Liveblog 3: The Yankees Are Terrible

For a while there, it looked like the Yankees were finally coming around and starting to win consistently. It turns out, they were just playing the Texas Rangers. Besides taking 5 of 6 from them, nothing has gone right for the team. They lost 4 out of 7 to the Mariners when they should have lost only two. They lost a series against the White Sox and are on the verge of being swept by the Mets. Meanwhile, Boston continues to pound out wins and has built a double digit lead in the standings. It really doesn't look good for the Yankees.

The team just doesn't look good, as exemplified by the two losses to the Mets. In the first game, they got a strong start from Andy Pettitte but could barely put together any offense and lost 2 to 3. Andy could easily have 4 or 5 more wins if the bullpen and offense didn't constantly let him down. In the second game, the offense showed some life, especially late, pounding the Mets for 7 runs. But they lost another starter to injury (Rasner with a broken finger) and the bullpen sucked it up, giving up 10 runs. They weren't helped by Robinson Cano's terrible defense, which he really can't afford considering his lack of hitting this year, although he hit a home run in the loss. Damon isn't hitting, and a home run was hit off his glove. After an amazing April, Rodriguez has done almost nothing in May. Abreu is doing nothing. First base is doing nothing. Giambi is doing nothing. Posada, incredibly leading the league in batting, can't take a day off because his backup is an out machine. Matsui has been decent and Jeter has been great. Brian Bruney should be the eighth inning guy instead of Kyle Farnsworth. Farnsworth, in 18 appearances, has only had two innings without a baserunner. Meanwhile, Bruney hasn't given up a run in over 9 innings. Roger Clemens might be ready for the majors after only two starts in the minors. He looked pretty good pitching against A hitters. I wonder if he'll really have an impact on the race or if the yankees are just throwing money at a problem that can't be fixed.

Tyler Clippard is going to try to stop the losing tonight. He's the Yankees' seventh (!!!) rookie to start a game in the team's first 42 games, which is the most for any team in about fifty years, and the fifth to make his major league debut. There's a lot of debate about how good he is. His fastball isn't great, but he has decent off-speed pitches, and has had good numbers in the minors. A lot of scouts don't think very highly of him, though. Hopefully, he can do well enough to not embarrass the team and the Yankees smack Maine around a bit, who seems to be coming down from a stellar beginning to the season.

The first time I blogged a game, it was Chase Wright's second start, and Boston chased him back to the minors with four consecutive home runs. The second time, it was Phil Hughes' second start, and he carried a no-hitter to the seventh before injuring his hamstring, and he still isn't throwing from the mound yet. Maybe blogging Clippard's first start instead of his second will break the unlucky streak. If it doesn't, I might have to just stop doing it. I'll be back tonight.

Top 1 - What's the percent chance that Joe Morgan says something stupid tonight? 60? 70? I'm just kidding. We all know it's impossible for him to talk for three hours without saying something idiotic. Wow, that didn't take long. Apparently, A-Rod is the reason why the Yankees have fallen off. He was carrying them in April, and that's the only reason their offensive deficiencies were covered up before and have been exposed now. Really? Because they haven't fallen off. Their record in May, when A-Rod has stunk, is better than it was in April, when he was amazing. Joe also said he's not bad now, just back to normal. In May, Alex has a .258/.372/.379 line with only 2 homers and 6 RBI. His average line for his career is .306/.386/.575 with about 7.33 home runs and about 21 RBI a month. Joe Morgan is a moron who does absolutely no research and has no idea what he's talking about. Damon takes a few pitches before popping out to Wright. Jeter flies out to right field. Matsui is batting third now, which makes sense, since he's a lefty between Jeter and Rodriguez and one of three Yankees that seem to know how to hit right now. He slaps a double to left field. A-Rod works the count before striking out looking. Considering how vehemently he's arguing the call, you'd think ESPN would show the pitch on the K-Zone or whatever they call it, but they go to commercial.

