A Couple of Firsts and a 500th (Postgame Notes 28 June 2009)

First:

Chien Ming Wang notched his first win of the 2009 season, facing a depleted Mets line up at Citifield.

The win should not be confused with a good pitching performance--Wang only surrendered two runs, true, but he had very poor command and against pretty much any other legitimate line up, would have likely got roughed around.

Still, for the first time all season he did not just make it into the sixth inning, but made it into the sixth inning with a 3-2 lead. Had he been able to get two more outs it would have officially been a 'quality start', but with just a one run lead, Girardi, perhaps rightly, wasn't going to take any chances.

Phil Coke got the one out he needed and Phil Hughes was again excellent.

Hughes' dominance in the bullpen is captivating and eye-opening. To be quite honest, between Joba and Hughes, if you're going to have one of them in the bullpen, I think Hughes has shown better bullpen stuff.

Brian Bruney, however, struggled and could not get through the 8th inning. It's a risk you run with Bruney, who can struggle with his command; with more than a one-run lead it might not matter so much, but the one-run, high leverage situations are when set-up men need to be at their very best.


Still, the focus here should be Wang, who, for the third time in a row was not great or necessarily even good, but still not bad enough to forgo his next scheduled start (in this case, TOR). It's his first win of the season--the others should be easier.



First:


Mariano Rivera had his first career RBI, walking with the bases loaded while facing a very wild Francisco Rodriguez tonight.

(Don't believe me? Look here

The entire situation was as amusing as it was nerve-wracking as the Yankees only had a one run lead at the time, but from Girardi trying to play mind games with the Mets and get them to pitch to Jeter (they did, until they got to a two-ball count), to the reaction from the Yankee bench--who looked as though someone had just hit a World Series game-winning grand slam.

The most surprising thing, perhaps, here is how important the run actually was.

Despite walking eleven times, the Yankees only managed four hits--and only two after the first inning.

Part of this is due to hitting balls at Mets' fielders, but some attention has to be paid to the four DP balls that Robinson Canó hit--only two were actually double plays because the first was dropped by Daniel Murphy and the fourth was hit with two already out.


Five Hundredth:

Tonight, Mariano Rivera notched his 500th career save, becoming only the second pitcher in all of Major League history to accomplish this after Trevor Hoffman, and it was a four-out save to boot.

Yankees fans know how valuable Mo has been to their team, and tonight gave them a reason to celebrate it.

In his career, Mo has converted 500 of 581 save opportunities and if conversion percentages are how you measure a closer, Mo clearly exists on a different plane altogether.


Here's to Mo!





[oh, and a minor note, I know the Braves can be inept and the Mets are hapless, but games are games and the Yankees have won five straight. And Boston and Toronto both lost today, too.]

Burnett, Yanks One-Hit Mets (Postgame Notes 27 June 2009)

I'm not sure if it was AJ Burnett dominating or the New York Mets trotting out a line up that would have a hard time beating some AAA teams; maybe a combination of both, but the Yankees one-hit the Mets tonight.

It always comes back to pitching, and tonight AJ Burnett was en pointe.

Maybe it's something to do with the Mets--he pitched shut out ball against them back on the 14th--but tonight, he dominated, striking out ten in seven and allowing just one hit. He did walk three, but giving the rest of his performance one can hardly complain.

As Bryan Hoch (@bryanhoch) pointed out on Twitter via another, right now, Brett Gardner has more hits (5) in this series than the Mets (4), and I'd like to add that Gardner had an 0-fer today.


To be fair, the Mets lineup has been utterly decimated by injuries, as it has all season, but one should consider that that team did take three of four from the St. Louis Cardinals, who are not, if a spectacular team, certainly not a bad one.


For the Yankee, the offense was not the same sort of spectacular it was on the 14th, but they scored one run on Nick Swisher's home run, and then added more later in the game, with four runs in the top of the sixth inning--and who knows, perhaps the long inning disrupted Burnett's tempo and his quest for a second career no-hitter, but then again, only giving up one hit is no room for complaint.

It was especially gratifying to see Jorge Posada hit a home run--he had a .219 average in June going into the game, and more importantly, to see him so in synch with Burnett.

