The Yanks need to sweep their way through the remainder of this week’s series in Chicago if they’re going to close the Wild Card gap on the punchless White Sox, who managed to punch their card six times last night.

As part of that effort, Tyler Clippard will make his fourth major league start tonight. After dominating the Mets in his debut and being pulled early after four poor, but not awful innings in his follow-up, Clippard lost the plate in his last start in Toronto, walking five and allowing a pair of home runs in five innings pitched. On the other hand, other than those two homers, which plated three runs, Clippard allowed just two other hits, both singles, and no other runs.

Taking the hill for the Chisox will be Mark Buehrle, who has been silencing the doubters who saw his poor 2006 season as a sign of his finally being found out rather than as the fluke it increasingly appears to have been. Buehrle’s last start was also in Toronto, an eight-inning complete game loss in which he allowed just two hits, walked none, and struck out six. The only problem was that both hits were solo homers and the White Sox were shut out by Roy Halladay and company. Buehrle did not face the Yankees when they were last in Chicago, but was cuffed around by them in their one meeting in 2006 (3 IP, 8 R). Buehrle did not face the Yankees at all in 2005 and was also cuffed around by the Bombers in 2004 (2 IP, 8 R) but just ten days prior to that he held them to two unearned runs on three hits in eight innings.

Matt DeSalvo, who failed to make it out of the second inning last night after he allowed more base unners than outs through 1 1/3, was optioned back to Scranton. According to the SWB Yankee Blog, spring training superstar Chris Basak has been called up to take his (and ultimately Doug Mientkiewicz’s) place. Basak, who can play all around the infield, was hitting .265/.321/.423 in triple-A and will be making his first appearance on a 25-man big league roster. He gets the call over Andy Phillips, who is hitting .312/.381/.485 and has moved back to second base. The Yankees will likely move someone to the 60-day DL to make room for Basak on the 40-man roster.

In addition, Kevin Thompson was optioned back to Scranton in favor of Sean Henn. So, really, Basak replaces Thompson, giving the Yankees two no-hit infielders who will never play and no reserve outfielder. That makes about as much sense as Chad Jennings donning a baseball mitt on his blog’s header. With just Basak, Cairo, and Nieves in reserve, the Yankees are in essense playing without a bench as all three are replacement-level or, in Nieves’ case, below. Then again, they do have a nine-man bullpen.

For his part, Henn had started three of his four games in triple-A and posted a 4.26 ERA, a 1.11 whip and struck out 11 in 12 2/3 innings. His best outing was his most recent: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K. Henn would likely be optioned back down to make room for Roger Clemens’s return on Saturday. Then again, if Henn doesn’t pitch in relief during the week, and Clemens’ groin remains fatigued, Henn could turn out to be the starter on Saturday.

From analysis of the Yankees’ consistently inconsistent play and the effect of Roger Clemens’ “fatigued groin” on the pitching staff, to the latest chapter in the life and times of Alex Rodriguez, this past week featured an explosion of Yankee news that won’t be forgotten any time soon.

Looking at everything that occurred, I decided it would be fruitless — and potentially a disservice to you, the readers and feedback generators — to isolate just one of these issues. So, I’m taking on as many as possible, as succinctly as I can.

GAME/TEAM NEWS
It was a typical week for the 2007 Yankees in terms of performance. They lost two of three in Toronto and won two of three in Boston. True to form, two victories were of the “squeaker” variety, due to cushy early leads being wasted. Wednesday in Toronto, Tyler Clippard nearly squandered a 5-0 first-inning lead, and Sunday, Andy Pettitte lost a 4-0 lead before an unlikely comeback against Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon. The deservedly maligned Yankee bullpen isn’t entirely to blame for the choke jobs, but unless someone can come in and stop the bleeding when a starter falters, winning games will remain an arduous process.

Two of the three losses were just ugly. The New York Post reported that corpses who emerged to watch the games at some of the sports bars in the New York area exclaimed, “Damn, we’ve got more life than that.” The seventh inning of Saturday’s loss at Fenway could be ranked with some of the worst in recent team annals. It was like the Yankees were reenacting Phase 1 of the Sports Movie formula – they were the ragtag bunch of guys bungling their way around the diamond. The only problem is, with a payroll exceeding $200 million and expectations loftier than that, there’s nothing loveable about a team putting forth that kind of effort.

STORIES OF THE WEEK

1. The Life and Times of Alex Rodriguez
2. The Life and Times of Roger Clemens and His Groin
3. The Milagro Beanball War
4. Hal Be Sure

Let’s address these one at a time. First, A-Rod. Where to begin? Since when are photos of a professional athlete carousing with exotic dancers and gossipy stories of alleged adultery by said professional athlete a big deal? The idea of athletes acting on a morally higher plain because they should be role models is a fallacy — or is it phallusy? It’s not news. We as fans have made it clear that we care more about his popping up with the tying run on third and one out in the top of the 7^th at Fenway than we do about his popping up at the Brass Rail or the Hustler Club at the top of the morning.

But even for A-Rod, the insanity reached new heights. Bill Madden smartly questioned A-Rod’s reasons for allowing himself to be seen, and wondered why the Yankees would want to burden themselves with all the agita and b.s. that would likely come with signing him to an extension. The New York Sun’s Tim Marchman turned around and killed Madden for sounding like he was above gossip, which was an interesting rebuttal. People I talked to following his Little League move in Wednesday’s victory passed it off as no big deal, but my gut reaction was, “What a bush-league play. What is he, 12?” That the New York Times joined the party in highlighting Rodriguez’s questionable base-running indiscretions, should tell you something. Sports business columnist Richard Sandomir compared A-Rod’s actions to those of Lindsay Lohan, sans rehab.

Blue Jays shortstop John McDonald saying that A-Rod’s move was a reason he’ll never be a “real Yankee” brought that sentiment back after an eight-month hiatus. Steve Goldman has denounced the “real Yankee” argument, writing on umpteen occasions in the Pinstriped Bible and the Pinstriped Blog that once a player joins the big club and puts on the uniform, he’s a “real Yankee.” As much as I respect my former YES colleague, I’m inclined to disagree with him on this point. There’s a behavioral line that denotes “real Yankees” and everyone else. Would Mattingly have shouted behind Howie Clark to prevent him from catching the pop-up? Would Jeter? Would O’Neill, Posada, Murcer or Munson? No. There’s a difference between hard-nosed baseball and being a jackass.

