize the damage. With runners on first and third and a full count, Pedroia took off for second — but Huff had him picked off. But for the second time in a week, the Yankees botched the run down. They managed to get Pedroia (1-3-4), but they let Nava score in the process, and the Sox had a four-run lead at 7-3. Naturally, the next pitch was a ball, and Napoli walked, the fourth Boston batter to do so in the inning.
The top of the fifth ended without further incident, and the Yanks gamely fought back in the bottom half. Ichiro led off with a triple, then came home on a double by Brett Gardner, who eventually scored on a Jacoby Ellsbury ground ball. It was 7-5, but the Yankees would get no closer.
Boston plated another run in the top of the sixth. Huff started by walking rookie Mookie “The Wookie” Betts (if it seems like there were a lot of walks, you’re right; Yankee pitchers issued eight free passes) and then consecutive singles to Bradley and Holt to load the bases with none out. Girardi then came to the mound, and any lip reader could tell you that when he handed the ball to the new pitcher, he said, “Help me Dellin Betances, you’re our only hope.”
(A quick side note about ESPN’s coverage. Their field microphones are everywhere and bring fans closer to the game than ever before. On the one hand, I loved hearing Teixeira greeting Betts after his first career base hit: “Congratulations, rookie. Have a great career.” But when the bullpen phone rang during Holt’s at bat, the viewing audience clearly heard bullpen coach Roman Rodriguez tell Betances, “You got the next guy.” It seemed like too much information. Betances’s entry into the game wouldn’t have been a surprise even without this tip, but it still felt like ESPN had crossed the line.)
Girardi needed Betances to strike out the side if they had any shot at getting back into the game, and he quickly dispatched Nava on three pitches. But Pedroia followed that with a short sacrifice fly to right, and the Sox had that extra run and an 8-5 lead — and that was that.
It would be easy to give up on these Yankees. The free agents not named Masahiro have been vast disappointments, and they’re the only American League team over .500 with a negative run differential (and it’s very negative, -32; the Mariners, just for the sake of comparison, are +50).
But let’s not give up on them. Instead, let’s think about CC Sabathia, who should emerge from his carbonite encasement sometime after the All-Star break. No, he probably won’t ever be the old Sabathia, but he has to be better than the new Vidal Nuño. Beltrán and Brian McCann can’t hit .220 and .221 during the second half, can they? They certainly can’t get worse.
Through it all, the Yankees are still essentially in first place, tied with the Blue Jays and Orioles with 39 losses. There’s hope for this team. May the Force be with them.
[Photo Credit: Kathy Willens/AP Photo]
In the ninth inning of a classic duel with Jon Lester, Masahiro Tanaka needed one more strike to Mike Napoli to send the Yankees to the home half of the ninth in a 1-1 deadlock. After several innings of excellent pitch selection and execution, his fastball up and out over the plate snarfled the elephant. Napoli extended his arms and smacked the ball just over the wall in right to win the game 2-1.
Masahiro Tanaka takes you all the way. That’s a rare feature in a starting pitcher in 2014. He pitched a complete game gem tonight – like it fell right off the Ace Manufacturing Co. assembly line. But the Yankees lost because Jon Lester straight up beat him.
Tanaka, for all his brilliance, can’t keep the ball in the yard. Nobody’s on base when it happens, but it happens. When an opposing batter lofts a fly ball, it’s got about a 15% chance of clearing the fence. Egads, that’s awful. Perhaps it’s unsustainable and he’s going to find the number descend towards league norms, about 10%. Or maybe it’s Yankee stadium, where he’s allowed nine of his 13 homers.
Most of the time, a solo homer or two won’t beat him. Tonight it did. And though we don’t discuss pitcher wins too much, this game had the distinct feel of two pitchers locking horns while the lineups were just there for window dressing. Jon Lester got a much deserved win and on the other side of that, I think Tanaka’s loss is an accurate measure of this game. He blinked. He blew that pitch to Napoli seven ways to Sunday in a spot where he absolutely couldn’t let up a dong.
How about the ninth inning? Uehara, don’t sleep on this, is half-way through his second season in row where he makes Mariano Rivera’s best closing seasons look ordinary. The guy threw pitches to McCann and Beltran (the two players running neck-and-neck for most likely to cause a broken plasma screen this season) that seemed to turn to mist when they got into the hitting zone.
Great baseball game played by two mediocre teams with a retched ending.
***
Today was also the last day of the Little League season here in Inwood. The boys got trophies and pizza and sun screen rubbed in their eyes. I had a blast coaching, but I could have done a much better job. I’m happy that the kids improved batting and throwing, but I don’t think I adequately conveyed the beauty of the game nor the logic of the game over the past three months.