Bottom 1 - So here's Clippard. Let's hope this goes well. He has quite a violent delivery. Two called strikes and a nice curve ball later, and Reyes is struck out swinging. I thought the third pitch to Chavez was a strike, but it was called a ball. A few pitches later, he pops out to left. He gets Beltran to fly out, and that was a promising inning.

Top 2 - Posada leads off with a walk. Seriously, it's late May and he leads the league in batting average. I don't know what's going on. He and Jeter are sharing a pretty long hit streak coming into tonight. Abreu bloops a single, first and second. Cano hits a foul ball a few feet from a home run. He's not a .340 hitter but he's not a .240 hitter either. He grounds into a fielder's choice, runners on the corners and one out. Doug strikes out trying to do too much, and there will be no runs this inning, as Clippard is doing something he will almost never have to do, bat. He strikes out, of course.

Bottom 2 - Clip-dog takes the mound again after failing to help himself out. He strikes out Delgado looking. The umpire seems to be giving both pitchers the left corner pretty liberally. David Wright smacks a home run to right field. How does he have no power all year and then hit three home runs in two games against the Yankees? Shawn Green gets a ground-rule double off the fans. Apparently it's still cool to play that one Blur song that goes "Woo-hoo!" at ballgames. Lo Duca strikes out. I don't understand how Clippard doesn't have more velocity. He's tall, throws pretty hard, and has added some muscle. Maybe it will come in time. Easley is being intentionally walked to face the pitcher. Jon Miller says Clip-dog is "only" 24, but he's actually 22. He's nibbling too much against Maine, he should just throw strikes. The umpire doesn't call a strike I'm pretty sure he's called before. I'd rather have a way too big or way too small strike zone than an inconsistent one. He walks Maine, which he definitely shouldn't have done. Joe Morgan continues to prove he's an idiot. First he quotes Mike Tyson to make a point about how after the home run, we've seen holes in Clippard's pitching. He claims Clippard pitches worse in the stretch than in the windup. I'd disagree based on just what we've seen here. Two hits from the windup, just a walk from the stretch, not counting the intentional one. Reyes pops out to end the inning, so the damage is minimized, but Clippard threw about 30 pitches that inning. The bullpen had to pitch the whole game yesterday because of Rasner's injury, so the Yankees need a bit of distance from Clip-dog, and he's not giving them that with innings like this.

Top 3 - Damon grounds out. Morgan says the lineup seems easier to go through without Sheffield in it. I'm sure that's the reason they're near the top of the league in runs per game since he's been gone. Jeter works the count full and then rips a double to left field. Maine has thrown a lot of pitches too. This could end up being a bullpen slugfest, which doesn't favor the Yankees. Beltran comes very close to making a great play to rob Matsui, but he does manage to save a run since Jeter held up in case he caught it. Runners on 2nd and 3rd. Only in baseball can something happen like Jeter being on second when a double is hit and not score. Rodriguez strikes out. How can a player be this far above and below his career averages in back to back months? Breathtaking regression to the mean. If you just look at the totals, he's having a pretty good year. This doesn't look like the Yankees' night. With one out, they hit two doubles and don't score in the inning.

Bottom 3 - At first Clippard was only throwing strikes, but now he's diggin' him some balls. Chavez works another walk. Beltran squibs a grounder for a fielder's choice. Delgado grounds into an unorthodox double play and the inning is over relatively quickly despite the walk.

Top 4 - Morgan made the wild claim last inning, I believe, that Beltran has like, the highest stolen base success rate ever, or something. I went and checked it, and it's actually true, except he doesn't have enough at bats yet to qualify in a lot of lists. Interesting. Abreu works a walk somehow. The Yankees use a hit and run to stay out of a double play as Cano grounds out. You see how Maine's pitching to Mientkiewicz even though the pitcher is up next and first base is open? It's because Mientkiewicz is not a good hitter. I don't care how bad the pitcher is, Damion Easley has no business being intentionally walked. Mientkiewicz ends up walking anyway, hilariously, and Clippard is up. He successfully bunts the runners over, even if that might not really be success since it decreases the average number of runs scored in that situation to the end of the inning. It worked out in the end, as Damon fists a double in front of the outfielders and two runs score. Two more score on a home run by Derek Jeter. What's this feeling? Is it... joy? Hope? I won't embrace it yet. Matsui a drives a long fly out to left and the inning is over, Yankees leading 4-1.

