Yanks get another crack at a “w” tonight. We will be watching and fretting until they turn this around…

…Which they will. Let’s hope they start tonight.

Never mind the wailing, Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

Over at Baseball Think Factory, I caught an interesting little piece by Marc Craig regarding Keith Hernandez’s take on Mark Teixeira’s fielding. Dig it.

From Banterer PJ: “What happened to our friend Will Weiss? I really wish he stop by so the Yankees can start winning again.

No Will Weiss at Banter is unacceptable…”

PJ, you’re absolutely right. It’s unacceptable. As Cliff will tell you, a new daughter and the associated parental duties, plus a new job with some travel thrown in will deregulate the writing schedule and stretch the boundaries of acceptability. At least our fearless proprietor Alex is one of the most understanding people in the business and is unyielding in his support for all of us who contribute. I will say this: my daughter likes watching the Yankees (although there hasn’t been much to watch lately), and she let out a shriek of delight when I told her Jose Veras was designated for assignment.

On to the column…

Since I don’t have to ride a train to work anymore and I don’t own an iPod (gasp!), I have been listening to a lot of sports talk radio. In the mornings, it’s a flip between Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton on WFAN and Mike and Mike on ESPN, and in the afternoons it’s Mike Francesa and Michael Kay/New York Baseball Tonight. (I still haven’t decided if this is a good thing. Now that Matt Pinfield is back, I think I’m going back to music in the morning.)

In the last two weeks, we’ve been bombarded with stories about Jorge Posada’s management (or mismanagement, depending on your perspective), of the pitching staff; Joe Girardi’s management (or mismanagement, depending on your perspective), of well, everything; the defense that went a record 18 games without committing an error has committed at least one error in 14 of the last 19 games; and oh yes, there’s Derek Jeter’s inability to drive in runs in clutch situations. Of these stories, the Posada issue is not new and the Dead Horse Alert is strong in my ear; the defensive woes would not be a story if the team was winning, and Jeter’s malaise is not subject to just him. This is not to give Jeter a free pass, but when you score 15 runs in one game and then proceed to score 12 over the next seven, it doesn’t seem right to single out one player.

Jeter alone is not the reason the team has not won three in a row since May 27-30. A-Rod has one hit in his last 22 at-bats – a span of seven games – and hasn’t had a multi-hit game since going 5-for-5 at Texas on May 25. Mark Teixeira has driven in only four runs in the last 10 games. Plus, there’s the team’s Achilles’ heel: pitchers they’ve never faced before. Even in their championship heyday of the last 15 years, rookie/no-name pitchers look like All-Stars pitching against the Yankees (see Pete Caldera’s recap in the Bergen Record for more details). Most recently, it’s been Fernando Nieve, John Lannan, Craig Stammen, Josh Johnson and Tommy Hanson. Johnson and Hanson will be big-league studs, but to lose four of six to the Nationals and Marlins, teams the Yankees were supposed to beat up on to gain ground on the Red Sox, is a reflection of something deeper.

Which brings me to Girardi. If the manager sets the tone for the team, then his management of A-Rod and CC Sabathia could be leaving the team in a lurch. This from Bob Klapisch:

…There’s more to managing than simply bodysurfing a winning streak. Girardi looked crisp and in control when the Yankees were mauling the AL a month ago, launching all those crazy comebacks. But now they’re struggling — the Red Sox’ domination of the Bombers is nothing short of humiliating — and Girardi’s confidence has turned to a square-jawed form of desperation.

That’s why A-Rod played every day until he couldn’t bring his bat through the strike zone anymore — and, as he’s hinted, his hip is so stiff. It’s the reason why no one comes to Sabathia’s rescue in the seventh or eighth innings.

It’s because Girardi knows his managerial career will be over if he gets fired by the Yankees.

The decision to sit A-Rod due to fatigue came from above Girardi. Sabathia says he’ll pitch Friday, but Cashman is putting on the brakes. Girardi is in the background.

Esiason and Carton posit that Girardi is being made to be the fall guy for the team’s travails. If he is managing for his job, he should stand up for himself the same way he did in Florida. Esiason added that despite Girardi’s championship credentials, he doesn’t believe the players respect Girardi in the same way they did Joe Torre.