I was disappointed that Bob Lorenz didn’t do a better job of setting up Ken Singleton and John Flaherty for a similar comment. It was clear to me that neither broadcaster said what he felt in that brief moment of Wednesday’s postgame. To their credit, however, they didn’t defend A-Rod.

In the New York Sun, Goldman suggests it’s time for the Yankees to decide whether to keep A-Rod to win now, or turning his bargaining-chip status into a potential goldmine of prospects.

To me, the most embarrassing element of “A-Rod 24/7” from a media standpoint was the result of Anthony McCarron’s story on Joe Torre rethinking A-Rod’s “Ha” call in Toronto. The headline “Torre Tells A-Rod: SHUT UP!” was not only misleading, it was inaccurate, hurtful and a discredit to a good writer in McCarron. McCarron was the News’s Yankee beat writer for several years before Sam Borden took over in 2005, and Mark Feinsand this year. The headline writer and night editor could have easily recognized or remembered that fact and kept it in mind before OKing the headline. A manager not as media savvy as Torre might have blamed McCarron and threatened never to talk to him again in a professional setting. Torre was going to boycott the media altogether on Saturday because of the flap, but he faced the horde and blasted the News’s irresponsible journalistic act. (And yes, even though the Daily News is a tabloid, there’s still journalistic integrity involved.) 

I’ve been on both sides of this, having worked more than 1,000 games over the four major sports both in my 6 ½ years working editorial. It’s embarrassing to be responsible for your organization getting called out by anyone, let alone a consistent source. I’ve written misleading headlines on the homepage and rewrote misleading headlines in my colleague’s pieces when editing them. My colleagues have erred in the same manner. More often than not, it’s a misinterpretation of the content, rather than a deliberate attempt to be hurtful. In this case, the Daily News, in trying to steal some thunder from the Post breaking the Stray-Rod A-Dultery, gave the impression of an intentional twisting of Torre’s quotes and got carried away in providing a salacious headline to sell papers.

Regarding the process, beat writers do not title their stories; a paper’s headline writers do. The backpage headline is usually decided by the lead night editor. At YES, we did things differently. We titled our own stories, whether we were reporting on-site or providing feature content. We also had to be extra careful, due to the ever-present possibility that someone in the organization would see what was posted, for fear of reprimand by the Yankees.

Real quick hits on the other items on the “Stories of the Week” list:

• The word “desperate” is being uttered by Yankee players to describe the state of affairs, and where Roger Clemens fits into the mix. Between his fatigued, scar tissue-ridden groin and A-Rod’s exploits, two of the Yankees’ highest paid players have become a d— joke. While it’s clear the Yankees won’t consider making this move, Joel Sherman wonders if the Yankees would be better off exercising their injury-related opt-out clause in Clemens’ contract and investing in the future.

• Nothing would have come of the hit batsmen in Friday’s game had Scott Proctor not brushed Kevin Youkilis’s teeth with a fastball in the bottom of the ninth inning with the game well in hand. Here’s where ESPN still excels: on Saturday morning’s SportsCenter, a graphic displayed the number of hit batsmen in Yankees-Red Sox series (I believe it was since 2000 or 2002 — anyone who saw the graphic, please shoot a note below). Red Sox 43, Yankees 67. Of those 67 Yankees hit, Jeter has been plunked 11 times, while David Ortíz has been hit only once.

• Steinbrenner the Youngest is taking over the family business when the patriarch abdicates his rule, according to Bill Madden. (He had a good week, huh?) Madden reports that 38-year-old Hal Steinbrenner prefers to keep a low profile, detests the media and will stay in Tampa, traveling to New York a couple of times a month to evaluate the team. Madden intimated that Torre and Brian Cashman are safe for now, but if Hal maintains supervision of the team from Tampa upon ascending to principal ownership, it’s logical to think the Tampa management faction will return as the dominant voice in the organization.

 Waiting for Roger. Until next week …

Two car accidents devastated the baseball world during the latter days of April. And then we lost a little known but colorful figure from the early 1970s in May. Here are tributes to those baseball men who lost their lives over the past two months, along with a few additional passings from the month of March.

(Died on May 13 in Saluda, North Carolina; age 63; Lou Gehrig’s disease): A colorful character and a longtime minor leaguer, Hodge played one season in the major leagues. Appearing in 85 games as a utility infielder for the Cleveland Indians in 1971, Hodge hit .205 with one home run. After his playing days, Hodge became a minor league coach. He last worked in baseball in 2001, serving as a coach for Pawtucket, the Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.

COMMENTARY: Limited in physical talents, Hodge struggled to build a niche in the major leagues. A native of small town North Carolina, Hodge played only one season, collecting 83 at-bats for the dismal 1971 Indians. On a team with little appeal, Hodge stood out as a rare baseball personality. He sounded so much like actor Jim Nabors, who played "Gomer Pyle" on the old Andy Griffith Show, that friends and acquaintances called him Gomer. After collecting four hits in his first four at-bats, three of them as a pinch-hitter, Hodge declared in his best Nabors voice: "Golly, fellas, I’m hitting 4.000!" And he didn’t mean it kiddingly.

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“We can’t make it a habit of falling behind and trying to score four or five runs off other team’s closers,” Jeter said. “But just because we lost doesn’t mean there was a letdown.”

…”This is the time we’re going to need to make a charge,” said Johnny Damon, who snapped an 0-for-15 slump with an infield single in the ninth. “Last night was huge for us. It just stinks right now. We know we’re going to play better in June.”
(Kepner, N.Y. Times)

So much for momentum. The Yankees were listless on Monday night in Chicago. Matt DeSalvo, who is not ready for prime time, didn’t make it out of the second inning–fielding mistakes by Alex Rodriguez, and especially, Josh Phelps–helped his early exist. Chicago’s Jon Garland was not sharp in the early innings but the Yankees didn’t do much about it. Garland settled down and his pitches got tougher as the game went on. Ron Villone gave up a two-run dinger to Jim Thome, and Chris Britton–who pitched well–served up a solo shot to Paul Konerko. By the time the Yankees staged a rally in the ninth inning, it was too late, and they lost, 6-4.

