Winning the World Series

It might not seem like a long time to fans of other teams, but the nine year wait between championships for the New York Yankees sure seemed like forever. And since I was barely a teenager the last time they pulled it off, this is the first time I was actually old enough to stay up past midnight and see my favorite team win at all. It's extremely gratifying, and I feel lucky to be born into a family that loves a team that other fans hate for their payroll, but always does their best to give the faithful what they want - a shot at the best players and a constant hope for victory.

I've always liked Alex Rodriguez when almost nobody did, and this was the year he finally got rid of his demons. Spring training was a disaster, but he homered in his first and last at bats of the season, and became a hero in the playoffs, hitting three game tying home runs in the first five games and powering his team to the final round. He wasn't quite the same force in the World Series, but he did manage a couple more big hits including the go-ahead double off Brad Lidge in game 4. When he slowed down, Hideki Matsui picked up the slack and earned himself the MVP award for the series despite not starting a game in Philadelphia. He hit the game winning home run off old Yankee nemesis Pedro Martinez in game 2, and punctuated that last night with six RBI in his first three at bats. Matsui is a consummate professional who might have just played his last game as a Yankee, and if so it was nice to see him go out like that.

I don't have much else to say, other than I still feel good, and I hope this feeling carries through the off-season as the Yankees make their moves to prepare for a run at number 28. I feel like this was the best team they've had since that amazing one in 1998, and it was a pleasure to watch them play for the last seven months.

Liveblog 18: The Yankees Are Soaring

Overall, this season is going fairly well. The Yankees have certainly had their struggles, and are only right at the top of the AL East standings thanks to their current nine game winning streak. Boston enjoyed one that lasted eleven games and vaulted them from the bottom to second place, and now New York's having a similar surge. They've lost to the Red Sox all five times they've played them so far, and at least two of those games should have been wins. Still, they're looking more like a winning ball club, and they're in a bit better of a position in mid-May than they have typically been this decade.

Plenty of players have had problems. CC Sabathia was not looking like the best paid pitcher of all time in April. After a hot start, A.J. Burnett has slowed down considerably. Mark Teixeira was in the doldrums for far too long to start off, Nick Swisher has fallen off since his amazing first couple weeks as a Yankee, and Brett Gardner quickly showed he wasn't ready for the everyday center fielder job. Chien-Ming Wang was putrid out of the gate, apparently not completely over his injuries from last year, and Phil Hughes has only had a few acceptable starts in his place while he figures it out.

Still, there are bright spots. Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera have both had a great couple months, fending off their naysayers. In the last few games, CC Sabathia has been an absolute monster. Joba Chamberlain and Andy Pettitte have both done pretty well in their turns through the rotation. Alex Rodriguez finally returned from his hip surgery in grand fashion, hitting the first pitch he saw for a three run homer. He hasn't gotten many hits since then, but he's continued to slug and draw his walks as he gets back into form, and whether it's a coincidence or not, Teixeira has looked like the outstanding player he was supposed to be and the team has only lost two of the thirteen games they've played since his return. Johnny Damon's also had a great year at the plate, and putting him second with Derek Jeter batting leadoff seems to have been a smart move. The bullpen is looking very weak right now, but that's the only issue the team seems to have, and that could end up working itself out.

Interleague play begins tonight as Burnett takes the mound against the Philadelphia Phillies, last year's World Series winner and the current leader of their division. The last time these teams played, the only thing I really remember is a game where Ryan Howard drove in something like seven runs against Mike Mussina but the Yankees won anyway. Let's hope they can do that again tonight without having to deal with such an outburst. Although if they do lose and break the winning streak, I'm going to have a hard time convincing myself to do a liveblog again for a while. I'll be back in a few hours.

Top 1 - Woo baseball. Let's go for ten. Burnett got off on the wrong foot, giving up a homer, hitting a batter, and allowing a single with his first four pitches. It seems like he's pitched better so far than his 5.02 ERA, but them's the numbers. Before I could eat my pizza and finish typing this paragraph, he came back strong with strikeouts of Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth, and got Shane Victorino to ground out on a nice diving play by Teixeira.

Bottom 1 - I'm not sure if Burnett hit Chase Utley on purpose, but Brett Myers seems to think he did as his second pitch to Jeter is behind his back. That prompts a warning for both clubs from the umpire, and Jeter hits the next pitch past Jimmy Rollins' glove for a single. Damon chops a ball that Myers knocks down and throws to second for the force out. Teixeira's up, and the protection discussion begins. Studies have shown that who's behind the current batter doesn't significantly affect pitch selection, but the theory still persists. Myers debunks it a little bit by getting him on a nice curve. A-Rod laces a double to left, but a nice relay results in Damon getting tagged out at the plate, inning over.

Top 2 - I think that was only A-Rod's third hit this season that wasn't a home run. Matt Stairs dunks the ball just out of reach to Burnett's left, resulting in an infield hit. Those are so much more irritating than clean singles to the outfield. Pedro Feliz flies out harmlessly to right. Burnett's consistently hitting 95 with the fastball tonight. Carlos Ruiz takes one to left for a home run that extends their lead to three. I'm already cursing myself for blogging this. They just showed that Damon lost his glove on the play and had to ask the fans for it back. Don't see that much. Rollins walks on five pitches. Utley strikes out on a curve that allows Rollins to steal second base. Raul Ibanez flies out to Cabrera for the final out.

Bottom 2 -Hideki Matsui grounds out weakly to second. I keep forgetting he's on the team lately. Swisher strikes out on the first pitch I actually watch of his at bat. Just waiting for something good to happen. Cano grounds one up the middle, but Rollins shows range Jeter could only dream of and just gets him at first.

Top 3 - Howard grounds out weakly to Cano, one down. Two pitches later, Werth flies out to second. I was just looking at my game reviews on Giant Bomb, and every single one is at least four stars out of five. Now, I only play games I'm pretty sure I'll like, I'm fairly generous with my ratings, and I round up all of my half points so a 7.5 out of 10 becomes a 4 out of 5, but that still seems ridiculous to me. Oh well. Victorino works the count full before lining out Teixeira to retire the side.

Bottom 3 - Cabrera grounds out to the pitcher on the first pitch. Great job. Cash flies out to the no man's land in short right field where three fielders converge, but it's high enough to be easily caught. Back to the top of the order as Jeter grounds out. Myers has thrown 33 pitches. Awesome job, guys.

Top 4 - Stairs strikes out swinging on another curve. Feliz grounds a ball that forces A-Rod to range a bit to his left for out number two. Ruiz takes a 1-2 pitch to right for a single which is just... just unfortunate. Come on, Burnett. No one named Ruiz has ever been good at baseball. The good thing about Michael Kay if you don't follow baseball much is that he often explains references or rules that you may not be familiar with. The bad thing about Kay if you do follow baseball is you hear him say the same shit constantly over and over. I could understand national broadcasters wanting to make sure viewers understand the game, but I'm watching a regional game on Friday fucking night. I probably understand what the Mendoza Line is. Burnett racks up yet another K with the curveball. He has five in four innings, but has thrown twice as many pitches as Myers.

Bottom 4 - Damon is yet another Yankee to ground out to Myers, but Teixeira slaps a single to left. Alex watches the third strike go by and walks back to the dugout. These guys are on fire tonight. Matsui dribbles one that Rollins can't field cleanly with his bare hand and gets an infield hit. With those knees, it could be his only one all season. Wait, that was his third? Jesus. Swisher ends the thread with a grounder to second. This is lame.

Top 5 - At least Myers threw some pitches that time. Utley becomes Burnett's sixth strikeout victim. Ibanez then walks on four pitches. Yo, that pitch to Howard was totally a strike. Yet another diving play by Teixeira, who manages to get the lead runner out. I bet he'd definitely have more gold gloves if he didn't keep switching leagues mid-season. Not that gold gloves are a good indicator of defense or anything. Werth crushes another home run to left, 5-0 Phillies. Great, I cursed the Yankees. Unless something good happens in the bottom of the frame, I'm out. And now Victorino gets an easy triple to right center. Yay baseball! I must be testy, because I just threatened to mutilate my dog's genitals for barking. Another strikeout (hooray!) limits the damage a bit.

Bottom 5 - Cano hits a ball that bounces off Utley and reaches first, and it's scored an error. Melky strikes out. Boo. I guess I forgot to mention earlier that the Yankees are playing their fourth catcher tonight. Both Jorge Posada and Jose Molina are out with hamstring issues, forcing the team to rely on garbage like Cash and the rookie Francisco Cervelli. The latter is doing pretty well actually, but it's still a pitiful situation. Cash struck out, by the way. Jeter grounds out, and I'm done. At least the Sox are losing to the Mets right now. I'll be back later to summarize how much I suck.

Wrap-Up - The Yankees proceeded to hit three solo home runs in the next three innings, but that was all they could do as Wang returned from the DL with three innings of two run ball and the Yankees lost 7-4, snapping their winning streak. It was a pretty snappy game considering ten runs scored. On the bright side, Toronto and Boston both lost too. The Yankees still have a good shot to win the series, with Pettitte pitching against someone who I've never heard of tomorrow and CC Sabathia going against a guy who's not CC Sabathia the day after. Time to start a new streak.

Elimination

Well, that's the season. The Yankees, try as they might, were again eliminated from the playoffs in the first round, after four games. They were looking good in Game 2. And Pettitte had a tremendous, gutsy game. They hadn't scored much, but they were leading Cleveland 1-0 heading into the bottom of the eighth, and Joba was on for a second inning after shutting down the Indians for two outs in the seventh. But something had started previously that was now becoming a big problem... lots and lots of bugs. Midges apparently, they had settled on to the field after the wind had died down and they were everywhere. The Yankee fielders tried using bug spray but it didn't work. Joba's neck and face were covered with them, and it obviously got to him, as he allowed the tying run to score without giving up a hit, just a lot of wild pitches, hit batters, and walks. The offense continued to do nothing until Vizcaino gave up the walkoff in extra innings.

