PBP Caption Contest Vote Extended

Since we have so many entries I've decided to extend the vote--voting will now end next Friday, at midnight.

No more entries will be accepted.




The entries can be found here.

To vote, send me an email at rebecca@puristbleedspinstripes.com with the name of the entrant.

You may vote for yourself.

Caption Contest needs your Votes!

Vote for the winner in the first ever PBP Caption Contest!

You may vote in a comment or via email. I'd ask that you only vote once, but since commenting is open it'll have to be an honor system here.

You are, of course, allowed to vote for yourself.

Voting ends Friday, at midnight, winner theoretically announced Saturday.

Yes, there will be a prize.

The first ever PBP caption contest

(image credit AP)

Have at it. NinjaCanó captions are especially appreciated.

Winner gets a small prize.

Rules:

1) Try to keep the captions clean, okay?
2) Don't copy anyone else.

Go for it. NinjaCanó can use the loving.

"This New Guy We Got"

When you can get 45,000+ fans all chanting your name in a LCS in your first year in New York, you're obviously doing something right.

CC's something?

8 innings,
4 hits
1 run
1 walk
7 strikeouts.

Yeah, I don't know about you, but I'd say that new guy did pretty well for himself.

Sabathia and the Yankees were also helped by some pretty poor fundamental play by the Angels--the one play we'll remember years from now was a Luis Castillo-esque dropped pop up (well, not so much dropped as no one bothered to try to catch it) by Eric Aybar that directly led to the Yankees 2nd run in the first.

The two runs were all that the Yankees--and Sabathia--would need.

Sabathia was helped by solid fundamental play and good defense on the part of his team, and the Yankees simply outplayed the Angels.

The Yankees did not get a ton of offense, but they had enough to take advantage of the Angels' misplay. Tonight was only the second time ever there had been a game at the new Yankee Stadium without a home run, but the Yankees were able to tack on the two insurance runs to provide the extra cushion everyone likes so much.

Maybe it has something to do with the cold...New York is a cold weather city, after all...then again, when one considers the way Robinson Canó looked more like a ninja than a baseball player, maybe not.

The best moment of levity came late in the game, when FOX aired a conversation between Joe Girardi and Tim McClelland, the home plate umpire, as Girardi went to bring in Mariano Rivera. Rivera, who has more postseason saves than anyone else in history. You may have heard of him. It went something like this:

Girardi: We're bringing Rivera.
McClelland: Who?
Girardi: This new guy we got.
McClelland: Up from AAA?


Well, for what it's worth, that real new guy, CC, was worth every single cent tonight.

Mitre and Gaudin combine to one-hit White Sox (Postgame Notes 29 August 2009)

You can be forgiven if, at the outset, you thought that today's Contreras-Mitre match up would be one long and non-fun game to sit through.

Jose Contreras certainly kept up his part of the bargain--unable to make it even through the fourth inning as the Yankees singled and doubled him to death.

Sergio Mitre, on the other hand, pitched well.

Not well-for-a-five-starter or well-for-someone-that-has-an-awfully-high-WHIP or passably good, but well.

Very, very well.

Through six and a third innings, Mitre gave up only one hit--a scorching double to Jim Thome (if you're going to give up a hit might as well be to a guy that's headed to Cooperstown)--and, just as importantly, walked only one.

Had he not been hit in the elbow with a come-back-line-drive-thingie, Mitre would have likely pitched the seventh, probably the eighth and possibly even the ninth--easily his best performance since 2006.

Coming on in relief, Chad Gaudin was also excellent--not allowing a single hit to the White Sox over the rest of the game.

On the flip side, the Yankees scored four runs in the second, four in the fourth, and then two more later on, and--unusual, perhaps for this team--the only home run was an Alex Rodriguez solo home run in the later innings.

Robinson Canó now has three hits with runners in scoring position since last night--a very rare feat for him this season.

Just as important, he made a stellar defensive play in the sixth inning--and he has played solid defense all season.

The Yankees have now assured themselves of their 14th straight season at .500 or better--even if they go winless the rest of the season (in which case they'd have some more serious problems).

Yankees Walk Off (Again) (Postgame Notes 28 August 2009)

If the Yankees have a "secret sauce" to winning in 2009, it's gotta be that they've figured out the recipe for the walk-off win.