It was a game that had me grumbling to myself all evening. One step forward, one step back, that’s the way the Yankees roll this year. About the only good news came late, as the A’s beat the Red Sox in extra innings.

Hey, at least Tyler Clippard is on the hill tonight…more grumbling. Derek Jeter is banged-up and slumping a bit, Johnny Damon is 4-for-his-last-29, and Joe Torre would like to give Rodriguez a breather. Bobby Abreu, however, is starting to improve offensively and Robinson Cano is stinging the ball again.

Finally, on a sad note, ex-Yankee Clete Boyer died yesterday. Boyer was one of the great defensive third basemen of them all. He was overshadowed by Brooks Robinson, but for those who played with him, he was nothing short of great.

The White Sox are one of the seven teams that stand between the Yankees and the Wild Card, but the Yankees can pull even with them by winning three of four at the Stadium this week, and can pass them completely with a highly improbable four-game sweep.

The big news for the Sox is the return of Jim Thome, though Thome has yet to find his stroke after two weeks back in the line-up. In fact, three of Thome’s eight hits and five of his nine RBIs since returning came in a single game in which the Sox beat up Colby Lewis for 3 1/3 innings then were held to one hit by Lenny DiNardo the rest of the way. Rather, the White Sox’s two best hitters over the last week have been reserve infielder Alex Cintron (5 for 13, 2B, no walks), and fill-in left fielder Rob Mackowiak (5 for 22 with no walks, but two homers). Indeed, Chicago’s struggles to score continue. Over that last week, the Sox have scored just three runs per game (including exactly three runs in each of their last three games in Toronto), with their only win coming behind eight shutout innings by Javy Vazquez, who will pitch on Wednesday. As the Toaster’s resident Pale Hose fan, Scott Long, reports, during that week, the Sox went 61 straight at-bats without reaching base against a relief pitcher. Of course the Sox took two of three from the Yankees in Chicago three weeks ago.

John Garland starts for the Chisox tonight coming off an ugly outing in which he surrendered six runs to the Twins on five hits and five walks in six innings. That followed another ugly outing in which he gave up four runs on ten hits to the A’s. Before that, however, he had turned in five-straight quality starts, going a minimum of seven innings in each, the last of which was saw him allow ten Yankees to reach base, but only one to score.

The Yankees will counter with Matt DeSalvo, who starts in place of Roger Clemens and his “fatigued groin.” [insert Alex Rodriguez joke here] DeSalvo was sent down prior to the Red Sox series but was able to be recalled without spending the requisite ten days in the minors because he replaces the disabled Doug Mientkiewicz. The Yankees will thus play with a 24-man roster tonight and add a position player (Andy Phillips?) tomorrow. As for DeSalvo, did you realize he’s made four big league starts already? Tossing out his one disaster relief outing, DeSalvo has a very respectable 4.15 ERA as a major league starter, but he’s not been nearly that good. He has walked 13 and struck out just six and has a 1.57 WHIP. Opposing hitters are batting .263/.379/.475 against him, and that’s with a far-below league-average batting average on balls in play of .264.

Gulp. Get well soon, Rocket.

Update: Check out my guest spot on NBC.com’s Fantasy Fix in which I discuss Abreu, Cano, Rodriguez, Giambi, Phelps, Damon, and Mike Mussina, if for no other reason than to see my frighteningly swarthy headshot learing at Tiffany Simons (no, that’s not a wig, they cropped my hair funny, and, yes, I had just shaved a half-hour before that photo).

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Winning series has become the Yankee mantra of late, but coming into Fenway this weekend they’d won just one of their last six. That lone series win came against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium two weeks ago when the Yanks bookended a loss with a pair of wins. This weekend they pulled the same trick, though it was touch-and-go for a while there in game three.

On Friday night, the Yanks beat the Sox 9-5 in a game that was 9-3 after 3 1/2 innings as the Yankees knocked Tim Wakefield out in the top of the fourth. That game was notable for the fact that five batters were hit by pitches, all seemingly unintentionally, though things got tense when Scott Proctor fired a fastball at Kevin Youkilis’s chin in the ninth inning and was promptly tossed out of the game. Joe Torre had been ejected earlier in the game for correctly arguing that Bobby Abreu was safe on a caught stealing at third base, a play that happened right in front of the Yankee dugout.

Saturday afternoon, the Yankees overcame a 3-2 Boston lead with a four-run sixth inning that drove Curt Schilling from the game, but Mike Mussina promptly gave up the lead on solo homers by Mike Lowell and Jason Varitek in the bottom of the inning. After Derek Jeter hit a go-ahead homer off Joel Pineiro in the top of the seventh, things went very, very badly. Before the game it was announced that Proctor would not be suspended for throwing at Youkilis the night before, but the Yankees might have preferred that he was. Entering in the seventh, Proctor gave up a double to David Ortiz. He was then ordered to intentionally walk Manny Ramirez, but followed that by unintentionally walking Kevin Youkilis on four pitches to load the bases. Mike Lowell then hit a double-play ball to short, but Robinson Cano made a poor throw to the bag forcing Derek Jeter to reach for the throw and spin before making the relay to first. Jeter’s throw bounced in the dirt and, as Doug Mientkiewicz turned toward the foul line to field it, Minky was struck in the back of the head by Lowell’s left thigh as Lowell came through the bag. Lowell would have been safe anyway, but the blow gave Mientkiewicz a concussion and as he lay still face down in the dirt, the balled rolled away and both Ortiz and Ramirez scored to give the Red Sox a lead. As Lowell had moved to second on the play, Joe Torre ordered Proctor to walk Jason Varitek. Wily Mo Peña followed by ripping a ball to short that hit Derek Jeter’s glove, but trickled through his legs for a bases-loading error. Coco Crisp followed with an RBI single. Brian Bruney then came on and gave up a sac fly to Julio Lugo and an RBI double to Dustin Pedroia before Mike Myers came on to retire Ortiz and end the inning. The Sox added one more off Luis Vizcaino in the eighth to make the final score 11-6.

As for Mientkiewicz, he was diagnosed with whiplash in addition to the concussion, but it seems he also broke the scaphoid bone in his wrist on the play and will be out six to eight weeks because of that. He was placed on the 15-day DL yesterday though no move was made to fill his roster spot. Meanwhile, Roger Clemens was scratched from his scheduled start tonight due to a balky groin. He hopes to take his next scheduled turn on Saturday against the Pirates, but Matt DeSalvo will be recalled to start tonight. Apparently the injury to Mientkiewicz is what will allow the Yankees to recall DeSalvo after just three days in the minors and why they played with a 24-man roster last night.