Maybe that’s true. Some veterans are describing Girardi as “tight,” as Klapisch also notes in his column. We don’t know what is said in the clubhouse – and it should stay there – but the rash of flat efforts leave much to be desired. I don’t get the sense he’s inspiring confidence in his players. I’d love to hear him say something like, “We’re not overlooking any teams on the schedule. Sure, we’re at a slight disadvantage playing in National League parks, but our lineup should be able to hold up against any pitcher in any park.” Instead, we get the same monotone and the tired lines about how interleague play is a necessary evil and that it’s unfortunate the games count in the standings. Does that get you fired up as a fan? Me neither.

What’s left? Could the Yankees pull the trigger on Girardi mid-season? They haven’t made such a managerial change since Bucky Dent replaced Dallas Green after 121 games in 1989. Granted, this Yankee team isn’t nearly as lost in Mark Knopflerville (aka Dire Straits) as the ’89 squad, but if the team falls further south of Boston in the standings, it may seem that way to the powers that be.

The wheels on the Yankees bus … need air.

To power today’s news, I’m going to visit the “Conjuction Junction”:

• The (decision on Cody) Ransom is due Wednesday:

While he gathered his belongings in the Yankee Stadium clubhouse earlier this month, Ransom revisited his decision to hide the severity of a leg injury that he suffered not that night in Boston, but in the final week of spring training, much earlier than he had previously admitted publicly.As it turned out, the leg ailment would ultimately land him on the 60-day disabled list and throw his future with the Yankees in doubt. Still, Ransom isn’t sure he would have done anything differently. It’s easy to understand why.

“I don’t know that I would have because of the situation that we were in, Alex being out and it was an opportunity for me,” said Ransom, a 33-year-old minor league journeyman. “I was really hoping that could help the team and play well. But obviously I didn’t do that. I don’t regret anything, I don’t regret the way I handled it I don’t think.”

. . . On Wednesday, the Yankees will have to return him to the majors or designate him for assignment.

• Sabathia not planning on a pitching “Sabathical“:

“I feel like I’m going to feel fine tomorrow,” Sabathia said. “So that’s why I keep saying that I’m pitching on Friday.”

Sabathia usually throws 45 pitches in a bullpen session, but he said he would throw no more than 25 on Wednesday. He reiterated that he was not concerned.

“It doesn’t scare me at all,” Sabathia said. “It’s one of those things through the course of the season you do feel on side days. You feel a little achiness in the biceps, and it usually gets out of there. With the rest and two days off of not playing catch or anything, it feels fine. I feel good enough to pitch.”

• The Bombers’ protest of Sunday’s substitution snafu game with the Marlins has been denied:

Working in favor of the Marlins was Rule 3.05, which states:

“If an improper substitution is made for the pitcher, the umpire shall direct the proper pitcher to return to the game until the provisions of this rule are fulfilled. If the improper pitcher is permitted to pitch, any play that results is legal. The improper pitcher becomes the proper pitcher as soon as he makes his first pitch to the batter, or as soon as any runner is put out.”

Additionally, Rule 3.05(c) Comment reads: “If a manager attempts to remove a pitcher in violation of Rule 3.05 (c) the umpire shall notify the manager of the offending club that it cannot be done. If, by chance, the umpire-in-chief has, through oversight, announced the incoming improper pitcher, he should still correct the situation before the improper pitcher pitches. Once the improper pitcher delivers a pitch he becomes the proper pitcher.”

Girardi felt Sunday’s situation was similar to one earlier in the year, when Rays manager Joe Maddon had a mixup with his designated hitter, resulting in Evan Longoria not starting.

(more…)

My wife has no heart, she doesn’t care. I roll my eyes and make guttural sounds of disappointment, slap my arm against the couch. I curse and curse some more.  They’re killin’ me, I say.

“I’m sorry, honey.”

The Nationals!?!

Straight, with no emotion, like Alice Kramden, she says, “Every year the Yankees lose a series to the worst team, every year it’s the same. It happens. They have hot streaks and slumps.”

But you don’t understand. The Nationals! Two games they should have won against Marlins. Shut out by the damn Braves.

“Well, it’s better than losing to the Red Sox.”

“No it isn’t! At least the Red Sox are good. And they’ve done nothing but lose to them either.”

She shrugs, looks at me, knowing I’m hopeless, and refuses to join in. She has no pity for me or the Yankees. She doesn’t care.

The Yankees played another lifeless game tonight. They had just four hits yet had their chances, leaving the bases loaded twice and stranding eleven in all. In other words, they didn’t do jack-boil-scratch as they lost 4-0 to the Braves in Atlanta. Rookie starter? On cue, the Yankees’ achilles’ heel. I know Tommy Hanson is a stud, but c’mon already.