Perhaps now the "who's better, Posada or Cervelli" debate can stop.

I love Cervelli, I do, but, I mean...really now.

Anyway, the Yankees are back to 10 games over .500 as they've won four straight, and with a win tomorrow (and with the Mets trotting out Livan Hernandez, anything is possible) they could revisit the high-water mark of the season.

Yanks Meet the Mess (Postgame Notes 26 June 2009)

Quietly, or perhaps not-so-quietly, it looks like the Yankees have begun to emerge from their June swoon.

In the past three games, the Yankees have scored at least eight runs...and, while these games weren't necessarily laughers, given the timing of the scoring, the wins still count.

Tonight, the Yankees did the type of things that a competitive team needs to do: pitch well, take advantage of the other team's miscues, and add a couple of tack on runs just for form's sake.

Let's break it down:

1) Pitch well...

CC Sabathia, apparently recovered from his biceps tendinitis, had a very good outing, allowing just three hits in seven innings. Had the Yankees not blown it open in the 8th, he would have come back out again.

Although he was no doubt the beneficiary of a very pitcher-friendly appeal umpire at first, Sabathia's performance was what the Yankees needed after Pettitte's struggles and thus the stretching of the bullpen last night.

While Sabathia may not have received the attention that the FA success stories of K-Rod and Raul Ibañez have, he is pitching up to the standards expected of an ace. His record doesn't reflect it as the Yankees haven't always scored on his behalf, but he is clearly giving the Yankees what they need.


2) Take advantage of the other team's miscues...

The New York Mets had three infielders commit an error in the 2nd inning, though, strangely, Luis Castillo didn't have any of them. Ok, bad joke aside, the Yankees turned the three errors into four runs, all with the names like Gardner (who had the game of his career, thus far, with five hits), Peña, Sabathia...(Sabathia is no automatic out).

With the early lead, the Yankees didn't falter. It's a good thing they got the lead, too, because after that inning the Yankees had only one baserunner until the seventh inning.


3) Score some tack on runs...

I don't know if the Yankees want to play mean and keep Mariano Rivera from getting his 500th save, but you can't really complain about the tack on runs.

Three runs can be erased with one swing. Seven can't. And with eight runs to work with, you have more than enough time to change pitchers if yours starts to struggle (thankfully, Tomko was excellent).

And, you know what, the tack on runs weren't useless.

They meant that CC didn't have to pitch the 8th, got the Yankees a comfortable lead, and let them rest Teixeira and A-Rod, if only for a half inning. Still, with a flu bug going around, any rest would likely be welcome.




AJ Burnett takes the mound tomorrow, but the real interesting pitching match up comes Sunday when Wang takes on Livan Hernandez.

Oh boy.

Amazin' Yanks Blow Out Santana, Mets (Postgame Notes 14 June 2009)

If you had asked any Yankee fan before today's match up with AJ Burnett and Johan Santana, they would have probably told you that they were worried.

Johan Santana is Johan Santana, and AJ Burnett has not been what the Yankees had paid him $88 million to be.

Still, any real baseball fan will tell you that you still have to play the game. It happened yesterday, when Fernando Nieve shut down the Yankees despite having only made a few previous starts in his Major League career; it happened again today.

Far from his normal shutdown self, Johan Santana surrendered nine earned runs; four in the second and then five in the fourth to knock him out of the game, and the Yankees wouldn't let the Mets' bullpen off the hook either, scoring six runs off of Mets' relievers.

There is much to be impressed about; the most key moment came in the top of the third, when AJ Burnett loaded the bases with no one out...and then proceeded to get out of the inning without giving up a run. For any starter, being able to do so is important; for Burnett, it may have changed his season, though it's too soon to say for sure.

At any rate, it allowed Burnett to go seven, and thus save most of a much belabored Yankees' bullpen--the off day tomorrow could not have come at a better time.

Also worth mentioning is Francisco Cervelli's excellent day at the plate; he has blossomed in the majors, and you get the feeling the Yankees are telling jose Molina to "take your time, no, really".

If the Phillies hold on to beat the Red Sox, the Yankees will go into tomorrow's off day only two back of Boston and with the likes of the Nationals on the horizon.