Game 3 started as poorly as Game 2 ended, as Roger Clemens, getting no help from Derek Jeter's phantom error, gave up runs and was visibly uncomfortable on the mound. He was removed in the third inning and replaced by Phil Hughes, who delivered a great performance. He allowed his inherited runner to score on a wild pitch and a bloop double, but shut down the Indians for the next three innings, striking out four. He kept his team in the game until Johnny Damon delivered a go-ahead home run. Joba relieved him in the seventh and seemed to tire before finishing the eighth, and then Mariano closed it in the ninth. Phil was awesome, becoming the youngest Yankee to ever earn a postseason win. Joba was surprisingly human after his incredible regular season, and he shouldn't have let the bugs get to him. But he's not why they lost the series.

Joe Torre, managing what is now likely his last game, decided to start Chien-Ming Wang on short rest for Game 4, despite his poor showing in Game 1. It didn't pay off, as he allowed two runs in the first and loaded the bases in the second before being relieved by the originally intended starter, Mike Mussina. Mussina was decent in reprising Phil's role from the day prior, but not good enough. Cleveland got six runs off the pair, and despite late home runs by Cano, Abreu, and Rodriguez, they ended up losing the game. The Yankees lost because Cleveland got hits when it was needed and New York didn't. The Indians had 12 hits with 2 outs and runners in scoring position, the Yankees had 1. And that's pretty much all you have to know. Derek Jeter grounded into three rally-killing double plays, and Jorge Posada continually struck out with men on base. Alex wasn't great, and will get a lot of blame for this, but he was definitely better than them. He managed four hits in the last two games, but they'll say it wasn't enough, too little too late. There's a strong possibility he and several others won't be on the team next year. He's an amazing hitter, and his offense from third base is simply not replaceable. If he does go to another city, I wish him luck in a place with a local media that's slightly less insane. 2008 could end up a rebuilding year with three promising pitchers 23 or younger in the rotation, but it should be fun regardless of who's still around.

Playoffs and the Divison

This post would have been more relevant a couple days ago, but I'm writing it now. When Ian Kennedy won his first game, the Yankees were in decent shape. They were still five games back in the division but held a two game lead in the wild card race over Seattle. Since then, after stumbling for two games, they won 13 out of 16, virtually securing a playoff birth and actually getting within one and a half games of Boston for the division title. They're back to two and a half behind, but it's still not too much of a reach to say they could do it. They only have two more losses than Boston and would win the tiebreaker since they won the season series, so if Boston went, say, 4-3 in their last seven games, the Yankees could go 6-2 (not unreasonable with how bad Baltimore and Tampa have been) and squeak past them. I feel good about a potential battle with the Red Sox in the ALCS. The Yankees started terribly against them, losing five of their first six games this season, but won nine of the last twelve. They have been able to hit all of Boston's big pitchers and don't seem scared at all.

The question is if it's really worth it. All the division really means is pride. There's no real penalty for being the wild card, in fact, half of the World Series winners since 2000 were wild card teams. It shouldn't be a problem for the Yankees to line up their starting pitchers with the delayed start of the postseason, but it does make some sense to give regulars and potentially overworked relievers some extra rest while they prepare. Also, Cleveland and Los Angeles are still competing for the better record. The Yankees should want no part of the Angels, they are the only AL team with a record over .500 against them in the Joe Torre era and New York has played the Indians well this season. If they fight tooth and nail for the division and Los Angeles ends up with a worse record and goes on to bump them in the first round again, they're going to look rather silly.

Another topic is who makes the playoff roster. Jorge Posada has been unbelievable this year. He's fourth in the batting title race in the AL and has 20 homers and 41 doubles. He's had one of the best seasons ever for a catcher at an age where he should be declining rapidly. He's earned himself definite Hall of Fame consideration and a huge paycheck for next year. Alex Rodriguez will also be Mr. Moneybags, whether it's with New York or someone else. Hopefully Cashman does what he has to to keep him on the team, because that bat is irreplaceable. He hasn't homered in a while but he's just set a personal best for RBI in a season and hitting ridiculously. Jeter has come back on of late, starting to get out of his funk that seems to be stemming from leg issues he's had. Robinson Cano's found the power many thought he had in him. Jason Giambi isn't quite who he used to be, but he should still be playing in most games. In the outfield, Melky's regressed, but had some big hits yesterday and still has great defense. Abreu's been doing his thing and Matsui has also appeared to come out of his funk. Johnny Damon has been serviceable and has many uses even if he isn't starting. I like Jose Molina as the backup catcher. He's not amazing anyone, but he plays good defense and appears to actually know what a baseball bat is for. He could be a good backup until one of the couple of promising prospects the Yankees have gets higher up.

Let's see, that's ten position players. Doug Mientkiewicz has been good since coming off the DL with the glove and the bat. Normally, I'd put Giambi at 1B, Matsui at DH, Johnny in LF, and Melky in CF. But Doug should start at first with Wang on the mound or a starter who's bad against lefties opposing them, shifting Giambi to DH, Matsui to LF, and Damon to CF, sitting Cabrera. I like Wilson Betemit and Shelley Duncan as PH for IF and OF respectively. That's 13 positional guys, and you shouldn't really have 12 pitchers on your playoff roster, so we'll throw Alberto Gonzalez (the player, not the former Attorney General) in as a PR and defensive infield replacement.

Pitching-wise, your starters are Wang, Pettitte, Clemens, and Mussina. I'm not that confident in Moose's ability to shut down a good offense, but you can't really ask much from the rookies, and Torre's going with the experienced guy whether I agree with it or not. Wang is much better at home, so if the Yankees don't end up with homefield advantage I'd like to start him Game 3 at Yankee Stadium, but I don't know how likely that plan is to happen either. The Yankees have two other guys who can realistically start for them, Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes. Ian Kennedy has pitched better, with two of his three starts going for 7 innings, 2/3 of an inning longer than any of Hughes' starts. Phil definitely has the edge for long-term potential, but if you put a gun to my head and tell me to pick one to pitch right now, Ian's the guy. Four things though:

1) Phil probably has greater ability to get a strikeout when absolutely needed.
2) If either of them gets used, it won't be in a situation where they'll be required to go more than a few innings.
3) Phil lost a lot of time with his hamstring (and then ankle) injury, and needs all the innings he can get this season.
4) They really don't have that many good pitchers so I'd put both them both on the roster for mop-up/extra innings purposes anyway.

Anyway, 14 positional players, 4 starters, and the two kids leaves 5 spots, three of which go to Mariano Rivera, Joba Chamberlain, and Jose Vizcaino, after which, the last two get dicey. There are a lot of options and none are very enticing. Kyle Farnsworth was very good for a stretch, but has reverted back to terribleness. Brian Bruney gets strike outs but still gives up a lot of walks and lost an extra innings game with a home run to Greg freakin' Zaun. Chris Britton has given innings but doesn't show shutdown potential. Edwar Ramirez gets a ton of K's, but has an ERA over 7 that can no longer be justified by his sample size which is now up to 19 innings. Jose Veras also has good stuff but looked really ugly yesterday. Ross Ohlendorf has been pretty decent, but has only had a couple appearances. Ron Villone, who I was amazed to learn has thrown nearly 40 innings this season (No wonder, his Leverage Index is 0.32), really isn't that great but IS left handed and not named Sean Henn. Personally, I would use Ron to pitch against lefties assuming he doesn't stink up the join the last 8 games, and try to give Ross some more chances to prove he can utilize his good stuff well enough to help them in the playoffs. I'm not sure all of the guys I picked would be eligible based on the new rules for that stuff, and Farnsworth will probably end up sneaking on the team anyway because of his veteran status. As long as he doesn't get used, that's okay with me.

Update: I think my roster could work. You pick 25 players from those active or on the disabled list on August 31, and can replace those who are still disabled with anyone from your organization. I think Pavano, Sanchez, and Rasner were all on the DL then and still are now, so they should be replaceable, giving spots to Gonzalez, Kennedy, and Ohlendorf. I'm not sure though because the usually trustworthy Pete Abraham at LoHud did a post on the subject a while ago and didn't include Rasner on the list of DL guys for some reason.

Liveblog 7: Ian's Debut

Since the last post, the Yankees haven't gotten any less streaky. They won the final game against Los Angeles, lost three of four to the Tigers to finish a terrible road trip, swept Boston, and then lost a game to Tampa in a blowout. They hold Boston to 6 runs in a 3 game series and then give The Devil Rays 8 in one game. It just goes to demonstrate the sport's crazy nature. The top 3 pitchers have been good, but Phil Hughes has continued to struggle with his command and Mussina has been getting destroyed. His failures have led to the promotion of Ian Kennedy, another highly regarded Yankee prospect, who, like Joba, has gone from single-A ball to the majors in one season. Hopefully he can keep his team in the game.

Top 1 - Ian retired the Devil Rays with just 6 pitches, getting two fly outs and a grounder to second. There wasn't much to see, but he located the fastball well.

Bottom 1 - After two quick groundouts, Bobby Abreu works a walk off Edwin Jackson. Alex Rodriguez hits his 45th home run to take a two run lead. He leads the AL in that category by 12. Really not much power this year. Matsui flies out to left center to end the inning.

Top 2 - Upton flies out to roughly the same area. People say Kennedy's ceiling isn't that high because his raw stuff isn't that good. But he's not throwing junk up there. His fastball sits around 91 and he commands it well. Delmon Young lines a single up the middle. A-Rod drops a foul pop-up by Harris. I've always heard he had problems with them, I just never saw him actually just totally miss a catch like that. Harris then takes the next pitch up the middle as well. It would be easier to be mad at Rodriguez if he didn't just hit a two run homer. Jonny Gomes, who I haven't seen in a while, works the count a bit before taking a called third strike, painted perfectly low and outside. There's Kennedy's first K. Kennedy's the 8th rookie to start for the Yankees this year, and the 6th to make his first MLB start this season. It's been a weird year, but it was necessitated by Pavano's unsurprising injury and Igawa's suckiness. Josh Wilson hits a double to left that splits the outfielders, tying the game. Neither of those runs were earned. Josh Paul, owner of the most redneck mustache I have ever seen, has received two generous low ball calls from the umpire, and has worked a full count. He walks. Seriously, thanks A-Rod. This inning is sweet. Something's happening. Joe Torre talked to the umpire, they conferenced, and now they're talking to the Rays' manager. The announcers think it's related to Iwamura's padding. They're checking his bat now. He has a different bat, and uses it immediately to strike out. Inning finally over.