Chien-Ming Wang wasn’t bad–he gave up three runs on three hits in the third (all three runs scored with two out), and Phil Hughes was terrific again in relief. But that didn’t matter much. Alex Rodriguez went 0-4, Jorge Posada struck out four times and Derek Jeter hit into his third double play in two games as Yankee fans were left with nothing but hard, angry feelings.

Yanks hit skid row, now five behind the Sox. My how it am ugly.

Atlanta Braves

2009 Record: 33-36 (.478)
2009 Pythagorean Record: 33-36 (.478)

2008 Record: 72-90 (.444)
2008 Pythagorean Record: 79-83 (.488)

Manager: Bobby Cox
General Manager: Frank Wren

Home Ballpark (Park Factors): Turner Field (99/99)

Who’s Replacing Whom:

• Casey Kotchman replaces Mark Teixeira
• Nate McLouth replaces Mark Kotsay
• Garret Anderson replaces most of Gregor Blanco (bench)
• Matt Diaz reclaims playing time from Josh Anderson
• Diory Hernandez is filling in for Omar Infante (DL)
• David Ross replaces Corky Miller, Clint Sammons (minors), and Brayan Peña
• Derek Lowe replaces Tom Glavine and Mike Hampton
• Javier Vazquez replaces Tim Hudson (DL) and Chuck James
• Kenshin Kawakami replaces Jorge Campillo (DL) and James Parr (minors)
• Tommy Hanson replaces Jo-Jo Reyes (DL) and John Smoltz
• Eric O’Flaherty replaces Will Ohman
• Mike Gonzalez reclaims his innings from Vladimir Nuñez
• Rafael Soriano reclaims his innings from Julian Tavarez and Jorge Julio
• Peter Moylan reclaims his innings from Blaine Boyer
• Kris Medlen is filling in for Buddy Carlyle (DL)

25-man Roster:

1B – Casey Kotchman (L)
2B – Kelly Johnson (L)
SS – Yunel Escobar (R)
3B – Chipper Jones (S)
C – Brian McCann (L)
RF – Jeff Francoeur (R)
CF – Nate McLouth (L)
LF – Garret Anderson (L)

Bench:

R – Matt Diaz (LF)
R – Martin Prado (UT)
L – Gregor Blanco (CF)
R -Diory Hernandez (IF)
R – David Ross (C)

Rotation:

R – Derek Lowe
R – Jair Jurrjens
R – Javier Vazquez
R – Tommy Hanson
R – Kenshin Kawakami

Bullpen:

L – Mike Gonzalez
R – Rafael Soriano
R – Jeff Bennett
L – Eric O’Flaherty
R – Peter Moylan
R – Manny Acosta
R – Kris Medlen

15-day DL: PH – Greg Norton (hamstring), UT – Omar Infante (broken hand), LHP – Jo-Jo Reyes (hamstring), RHP – Buddy Carlyle (upper back strain/Type-1 diabetes)

60-day DL: RHP – Tim Hudson (TJ), RHP – Jorge Campillo (shoulder tendonitis)

Typical Lineup:

L – Nate McLouth (CF)
R – Yunel Escobar (SS)
S – Chipper Jones (3B)
L – Brian McCann (C)
L – Garret Anderson (LF)
L – Casey Kotchman (1B)
R – Jeff Francoeur (RF)
L – Kelly Johnson (2B)

(more…)

A good combination.

The first Hall of Fame Classic, played Sunday at Cooperstown’s Doubleday Field, gave me the opportunity to talk to former Yankee pitcher and broadcaster Jim Kaat. During our on-field conversation, I asked Kitty about his decision to return to the broadcast booth, his thoughts on the ’09 Yankees, his new marriage, and his continuing connection to the village of Cooperstown.

Markusen: Jim, first off, I know that I speak for a lot of Yankee fans who are glad that you’re back broadcasting, not on the YES Network [as before], but on the MLB Network. What went into your decision to come back after essentially retiring for three years?

Kaat: Well, my wife, who had been battling cancer for a couple of years, passed away last year. I retired because we wanted to get a little more time together. She was doing pretty well, but her cancer came back. She couldn’t survive that, so a lot of my friends and family said to me, maybe you ought to go back to work. So that’s what I did, starting this year just on a part-time basis. I just reached out to some people, and if they wanted me to do it, I said fine. So MLB hired me to do ten games, I did the World Baseball Classic, and I’ll do a little stuff for XM Radio. So that sort of motivated me to do it.