The Weirdest Walkoff You've Ever Seen (Postgame Notes 12 June 2009

Michael Kay, for all of his faults, said it best: How many times can you fail, and still win?

Because that is, more or less, what happened tonight.

The Yankees failed in many, many ways.

They didn't get good starting pitching, with Joba walking pretty much everyone he saw and throwing 43 pitches in one inning.

They didn't get great bullpen pitching--Tomko was awful, Robertson was good, all right, Coke couldn't hold the lead and Rivera still can't pitch in tie games, even in the eighth.

They got some offense (I mean, dude, they scored nine runs), but they could never build more than a one run lead.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, they had the tying run on second base and the winning run on first, with two out and Alex Rodriguez at the plate. And A-Rod, as we have so often seen, popped up.

Except, this time, Luis Castillo dropped it.

Luis Castillo dropped it, and Mark Teixeira had the grit and the good sense to run hard on a routine pop up, and he and Derek Jeter BOTH scored.

How often do we see a pop up and automatically draw the conclusion? How often do we forget they actually have to see it into the glove? K-Rod forgot; he did a fist pump as A-Rod popped it.

This wasn't so much a game the Yankees won as it was a game the Mets lost; though, to be completley onest here, I think any question about ghosts moving across the street has been resolutely answered.

Anyway, what it means is that instead of the Yankees having lost four in a row, they've opened this portion of interleague play with a win and keep from falling any further behind in the standings.

Yankees fans can sleep just a tiny bit easier tonight.

Luis Castillo may want to watch his back. The Mets fans are apparently not very happy.

Yankees Vs Mets, 12 June 2009: A liveblog

6.15 PM: Tonight's lineup:

Jeter
Swisher
Teixeira
Rodriguez
Cano
Posada
Matsui
Cabrera
Gardner

An alarming quote from LoHud on why Damon is out:

"Johnny Damon is out of the lineup for assorted reasons. He hasn’t played well of late and he said his eyes have ben “fluttering.” Damon said he felt like he was going to pass out on the field last night. He wondered whether it was a lingering side effect of the concussion he suffered five years ago.

He’s getting checked out today and said he is available."

7.05 PM: Forgot to mention, but you probably know this by now, Dámaso Marte is set to see Dr. James Andrews. Everyone with me now: Uh oh.

7.17 PM: Joba pitched the top of the first there like he means business, which is good. Let's see if his teammates can make it stick.

7.25 PM: Two deep flues from Jeter and Swisher, but not deep enough.

7.36 PM: Some good defense there and the Mets muster a Wright single but nothing else.

7.41 PM: Robbie Canó with a solo HR and that was out in any park.

8.00 PM: "Oy." is about the best I can do.

8.11 PM: The Yankees are so beyond lucky the Mets couldn't get a hit there. But 43 pitches in that inning and we might not see Joba come out to start the fourth. I'm curious as to what happened between the first and the third.

8.22 PM: Teixeira just bombed one. And I mean bombed. Everyone was on him in April, but now we see why we paid the big bucks.

8.27 PM: Canó just missed his second HR in as many at bats, and I mean just.

8.38 PM: 100 pitches through four is not what Joba or the Yankees needed. Highly doubt he comes out for the fifth with that command, so maybe Tomko for two (7), then Robertson/Veras (8) and Mo if the Yankees keep the lead? Just guessing.

8.50 PM: Tomko doesn't have any more control than Joba.

8.56 PM: The disaster continues. Gary Sheffield? Really?

9.19 PM: For a team hitting as many home runs as we are, way too many are of the solo variety.

9.44 PM: Matsui needs it to be his birthday more often. Last year a grand slam; this year a three-run home run to give the Yankees a lead.

9.53 PM: Phil Coke probably shouldn't be pitching three days in a row, but at this point, who else do the Yankees have?

10.10 PM: Our four and five hitters have got to be more clutch than that.

10.16 PM: Girardi bringing Mo in to face the Mets' best hitters. I'm not the only one that's been asking for Girardi to do something like this. Let's see if we're right.

1024 PM: What is it with Mo and tie games?

10.40 PM: I hate Crosby, but congratulations to the Penguins on the Stanley Cup. A football championship and hockey championship in the same year, and that's about the best you can hope for in Pittsburgh. So well done.