I watched the entire game yesterday. Bob Dylan’s voice kept repeating in my head, “It’s a hard, it’s a hard...” Just about everything was hard yesterday, for both teams, but especially for the Yanks who scored just one run (in the first inning). I’m a just try and fergit it and hope for better things today.
The heat has returned. Gunna be a scorcher today and tomorrow.
Keep cool and Let’s Go Yan-Kees!
[Picture by Bags]
The Young Perfessor Steve Goldman examines the Yankees’ offense:
Can we call what the Yankees are going through right now, with the Yankees pushing past four runs just once in the last seven games a slump? Sure we can, because it has gone on a lot longer than that. After hitting .286/.367/.452 in April and May and scoring an average of 5.7 runs per game, they dropped off to .245/.333/.401 and 4.8 runs per game in June. It wasn’t just the Mariners or the six games played without the designated hitter in NL parks. The Yankees didn’t hit much in the first half of the month, then slid off as the days went on.
You can pick a half-dozen culprits. Brett Gardner (.383/.472/.533) and Robinson Cano (.333/.398/.510) had good months. Mark Teixeira was about average for an AL first baseman, which isn’t saying much this year. Everyone else was different flavors of slumpy. Curtis Granderson and Alex Rodriguez hit some home runs but had on-base percentages around .300. Derek Jeter hit .243/.339/.379, which isn’t terrible only because the average MLB shortstop is hitting only .264/.321/.371. The worst slumps took place in the DH/catching axis. Francisco Cervelli’s good luck on balls in play ran out and he hit .180/.275/.246 on the month. Jorge Posada was better because he was willing to walk but hit only .203/.337/.351.
The question here is, who can you expect to get better? Teixeira should continue to heat up. A-Rod was great in May (.330/.408/.534) and seems to be waking up again. Curtis Granderson might find some consistency if the Yankees would just stop asking him to do things he’s incapable of doing, but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards right now, so don’t expect much more. Jeter has been roughly consistent at his current level since the end of April, and at 36 he might not find his way back to the light. Posada is 38; the same thing goes for him. Nick Swisher has changed his style, so while we can note that so far he’s had one major hot streak bookended by two very mediocre months, we can’t know where the ride is going to stop. Cano might maintain something like consistency; Gardner is going to get worse.
There was one positive that came out of Friday afternoon’s game: A.J. Burnett pitched well. It’s impossible not to credit pitching coach Dave Eiland for that. Eiland had been away for most of the last month due to an undisclosed family issue, and Burnett went 0-5 with a 11.35 ERA in five starts without his pitching coach around. Eiland got back on Tuesday, talked some “Arkansas talk” to the righty from North Little Rock, and got him to fix the sloppy mechanics that had derailed his season by making sure all of his energy was directed toward the plate.
Burnett looked sharp in the first inning, working around a two-out single, throwing all but two of his 13 pitches for strikes and striking out Alex Gonzalez and Vernon Wells on a total of seven pitches. The Yankees then scored a run in the bottom of the first without the benefit of a hit (two walks followed by two productive outs). With that, the Yankee bats said, “there’s your run,” and Burnett made it stand up into the seventh, frequently working out of small jams by making the sort of in-game corrections he had seemed incapable of during Eiland’s absence.
Burnett got some help. Curtis Granderson made a running catch, going back and leaping over the lip of the warning track to reel in a one-out drive by Lyle Overbay in the fourth, Burnett’s only 1-2-3 inning. Damaso Marte got the final out of the seventh for Burnett, and Brett Gardner one-upped Granderson with a leaping catch at the wall on a shot to lefty by Gonzalez off Joba Chamberlain to start the eighth.
Then it all went wrong. Joba walked Jose Bautista on five pitches and, with two outs, gave up back-to-back singles that tied the game. Mariano Rivera worked around a single in the ninth and David Robertson worked around a two-out walk in the tenth, but the Jays broke the game wide open against Robertson in the 11th.
Overbay and John Buck led off with singles. Jarrett Hoffpauir bunted the runners up to second and third. Joe Girardi had Robertson intentionally walk lefty Fred Lewis to face the righty Gonzalez, and Gonzalez responded by singling home the go-ahead run.