Markusen: Did it take a lot of convincing?

Kaat: Not a lot. There was a period of time there where I didn’t know if I wanted to do that [come back], but toward the end of the year in December, I thought, yeah, it might be a good idea for me to do that.

Markusen: Jim, do you still keep close tabs on the Yankees, a team that you followed so closely for so long? Do you still follow them on a regular basis?

Kaat: Oh, very much so. Two of the three games I’ve done so far have been the Yankees. I did the home opener, and I did the Yankee-Red Sox game on June 11. I keep up with all of the teams, and I’ll have another Yankee game—the Yankees and White Sox—at the end of July, so that gives me good reason to keep up with them. I have a Mets-Dodgers game coming up, too. I still follow the Yankees through the newspapers, the box scores, and of course, nowadays on television you can get about all the highlights you want.

Markusen: It’s been a very uneven year for the Yankees. A very poor April, a lot of injuries early, then they had that nine-game winning streak, and now they seem to be struggling a little bit. As you look at the team, what do you think has been the problem?

Kaat: Well, I still think, and I think that with any team, you really need to have quality guys in the seventh and eighth innings to set up whoever your closer is, in this case Mariano. And I always think that’s a determining factor. I mean, hitting comes and goes, guys will go into slumps. The Yankees have played well in the field, in the infield—I don’t know about their range—but they aren’t making any errors. But I’ve always liked teams, as Tampa Bay did last year and the Red Sox this year, that have good guys down in the pen at the end of the game. You know, when Bruney’s been healthy, Aceves has been in and out of the [late-inning] role, Coke, the lefty, has done pretty well, but they haven’t been able to find that solid seventh and eighth-inning guy.

Of course, Brian Cashman knows, and I always chide him about it, I think Chamberlain should be in the bullpen. I think he’d be a perfect eighth-inning guy, but that’s not my decision. But I think that [the bullpen] will determine how well they do.

Markusen: When you look at the intangibles and more subtle areas with this team, you sometimes hear criticism that they play a little too tense, maybe they don’t have a killer instinct, and they continue to struggle with runners in scoring position. Do you give a lot of merit to any of that?

Kaat: Well, the runners in scoring position I do, because the more years go by, the more we’re aware of how great the 1998 team was and the teams in that era, the team that had Tino Martinez and Paul O’Neill, Knoblauch, Jeter was a younger player, Bernie Williams, Girardi was still playing, guys that made contact, advanced runners, manufactured runs. And they had a great bullpen. I think their offense this year is the kind of explosive offense—they’re like a team of really DHs—they can crush mediocre pitching, but until they do those kinds of things against good pitching like the teams in the late nineties, that’s probably where they’re lacking.

(more…)

Every so often, when the mood strikes, my wife Emily likes me to feed her baseball trivia questions. We had a session on Sunday after the Yanks lost to the Marlins. My first question was, “What is ERA?” She got it right but did not agree with the number being divided by nine innings.

“What if it is the first game of the year and a pitcher only goes six innings, how can it go into nine?”

I calmly explained.

“What-ever.”

We moved on. And she got a good many of them right–or at least partially right. Her thinking made sense.  Who is known as Junior?  “Cal Ripken.”

What is a fielder’s choice? “That’s when the fielder gets to make the choice. See? I told you I was right.”

The infield fly-rule? “That’s when the infielder’s call off the outfielders and make the catch.”

And my favorite. What is a Baltimore Chop?

“That’s a kind of meat cut special in Baltimore.”

No, dear.

“That’s when they have everyone at Camden Yards come on the field during the seventh inning stretch and practice karate.”

I love my baseball wife.

Today’s news is powered by some cute stop-motion animation from “Sesame Street”:

• And on the seventh day, A-Rod will rest:

Alex Rodriguez, who did not start on Friday and Saturday due to fatigue six weeks after returning from surgery on his right hip, will get one day of rest each week through next month’s All-Star break.

The Yankees will follow a plan created by Dr. Marc Philippon, the surgeon who operated on A-Rod’s hip in March.

“That sounds like a good plan,” Rodriguez said on Sunday. “From what I understand, that comes from Vail (Colo.) and Dr. Philippon. We’ll follow his instructions and regroup in a month. The idea is that I’ll get stronger each month.”

Rodriguez started 38 consecutive games after returning to action on May 8. He is batting .153 (9-for-59) with two homers and 11 RBIs in June. He singled in the third inning of Sunday’s 6-5 loss to the Marlins to end a 0-for-16 slide. Overall, he is batting .213 with nine homers and 28 RBIs in 40 games.