Bottom 2 - I was in the bathroom so I didn't see it, but apparently Giambi was robbed of another hit by the shift. He had some power at first, but he hasn't done a whole lot since returning from the DL. September has historically been Cano's best month in his short career, but he grounds out in his first at bat this year. Andy Phillips hits a single the other way. Molina strikes out to end the inning.

Top 3 - Kennedy threw exactly six times as many pitches in the second as he did in the first. Let's hope this inning is closer to the latter. Crawford hits a single past awkwardly lunging no-range-Jeter. If you believe in zone rating, he single handedly brings our starting lineup's defense from well-above average to about the same total below. Crawford steals second. I don't know how many times I've seen successful steals off of Yankee catchers throwing to the left of the base in recent days, but I'm getting sick of it. Pena lines out to Cano. Upton walks. You know, if they really wanted to prepare talented pitching prospects for breaking into the majors, they should allow them to add extra baserunners when they wanted, just to get used to it. These guys breeze through weaker hitters, but when they actually get men on base in the bigs, they aren't used to it and don't seem as prepared for that situation. Young grounds into a double play to end the inning.

Bottom 3 - Melky leads off. He's had a good year overall, but he still does annoying things like brutally misplaying the odd flyball, bunting inappropriately (is that redundant?), and sliding into first. He singles. Jeter singles on a grounder to the left. Abreu hits a potential double play ball, but the return throw is bad and a run scores, one out and a runner on second. And now Maddon, the Rays' manager, has something to say to the umpires, and they're checking A-Rod's bat. Yeah, we really need this waste of time in a game like baseball that lasts 3 hours anyway. He hits a single, runners on the corners. A pitch in the dirt and Alex moves to second. Matsui walks. Pena makes a nice play at first to get an out, but a run scores anyway. Cano strikes out.

Top 4 - Hoepfully, Kennedy can pitch a couple more good innings and earn a win. Another groundout on a nice play by A-Rod. According to Pete, Iwamura's bat is flat at the top instead of rounded or cupped, which could be against regulations. It was already approved earlier, but they challenged anyway, and Maddon probably countered just to get back at Torre. So stupid. Anyway, while I was checking this, Kennedy got a quick strikeout and a liner to Jeter, so maybe he could go six.

Bottom 4 - Phillips walks. Molina reaches on a second error by the shorstop. He drove in the two runs for the Rays, so both guys who have hit for their team have also let them down on defense. Crawford catches a lined shot from Melky. Jeter draws another walk, loading the bases. Jackson walks in a run, pitching himself out of the game. This game is loooooooooong. Rodriguez hits a ground rule double, 7-2. Matsui hits a hard grounder to first, two outs. Giambi strikes out on a full count, and we move to the fifth.

Top 5 - The Mustache works the count full before popping out to Cano. Iwamura strikes out again, and Crawford grounds out on a nice play by Cano, another good inning for Ian. If he stays this efficient, he could go 7, though my bet is he doesn't.

Bottom 5 - Cano grounds out again. His average has dipped below .300 again after he fought so hard to get it above. Andy Phillips smacks another single. His power is nonexistent, but he's been a decent replacement player at first. After a long at bat, Molina strikes out, and Phillips is safe at second after a delayed dropped ball call on the attempted steal. Wilson's third error. Melky lines out to end the inning.

Top 6 - Kennedy strikes out Pena on three pitches. Upton hits a home run, Kennedy's first major league earned run. Young lifts a fly out to center on the first pitch. Harris hits another fly out, and Kennedy has 90 pitches through six. I'd put him out there for the seventh.

Bottom 6 -Someone's throwing in the bullpen for the Yankees, which is not surprising. Assuming Kennedy's done, it was a good debut - 6 innings, 5 Ks to 2 BBs, 3 runs, 1 earned, in line for the win. Reliever Salas hits Jeter with a pitch in the back. Weak. Abreu pops out to center. A-Rod follows suit. Matsui gets in on the popping out fun, this time to third, and on we go.

Top 7 - So Seattle just lost their eighth straight, leaving the Yankees in position to go up 2 games in the wildcard race if they finish off this win. Kennedy's given the opportunity to pitch another inning. Gomes is the third straight hitter to fly out off Kennedy on the first pitch. It seems like they want him to go deep. All five of his strikeouts were swinging, which is weird, since all the minor league K's they showed before the game were looking at painted third strikes. Two pitches later, and another lazy fly to Abreu. Three straight called strikes on The Mustache, and there's the looking strikeout I was looking for. His day is done, and he finished with a strike to ball ratio over 2. See, Hughes? You get outs by throwing strikes. Great debut for Ian.

Bottom 7 - Giambi doubles to the gap in left-center. Cano flies out to right, moving Giambi to third. Andy draws a walk. Molina smacks a single the other way to drive in a run. He's worked some good counts today and finally produces. Melky hits another single, Yanks lead 9-3. Here's another pitching change. Looking at the highlight clip, the first strikeout by Kennedy was looking too, so... whatever. 7 5 3 1 2 6 is pretty darn good. Jeter grounds out, advancing the runners. Abreu flies out to end the frame.

Top 8 - Vizcaino in to pitch, Betemit and called-up Gonzalez taking over defensively. Assuming this lead stays where it is, I'd like to see Veras pitch the ninth and get reacquainted with the major leagues. He was also activated with the expansion of rosters in September, and showed some talent last year before injuries kept him down this season. Iwamura walks. Crawford doubles over the head of Melky, driving in Akinori. Pena flies to left, scoring Crawford who went to third on Melky's misplay of the ball he hit. Rivera is now warming up, something I didn't want to see. Upton doubles to left. This is just not what you want to see with a 6 run lead, which is down to 4. How in the hell did Vizcaino rack up 8 wins this season? Very odd. That's at least as many as all but two of the Yankees' starters. Gonzalez bobbles a grounder, allowing the runner to reach. If you're here to be a defensive whiz, you should make plays like this, regardless of any odd hops a ball takes. They gave the Devil Rays a base hit on that play. Harris drives in yet another run on a sac fly. This game is now a save situation. Mariano Rivera is being brought into the game. Horseshit. You don't use your closer, who you swore you wouldn't use for more than one inning before the season started, for more than one inning in a three run game. This is just dumb. A groundout to Cano, and we move on.

Bottom 8 - Betemit's struggled at the plate lately. He strikes out. Matsui grounds out. Just finish up so I can stop typing. Shelley Duncan, pinch hitting for Giambi, flies out to left.

Top 9 - Mo attempts to close it out before this bitch gets to the four hour mark. Called strikeout. Another K, this time on a foul tip. Mariano finishes it off with another looking strikeout, game over.

Wrap-up - Ian and Mariano pitched very well, Luis did not. The offense recovered nicely from their sad state of affairs yesterday, and besides a terrible two third of an inning, it was a very good day. They're 2 games ahead of Seattle in the wildcard. Kennedy showed promise for a hopefully very successful career as one of the Yankees' good young starters.

The Yankees Are Streaky

This has been a frustrating season for the Yankees. Since the last game I blogged, they went 10-6. They're within 6 games of the Red Sox and 2.5 games of the wildcard, after being so far from the playoffs for so long. 10-6 wouldn't be so bad in that period, if so many of the losses didn't come consecutively. Those 6 losses include 3 in a row against Baltimore and Detroit and 2 against the Angels, who last night thoroughly embarrassed the team with an 18-9 rout. 10 of those runs were driven in by Garret Anderson, which is disgusting. Garret Anderson is not a good baseball player, at least not any more. The man has 12 walks on the season, how on earth do you give him that many opportunities to hit the ball hard? The Yankees wouldn't be nearly this irritating if they weren't so streaky. They're prone to both long winning streaks and extended slumps. They're fully capable of scoring 10 runs in a game and then getting shut out the next day. The pitching is just as inconsistent as the hitting. Every starter has proven capable of being both great and disastrous, while the bullpen can either shut down an opponent for the duration of a series or get lit up every night.

Most of the players who were struggling early on have improved. Melky and Cano are both having fine seasons after dreadful starts, although they've both slumped lately. Abreu's also turned his season around after a bad start, and is making a strong case for having his option picked up. It's very fair in today's market, and there just aren't many possibilities out there, especially with prospect Jose Tabata's development being hindered by a nagging hand injury that now requires surgery. Johnny Damon still isn't near his expected production, although he's shown improvement in recent days. What's annoying though is Michael Kay being down on him for only having seven home runs, when he's a "20 home run guy". He's done that precisely twice in 13 big league seasons. After Matsui's huge surge in July, he's cooled off in August. Jeter's had a deceptively bad season. He still has a high batting average, but isn't driving in runs like he was earlier, he's not stealing bases like he used to, and his power continues to dwindle. He seems more like a non-factor in this lineup than he ever has, for some reason. Alex Rodriguez is still himself, with six homers since his 500th, although they still come in bunches, with three in two different two-game spans. First base is interesting. Andy Phillips was slumping again after being re-exposed to the league, and is showing basically no power, but has been better lately, maybe worried about his job since Wilson Betemit got here. Betemit is still prone to the strikeout, and really shouldn't be facing tough lefties, but he's still OPSing over .900 with the team. Jorge Posada is still amazing for his age, Jason Giambi has been good since returning, and Shelley Duncan hasn't stopped being a useful pinch hitter.