Bottom 4 - If Clip-dog can give two more innings without much incident I'll be psyched. He gets revenge on Wright, striking him out on three pitches with some help from the umps. He comes back from 2-0 on Green to get him to ground it to Cano. Lo Duca hits a single up the middle. Is it a good sign that the three hits off Clippard have gone for fewer bases each time? Miller calls a bad curve a hanging slider despite Clippard not having a slider in his repertoire. Is it really that hard to check before the game to make sure you know what a pitcher does and doesn't throw? At least the starters. A quick inning has gotten longer with a full count on Easley. He strikes out swinging on a nice curve, and that's the inning. Long game, only 4 innings in about 100 minutes.

Top 5 - As pointed out by Peter Abraham from LoHud, A-Rod's high leg kick is back, and it seems to be there whenever he's not hitting well. He pops out. Posada absolutely CRUSHES a home run, and both he and Jeter have used the long ball to help extend their hit streaks to 15 games. Abreu flies out to center. Reyes dives to stop a grounder from Cano and just misses throwing him out at first. Why did Cano just try to steal? He doesn't run fast. Inning over.

Bottom 5 - So, there's this drug for older guys with prostate problems who have trouble urinating. It's called Flomax. I think that's awesome. Maine is out, and grounded out for by David Newhan. Reyes copycat-grounds out to the same place. Morgan is going on about how Clip-dog falls off to different sides of the mound based on the pitch he throws, but I don't think it's really a problem. Even if hitters are capable of seeing where he's going and then getting a read on where the pitch is, they can't guess what it is because he has a fastball and an offspeed pitch in both directions. Chavez makes the third ground out to Cano of the inning.

Top 6 - Schoeneweis is in, which could mean more runs. Mientkiewicz is up, and if I see a pinch hitter up after him I'll be mad, because Clip should be allowed to try the 6th. Eye chart strikes out. Fortunately, he's batting, so he'll get a shot. They're saying he helped his own cause by bunting in the third, which is only true if you assume he would have hit into a double play otherwise, because four runs would have scored on a double and homer whether or not those runners advanced. He's somehow working the count, and miraculously hits a freaking double in the gap. Amazing. Imagine if he did that instead of bunting. Of course, Maine is much better than Schoeneweis. Damon strikes out as well. Jeter is being walked to face Matsui, who flies out to left. He's not hitting lefties like he used to this year.

Bottom 6 - Here's Clippard against the heart of the Mets' batting order for the third time. He'll probably be taken out if he allows a base runner. Beltran hits a deep fly out to Damon in left center. Delgado strikes out looking on five pitches. What I find funny about Gameday is that they don't acknowledge mistakes by umpires. It doesn't matter how outside the zone a pitch actually was, they'll pretend he was right and draw the location like it was a strike. There wasn't a real mistake here, they just drew a swinging strike near the middle of the zone when it was clearly half a foot above it from the video. Wright pops out. Hell, let Clip start the seventh against the bottom of the order. Who cares, they won't do much.

Top 7 - Morgan tried to make excuses near the beginning of the game that Clippard was getting outs because the Mets haven't seen him before, but he's gotten better as the game's gone on. Rodriguez hits a laser to left for a homer, and maybe he's getting hot again. Posada clubs an out to Beltran. Abreu doubles to right, and maybe Clippard's spot will come up and he'll be pinch hit for. Who am I kidding? He's not starting the seventh either way. Torre allow a rookie to throw over 100 pitches? Never. There's a pitching change for Cano. A lot of people seem to think Clemens' ability to leave the team between starts is actually written in his contract, but it isn't. It's just an agreement with the team. Cano grounds out. Mientkiewicz is hit with the ball, but the umpire is saying he didn't attempt to get out of the way. It looked to me like he just turned the wrong way to avoid it. The at-bat continues. How come they never call that for Bonds and Biggio who wear all that padding and just stand there waiting to get hit? Doug pops out to end the inning.