Manager Joe Girardi said he plans to schedule A-Rod’s off days. He’ll get two days off in weeks when the Yankees have an off day.

[My take: Ummm . . . wasn’t the plan coming out of surgery to only play him five or six days a week anyway?  Where did THAT plan go in the last five weeks?]

• The folks at Baseball Prospectus analyze the troubles of Rodriguez since his return:

His .250 Isolated Power (or ISO, slugging percentage minus batting average) is 22 points below his career mark, but about the same distance above two of his five full seasons in pinstripes. It surpasses all but 24 batting-title qualifiers, not that A-Rod himself has enough plate appearances to qualify.

He’s homered in 5.4 percent of his PA, which would rank ninth among qualifiers, though it would be the fifth-lowest mark of his career. The 33-year-old superstar’s real problem is that the hits aren’t falling in for him.

Prior to his benching, Rodriguez’s batting average on balls in play was .192, 128 points below his career mark, and 10 points below the next-lowest qualifier, Jay Bruce. Upon closer inspection, he’s hit line drives—which result in hits far more frequently than any other type—on just 14.8 percent of his balls in play, well below last year’s 18.1 percent. Meanwhile, his ground-ball rate has risen significantly.

A-Rod is one of several star players to recently have a procedure known as femoral-acetabular impingement labroplasty. . . . The problem is that while many skiers have recovered successfully from this operation, there’s almost nothing beyond these very few names to go on as to how this will affect a baseball player.

While the Yankees were ultra-conservative with Rodriguez during rehab, they suddenly forgot the schedule of offdays that Rodriguez’s doctors had set up. Sources tell me that Rodriguez’s hip still shows a small strength and range deficit, one that’s become worse with fatigue. A more regular schedule of rest would appear to be necessary, and it should help get Rodriguez back on track physically.

(more…)

George Price…one of my heroes and one of the best The New Yorker ever had.

According to ESPN, Don Fehr will step down as the head of the MLBPA. Fehr’s long, productive, and largely successful run has been marred by the union’s handling of the recent performance-enhancing drugs scandals. 

A fabulously bright man, Fehr was in charge during the union’s fattest days. He played a large roll in the baseball player’s union becoming the strongest in all of professional sports. The man has a lot of wins under his belt. In the end, however, the steroids issue must have swallowed him up. Fehr and company failed their consituency in not destroying those pesky tests from ’03, proving once again that arrogance trumps smarts every time. I don’t mean to be flip. Fehr deserves, and will surely receive, a more thorough evaluation in the coming days. He was a pivotal figure.

Bud Selig should jern Fehr out the front door, don’t you think?

Variety reports that Sony Pictures has pulled the plug on Steven Soderbergh’s adaptation of Moneyball (thanks to Rob Neyer for the link).

Even in the climate of heightened studio caution, the turnaround news on “Moneyball” is surprising given that the project had reached the equivalent of third base. It was just 96 hours before the participants were ready to take the field, following three months of prep and with camera tests completed and cast and budget in place.

…Aside from actors like Pitt and Demetri Martin, Soderbergh is using real ballplayers — such as former A’s Scott Hatteberg and David Justice — as actors, and he also has shot interviews with such ballplayers as Beane’s former Mets teammates Lenny Dykstra, Mookie Wilson and Darryl Strawberry. Those vignettes would be interspersed in the film.While Soderbergh is confident his take will work visually, Columbia brass had doubts on a film that costs north of $50 million. That is reasonable for a studio-funded pic that includes the discounted salary of a global star like Pitt, but baseball films traditionally don’t fare well on the global playing field.

This is a shame but not a surprise. Back in the summer of 2003, I interviewed Michael Lewis and we talked about how difficult it would be to make Moneyball into a movie:

Bronx Banter: Have you sold the movie rights to “Moneyball” yet?

Michael Lewis: I didn’t have much hope that anyone would buy them. Because I can’t really see how you could make it into a movie—a good movie, anyway. What happens is, if somebody bought it for the movies, you’d have to create some sort of female role. They would just have to. You just have to twist so much. Having seen “Liar’s Poker” get bought for a lot of money, and then completely mangled in the creation of the script, and eventually never getting made. If they can’t make that, I can’t imagine how they can make this. There have been, oddly enough, some feelers from people who say they want to buy the rights. A lot of things sell, that shouldn’t sell, accidentally. That might happen, but I’d be really surprised if it ever became a movie.