Speaking of last night, Andy Pettitte and Josh Beckett locked horns in a pitchers duel for four innings, with the Yankees scoring the only run when a second-inning Jorge Posada double was plated by singles by Hideki Matsui and Josh Phelps. Then Beckett ran into trouble in the fifth, as the Yanks loaded the bases on two singles and a walk to bring Alex Rodriguez to the plate with two outs. Rodriguez chopped a 0-1 pitch to Mike Lowell at third, which Lowell barehanded and bounced in the dirt and off Kevin Youkilis’s knee at first base allowing Melky Cabrera and Derek Jeter to score, and Bobby Abreu to move to third. Jorge Posada followed by yanking an RBI single into right to make it 4-0 Yanks.

The Red Sox got right back in the bottom of the inning as Varitek, Peña, and Crisp singled to load the bases. Andy Pettitte reared back and struck out Julio Lugo for the first out, but his strike three pitch triggered back spasms and a Dustin Pedroia double and a David Ortiz single later, the game was tied and Pettitte was hitting the showers. Actually, Ortiz’s single was played into a triple (technically a single and a two-base error) by Bobby Abreu as the ball dove at his feet as he was charging it, then hopped over his right shoulder. Luis Vizcano came on to intentionally walk Manny Ramirez, but let Ortiz score the go-ahead run on a sac fly and gave up an ultimately harmless Mike Lowell double before finally ending the inning.

The Red Sox nearly added to their lead against Vizcaino in the sixth when Julio Lugo drew a two-out walk from Vizcaino and Dustin Pedroia double to left, but, despite having David Ortiz on deck, the Sox sent Lugo home. Jorge Posada had to leap to catch the relay throw from Derek Jeter, but when he landed his foot blocked Lugo’s from touching the plate and he quickly made the tag for the third out.

The Yankees threatened in the seventh when Josh Beckett walked Johnny Damon to lead off his final inning and Bobby Abreu singled off reliever Javier Lopez to put runners at the corners, but Brendan Donnelly got Alex Rodriguez to pop out and Jorge Posada’s well-hit drive to center off Hideki Okajima settled into Coco Crisp’s glove.

Okajima was less fortunate in the eighth when Hideki Matsui led off with a single and Robinson Cano absolutely tattooed a ball off the triangle in dead center for a game-tying triple. Unfortunately, the Yankees were unable to get Cano home with the go-ahead run as Josh Phelps struck out, and Cabrera and Damon grounded out.

In the bottom of the inning, Brian Bruney walked Coco Crisp with two outs and Julio Lugo reached on a bounding single in the shortstop hole that lept over the outstretched gloves of both Rodriguez and Jeter. Dustin Pedroia then cracked what looked like yet another double into the right field gap, but Bobby Abreu caught it on a dead run heading for the Boston bullpen to end the inning.

With the game still tied, Ortiz, Ramirez, and Youkilis looming in the bottom of the ninth, and Jonathan Papelbon stomping around on the mound, Derek Jeter grounded out and Bobby Abreu struck out to bring Alex Rodriguez to the plate with two out and none on. Rodriguez swung through a 93-mile-per-hour heater on the inside corner for strike one, fouled off another for strike two, then put a perfect swing on a pitch on the outside corner and sent it sailing into the Boston bullpen for a tie-breaking homer.

That set up what was just Mariano Rivera’s second save opportunity in the last month. Mo battled Ortiz for ten pitches, including six straight fouls, throwing pitch after pitch right to Jorge Posada’s glove. The tenth pitch just missed however. Jorge called for the ball right under Ortiz’s hands and Rivera missed out over the plate and Ortiz crushed it. By then, however, the game was being played in a driving rainstorm and the rain, the wind, and the topspin on the ball conspired to drop Ortiz’s drive into Bobby Abreu’s glove for the first out. Rivera then struck out Ramirez and, after accidentally hitting Youkilis in the forearm on a check swing, struck out Mile Lowell on a check swing to give the Yankees a 6-5 win in the game and a 3-2 series win.

Look, folks, I had to be a Debbie Downer here, but the Yankees string of AL East titles is going to come to an end this year. Even if the Yanks sweep the Red Sox in Fenway this weekend, they’ll still be 10.5 games out in June with just 6 games left against the first-place Sox. And what are the odds that the Yanks are going to sweep the Sox after loosing four of five to the Angels and Blue Jays?

No, my friends, it is time to focus on the Wild Card race, where the Yankees trail the Tigers by seven games with eight head-to-head matchups remaining.

That doesn’t mean that this weekend’s series doesn’t matter. Every win counts. Its just that beating the Red Sox no longer means any more, and actually means a hair less, than beating one of the other seven teams ahead of them in the wild card hunt (which, incidentally, includes the Blue Jays).

Not much has changed since these two teams met in the Bronx at the beginning of last week. Not even the pitching matchups. The Red Sox wound up losing eight games in May, two of them to the Yankees and one more since. Josh Beckett returned to the rotation on Tuesday with a stellar outing against the hard-hitting Indians, and Manny Delcarmen is back in the minors. For the Yankees, Kevin Thompson replaces the disabled Jason Giambi on the roster and the plan for the immediate future is to have Johnny Damon be the everyday DH and Melky Cabrera be the everyday center fielder. Meanwhile Matt DeSalvo was farmed out in favor of Chris Britton, who has been dominating the International League. Britton or another reliever will have to be removed from the roster on Monday to make way for the return of Roger Clemens.

Tim Wakefield vs. the Yankees in two starts this season: 0-2, 7.84 ERA, 10 1/3 IP, 14 H, 9 R, 3 HR, 11 BB, 5 K

Chien-Ming Wang vs. the Red Sox in two starts this season: 1-1, 4.38 ERA, 12 1/3 IP, 13 H, 6 R, 2 HR, 6 BB, 6 K

When these two last faced off a week ago Monday in the Bronx, Wang surprised everyone by utilizing his secondary pitches, particularly his slider, to strike out five Red Sox in 6 1/3 innings. In his last start against the contact-hitting Angels, Wang struck out six in eight innings to give him 11 Ks in his last 14 1/3 innings, or 6.91 K/9 over his last two starts. Despite the change in approach, his extreme ground-ball rate was largely unaffected as he got 24 ground balls in those two games against 11 flies (the fly ball total is typical for him, while the missing grounders all turned in to less risky strikeouts). Wang struck out 7.06 men per nine innings over his minor league career. Brandon Webb rode an extreme ground-ball rate and a 6.82 K/9 to the NL Cy Young award last year. If Wang’s new strikeout rate holds, he may have just made the leap.