Mussina was going well for a while, but has been awful in his last two starts. Chien Ming-Wang has also struggled lately, but not as horribly. Roger Clemens has done well besides the bone-headed move to hit Alex Rios in defense of Rodriguez, which cost him a start and led to a brutal 12-0 drubbing by the Orioles when Jeff Karstens took the start in his stead. Whatever effectiveness Karstens had last year appears to be gone, as he's been demoted back to the minors. I still think he could be a useful long-man or back-end starter, but probably not on a team that intends to win. Andy Pettitte scuffled around the all-star break after a good-but-unlucky first half, but now he's rebounded and been on a roll, winning all four starts in August. He's been the Yankees' workhorse this year, and definitely who I'd want to start the first game of an important series. Phil Hughes has only had one good start since coming back, against Cleveland. He's been walking batters, which he doesn't normally do, and his command just isn't where it's been in his minor league career. He was doing well against the Angels, throwing four scoreless innings after a three run double in the second, but allowed two base runners in the seventh, both of which scored after he was taken out, making his start seem significantly worse. Right now, if they make the playoffs, I might make him the fourth starter instead of Mussina. His control has been an issue, but he still has shown flashes of his ability, and Mussina has really been terrible the last two games. By the end of the season, if they do make it, I hope Mike has things basically figured out, and I bet he gets the starts, with Phil going to the bullpen to help when he can. I think Phil has the potential for a Mussina-like career, which would be awesome. Right now though, he's been showing some rookie problems and mistakes, like not hustling off the mound to make the play on a grounder to first, which led to two runs and an eventual loss. Going by both the team's record in his starts (3-3) and his Win Probability Added (-0.02), he's neither helped nor hurt the team significantly. Also interesting is despite the fact that righties hit worse off him than lefties (normal), he's above average at striking out lefties while below average at fanning rightes (not normal).

Mariano Rivera's at that time of the year again where he struggles and we all question how much longer he can be good. I think he'll be okay for the rest of the year and hopefully will be effective through 2009 (he really wants to pitch in the new stadium), but he definitely shouldn't be leaned on as heavily as Joe Torre seems to like. He has other effective arms in that pen now, he just needs to mix them well. Edwar Ramirez has recovered after a disaster before his first demotion, and Vizcaino has been a pretty effective setup-guy. Kyle Farnsworth became a pariah, but after pitching some good games and striking out even-more-hated Gary Sheffield and ML-batting-leader Magglio Ordonez in a tight game, he's on the way to winning back some support. Ron Villone probably shouldn't be on the team anymore. I'd rather have another righty like Britton than an ineffective lefty.

You can't mention the bullpen without mentioning Joba. Since coming up he's lit the world on fire. In an obviously small sample size of 7 innings, he's given up no runs and struck out almost half the batters he's faced, with more than half of his outs coming on strikeouts. Obviously he won't keep this up forever, but it's raised an interesting question of his future role. If he can be anywhere near this absurdly dominant as a closer, some think he should stay there instead of moving back to starting. Having a good closer is important to having a good team. A pitcher with an average leverage index for a closer, who throws 70 innings with a 2.00 ERA, which Joba could very conceivably do, has the same VORP as a starter who throws 200 innings with a 3.69 ERA (Sorry about those nerdy, esoteric terms of discussion, you can ask if you don't get it). In a relatively pitching-strong season, that would qualify as 31st among this year's qualifying starters. That's a pretty good pitcher. The thing is, I think Joba could be that good without that much projection. He has a killer fastball and slider, and two more offspeed pitches with room to develop, which would be a very good repetoire. He could be deadly with just average command, which he basically has. He's also very good at maintaining his velocity deep into games, as witnessed in his minor league starts. A lot of the concern about his weight and injury problems has gone away. The fact is, Phil Hughes was the consensus best or second-best pitching prospect in the minors at the beginning of the year, and a lot of those same analysts now project Joba to be better than him. He could be dominant for years to come. A specimen with malevolent stuff, as Bill Simmons would say. I think a lot of people don't realize how many great closers were failed starters. Mariano Rivera is regarded by many as the best closer of all time. He was a bad starter before he converted to relief. You don't need an amazing, otherworldly closer to be a good team, just one who gets the job done. You should at least make sure Joba isn't your best starting pitcher (which he has the potential to be) before you make him your closer.

Liveblog 6: Phil Returns

Since the All-Star break, the Yankees have been one of the best teams in baseball. They're definitely playing better. They're still not that close to Boston, but they're only 2.5 games behind the Wild Card-leading Tigers, who have been having another second half swoon.

A-Rod's been the center of attention since hitting his 499th home run. He's just one away from becoming the youngest player to ever hit 500, which until recently has made a player a lock for the Hall of Fame. That number has lost some luster since offense has gone up in the game from steroids and smaller ballparks, but it's still very impressive. Unfortunately, Alex seemed to be trying too hard, and went 0-21 after 499. He's played a bit better the last couple games, getting some hits and driving in runs, but the home run still eludes him. Maybe he'll get it out of the way today. I think it would be a bit easier since there aren't hundreds of flashbulbs distracting him during day games.

The trade deadline passed, and the Yankees didn't do a ton to improve. They picked up a solid infield bat for an ineffective reliever, trading Scott Proctor for Wilson Betemit. Proctor was a workhorse for the Yankees, but he was struggling, and Betemit improves the bench significantly. Unfortunately, the bullpen didn't improve overall, since terrible Kyle Farnsworth is still on the team and Eric Gagne got traded to the Red Sox instead. Help could still be coming, though. There's a chance they could still get rid of Farnsworth through waivers, and promising young guys like Joba Chamberlain and Edwar Ramirez could be coming up to fix some holes. I'd like to take credit for being high on Joba before everyone noticed him after the Futures Game, as he's now one of the most highly regarded pitching prospects in baseball. His future is as a starter, but he's been shifted to the bullpen and could be a dominant force to the end of the season. Also coming to help the team is Phil Hughes, who's finally returning after that hamstring injury ended his no-hitter back in May. I think he'll be great in the future, but this season all he has to do is be better than Kei Igawa, which pretty much anyone in the world could do. I still see promise in Kei, since he was the best starter they had at getting strikeouts, but he just couldn't stop giving up runs. They still have him for four more years, so we'll see what happens there.

In the meantime, Hughes is starting today, backed up by an offense that has been rolling through AL pitching. Everyone's been great, and most players numbers look way better than they did just a little while ago. They're back atop the majors in runs scored, thanks in part to Cano learning how to take a pitch and getting his average back over .300, and Matsui having a monster month. He hit 13 home runs and won player of the month honors, to go with A-Rod's two this year. A Yankee has won the award 3 of 4 months this season, and going back to May of 2005, they've won 9 of 15, including 5 by A-Rod.

Top 1 - Phil's on the mound. I'm excited. Wilson's starting at first for the first time in his major league career. I like Andy Phillips, but Wilson will probably produce more. Nice, crisp fastball to start the game. He follows with a disgusting curve. Three pitches later, he induces a groundout to Cano. He starts Grudzielanek with a ball, but strikes him out with three straight fastballs. Seven pitches later, Teahen grounds it back to Phil, and that's the first. Not great pitch count wise, but he did his thing.

Bottom 1 - Kyle Davies is a promising young talent, but he's been bad for the Braves this year. He was traded to the Royals for Octavio Dotel, who spent all of last year on the Yankees payroll doing Jack before jumping to the money Kansas City gave him. Damon works the count full. He may not be long for this team, although I'm sure he's there the rest of the season. He seems healthy and has been getting better with his job in jeopardy, Melky taking over center field and Giambi coming back from injury to hog the DH spot. He grounds out. Jeter singles to center. Abreu's been better, but I still don't trust him against left handers. He walks on four pitches. A-Rod has a chance right now to make history. And he does it! Three run shot is his 500th home run, giving Hughes an early lead. Awesome. Funny thing, that means that he had the exact same number of at bats between 499 and 500 as Mickey Mantle. Matsui doubles over the first baseman's head. Posada moves him to third, and Cano triples to right center. 4 run lead for Phil Franchise. Betemit is called out on strikes, inning over.

Top 2 - Hughes is throwing strikes but he isn't putting batters away quickly. He should be able to pitch at least 5 and get the win, though. He walks Butler after going 0-2. He K's Gload looking. That's a backwards K, for those who do scorecards. He finally throws a changeup, for a strike. If he can nail down that pitch, he could be awesome, but for now he can do well off just the fastball and curve. He strikes out fellow hyped rookie Alex Gordon as well. Gordon grew up and played in college with Joba. Ain't life interesting? Joba probably won't get called up in time to see him, though. Tony Pena Jr, son of the Yankees first base coach, looks at a called third strike. 4 strikouts in two innings, but he's thrown 39 pitches already.

Bottom 2 - Melky Cabrera has also improved much since a rough start to the season. He flies out to left, though. Damon grounds out again. Jeter works a 3-1 count before singling again. Abreu launches a fly ball that's caught in front of the warning track. Much better inning for Davies.

Top 3 - Gathright doubles on a botched fair/foul call down the left field line. The next pitch is wild and Gathright moves to third. If Hughes had gotten him and the next guy out, he would have pitched nine consecutive hitless innings. A faux-no-hitter, if you will. Posada blocks another potential wild pitch, and the hitter pops out. Next guy singles in Gathright, and the next grounds out to first. Teahen hits a duck fart double and there's another run. The curve is definitely going left. Might have been unnerved slightly by the bogus first hit. He really isn't commanding the curve, and they've avoided the fastball a bit since it's been hit. Another curve is swung at and grounded back to Phil to end the inning. Despite the runs, he's maintained the same pace of about 20 pitches an inning. Through 3 innings, 3 hits, 2 runs, 4 Ks, 1 BB.

Bottom 3 - A-Rod's first PA has a member of the 500 club. Even though he was the youngest, Ruth and McGwire did it in fewer games. He walks on four pitches and steals second. So many aspects to his game. I wonder if anyone else stole a base the same day they hit 500? Matsui works a long at bat before walking. Posada strikes out looking. Cano grounds out, moving up the runners. A couple runs would be nice here. Betemit delivers an RBI single. Cabrera pops up to end the inning.