Bottom 7 - Amazingly, Clippard gets to start the seventh. Wait, that's Scott Proctor on the mound. Never mind. Morgan thinks it's great he was taken out after pitching well because it builds his confidence. Wouldn't being given a chance to pitch the seventh build more confidence? Either he finishes it and gets even more confidence, or he gets hit and taken out, but still is in line for the win and knows Torre let him give it a shot, building maybe less confidence but still more than just pitching six. Torre and Morgan are the twin Joes of baseball idiocy. A Lo Duca single is sandwiched by two pop outs to Rodriguez. Pinch hitter Gotay hits a double, runners on second and third. Reyes strikes out looking, inning over. Rivera should pitch the ninth because he hasn't gone in a while but I wonder who gets the eighth.

Top 8 - Aaron Heilman has the goofiest picture I've ever seen on Gameday. Here, look at it:

What the hell, right? He doesn't normally look like that (His picture has been changed to a less goofy one since I posted this). Scott Proctor strikes out, leading me to believe he'll pitch the eighth. Awesome. Which is worse, a blister or tearing the skin on your finger? Apparently blisters are a bigger long term problem, at least for Josh Beckett's pitching hand. Damon pops out to the catcher. Jeter skies it to Beltran to end the inning.

Bottom 8 - Another inning for Scott. I hope he relaxed his arm good during that suspension, because he's gonna be using it a lot soon. I'll be surprised if he doesn't log more than three innings against the Red Sox in the next series. Chavez grounds out. Beltran hits a single in front of Abreu. I'd just like to take a moment to remark on how amazing the faces are in Half-Life 2. They look supremely realistic and manage to completely avoid the Uncanny Vally. Good stuff. Delgado advances the runner while grounding out. Wright strikes out to end the inning.

Top 9 - Until the Yankees stop winning blowouts and stop losing close games, they'll never live up to their Pythagorean Record. Matsui squeaks a single past Wright. They just showed a hilarious video of a grounds crewman unrolling some turf or something and there was a kitten inside that popped out. It was pretty hilarious. A-Rod pops out. Posada does so as well. Abreu works a walk. Many players are showing signs they may be awakening from their slumber. Cano grounds out, inning over.

Bottom 9 - Mariano in the ninth. He only has three saves this year, which is insane. Few opportunities + ineffectiveness = not many saves. As long as he does his job I don't care how many saves he gets, I just feel bad for unfortunate fantasy owners. Shawn Green grounds out to Cano. Lo Duca flies out to defensive replacement Melky Cabrera in center. The last inning of a game that isn't close is always boring, and the last hitter always seems to not want to give up. Just let it go, dude. Or hit a home run, whatever. Julio Franco pinch hitting for the pitcher. Did you know he's like, really old? Crazy, huh? What's interesting about him is that he's only in his nineteenth year of service despite being 48. He joined the bigs late but he still managed a pretty long stay through crazy conditioning. He strikes out to put this one to rest.

Wrap-up - Woo, game over. In the three games I blogged, the Yankees are 2-1 with a Grade 1 hamstring pull. Because of the bad outcomes of the first two games, I thought I might be cursing the team, even though that's ridiculous. From tonight's win, we know it isn't blogging games, we know it isn't blogging Yankee games, and we know it isn't blogging Yankee games started by rookies. It could still be a curse of blogging Yankee games started by rookies in their second career start, so I'll lay off doing that. Also, I wonder if calling the Yankees terrible in the post title helped. I'll try to continue the trend by doing that next time.