When the game gets to the bottom of the ninth and it's tied, one almost expects, now, that the Yankees will win--and the only question is who will get the game winning hit (or walk, or hit by pitch, or pop up...)

It's quite a simple thing, really: decent starting pitching, good defense at key points in the game (like that seventh inning that could have been so much worse), a spotless bullpen and the offense getting the right hit at the right time.

Sabathia was great through six and kind of came apart in the seventh; Alex Rodriguez and Jose Molina sort of saved him on defense.

Phil Hughes struck out the side in the 8th, Mariano Rivera was Mariano Rivera and Brian Bruney had a delightfully decent appearance and Robinson Canó hit a bomb with a runner in scoring position (and a runner on first, too).


The Yanks had another rather bad night with runners in scoring position, but when you have the best record in the league such things seem minor concerns.

The Yankees were fairly desperate to get tonight's game in given the horrible weather forecast for Saturday; they did so without so much as a delay, which is impressive given that the heavens have now more or less completely opened.

Yanks Beat Beckett (Postgame Notes 23 August 2009)

The Yankees' just-finished 10 game road trip was their longest of the season--and they responded by going 7-3.

Think about that for a moment.

That's the type of road trip that separates the contenders from the pretenders.

The Yankees, going into the series against Boston had only one thing they needed to do, and that was to not get swept. They accomplished that the first night, but tonight they won the series as well.

It's not very often a baseball team will get five home runs off of Josh Beckett (Matsui had two--all four of his hits on the road trip were home runs), but that is what happened tonight.

Funny game, that baseball.

The Yankees couldn't buy a run off of Junichi Tazawa yesterday, but scored in each of the first five innings today.

Some observations:

• Derek Jeter hit .500 on the road trip. Let me repeat. Derek Jeter hit .500 on the road trip. There's being good, there's going on a hot streak, and then there's that.

• The Yankees --okay, Robinson Canó--was doing his best Luis Castillo impression in the field today. He mitigated it a bit with one of five Yankee home runs, and I wouldn't get too concerned--one poor defensive game does not a season make.

• Sabathia wasn't unhittable, but he was what the Yankees needed, and the bullpen was (as it usually is in a win) excellent.

• It's going to be an odd series with the Rangers--the Yankees want to win, of course, but us fans have been rooting for the Rangers to win the Wild Card. Guess we will see who are true Yankee fans and who are just Red Sox haters...

• Nick Swisher had his consecutive-game-reached-based streak snapped, but this only underscores how great he's been this season--especially on the road.
  

These Boots are Made for Walking-off All Over You (postgame notes 12 August 2009)

At this point, if a Yankee game is tied headed into the ninth inning at home, you might as well start an office pool for who will hit the walk off.

For the eleventh time this season, the Yankees walked off--a quarter of all of the team's wins.

The game, otherwise, was fairly non-descript.

AJ Burnett was at times filthy, but, being Burnett, struggled with his control at others, and it came back to bite him when the Blue Jays tied the game on a wild pitch in the sixth inning.

The offense was stagnant, for the most part, though it should be noted that Ricky Romero is Toronto's best starter not named Roy Halladay.

Both Jeter and Alex Rodriguez got hit by pitches--Jeter eventually left the game, but to the relief of Yankee fans everywhere, X-Rays on his foot were negative. Alex Rodriguez got hit in the eleventh inning, so while we don't know if he would have stayed to play in the field, it would have been awkward if he hadn't. Jose Molina was the only Yankee left on the bench, so if A-Rod came out the most likely scenario would have been Mark Teixeira at third, Posada at first and Molina catching. Not the defensive alignment you want.

Thankfully, Robinson Canó--who has been red hot--was there to end it.

What should, of course, not go unnoticed is the stellar bullpen (yet again)--Phil Coke, David Robertson, Phil Hughes and Chad Gaudin.

Gaudin, especially, was impressive in his Yankee debut, pitching two scoreless innings.

Mariano Rivera was apparently not available--but this might just be related to the fact that the Yankees have that long west coast swing of doom upcoming.


The Yankees finish the homestand at 6-1, and their 41-18 home record is the best in the league.

They've taken the bottom of the ninth and turned it into a true home field advantage

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.

They Don't Need No Stinkin' Homers (Postgame notes 07 July 2009)

They were playing in the Metrodome, aka the Homerdome, but the Yankees won 10-1 tonight without the aid of a single home run.