With the bases still loaded and just one man out (via Hoffpauir’s sacrifice), Girardi called on Chan Ho Park. Park used up seven pitches on each of his first two batters. The first, Bautista, struck out looking on a sinker just below the knee and got run for arguing the call. The second, Wells, worked a walk to force in an insurance run. That brought up Dewayne Wise, who had pinch-run for Adam Lind in the eighth. Park fell behind Wise 2-1 after which Wise creamed one into the right-field gap for a back-breaking, bases-loaded triple. Kevin Gregg set the Yankees four, five, and six hitters down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning, and the Blue Jays won 6-1.
Blame the bullpen, they deserve it, but where was the offense in this game? The Yankees had two on and none out in the first and eked out just one hit-less run. In the third they had the bases loaded with none out and got nothing as Toronto starter Brett Cecil struck out Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano before getting Jorge Posada to ground out. Francisco Cervelli singled in the second and fourth but was stranded both times, then in the sixth, with two on and none out, he hit into rally-killing double play (after which Brett Gardner popped out with a man on third to end the inning).
Then the Blue Jays bullpen came on and the Yankees managed just one more baserunner in the final five innings, a one-out single by Nick Swisher in the seventh that was erased when Mark Teixeira lined out-to Overbay, who doubled off Swisher for an inning-ending double play.
Don’t expect things to improve against Ricky Romero tomorrow, or against emerging Yankee-killer Brandon Morrow on Sunday. The Yankee offense is slumping in part because they’re facing some very good pitchers (even Cecil was 7-2 with a 3.22 ERA before a recent three-start skid), but Romero (a lefty with a 2.83 ERA, 8.3 K/9) and Morrow (2.20 ERA in his last seven starts, 10.0 K/9 on the season) are pretty darn good as well.
Incidentally, after the game, Kim Jones asked Girardi if he thought about having Cervelli bunt before he hit into that sixth-inning double-play. Girardi’s answer was impressively thorough:
That’s a legitimate question. You have a slow runner at second [Posada]. You have a lefty on the mound. He’s falling off toward third base. It’s gotta be a perfect bunt. Cervy’s got two hits off of this guy. Lefties are hitting .180 [off Cecil (actually .178 heading into the game)], there’s a lefty behind [on deck: Gardner]. The wind’s blowing in. Sac fly’s gonna be difficult.
We’ve seen this before. Last year, the Blue Jays shot out of the gate, were 27-14 (.659) on May 18, but went just 48-73 (.397) the rest of the way. This year, the Jays were 25-17 (.595) on May 19 and have gone 15-23 (.395) since. Of course, they took two of three from the Yankees in Toronto during the latter stretch, but that’s because the one thing the Jays still have going for them are some strong starting pitchers.
Tell me if this sounds familiar: the Jays have scored just three runs per game since June 1, but lefties Brett Cecil and Ricky Romero and righty Brandon Morrow, the same three pitchers who will face the Yankees this weekend in the Bronx, held the Yankees to a total of four runs in 23 combined innings in that previous series. Cecil, who faces A.J. Burnett tonight, has struggled in his last three starts (0-3, 9.19 ERA), but the other two, who face Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes over the weekend, have remained sharp.
Of course, the focus today will be how A.J. Burnett responds to the early-week return of pitching coach Dave Eiland. Not that Eiland had any magical fix. Here’s what he had to say upon returning to the team on Tuesday:
For me to sit here and say the reason that A.J. pitched the way he pitched was I wasn’t here is not fair. A.J. has been pitching a long time. He knows what he needs to do. It’s nothing that A.J. and I haven’t addressed and discussed already. Every pitcher you have to stay on about certain things, and with A.J. there are a couple of things. They’re very minor things that are going to make a huge difference. But A.J. has to do it. He’s been told over and over in the past what they are.
It seems Burnett’s main problem was opening up his left side to early. Said Eiland Thursday after working with Burnett in the bullpen, “It’s not like I gave him anything new today. Mike Harkey was telling him the same thing.”
There’s a certain element there of not wanting to throw Harkey under the bus for failing to get Burnett straightened out, but there’s also a lot of exasperation in those Eiland quotes.
Normally you’d feel good going up against a pitcher like Cecil who has been 0-3 with a 9.19 ERA in his last three starts, but Burnett has gone 0-3 with a 16.55 ERA in his last three starts and was 0-5 with a 11.35 ERA in June. The big question heading into tonight’s game is which one of these guys is going to snap out of their funk. The upside might be that, if the answer is neither, you have to like the Yankees’ chances of winning a slugfest in their own park.
