Triple the pleasure, triple the fun

[I will do a separate post detailing the umpiring or lack thereof in the morning. For the moment, let the Yankees' win in spite of the umpires speak for itself.]

For mere humans, starting a Major League baseball game on three days' rest is asking for disaster.

For one Carsten Charles Sabathia, starting on three days' rest is just another way to earn his paycheck.

We, lesser men and women, can only marvel as Sabathia is pictured in the dugout, yawning during the Yankees' at-bats.

This, of course, would be the best spot to mention how Scott Kazmir took forever between pitches, never looked quite comfortable and flirted with disaster the entire night. We'll get to the Yankee offense in a moment.

For now, Sabathia.

The Yankees' ace--and if he has not yet earned that moniker, he never will--was so good that he was still throwing mid nineties when his pitch count was roughly equal to that.

Sabathia was so good that his line is deceptive. He struck out five, but this has more to do with the fact that Sabathia was consistently getting outs early in the count--he walked just two through eight innings.

The last time the Yankees asked a starter to go on three days' rest in the postseason was Chien Ming Wang in 2007 and it didn't work out so well--the Yankees were eliminated that game.

That, in my mind, is all you need to know. In 2007, pre-foot-that-led-to-shoulder injury, Wang was a very good pitcher.

Sabathia, however, is an ace.

Aces do heroic things.

In the grand scheme of things, pitching a baseball game is hardly worthy of comment, but for us Yankee fans, tonight was heroism. Pure and simple.



Of course, if one starts talking heroes, one will have to bring Alex Rodriguez into the discussion.

Rodriguez hasn't just shattered the notion of postseason demons; he's gone way past obliterating them into ridiculous, other-worldly, and now...well, profound.

Rodriguez keeps asserting that nothing profound has happened, and that he's just in a good place, but, really, what he's done this October is, itself, profound.

There's no other way to describe it than that. Profound.


If the ALCS was over today, and you had a vote for the MVP, do you give it to Sabathia or Rodriguez, who has not only exceeded this round, but is perhaps the reason the Yankees made it this far in the first place?

It's a tough call.



While you're busy oggling Sabathia's and Rodriguez's performances (and oggle you should), don't forget the production the Yankees received tonight from one Melky Cabrera.

Cabrera had two RBI early that put the Yankees up 3-0, and then two more late, after the game had reached the 'pouring-it-on' stage.

Many have remarked that the Yankees' bottom of the order is not producing, but Cabrera is batting .353 in the postseason.

If we expect an all star, Cabrera will disappoint, but if we expect a number nine hitter who stands a reasonable shot of getting on base as anyone, we ought to be well satisfied.


There are rumors that Cabrera repeated a certain phrase that he uttered after hitting for the cycle, but these are thus far unsubstantiated and I do not have DVR.



The Yankees now have a 3-1 series lead and will have their chance to close it out on Thursday. They needed to take at least one game in Anaheim and they've done that; now they're out for Angel blood.

A Moment in the 2009 Season (postgame notes 11 August 2009)

If the 2009 Yankee season were a book and you opened to a random page, tonight's game is what you'd find.

Joba Chamberlain cruising through some innings and nibbling in others.

A stellar bullpen taking over in the middle innings and not letting Toronto add to a 5-4 lead.

A rally in the late innings to secure a come-from-behind win, with some help from the short porch in right field and back to back jacks from Matsui and Posada.

A win.

That's the entirety of the game in a nutshell. Sure, there are concerns: Joba's nibbling and the fact that it took the Yankee offense from the second to the eighth to be able to score one more run off of a not-very-good Toronto ball club, for instances.

Still, as is more often than not the case this season, the ultimate result was a win.

Oh, and while there's still some time left--today is Melky Cabrera's 25th birthday. Cabrera has blossomed this year as a hitter, taking more pitches and hitting for more power. He had two RBI on the night.

The Most Important Hits in The Yankees 2009 Season So Far

Timely hitting can do so much.

That said, the hits that end up really mattering are often the ones that are important only in hindsight--they aren't, necessarily, the walk-off hits, but ones that allowed the rally to keep going, ones that grabbed the lead or even tied the game, etc.

In no particular order I would include:

Alex Rodriguez's first swing home run against the Orioles in his first game back
Francisco Cervelli legging out a two-out infield hit that allowed Johnny Damon to hit a 3-run HR on Mother's Day
Brett Gardner's inside-the-park Home Run against the Twins
Francisco Cervelli's game-tying Home Run in Atlanta

And now:

Melky Cabrera's three run Home Run against the Red Sox.

What about you?

Which hits, walk-off hits or not, do you consider to be seminal moments in the season?

"An Offensive Orgy" to win an ugly game (Postgame Notes 06 August 2009)

I should explain here that the term "offensive orgy" comes not from me but from Michael Kay.

Aha!, you say, as you make your way through this post.

Basically, it's like this:

If you're going to walk twelve (yes, twelve) batters for the other team, you'd better show up to hit yourselves, and that's exactly what happened.

Every Yankee starter had a hit and only three (Jeter, A-Rod and Matsui, and yes, you read that right, too) did not have multiple hit games. Four Yankees--Jorge Posada, Johnny Damon, Melky Cabrera and Mark Teixeira--hit home runs.

The funny thing here is that going into the bottom of the fourth innning, this game looked much like its 09 Yankees-Sox predecessors: poor pitching, bad baserunning, and timely hits by the opposition.

In fact, everyone--and I mean everyone was killing Jorge Posada for refusing to slide when attempting to score. to be fair, the criticism was warranted, but as so often the case, Posada would more than make up for his blunder, ending up falling "just" a triple shy of the cycle.

In the bottom of the fourth, Posada doubled, Canó reached, and then with one out, Melky Cabrera hit an absolute bomb to right field--out in any ballpark.

That one home run may have been the defining moment that changes the Yankees fortunes against Boston this season.

The Yankees took the 5-3 lead on that home run, and that proved to be the start of an eight-run onslaught in the fourth inning. The Yankees, as you might expect, never looked back. Okay, so that's not entirely true--while the score never got to within four runs from that point, the Yankees did end up walking twelve. Boston had runners reach ever single inning.

To be fair, only Chamberlain and Anthony Claggett gave up runs, and despite the number of pitchers used today, Aceves, Hughes, Bruney, Rivera and probably Coke should all be available tomorrow.

When all said and done, the Yankees win tonight might be the most important win of the season thus far:

1) They get the 0-8 monkey off their back.
2) There's less pressure on AJ Burnett to outpitch Josh Beckett. Of course, that's not saying a whole lot, but it counts.
3) It assures the Yankees, now 3.5 in first, that whatever happens the rest of this series they will still wake up on Monday morning in first place.
4) If the Yankees can, however, they now have an opportunity to go 4.5 up tomorrow. Which could then become...you know...


