Liveblog 13: The Yankees Are Mediocre

This team's pretty similar to last year's, not just in the players but in the results. Last season, they sucked for the first few months and didn't really get in a groove until the second half, where they played like men on fire and made it into the playoffs, where they promptly blew it again in the first round. Now, it's June 8th and they're still at .500, where they've probably been about 25 different times this season. The last three games are a good encapsulation of the problem - they had two huge come-from-behind victories won in the bottom of the ninth inning, but in between they lost 2-1 to the Royals, with a pitcher with a career ERA over 6 shutting them down. Last year they were scoring a ton of runs and just not getting any breaks, this year they're just not that good. They still have time to turn it around, and hopefully they're well out of last place by the time they're hosting the All-Star game in the Stadium's final year.

Today Joba makes his second start. The first didn't go too well, as he reached his pitch count quite early thanks to four walks, but he got no help from his defense or the umpires and still only gave up one hit. People still want him to stay in the bullpen, but right now his starts are the only thing I can really look forward to. The Yankees picked up some pretty good pitching talent in the draft and the offense has generally looked better lately with Alex Rodrgiuez and now Jorge Posada returning, and hopefully Phil Hughes can come back and pitch decently before the end of July. With the general underperformance of some other good teams in the league they still have a good shot at the wild card even if Boston takes the division again.

Top 1 - All right, here we go. Strike one to DeJesus. Nobody fucks with DeJesus. He flies out to Melky. The next batter, whose name I won't bother spelling, bloops a 1-2 pitch for a single. Teahen pops out to Abreu on the first pitch. He gets Guillen swinging on some high heat to end the inning. Much better first inning than his last start.

Bottom 1 - Zack Greinke is on the mound for the Royals. He's got a lot of talent but hasn't fully realized it yet. He saw some of it there easily striking out Damon after he went 6 for 6 yesterday. Jeter lines a single up the middle, tying Mickey Mantle for the second most hits at Yankee Stadium. While I was helping to bring in the groceries, Abreu hit a two run homer and A-Rod singled. He then reached second on a wild pitch. Greinke comes up and in on Matsui and almost hits him. Matsui then draws the walk. Giambi strikes out on a rare swing way out of the zone. Joey Gathright makes a nice play taking a run scoring double away from Posada to end the inning.

Top 2 - Joba's facing Alex Gordon, his old teammate from College. For the record, I typed that before Michael Kay said it. Gordon works a full count and then lines a single to left. The next batter pops out on the first pitch. Gload smacks another single. Joba seems to give up more hits than usual whenever he faces Kansas City. He strikes out the rookie Mike Aviles on four pitches. Gordon scores on a passed ball. Three runs have been charged to Joba since he became a starter and none scored on a hit. Gathright strikes out on another ball in the dirt.

Bottom 2 - Gathright makes a second great catch off a ball hit by Cano. Cabrera grounds out to second. Damon bounces a ground ball to the shortstop to end the inning. Much better job by Greinke.

Top 3 - DeJesus hits a double into the corner. I can't see what's happening now because of a thunderstorm warning, so I'm checking Gameday. The second baseman grounds out, moving the runner to third. Teahen pops out to Jeter. On a full count, Guillen hits his third home run in two days, and the Royals take the lead. These storm warnings are really annoying. Gordon flies out to end the inning but that wasn't a good job by Chamberlain.

Bottom 3 - Jeter leads off and takes two breaking ball strikes. He lines another ball up the middle but this time Greinke nabs it for an out. Abreu strikes out weakly to bring up A-Rod. He walks on four pitches to bring up Matsui, who strikes out.

Top 4 - Joba's gonna have to be stingy with his pitches to make it through five innings and have a chance at a win. His slider's really diving today. He strikes out Oliva staring at a low fastball, which I believe is his first looking strikeout in the last 17 he's gotten. First pitch line out to Giambi by Gload helps the pitch count issue. Next batter grounds out to Cano, and that was just what the doctor ordered.

Bottom 4 - Giambi grounds right into the shift for the first out. Posada watches six pitches go by and strikes out. Cano weakly nubs a groundball for an infield single. It's erased by Melky hacking at the first pitch and popping out to end the inning. Both pitchers look pretty good today.

Top 5 - Joba got another called strike out but then DeJesus worked a walk in a long at bat and that ended his day. Dan Geise relieved him again and got out of the inning on a nice diving catch by Giambi.

Bottom 5 - Damon works a full count and then hits a ball that DeJesus made an ill-advised dive for and booked it to third. Jeter fails to deliver and strikes out. Abreu grounds out, but that still gets the tying run in and Joba's off the hook. A-Rod again draws a four pitch walk. Matsui pops it up and Gathright makes another great play to catch it, but it looks like he hurt his wrist. That's a whole inning's worth of outs that Joey's handed to Greinke today.

