Yanks look to snap out of their funk beginning tonight with C.C.
Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Robinson Cano 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Eric Chavez DH
Curtis Granderson CF
Russell Martin C
Ichiro Suzuki LF
Casey McGehee 3B
Winning Ways–Start Here:
Never mind the summertime blues: Let’s Go Yank-ees!
[Photo Credit: Taylor Hain via Film is God]
Let’s flip the cliche around. When a team is successful we say “they just find a way to win.” And when they are slumping, I suppose, they find a way to lose, right?
Okay, so Miguel Cabrera hit a home run and a two-run double off of Phil Hughes, that’s to be expected. The Tigers led 4-2. But the fifth and sixth runs, both driven in by Andy Driks (two-out triple against Cody Eppley in the sixth, and then a two out single against Joba Chamberlain in the eighth), were fatal. Because the Yanks rallied against Jose The Long Goodbye Valverde, good enough to close the Tigers lead to one. Russell Martin’s double in the top of the ninth with runners on the corners made it 6-5 but the ball was hit so hard that Ichiro, running from first base, didn’t have a chance to score.
Curtis Granderson, hitless in the first two games of this series, popped up a high fastball for the final out.
“Oh, that’s so painful,” my wife said. “I feel so bad for Curtis.”
“Fuck Curtis,” I said. Meaning, who cares about the player? Don’t be mad or sad for them, be mad for us. The fans who suffer most.
The Orioles won again, this time in 14 innings and now trail by four-and-a-half games (The O’s have won 12 straight extra inning games).
“There should be a high level of concern,” Eric Chavez said according to Chad Jennings. “Anybody who says that there isn’t is lying. You’ve just got to win ballgames, and we’re not finding a way to do that, and it should be a concern. It’s that time of the year when, yeah, it’s a concern. We need to start playing good and winning games.”
You wonder what will snap the Yanks out of this funk. Something surely will. Let’s just hope it happens soon…
And don’t call me Shirley.
[Photo Credit: Dana Oliver]
Yanks look to not suck tonight with Phil Hughes on the mound.
Curtis Granderson CF
Derek Jeter SS
Robinson Cano 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Eric Chavez 3B
Nick Swisher RF
Raul Ibanez DH
Ichiro Suzuki LF
Russell Martin C
Never mind the bollocks: Let’s Go Yank-ees!
[Photo Via: Mortality]
No shame in getting smoked by Justin Verlander, now is there?
Nova had nothing. Yanks lose, 7-2.
[Photo Credit: Opcion]
Yanks in the Motor City for four games against the Tigers.
Tonight gives Verlander.
Curtis Granderson CF
Derek Jeter SS
Robinson Cano 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Raul Ibanez LF
Nick Swisher RF
Eric Chavez 3B
Ichiro Suzuki DH
Russell Martin C
Time for Nova to shine.
Never mind the gun smoke: Let’s Go Yank-ees!
[Robert Motherwell via Just Another Masterpiece]
The Killer B’s, they ain’t doin’ nuthin’. Andrew Marchand has the story.
Remember Steve Trachsel? He wasn’t just deliberate when he pitched, he was obstinant like a fuggin mule. Trachsel worked so slowly and on broiling hot summer days like today he managed to piss off just about everyone in the park: his teammates in the field, the opposition, the fans in the stands (and at home), the home announcers.
Throw the damn ball, you just wanted to yell, and often did.
I thought of ol’ Trachsel this afternoon as Freddy Garcia and Hisashi Iwakuma performed the great Snail-Off-Schivtz-a-thon at the Stadium. Okay, Garcia wasn’t quite as soporific but he wasn’t crisp either and didn’t last past five innings. The result was good for napping, perhaps the cure for ansomnia, and little else.
The relievers worked at a quicker pace for which we were all grateful. The good news in all of this was that nobody passed out from heat exhaustion. Better still, the Yanks came away with a 6-2 win.
Hey, they don’t all have to be pretty. The “W” is reward enough.
Ice Cream Sandwiches for everyone.
[Photo Credit: Dessertsforbreakfast]
The Yanks look to take the weekend series against the Mariners this afternoon in the Bronx.
It’s overcast and supposed to rain. Still hot and sticky.
Course there’s no shame losing to Felix Hernandez, especially not when he’s dealing like he was yesterday. But that’s over and done with and the Yanks are in the business of beating inferior teams, even ones that are playing well.
They turn to Fab Five Freddy and hope to score a truck load of runs themselves.
So, never mind the forecast: Let’s Go Yank-ees!
[Photo Credit: Clarissa Bonet]
Here are some excellent things:
Here’s another: King Felix Hernandez.
The Mariners’ ace was dominant at the Stadium this afternoon. Beautiful. Like the old days with Pedro. He out-pitched Hiroki Kuroda–who was excellent–and had Yankee hitters…
…looking this so:
He gave up a couple of hits, walked two, stuck out six and threw 101 pitches.
Game was over in two-and-a-half hours.
Final Score: Mariners 1, Yanks 0.
Consider out hats tipped.