So sit back, and for all of tonight's ugliness, enjoy it.

This win means just that little bit more.

The Melky Cabrera Appreciation Post

I've written posts before where I've pointed out that Melky Cabrera, in 2009 has found an unusual success in hitting in "clutch" situations.

Now, after yesterday's Cycle, it seems timely to take a look at his entire season.


Last year, Melky Cabrera's season was so poor that about this time, he was sent down to the minor leagues.

This season, his .292 average is second only to Robinson Canó and Derek Jeter. Although his .356 on base percentage is at the low end among Yankee starters, is actually higher than that of Jorge Posada.

Cabrera's numbers thus far appeared skewed by a poor June, but here it's probably worth consideration that when he crashed into the wall and banged his shoulder, it probably messed with his swing just that little bit.


Now, this is not to say that Cabrera's having an All Star caliber season--he's not--but what he is having is a season in which he's done a complete 180 from last year.

Maybe we should have expected it.

After all, Cabrera is only 24 years old. Like the young Yankee pitchers, maybe he was simply doing the 'struggling-young-player' bit.

Time will tell.

Cabrera Hits for Cycle and Yanks Avoid Sweep (Postgame Notes 2 August 2009)

After sliding into third and being called safe, Melky Cabrera leaped up, punched his fist in the air and shouted a Spanish phrase I won't repeat here.

He had just completed the cycle, saving the hardest hit to get--the triple--for the last.

It was the first cycle for a member of the Yankees since Tony Fernandez in 1995.

So if you got caught up in the remarkable-baseball-feat-hoopla, you can perhaps be forgiven if you forget the largest context in which the cycle was hit.

The 8-5 final score is not really indicative of a well pitched game, but it's a bit misleading--while the Chicago White Sox scored four of their five runs in one inning, the Yankees scored in four different innings.

Aside from the bottom of the third, CC Sabathia was just fine, but blowing the original 3-0 lead is a little, as Michael Kay says, disconcerting. While it's great to see a pitcher get it together after struggling early, Sabathia isn't being paid to just give the Yankees a chance to win; he's being paid to pitch quality starts.

Still, the Yankees get to leave Chicago with a win heading into a very much needed off day. They come back to face Halladay, have Mitre pitch on turf in Toronto, and then have four with the Red Sox.


Good thing the Yanks are in first, eh?


Oh, and for what it's worth, Jerry Hairston Jr. has been great so far. Not great as in Albert Pujols, but great as in, Brian Cashman still knows what he's doing and he's a major upgrade over Cody Ransom.

Joba Dominates, Bruney, Not so Much (Postgame Notes 29 July 2009)

That All Star Break must have done Joba Chamberlain some good.

Not only has he been great in every start since the break, but he's gotten better--and tonight, he flat-out dominated.

Chamberlain threw 101 pitches over eight innings, allowing just two hits, a couple walks, and no runs. Had Chamberlain been an older and un-innings-capped pitcher, it's entirely possible he would have gone out to pitch the ninth.

Such as it was, the Yankees thought they'd get Bruney some work--with a 6-0 lead, it didn't seem like much of a gamble, but Bruney was awful. The only strikes he threw were hit for a home run and a double; other than that the command was simply not there. Bruney wasn't just missing; he was missing and it wasn't even close.

Bruney's ineffectiveness is an issue because an effective Bruney allows the Yankees to be that much more flexible--an effective Bruney means that the Yankees could consider transitioning Aceves back to the rotation (they won't, I don't think--or at least, they shouldn't lose their one long reliever), or at the very least allow the Yankees to just worry about trading for a starter.

Alas, Bruney has not looked well since coming off of the DL for the second time, and at this point in time one has to ask if he's really entirely healthy. His attitude in postgame interviews doesn't tend to rub fans (who knows about the coaches--whose opinion matters much more) the right way.


At any rate, Brueny's performance was the only blemish of the evening. Joba had perhaps the best start of his young career; the offense had three home runs and a couple of other timely hits to take an early lead and never look back, and while Mariano Rivera inexplicably walked a batter (!!), he did, after all, get the job done.



One thing of note that I might expand on a little later: the Yankees have scored 198 runs in the last three innings of the game (as of this morning); no other team has more than 170 in the later innings. Given that the Yankees have scored 562 runs total, that's more than a third of all the Yankees runs being scored in that time span.

Talk about a team that fights.

Breaking Down the Yankees for the Second Half--The Lineup, Part 2

[So the All Star Game is officially over--and we can thus consider ourselves in the second half.

This is where it gets fun.

All of those days players got rested in the first half? Well, now they have to play. Now the pennant races start to heat up, and every move a team makes, be it a trade, a free agent signing or simply bringing someone up from AAA has even more added meaning.

What do we expect from the Yankees?

I'm going to do a series of posts addressing this, because there's so much to say that having it all in one post would a) kill your eyes and mine, and b) give me carpal tunnel at the age of 23.]

Next up we have the second part of the lineup.

To see general thoughts on the lineup, see the previous post.

The Lineup, Part 2

Hideki Matsui

Matsui's season started horribly. He looked, quite simply, done--was as close to an automatic out as the Yankees had in their line up.

Then, he got his knees drained and got hot, and reports of his demise were greatly exaggerated.

He cooled off again after that, but now, in July, perhaps his favorite month of the year, Matsui again has gotten hot and seems to have benefited immensely from the nine straight games in NL parks (noticeably the only Yankee to do so).

Where Matsui hurts the Yankees is in his inability to play the field. The Yankees were able to plod through the interleague part of their schedule without totally imploding (though 2-4 against the Marlins and Nationals is frankly embarrassing), but the real danger is if Damon or Swisher gets hurt. Gardner and Cabrera can cover two positions at a time and Eric Hinske, while still a smart pick up, is not an every day player.

What the Yankees need from Matsui is for him to keep hitting well, continuing to provide protection for Posada (who protects A-Rod who protects Teixeira), and they thus also need to keep him healthy by resting him every once in a while. Fortunately, Girardi does not seem to have problems resting Matsui, so I can't see it becoming an issue the way Chamberlain and Canó in the five hole are issues.

In the words of Dora the fish, "just keep swinging, just keep swinging".


The Curious Case of Robinson Canó

Normally guys that hit .308/.341/.490 are in the running for team MVP consideration. Normally everyone oohs and ahs about their spectacular season and they at least make appearances in columns about All Star snubs.

Normally, guys that hit with that line have more than 46 RBI at the break. Especially when they've spent half the season batting fifth.