…to say, wow, LeBron James is the MAN. Dude scored 48 points in the Cavs’ double overtime win last night against the Pistons. The Cavs now hold a 3-2 series lead. More than that, James, still just 22, scored the final 25 points for his team, on a wide variety of shots–dunks (oh, do the Pistons miss Big Ben now, or what?), and impossible three-pointers. The game reminded me of that classic Isiah Thomas performance against the Lakers. Dag, it was stunning. I really hope the Cavs find a way to close it out and reach the Finals. That would be dope.

Okay, just couldn’t help myself. Now back to baseball.

The Yanks will be without Jason Giambi for at least a minute, but possibly for the entire season. According to George King in the Post:

Giambi was diagnosed with a partially torn plantar fascia tendon on the bottom of the left foot, was immediately put in a walking boot and will be placed on the disabled list before tonight’s game. While he will be re-evaluated in three weeks by Dr. William Hamilton, who examined Giambi yesterday in New York, it’s usually a three-to-six-month process according to medical sources. Surgery is an option, but not one that is routinely used to release the tendon. Mark McGwire required surgery to fix the same problem.

If surgery isn’t done and the healing process takes three months, that would get Giambi out of the boot at the beginning of September. After that much time off and no minor league games to play in, it’s not realistic that the 36-year-old Giambi could bounce back in time. If it’s any longer than three months, Giambi is definitely finished for this season.

Uh…drat.

The Yanks won and the Sox lost last night. I know it’s my birthday tomorrow but I didn’t know it was a holiday (okay, it wasn’t all good, see the latest on Phil Hughes). The Yanks scored early–Johnny Damon led off the game with a home run and later collected the 2,000 hit of his career–and late, and Alex Rodriguez was in the middle of a controversial play, what the Blue Jays later called “a bush league play.”

According to the Times:

The Yankees were leading the Toronto Blue Jays by two runs in an eventual 10-5 victory when Jorge Posada lifted a lazy fly ball to third base with two outs in the top of the ninth inning. Third baseman Howie Clark camped under it, but he backed off just after Rodriguez ran slowly past him.

Rodriguez said he shouted “Ha” as he passed Clark, who was fooled into thinking that the shortstop, John McDonald, had called for the ball. When Clark backed away, the ball dropped safely onto the turf for a run-scoring single.

Jason Giambi followed with a single scoring two more runs and that was the game. It was a much-needed win for New York (Mariano Rivera got four outs to record the save), but after the game, Rodriguez, who made the front and back cover of the Daily News today for very different reasons, was the topic of conversation. Matt Stairs called it a “horsesh**t” play; the Blue Jays manager said it was not the way the Yankees play baseball.

It was a high school play, all-schoolyard, for sure. But the Jays are upset because they allowed such a thing to happen in the first place. Howie Clark, the third baseman, was playing in his first big league game of the year.

Mike Vaccarro hit the nail on the head in the Post this morning:

Put it this way: If Pete Rose did this, men would write poems about grittiness, paeans to aggressiveness. But with A-Rod, it rubs opponents the wrong way.

Put it another way: the next time the Yankees face the Blue Jays, the next time A-Rod steps in against A.J. Burnett or Roy Halladay, he may want to wear two batting helmets.

But as Leo Durocher once wrote:

If a man is sliding into second base and the ball goes into center field, what’s the matter with falling on him accidentally so that he can’t get up and go to third? If you get away with it, fine. If you don’t, what have you lost? I don’t call that cheating; I call that heads-up baseball. Win any way you can as long as you can get away with it.

Let’s give Emma Span the final word this morning:

Personally, I get a kick out this stuff. Dirty plays that might get someone hurt are dangerous, and no fun to watch; but as far as I’m concerned, anything and everything goes when messing with your opponent’s head. After McDonald and Clark and even Gibbons finished barking at him, A-Rod stood at third clearly trying to suppress a grin, and not quite succeeding. Ha! Matsui scored on the play, and The Yanks went on to win 10-5.

…Look, I wish I could offer more lofty sentiments, but let’s be honest. At this point in the Yankees’ season, if getting an actual win requires A-Rod to screw thirteen transvestite prostitutes, on a pile of corked bats, in front of Babe Ruth’s plaque in Monument Park? Fine.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Andy Pettitte pitched an excellent game, but… yes, it happened again, as the Yankees’ Great Sucking Noise of 2007 continues. They lost 3-2. Tonight’s edition was especially painful, as Pettitte went into the 8th inning, and only one of the three runs charged to him was earned. Pettitte has been better than we had any right to expect, but with the Yankee offense showing no signs of rousing itself against Shaun Marcum – who pitched well, but come on now – the Yankees once again have nothing to show for it besides aesthetics.

The Yankees scraped out only five hits over the course of the night, including a Giambi home run in the seventh that briefly tied the game. In the bottom of the seventh, Aaron Hill singled, and moved to third on a groundout and A-Rod’s throwing error (not helped by Jason Phillips’ crash into Phelps at first, as he tried to make the catch). Hill then – and this is something we haven’t seen in a while – stole home. Pettiitte was taking him time, and Hill caught everyone unawares; by the time Posada yelled for the ball, and Pettitte saw the play, it was too late.

Now, you hate to see it happen to your team, especially with the Yankees in their current state. But I’ve gotta say, I love watching anyone steal home. It’s rare, and it’s gutsy, and it’s something that you’d think would never work, and yet here it wasn’t even very close. I don’t know much about Aaron Hill, but he’s got my attention now; that was some sweet-ass base running.