Unless, of course, you count the grand slam that A-Rod hit that Carlos Gomez just happened to time perfectly, jump up and steal.

At any rate, the 10 Yankee runs came on singles, bloops, walks, a triple (Gardner)--perhaps none more important than a 2-out bases loaded hit from Robinson Canó (yes, THAT Canó) that turned a 5-1 game into a 7-1 not-tie-able-by-a-grand-slam lead.

In other words, while CC Sabathia was excellent, which is great considering his poor start against Seattle, the real star of this game was the Yankee offense.

The offense proved tonight it doesn't have to hit home runs to win ball games, it can do plenty of other things, too.

Mark Teixeira perhaps best exemplifies this--he had four hits tonight, and they were all singles.

In fact, thirteen of the sixteen Yankee hits tonight were singles.

Against a starting pitcher that had been untouchable over his past four starts, the Yankees thrived.

The best part is that they get to throw AJ Burnett at 'em tomorrow and have an excellent chance to win the series.

It is way too tempting to blame this one on the umps...(Postgame Notes 6 July 2009)

...but you can't.

The umpires today made three hideous calls, but it was the Yankees' job to pitch and hit around them.

Yes, Derek Jeter was safe on the attempted steal of third base, but he should have never attempted the steal with none out in the first place.

Yes, Derek Jeter's jump play should have been an out, but Andy should have still thrown a better pitch to Alex Rios.

On and on.

Ultimately, the Yankees' pitching is the culprit here; Pettitte had another shaky outing at Yankee Stadium and the Yankees have to be very concerned about Brian Bruney.

Mark Teixeira's been slumping something awful (along with Robinson Canó any time a runner is on second base), but these have been masked because on the whole the Yankees are scoring enough to win games.

In fact, despite being down 7-1 at one point, they nearly won again today. Alas, they simply ran out of outs.

Still, the Yankees have won 10 of their last 12.

Yes, there are some issues, but trust me. Things could be a lot worse.

Baseball on the Fourth of July

The spot is perfect.

Dangerous, sure, but we're humans. We sacrifice safety and comfort for bright lights and big noises, all in the name of celebration.

We are Americans, after all. We always find a way.


****

On the mound, starting for the Yankees today, is not an American but a Taiwanese. Chien Ming Wang.

It's no secret how he's struggled all season.

His first three starts were so horrendous the Yankees placed him on the disabled list, even though there were questions about whether or not he was really hurt.

He came off the disabled list again, but slowly, he has begun to look more and more respectable.

The last time he pitched, last Sunday, nearly halfway into the season and against a depleted Mets line up, Wang finally picked up a win.

It wasn't pretty, but the five-and-a-third innings and only two runs given up were a season best.

We're Americans. We like our progress.


****

It's the top of a hill made up of construction rubble; a block east of the West Side Highway it affords us a perfect view of the Hudson River and the sunset over New Jersey.

It's not safe.

Not even a little.

There is a steep climb, full of loosed rocks and sharp weeds, to get to the top, and then, once there, there is a steep drop off into a construction pit. Put simply: take too big a step forward, and you're dead.

Still, this is the best spot we can find, an hour before it's supposed to start.

The West Side Highway is completely blocked off and everything else is too low.

We marvel at our ingenuity in finding the spots.

We're not all Americans; we speak to each other not just in English but in Spanish and Polish and Hebrew; but we are all in America, and on today, that is all that matters.


****

Wang is not an American, but he plays for an American team.

Today, the Fourth of July, an American team is facing a Toronto team.

The Yankees have to win today, it's tempting to think, because there would be something inherently wrong about a Canadian team beating an American team on Independence Day.

Nothing personal against Canada, but today is America's day. It's not that I'm uppity or anything, but Canada had their celebration three days ago.

Today, it's our turn.


****

There are only a few of us on the hill at first, but then people see us, and they follow.

More and more people climb the hill.

Some climb it too fast; some sit all the way over the edge; one has sushi and a Blue Moon.


****

Before the game starts I tell Brent that I don't expect the Yankees to win, so I'll enjoy the game for the sake of enjoying the game.

Brent nods.

Again, it's nothing personal.

Roy Halladay is that good of a starter.

Chien Ming Wang has, this season, been that bad.

I never stop to consider how the two are on divergent paths.

