Won for the Road (Postgame Notes 20 August 2008)

There was an early barometer for the Yankees in tonight's game.

In the top of the first inning they had the bases loaded with no one out--and too often, this season, the Yankees have found themselves in this situation and not been able to score.

Today, however, (thank g-d), the Yankees took advantage of the situation and scored two runs.

Though the two runs would be all they needed to win, the Yankees grabbed a few more insurance runs, including two on a Derek Jeter home run and won easily a game that they had to win.

It's perhaps an over-used phrase at this point in time--the Yankees have to go about 24-12 and hope Boston plays .500 ball the rest of the way to have a sot at the postseason--but it's true. Every game for the Yankees now is a must win game.

Andy Pettitte had one of his better starts this year, going seven innings and giving up just one run. He had some great defense behind him, and at one point retired nine in a row.

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As far as the Olympics go, Usein Bolt has the most amazing and appropriate name ever, Michael Phelps has gills (but this you knew) and Nastia Liukin is so flexible she makes the Cirque du Soleil contortionists look rigid.

Road Woes Continue (Postgame Notes 19 August 2008)

When things go wrong for the Yankees, it seems like everything collapses at once.

Darrell Rasner shouldn't be blamed for today's loss...until the seventh inning of the game he had actually out-pitched AJ Burnett.

As this season has gone, however, perhaps it's no surprise that a 1-0 win was too much to hope for--not that Burnett is a bad pitcher (he is excellent). However, as it is, the Yankees are now one game from fourth place.

Alex Rodriguez had made a comment about needing to produce--and then struck out three times and got thrown out on a great play trying to stretch a single into a double.

Johnny Damon, who has been slumping, was horrible in center field, directly contributing to Toronto's winning run.

Hideki Matsui made his first appearance since coming off of the disabled list.

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I apologize for the utter lack of posts the past few days--busy moving in for grad school. However, that is now completedd and I should be back to my regularly scheduled delusional blogging.

Cause of Death? RISP

One poster on the LoHud Yankees' Blog has the perfect summation of today's game:

When you read the Yankees' obituary in the papers, it will read--

RIP due to inability to score with RISP


I would like to add that the situation was compounded by an innate stubborness to pitch Mariano Rivera in a tie game.


There's really nothing else you can say about this team right now.

A Lost Road Trip

So first off, I apologize for being so sporadic recently. I've been dealing with some personal issues which will hopefully sort themselves out, but it looks like I haven't been missing much.

This was, after all, a make-or-break road trip for the Yankees, and, well, when you only win three games out of ten, things don't look very good.

It's hard to pinpoint where it all went wrong.

It's easy enough to blame the injury to Joba as a death knell or contend that the Angels are simply unbeatable, but the fact is, the Yankees had a legitimate chance to win every game they played on the road trip.

In at least one of the Texas games, all of the Anaheim games and two of the Minnesota games, the Yankees had a physical lead. They only won three of those games, and in only two of the games, if memory serves, did they not relinquish a lead.

Teams that play baseball in October, it should be noted, know how to keep leads once they have them.

There wasn't any one part of the Yankees that has been more at fault than the other--when they hit, they didn't pitch, when they pitched, they didn't hit, when the starters couldn't go deep, the bullpen was overworked and prone to giving up even more runs.

The ERA of the pitching staff, once one of the best in the majors, has skyrocketed since the eight game win streak.

To add injury to insult---err, reverse that---it now looks like Derek Jeter and Dan Giese are hurt as well.

It's not time to write 2008 off just yet--speaking as an optimist, I won't until the Yankees are mathematically eliminated--but the team is fighting for its life right now, and the fight is not going in their favor, at all.

Miracles can happen, but the Yankees shouldn't have to rely on that for October baseball.

Slip Sliding Away

The next time the Yankees get a hit with a runner on third base, I'm opening a bottle of champagne.

Their season is in free fall. They had a chance to win every game this weekend and didn't win any.

Tonight, they're playing flat, as if they really don't care.

You get the feeling right now that this team would rather be anywhere in October than the Bronx.

A shame. Yankee Stadium deserves better than this.

SoCal SoBad (postgame notes 08 August 08)

The Yankees, it seem, have a physical inability to win baseball games in Anaheim.

This would be not a big deal if the Yankees were not in the middle of a pennant race--one in which they are outsiders looking in.

By all accounts, the Yankees have a beat up pitching staff, and the only reason Ian Kennedy was starting tonight was because there was no other option. Phil Hughes is still at least a start away from being a viable candidate.

This does not excuse Kennedy's poor performance tonight, but it might help explain it.

Still, only two innings from Kennedy was the last thing the Yankees needed. It doesn't just mean that Kennedy had a bad outing, but that the Yankees were forced to use Darrell Rasner for an extended period of time.

While Rasner pitched well, it effectively means he will be unable to start until Wednesday, and the Yankees are now short a bullpen arm.

Brian Bruney had an evening he would rather forget--when he entered the game, the score was 7-5, and the Yankees were clearly still in the game, but by the time the inning ended, they were down 10-5. It's admirable that Bruney worked his bum off to be able to come back, but an outing like the one tonight was not what the Yankees needed.

In terms of the offense, the Yankees did not have an awful game. Most of the time, five runs should be enough to win the game.

As one poster on LoHud Yankees says,

Two of the pitcher on your opening-day rotation have a total of zero wins. Your ace is gone. Your all-star catcher, who seems to be a clubhouse leader, is gone. Matsui is gone. You have a new manager. Your replacement ace is injured. Not one single person on the team, with the exception of Mo, is really even having an above-average season.

http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2008/08/08/game-116-yankees-at-angels/#comment-486394

It really is a miracle that the Yankees are still in contention for a Wild Card spot.

*****

The Opening Ceremonies were marvelously well done. I was especially touched by the story of the boy that walked with Yao Ming (who was carrying the flag for the Chinese delegation).

He had been in school during the earthquake a few months ago. He pulled himself out of the rubble, and then went back to help his classmates.

Why? Because he was one of the class leaders and it was his responsibility.

Moose Almighty (Postgame Notes 07 August 08)

If a Little League coach ever wants to instill in his young pitchers how to work out of trouble, he might consider showing them a tape of Mike Mussina's performance tonight.

Mussina was not dominant--eight hits, one walk and six strikeouts over seven innings--but he made the pitches (and the defensive plays) when he had to, and ended up anchoring a Yankee shut-out of the league's leading offensive team in Texas.

At this point in the season, from the Yankees' viewpoint, they don't have to be pretty they just have to be wins. Every game is a must-win, especially on a night like tonight, when the Red Sox are off and the Yankees had a chance to pick up half of a game on Boston.

On the offensive side of things, Derek Jeter had one of his best games this season, and was responsible for two of the Yankees' three runs.

Alex Rodriguez, however, had a horrible series and did not reach base once. Hopefully, the change of scenery--Anaheim next--will do him well; the Yankees will need his bat.

Robinson Canò's hand seems to have fully healed--he went 3-for-4 with a double--though he still needs to work on his baserunning a little bit.

The Yankee bullpen tonight--Brian Bruney, Dàmaso Marte and Mariano Rivera--did not allow a baserunner. Seems the innings given by Sidney Ponson last night helped rest the bullpen.

The Yankees are in Anaheim tomorrow night, and they will send Ian Kennedy (yes, that Ian Kennedy) to the mound against Jered Weaver. The Yankees have historically had trouble winning in Anaheim; a win tomorrow would be especially important in setting the tone for the series.

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As you know, the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics start tomorrow night. I'll try to throw in a little Olympic coverage as well.

Go USA! Go United Kingdom! Go World!