Top 4 - Gload lines a single past Hughes after two strikes. The Royals seem to be seeing his fastball well. He gets a little pick up with a grounder for a double play. He strikes out the next guy for a much better inning, pitch count wise. I'm pretty sure Bobby Murcer said something monstrously stupid, but I'm looking up the numbers to make sure. Just this year should be enough evidence. Bobby called Hughes a fly ball pitcher. This season, in the minors, he has a 2.35 ground ball to fly ball ratio, and 2.83 in the majors in limited innings. He's known for a very low home run rate, partially because he gets so many grounders. Today, he's added six groundballs to one fly ball. I have no idea why Bobby would think he's a fly ball pitcher. He called the game against Texas, in which he recorded three GIDP and only one fly ball out that I can recall.

Bottom 4 - New pitcher for Kansas gets two outs quickly. Gordon snags a grounder from Abreu but he gets to first easily ahead of the throw. A-Rod singles through the hole in the right side. A third straight hit, this time by Matsui, and another run scores. Posada pops out to end the inning. Slow moving game.

Top 5 - Hughes walks Gathright on a very close pitch. The catcher flies out. DeJesus homers, 6-4 ball game. A bit of a disappointing return. People expecting him to dominate should cool off a bit, all he has to do is keep the ERA around 4 instead of 7. He really doesn't seem to have his customary command right now. The fastball's only around 88 instead of the 93 at the game's outset. Grudzielanek pops out to short right. Teahen singles up the middle. Butler doubles, Melky takes a bad route, and a run scores. Hughes is being taken out of the game, and he can't get the win. Disappointing return, although he did show some promise for the future. I'm running on fumes right now and not too interested to see Mike Myers, so I'm going to go hang out my cousins. I'll be back for the wrap-up.

Wrap-up - Myers got the win despite facing only two batters and giving up an RBI double to one of them. Win/Loss rules in baseball are so stupid. Anyway, after the Royals tied the game, the Yankees just kept scoring runs, beating up on the weak KC bullpen. The Yankees ended up winning 16-8. Everybody's hitting except for Damon. Abreu hit another home run, Cano picked up a couple hits, Betemit continued to drive guys in. Definitely another great game for an offense that is stampeding through the league. On the bad side, Kyle Farnsworth continues to be unable to pitch innings without giving up runs. His trade value is decimated and they might have to just cut him if they want to win.

Liveblog 4: The Yankees Are Baffling

Seriously, what is with this team? They're completely baffling. Streaky doesn't begin to describe them. How can one team go so quickly back and forth between amazing and terrible?

After Clippard's first start, they looked like they might be picking up the pace. They took two of three from Boston in some well-played games. They then lost five straight to the Angels and Blue Jays. Immediately after, they got back on the horse and went on a tear. They beat Boston twice again, and won nine straight. Including the salvaged final game of the Toronto series, they won 14 of 17, slashing half a dozen games off Boston's lead and getting within four games of a wild card berth. They were back in the race! Then they went to Colorado, and apparently were replaced by talentless, alien clones as they forgot how to hit and lost 6 of 7, including two against the awful Giants and two in walk-off fashion while their best reliever rode pine.

I'm still not sure whether the 14-3 or 1-6 Yankees are closer to the real team, but it's looking more like the latter. It doesn't make any sense, though. They shouldn't be underperforming this badly. A-Rod is back on track for a monster year, with his huge home run total, RBI, slugging... his batting average is also going up too, which is pretty irrelevant to how well he's producing, but showing that recently his power's leveled off a bit but he's collecting a bunch of smaller hits. He had yet another huge, clutch, game-tying home run in the ninth inning against the Giants, unfortunately his team eventually lost that game anyway. Posada is coming back down to earth, and it's making his defensive deficiencies this year more obvious. He's fallen from a great defensive campaign in 2006, and he's throwing out nobody. Damon should be on the DL, but he isn't because he's a "gamer" and is trying to play through his injuries. It doesn't matter that him being in the lineup hurt is worse for the team, apparently. Abreu is back to his slumping ways after a strong beginning of the month. I wonder if last year's playoff push was his real last hurrah before declining much faster than you'd think he should.

Tyler's back in AAA after a few bad starts. He looked promising when he came up, and I think he has potential for a good future, but he just wasn't controlling his pitchers and couldn't give the team innings. Kei Igawa is back on the team after some work in the minors, hopefully he can fill in well as the returning fifth starter, but right now that signing looks like wasted money. Maybe Hughes can come back next month (his return was delayed when he rolled his ankle), and Igawa can find a role in the bullpen to prosper in. Lord knows the Yankees need help there.

Luis Vizcaino has been improving of late, and hopefully he can earn some trust and contribute as the season continues. It appears he may be the best thing we get out of the Johnson trade, because the prospects that came with him aren't doing much. Kyle Farnsworth is just bad. He's not trustworthy, but he's still Joe's go-to guy in the eighth. I'd be angrier about it if there were clearly better options. Proctor continues to get abused the hell out of. Last night was the second time in his last two appearances he lost the game when Rivera was still available. The first game, he was in his third inning, the last one, he just didn't have it.

When a team is losing, the manager should try to win games. This includes using the best available pitcher in high-leverage situations. High-leverage situations, such as the bottom of the ninth inning or later in away games, when giving up a run means you lose the game. It does not include keeping your fully-rested and apparently back-to-normal closer out of the game when you need him most. Joe Torre is a terrible manager of the bullpen, and more and more people are realizing it. Combined with his idiotic use of bunting (Useful in a select few situations, but usually bad for your chances) and waste of resources, and he just should not be running a big league team anymore. He probably won't be thrust out of office until after the season, but it's been time for him to leave for a while. And by waste of resources, I mean not using what the team gives you. Like continuing to start Miguel Cairo, an okay glove man with no power, at first base, a position of little defensive importance that teams like to have a lot of power at, when you've gotten rid of a player who can't play defense and replaced him with someone who can, and who has more power than Cairo. Or letting Chris Britton, who was great last year in the majors, continue to be great in the minors while you are dying for bullpen help. Or leaving players you've called up on the bench instead of using them to pinch hit, so you can have an overworked reliever pitch a THIRD INNING while you still haven't used your best available guy. It's maddening.

Roger Clemens has joined the team, and not helped them too much. He earned the win in his first start, and would have in his stronger, second outing if his team could hit a lick against Oliver Perez. He was bad in his last start and ineffective in relief against the Giants, hopefully he can rebound tonight. He's not doing too bad, but in what's looking more and more like a rebuilding year, most of me wishes they used that signing money to secure draft picks or something. I may or may not be back later to blog about some or all of the game. Honestly, watching this team doesn't seem very interesting lately.

Top 1 - Erik Bedard starts the game by striking out the side, which makes sense since he leads the majors in strikeouts and two of the three hitters were lefties who aren't doing jack right now. I wasn't familiar with Bedard and wondered why he's been so good this year, and it's because he's a lefthander with a 95 mph fastball and wicked breaking stuff. Why isn't he getting as much attention as the guys he's ahead of in K's like Peavy and Sabathia? It's just because his ERA isn't shiny and he doesn't play in a big city or for a good team. He was certainly impressive, although it took him too long - those three outs required twenty pitches.

Bottom 1 - Clemens wasn't as flashy, but got through the inning in just seven pitches. He gave up a single to Chris Gomez but erased him on a double play ball. Did you know Yankee pitchers are last in the majors in striking batters out? Someone has to be, I guess. It's definitely hurt the team this year... they never seem to get the big strikeout to cancel the runner-on-third-one-out threat, and it leads to runs they shouldn't be giving up. They've also been pretty bad about preventing walks.

Top 2 - A-Rod made contact with a foul, but also gets struck out on a full count. Bedard won't be around too long this way, no matter how many Yankees he rings up. Posada breaks up the monotony with a single over the shortstop's head. The one guy he doesn't get out sees by far the fewest pitches. Abreu lazily flies out to left. Melky grounds out and the inning's over. Only sixteen pitches for Bedard there.

Bottom 2 - Some positive stats on the pitcher peripheral front - the Yankees don't give up that many home runs. The hitters are also pretty good about walking and not striking out, although they've been very mediocre about hitting home runs. A-Rod has a ton, but he's the only one with double digits this year. He has more than one third of his team's total, which is just crazy. A fly out and a ground out, and Clemens is working quickly. On what was potentially a very scary play, a groundball ricochets off him before he slides to get it and throw the runner out. He's not blowing hitters away but will probably stay in the game longer than Erik.

Top 3 - Cano is quickly called out on strikes, Bedard's fifth. He then gets out of the inning with two ground outs. Using their peripherals and an average of 8.85 innings per game, the same as they've had over their first 74 games, the Yankees are projected to have an even-worse 4.53 ERA at the end of the season, assuming they pitch to their Fielding Independent Pitching the rest of the year. I'm gonna bet it's lower than that, because they can't really be this mediocre, can they?

Bottom 3 - Our old buddy Kevin Millar grounds out. While watching the game, I've been listening to The Mars Volta's De-Loused in the Comatorium, and it just ended. I'll talk about it more another time, but it's damn good. Gibbons hits a ball that Melky easily catches. Patterson hits one right to Abreu, and it's on to the fourth. He has only 29 pitches to Bedard's 47.

Top 4 - Jeter likes helping pitchers out. He flies out on the first pitch. Mora boots a slow roller from Matsui, and it's counted as a hit anyway because scorers are nice. A-Rod hustles nicely to beat out a potential double play. Nice to see big sluggers who do that. Posada goes down looking. Bedard's dealing. 6 K's in 4 innings and the pitch count is getting more stable.

Bottom 4 - Roberts dunks a single just out of Matsui's reach. Gomez flies out to right center. They showed the stat that in the last two years, runners have stolen 20 bases off Clemens in 22 tries, which is atrocious. On the bright side, that's not many attempts in two years, so he's good at keeping runners off base. Roberts makes that 21 steals in 23 tries. The runner's moved to third on a grounder to first. Hernandez walks, and Clemens looks like he's trying to catch up to Bedard in pitches thrown if he can't in strike outs. He flirts with another base on balls before inducing a ground out to end the inning. He threw a lot of pitches, but thanks to an efficient beginning he's still good to go deep in the game. The lack of K's is odd, though.