[Images Via: Dave Whitley; Dope Magnitude; A Spoon Full of Sugar; Bron Stadheim; Beach Riot; Fashion Squad; Hel Des; Milica Balubdzic; Elliot Erwitt; Norman Seeff; Meth-Lord; Dan Pickard; Walter Looss Jr.; Koto Bolofo; Lovely Derriere; Uma Cor; Edmondo; observando; Sam Jeibmann; Gene Blevins; Gruesome Twosome]
Hiroki vs. King Felix today at the Stadium.
Better of inside if you ask me.
1. Curtis Granderson CF
2. Derek Jeter SS
3. Robinson Cano 2B
4. Mark Teixeira 1B
5. Raul Ibanez DH
6. Nick Swisher RF
8. Ichiro Suzuki LF
9. Russell Martin C
Never mind the Heat Index: Let’s Go Yank-ees!
[Photo Credit: ttttarantula]
C.C. Sabathia dominated the Mariner hitters last night for stretches at a time. He gave up a solo home run and the Yanks only led 2-1 but it seemed like it was 10-1. But there’s the rub in baseball, right? A masterpiece can turn into a flop in no time at all. And Kevin Millwood pitched a good veteran game, mixing speeds. You know if you like pitching, it was hard not to appreciate watching Millwood.
C.C. gave up a long two-run home run in the ninth inning but by that point the Yanks had given him four more runs (including two on a ball by Eric Chavez, using Andruw Jones’ bat, that bounced off the top of the right field wall).
Rafael Soriano was in the bullpen ready to replace Sabathia. After the home run Joe Girardi walked to the mound, eyes wide open and he looked at his pitcher, shouted a few words and then returned to the dugout. C.C. got the last three outs, had his complete game, as the Yanks won, 6-3.
[Photo Credit: Anton Dorokhov]
This never happens–I don’t recall the last time it did–but I played hooky on the Banter today. Wasn’t be design, I just had to be up and out of the house mad early and just returned now. I thought about it a few times while I was tooling around Manhattan cause it’s not like me to leave the Banter unattended. But I tried to give myself a break and not feeling guilty. Summer Friday is all, right?
Anyhow, all is well, although hotter n hot here in the Bronx as the Yanks face the Mariners at the Stadium.
Yanks need C.C. to get on a roll here.
1. Granderson CF
2. Jeter SS
3. Cano 2B
4. Teixeira 1B
5. Ibanez DH
6. Swisher RF
7. Chavez 3B
8. Suzuki LF
9. Martin C
Never mind the temperature: Let’s Go Yank-ees!
[Photo Credit: DeShaun A. Craddock]
An open thread on the anniversary of Thurman Munson’s death.
Image and link from It’s a Long Season.
Photo: AP
Ichiro Suzuki has been a Yankee for only nine games, but the future Hall of Famer is already approaching a franchise record. With a safety in every ballgame since joining the team, Suzuki is one series away from matching the longest hitting streak by a player beginning his pinstriped career.
Longest Hitting Streaks to Begin Yankee Career, Since 1918
Source: baseball-reference.com
OK, fine, not all hitting streaks are created equal. Even though Ichiro has matched Nick Swisher’s nine straight games, his OPS during that span has been but a fraction. Whereas Swisher pounded out 13 hits and four homers, while driving in 11 runs, by comparison, Ichiro has managed only one hit per game, including seven singles and no walks. As a result, the outfielder has posted a paltry OPS of .631, which is actually lower than his season rate of 0.641. Although hitting streaks tend to be noteworthy regardless of the underlying production, Ichiro’s string of nine straight games has disguised some of the early disappointment regarding his initial offensive contribution.
If Ichiro extends his “one-a-day” hitting streak to 10, he’ll not only inch closer to Don Slaught’s record of 12 straight games with a hit to begin a Yankee career, but also tie five others for the longest string of one-hit games in franchise history. The most recent player to accomplish the task was Steve Sax in 1990, but the most productive vitamin-style streak was turned in by Hall of Famer Joe Gordon, who made the most of his 10 hits by knocking in 11 runs to go along with an OPS of 1.075.
Longest One-A-Day Hitting Streaks in Yankees’ History, Since 1918
Source: baseball-reference.com
Should Ichiro surpass the quintet of Yankees’ one-hit masters, he can then set his sights on Ted Sizemore, who recorded exactly one safety in 16 straight games in June 1975 while playing for the St. Louis Cardinals. Over that span, the middle infielder compiled an OPS of 0.621, which although far from impressive, represented an improvement over the 0.597 rate that he posted for the entire season. As evidenced by the chart below, the list of players with the longest one-a-day hitting streaks doesn’t read like a “Who’s Who”, so, even if it means a hitless game, Ichiro might be better off not joining it.
Longest One-A-Day Hitting Streaks in MLB History, Since 1918
Source: baseball-reference.com
When the Yankees acquired Ichiro Suzuki, there was some hope that the 38-year old would be re-energized by the trade and turn back the clock for a month or two. Although history suggests that’s not likely, there’s still time for Ichiro to fulfill that expectation. However, in order to do so, he’ll need more than one hit per game. Then again, vitamins are often taken to restore youth, so maybe there’s a method to Ichiro’s one-a-day streak?