Wang has been getting better. Stronger. More efficient. Halladay has only just come off the DL and struggled in his first game back.

As John Sterling would say, "You can't predict baseball."

****

While we wait we make friends with the others that have gathered on the hill.

We laugh about the danger, about the illegality of what we are doing.

We act like idiots and then proceed to admit that no, we have not actually been drinking.

Neither, we are somewhat shocked to hear, has anyone else.

It's like my brother told me via AIM two nights ago: Fireworks, then alcohol.


****

It's easy enough to tell it's the Fourth at the Stadium: an actual band performing the National Anthem; a reading of Lou Gehrig's farewell address that has lost none of its potency; Ronan Tynan singing "God Bless America"...

...You don't see these things every day.

Another thing you don't see every day: Alex Rodriguez knocking in a two-out base hit with a runner in scoring position to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. It's not a knock on Alex Rodriguez. The entire team has struggled here this year.

The lead is short lived, but that doesn't matter so much.

The Yankees drew first blood.

The Yankees showed, in the very first inning, that they could hit and score off of Roy Halladay.

He would have to be that much better, if he wanted to win.

****

Five minutes before the fireworks are supposed to start, an undercover cop makes himself known.

"This is a Construction Site. Private property. If you don't want to be arrested, get off the hill now."

He is alone.

We move slowly. We drag it out like a 12-pitch at bat or a 22-inning baseball game.

We do not go quietly into that good night.


****

Somehow, some way, the Yankees get to the sixth inning with a 3-2 lead.

Wang is not just pitching well; he's pitching the best we've seen him this season.

It's the sixth inning and he's only thrown 58 pitches. Both Brent and I want to talk about it, but we won't. We're baseball fans, and superstition runs deep in our blood.

On this day, however, even thinking about it seems to be bad luck.

A single. Then a home run. A 3-2 lead is now a 4-3 deficit and it gets worse when Jorge Posada motions to the dugout, sending Dave Eiland back and bringing out Joe Girardi and the trainer.

It doesn't matter how badly Wang is hurt; that he's hurt is bad enough. It disrupts the flow of the team. Already the speculation begins: what about Wang's next start? Do you take Hughes out of the bullpen? Do you dare to disrupt a bullpen that since the 1st of June has a 2.35 ERA and a .179 BAA? You can't.


****

The undercover cop is soon backed up by a squad of uniformed cops.

I feel like I am in a Law and Order episode, in the very beginning, just minding my own business before all hell breaks loose.

It doesn't.

Not tonight.

We walk slowly downhill. Biding our time.

Then the fireworks start.

We stop. We stop, we turn, and we watch.

The police don't bother us any more.


****

The atmosphere that escapes the Stadium once Wang leaves with the injury is slow to build up again.

It will reach a certain point, and then, like clockwork, Robinson Cano comes up to bat and does something to record the final out of the inning.

This is how the game gets to extra innings.

Sure, scoreless innings from Brian Bruney, Mariano Rivera, Phil Coke and Brett Tomko all help, but it's the failure of Cano's bat that keeps the game going, even as the July sun beats down on us, as some decide they've had enough and leave, even as it comes down to one more pitcher left in the bullpen.


****

The fireworks dazzle.

It's a feast of light, of color and of sound.

"You know," Brent says, "This is what we should do with our firepower. Not blow up other people, but put on displays like this."

I wonder if, when the Ancient Chinese developed fireworks, if they had the same effect on those that saw them.

We are humans. We like bright sights and booming sounds.


****

It ends with Jorge Posada.

Jorge Posada, in the 12th inning, when it's gone from being high drama to please-for-the-love-of-America-end-this-game-because-I'm-hungry.

Is it fitting that Posada ends the game?

He doesn't have the mythical status of Derek Jeter, who doesn't come to bat in the evening; nor does it have the clutchy-mc-clutchness that Melky Cabrera's crafted for himself; nor the redemption that a Robinson Cano hit would bring; nor the long-overdue-ness that a walk-off Mark Teixeira blast would have; nor the grittyguttyness of Brett Gardner.

It is, instead, one of the guys just doing his thing.

Doing his job and doing it well.

That's American.

So's the pie that comes afterward--a fake-out from Joba Chamberlain and then BOOM! from AJ Burnett.

Triumph on the Fourth--that's America, too.*

****

"You know," Brent says, as we make our way east from the Hudson, "baseball, fireworks...we really are the luckiest people on the face of the earth."