It’s my fault because I wasn’t prepared for the vast spectrum of prior knowledge my 15 players would to the season. Some of these crackerjacks were 6 going on 16 while others were 5 going on 5. Even today I had kids ask me where first base was.
On this the last day of the season, with the aforementioned trophies looming, my own kids made sure I knew that baseball was “boring” and that they “never want to play again.” (They also got pumped up to bat and run the bases and had fun and those words were mostly cruel forms of Saturday morning protest when they’d rather be playing Minecraft or whatever instead of putting on their overly complicated uniforms, but when 15 kids are baking in the sun waiting for a ball that never comes, I understand what they’re saying.)
A lot of the parents asked me if I’ll coach again next year and I couldn’t give them a straight answer. But I’m sure as hell looking forward to swimming class tomorrow where I sit far away from the side of the pool and just watch.
Man, oh, man, what a pleasant win for the Yanks.
Nuno pitched well–hell, everyone pitched well–and a couple of lefties finally got off the schneid, as Kelly Johnson and Brian McCann hit impressive home run.
[Photo Credit: Rob Kalmbach]
Warning: watch the highlights of this one at your own risk (and with soft gloves on). Bad Phelps showed up to get smacked by former Yankee farmhand Dioner Navarro (remember when he was the next coming of Jorge?) and then TheOldMan@short.com added a bedeviling touch when a ground ball was hit to him and… and… ah, forget it. The Captain can still do things mere mortals can’t, like make up for his apparent mental lapse by leading off the very next inning by pounding the ball over the wall in left. I have no idea what his expression was like after that; if he was sheepish in his turn of luck, if he was professional and drew a straight line across his face (as would be his default) or if he punched the air like he was beating a heavy bag over his head and screaming F@#$ Yeah! kinda like Kirk Gibson did that one time. I was stuck listening to the game on the radio as Ma & Pa and their latest sportswriter guest were carving up the turkey about the Yankees’ problems as a whole. And it’s not as though some of us (me-me-me!) weren’t having a heaping plate of WTF ourselves, but you Just. Get. Tired of hearing it over and over again, just as you get equally tired of watching the team fail with runners on or just play kick-the-can at the most inopportune moments. Bad luck only goes so far with a team with this much “experience” on the field.
At any rate, the Jays did try to pull a fast one on the Yanks by giving the game back to them when Dustin McGowan, relieving the main attraction Mark (High Wire) Buehrle in the seventh, put on an act of his own with music (borrowing a suggestion from our own Weeping for Brunnhilde) and frills and spills and hey how about that, tie game. Had me going for a minute, you naughty Jaybirds; you brought in a hard thrower who swooped in like a masked fire inspector and shut down the carnival. Then to top it off, because of the ringing in our ears from how loud that out was in the top of the ninth when the Yanks once again failed to score when the opportunity was there, and the fact that Dellin The Dancing Bear was already gone with two innings of work to hold you Jaybirds off for a while, Joe had to bring in Adam Warren to try and keep it going in the ninth. Only Jose Reyes said no, I’m getting on base and winning this sumbeach, smacking a double to right. Then guess who comes up to do due diligence and move him nicely to third but mu(beeeeeeeep!) Melky Cabrera with a sacrifice bunt to third, which Good Ol’ Charlie Brown Solarte picks up and–
**** Due to the graphic and sensitive nature of this commentary, this post has been truncated for the betterment of society as a whole. We now return you to your regularly scheduled morning letdown. ****
Port Jervis Solarte was 0-for-hislast-28 when he stepped to the plate in the 9th inning last night in Toronto. He’d hit the ball hard at times over the weekend but had nothing to show for it. On Sunday, there was a pained look on his face after every out. But last night he swung at the first pitch and hit a line drive to center field to drive in a run.
It was a nice moment. Reason I mention it is that it was practically the only nice moment in an 8-3 beat down.
[Photo Credit: TOM SZCZERBOWSKI/USA TODAY]
This picture of Goose Gossage–taken at an Old Timer’s Day a few years back–is about the nicest thing I can say about yesterday at the Stadium. Goose was honored with a plaque in Monument Park, the old guys–and some not-so old guys–trotted around for awhile and then the Yanks got smoked by the Orioles to the tune of 8-0. Masahiro Tanaka wasn’t great or terrible, allowing 3 runs over 7 innings. The offense was terrible, just as it’s been all weekend with the exception of the 9th inning on Friday night.