The Score Truck showed up today, made deliveries early n often capped by a grand slam from Robinson Cano.
Yanks in a blowout, 12-3. The only blip was a rough return for Joba Chamberlin but I’m not complaining.
[Photo Credit: Mark Cappelletti]
Phil Hughes looks to stop the bleeding this afternoon. Supposed to get thunderstorms.
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Nick Swisher DH
Robinson Cano 2B
Andruw Jones RF
Russell Martin C
Casey McGehee 1B
Ichiro Suzuki LF
Jayson Nix 3B
Ichiro makes his first start in left. Never mind that shit: Here Comes Mongo and Let’s Go Yank-ees!
[Photo Via Wall Done Magazine]
I got one word for this game: Horseshit.
Nova was horseshit, the hitters, after the first inning when they got a couple of horseshit hits which led to what turned into some horseshit runs, were horseshit. Crowd was horseshit. Skreech and Snuffleupagus in the YES booth were horseshit. Hell, I was a steaming pile of horseshit watching at home and that’s before my cousin the Mets fan called and I was horseshit enough to complain to him.
The final was Baltimore 11, New York 5. I’d recap it for you but I’m too horseshit to do it much justice (not that it deserves any).
I’ll leave you with this from Kevin Kerrane’s wonderful Dollar Sign on the Muscle:
Any baseball talent, body, body-part, effort, action, player, team, city, or scouting assignment can be horseshit. The term covers everything but the world of words–the world of stories, explanations, and scouting reports–at which point bullshit takes over.
A real sentence spoken by a scout discussing a former colleague: “His written report was all bullshit, and that’s when I knew he was a horseshit guy.”
Bullshit can be a verb; horseshit can’t. (A sentence like “Don’t horseshit me would make no more sense to a scout than to a nonscout.) Novices sometimes elide the word into horshit, but the veterans get that first S down deep in the throat, with the tongue at the back of the palate, lots of air whistling past the lower teeth, and then they follow through for full emphasis. horsse-shit!
The word is popular throughout baseball–with players, managers, umpires, and executives.
You won’t have Chad Qualls to kick around anymore. Yanks get a back-up third baseman. Looks like Joba will be activated tonight as well.
Derek Jeter DH
Curtis Granderson CF
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher 1B
Raul Ibanez LF
Eric Chavez 3B
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Russell Martin C
Ramiro Pena SS
Never mind the slump, never mind the damn losing: Let’s Go Yank-ees!
[Photo Credit: Bravo_Zulu]
Ah, man, this is getting to be all too familiar.
One run game, another fuggin loss.
I got back to the Bronx this afternoon after spending the last week with family. It was a week of missing out on Yankee baseball, save some highlights and bits and pieces of the games against the Red Sox last weekend.
So I unpacked and settled in for the game tonight, watched a couple of innings when a call from an old friend pulled me away from the action. The Yanks were down 3-2 when I left and losing 5-3 when I returned, just in time to see Ichiro hit his first home run in pinstripes.
The wife was happy. I took one look at the score–5-4 Yanks trailing–and my joy was tempered. Even more so when I saw the replay of Mark Teixeira diving after a base hit and falling hard on his glove hand. The play was bad enough for Tex to leave the game. Never a good sign and we’ll hold our collective breath for the details on his injury.
Robinson Cano picked the wrong time to go into a slump and not only did he have poor at bats tonight but he botched the tail end of two sure-fire double plays (fortunately, neither led to a run).
In the ninth, Nick Swisher led off with a double and was replaced by Ramiro Pena. Raul Ibanez, who homered in the fifth, followed and whiffed on a 2-2 change up in the dirt. Eric Chavez, who also homered earlier–a long, whiffle ball-wet-dream-of a homer–walked which brought Ichiro to the plate:
Fastball low for a ball. Sinker, soft ground ball to short. They go to second for the out, no chance to double up Ichi at first. So, first and third, two out and Russell Martin stepped in as a pinch-hitter:
Breaking ball, 81 mph, called strike. Fastball, 95 mph, low, 1-1. Another breaking ball, Martin took a late, feeble hack, swung right over it, 1-2. Fastball outside, Ichiro takes second. I’m sitting at home thinking there is no way Martin gets a hit. No way…And I was right as he swung over a sinker.
The Yankees have lost eight times in their last eleven games. As we mentioned earlier, they’ve all been close games, these losses, but at some pernt that doesn’t mean Jack Boil Scratch. Their lead over Baltimore is down to six-and-a-half.
Fuggin’ Frustrating.
[Photo Credit: Bruce Stanfield; Jim McIsaac/Getty Images]
The Yanks have lost seven of their past ten games but they’ve been losing by this much. Interesting test for them this week as they host the Orioles (and then the Mariners over the weekend). It’s Freddy-Nova-Hughes against Baltimore.
Man, be nice to get a Score Truck sighting, huh?
Also hoping that Ichiro has a breakout game, too.
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher DH
Raul Ibanez LF
Eric Chavez 3B
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Never mind the bellyachin’: Let’s Go Yank-ees!
[Photo Via: I Started History]
