Liveblog 25: Let's Watch Baseball

I'm not going to do as many of these as the last few years because I don't think anyone really cares, including me. The Yankees have been pretty great so far early in the season, although they just lost two in a row for the first time. That's okay when you still haven't lost a series, though they'll have to beat the Angels two times in a row on their own field to keep that from happening. Andy Pettitte will be facing Joel Pineiro, who I am still surprised has apparently turned into a decent starting pitcher. Hopefully the Yankees can get to him, unlike the last time when he got his team's only win in a series in New York.

Top 1 - According to FOX, the first pitch is NEEEXXXTTT. The offense hasn't been great in these last couple losses, let's see if they can get off to a good start. I'm especially glad that Tim McCarver's not doing this game, because I don't want him to talk more about this non-story with A-Rod stepping on Dallas Braden's mound. It will probably get brought up anyway. Wait a second... they just had a segment of the announcers talking and they went back to commercial before the first pitch. I feel lied to. Okay, game's started. Derek Jeter hits it right to Brandon Wood at third for the first out. Seems like he's grounding out a lot, but his overall numbers still look really nice. I'd complain about Brett Gardner batting second over Nick Johnson if he didn't have a freaking .420 OBP right now. And he lines a single into center. He might actually turn out to be a solid player. They're talking about Mark Teixeira's regular slow start to begin the season, and mention that he hit .200 in April last year, without Alex Rodriguez behind him in the lineup. But wouldn't the fact that he's doing even worse this year without that detriment be enough proof that that whole protection thing was bunk? Mark grounds into a double play to end the inning.

Bottom 1 - Pettitte's been fantastic to begin the season, but it always seems like he's never too far from a bad start at this age. Erick Aybar grounds out to Jeter to start the inning. Three members of the Angels lineup used to be Yankees, which is kind of high but not crazy. Former Yankee Bobby Abreu strikes out. Torii Hunter also grounds out to Jeter, and this game is going quick.

Top 2 - A-Rod grounds out to the pitcher. Come on, guys. At what point will people stop saying Robinson Cano is going to get a batting title "some day"? I really don't think he walks enough to pull it off, and it's not like he can't be a great second baseman without it. He singles to the right side. Nick Swisher works the count full before smacking a double to right which scores Cano. Oh yeah, Curtis Granderson is on this team. He was awesome to start the season but hasn't done much lately. Pops out to left. Ramiro Pena also pops out, and the inning's over. What happened to Pineiro being an extreme ground ball pitcher?

Bottom 2 - Pettitte faces off against last year's World Series hero, Hideki Matsui. He clubs a single to right. Kendry Morales, whom I am already tired of, takes a couple weak hacks before nearly grounding a ball through the hole in left, but Jeter gets to it and throws out the slow Matsui at second. Joe Buck, please look at Jeter's season in 1999 before you start calling any other year in his career possibly the best. It's just silly. Pena dives to snag a line drive off Juan Rivera's bat. Isn't it about time the Yankees started getting Howie Kendrick out? Pettitte obliges by having him hit the ball to Jeter, who steps on second before Morales can slide in.

Top 3 - Francisco Cervelli grounds out. I've come to like him quite a bit, he could be a backup catcher for this team for a while. Can we please stop making fun of these larger, more protective helmets that a few players like Cervelli are wearing? Yeah they look a bit funny but we don't need to encourage these players to value how cool they look over their own safety. Jeter hits a single up the middle. Gardner pops it up to short center, Aybar makes the catch. Hey other guy talking, if Teixeira wanted to avoid the collision last night all he had to do was not cause it. Sure it's a "clean play" but it wasn't a necessary one. He grounds into the shift for the third out of the inning.

Bottom 3 - Mike Napoli rips a single to left on a full count. Wood singles to left, but Gardner throws out Napoli at third to cancel it out. I just got to say, I hate the way Ken Rosenthal begins all of his paraphrased quotes by saying "Hey." It just sounds awful and he's bad at his job. Aybar rips one right at Cano who makes the catch, two outs. Abreu singles to the opposite field. Pettitte's pretty lucky he has any outs this inning and a lead to protect. Hunter watches a third strike that was probably actually a ball for the third out.

Top 4 - A-Rod and Cano single, but Swisher foolishly lays down a bunt to move the runners over and the Angels intentionally walk Granderson, loading the bases for Pena who has a surprisingly high batting average with a small number of at bats in that situation. He strikes out on three pitches, although I question two of the calls. Cervelli singles under Wood's glove to drive in two and bail out Swisher. Jeter hits another one up the middle, and Granderson scores before Cervelli is picked off trying to reach third. Yankees lead four to nothing.

Bottom 4 - While I was doing stuff Andy Pettitte got three outs. That's all you need to know, man.