Today’s news is powered by . . . animals interrupting sporting events:

• CC Sabathia exited yesterday’s game in the 2nd inning with tightness in his bicep.  He’s day-to-day.
• A.J. Burnett regrets how he left the Marlins:

It’s easy to remember the bad, the way his career ended here in 2005. The Marlins had just lost 5-3 to Atlanta with a week left in the season when Burnett lambasted his manager, Jack McKeon, the coaches and his teammates, saying, “We played scared. We managed scared. We coached scared.” . . .

“It’s depressing around here,” he said at the time. “It’s like they expect us to mess up. And when we do, they chew us out. There is no positive, nothing, around here for anybody.”

The next day he was suspended for the rest of the season. Instead of letting him make his last start, the Marlins called up a rookie to make his major-league debut: Josh Johnson. Before Burnett left, he told the rookie pitcher to “give ’em hell,” Johnson remembers.

More than three years later, Burnett and Johnson found themselves back in the storyline, as they faced each other at Land Shark Stadium, Burnett now with the Yankees, pitching here for the first time since he set fire to every bridge on the way out – an ending he now regrets.

“I shouldn’t have said what I said,” Burnett said after taking the loss in Saturday’s 2-1 game. “I don’t think about the ending. I remember that they gave me my start. . . . I was young and I’ve grown up a lot since then.”

• Burnett’s suspension is reduced by 17%!:

Yankees pitcher A.J. Burnett’s suspension for throwing high and tight to Texas’ Nelson Cruz has been reduced to five games from six.

Manager Joe Girardi said Sunday before New York played the Florida Marlins that the suspension began immediately and will push back the right-hander’s next start to Saturday against the Mets.

(more…)

That did not go at all according to planned. Matter of fact, it was lousy as the Yanks continue their routine as the Castor Earl Kids.

The rain continued in New York this weekend–it’s been raining for weeks and is supposed to continue to rain this coming week too–but it was hot and sunny in Miami.  CC Sabathia left the game in the second inning with tightness in his left bicep and although the Yanks held a 3-1 lead their two-week funk continued as the Marlins rallied to win 6-5.

The on-line Merriam Webster dictionary defines “mediocre” as “of moderate or low quality, value, ability, or performance : ordinary, so-so.”  That just about sums up Brett Tomko who coughed up the lead by allowing home runs to Hanley Ramirez and Cody Ross.

I watched the Tomko outing unfold and cursed Joe Girardi for letting Tomko pitch. Jorge Cantu added a key RBI base hit in the seventh–a throwing error by Melky Cabrera allowed another run to score. Matt Linstrom struck out Rodriguez to start the ninth and got Robinson Cano to roll out to second. Then Jorge Posada and Cabrera singled. Brett Gardner followed with a line drive in the right center field gap, good for a triple. Two runs scored and the Yanks were just down by a run. Johnny Damon pinch hit and drew a walk but Derek Jeter grounded the first pitch he saw to Hanley Ramirez for the final out.

If not for a lucky bad play by Luis Castillo, this would have been the fourth consecutive series that the Yankees have dropped. As it stands, they still have two more series in National League parks, and they’ve just lost four of six to the Nats and Marlins. 

This is a team slump. Oh, and up here in New York it’s still raining. 

We never had supper growing up. We ate dinner. I always thought supper was earlier. All the Catholic kids I knew ate supper, at 4:00 in the afternoon. We didn’t eat until 8:00.

Anyhow, strange start time this afternoon, 5:00 p.m. That’s still tea time as far as I’m concerned. But it works out well for me, as I’m out this afternoon at a dance recital. Going to watch little kids dance to John Lennon songs. Doubt I’ll see the second grade interpretive variation of “Mother” (pity), but it should be fun all the same. Beauty part is I get home in time to catch the game.

Tough loss last night. I’m with Cliff–the Yanks should have won that game. Down a run and two shots at Florida’s bullpen…that’s a game the Yanks need to win.

CC brings the funk for the Yanks today. Have to imagine they’ll swing the bats and he’ll take care of the rest.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

Here’s last night’s game in a nutshell: Both starting pitchers were excellent, both gave up an run following a defensive miscue, but A.J. Burnett also allowed a solo homer; Fish win 2-1.

