Fo real? Say, whuut?

[Photo Credit: Todd Coleman]

“Interior of the Painter’s House, rue Carcel” By Paul Gauguin (1881)

Here’s some Mavis Staples goodness brought to you by Elon Green over at the New Yorker.

It’s rather warm out there. Rather.

[LIFE photo via: Well Plaid]

I’ll be interesting to see how Masahiro Tanaka handles the lead off hitter the next time he faces the Blue Jays. Jose Reyes hit a home run on the first pitch of the game last night and although Tanaka labored through the first three innings that would be the lone run for the Jays. Tanaka pitched six innings and struck out ten. On an off-night.

My favorite at bat was the second time Jose Bautista came up. He whiffed the first time and now, behind 1-1 he laid off 2 straight breaking pitches, not sure if they were sliders or splitters. They were good pitches, too, but it looked as if he finally got a good read on them. So what does Tanaka do but stay with the breaking stuff. Threw 2 more and struck Bautista out again.

Final Score: Yanks 3, Jays 1. 

[Photo Via: Let’s Eat]

The first place Blue Jays are in town for a 3-game series.

Tonight gives Tanaka and my gut tells me he’s gonna take a beatin’ tonight.

Hope I’m wrong.

Gardner LF

Jeter SS

Ellsbury CF

Teixeira 1B

McCann C

Beltran DH

Suzuki RF

Roberts 2B

Johnson 3B

Never mind the heat index:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Fred Stein]

“Pacific” by Alec Colville (1967)

Russ & Rye: Seriously.

Word up.

[Photo Credit: Terry O’Neill via Sunset Gun]

Cinephilia and Beyond has a good post on one of my favorite movies, Roman Polanski’s A Knife in the Water.

R.I.P. Tony Gwynn, gone too soon. He was 54.

Wow.

[Photo Via: 90 feet of perfection]

Food 52 shows us how to make Strawberry Compote without a recipe.

Painting by Kohshin Finley.

Yes, Yes, Y’all.

[Photo Via]

The Yanks got smoked yesterday afternoon in Oakland and last night the Spurs ran the Heat out of the gym to win the NBA title.

Thrilled for the Spurs, especially after how they lost last year.

[Photo Credit: Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images]

Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there.

It’s Nuno:

Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter SS
Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Brian McCann C
Carlos Beltran DH
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Yangervis Solarte 2B
Kelly Johnson 3B

Never mind the melon:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Via: The Power Game]

After winning games with Chase Whitley and David Phelps on the mound, Saturday night’s game with Hiroki Kuroda on the rubber arrived with more than promise. After getting those two unlikely wins, surely Kuroda would provide the win that would stretch the team’s winning streak to five and make the road trip excellent instead of just good.

It didn’t work out that way.

Scott Kazmir was working for the Athletics, and he quickly made it clear that he wouldn’t be giving up much on the evening. You remember Mr. Kazmir, the one-time super-prospect who fizzled and eventually found himself out of baseball. This year he’s finally become more pitcher than thrower, and he’s suddenly one of the best in baseball. If you missed him last night, you’ll surely be able to catch him in July at the All-Star game.

Kazmir set down the first eight Yankees without breaking a sweat, and with the A’s already up 2-0 thanks to the bespectacled Eric Sogard’s two-out, bases loaded single in the second, there was cause for concern even at that early juncture. But Kelly Johnson worked a walk with two outs in the third, and raced all the way around to third on Brett Gardner’s single up the middle. Derek Jeter followed that with a grounder deep into the hole at short. Andy Parrino made the play nicely enough, but he airmailed the throw over Brandon Moss’s head at first base, and Johnson was able to score to split the lead to 2-1.

Early in the game Ken Singleton and Bob Lorenz had noticed a bank of lights in left field that hadn’t turned on correctly, and they had jokingly wondered what might happen if they weren’t fixed and who the unlucky guy was who’d have to climb the tower into the lights. When the lights still weren’t on in the middle of the fourth, we found out. As the Yankees took the field for the bottom half of the inning, Oakland manager Bob Melvin met with the umpires and a stadium official in a scene normally seen before a rainstorm. But instead of peering into the clouds and waiting for raindrops, the group stared into the darkness above left field, looking for light.

Joe Girardi revealed afterwards that there was a moment when the game was about to be cancelled, but the man who climbed the tower was able to solve the problem and it turned out to be only a 38-minute delay before Kuroda returned to the mound and set down all three A’s without incident.

The bottom of the fifth, however, was different. Kuroda walked Sogard to start the inning, which is never a good thing, then allowed Coco Crisp to reach on a bunt single. Catcher John Jaso looked to bunt the runners over, but a passed ball on John Ryan Murphy moved them to second and third without the sacrifice. Jaso gave himself up anyway with a ground out to first, but he got an RBI out of it as Sogard scored and Crisp took third. Three pitches later Crisp scored on another passed ball. The A’s were up 4-1, and after giving up a single to Brandon Moss, Kuroda’s night was over.

The Athletics put together another run in the sixth when Parrino doubled to left to score Craig Gentry all the way from first, but that was just window dressing. The final score was 5-1, but that might as well have been 50-1. The Yankee bats, never impressive on this night, had been essentially silent since the blackout. Kelly Johnson had doubled to lead off the fifth, moved to third on a Gardner ground out, and been thrown out at home when Jeter grounded to first, but that was it for the Yankee offense. After that Johnson double, Oakland pitchers Kazmir, Dan Otero, and Sean Doolittle retired the next fifteen Yankee hitters, and there was nary a hard-hit ball over the course of those five innings. Lights out? Indeed.

Thankfully, a day game awaits.

[Photo Credit: Jason O. Watson/Getty Images]

Our man Hiroki.

Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter SS
Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Brian McCann C
Alfonso Soriano DH
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Yangervis Solarte 2B
Kelly Johnson 3B

Never mind the green n gold:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Via: Lomography]

Dig this stat. Since April 28, the Yankees are pitching to a 2.63 ERA on the road, best in the bigs. Contributing to that on Friday night in Oakland was David Phelps, who turned in a brilliant outing, throwing 6.2 scoreless innings and allowing just two hits and three walks while striking out four to earn the win as the Yankees pounded the A’s, 7-0.

On the offensive side, Derek Jeter continued his hot hitting with two more hits, making him 9 for 16 over his past four games, and Jacoby Ellsbury brushed off those hip issues and extended his hitting streak to 17 games. Eight different Yankees had base hits, six scored at least a run, and all six RBIs were spread across half a dozen players.

Here’s hoping for more of the same on Saturday night.

[Photo Credit: Ben Margot/AP Photo]

The A’s outclassed the Yanks when the two teams met in the Bronx a few weeks ago. Let’s see what the Yanks got for them this weekend in Oakland.

Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter SS
Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Brian McCann C
Carlos Beltran DH
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Brian Roberts 2B
Kelly Johnson 3B

Phelpsie is due for a good start.

Never mind the Boogie Man:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Picture by Derek Chatwood]