Top 5 - Apparently Swisher told someone that if that bunt hadn't worked, he would never do it again. I kind of wish that happened, because this just encourages him to keep giving away outs. I kind of want to mention this Activision/Infinity Ward/Respawn Entertainment thing that's been happening even though it has nothing to do with baseball. Basically, Activision has easily held the crown as most evil game publisher for a few years now, and one of their most recent moves was to fire the two heads of Infinity Ward, the creators of their extremely profitable Call of Duty franchise and developers of some of my favorite shooters this generation. Gardner triples to right field, though Teixeira can't bring him home, grounding out to a drawn in infield. Anway, those firings have led to a mass exodus of employees at IW, many heading to Respawn Entertainment, which was formed by those studio heads and is currently partnered with EA, a company which has looked like a bunch of boy scouts in recent days compared to Activision. I'm both interested in seeing what Respawn does with their new creative freedom and wondering if I'll even end up playing Modern Warfare 3 after this fiasco, which is a bit disappointing because I was pretty curious where it was going despite the last game's failure to not be mostly totally ridiculous. A-Rod strikes out looking, but Cano prevents the team from achieving utter futility by singling yet again to score Gardner. He moves to second on a wild pitch, and third on a passed ball. Swisher drives him in with yet another single. Why do people think Jeff Mathis is really good and him going on the Disabled List is a big loss for the Angels now? A few hot weeks in October and to start the season don't make him better than Napoli somehow. Granderson grounds out. He can start hitting again any time now.

Bottom 5 - Kendrick strikes out on a ball in the dirt, Cervelli throws him out at first. Napoli also goes down swinging. There's a pizza place nearby called Napoli's that makes really awesome wings. Never had the pizza though. Takes away from the wing eating time. Wood hits a couple foul balls just out of the reach of fielders before striking out as well. Yankees look pretty good right now.

Top 6 - Pena grounds out harmlessly. The most interesting part of the Activision thing might actually be the lawsuits between them and the guys their fired. I could believe that they had meetings with other publishers and that breaches their contracts, but I don't blame them for doing things like that if they weren't paid owed royalties for several months. If they somehow win they could actually stop production on Modern Warfare all together, which would be pretty amazing, but somehow I doubt their chances. Cervelli grounded out too. The other guy talking answers an e-mail question about Cervelli having a better catcher ERA than Posada this year by accurately citing sample size issues with the comparison. Good on you, other guy. Jeter flies out for Pineiro's first perfect inning, though it's a bit late for that.

Bottom 6 - We're cool if this is my last inning, right? Hahaha who am I kidding no one is reading. Man, I am getting real low on hard drive space. Thank god for this 8 gig flash drive. Aybar doubles down the left field line. Swisher makes a running catch on a ball of Abreu's bat as Aybar tags up and gets to third easily. They just played audio of Hunter arguing that called third strike with the umpire, it was pretty funny. You had to be there, dude. He hits a sacrifice fly to right, and that breaks up the shutout. Full count to Matsui who then strikes out, and I am outta here.

Wrap-Up - The Yankees won.

Liveblog 23: The Yankees Are In the Playoffs

The Yankees have already won seven more games than they did all of last season, and they have ten more to play. If they win just half of those, they'll finish with 101 wins and their best record since 2004. Last night they overcame the Angels in the ninth inning, and in the process clinched the first playoff berth of the year. Needless to say, this is a big improvement over last time. Surprisingly, it really has very little to do with pitching. CC Sabathia has been brilliant and Phil Hughes and Mariano Rivera have been rocks in the bullpen, while A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte have at times been very good, but overall the pitching has been a little below average, partially due to the easy home runs at the stadium.

What has carried them to such a great performance is the hitting, as the offense has been outstanding. They have an amazing eight players with an OPS+ of at least 120, meaning they have by a certain measure hit 20% better than the average, and if Derek Jeter can manage three more home runs in the short time left they'll all have at least 20 as well, a big league record. The defense has been less terrible than recent years as well. They set the record for consecutive games without an error, which actually isn't a great measure of that, but they've gotten to more balls than years past, helping the pitchers a bit, as a lot of them are outdoing their peripherals.

The team's magic number to clinch both the division and homefield advantage through the playoffs for the first time 2006 is six, and they can reduce both of those as well take a rare series victory in Los Angeles today as Burnett faces off against former Ray Scott Kazmir. For no understandable reason, in a few hours I'll be blogging at least the first five innings of the game.

Top 1 - The Yankees have four regular players out of the lineup today so this should be interesting. Jeter leads off by flying out to right. Since I last blogged about baseball he took over the record for most hits by a Yankee, but considering how many other teams have players with more it's not as impressive as the New York media made it out to be. Jerry Hairston Jr. works a full count walk. Mark Teixeira pops out to second. Hideki Matsui ends the inning with a line drive right to Gary Matthews Jr. in right field.