I'm not sure anyone has a decent explanation for Canó, but to some him up, it's this: when there's no one on base, Canó is a killer at the plate. Dangerous. One of the best hitters in the game. If there's someone on base, Canó's effectiveness goes down--and it's almost directly proportional: more runners on base, more outs, the less likely Canó is to come through.

At this point, it'd be comical if we didn't care so much.

Moving Canó down in the lineup has seem to have helped--and here Joe Girardi is taking a leaf out of Joe Torre's book. Torre is batting LAD center fielder Matt Kemp 8th--even though Kemp is a better hitter than that--because Kemp is batting .528/.576/.774 in that spot (for what it's worth, his numbers hitting ninth are even sicker). If Canó is a better hitter 7th than 5th, then regardless of what Canó could potentially do, that is where he should stay.

In the second half, all eyes will be on what Canó does with men on base. Eventually, he has to be able to hit in that circumstance--or he'll end up the trade bait that he was last winter, when everyone was worried the Yankees would sell low. The potential for Canó to be great is still there--bad hitters don't have .300 seasons--and it's certainly an improvement on last year, but Yankees and their fans still expect so much more.


Nick Swisher

At one point in time, Swisher did not just lead the Yankees in nearly every offensive category; he also led the Yankees in ERA.

Although Swisher's probably not his best as an everyday player, his value to the Yankees comes in having been able to keep steady in right field after Xavier Nady's season-ending injury, and, of course, the untold value of his clubhouse antics.

Swisher has done for the Yankees what many have expected--low average, lots of walks, some power--and has done it all with smile on his face. The fans love it, although they don't, so much, love the bloopers defensively and on the basepath or the low numbers with runners in scoring position.

Brian Cashman, Girardi and Swisher had a closed door meeting a few weeks ago, but the subject of that meeting was never revealed.

Now, with the addition of Eric Hinske, Swisher likely won't be starting every day--and this will ultimately benefit both Swisher and the Yankees. They would like him to get hot again, though it'd take a small miracle for him to be able to repeat April. They'd probably settle for what he did in June, however.


Melky Cabrera

Or, as I like to call him, Clutchy McClutchbrera.

Melky's hitting a solid (and for him, career best) .285/.347/.439, but where he has excelled all season is in the clutch. Nineteen of his 34 RBI --more than half his total RBI--have come in high leverage situations.

The Yankees already have eight walk off wins on the year; Clutchy McClutchbrera is directly responsible for three of them (vs. A's, Twins and Phillies).

He is adequate defensively--Gardner may be the better overall center fielder, but you'd take Cabrera over Damon and Swisher in a heartbeat--and, this season, at least, he hasn't cost the team an error by responding to "roll call" and thus not keeping his eye on the play at hand.

If Cabrera's plate discipline can improve--and it's much better than it's ever been--he becomes that much more of a weapon. Still, there's no getting past the fact that at least when Melky gets his hits, he makes them count. It's kind of like the polar opposite of Robinson Canó.


Next up will be the Yankee bench, which will include Cervelli and Peña.

What the Johan Santana Non-Trade Can Tell Us about Roy Halladay

All of the hullaballoo about Roy Halladay being on the trade market has made many Yankee fans think back to the 2007-2008 off-season, and the Johan Santana trade that wasn't.

For those that need a refresher course, let's recap:

• Johan Santana was on the market that season because he was slated to become a free agent at the end of 2008 and the miserly Twins did not want to pay what it would have cost to kept him.

• Therefore, whatever team traded for Santana would also have to be willing to sign him to a long contract extension as well.

• No one not named Brian Cashman and Bill Smith know for sure, but the rumored deal the Yankees had on the table was Hughes + Melky Cabrera + Jeffrey Marquez.

• Santana ended up going to the Mets for Carlos Gomez, Phillip Humber, Deolis Guerra, and Kevin Mulvey

• Of the four the Mets traded, only Carlos Gomez is currently playing in the Majors.
  

• It is widely believed that Twins' GM Bill Smith overplayed his hand with the Red Sox and Yankees and settled for a package that, in the words of some, has netted him "nothing".

Got all that?

Good.

Now, 2008 was an interesting season, in that despite the Mets' trade and the Yankees' non-trade, neither team made the playoffs.

For the Mets, the problem in 2008 was not Santana. He pitched to an ERA of 2.58 and an ERA+ of 168--while not the best numbers he's ever put up (especially in WHIP), the numbers are still very, very respectable. Sure, he did give up a grand slam to Felix Hernandez (yes, THAT King Felix), but on the whole Santana did exactly what the Mets needed him to do.

The problem, however, was that the Mets kept blowing his leads. His record, 16-7 for 08, is impressive enough...but when you consider that he started 34 games (thus getting a decision in only 23 of these starts) you begin to see how life went for fans of the Mets last season.


For the Yankees, on the other hand, 2008 was an unmitigated disaster for both Hughes and Cabrera; Marquez's season was un-special enough that he ended up being shipped to Chicago with Wilson Betemit for Nick Swisher and Kanekoa Texeira.

Hughes spent most of 2008 injured; he pitched only 34 innings with a WHIP over 1.70 and an ERA over 6.60.

Cabrera started the season hot and cooled off so much that by the end of the season he had an OBP of .301. He was sent down to AAA Scranton; though by then it was far too little too late. In other words, he was as close to an automatic out in the Yankee line up as you could get.




Fast forward one year later, and things have changed.

For instance, Johan Santana, while not necessarily having a bad season, is having a bad season for him and there are warning signs.

• Since 2002, Santana's 3.29 ERA is second only to his 2006 3.33 ERA. Again, it's not that this is a bad stat, but that it's poor for him. After all, his ERA was 2.53 last season and he's moved from the American League to the weaker National League.

• More concerning: his WHIP of 1.22 is the highest it's been since 2002; his H/9 is the highest since 2002; and his walks are up while strikeouts are down. In other words, his peripheral statistics are declining and, at age 30, Santana should be in the middle--not the wrong end--of his prime.

• Mets fans might want to stay away from this one: in the past nine months, Johan Santana has had knee surgery and elbow problems; now word (still just rumors, but keep your ears open) comes to us today that may have just received a cortisone shot.

• Just for kicks: in his last five starts Santana is 1-4 with a 5.64 ERA and nearly equal strike outs to walks. I know Santana can't be blamed for the shoddy defense behind him, but unearned runs don't count towards ERA and he can't blame that start against the Yankees on his defense.

On the other hand, Phil Hughes is finally (first since 2006) having a healthy season for the Yankees.

Called up as an emergency starter during Wang's first d/l stint, Hughes had one ycch start against Baltimore but was okay otherwise, and getting better. Because he only started seven games his numbers are skewed by the Baltimore start but he seemed to improve each time out after that.