I lived in Los Angeles for a little over four months when I was working for the Coen brothers on The Big Lebowski. An old college pal was good enough to let me crash on his couch in Santa Monica. We spent many weekends down at another college friend’s crib in Venice, hanging out on the balcony, checking out the scene on the boardwalk by the beach.
A record by a group named Sublime was on heavy-rotation at the time. It wasn’t the kind of record I usually go for, or even have the opportunity to hear for that matter, but there was something catchy about their pop, surfer sound, and it seemed entirely fitting to that time and place. So the record is forever linked to my memories of L.A. and the beach. I never did buy it–though later found out that my wife (who has some of the most finicky musical tastes of anyone I’ve ever met) loves it.
Here’s one of the tunes that brings me back to the beach with a smile:
Orel Hershiser is fast becoming one of the most astute analysts on network television. In bringing some actual analysis to ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball booth, Hershiser consistently exhibits an ability to fairly and clearly assess whatever team happens to be playing that night.
In working last Sunday’s game with the Dodgers, Hershiser pointedly discussed the Yankees’ needs as they approach the July 31st trading deadline. He pinned the tail correctly, as he listed the bullpen and the bench as the two areas the Yankees should target in trying to strengthen themselves for the final two months of the season. That runs counter to all of the columnist and beat writers who have suggested the Yankees make a priority of adding Cliff Lee to their rotation. But the acquisition of Lee would not address a weakness for the Yankees. Outside of alternating slumps by Javier Vazquez and A.J. Burnett, the Yankee rotation has been firm and formidable. There are also competent reinforcements at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre, where prospects Ivan Nova and Zack McAllister have pitched reasonably well and remain legitimate second-half options.
Additionally, the asking price for Lee figures to be high. The Mariners will almost certainly ask for Jesus Montero and possibly one other prospect in any deal for their left-handed ace. Given Lee’s age (31) and impending free agent status, Montero should stay off limits to Seattle and everyone else. Finding a solid reliever and/or a good platoon player figures to come at a far less substantial cost than a top-flight left-hander like Lee.
As Hershiser suggests, the bullpen and bench are more pressing needs for New York. With Joba Chamberlain mired in his enigmatic quagmire, and Chan Ho Park and Boone Logan continuing to occupy roster spots that they do not deserve, an effective late-inning reliever becomes a near necessity. Power-armed Mike MacDougal is now available after opting out of his minor league contract with the Nationals. On the trade front, Octavio Dotel, now with the Pirates, might be worth pursuing for a second stint in the Bronx. Or perhaps Arizona’s Chad Qualls, who has been good in recent years before falling off a cliff in 2010, would benefit from escaping the Diamondbacks’ bubonic bullpen plague.
In terms of bench concersn, the Yankees always seem to have someone facing a nagging day-to-day injury, with Brett “The Jet” Gardner the latest victim. So whom should the Yankees target for depth on the bench? The bargain basement shelf includes corner infielder Chad Tracy, recently released by the Cubs. On the trade market, Washington’s hard-hitting Josh Willingham could be an option at DH and a platoon partner for Curtis Granderson (with Brett Gardner moving over to center field). Baltimore’s Ty Wigginton would be an ever better fit. He could DH against lefties, spot Alex Rodriguez at third base on days when he needs to DH, and back up both Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira on the right side of the infield.
Man, has it ever been gorgeous in the Big Apple the past few days. It is bright and sunny again this morning. Gunna get back to real summer over the weekend but for now, it’s just a delight.
Light morning here at the Banter, and another 1 pm start for the men in pinstripes today.
Here’s hoping everyone has a safe and happy holiday.
[Picture by Bags]
At 10:00 PM, it is now almost three hours after my children typically fall asleep. As I tiptoed out of their room for the sixth time tonight a few minutes ago, having been slyly manipulated by the two-year-old and head-butted and throttled into submission by the one-year-old, I found my skull pounding all over except for this void in the front-center of my brain, from whence everything important I once knew was surely flooding into the abyss.
These kids have worn me down to nothing but a steaming pile of nerves. If the Yankees were slogging their way through nine innings of not-hitting Ryan Rowland-Smith right now, I would probably be standing in a pile of broken electronic equipment. But they already did that today, and thanks to CC, Mo, and Arod, they won, 4-2, so they are the least of my troubles.
