Liveblog 28: Right Before the Break

Here we are on the last game before the break. The Futures Game is tonight, Nick Swisher is going in the Home Run Derby tomorrow, and eight Yankees will be at the All-Star Game the day after. The team's been doing very well lately - despite losing out on the Cliff Lee sweepstakes (something I don't terribly mind since if there's one weakness on this team, it's not starting pitching), they have the best record in the majors and are on pace to do even better than last year's 103 wins. And that's despite an occasional inability to hit the broad side of the barn and the fact that Mariano Rivera is their only reliable reliever. Joba Chamberlain just blew his second 1-0 lead in as many opportunities, and they've got to stop putting him in those situations until he figures things out. I know the important things that are in his control have been pretty good, but he's simply not the pitcher he was two or three years ago. Anyway, CC Sabathia has been fantastic lately and is pitching this afternoon. He'll try to get the Yankees their third win in this four game series against Ryan Rowland-Smith. I'll probably start this a little late because of the World Cup final but I will try to go more than two innings this time.

Top 1 - As regulation time drew to a close in South Africa, the Yankees loaded the bases against Rowland-Smith and managed to score two runs. Marcus Thames is batting sixth, and strikes out looking.

Bottom 1 - Of course the World Cup Final is scoreless and going into extra time on the day I intended to blog the Yankee game. I'll be watching that, but also keeping this updated with Gameday until it's over. CC was voted onto the All-Star team by the players, but he won't participate because he's pitching today. He's actually not the best candidate, but he's been pitching very well lately, winning his last seven starts. Ichiro Suzuki grounds out to first. Chone Figgins strikes out swinging. Franklin Gutierrez grounds out to second. Pretty simple.

Top 2 - Curtis Granderson grounds out to first. He really hasn't done that much this year besides a few clutch hits. He's really got to figure out this left handed thing, or at least start against them less often. That would be easier if they could pick up a bat at the deadline since Nick Johnson seems to be in fine constantly-injured form. Brett Gardner gets a free pass in the form of a hit by pitch in what looks to be the upper arm area. Derek Jeter hits a deep fly ball, but Gutierrez catches it at the wall. Swisher grounds out to third and the inning's over.

Bottom 2 - Last night's hero at Joba's expense, Jose Lopez hits a line drive right at Mark Teixeira. Casey Kotchman hits what I assume is a solid single to left field. Newly acquired Justin Smoak does the same. Josh Bard flies out to the same general area and Jack Wilson grounds into a force though, so it's for naught.

Top 3 - Besides that kick to the chest that the referee missed, this has been kind of a boring World Cup Final. Here's a pretty amazing statistic: Brett Gardner has a higher slugging percentage than the entire Mariners lineup today. This is Brett Gardner we're talking about! Talk about a team that can't hit. Spain flops to get a red card called against the Dutch, but can't do anything with the free kick. Meanwhile Tex hits a double to left. A-Rod actually tries a bunt, but hits it foul and moves the runner to third on a foul fly out instead. Tex scores on a wild pitch over Robinson Cano's head. I don't understand why the team is letting Swisher hit in the derby but not Cano. They say he has a back issue, but if so it's so minor that he didn't even know it was a problem until they told him about it. Cano and Jorge Posada make fly outs to end the inning.

Bottom 3 - Late goal for Spain, looks like the Cup is theirs. Two cards on the play. Lots of cards in this game, man. Meanwhile CC has two quick outs. In case you were wondering, only one of the Yankees' three runs was earned, because in the first inning rally the Mariners actually made two errors. And the third run was scored on a wild pitch, so... that's not how you win games. When you can't hit, defense should be a priority. Figgins grounds out.

Top 4 - Game over, Spain wins its first World Cup, Netherlands fails yet again in their third final. I finished second in my pool to pick the winners. I've enjoyed the cup, but the combination of referee failure and lack of accountability makes it difficult to really care about soccer otherwise. Thames singles to start the inning. Granderson moves him to second with a ground ball. Gardner reaches base again with a walk. Passed ball moves up the runners. Really sloppy defense. Jeter doubles in both runs and things are looking nice on ice, all right. Swisher pops out, but Teixeira hits another double and the Yanks lead 6-0. Rodriguez flies out.

Bottom 4 - The Futures game starts at 6. I might watch that instead of finishing this if it's still so one-sided. Cano misses a ball but still manages to throw out the runner. CC knocks down a ball and throws to first for out number two. Full count against Kotchman, but he grounds out to second. CC's consistently cruising.

Top 5 - New pitcher for the Mariners, Brian Sweeney. Cano leads off with a double and Posada flies out. Thames smashes a home run just fair (off a right hander!), and this game is getting out of hand. Granderson singles to right. Gameday's lagging behind quite a bit for some reason. Gardner loops a fly ball to left for out number two. Jeter hits it far yet again, but it's caught by Ichiro.

Bottom 5 - Smoak and Bard make outs quickly. Wilson hangs in a while, but grounds out to third. Breezy game considering the eight runs.

Top 6 - Another deep fly by a Yankee as Swisher flies out to center. Tex flies out to right and A-Rod grounds out somewhere. On we go.

Bottom 6 - CC gives up consecutive singles again, and Figgins works a full count. Yet another single, and Michael Saunders breaks up the shutout. Gutierrez lines out to Jeter, who can't make the accurate throw to first to pick off Figgins. No worries though, as Lopez grounds in a double play on the next pitch. Game looks to be in hand, I'm going to flip over to the Futures game and wrap up later.

Wrap-Up - CC finished seven innings and with the Mariners only managing one run off the Yankees bullpen, they won 8-2, giving Sabathia his eighth straight win despite only one strikeout. They did great in the first half despite a few hiccups, and are maybe one trade away from a completely dominant second half of the season.

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.