After Wang has returned from the d/l (alas only to go back on it), Hughes was shifted to the bullpen--and here he has flat-out excelled, helping, along with Alfredo Aceves and Phil Coke, to rescue what was one of the league's worst bullpens and turned it into one of the league's best. All you really need to know is that as a reliever, Hughes' WHIP is 0.614. Mariano Rivera's WHIP from last year, where he was, statistically the best closer in the league? 0.665.

Granted, Hughes' sample size as a reliever is pretty small, but he shows know sign of slowing. At any rate, Hughes has already pitched more innings, total, this season than he did all of last season. He is, in other words, thriving, and he's still just turned 23 years old.


Melky Cabrera seems to have benefitted from sharing outfield duties with Brett Gardner; but perhaps most interesting is that while his .OBP is still a not-that-inspiring .336, 13 of his 32 RBI--a little less than half--have come in situations defined as close-and-late. Furthermore, 17 of his RBI have come in situations defined as high leverage. The Yankees already have eight walk-off wins on the young season and Cabera is directly responsible for three of them.

In other words, Cabrera might not be getting a whole lot of hits, but when he does, they sure as heck count.

Think that's not important?

The eight walk-offs are a huge reason the Yankees are still only one game back of Boston.



Then there's the other thing to consider:

By not trading for Johan Santana, the Yankees were able to get CC Sabathia in the off-season this year for just money and not prospects, put together the package that netted Nick Swisher--which given Xavier Nady's injury has thus been invaluable--and give us an idea as to what Austin Jackson and Jesus Montero might bring to the table.



So, a year and a half later, what have we learned?

• Patience is a virtue. Prospect development takes time and there are growing pains. This is why it's not right to automatically give up one of Hughes/Chamberlain for Halladay. Hughes/Chamberlain are both just 23 years old and have a lot of growing to do. With Chamberlain there is a legitimate concern as to his declining velocity , but if the Yankees can figure out the cause and solve that problem, they could end up with the potential that they drafted. At any rate, Halladay, Randy Johnson, Johan Santana, two of the three of the Braves trifecta (Maddox/Smoltz/Glavine, I forget which) and plenty of other brand-name pitchers all struggled when they first came up. Unless your name is Tim Lincecum, developing an ace takes time.
  

• If you are a GM, don't overplay your hand. The Yankees and Red Sox played it perfectly and ultimatley got Johan Santana out of the American League. They now only have to face him in interleague play and/or the World Series, and in 2009 it would take a miracle to get the Mets to the World Series. Not saying that it can't happen, but it's unlikely.
  

• You can't judge a trade or non-trade based on one year alone. Right now it looks like the Twins got really nothing in the trade except a speedy centerfielder that robs Alex Rodriguez of grand slams, but one can take two things from this: a) the other prospects (may) still be developing, and b) the Mets don't really have much of a farm system. Right now the Mets can't be considered really major players in the Halladay sweepstakes because they simply don't have the farm system to get it done.

• Ultimately, we won't know for another six or seven years as to whether or not the trade should have been made, but what this can do is it can show the type of parameters to consider when talking about Halladay. What is the team willing to give up, and what will it get in return? If not this year, what about next?
  

Pettitte Strong as Yanks Roll to 7th Straight (postgame notes 1 July 2009)

For, perhaps, the first time this season, Andy Pettitte had an excellent outing at home.

On a warm night (without rain, if you'd believe it and I don't blame you if you don't) that saw four home runs, Pettitte maintained his cool and pitched as though it was still 1999.

He did give up two runs, but at no point in the game did he ever trail the Mariners, and was no doubt helped by some falling asleep on behalf of the Mariners on the basepath.

As for the Yankee offense, just like last night, it did enough at the right moments to get the win. Four runs won't win you a game every night, but it will most nights if your starting pitching is competent, which, tonight, it was.

Johnny Damon, Melky Cabrera and Alex Rodriguez all had home runs, with Melky's and A-Rod's shots being particularly, uh, blast-like.


And, really, that's all there is to say about tonight's game. Alfredo Aceves and Phil Coke combined for a scoreless 8th while Mariano Rivera picked up his 502nd save.

It was a crisp, clean game played in a very quick 2:17.

Once again, the Yankees have assured themselves of a series victory, and with the Jays coming in over the long weekend in which the Yankees get to face Roy Halladay and Ricky Romero (8 scoreless vs. the Rays today), that looms important.

CC Sabathia will be on the hill tomorrow as the Yankees go for the sweep.

Yanks' Grit it Out Against Mariners (postgame notes 30 June 2009)

Given that Mariano Rivera threw out tonight's ceremonial first pitch and that Joba Chamberlain was starting, it is perhaps not surprising that in the end it came down to the bullpen.

Joba Chamberlain started, and while he wasn't horrible in any sense of the word, he also wasn't very good, or even mildly good.

He struggled with command, and once again seemed to nibble too much, being afraid to attack the zone after going 0-2 on hitters. To be sure, the hits the Mariners had off of Joba were more of the bloop than the blast variety, but he threw too many pitches and much too many out of the strike zone.

For much of the game, the Yankee offense muddled about in a state of semi-consciousness.

The first three runs came on an error, a sac fly and a groundout--and they were 0-9 with RISP at one point.

However, as soon as the Mariners tied the game (which they did twice), the Yankees' offense would come right back, doing, once again, just enough to make sure the team wins. The offense did look best in the bottom of the 8th inning.



The story line about this game, however, will center around the 8th inning.

In the seventh, Joe Girardi had gone to Phil Hughes to pitch, and Hughes set the Mariners' down, in order, on nine pitches.

As many have opined, there was no real reason to take Hughes out of a game, especially since he needs his innings.

Still, Girardi played, once again, by the book and brought in his presumed 8th inning guy, Brian Bruney.

As has been the case since Bruney came off of the disabled list, he struggled and, in this case blew the 5-3 lead.

The question of what should have been done will, no doubt, fill the non-Mets-related talk on WFAN tomorrow; and opinions will probably be very varied.

Me? I would have stuck with Hughes, not because of a lack of faith in Bruney, but because Hughes has been so dominant and because Hughes could use the work. You might entirely disagree.


Ultimately, the Yankees got the win on a night Boston lost (check out those highlights if you can. Seriously.), and all is well.

There's Something in the Melk

Yesterday, for what seemed like the umpteenth time this season, the Yankees' Melky Cabrera came through with a big hit late in the game.

This alone is pretty incredible: after all, last year Cabrera played so poorly that he, the starting center fielder on Opening Day, got sent down to AAA Scranton.

If it was a wake up call, it seems to have worked. Cabrera has been great for the Yankees this season, and perhaps no situation better than in late, close games, in clutch situations.