A.J. Burnett struck out eight men in 6 1/2 innings, but he also grooved a fastball to Dan Uggla in the bottom of the second, and Uggla hit it over the center field fence. Burnett didn’t walk a man until the sixth, when he issued a four-pitch pass to speedy out-maker Emilio Bonifacio to start the inning. Given a reprieve when Jorge Posada threw Bonifacio out trying to steal, Burnett walked Hanley Ramirez. A.J. then hung a slider to Jorge Cantu. Cantu hit it to the gap in left, but Johnny Damon lined it up . . . then missed it. The ball just barely hit the pinkie of Damon’s glove then appeared to nick his foot as Damon tripped over his own leg and tumbled to the turf. Ramirez motored around and scored. That was the ballgame.

The Yankees scored in the next half inning after the Marlins failed to convert a one-out double play ball. Prior to the seventh, Josh Johnson had allowed just two baserunners: a walk to Damon in the top of the first, and a bloop single into no man’s land behind first base by Burnett in the third. After Damon grounded out to start the seventh, Johnson walked Mark Teixeira, who was replaced by Posada on the botched double-play. Robinson Cano then picked up the Yankees second hit, singling Posada to third, and Nick Swisher singled Jorge home with the first and only Yankee run, but Johnson struck out Melky Cabrera on three pitches to end the inning and his night.

In the eighth, Joe Girardi sent Hideki Matsui up to hit for Angel Berroa against Leo Nuñez. Matsui singled. Brett Gardner then ran for Matsui and stole second. Alex Rodriguez hit for the pitcher and walked, putting the go-ahead run on base with no outs for Derek Jeter, but Jeter couldn’t get the bunt down and wound up grounding into a rally-killing double play. Dan Meyer then came on to strikeout Damon. Facing closer Matt Lindstrom, Mark Teixeira led off the ninth with a single off first base, but Jorge Posada popped out and Robinson Cano, for the second time in four games, ground into a game-ending double play.

Damon fell on his sword after the game, and Burnett blamed himself for allowing the homer to Uggla, but the Yankees should win games in which they only allow two runs. Josh Johnson was simply too good and the Yankees blew the one real opportunity they had against the Marlins’ bullpen in the eighth.

Adding valor to victory after the game, Johnson absolved Joe Girardi of the infamous rain-delay incident I mentioned in my pre-game post. Per Pete Abe:

Johnson absolved Girardi, saying his elbow was tight before that and that he was determined to stay in the game. Girardi, he said, was not to blame.

“It’s something that just happened,” he said. “I was hiding from Joe, there’s no way he was taking me out of that game.”

Josh Johnson, who starts for the Marlins tonight, had an impressive rookie season under then-Marlins manager Joe Girardi in 2006. After working out of the bullpen in April, Johnson moved to the rotation in May and went 11-5 with a 3.14 ERA in his first 23 starts. Then, on September 12 of that year, Johnson’s start against the Mets was interrupted by an 82-minute rain delay, after which Girardi left the then-22-year-old right-hander in the game. Soon after, he developed elbow soreness. Johnson didn’t pitch for the Marlins again until mid-June of 2007, but after four starts, he was back on the DL and headed for Tommy John surgery.

Johnson finally returned to the Florida rotation last July and went 7-1 with a 3.61 ERA over the remainder of the season. Now 25, he enters tonight’s game against Girardi’s Yankees with a 6-1 record and 2.76 ERA on the season. The forecast calls for rain.

Johnson has been flat-out awesome this season. All but two of his starts have been quality starts. The Marlins are 11-3 when he takes the mound. His only two hiccups this season were a six-run outing against the Nationals back on April 18 and a four-inning outing against the Brewers on May 19 in which he held Milwaukee to two earned runs on three hits but walked five and left early due to a twinge in his pitching shoulder. Since then, he’s turned in six quality starts in six tries and completed at least seven innings in each of his last five starts, going the distance for the win over Toronto his last time out.

The Yankees counter with former Marlin A.J. Burnett, who was briefly a teammate of Johnson’s in 2005 (in fact, Johnson and Jeremy Hermida are the only remaining Marlins from that 2005 team and both were September call-ups that year). Burnett rebounded nicely from his failure in Boston his last time out, holding the Mets scoreless over seven innings while striking out eight. That was his seventh quality start in 13 tries for the Yankees. Burnett has put up consecutive quality starts just twice this season, once doing so by facing the same team, the Texas Rangers, in consecutive starts. A.J. has never faced the Marlins before, but he does have a career 3.20 ERA in Mrs. Arrllssberg Stadium.