Top 6 - Geise gets Guillen to ground out and strikes out Gordon. Olivo strikes out but the ball gets far away from Posada and he makes it all the way to second base. Ridiculous play. The next batter pops out though to end the threat which shouldn't have existed.

Bottom 6 - On a full count, Jason Giambi hits his third go-ahead home run in four games. He's having a terrific year after an unlucky April. Posada walks, and Greinke is not long for this game. Mahay's coming in to face Cano. Cano works the inning's third full count, but grounds into a double play. Cabrera pops out to left again to end the frame.

Top 7 - I wonder how many one-run games the Yankees can play in a row. Aviles flies out to center. Gathright, still in the game after appearing to get hurt on that diving catch, grounds out. I knew Geise was no spring chicken, but he turned 31 last month. That's a little wacky. DeJesus just barely hooks a home run foul. A couple pitches later Geise strikes him out, and he's still in line for his first career victory. At age 31.

Bottom 7 - Damon slices another hit to left, this time for a single. Jeter flies out harmlessly. With the hit and run on, Abreu hits a single through the hole and runners are on the corners for A-Rod. An insurance run here would be good with the Yankees' eighth inning relief questionable since Joba's transition. He hit one that looked like a homer off the bat but hit off the wall for a two run double. The fielders misplayed the ball and A-Rod went for third but got thrown out. If he ran hard the whole way he would have made it easily. Matsui walks. On yet another full count, Giambi pops out.

Top 8 - Jose Veras is getting a chance here instead of Kyle Farnsworth, which is a bit surprising. Maybe Girardi is learning. The weird-name guy pops out. Teahen gets to a full count (!!!) and then strikes out. Guillen grounds a single up the middle. Gordon gets punched out staring at a fastball middle down to end the mild threat.

Bottom 8 - Posada walks. Guess what the count was. Cano grounds into a fielder's choice. Cabrera swings and misses. He had a great April but really cooled down after that. Damon grounds out and we're on to what should be the last half inning.

Top 9 - Olivo pops up the first pitch to Abreu. Gload grounds out to Cano. Another ball to the same place to end the game.

Wrap-Up - Today we learned that these liveblogs are only cursed for the second game by a rookie pitcher, not the second start. So that's good to know. The Yankees are again over .500, but we'll see how long that really lasts. With any luck, they'll stay there this time. Joba pitched well, and by his next start should be more or less able to pitch a real game, and hopefully get the win.

Liveblog 12: Stretching Out Joba

The Yankees have not played well since the last liveblog. They played horribly for about a week, dropping 5 games under .500. But after A-Rod's first game back, an ugly blowout against the Orioles, the Yankees have won three straight, two blowouts of their own and one 2-1 game won on a walk-off single. They might be turning around, although it's too soon to say. The two halves of the problem are ineffective starting pitching and terrible offense. Both have looked better lately, and the Yankees are making a move to help fix the former - having Joba Chamberlain throw more pitches per appearance until he's ready to throw enough to begin starting.

This has been accompanied by the clamoring from idiots in the media to keep him in the bullpen reaching a fever pitch. It doesn't matter what anyone says to them, they see this move as A) an attempt to keep up with the Joneses (Red Sox, who just saw their second young pitcher throw a no-hitter in as many years), B) a silly change in strategy even though the Yankees have said all along that this was the plan, and C) a huge mistake because Joba is excellent in the eighth inning and we don't know what he'll do in the rotation even though that's what he did through college and most of his time in the minors, ignoring that having a lead through seven innings is harder and more important than having someone to keep it in the eighth. Joba will throw about 45 pitches today in relief of Mike Mussina, or at least that's the plan.

Top 1 - Mussina struck out Ichiro, and then gave up a couple singles, but retired the next two hitters to end the inning.

Bottom 1 - Carlos Silva, a mediocre pitcher for the Twins who had a pretty good contract year, became the latest player to get heinously overpaid by the Mariners, now playing for 11 million a year for the next four seasons. He hasn't been awful, but has a 4.83 ERA so far. He retired the first three Yankees he faced, on to the second.

Top 2 - The first batter jumps on the first pitch but flies out harmlessly. Mussina strikes out Sexson swinging on a slider outside. The quick inning finishes with Damon making a nice little catch in left.