Anyway, the Yankees tied it again in the eighth, when Toronto gifted them with two errors, allowing Posada to single Jeter home. That would be all they got, and Toronto took over the lead in the bottom of the inning on a sac fly off of Scott Proctor. Robinson Cano, who seemed to be coming out of his epic slump for a time, looked awful at the plate, as did Bobby Abreu, again, some more. Damon and Giambi are visibly in pain.
The Yankees are now fourteen and half games out of first, and eight and a half out of the Wild Card. Here’s your obligatory “they could still come back” disclaimer: they could still come back. I think it’s time, though, to make peace with the likely outcome of the season at this point and, without necessarily abandoning all hope, settle in to watch the games for their own sake. Yankee fans may well have to relearn – or in some cases, just learn – how to watch games that have no ultimate October goal behind them. It’s been well over a decade, so this is going to take some adjusting; I have to say, I’ve changed quite a bit since the early 90’s, what with puberty and all.

But baseball is great even if the Yankees aren’t, and if you pay attention, something interesting is happening in every game, even a grotesquerie like tonight’s. For example, in addition to the steal of home, we had Jason Giambi beating out an infield single (thanks to the shift of course), then stealing second base, then moving to third on a throwing error. This is not something we are likely to see again in our lifetimes. “Speed kills,” observed John Flaherty, wryly. The games can still be entertaining, though admittedly this season’s been more Oresteia than Star Wars.

Over at Baseball Musings, David Pinto looks at the Yankees’ distribution of runs scored and allowed this season, concluding that in theory they ought to be above .500, and that many of their losses are due to simple bad luck. As he puts it, “the Yankees are having the team analogue of Mike Lowell’s 2005 season.” (Ugh. Don’t they have antibiotics for that?).

I basically agree, and yet you hate to say it: first of all, because we have this ingrained idea in American culture that “you make your own luck” — which is obviously only half true, and yet it’s still hard not to feel lazy or self-defeating when citing luck as an excuse. We always want to believe that something could have been done.

Besides, if we all just acknowledge that luck plays an enormous role… we’ll hardly have anything fun left to argue about. So screw that: I say this entire season is obviously Miguel Cairo’s fault, and if you all can’t see that, you’re goddamn blind.

The Yanks are going to put a beatin’ on someone one of these days. Why not tonight?

Is 50 games too small of a sample to determine whether the Yankees are done? With a deficit of 13 ½ games in the AL East and 7 ½ in the wild card, is it too soon for the Yankees to be operating in crisis mode? If no, what’s to be done, and is it the function of the media — yes, the bloggers count — to force the issue?

The facts are simple: the Yankees are winless since George Steinbrenner issued his “Big Hook” missive to the Associated Press. Everyone is on notice and on edge. Now more than ever, players are playing to save the jobs of Brian Cashman and Joe Torre, and they know it. It reeks of Old-School GMSIII. What were the odds that the veteran columnists pounced?

Nothing seems to be working. The highly publicized one-hour, closed-door meeting prior to Monday’s game had little effect, with the team limping to a 7-2 drubbing in which they trailed 7-0. In the past, these meetings have worked. On days when Torre has held meetings, the writers would ask players what the message was, and they typically wouldn’t say anything but, “Everyone in this clubhouse respects Joe Torre, and when he speaks, we listen.” Torre’s response in these cases was usually, “These guys are professionals. I shouldn’t have to do too much to motivate them. We’re a veteran ballclub and the guys in there know what we’re about. We just have to start playing better.” You could almost write the quotes beforehand.

Even two years ago, after a 10-game win streak lifted the Yankees from an 11-19 quagmire and they subsequently fell below .500, there wasn’t the sense of dread there is now. And the media didn’t foment the atmosphere. Fan reaction to Torre and Cashman was similar, but in the locker room, there was a clear sense that things would improve. But based on what I’m gathering from the literature and from my contacts still working on the beat, there is a lack of confidence and a sense of vulnerability in that clubhouse that hasn’t existed in a long time. Buster Olney alluded to this on ESPN Radio Monday morning.

(Random ESPN note: Can you be a credible news source when a reasonably objective conversation like that occurs days after a “Joe Must Go” article runs on ESPN.com? Can you have it both ways?)

The Daily News’s Bill Madden has seen this before. He has witnessed firsthand the last two Yankees “dynasty” teams, the lean years and the mediocrity in between. When he says the Yankees are done, it may not be preemptive. When Wally Matthews writes that a turnaround could be based on “blind faith,” he might be right. Steve Lombardi at WasWatching is already reciting the lyrics from Pink Floyd’s "Comfortably Numb" to signify the Yankees’ demise. There is precedent for Yankee comebacks, but as Derek Jeter has said explaining the recent spate of playoff losses, “this is not the same team.”

Too many guys are hurt. Too many players are slumping simultaneously. Save for Jeter and Jorge Posada, the aggressiveness at the plate with runners in scoring position is nonexistent.

Change is imminent. The question is a matter of “who” and “when,” and not “if.” Will it happen for the sake of change, as Derek Jacques intimates? There is a divide on firing Torre. For every Ian O’Connor article calling for Torre to finish the season and end his tenure with dignity — great hire by the Bergen Record, by the way, stealing him from the Journal News to replace Adrian Wojnarowski — there is a NoMaas.org blog presenting the annoyed fan’s perspective that enough is enough. NoMaas pinned Sunday’s loss to the Angels on Torre, claiming his “neurotic mistrust of his starting pitchers” led to the defeat. Who knows? Maybe it did. Given the bullpen’s performance to date combined with Mussina’s struggles, I’d have tried to let Mussina get through the seventh, if for no other reason than to build confidence. But that’s neither here nor there.

The tabloids rightly played the second-guessing angle to the move, but didn’t go all the way with it. They didn’t ask the follow-up question to Torre’s reasoning behind Proctor being the stopper for that jam. “Proctor has more experience in that situation than Bruney,” Torre said. The beat writers were off on Sunday to get some rest before the road trip, if the backups aren’t familiar with Torre’s moves, the editors certainly are and they need to prep the writers so they can ask questions like: “Did you believe your options from the bullpen were limited in the seventh inning?”, or, “Why not use Rivera there and save Proctor for the ninth if you still had the lead?” It’s wishful thinking that the regulars would ask the question also. It’s frustrating because many of the writers have a high level of baseball acumen, but rarely do they demonstrate it.

Torre’s move gave fans agita and led to boos. Bruney has the highest K/9 ratio on the team and is the only pitcher to not allow a home run this season. Plus, Torre has put him in this situation before. The problem is since neither Bruney nor Proctor has a steady stream of success in such situations, Torre’s options were limited.