For seven innings, the game sped along without much offense to gum up the works. The Yankees threatened a big first inning when Jeter sharply singled off Hyphen’s foot and Swisher whacked one in the left center gap. I actually thought a blowout was in the offing. But weak results from Teixiera and Rodriguez and a nifty over-the-shoulder catch from Josh Wilson at SS robbing Robbie of a ribbie limited the Yanks to one measly run.
From there, nothing much happened except an un-rob-able bomb from Cano in the fourth. Even though the Mariners have a weak offense, their recent binge on Yankee pitching coupled with a slumping Yankee lineup placed a lot of weight on CC’s big shoulders. He responded marvelously. He allowed two corking rips to Milton Bradley, but avoided any trouble apart from one tough spot in the second. With Bradley on third and one out, CC really bore down to keep Josh Wilson from tying the game. After seven pitches, including a great change-up which Wilson spoiled with an emergency hack, CC got the harmless pop out and preserved the lead.
It stood 2-0 in the eighth when CC walked the leadoff man on four pitches. Not a good sign, but I also didn’t want to see Joba Chamberlain in that spot, so really not much to do but watch and wait. CC couldn’t get a glove on Ichiro’s grounder through the box, but he still had a good shot to get out of it as he faced Branyan with runners on first and second and two outs. Then Posada gagged a ball to the backstop which turned Branyan’s subsequent single into a game-tying basehit.
Strangely, I felt supremely confident in the heart of the Yankees order headed to the bottom of the eighth. Perhaps it is because I own Aardsma in fantasy baseball and know how much he blows. When Arod muscled a short homer over the right field wall, I realized I never really even had time to get mad at the guys for coughing up the lead. And then when Mariano was shaking hands after his 13-pitch ninth inning cakewalk, it was a good day. The video of the last strikeout of Josh Wilson should be put in a time capsule – the cutter moving off the outside edge toward infinity; Wilson’s bat pointlessly waving in the other direction.
Sabathia was the stopper they needed him to be, and Arod came up big on demand as well. Good day at the ball park. Bad night for bed time (and recaps).
No shame in getting shut down by the likes of Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez. Now, it’s time for CC Sabathia to make like Obelix and return the favor.
Let’s Go Yan-Kees!
Okay, you want something healthy? Dig this tasty-looking tomato, mozzarella and farro salad from food52. Food goddess Jennifer Hess (who writes the devastatingly delicious site, Last Night’s Dinner) gave it a try and liked it muchly.
Over at New York Magazine, a guy named Harry Hanrahan put together a list of the 100 greatest movie insults of all time. He would have been wiser to just call it 100 great movie insults because his choice of movies shows an extremely limited range (only one Groucho line and no W.C. Fields or Mae West).
Still, it’s a smile, with lots of cherce cursing.
Enjoy:
Cliff Lee was good on Tuesday night, limiting the Yankees to a pair of Nick Swisher solo home runs and two meaningless ninth-inning tallies on his way to a complete game victory. Felix Hernandez was great Wednesday night, limiting the Yankees to a trio of walks and just two hits, one of which was a pop-up to second that Chone Figgins lost in the gloaming and Colin Curtis hustled into a double, on his way to an 11-strikeout complete game shutout. Lee and Hernandez thus became the first two pitchers to throw back-to-back complete games against the Yankees since 2000 and Hernandez became the first visiting pitcher to shutout the Yankees at the new stadium.
Meanwhile, the Mariners scored seven runs against the Yankees in each of the last two contest. Phil Hughes, who was not only pitching on nine-days’ rest but also fighting off a cold, gave up all seven on Tuesday. Last night, Javier Vazquez turned in a bare-minimum quality start (6 IP, 3 R), striking out eight but using up 113 pitches in the process, then the bullpen coughed up four more Mariner runs in the final three frames. All but one of those Seattle runs came on home runs. Milton Bradley hit a solo shot of Vazquez in the second. Michael Saunders had a pair, a solo of Vazquez in the third and a two-run jack off Chad Gaudin in the eighth. Lefty-swinging Russell Branyan, just reacquired before this series to give the Seattle lineup some thump, did his part with a two-run shot off Damaso Marte in the seventh. The other Mariner run came with two outs in the third when Vazquez hit Branyan with an 0-1 pitch, Bradley reached on an infield single, and Jose Lopez singled Branyan home from second.