Top 5 - Abreu grounds out on a 3-1 pitch. Come on, Bobby, if you're not gonna hit, at least give the guy a chance to walk you. Melky bunts himself out, which you know, is awesome. Why try to squeeze as many pitches out of the guy as you can and try to get to the bullpen when you can hand him outs in a vain attempt to scrape together a run, which seems unlikely? Robinson Cano somehow walks after two swinging strikes. Bizarre. I would have predicted Cairo to slam a fly ball 20 yards in front of the warning track, but he grounds out instead.

Bottom 5 - Mora quickly grounds out to short. I'm glad interleague play is over. Somebody's schedule is always unfair, and I really don't like the lack of a DH in the NL. I understand the tradition and increased strategy, but that doesn't make it enjoyable to watch guys who can't hit try, and it just makes extra-inning games take longer as they get low on pinch hitters and consider batting relievers to squeeze more innings out of them. Millar pops out. Gibbons walks, and that's it for now as I'm gonna go watch some Romans kill each other at my friend's house. I'll wrap this up later.

Wrap-up - Clemens allowed a double but escaped the inning without harm. The same could not be said for the sixth, when he allowed four runs, and with Bedard picking up two more strikeouts en route to seven innings of shutout ball, it was more than enough to hand the Yankees their seventh loss in the last eight games. If it weren't for the Mariners having the Yanks' back and sweeping the Red Sox, they'd be right back where they started before the hot streak. The team is just lifeless.

An interesting, perhaps overlooked subplot to this season is the battle for second place all time in strikeouts. Clemens had a slim lead over Randy Johnson at the beginning of the year, and while he sat around pondering who to sign with for the first couple months, Johnson caught up and passed him by one in time for Clemens' first start. After that, it was a bit of a back and forth before Randy went back on the DL with back problems, giving Clemens a chance to get a bit of breathing room. He isn't helping himself there by striking out no one in six innings, though. Tonight was the first time in years he didn't get a K in a game he pitched. I don't know, I personally find the fight for all-time runner-up to Nolan Ryan more interesting than a few guys gunning for the deflated 500 home run plateau.

Liveblog 2: It's Been Ugly

Since the loss to Boston I blogged, the Yankees lost five more of their next six games. That's eight out of nine, and they're looking pretty horrible. The starters are still not going deep. That's overworking the bullpen, and along with Joe Torre's awful management, that's kept them ineffective. Even the offense has slacked off of late. Alex Rodriguez cooled off before he could set the April home run record (he only tied it), and Bobby Abreu isn't swinging well, and now he's compounding the problem by trying to bunt too much. Don't bunt Bobby, it's bad. Statistically, it almost always hurts your team, and the only time it's ever acceptable is to get a runner over to third with one out and you only need one run. Otherwise, just try for a hit, you'll get out of your funk sooner.

Phil Hughes, the Yankees' young blue chip prospect, is making his second big league start tonight. He wasn't great his first time out, giving up two runs in the first and another two before getting out of the fifth. But in between, he showed off his stuff and was dominating for three innings, and he totaled five strikeouts, so he gave me a lot of hope for the future. The Hardball Times had an article today that has me a little worried about his mechanics, but it could have just been an off night. Hopefully tonight he can keep Texas' lineup at bay and get things going in the right direction for his team.

Top 1 - Bobby Murcer is back in the booth announcing, which is good to see. Michael Kay isn't there either, so very enjoyable commentary situation. Kameron Loe is starting for the Rangers, and his name looks like it belongs to a Jedi or something. Abreu is batting first. And he actually squared to bunt with no one on base. Who replaced Bobby with an evil doppelganger? Questionable called second strike. He takes a couple balls before chopping out. Jeter is up, and he's had a hit in 56 of his last 58 games. What does this mean? Nothing. After DiMaggio's streak was broken, he had another right after that lasted into the teens. He grounds out. Giambi draws a walk, as he is wont to do. Rodriguez grounds out, and the inning is over.

Bottom 1 - And here's Phil. He leads off Kenny Lofton, playing for his 38th team, with two called strikes, but then walks him on the next four pitches. Michael Young takes a couple strikes before grounding into a double play. He strikes out Teixeira on three straight nice change ups, and Mark had no idea what was going on.

Top 2 - Matsui leads off the inning. Apparently the only reason a hitter slumps is from "pulling off" the ball, because that's how they're explaining why no one is hitting. Matsui flies out while the cameras are watching the dugout. Posada gets the game's first hit with a single the other way. Cano lines another single and Brad Wilkerson misses the ball, letting the runners advance to second and third. Melky grounds to the right side to drive in Posada, 1-0 Yanks. Loe is nibbling against Doug Mientkiewicz, who he's apparently mistaken for a good hitter, and the count is full. Minty Fresh grounds to Young, who bobbles it, and Cano scores the second run. A lot of people think Young is underrated, because he's a very good hitter that doesn't get a ton of attention, but he's actually a bit overrated because his putrid defense brings him way down. Abreu flies to left to end the inning.

Bottom 2 - Hughes faces his first major league batter with a lead, and strikes him out with his sick curve. Ken Singleton doesn't know what he's taking about. He called a change up a fastball and a curve a change up. Hughes walks Blalock, and he's looking a little wild, bouncing some curves and missing some spots. Ian Kinsler, who is apparently the Rangers' best hitter so far, grounds into another double play on the first pitch, inning over. 6 batters, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts, 2 GIDP, 24 pitches.

Top 3 - Jeter lines the first pitch up the middle for a single, 57 in 59. After getting Giambi 0-2, Loe hits him. That's gotta annoy a pitcher. A-Rod grounds a single through the left, and the bases are loaded with no outs. Matsui grounds into a fielder's choice, but avoids the double play and gets the run in. Acceptable. Posada smacks his second hit, somehow for a double, and the Yankees lead 4-0. In the next few years, Posada could build a serious argument for Hall of Fame consideration. He's always been one of the best hitting catchers in the league, and last year he made strides forward defensively. If he can maintain this level for some time without the usual dramatic drop-off a lot of catchers face in their mid-thirties, he deserves at least a good look. Cano lines a double just inside the line and drives in two more runs. Cabrera strikes out, bringing up Mientkiewicz. This is the second time Loe went 3-1 against him, and I don't know why. A couple pitches later Doug grounds out to first, and the inning's over.

Bottom 3 - With a good lead, hopefully Hughes can just work on his pitches and get outs without worrying too much about the score, and hopefully Joe lets him stay out there for a bit. He makes Wilkerson look like a fool staring at a third pitch strike fastball right down the plate. I like that confidence. Cruz (Cruz?) hits it back at him for the second out. Laird (Laird?) grounds out to Jeter on the first pitch, and I am ecstatic about this start.

Top 4 - Notice how Loe is still pitching? It's because his manager is aware that he might as well just get innings out of his ineffective starter while the other guy is dealing, so he doesn't waste his bullpen. Joe Torre is terrible. Abreu singles to right. What is Abreu doing stealing (actually, getting caught stealing) with a six run lead? He's a good hitter playing small ball, and it makes no sense. Jeter strikes out. Giambi flies out to deep left center, and that's it.

Bottom 4 - Second time through the lineup. Two quick strikes to Lofton, but Hughes waits until the fifth pitch to get him to ground out. One pitch later, there's another ground out. Teixeira makes the third ground out of the inning. No ball has left the infield.

Top 5 - Rodriguez doubles down the left field line. He's 1st in slugging and 5th in average, but only 9th in OBP. No one is walking him, which I find odd. Matsui hits one that eats up Teixeira and it's 7-0. Posada hits the third double in the inning, and Loe's gotta be coming out soon. And here it is, Ron Mahay's coming in. Cano just misses a home run on the second pitch. He settles for a dunked single into center, and the Yanks have scored nine runs. Cabrera walks, and I wonder to myself what it must be like to be a fan of a team at their stadium while they're getting destroyed. I was at a Yankee game once in Toronto while they were ripping the Blue Jays' bullpen apart, but I was in a section with all Yankee fans so it was kind of like a home game without triumphant music. Mientkiewicz just misses a homer himself, but has to settle for a pop out. Abreu grounds into a double play to end the inning.

Bottom 5 - There's the sixth straight ground out by the Rangers. I can't tell if Hughes is magnificent or they're terrible. Blalock makes the first fly out of the game to left field. He runs Kinsler to 3-0 on what I'm calling at least the third time tonight Hughes has been squeezed. He throws a few more pitches before walking him, and I wish he had just walked him on the fourth, since he's on a strict pitch count. He's thrown ten balls this inning, and I wonder if he's been babied too much on pitch counts in the minors. Wilkerson strikes out, and I am in love with Phil Hughes. K:BB isn't great but he's still been economical and the Rangers can't figure him out.

Top 6 - Jeter leads off with a walk. Giambi flies out again. This is the first time I've seen the Gameday for a Yankee game include the pitch speeds and breaks and stuff. I don't get it. A-Rod draws the second walk of the inning. I don't know if I've ever seen a hitter ground into a double play situation but beat it out more frequently than Matsui. He just did it again. Posada draws the third walk of the inning. If I understand the pattern here, Cano will get out in some fashion. And he does, with a strikeout, making it a fancier pattern. Mahay walked three right handers and retired three left handers.

Bottom 6 - Cruz flies out to Cabrera in center. Laird strikes out. I've never seen a pitcher do this well with such a small strike zone. Simply dominating. Lofton strikes out, the sixth by Hughes in the game. The Phil Hughes era is here and it's magnificent.

Top 7 - Melky harmlessly grounds out. Mientkiewicz smacks the team's 12th hit of the game. Abreu strikes out, and he doesn't look great lately. Cruz is wall shy and misses catching a foul ball from Jeter, who strikes out to end the inning.