Let's take a look at the splits.

The first I'm going to look at here is Melky's numbers each time he sees a starting pitcher. Like most players, Melky hits better the third time he sees the pitcher, at .421/.429/.632. Starting pitchers fatigue later in the game, so this split isn't too surprising.

However, it probably should be noted here, that in the 8th and 9th innings, when Cabrera's doing most of his damage, the starter has usually been taken out of the game. So while the above split is nice, it doesn't really suit our purposes.

This, however, does:

Cabrera hits .412/.444/.588 in the eighth inning and .471/.526/.529 in the ninth. Those splits don't indicate close games, but they do indicate a knack for hitting late in the game. In the third through seventh innings, Melky doesn't even hit .300, but eighth or later, Melky's OPS is over 1.000. (Melky also has great numbers in the first and second innings, but if a hitter as low in the order as he is gets a chance to hit in the first two innings, the first especially, the other pitcher probably isn't doing a very good job.)

In high leverage situations, Melky is hitting at .324/.350/.514 which is one indicator of hitting in so-called clutch situations.

Another indicator are situations defined as close and late, which is a situation where, 7th inning or later, and the batting team is tied, ahead by one or with the tying run at least on deck.

In these situation Melky's numbers are an astounding .483/.500/.690, and he has an OPS of 1.192, nearly 1.200, when 1.000 is considered excellent. He has 33 plate appearances, which is a small sample size, but it's not that small.

Most telling, in these situations, Melky has 11 of his 22 RBI.


Having a hitter with these kind of the numbers in these situations at the bottom of the line up is certainly a weapon, as it further reasserts the notion that there are no holes or landing spots in the Yankee line up.


What's all this mean?

Quite simply, right now, in 2009, if you want the Yankees to get a clutch hit, late in the ball game in a close game, you don't want Alex Rodriguez or Mark Teixeira or even Jorge Posada batting.

You want the Melkman.

A-Rod and Melkman Come Up Clutch; Yanks Walk Off (Postgame Notes 23 May 2009)

Earlier this afternoon, Helen and I are on the D train from Columbus Circle, going north to Fordham.

Helen has just arrived from Newcastle, England; she's not, as you imagine, a baseball fan by nature, though she is trying.

We're standing, holding onto one of the poles, it's about 4.30 pm and I can't remember now what we were talking about then, but at 125th street, a guy and a girl get on. The guy is wearing a Yankees' cap while the girl is wearing a Phillies' cap.

As one might imagine, the girl starts uttering,

"We'll be lucky if we get there by the seventh inning."

I can't help myself.

"All the good stuff happens in the later innings, anyway."


Self-fullfiling prophecy, it would seem.


I have no idea as to how Andy Pettitte pitched or as to how most of the Yankees hit; when I turned the game on, it was 4-1 Phillies.

Here is what I did see:

Phil Coke is something, that 8th inning guy if/when Bruney can't go.

Derek Jeter had a nice home run, but Alex Rodriguez hit one out in the ninth, and that one mattered, no question.

Bottom of the ninth inning, off of Brad Lidge, to tie the game...and, of course, once that happened, there really wasn't much of a question:

AJ had to go get the pie ready.

The question became not if the Yankees would win the game, but who, and it would somehow seem fitting that Melky Cabrera, who started the last winning streak, should start this one.

***

CC Sabathia and Cole Hamels tomorrow; should be quite a match up

Yankees Ride Back to Back to Back Home Runs to 8th Straight Victory (Postgame Notes 20 May 2009)

When things go right, they really go right.

For instance, today was likely Phil Hughes' last start before Chien Ming Wang comes back to the rotation. He needed to impress.

So he struck out nine in five innings while only walking one.


Nick Swisher had been slumping something awful at the Stadium.

So he hit a home run, which was only the first of three back-to-back-to-back home runs that the Yankees hit in the second inning, each getting progressively bomb-ier.


After Hughes' short outing the Yankees needed a good performance from the middle relievers.

So Alfredo Aceves and Phil Coke combined to throw two and two-thirds scoreless innings (with some help from Johnny Damon).


After Mariano Rivera got the last out in the eighth, Yankees fans were praying for an insurance run or two so that Mo didn't have to sweat the ninth.

So the Yankees scored six runs in the bottom of the inning--and every runner to reach scoring position in the inning scored.

And then Mo pitched the ninth, anyway, saving Albaldejo, Bruney, Tomko and Veras for another day.



Add it all together and the Yankees have won eight straight, with the guarantee that they will gain on somebody as Toronto and Boston are also doing battle (and it looks like Boston will win).

The Yankees have guaranteed themselves a winning record on the homestand, which could be important as Philadelphia, which comes to town on Friday, is not exactly a pushover.

Some More Thoughts From Last Night's Game...

...Now that I've had a chance to think about it.

• Brett Gardner was the first to run to Melky after Melky's walk off hit. The two might be competing, but that scene is what you want to see--competition, but healthy competition that makes everyone better.

• There had to be something to the fact that Tino Martinez was in the Stadium and it was a walk off win. I refuse to believe that it was nothing more than coincidental.

• The game did have 'walk off win' written all over it. I'm not really sure how you explain it, but somehow we knew. We just knew. Once Robbie Canó was walked it was all but over. If Melky keeps up his knack for walk off hits, he'll be a legend in his own rights.

• Hughes didn't pitch all that well, but Minnesota had a ton of chances they didn't take advantage of--not that the Yankees were necessarily much better. Still, it was better than Hughes' last inning. I think for Hughes, there's an issue with confidence soon as the first run scores. If he can get past that, he should be okay.

• On the replay, Mark Teixeira barely avoided having his arm shattered when Carlos Gomez ran past. He had a legitimate beef there.
  

I am not covering today's game in any way, shape or form, so all you need to know is that Joba is pitching, Teixeira's DHing and Swisher is playing first so that Gardner and Cabrera can play in the field--which seems to be a well deserved reward for their play last night.

How I Nearly Missed Melky's Walk-Off (Postgame Notes 15 May 2009)

Scene: 12.30 PM, Fordham area, Bronx, NY.

Dan and I make our way up to the fourth floor of my building, where my apartment is. Dan doesn't have a lot--you don't need a lot when only staying for a weekend--but he puts it down on my coffee table, which I worked so hard to clean last night.

The plan was to go to Central Park, toss a frisbee and find a bar to watch the Yankees.

You could not have asked for nicer weather.

I'm sitting on the couch, checking my email while Dan's putting his contacts in, when I get an idea.

"Hey, want to see if we can find cheap tickets to today's game?"

"Sure, why not?" He says.