"Yeah," I say, "We are."



*The Declaration wasn't actually signed on the fourth. It was made on the 2nd and most didn't sign it until the 19th. But, as in most all of history, such trivialities are minor details.

Yankees Win Behind Burnett's Solid Start (Postgame Notes 03 July 2009)

After AJ Burnett's last start in Boston (which, let's face it, was awful), he made a comment after the game that when he got on a roll, it would be a beautiful thing to behold.

Many of us shook our heads--how could he say something like that when he had yet to prove it?

Now, it might be him who's laughing: over his last four starts he's given up 0, 1, 0 and 2 runs. His ERA now is almost a full point lower than it was after his last Boston start, going from 4.89 to 3.93.

Watching him pitch today was, with rare exception, a joy to watch.

If he keeps pitching like he pitched today, seven innings, two runs, six hits, two walks and seven strikeouts, having him pitch after Sabathia may very well give the Yankees the best 1-2 punch in the Majors.


The Yankee offense wasn't great today, but it was good enough--four runs, with the way the team pitched, was enough. There were two bombs off of Canó and Alex Rodriguez; the other two runs came when the Yankees had a bases-loaded no one out situation and scored on a walk and a wild pitch. Mark Teixeira should have scored on a ground out, but the umpire missed the call.


Tomorrow's game does not favor the Yankees--Chien Ming Wang against Roy Halladay--but then, AJ Burnett against Johan Santana, at the time, didn't favor the Yankees, either.

True story, though: Wang's last start was better than Joba's last start. Maybe things are looking up for him after all.

This One's For the 'Pen: Yankees win 9th in a row despite injury to Joba (Postgame Notes 21 May 2009)

Even when things go wrong for the Yankees now-a-days, they're going right.

Leaving the game in the first with an injury, Joba Chamberlain being hurt could have been the ultimate blow that quashed the Yanks' winning streak.

It wasn't.

Instead of giving in, the Yankees offense took advantage of an ineffective Adam Eaton, scoring seven runs early and not looking back.

The bullpen fashioned three solid innings from Alfredo Aceves, two and a third bend-but-don't-break innings from Jonathan Albaladejo, one and two thirds pretty-darn-good-considering innings from José Veras, and one good ole' fashioned inning from Mariano Rivera and won their ninth in a row.

Just think, even as recently as two weeks ago, the idea of the bullpen having to pitch 8.1 innings would have sent the Yankees' universe into a tailspin.

Even the lingering specter--that of Joba's injury--was alleviated with the announcement that x-rays were negative and Joba had a bruised knee.

Now, there's no saying whether or not the knee's going to swell much or otherwise make life miserable, but it's not broken and the injury is not to a shoulder or an elbow. All things considered, it's the best possible outcome for such an injury.

The Yankees, on the strength of three straight doubles in the first and home runs from Robinson Canó, who excelled out of the two-spot tonight, and Hideki Matsui, swept the Orioles.

This may seem unremarkable, but then when one remembers that the Yankees may have missed out on the playoffs last year due to their inability to beat cellar-dwelling teams, this is a refreshing sight.

At the very least, even if Philadelphia comes in and sweeps the Yankees (which, obviously, I hope does not happen), the Yankees will still have gone 7-3 on a 10 game home stand.

They have not one nine in a row since 2007; AJ Burnett and co. have a chance to make it ten in a row tomorrow.

***

I'm headed to the game tomorrow evening. Section 118, row 28. If you're going, stop by and say hi.

Yankees vs Orioles, 21 May 2009: A Liveblog

4.35 PM: Some really interesting going-ons today

1) The White Sox and Padres had worked out a Jake Peavy deal, but it looks like Peavy didn't like the idea and used his NTC to get out of it.

2) The Brewers and Padres pulled off a Tony Gwynn Jr-for-Jody Gerut trade.

3) The Minnesota Twins are currently up on the ChiSox 20-0 and there's still another inning to play.

4) Yankees lineup, from @Yesnetwork:
Jeter SS
Canó 2B
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui DH
Swisher RF
Cabrera LF
Cervelli C
Gardner CF


I'm not entirely sure why Canó is batting second, but I am assuming Johnny D is just getting a night off.