Bottom 7 - I don't understand how those two pitches are balls, but okay. Young skies it to center for the first out. And this is awful. Hughes tweaked his hamstring on an 0-2 pitch to Teixieira and he gets taken out of the game. He had a no-hitter going. I was concerned he was going to be pulled for pitch-count reasons, but this is 100 times worse. Not only is the dream over, but he could end up with a real injury too. Now that it's over, I can vent about annoying media people. There's a superstition that talking about a pitcher throwing a no-hitter or a perfect game can jinx them, and be the cause if it gets broken up. This is silly of course, what we say has no effect on what happens on the field. But still, it's more fun and adds excitement to avoid mentioning it while we all know it's happening, but news sources can't help themselves but shout about it from the rooftops. The Yankees announcers tonight mentioned it every five minutes from about the fourth inning on, it was a headline on mlb.com, and Baseball Tonight talked about it freely. Do these people not know about this rule? Just play along. Mike Myers comes to pitch in relief and finishes the inning with two outs.

Top 8 - The tension is pretty much gone, this has gone from a flirt with destiny to a normal blowout. The Yankees as a team could still no-hit the Rangers, which would be the second time it happened to them this season (Mark Buehrle did it while facing the minimum with only one walk). This might partially explain why only two Rangers have batting averages over .250. If they did it, it would be impressive, but not completely amazing. Giambi flies out for the third time. It seems like he's just missing. A-Rod gets a hit, and I am unimpressed, as this Rangers pitching staff seems very keen on giving up hits. Interesting, tonight the Yankees have 13 hits, 9 runs, no homers. Matsui flies out. Posada gets out for the first time, inning over. I want my Phil Hughes back.

Bottom 8 - Blalock breaks up the no-hitter. Apparently, the trainer was saying Hughes' hamstring "popped". What if this injury is enough to change his delivery, or make him less effective as a pitcher? We could be getting robbed of something amazing here. Devastating. Myers loses the shutout on the next hitter, 9-1. Hairston grounds into a nicely done double play. This was supposed to be a momentum changing, season-saving win, and now Phil Hughes is never going to pitch again. I'm going to die. Another ground out, inning over.

Top 9 - What's the point of finishing this game? Cancel the season. The Yankees are doomed forever. Cano doubles. Good job, Robinson. Cabrera moves him to third. Good job, Melky. Can any of you guys magically make Phil's hamstring problem go away? I would just love it. Blalock makes his team's third error and another run scores. Abreu lines out to short. Jeter walks. That seemed like it took a while. I'm not paying too much attention, I'm trying to find any tangible info on Phil's condition. Mientkiewicz and Jeter move up on a wild pitch to Josh Phelps, pinch hitting our DH for some reason. He strikes out.

Bottom 9 - A bit of a silver lining on the injury, if we can assume he's out for a bit (or maybe longer than a bit) and can come back the same pitcher, it will mean he'll have more innings left in him for the rest of the season, so we don't have to worry too much about overusing him. Of course, as long as he's injured, he can't actually pitch in that time to stay on the right track, so I don't really know what's going to happen. I still feel awful. Vizcaino is pitching, because Torre doesn't know what he's doing. He gets someone out. I just want this to be over so we can find out the details. There's a second out. Ken Singleton calls it a break out night for the Yankees. Yeah, the offense was great. But we potentially just had a very bad injury. Shut up, man. There's your third out, game over. Hughes gets his first win and first hamstring problem. But it's like the Yankees' 49th this year.

Wrap-up - Kim Jones asks Posada how badly they needed a game like this. I know what she meant, but they needed this specific game like they needed a second asshole. Still waiting for real information. He's going on the DL, no question, so what I'm wondering is who's pitching in his stead. Matt DeSalvo has been great in AAA this year, so he seems likely. I hope they don't go back to Rasner, he's fine if you have four good pitchers, but at this point the Yankees have maybe two.

Hughes is the Chevy Player of the Game. I'm surprised they even asked the fans to vote on it. Boston lost late after Papelbon blew his first save of the year, so that's pretty good news. Thank God today's the first of May, or else his amazing April streak would be over. The Postgame show is wasting my time with a recap instead of getting to the injury. I just watched the game, you dicks, tell me what I want to know. I will kill time by writing some more. Andy Pettitte starts tomorrow, that should be a win. Mike Mussina comes back the day after, I hope he can be effective. Who knows when Pavano is coming back. I felt reasonably okay with a rotation of Wang, Petttitte, Mussina, Hughes, Igawa, but now that Hughes is a big question mark. I wonder who will make it back first, Hughes or Pavano. I'm going to go with Pavano, which depresses me.

Oh my God, YES. Stop stalling. Stop talking about the game. Find someone who knows something, and ask them how serious the problem looks. I'd like to know so I can move on and do something else tonight.

I can't believe how great he looked tonight before he left. It was his second start against big league hitters. He's not even 21 yet. He cut through the Rangers like a knife through butter. Did they not scout him at all? The Blue Jays hit him, and he faced their AAA team in his last game, so they probably had some good info. They had to know something about him, right? They were swinging a lot at the first pitch and when they were ahead in the count, and they kind of resembled a minor league lineup.

Twenty minutes into the Postgame and still nothing. Okay. Apparently, it's not horrible. Joe says Hughes said something similar happened in high school. He's going to be out, but I feel pretty sure he'll be back and dealing in time. I'm gonna do something else now before I develop an ulcer.

Liveblog 1: A-Rod and the Red Sox

Alex Rodriguez has been ridiculously good this year. Historically good. But people still find ways to attack him, insulting the way he trots around the bases after a big home run or calling him Mr. April. It doesn't matter, he's not walking much and he's striking out a lot, but 12 of his 25 hits have gone for home runs. His OPS is through the roof. It's not even surprising when he hits one these days. In the last five games, he's hit five more homers, including two in one game against the Sox and another walk-off one against the Indians.

The Yankees won three straight against the Indians and are on the verge of losing three straight against the Red Sox, showing how much of baseball just depends on pitching. The Red Sox bullpen held up and the Indians didn't. The Walk-off Alex hit against the Indians was the last blow of a long, comeback with two outs in the ninth. Their closer is a guy who relies more on deception than raw ability, and that's the kind of guy the Yankees can definitely hit. I'll admit, I didn't want Alex to come up. I hoped Abreu would end the game with either a hit or an out, because I thought there was no way Alex could come up big again, that there was some sort of limit, and he'd be unfairly blamed for another loss. But he came through, and I have to wonder if he really has turned a corner, and if so, how much the Yankees will have to pay him to stay in New York, which they should. Watching the junk the other guy was throwing, I probably should have figured he'd hit it over the wall.

The first loss against the Sox was pretty bad. It was the only game in the series the Yanks would throw a pitcher with any real big league experience, and they had a nice lead into the eighth inning. But the wheels fell off, and Mariano Rivera lost the game. He's blown two of his chances to save a game this season without making any, since all the wins have been with big leads or walk-offs. It's definitely too early to become concerned, since Mo has had things like this happen before and he had a great spring, but I have to wonder how much longer the greatest closer of all time can still be good. I'd like for him to stay as the go-to guy in the bullpen until at least they've played in the new stadium like he wants, but you never know what can happen. The second loss wasn't as bad, it was just a poorly pitched game by a rookie.

The Yankees managed to score well off both starters in the first two games, so hopefully they can continue that trend tonight against Daisuke Matsuzaka, the most-hyped player to ever come from Japan. The Yankees are throwing another rookie out there to start tonight, so they're probably going to need offense to win. Even if they do get swept, it won't be a big deal. They'll be behind the Red Sox by four games, but it's early, and they are pretty much at full strength while more than half our rotation is injured. I'll be blogging the whole game, so hopefully it doesn't get so ugly I want to turn it off.

Top 1 - I find it odd how many people think the Red Sox bid a lot of money on Matsuzaka to keep him off the Yankees. I think they did it because they think he's a good pitcher. He has a lot of great pitches, but he also goes deep into counts, and the Yankees tend to be able to work guys like that into throwing a lot, so even if they don't hit him well they may get to the bullpen early.

Damon takes a few pitches before popping out. Jeter flies out to right after taking a couple low. Man, I wish we got this guy, it's just fun to watch. Abreu works a nice walk. If you had to pick one current Yankee to do well against Dice-K it's him. He hits A-Rod with the first pitch. Probably didn't want to try actually pitching to him, which is understandable. And Jason Giambi hits a double into the opposite gap on a pitch way outside, driving in two runs. Welcome to a real offense, Daisuke. Cano grounds out to end the inning. He's the opposite of Abreu, someone easily toyed with by a guy who's a little wild. He's a great hitter, but when he's not right on, he's pretty bad.

Bottom 1 - Chase Wright is someone I never heard of before this year. He's a middling youngish prospect who did okay in first big league start, but he could get smacked around tonight. He walks Lugo, but I think he got squeezed. He's throwing over to first too much. Just concentrate on the hitter. Lugo steals the base anyway without a throw. Good job. He started Youkilis 0-2 but can't put him away and walks him, and here comes the clutchiest clutch god to ever clutch a baseball, who flies out. It was a very clutch fly ball. Ramirez is a copycat, flying out to the same fielder in the same favorable count. Is Chase lucky or good? Probably lucky. He strikes out Drew after getting squeezed again, but he's thrown 843 pitches already and probably won't go deep in the game. The umpires really do seem rougher on him than usual in his first two starts so far.

Top 2 - Mientkiewicz usually gets out before you can finish typing his name, but Matsuzaka takes a while between pitches. Harmless ground out. Cabrera flies out on a decent catch by Pena. I think Melky should have to actually prove he's better than Kevin Thompson before he automatically gets to start before him. Nieves hits it hard right at Lowell and the inning is over before it started. That's the problem with this game for the Yanks, the good part of the lineup will make Dice-K work but he'll tear through the last three hitters in seconds with two of our good players missing.

Bottom 2 - Wright strikes out Lowell. Varitek pops out. He gets ahead of Pena but walks him. Gosh darn it. He refuses to have a quick inning. He gives up a double to Pedroida who was 1 for his last 23. That's not good. Ground out to Jeter, but Wright should have put Pena away when he had him 0-2.