I go to Stubhub and look for tickets. I can't do Grandstand or Terrace--Dan is not a height person--so I look around at the Main sections. I find one where the tickets start at $20. I click; I find two tickets for $26 each. I go to Yankees.com to compare face value. Face value on gameday is $80. It's a no brainer.

I buy, they send, and we walk over to the library to print.


5.30 PM Near New Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY.

Dan and I get off the subway. It's quite hot out right now, the air from the city sitting heavy as it likes to do in the summer.

"Would you like to go to Stan's or into the Stadium?" I ask. Dan's a beer and bars fan. I can't drink beer and I get claustrophobic in bars, but since Dan is visiting, it's up to him. If he wants to go to the bar, we go to the bar. It's reversed when I visit him.

"Well..." He gives it some thought. "It's early. Let's go to Stan's, I'll get a drink, then we can head over."

So we go to Stan's. It's crazy crowded, and the music is really loud, but the music is good music. I can't remember now, so many hours later, what they were playing, but I know the mood it set: life is good. Forget your troubles. Life is good.


Second Inning, Yankee Stadium.

Justin Morneau comes up to bat.

I think, but do not say, it would not be surprising if he hit a home run here. A few pitches later, I watch the ball sail over the right field fence. I do not even rise from my seat to see the ball land; there is no way it is going to come down in time for Swisher to have a chance.

At the end of the inning I am amazed it is only 1-0. The Yanks are still in this.


Third Inning, Yankee Stadium.

Dan and I have great seats, for the most part. We can see the entire field, and the players are large enough to be human, to be nuanced and flawed.

But we cannot see the pitches well.

From our angle, down the right field line, we can only tell if pitches are way high, way low or way inside--because the player jumps out of the way. We cannot see movement and location on close pitches.

When Johnny Damon strikes out, we are not sure how to react--and then Johnny Damon makes it clear for us.

He argues. There's no question what he's arguing about and no one is surprised when he gets tossed. We wonder if it'll give some life to the offense; we don't realize what, exactly, the consequences of bringing in Brett Gardner to play center will be.


Later in the Third Inning, Yankee Stadium


We kind of knew this would happen.

We kind of knew that Alex Rodriguez would be called on to do something big. Bases loaded here, one out, the Yankees down by one run, and all the Yanks need is a single to take the lead.

A-Rod's timing is still off, however.

A few more weeks, and some of those pitches go way over the centerfield wall.

Not tonight.

The chorus of applause turns to boos. This is, after all, New York.

It's refreshing to see some things never change.



Fourth Inning, Yankee Stadium


Minnesota's just scored again on a sacrifice fly.

I text Joe from River Ave Blues, who's at the game.

Me: Way too many pitches.
Joe: I'm just glad he got out of it.

How is the score only 2-0?

It baffles us.



Fifth inning, Yankee Stadium


Justin Morneau is at bat again.

I don't think about him hitting another home run, but this is what he does.

It's now 3-0 Twins. It's by no means undoable for the Yankees, but eventually the runs will continue to build. If Phil Hughes can keep it here, we have a chance.

I look at the scoreboard. I can't believe it's already the fifth inning. I can't believe it's only the fifth inning.



Later Fifth Inning, Yankee Stadium


Derek Jeter is at bat.

The count goes to 0-2 (or so I think. Later I see the count was actually 2-0, but somehow I've missed this.)

"Please," I say, "please, please do not strike out on three pitches."

He doesn't.

He plants one over the right field porch. The Stadium comes alive: We are still in this.


Sixth Inning, Yankee Stadium

"You know, Rebecca," Dan says, "I think this is the best idea you've ever had."

I want to agree; it's hard when the Yankees are losing, but there is time yet.


Seventh Inning, Yankee Stadium

Phil Coke comes into pitch.

It's been a few days since Coke has pitched and he's perhaps the only other reliever in the bullpen capable of getting outs.

It's refreshing to see him again.

So refreshing that he serves up a home run to Joe Mauer.

Not so refreshing after all. He settles down and gets two outs before Joe Girardi brings in Brett Tomko.

"Uh Oh," I think.

Then, two pitches later, the side is retired. Maybe it's not such a big deal after all.



Later Seventh Inning, Yankee Stadium

There are two quick outs and Brett Gardner comes up to bat. It does not seem too promising, and soon enough, Gardner is down in the count, 0-2.

"He's going to strike out on three pitches," I say.

"The last time you said that, there was a home run," Dan says, not really amused.

So I watch, but I don't expect much. Gardner doesn't have Jeter's power.

Gardner doesn't hit a home run. Well, it doesn't seem that way...just a bloop down the line...but then it gets past the third baseman and the left fielder, and Gardner never stops running.

He's flying around the bases and by the time he gets to third the Stadium is in an uproar, because we all sense it: Gardner can make it home.

We egg him on. He keeps running. He slides, and is safe.

I have never heard the Stadium this loud. None of us have ever seen an inside-the-park-home run before. We don't realize it'll get louder later.



Ninth Inning, Yankee Stadium


It's a 4-2 game and the Yankees have to hold it here to have a chance. Against Joe Nathan it will likely not be much more than that, just a chance.

"You never know," says the man sitting in front of me. "That's baseball."

"You're right," I admit.

Dan brings up an issue that is on both of our minds: it is getting late.

"Well, if the Twins hit a two-run home run here, against Edwar, we're leaving," I say. They don't hit a home run, but they do send to the bullpen for José Veras. You can hear the Stadium's collective "Uh oh", you can see the mass exodus.

Dan and I have a 15 block walk from the subway back to my apartment. It's late and we, despite being city people, still find ourselves preoccupied with our safety.

"All right," I say, "let's go."

We walk down the ramp and are heading towards the exit. We are in the great hall and I can see the Babe Ruth Plaza outside the gate.

Ten steps, eight, seven, six, five....

And with that, Vera strikes out the side. Do they have a rally in their bones?

I grab Dan's arm.

"You know what? Let's stay."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. It's Nathan. It'll probably be quick, anyway."

We walk up to the edge of the field level concourse. A crowd has gathered, all like us, all nearly out the door and deciding at the last minute to stay. Hey, why not?

So I try to watch Gardner's at bat--I can't see the field that well, because there are too many people in front of me, but I can see the screen.

I expect Gardner to strike out, but he doesn't. He hits the ball to the gap. He slips as he rounds first and still winds up at third. If he doesn't slip, he quite possibly has another inside the park home run.

"Dude," I say, "I've never seen one inside-the-park home run before, and we nearly had two."

Mark Teixeira follows. We just want a ball in the outfield. Something to score Gardner.

He obliges with a single.

It's now 4-3. The Yankees are only down one run, there's no one out, A-Rod's at bat. We can taste it. We are in this. We can win this.