I remember three years ago during the June-July Red Sox-Yankees series at the Stadium, Felix Heredia was entered the game in the sixth or seventh inning to face David Ortiz with the bases loaded and the Yankees holding a slim lead. Suzyn Waldman and I were dumbfounded. I asked Suzyn, “Why not being in Rivera or Gordon? This thing could get ugly fast with Heredia.” Her response: “Nope. Joe doesn’t manage like that.” Heredia struck out Ortiz to make my point moot, but I asked Torre if he considered other options in that situation, and he said flatly: “No. If Heredia can’t get a left-handed hitter out in that situation, then he doesn’t belong in the Major Leagues.”

ROGER REDUX
The Roger Clemens watch is now at T-Minus one week, according to the Star-Ledger’s Lisa Kennelly. I was actually impressed with the dual coverage of his Trenton appearance last Wednesday. Steven Goldman provided multiple blogs for YESNetwork.com, Yankees.com and the locals had representatives there as well. It was treated as a bigger story than the actual game taking place in the Bronx.

ESPN Radio in New York broadcast live and had cut-ins to the Thunder’s radio duo, who actually sounded like they cared about the game and wanted to inform fans about the goings-on on the field. They were excited yet understated, and projected a sense of the magnitude of such an event in that franchise’s history. On the Yankees mothership broadcast, John Sterling treated it as an also-ran story, because, “he’s not here.”

Another component to the Clemens story to discuss below: The Yankees have lost eight of their last 11 games and have lost eight games in the standings since the Clemens announcement. The locals are saying Clemens’ energy is just what the Yankees need at this point. Do you agree? Or are the Yankees too far gone for him to make an impact?

THINGS TO WATCH THIS WEEK…
• More gasoline being poured on the “Cashman/Torre job status” fire.

• Clemens in Boston (it hasn’t been ruled out).

• The Bostonians preparing the guillotine for the Yankees.

• Mets PR director Jay Horwitz stewing at the fact that the Mets are 15 games above .500 and in first place, and can’t buy a backpage.

Until next week …

The Yankees held a closed-door meeting for close to an hour last night before they were shut-down by the Jays, 7-2. The Red Sox won again, and the Bombers are now tied for last place with the Devil Rays, thirteen-and-a-half out.

Roger Clemens pitched well in Scranton last night and appears headed for Fenway Park this weekend. Too little too late? Oh, how Sox fans must be licking their collective chops at a chance to bury the dead this weekend.

The 2007 Toronto Blue Jays just can’t catch a break. Their starting third baseman and hottest hitter hit the DL in mid April. Three days before he came back, their starting catcher hit the DL. Their starting left fielder is out for several months due to back surgery. Their big money closer is out for the year due to Tommy John surgery. Forty percent of their starting rotation is on the DL right now, and that doesn’t even take into account John Thomson, who hasn’t thrown a pitch for them yet this year, or the three lesser relievers currently resiting on their disabled list.

If that weren’t enough, Frank Thomas is struggling, Vernon Wells is scuffling, and rookie slugger Adam Lind lost the replacement left field job to 39-year-old beer leaguer Matt Stairs (albeit the wildly underrated and currently hot as hellfire beer leaguer Matt Stairs).

What’s left is a team that that has five hitters who are actually hitting, two more who might reasonably be expected to, and an eighth on the DL. Beyond that it’s Royce Clayton, Jason Phillips, John McDonald, and Sal Fasano. Lind, if he ever finds his groove, can only play at the expense of one of the guys who’s already hitting, ditto Reed Johnson upon his eventual return.

On the mound, A. J. Burnett has been healthy and effective, but he’s also been lonely. Roy Halladay should return soon from an apendectomy, but will have to shake off not just the surgery, but his last two starts in which he allowed 17 runs in 10 1/3 innings. None of the other starters deserve mention. In the bullpen, Jeremy Accardo has excelled in relief of the injured B.J. Ryan, as have lefties Scott Downs and Brian Tallet and converted reliever Casey Janssen behind him, but Jason Frasor blew his shot at the closer’s job at the end of April by posting a 10.13 ERA in eight appearances, blowing two saves, and losing a third game.

There’s some hope here. Accardo’s solidified the closer spot. Thomas and Wells could heat up. Halladay and Gregg Zaun could come back soon and produce at their expected levels. But the Jays will still be stuck with an eight-man lineup, a two-man rotation, and a four-man bullpen. That’s a recipe for a .500 team if I ever heard one.

As for tonight’s starter, Dustin McGowan is a 25-year-old righty that the Jays once had high hopes for, though those have slowly faded since an injury-shortened 2004 season at double-A. The Yankees saw him four times last year, including once as a starter on the final day of the season, a game in which McGowan allowed eight baserunners and three stolen bases in 2 2/3 innings, but amazingly only one run.

The Yankees enter Toronto a half game behind the Jays, a full game behind the Orioles, and a whopping 12.5 games out of first place in the real world. Personally, I prefer the fantasy world of Pythagarus:

BOS 33-16 –
NYY 26-22 6.5
TOR 24-25 9
BAL 24-26 9.5
TBD 18-30 14.5

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The first man Mike Mussina walked on Sunday afternoon was also the last batter he faced. With one man out in the seventh inning, Joe Torre relieved Mussina with the Yankees holding a 2-1 lead. Scott Proctor quickly gave up a double and then walked three consecutive men as more than 50,000 Yankee fans sat on their hands, helplessly. The Angels ended the inning leading 4-2 one just one hit. When Torre came to get Proctor after the third walk, the Yankee manager was showered with boos from the Stadium crowd, whose frustration had boiled over.

The Bombers staged a rally in the ninth against K-Rod and for the second straight day they came up just short. Rodriguez got Jeter to fly out to center field to end the game. Final: Angels 4, Yanks 3. A fine effort from Mussina spoiled. The Yankee offense was terrible. Jason Giambi is slumping so badly he’s practically giving away at bats (he’s 4-for his last-44). Oh, and John Lackey showed why he’s a tough, big-game pitcher. He goes right after hitters and is as good as he is ugly.