Top 3 - Single by Damon, let's see how D-Mat fares the second time through. I'm glad that's not his nickname, it's a fun format but Dice-K is too good. He hits Jeter, that's the second batter. I guess he's kind of wild. Or maybe a headhunter who hates right-handers that can hit. Nice strikeout on Abreu, but no way Wright gets that call. I didn't notice it before, but the fans cheered when A-Rod got hit. Douche bags. Wow, he has 18 runs batted in with runners in scoring position on only seven hits, five of which were homers. But he strikes out, so poop. Giambi bloops a single that Pedroida, positioned there because of the shift, just misses, and the Yankees score another run. Cano misses a hit down the line by about an inch. He strikes out, making the just-miss more frustrating. At least we got one, it would have sucked to get two on with no outs and not score with Chase's two potential futures being rocked or taken out after a maximum of five innings.

Bottom 3 - Nice running catch by Abreu. Joe Morgan gives young pitchers the advice to let his fielders help him. Awesome. He also says pitchers sometimes fall in love with their changeup (or whatever their best pitch is) and throw it too much. Good advice: stop using your best pitch so much and let hitters make contact. Ortiz does him another favor, flying out on the first pitch. Manny homers, and I can stop wondering when the other shoe will drop. I guess it hadn't dropped yet, as Drew hits one too. Morgan: "I guess he DOES have to do more than just throw strikes!" Really, Joe? Your brilliant advice of just pouring your mediocre fastball down the middle of the plate wasn't actually that good? What? Lowell just hit a third home run? Oh my. And Varitek with a fourth. This is getting heinous now. Joe comments that he's never seen four home runs in a row before. I guess he missed when the Dodgers did it in the ninth inning last year to tie the game in a ridiculous come from behind victory. It was kind of big news. Wright strikes out Pena to end the pain.

Top 4 - The good news is that they're only down by one after four home runs, but it could easily get much worse. Mientkiewicz hits a ground-rule double to center. If he can hit Dice-K, anything can happen in this game. They've acknowledged the Dodger game but resort to the last time four homers happened in the American League to make it still seem historically impressive, but I don't think it is. It's unlikely, but doesn't seem that improbable when the pitcher is in his fourth start above A-ball in his life. Melky grounds out to get Mientkiewicz to third. It would be a big boost if the bottom of the order can get this run in themselves. Nieves gets robbed for the second time, and it's pretty annoying. He's still looking for his first hit this season. Damon grounds out to end it, and I am disappointed.

Bottom 4 - Colter Bean is pitching now, and Joe still claims to have never seen four home runs in a row. Did he really not see the replay from the Dodger game? Isn't this guy getting paid to follow baseball? On further listening, he's saying he's never seen a single pitcher give up four in a row, which is true, so I'll lay off, but I think that would be less amazing than off multiple pitchers. Think about it, who's more likely to give up home runs, a guy who just gave up one already, or a fresh reliever coming into the game for his first batter? Nice running catch by Melky. He's not hitting this year but he's got a great glove. Nieves hurt his hand somehow, and we came close to needing Phelps to catch, who hasn't done it in a game in years. I'm sure that wouldn't be a disaster. Lugo walks and Youkilis just beats out grounding into a double play. I didn't know this, but when a hit ball bounces over the fence and they get an automatic two bases, it's actually called an automatic double and not a ground-rule double which is commonly used. Anyway, Ortiz hits one and the Yankees are spared a run as Youkilis can't advance past third. Manny checks his swing and weakly grounds out. With a little less luck this would be a blowout.

Top 5 - They just showed a poster someone made that said "Dice-K" with a drawing of two dice, but one of them was showing 8 dots, which didn't make sense until I realized it's his uniform number, 18. Jeter hits his first home run of the year, tie game. Abreu strikes out for the second time, looking at a fastball. So much for working the count. He also gets Rodriguez to strike out swinging on three breaking balls. He shouldn't have swung at any of them. Giambi takes a called strike that would have been called a ball for Wright 100 times out of 100. He pops out foul. It sure doesn't seem like a tie game, but the pitching situation favors the Red Sox.

Bottom 5 - I wonder who's starting against the Sox on Friday, because I don't think it will be Chase. Colter walks Drew and gets Lowell to fly out. Drew steals a base pointlessly before Varitek walks too. Pena strikes out, who'd be the Boston player I'd bet on to do so against Bean. Pedroida grounds out, and Bean's walked three but pitched two scoreless innings, so I'll take it.

Top 6 - Cano tags a nice single. He has one of the best swings in baseball, in my opinion. Mientkiewicz shockingly gets another hit that falls right in front of Drew. Cano ran to third on that, and that would have been an annoying double play if Drew caught it. The Yankees retake the lead on a double play ball from Melky. The run is nice, but two outs when Dice-K hasn't looked good this inning is a bit annoying. Nieves finally gets out the way he's used to, easily, and the inning's over.

Bottom 6 - Despite a ton of luck (Sox inabilty to hit with RISP, Ortiz' auto-double, that ball falling in), the Yanks have only a one run lead. Let's hope the bullpen can stay as good as they've mostly been this year. Andy Pettitte takes the mound, and this is already his second relief appearance this year. He gets Lugo to fly out to Abreu on the first pitch. I'm enjoying the second coming so far. Youkilis walks and Ortiz is up. Double play on the first pitch, and I feel a lot better. He could even pitch another inning.

Top 7 - I doubt he will though, that would be a little weird. This will probably be Matsuzaka's last inning. I hoped the Yankees would make him throw more pitches and get him out earlier, but they got five runs so it's alright. Damon rips one just foul, and thinking about it now, the Yanks have had their share of bad luck too, with lineouts and missed doubles, so I guess it's been a pretty neutral game. Dice-K still looks pretty good, striking Damon out. Dr. Jeckyll/Mr. Hide game, good strikeout total and yet five runs on the board. Jeter grounds out. Varitek is great at framing the ball. A lot of catchers try to jerk their glove back over the plate for a called strike and it's obvious they're doing it, but he can make a ball that's well out of the zone appear very close with almost no apparent movement. Abreu strikes out for the third time, which I would not have predicted.

Bottom 7 - Scott Proctor's in. He gets Manny 0-2, but gives up a single. That's Ramirez's fourth hit off Proctor, but it's the first that wasn't a home run. Drew doubles off the monster, and Scott's about to blow the save, which would make the team 0 for 6 in opportunities, which is weird considering the bullpen's general success. And there's a home run, Sox lead 7 to 5. God damn it. Vizcaino's coming in. They take the opportunity to show the four home runs again, and Morgan definitely said he had never seen four in a row before, so he's still an idiot or just very forgetful. Maybe both. Vizcaino gets two quick outs. I'll really be glad when the Yankees' starting pitchers come back and everyone in the bullpen can stop coming in to every game. Pedroida singles to center and Lugo walks. Joe and Jon Miller are going on about how the Yankees have given up eight walks and how that hurts you. I'm more concerned with the five home runs. Fun fact: all of those home runs scored runs, and none of the walks did. Youkilis grounds out.

Top 8 - Matsuzaka is surprisingly still pitching. I guess I'm just used to a manager that treats relievers like they're toilet paper. It'd be be funny if he won this game, since he's lost two straight starts before that were both better in runs allowed if not length. A-Rod gets another hit, and I'm concerned, because that's four in a row that weren't homers. I guess he had to cool down some time. Matsuzaka comes out and he's relieved by fellow Japanese import Hideki Okajima. It's too bad Matsui's not coming back until tomorrow, because we'd be seeing a Hideki vs. Hideki battle right about now. This is Okajima's third game this series, maybe the Yankees will finally hit him. Giambi pops out. Another hit from Cano. Jorge Posada pinch-hits for Mientkiewicz. Or pinch-walks, whatever. Can Melky do it against Brendan Donnelly? Not really, he grounds out, and the double play is avoided by some weird, violent baserunning by pinch runner Miguel Cairo. He touched the base, but he reached out and actually touched the shortstop with his hands. Josh Phelps is pinch-hitting, and now he's going to have to catch. Oh my. Son of a bitch. He hits it well, but Pedroida makes a nice play to snag it, and I'm gonna go ahead and say the Yankees have actually been unlucky. Now we have to use the emergency catcher despite him failing to get a hit. A run scored, but a comeback is still unlikely.

Bottom 8 - I'll be genuinely surprised if there's not a passed ball this inning. Sean Henn's in against Ortiz. Another fly out. Manny makes Henn work before scalding a single to center. Drew grounds out to third. I hate it when they get those graphics wrong. They showed the last five Yankees starters, with the result and career games started. They showed Rasner as getting the win, when he didn't. The team won, but they showed Pettitte as having a No Decision, so you know they were talking about just the starters. Check your facts, ESPN. Lowell draws the walk. He's a very irritating player. He's supposed to be washed up by now, but he gets hits and plays great defense. Just look at him. He looks totally washed up. Varitek grounds out, and it's up to the top of the order against Jon Papelbon.

Top 9 - I guess I underrated Phelps' catching. He hadn't done it in the bigs since 2001, but I guess it's like riding a bicycle. Except instead of riding a bicycle, you're squatting on the ground and catching balls thrown at high speeds and often with strange, irregular movements. Ok, here we go. Papelbon has never blown a save in April. This would be more impressive if he'd pitched in more than two Aprils. Damon flies out after a nice, long at bat. Ya tired, Papelbon? Eh? Maybe? Please? He strikes out Jeter with ease. Abreu's the last hope. He draws a walk, and here's Alex again. Something's going to give. And it's A-Rod, who grounds to third to end the game.

Wrap-up - The bad: they got swept, they're four games back and back under .500. The good: they hit the Red Sox' starters, the Sox are looking as good as they probably will all season, and the Yankees are as weak as they'll probably be all season. Time to shrug it off and get back on the right track with Igawa against the Devil-Rays tomorrow. There'll be a rematch next weekend, we'll see what happens then.