"He's rattled," says the tattooed man behind me, referring to Nathan.

After A-Rod walks, it's clear, Nathan's definitely rattled.

We root for Matsui, who strikes out, and then root again for Swisher, who grounds out but moves Teixeira and A-Rod to second and third in the process.

This is key.

It's key because Joe Nathan and Joe Mauer and the Twins decide to intentionally walk Robinson Canó. It's a good idea in theory. Vaguely.

"Horrible idea," says the tattooed man.

"I know," I say. "Robbie's not good with men in scoring position and Melky's been hot. Gardner has a inside-the-park home run and a triple. You know Melky wants to do something."

"It's the competition. It's working. A little center field competition," smirks the tattoeed man.

While Robbie is being walked the Stadium starts chanting Mel-ky, Mel-ky.

Melky's already given the Yankees one walk off this season. He's been one of our most clutch hitters.

Right now, either he comes through and it's the most amazing experience I've ever had at a Yankee game, or he doesn't and we go home heartbroken, but right now, at this moment, none of us think Melky won't come through.

This has walk-off win written all over it.

Nathan pitches.

Melky dunks one in there.

The Yankees win.

The Stadium is howling with WHOOO, YAY, and everything else in between, including a lot of four letter words.

Brent calls me and is excited and I can't let him get a word in edgewise. This is way, way, too amazing.


10.30 PM, outside Yankee Stadium

Dan and I take a taxi back, instead of the subway. It's a little on the pricey side, but it's well worth it. The cabbie plays the Yankee postgame in the car.

"You know," says Dan, who is from Boston and a Red Sox fan, "I almost, just for a second, got caught up there. I almost had to cheer."

"It's the best $25 I've ever spent on baseball," I say.

I don't add: it's also the best two feet I never walked.

Game 35: Twins at Yankees

Hi all, Andrew Fletcher from Scott Proctor's Arm here. Rebecca is enjoying herself at the Yankees game tonight, so I'll be updating you periodically throughout the night.

The Yankees begin a four-game series against the Minnesota Twins as part of an even longer 10-game homestand. Phil Hughes (1-2, 8.49 ERA) gets the start for New York tonight. Alex Rodriguez is also playing in his first game at the new Yankee Stadium.

Here is the Yankees' lineup:

Derek Jeter SS

Johnny Damon LF

Mark Teixeira 1B

Alex Rodriguez 3B

Hideki Matsui DH

Nick Swisher RF

Robinson Cano 2B

Melky Cabrera CF

Kevin Cash C

Hughes threw to Cervelli when he got bombed in Baltimore last time out. Is that why Cash gets the nod tonight? I don't know, but that would be the case if I had to guess.

7:13 p.m.: Hughes allows a leadoff single to Denard Span but strikes out Matt Tolbert and gets Joe Mauer to ground into a 4-6-3 double play. He only threw 11 pitches.

7:25 p.m.: Justin Morneau golfs a pitch over the right-center field wall for a leadoff home run in the top of the second inning. 1-0 Twins.

7:35 p.m.: Hughes walks two batters but escapes further trouble. He wasn't helped when Teixeira couldn't scoop out a possible double play ball out of the dirt. Still 1-0 Twins, with Rodriguez leading off the bottom of the second.

8:06 p.m.: Damon strikes out on a questionable call with runners on first and second and no outs. He argued the call and got ejected, ending his extra-base hitting streak. Meanwhile, a walk to Teixeira loads the bases for Rodriguez.

8:10 p.m.: Fittingly, Rodriguez strikes out and gets booed.

8:12 p.m.: And Matsui can't beat out a slower grounder. Surprise, surprise; the Yankees left the bases loaded without scoring.

8:40 p.m.: The Twins scored on a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning and on a solo home run by Morneau in the fifth. 3-0 Twins. The offense has been nonexistent against Francisco Liriano and Hughes has been subpar. He has thrown 93 pitches through five innings, with only 50 of those going for strikes.

8:46 p.m.: Jeter lines a homer to right field. 3-1 Twins.

9:22 p.m.: And Joe Mauer homers off Phil Coke. 4-1 Twins. Here we go again.

9:38 p.m.: Gardner hits an inside-the-park home run and Teixeira hits a two-out double. There's some life in this crowd. 4-2 Twins.

9:49 p.m.: Swisher pops out with the bases loaded. Shucks.

10:32 p.m.: Gardner triples to right-center to lead off the ninth inning. He tripped over first base and still made it into third standing up. Teixeira follows with an RBI single. 4-3 Twins with Rodriguez up and no outs.

10:36 p.m.: Rodriguez walks for the fourth time tonight, despite two balls that were called strikes by home plate umpire Wally Bell. First and second, no outs.

10:42 p.m.: Matsui has a terrible at-bat (strikes out and doesn't advance the runners) and Swisher is robbed by Morneau at first. They are now walking Cano to load the bases with two outs with Cabrera on deck.

10:45 p.m.: Cabrera dunks in a single in between the left fielder and center fielder to win the game 5-4! Hooray!

Joba's 12 K performance undermined by bad first and bullpen (Postgame notes 5 May 2008)

If you ask someone whether it's more important that Joba Chamberlain struck out 12 batters in five innings or that the Yankees can't buy a win against the Red Sox, the answer they give you will probably tell you where they sit on the Joba-as-starter-or-in-the-bullpen debate.

There's no getting around the fact that Joba's first inning was bad, and I mean really, really bad.

The first five batters all reached base and before Joba recorded an out it was 4-0 Sox. No matter what Joba did the rest of the game, this would hang over him and the Yankees.

So what did Joba do?

He did the only thing he could do after that inning.

He went back out and pitched some more, and dominated. I don't mean he pitched well. I mean dominated.

He struck out 12 Red Sox and the last eight were all in a row. The last time a Yankee struck out 12 at Yankee Stadium? Mike Mussina in 2003.

It's been a long time.

Joba's pitch count did get up there fairly quickly because of the first inning and because strike outs tend to take a lot of pitches, but, if Joba's doing this at 23...


Alas, the good news for the Yankees ends there.

The bullpen was handed a 4-3 lead, and within a couple innings it was 6-3. The only reliever right now who seems to be able to get anyone out with any sort of certainty is Phil Coke; Veras and Ramirez inspire little confidence, Melancon could not throw a strike and Albaladejo simply had nothing.

The offense was never able to get the clutch hit, but with Posada injured and A-Rod still at least a few days away, the Yankees will have to get used to a Peña-Molina combo at the bottom of the line up. It doesn't help that Robinson Canó seems to have gone ice cold, either.

Granted, Canó was never going to keep up his hot start, but it's been a few games now without a hit and the Yankees really need everything to be working.