The lone legitimate Yankee hit was a double down the left field line by Mark Teixeira to lead off the fourth. He never got to third base as Hernandez retired 17 of the next 18 men (the exception being Curtis’s dropped pop-up) until Ramiro Peña, who entered the game with the subs in the top of the ninth, walked with one out in the bottom of the ninth and Hernandez up past 100 pitches.
Amazingly, this was just the second time all season that Lee and Hernandez registered back-to-back wins, though the first time was just two turns ago. In their last six combined starts, Lee and Hernandez have gone 5-0 with five complete games. In the sixth game, Hernandez allowed just one run in nine innings, but the Mariners lost in 13.
Facing Cliff Lee wasn’t much fun for anyone other than Nick Swisher last night. Facing Felix Hernandez doesn’t seem likely to be much more pleasant. In his last three starts, King Felix has posted this line:
26 2/3 IP*, 14 H, 5 R, 3 BB, 26 K, 1 HR, 1.69 ERA, 0.64 WHIP, 8.67 K/BB
*That’s one out shy of three complete games, in case you didn’t notice, but only one of those starts turned into a complete game as the Mariners lost his last 3-2 in 13 innings.
Four starts ago, Felix got lit up by the red-hot Rangers, but his two starts before that both saw him go eight innings and allow just one run (with 16 total Ks), and in his last nine starts he’s posted a 2.62 ERA and allowed just three home runs. Of course, the Mariners have gone 3-6 in those nine games thanks to either poor bullpen support, poor run support, or both.
Javier Vazquez wasn’t sharp his last time out against his old team in Arizona, but in his four starts prior to that he posted a 2.25 ERA and 0.79 WHIP, lasting exactly seven innings each time out, his only loss coming when the Yankee bats got shutout by Hisanori Takahashi and company. Dating back to May 12, he’s 5-3 with a 3.12 ERA, and 0.98 WHIP in eight starts and one relief appearance.
Brett Gardner remains out of the lineup but is available to pinch-run and play defense. Colin Curtis starts in left and bats eighth. The rest of the lineup is the same as last night’s.
Ever been livid watching a movie? I’m such a prig there is no shortage of movies that have gotten my red ass going, especially during my high school and college years (When Harry Met Sally, Thelma and Louise, Born on the 4th of July, and The Crying Game come to mind). But the first time I was angry watching a movie came much earlier, when I was ten-years old an my mom took me to see Chariots of Fire. God, that theme song, which was played on the radio for the longest, never failed to angry up the blood:
So: movie fury. Whadda ya hear, whadda say?
Time for some “happy rap.”
This song never fails to put a spring in my step, as it did this morning on my way to work. Who cares if Greg Nice doesn’t know what instrument Dizzy played.
Over at the New York Times, Harold Mcgee writes that the secret to ribs is already in the kitchen: the oven. Peep, don’t sleep. And here are some more ideas for the grill…
[Photo Credit: A Yankee in a Southern Kitchen]
There is an exhaustive, though ultimately not especially rewarding profile of Mariano Rivera by James Traub in the New York Times Magazine. Perhaps we’re the wrong audience for this story. Closer to the point, I don’t think Mariano is an interesting subject for a magazine piece. He’s dull, in fact, too guarded to reveal anything about his personal life. How does a savant articulate his gift? Shrugs his shoulders and says he’s doing the Lord’s work.
Writers are left to wax poetic over Mo’s on-the-field accomplishments, his style, his calm, his greatness, his influence around the clubhouse. A writer can talk to players around the league, add some quotes about just how good Mariano is, but otherwise, what is there to say?
So this story is thorough but it doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know about Rivera, and some of Traub’s characterizations are off-base: Kevin Youkilis is a described as a “batting genius” while Jonathan Paplebon is called “the closer who has become Rivera’s great rival.” Youkilis is a great hitter, but a genius? And if Rivera and Paplebon have a rivalry that’s news to me (they just happen to play for rival teams).
It’s worth checking out, and I rarely tire of reading about Mo, but considering the author and the publication, I was disappointed.
However, the Times does have a cool video piece on Mo that is well-worth looking at.
[Photo Credit: National Geographic]
