Liveblog 19: The Yankees Are a Baseball Team

The Yankees haven't been playing as well lately as they were when I last did this, and in fact if it wasn't for an embarrassing dropped pop up by Luis Castillo in a game against the Mets, they would have lost three series in a row and be looking at a possible fourth right now. They're still in a decent position, only three games back from Boston in the division despite losing all eight games they played against them, but they just aren't looking very good right now. The pitching still isn't consistent, and sometimes even when they do get a good performance like with A.J. Burnett last night, they aren't hitting enough to win games. The most disappointing of all was losing two out of three against the Nationals, on pace for a historically terrible season. Also, Robinson Cano can't seem to get enough of grounding into double plays to end games.

You're not going to win every game you should during a season though, and hopefully they're just scuffling a little right now and not showing anything truly alarming. Perhaps a couple days off will do A-Rod some good, and maybe CC Sabathia can get the team on another roll with a big win tonight. The team doesn't seem that far from getting everything together, and I'm still really confident in their playoff chances. Hell, they're leading the wild card and didn't really do that all last year. The game oddly starts at 5, and I'll be calling the shots then.

Top 1 - All right, Chris Volstad starts off the game by striking out Derek Jeter. Nick Swisher seems to have recovered from at least being completely terrible in May. He doubles off the wall in left center. Mark Teixeira's numbers are finally about where they should be. The count goes full before he flies out to left. Alex Rodriguez grounds out weakly to short to end the inning. Let's hope today's not a rerun of last night, threatening a lot but only scoring once.

Bottom 1 - Somebody leads off against CC. He hits a double. Yay! Chris Coghlan. Never heard of him. Wes Helms takes a couple balls before singling up the middle as Coghlan scores. Off to a great start here. Hanley Ramirez pops out to Cano behind first base. Former Ray Jorge Cantu flies out deep to left field. Dan Uggla of worst All-Star Game defensive performance ever fame draws a walk. Ronny Paulino watches three strikes go by to end the inning. Not great, but CC limited the damage.

Top 2 - Maybe I should have done this tomorrow so I could cover a Yankee pitcher I haven't already done this year and Tommy Hanson. Oh well. Cano returns the favor by popping out to Ramirez. Jorge Posada lines out to right. Melky Cabrera grounds out weakly to second, inning over.

Bottom 2 - Joe Girardi and the trainer came out to see Sabathia before the inning, I don't know what's going on with him. Cody Ross flies out to center field. Brett Carroll doubles down the line in left. I guess they see something, because they're talking to CC again and Alfredo Aceves is up in the bullpen. And now they're taking him out of the game. This is not what I signed up for.

Bottom 2, Take 2 - Aceves starts off Volstad with a ball. We didn't even get to see one at bat from CC! He can slug for a pitcher. Volstad hits an infield pop-up on a full count. Coghlan flies out to center to end the inning. Poop.

Top 3 - Brett Gardner chops out to Uggla. Aceves takes three swings and Ks quickly. Jeter bounces one over the pitchers head and makes it with an infield hit. Wild pitch inside allows Jeter to move into scoring position. Swisher draws a walk. A couple pitches later and Jeter steals third without a throw. Teixeira hits yet another chopper over the first baseman, and Jeter scores as Tex slides hard into second. If Swisher had taken second when Jeter went for third like he probably should have, the Yankees would have a lead instead of just being tied. It doesn't matter though, as A-Rod flops a single to left and both runners score, 3-1 Yankees. Cano ends the inning with a fly out to left, but that was a nice two out rally.

Bottom 3 - Browser crashed and I lost all the witty things I said here. Nothing really happened.

Top 4 - Posada makes the first out of the inning. Cabrera makes the second. It's kind of hard to pay full attention because the TV is behind me. Gardner beats out an infield single. Aceves makes the final out, letting the Yankees start the fifth at the top of the order.

Bottom 4 - Melky makes a nice running catch for the first out. Two more outs. I'm really not paying much attention here, am I?

Top 5 - This isn't really what I wanted. CC isn't pitching, I lost all those words, I can't see the game, other stuff is piss me off right now... three outs. One more half inning.

Bottom 5 - Brett Tomko in to pitch, and he strikes out Volstad. Coghlan lines a single up the middle. Another strikeout for Tomko. Ramirez hits a home run to tie the game. A fly out ends the inning. Back later with the final result.

Wrap-Up - Ugh. The Yankees' bullpen couldn't hold up giving up three more runs, and a late rally ended when Jeter made an out on the first pitch right after a walk. Yankees lose, 6-5. More annoying than if they just went out meekly in the ninth. Why do I even do these?