Bottom 2 - Some people think A-Rod is just a huge compiler who doesn't get it done when it counts, but you could see how weak the lineup was without him when he was on the DL with a quad injury. He singles to left center, and then Matsui hits it farther in the same area for an automatic double. Michael Kay has been yammering on about Matsui and Ichiro (they're both Japanese!), and it's already becoming tiring here in the second inning. Giambi began the season terribly but has really been having a pretty decent year offensively, especially lately. Giambi hits it even farther to the same spot, getting it over the wall, and the Yankees lead 3-0. He should keep the mustache, it always seems to work for him. Cano, also picking up after a terrible April, hits another double to the same spot. There must be a magnet over there somewhere. Molina, who started off great but has slowed since Posada was placed on the DL, grounds it to second, moving Cano to third. Cabrera dunks a single in front of Ibanez in left, Yankees lead 4-0. Damon singles, runners on first and second. I gotta admit, this team is usually pretty boring. Either they're not hitting at all and losing, or hitting way to well and winning by boring scores like last night's 13-2. I look forward to seeing a few innings from Joba, though. Jeter flies out to right field, and Cabrera takes third base. Abreu pops up behind the plate to end the inning, with a nice lead for Mussina.

Top 3 - Betancourt slices a double down the right field line to start the third. Ichiro hits a ball well but right to Damon for an out. The next batter singles but Abreu fields it quickly and holds Betancourt at third. It's for naught as Vidro hits a three run home run, cutting the lead to just one run. Ibanez grounds out to Giambi. Beltre hits another homer to tie the game. Let's start warming Joba, shall we? Mussina has been solid this year, but he has been giving up too many dingers and after an error by Jeter in his last start, gave up a total of seven runs in just 2/3rds of an inning. He walks Reed on four pitches. David Cone in the booth keeps talking about the frustration of giving up back to back home runs, which would be relevant if Mussina had given up back to back home runs. Unfortunately, he might as well have. He strikes out Sexson again to end the inning.

Bottom 3 - ESPN froze my internet and I lost what I was saying here about the inning. A-Rod struck out, Matsui singled for his fifth hit, he's having a good year, Giambi smoked a double, they walked Cano to get to Molina who flew out, Kay's still talking about Japan, Cabrera picked up the team with an RBI single, and then Damon popped up to end it.

Top 4 - First hitter grounds out to third. Betancourt lines a curveball right at A-Rod. Suzuki grounds out to Jeter, who makes another low throw that Giambi recovers. Lots of low throws by him this year. Nice recovery by the Moose.

Bottom 4 - Jeter leads off by grounding harmlessly to first. Abreu does the same to second. A-Rod does the same to short on the first pitch. Maybe Matsui can ground out to third the next inning to complete the circuit.

Top 5 - Lopez doubles down the left-field line. Drat. Vidro grounds it to Jeter, one out. Kay says he didn't get the job done. I think it's okay after the three runs he drove in the last time up. Ibanez strikes out on an inside curve. Beltre swings at a high pitch, popping out to Cano. Mussina did enough to earn the win, but hopefully it's Joba time in the sixth.

Bottom 5 - Unfortunately, Matsui grounds out to first, ruining the pattern. Giambi pops out to third. Cano doubles past the diving first baseman, reaching base for the third time. Lopez makes a nice play at second to get Molina out, ending the inning.

Top 6 -Joba throws a few pitches before making a nice snag on a ball going over his head to get the first out of the sxith. Sexson strikes out yet again on a nice slider. Another slider to strike out Johjima. That inning used up 16 of Joba's reported allotment of 45 pitches.

Bottom 6 - Melky flies to center for the first out. The next batter grounds out. An error by Lopez allows Jeter to reach base. Abreu hits a two run homer to the opposite field. Just when I was thinking Silva had a pretty good game besides one bad inning. Kay is truly baffling me. Every source has said Joba will throw about 45 pitches today. When Kay brought it up, he said 45-5o. Okay, no big deal. I don't think they'll stretch him quite that far but whatever. Then the next inning he said 50-55. Um, I don't think so, guy. More like 45. Just now he said 50-60. What the hell? Is he even listening to himself? Rodriguez strikes out and now it's time for the seventh.

Top 7 - Betancourt singles with two strikes, and Ichiro flies out. A weak grounder to A-Rod turns into a close out at first. He walks Vidro, but Ibanez grounds it to Jeter for the third out. 40 pitches, and I would not be surprised to see someone else throw the eighth.

Bottom 7 - New pitcher Arthur Rhodes walks Matsui. Giambi singles the other way, and then Cano hits his third double of the game. Not a very good job against three lefties by the lefty specialist. 8-4 ballgame. Brandon Morrow in to face Molina. He finally comes through with a single, runners on the corners, nine runs so far. Melky hits an infield grounder and Cano gets caught on the basepaths, one out. A possible double play ball by Damon is misplayed by Beltre and the bases are loaded. Jeter flies out, but not deep enough for Molina to tag up. Abreu hits an automatic double, two more runs in, and I am very bored. This game is in hand and I think Joba's done so I will take my leave. Back in a bit to wrap it up.

Wrap-up - Kyle Farnsworth had a bad eighth inning, but the Yankees still won 12-6. Joba could have been more efficient with his pitches, but the important thing right now is moving him forward as a starter. Not the best played game ever, but a win is a win.

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.