Bottom 1 - Watching A.J. pitch this year has been frustrating. You can't say enough about his stuff, but it is too frequently ineffective for whatever reason and he leads or nearly leads the league in a bunch of negative statistics like wild pitches and walks. He's had stretches of brilliance, and hopefully that's the side of him that shows up in October. Chone Figgins, constant thorn in the Yankees' side, singles to left. Burnett gets two strikes on Erick Aybar with a fastball and then the curve. Another curve in the dirt gets Aybar swinging. Former Yankee and Angels-offensive-resurgence-credit-getter Bobby Abreu lines out to Shelley Duncan in right. Figgins finally tries to steal second, but the effort is wasted as Torii Hunter grounds out to Robinson Cano.

Top 2 - Duncan is way late on the first fastball from Kazmir. Two more escape his grasp and he strikes out in a very feeble-looking at bat. Cano drives one to center field that falls into Hunter's glove. Melky Cabrera grounds out meekly for the third out.

Bottom 2 - Kendry Morales, getting some mild MVP consideration from people blissfully ignoring the real world, leads off with a single past Cano. Juan Rivera swings through a fastball for strike three. Howie Kendrick strikes out on the eighth pitch of the at bat as Morales swipes second thanks to a bad throw by Jose Molina. Matthews walks on four pitches to bring up the only white guy in the Angels' lineup today, catcher Mike Napoli. He strikes out on three pitches to end the threat.

Top 3 - I really don't understand Joe Girardi's decision to only play half of his good hitters today. Two of them are kind of hurt, but the others aren't, Kazmir already kind of destroys this team, and there's an off day tomorrow anyway. Brett Gardner gets an infield single off a grounder right back to Kazmir, who doesn't get to the ball quickly enough to make the play. Molina pops out to right. Back to Jeter, who grounds into a double play.

Bottom 3 - Figgins raps his sixth hit of the series, a single up the middle. Aybar bounces one that Burnett grabs and throws to first for the out as Figgins moves to second. Abreu watches three pitches go by and walks back to the dugout. Gardner takes a funny route to a fly ball by Hunter but tracks it down for out number three.

Top 4 - Hairston watches a third strike for the first out. Teixeira doubles into the corner in right. Matsui lets five pitches go by and walks. Duncan rips one that ricochets off Figgins' glove and dribbles to left field, but Teixeira held up thinking it might get caught and is thrown out at home trying to score. Matsui and Duncan moved to third and second on the play. Cano makes up for it by grounding a single between first and second on a 2-2 pitch, two runs score and he moves to second on the bad throw to home. Cabrera doubles into the gap in left and drives in Cano. Rivera puts about twice as much effort into catching a Gardner pop fly as he did trying to prevent the Red Sox from scoring the winning run on a simlar play a little while ago, and the inning's over, but the Yankees lead 3-0.

Bottom 4 - Now pitching with a lead, Burnett responds by throwing three straight balls to Morales, but comes back to strike him out, already his sixth of the game. Rivera walks in a kind of irritating at bat. Kendrick strikes out again. Another full count, and another strikeout, as Matthews becomes Burnett's seveth different victim of the K. He's pitching well.

Top 5 - Molina flies out to the warning track in dead center. Jeter fails to check his swing on a third strike but the ball gets away from Napoli and he makes it to first base. For the record, I think it's dumb that you can do that. Jeter steals second on the next pitch. Hairston pops out to short center. I just noticed that Teixeira is creeping towards .300 as the season ends. After a terrible first month he's been around .280 all year, but if he made it that would be neat. Kazmir just misses a called strike that puts the count full and the next pitch is fouled off the ground into Napoli's junk. After a short break, ball four comes in for a walk. Matsui pops out to cut the frame short.

Bottom 5 - Napoli recovers from the ball shot by smacking a ground ball past the listless Jeter for a single to open the bottom of the inning. Figgins comes up as the only batter A.J. hasn't retired at least once. He stays that way lining a double down the right field line. Aybar swings at a curve that actually hits his foot for strike two. Another curve down and in gets him for the second time. Abreu drives in the Angels' first run with a groundball out to Cano playing deep. Hunter lines out to Duncan in right, and Burnett gets out of it with a two run lead intact.

Top 6 - Duncan works a long at bat before Hunter makes a catch near the wall for the first out. Cano strikes out on another ball in the dirt, but this one doesn't get far enough away for him to reach. Cabrera singles, but Gardner flies out to end the inning.

Bottom 6 - Full count and another called strikeout for Morales. Rivera singles up the middle. Kendrick fans again, the 11th of the game. Matthews crushes one to right that Duncan falls over going after and a run scores. Napoli walks on a questionable fourth ball, and that's it for Burnett. I'm out of here before this gets worse.

Wrap-Up - Damaso Marte finished off the sixth, and then there was a couple of tense innings as the Yankees' second-string relievers bent but didn't break against the Angels' offense before Rivera shut the door in the ninth. Good win, as it's the Yankees' first series win in Anaheim in years and an admirable job in a pressure-filled situation. If Boston loses today or tomorrow against the Royals, then the Yankees can clinch the division with a series win at home against them this weekend. That would certainly be sweet.