Hey, and what do you know, the Red Sox won for a change. New York is now 12.5 back. Only fantastic memories of 1978 are keeping hope alive for Yankee fans now. However, this Yankee team is looking more like the 1979 vintage. They didn’t give up yesterday, but it seems as if these guys are down 2-0 before the first pitch is thrown these days. Still some time left, but they’ve got to play .600+ ball for the rest of the season. Oy.

Chien-Ming Wang had a rough first inning. His pitches were up, his control was off and the Angels scored three runs. He was terrific over the next seven innings. The Angels didn’t score again, but wouldn’t ya know it, they already had more than enough to beat the Yanks, 3-1. Kelvim Escobar, and then the dynamic duo of Shields and Rodriguez were in fine form, the Yankee offense left 758 runners on base, and New York finished the day 11.5 behind Boston, who won again.

The Bombers staged a two-out rally in the ninth but Bobby Abreu struck out looking to end the game. The final pitch was not close to a strike, but the Yankees can’t complain about a poor call spoiling the game, although they did anyway. According to Anthony McCarron in the News:

“The sad part about it is that you stand there at home plate and take strike three and it’s in the other batter’s box,” Torre said of home plate umpire Jeff Nelson’s call. “We’d like to at least be able to determine our own fate. There’s no excuse for it and then (Nelson) has the nerve to argue back at Abreu.”

…”I’m not saying (Nelson) cost us the game,” Torre said. “The next pitch, he may have popped up. I’m saying I’d like to have that 27th out. That’s why the game is what it is. I just don’t think it was there for us because he never had a chance to swing at the pitch.

“And I’m not saying we don’t swing at pitches over our heads or in the dirt, okay? I’m not one to go harp on umpires, that’s part of the game, but this just got me because it was the end of the ballgame with two men on base and at least you want to give your hitter a chance to swing at a pitch.”

As frustrating as the ending was–and I came close to throwing and breaking something—the fact of the matter is the Yankees simply did not hit. No excuses, they did not hit. And the Angels did what they do best: beat the Yankees.

The Angels were in town to beat the Yankees about the face and neck once again. The Yanks should just say, “Thank you sir, may I have another?” when they play these dudes. Jared Weaver wasn’t great, but it didn’t matter because the Yankee pitchers were far worse. So the Angels did what they normally do against New York–they smacked the ball around the field, ran around the bases, and flashed some leather (Orlando Cabrera robbed Alex Rodriguez of a hit and an RBI and first basemen Casey Kotchman was nothing short of outstanding). 10-6 was the final, but it wasn’t even that close. The Bombers fell another game behind Boston who beat the Rangers last night.

Johnny Damon looked terrible in center field and left the game early with cramps in his calves. Damon is not in the line-up this afternoon.

Meanwhile for the first time in a long time, The Boss speaks, un-cut.

As for today’s game, no better time than the present for the Yanks to turn their luck around against the Angels. I’ve got faith. Bombers will roll today.

Heaven Help Us: Let’s Go Yan-Kees.

Just when the Yankees look like they might be putting things together, in come Hell’s Angels, the one team that’s confounded the Joe Torre-era Yankees consistently from year-to-year and is responsible for two of the team’s three ALDS series losses.

The Angels were 6-4 against the Yanks last year, though the Bombers outscored the Halos 55 to 50, while the Yanks haven’t won a season series from the Orange County set since 2003, when they were clearly out for revenge for the 2002 ALDS. Though some of the faces have changed, the Angels team that arrives in the Bronx tonight is the same as ever: good pitching, both in the rotation and the bullpen, and average hitting, with the latter being comprised largely of high-contact, high-batting-average hitters with weak on-base skills and modest power, but a lot of speed on the bases. Notable exceptions to this rule:

Vlad Guerrero: High contact and average, yes, but he also leads the team in walks and slugs with the best in the league. It also appears that his base stealing has finally come to a stop as he’s 1 for 2 on the paths thus far this year. Of course, Guerrero’s so good and so unique in his approach, that he’d be an outlier in any lineup.

Mike Napoli: The Angels are hesitant to commit to him, probably because he’s a low-average slugger who walks a lot and strikes out even more. There are a lot of major league teams that would happy with that from their catcher.

Gary Matthews Jr.: High average, low OBP, modest slugging, speed, yes, yes, yes, yes, but Gary strikes out a lot. Setting runner-up Napoli aside, Matthews has 11 more Ks than third-place finisher Erick Aybar (who was brutal at the plate and on the bases while filling in for the injured Howie Kendrick).

Shea Hillenbrand: Can’t run and isn’t hitting for average either this year. He does have a very impressive two walks in 147 plate appearances, however.

Chone Figgins: Figgins is the prototypical Angels player, versatile, pesky, but he missed April with a pair of broken fingers on his right hand and has hit like a player coming back from a hand injury thus far in may (.133/.198/.187). It’s a bummer to see a burner like Figgins lacking fuel, but I’m sure the Yankees won’t mind his disappearing act this weekend. Nor will my wife, who pronounces his first name phonetically and his last name “Friggins.”

The Yanks get their second look at young Jered Weaver tonight. Weaver beat them in Anaheim last August, striking out eight in six innings and allowing just one run on three hits, actually one run on one hit, a solo homer by . . . Craig Wilson? Well that’s not going to help tonight. The only positive for the Yanks from that August game was that Weaver walked three and needed 104 pitches to get through those six innings, not that getting to the Angels’ bullpen has ever done an offense any good, at least not while Mike Scioscia’s been the Halos manager.

Clay Aiken’s evil twin, Tyler Clippard, makes his Yankee Stadium debut tonight. He was nails against the Mets last weekend, posing a line that was just two strikeouts shy of matching Weaver’s line against the Yanks last August. Clippard was the first of the five Yankee starters to make their major league debuts this season that didn’t look like he was going to plotz in the first inning. After the game, Clippard said he wasn’t as nervous as he expected he’d be, and I believe him. Here’s hoping things don’t change now that Clippard’s in the Clipper’s house. Me, I can’t wait to see Clipp stomping around on the mound and shooting smoke out of his already famously prominent ears as he mows down the Halos with those nasty curves and disappearing changeups. (Incidentally, Rook, Don Sutton has a solution to that ear problem.)

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My most recent “Wild Card” post over on SI.com’s Fungoes blog compiled an all-star starting line-up of underachieving stars from the early going this season, but those players just scratched the surface. If you’re wondering where your favorite 225-pound weakling is, check out my runners-up below the fold . . .

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