The Yankees' First Road Trip

One home run was the difference between a good road trip and a bad one. The Yankees were poised to go 4-2 against two good teams, the Twins and the Athetlics, with a two run lead in the ninth. But Marco Scutaro hit a game winning home run off Mariano Rivera, and they ended up going 3-3, still below .500 instead of above it. It's not a big difference this early, but the difference in feeling is noticeable.

The Yankees' situation has changed, although it's not much better. The starters have improved, going deeper into games, although it's hard to feel good about that situation when so many of them are on the disabled list. Of the first six starting pitchers on the depth chart, four are out with injuries. One of them (the sixth) may be back in time to start against Boston, but if he isn't, the Yankees will have to call up yet another pitcher to go. Chase Wright is pitching tonight, and he's only thrown two games above A level in the minor leagues. He's looked good in those two games, but you have to wonder how he'll fare against Cleveland's strong offense.

The bullpen has still been good, but they're still getting used too much early on. Starters did go deeper, but Mike Mussina had to leave a game early before hopping on the disabled list. He had a hamstring injury, same as young ace Chien-Ming Wang and outfielder Hideki Matsui, and with all the leg problems Yankees have had, I have to wonder if it's not the fault of their training program. The bullpen was also taxed in two straight extra-innings games, including one that went 13 innings. Thank god Jason Giambi hit a home run to win the second game, or else the sub-par road trip would look awful, with four straight losses. Giambi has started kind of slow this year, but he's showing he still has the ability to make big hits.

Most of the injured players should be back and ready by the end of the month, and hopefully the team will play well enough until then that they aren't in too deep of an early hole. With a healthy pitching staff and this offense, the team can really do damage this summer.

First Post

I've decided to start a weblog so I can more easily share my opinions no one's asking for. Instead of talking about my boring life, I'll stick to hopefully-interesting topics that distract me from whatever I'm supposed to be doing. For this special series premiere, I will be talking about someone who was banned from a sports forum I now help moderate, because it's the last time I argued with someone who was that perfect, lovably detestable combination of so very wrong and so very arrogantly sure he was right.

He claimed to be a Yankee fan, but you might have trouble guessing, since the only thing he seemed to do was constantly berate Alex Rodriguez for the same tired reasons everyone else does. Before anyone asks, I'm one of those rare creatures, a Yankee fan who likes A-Rod, and I welcome discussion on the subject, but don't give me that crap that he isn't clutch. He hasn't performed in his last three postseason series, but that's a very small sample size to judge a player by, and runs you score in the first inning are just as valuable as runs scored in the ninth, and he is one of the best run producers playing today.

I digress... in any case, the first encounter I had with this banned user was probably the only significant argument we had over something that wasn't Rodriguez related, and it was also probably the most befuddling thing I've seen someone who appeared to have some actual baseball knowledge try to defend. He was praising Boston's David Ortiz, which is fine by me, since he's a great player and by all accounts and even greater guy. At the time, he was a strong contender for MVP. He ended up finishing much lower in the voting than the second he did the previous year despite overall better numbers. Why did that happen? Because his team didn't make the playoffs, of course. It's impossible to be valuable to your team unless it's good enough to qualify for the postseason. Unless you also play defense, like Alex Rodriguez in 2003, apparently. The only way to be the MVP if you DH is to have absolutely monster numbers and be on a playoff team. Never mind the Red Sox actually won more games in the season than the World Champion Cardinals, even with the much tougher schedule.

Anyway, why was he talking up Big Papi? The monstrous power numbers the last few seasons? The unreal play with the game on the line in the same time period? No, David Ortiz was apparently great because he bunted for a base hit in a game the Red Sox were losing. I'll repeat with more detail, David Ortiz was great because he bunted for a cheap single when the Red Sox were losing the game by four runs. Why does this make him great? Because it shows he's a team player. Only selfish, fat assholes like Jason Giambi swing away when the team's losing. Truly good players take an easy base hit in a game that in all likelyhood is already decided. Because as we all know, solo home runs kill rallies more than really slow guys on first base. David Ortiz wasn't playing for himself, he was trying to get things started for his team. By bunting. While down by four runs. In the eighth inning, by the way. This may seem extraordinarily stupid to you even if you don't follow or really understand baseball. That's because it is.

Don't get me wrong, Ortiz is slow, but being on first base and slow is much better than being out. I know this more than some people apparently do, for example, this same person who though Giambi wasn't that good in 2006 because he had a low batting average. Never mind that Giambi got on base about as well as anyone and had great power numbers despite being complete sapped of his strength at the end of the year with a bad wrist, he wasn't valuable because he hit the ball at the shifted defense a lot instead of taking up his game a level like Ortiz by bunting to the left side. Who cares that two fat, slow guys get on base at the exact same 41.3% clip? One was much better because his batting average was 30 points higher. David Ortiz WAS better than Jason Giambi in 2006. But not because of that.