Jorge Posada will catch Burnett tonight. Angel Berroa’s back at third base as the lineup repeats last night’s. Emilio Bonafacio is back at third for the Fish and hitting second.

Okay, first of all, I know I’m late on this… but Land Shark Stadium? LAND SHARK STADIUM?! What, couldn’t they find a sponsor for Liger Stadium? Why not just call it Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus Stadium, or was that too dignified?

Anyway. The Yankees took an early lead against the Marlins tonight and won, 5-1, behind a strong seven-inning, three-hit, seven-strikeout start from Andy Pettitte. Whether that’s because he’s made some adjustments, because his back is feeling better, because he’s away from the New Yankee Bandbox, or just the joy of playing the National League, I couldn’t say. But I’ll take it.

Every Yankee starter had at least one hit, and all but Nick Swisher got one off of Marlins starter Sean West. Derek Jeter started things off on the right foot with a long double in the first, and Jorge Posada, batting cleanup tonight as A-Rod took a much-needed and possibly overdue break, singled him home. The next inning, Cano singled and Angel Berroa reminded everyone of his continued existence with a run-scoring double. It was Berroa’s first hit since April 28th, a statement which requires no editorializing from me. Andy Pettitte followed with an RBI double of his very own – and it was his first double since 2006, so I guess I can’t make a joke about him being better than Berroa, but just know that I really wanted to.  At this point a “Let’s Go Yankees” cheer broke out … poor Marlins fans, man. Pettitte chugged home on a Johnny Damon single and  it was 4-0, and Melky Cabrera’s third-inning home run finished off the New York scoring.

As for the Marlins, Pettitte’s only major misstep was a Cody Ross homer in the bottom of the third, and after he left the game, Brian Bruney and Brett Tomko (making me nervous with only a four-run lead) finished things off without incident.

Tune in tomorrow night, when A.J. Burnett takes on Josh Johnson, live from No Sense of Self Respect Stadium in Margaritaville, FLA.

Florida Marlins

2009 Record: 33-35 (.485)
2009 Pythagorean Record: 31-37 (.456)

2008 Record: 84-77 (.522)
2008 Pythagorean Record: 81-80 (.503)

Manager: Fredi Gonzalez
General Manager: Michael Hill

Home Ballpark (Park Factors): Dolphin Stadium (99/99)

Who’s Replacing Whom:

• Emilio Bonifacio replaces Mike Jacobs
• Chris Coughlan replaces Josh Willingham
• Ross Gload and Brett Carroll replace Luis Gonzalez
• Ronny Paulino replaces Matt Treanor
• Alejandro De Aza is filling in for Alfredo Amezaga (DL)
• Josh Johnson and Chris Volstad inherit the starts of Scott Olsen
• Sean West is filling in for Anibal Sanchez (DL), who inherits the starts of Mark Hendrickson
• Leo Nuñez replaces Kevin Gregg
• Dan Meyer, Kiko Calero, and Brian Sanches replace Doug Waechter, Joe Nelson, and Logan Kensing
• Cristhian Martinez is filling in for Renyel Pinto (DL)

25-man Roster:

1B – Jorge Cantu (R)
2B – Dan Uggla (R)
SS – Hanley Ramirez (R)
3B – Emilio Bonifacio (S)
C – John Baker (L)
RF – Jeremy Hermida (L)
CF – Cody Ross (R)
LF – Chris Coughlan (L)

Bench:

L – Ross Gload (1B)
R – Wes Helms (3B)
L – Alejadro De Aza (OF)
R – Ronny Paulino (C)
R – Brett Carroll (OF)

Rotation:

R – Josh Johnson
R – Chris Volstad
L – Andrew Miller
R – Ricky Nolasco
L – Sean West

Bullpen:

R – Matthew Lindstrom
R – Leo Nuñez
L – Dan Meyer
R – Kiko Calero
R – Burke Badenhop
R – Brian Sanches
R – Cristhian Martinez

15-day DL: CF/UT – Alfredo Amezaga (knee contusion); RHP – Anibal Sanchez (shoulder sprain), LHP Renyel Pinto (elbow inflammation)

60-day DL: RHP – Scott Proctor (Joe Torre surgery), LHP – Dave Davidson (shoulder)

Typical Lineup:

L – Chris Coghlan (LF)
S – Emilio Bonifacio (3B)
R – Hanley Ramirez (SS)
R – Jorge Cantu (1B)
L – Jeremy Hermida (RF)
R – Dan Uggla (2B)
L – John Baker (C)
R – Cody Ross (CF)

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