4.50 PM: I'm always wrong. From LoHud:

Josh reports that Phil Hughes will get another start. Hughes will start Monday in Texas. Chien-Ming Wang will pitch a minor league game tomorrow.

“We just want to see him have the stuff he had in the bullpen,” Girardi said.

Johnny Damon wrenched his neck jumping for Adam Jones home run yesterday. He is sore but Girardi hopes its only one day. “He’s a little sore.”

It doesn't seem like Damon's hurt too bad, but even so there's no being too cautious, especially with a neck.


5.40 PM: There's a rumor going around that Phil Hughes has asked to go to the bullpen when Wang returns to the rotation. If/when I get this from an official source I'll say so. For now, it might just be pointless rumblings.

5.42 PM: Now I'm hearing it was Girardi per WFAN.

5.57 PM: Phil Coke is a game time decision after getting hit on the shoulder yesterday.

7.03 PM: Yeah, old news now, but Peavy officially rejected the trade.

7.17 PM: Joba kind of couldn't get out of the way of an Adam Jones liner; he's in the game now, but we'll see if there are any effects.

7.19 PM: It looks like the Yankees are going to go to the bullpen. We have to hope that Joba's injury is not serious. And that the Yankees can piece this together with the bullpen.

7.31 PM: Guess Robbie's okay hitting second out of the line up.

7.41 PM: Melky is so clutch. Even lets the runs score before getting tagged out. 4-0 Yankees and Aceves and co. have some breathing room.

7.48 PM: I don't know which of the Yankees scouts signed Aceves, but he deserves a huge bonus check.

7.57 PM: Robinson Canó has three RBI and it's only the second inning. That ball probably doesn't get out at the old park, but it is at least a gapper.

8.11 PM: Ken Singleton asked Michael Kay if he remembered Ramiro Mendoza and then corrected that to Mario Mendoza, but an Aceves/Ramiro Mendoza comparison here seems more apt.

I'm not sure how much longer the Yanks let Mendoza Aceves go, but that might depend on what the Yanks do in the bottom of the inning.

8.14 PM: The longer we go without hearing about Joba, the more I worry.

8.27 PM: Can we give Aceves a medal here? And how the heck did this team go so long without a long man, given what Aceves has done? It's like Ramiro Mendoza spawned.

8.35 PM: Looks like Aceves is coming back out to start the fifth. I can't say I'm entirely fond of this idea. He's thrown 50 pitches so far. I know he's a starter, but he threw two innings last night

8.37 PM: And I am wrong yet again. Albaladejo is in. And he promptly serves one up to Brian Roberts. Now 6-1 Yanks.

8.40 PM: Only an eight pitch inning there. I can live with Roberts' solo HR, especially if the Yankees can tack on. Also, it means Albaladejo should be okay for the sixth, too. And then would you go Veras-Bruney-Mo? Or Veras-Bruney-Bruney? Or Veras-Bruney-Tomko? Or any combination thereof in which you can stay away from Phil Coke who is slightly injured?

8.49 PM: I know it's a bandbox, but as long as the Yanks keep hitting absolute bombs like that, I'm okay with it.

9.02 PM: And now it's a 7-3 game as Wigginton has a PH double. Albaladejo really needs to get the last out here before Baltimore gets any closer.

9.04 PM: That works. Yanks head to the bottom of the sixth with a four run lead. This would not have happened if the Yanks needed 8 innings from the pullpen as recently as three weeks ago.

9.11 PM: Word from YES is Joba X-rays are negative and he has a bruised right knee. That could have been so much worse.

9.15 PM



You see where that "I" is supposed to be in the big Mac sign?

Pujols took that out.


And A-Rod grounds out with the bases loaded. So unclutch.

(Photo credit Matthew H Leach/St Louis Cardinals)

9.20 PM: Markakis with a solo shot and now 7-4 Yankees. Albaladejo is likely gassed, but I'm not sure you can trust Veras with a three run lead. Guess we're gonna find out.

9.32 PM: Yankees could have used a run there but it was not to be. Somehow they have to fashion six outs out of the remaining relievers and I don't know if they go to Mo after a four out save last night, albeit a 14 pitch only appearance.

9.41 PM: Veras worked into and out of trouble there. The Yanks will go to the ninth with a three run lead.

9.48 PM: George Sherrill looked good there. It is now up to Mo. We'll see if there's any effects from last night.

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.

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.