I don't know if anyone else has noticed it, but Nick Swisher doesn't seem to like to hit at Yankee Stadium. His hitting on the road sorta makes up for it, but it'd be nice to see him hit at the Stadium.

Right now, Melky's attempt to stretch a double into a triple looms large, as he was the tying run, but with one out it wasn't an awful decision, and he very nearly made it.

It's only the fourth time all season the Yankees failed to score four runs, and they would have if not for that play.


So there are two things to take from tonight's game:

1) Joba is a starter. No question. Yes, he could help the team in the bullpen, but the bullpen isn't even a factor if the Yankees can't get to it with a lead or a close game.

2) The bullpen is an abyss. It's baffling. These guys were so good last year, so why are they so bad this year? It makes little sense.

Such is the nature of baseball, however, and if you can't handle that, then you need to find a different sport.

Because All Yankee Fans Should Be Born After a Yankee Win (Postgame Notes 1 May 2009)

My baby Niecephew (my wonderful, loving brother and his wife decided they wanted to be surprised) is due to arrive in this world at about 2 AM.

He/She/It will arrive on the heels of quite possibly the most dramatic Yankee win thus far in the young season.

It's hard to pick where to start, here.

At first it seemed like the Yankees would find a way to grit-out a subpar Andy Pettitte and win 4-0 or perhaps 4-2, then it seemed like the curse of the awful bullpen would hit again and the Yankees would lose 9-4, and then, finally, in the later innings, the Yankees said, "our bullpen may be bad, but, dude, we're not like Anaheim bad."

Or something like that.


Andy Pettitte had far from his best stuff tonight. By the time the game got to the sixth inning, it seemed like some sort of miracle that the Yankees were still up 4-0.

It's worrying because, although the Yankees won the game, it's his second so-so start in a row. He hasn't been downright awful in the way Chien Ming Wang has, but he has struggled. Then again, Boston has hit him well of late and the Angels are, well, the Angels, so it probably isn't worth getting too fussed over at the moment.

The Yankee bullpen, on the other hand, is a concern.

As soon as Pettitte left the game, everyone held their breath, and it failed.

One shouldn't worry about Melancon tonight: he made one bad pitch, but he was not responsible for loading the bases. The attempt to nab the runner coming home on ball four showed a pretty amazing gymnastics ability...

José Veras, however, looks flat-out awful right now. He can't seem to find an out pitch and is constantly nibbling--I still haven't figured out how he put together those three scoreless innings against Oakland.

Edwar Ramirez always seems to struggle against the Angels, so perhaps the Yankees were lucky the game didn't get out of hand with him pitching.

Jonathan Albaladejo had a 1-2-3 eighth (with some defensive help), which has to be considered refreshing after he struggled in Detroit.

Still, there are some major bullpen issues in that the Yankees don't know what they're going to get. Until pitchers have set roles, like they did last year when at their best, they will probably struggle. Hopefully the Yankees find a way to fix that, because once they do, there simply may be no stopping this team.


The Yankee offense is making it look like 2008 was a fluke, and instead they've picked right up off of 2007, with the ability, seemingly, to score runs almost at will.

It's not just that the Yankees are scoring runs, it's that they are scoring them almost every game. In 23 games they've been held to less than four runs three times, and they have never been shut out.

Oh, and Teixeira's hitting about .192 and A-Rod isn't in the line up...

Not only that, but tonight, after the offense fell behind 9-4 after being up 4-0, they didn't give up, and showed a type of fight that we seldom, if ever, saw last season.

Right now, the clutch hitting is coming off the bats of Melky Cabrera and Ramiro Peña--perhaps the two guys you would normally consider least likely to be RBI men, but without their contributions in the 8th inning tonight, the ninth, in which Brian Fuentes didn't retire a single batter (Teixeira walk, Matsui single, Canó single, Posada walkoff hit), would not have mattered.

If anything, tonight's win can serve notice to the rest of the league: even if this team currently has the 13th worse bullpen in the AL, they can still find a way to win.


Nick Swisher did get HBP in the elbow and had to leave the game. However, X-Rays are negative and he is Day-to-Day.

Oh, and just for the fun of it: the Yankees have assured themselves at least a series split with the Angels.


***

I will be at tomorrow's Yankee game, sec 309, row 7, seat 22 or 23. Feel free to come by and say hi. Alas, I don't have a fancy phone, so if you want to email to set something up, you'll have to do it tonight.

Bottom of the Order Comes Through, Yanks finish April Above .500 First Time Since 2006 (postgame notes 30 April 2009)

Given the struggles of Chien Ming Wang, the injuries to A-Rod and Nady, the low RISP batting average and the sweep in Boston, it may be hard to believe that the Yankees have finished April above .500, but they indeed have.

At the worst, they would have finished the month at .500, and that itself would have been an improvement over the last two seasons, but they didn't just win tonight, they also beat the one team that's given them fits and starts for over a decade in the Anaheim Angels.

AJ Burnett did not have his best stuff, and occasionally looked like he was getting hit very hard, but somehow managed to make it through seven innings keeping the Yankees firmly in the game.

It was certainly not his best start of the season, but he gave the Yankees a chance to win and they took advantage.

Johnny Damon had a solo home run, furthering calls of "bandbox!", but the big offensive moment of the game came in the 8th inning.

In a tie game, Melky Cabrera's single put the Yankees ahead 5-4, and then Ramiro Peña's two-run double, his first two career RBI, put the Yankees ahead 7-4 and the team didn't look back.

Phil Coke pitched an excellent 8th inning with the game tied--it looks more and more like the early season troubles were flukes, though it's still early to tell--and Mariano Rivera bounced back and got through the ninth allowing one hit and nothing else.

I would like to caution that while it seems Rivera is getting hit more this year (and, well, he is) may seem worse than it is simply because of how dominant he was last year. He struggled in April '07 as well and managed to survive the year intact, no?

Ramiro Peña is looking more and more like should have been the placeholder at 3rd all along. He plays an excellent glove and is not an automatic out, and came through in a big place today. He should be sent back down when A-Rod comes back, because he really should play every day. He's not considered a top prospect for the Yankees, but he's taken advantage (or, at least, it seems that way) of the opportunity here.

Mark Teixeira continues to struggle; whether this is his normal early season struggles or if his wrist is hurting a bit more we don't know. He's still walking so his OBP is still up there, but the .200 average can't continue to hit in the three spot if he doesn't pick it up. It's still early and signs say he will recover, especially once A-Rod comes back.


Robbie Canó, thanks perhaps to Bobby Abreu's defense, now has a career-best 17 game hitting streak. He had an 0-fer the rest of the night, but his hit came in the 8th inning--the right time.