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 3: The Yankees Are Terrible

For a while there, it looked like the Yankees were finally coming around and starting to win consistently. It turns out, they were just playing the Texas Rangers. Besides taking 5 of 6 from them, nothing has gone right for the team. They lost 4 out of 7 to the Mariners when they should have lost only two. They lost a series against the White Sox and are on the verge of being swept by the Mets. Meanwhile, Boston continues to pound out wins and has built a double digit lead in the standings. It really doesn't look good for the Yankees.

The team just doesn't look good, as exemplified by the two losses to the Mets. In the first game, they got a strong start from Andy Pettitte but could barely put together any offense and lost 2 to 3. Andy could easily have 4 or 5 more wins if the bullpen and offense didn't constantly let him down. In the second game, the offense showed some life, especially late, pounding the Mets for 7 runs. But they lost another starter to injury (Rasner with a broken finger) and the bullpen sucked it up, giving up 10 runs. They weren't helped by Robinson Cano's terrible defense, which he really can't afford considering his lack of hitting this year, although he hit a home run in the loss. Damon isn't hitting, and a home run was hit off his glove. After an amazing April, Rodriguez has done almost nothing in May. Abreu is doing nothing. First base is doing nothing. Giambi is doing nothing. Posada, incredibly leading the league in batting, can't take a day off because his backup is an out machine. Matsui has been decent and Jeter has been great. Brian Bruney should be the eighth inning guy instead of Kyle Farnsworth. Farnsworth, in 18 appearances, has only had two innings without a baserunner. Meanwhile, Bruney hasn't given up a run in over 9 innings. Roger Clemens might be ready for the majors after only two starts in the minors. He looked pretty good pitching against A hitters. I wonder if he'll really have an impact on the race or if the yankees are just throwing money at a problem that can't be fixed.

Tyler Clippard is going to try to stop the losing tonight. He's the Yankees' seventh (!!!) rookie to start a game in the team's first 42 games, which is the most for any team in about fifty years, and the fifth to make his major league debut. There's a lot of debate about how good he is. His fastball isn't great, but he has decent off-speed pitches, and has had good numbers in the minors. A lot of scouts don't think very highly of him, though. Hopefully, he can do well enough to not embarrass the team and the Yankees smack Maine around a bit, who seems to be coming down from a stellar beginning to the season.

The first time I blogged a game, it was Chase Wright's second start, and Boston chased him back to the minors with four consecutive home runs. The second time, it was Phil Hughes' second start, and he carried a no-hitter to the seventh before injuring his hamstring, and he still isn't throwing from the mound yet. Maybe blogging Clippard's first start instead of his second will break the unlucky streak. If it doesn't, I might have to just stop doing it. I'll be back tonight.

Top 1 - What's the percent chance that Joe Morgan says something stupid tonight? 60? 70? I'm just kidding. We all know it's impossible for him to talk for three hours without saying something idiotic. Wow, that didn't take long. Apparently, A-Rod is the reason why the Yankees have fallen off. He was carrying them in April, and that's the only reason their offensive deficiencies were covered up before and have been exposed now. Really? Because they haven't fallen off. Their record in May, when A-Rod has stunk, is better than it was in April, when he was amazing. Joe also said he's not bad now, just back to normal. In May, Alex has a .258/.372/.379 line with only 2 homers and 6 RBI. His average line for his career is .306/.386/.575 with about 7.33 home runs and about 21 RBI a month. Joe Morgan is a moron who does absolutely no research and has no idea what he's talking about. Damon takes a few pitches before popping out to Wright. Jeter flies out to right field. Matsui is batting third now, which makes sense, since he's a lefty between Jeter and Rodriguez and one of three Yankees that seem to know how to hit right now. He slaps a double to left field. A-Rod works the count before striking out looking. Considering how vehemently he's arguing the call, you'd think ESPN would show the pitch on the K-Zone or whatever they call it, but they go to commercial.

Bottom 1 - So here's Clippard. Let's hope this goes well. He has quite a violent delivery. Two called strikes and a nice curve ball later, and Reyes is struck out swinging. I thought the third pitch to Chavez was a strike, but it was called a ball. A few pitches later, he pops out to left. He gets Beltran to fly out, and that was a promising inning.

Top 2 - Posada leads off with a walk. Seriously, it's late May and he leads the league in batting average. I don't know what's going on. He and Jeter are sharing a pretty long hit streak coming into tonight. Abreu bloops a single, first and second. Cano hits a foul ball a few feet from a home run. He's not a .340 hitter but he's not a .240 hitter either. He grounds into a fielder's choice, runners on the corners and one out. Doug strikes out trying to do too much, and there will be no runs this inning, as Clippard is doing something he will almost never have to do, bat. He strikes out, of course.

Bottom 2 - Clip-dog takes the mound again after failing to help himself out. He strikes out Delgado looking. The umpire seems to be giving both pitchers the left corner pretty liberally. David Wright smacks a home run to right field. How does he have no power all year and then hit three home runs in two games against the Yankees? Shawn Green gets a ground-rule double off the fans. Apparently it's still cool to play that one Blur song that goes "Woo-hoo!" at ballgames. Lo Duca strikes out. I don't understand how Clippard doesn't have more velocity. He's tall, throws pretty hard, and has added some muscle. Maybe it will come in time. Easley is being intentionally walked to face the pitcher. Jon Miller says Clip-dog is "only" 24, but he's actually 22. He's nibbling too much against Maine, he should just throw strikes. The umpire doesn't call a strike I'm pretty sure he's called before. I'd rather have a way too big or way too small strike zone than an inconsistent one. He walks Maine, which he definitely shouldn't have done. Joe Morgan continues to prove he's an idiot. First he quotes Mike Tyson to make a point about how after the home run, we've seen holes in Clippard's pitching. He claims Clippard pitches worse in the stretch than in the windup. I'd disagree based on just what we've seen here. Two hits from the windup, just a walk from the stretch, not counting the intentional one. Reyes pops out to end the inning, so the damage is minimized, but Clippard threw about 30 pitches that inning. The bullpen had to pitch the whole game yesterday because of Rasner's injury, so the Yankees need a bit of distance from Clip-dog, and he's not giving them that with innings like this.

Top 3 - Damon grounds out. Morgan says the lineup seems easier to go through without Sheffield in it. I'm sure that's the reason they're near the top of the league in runs per game since he's been gone. Jeter works the count full and then rips a double to left field. Maine has thrown a lot of pitches too. This could end up being a bullpen slugfest, which doesn't favor the Yankees. Beltran comes very close to making a great play to rob Matsui, but he does manage to save a run since Jeter held up in case he caught it. Runners on 2nd and 3rd. Only in baseball can something happen like Jeter being on second when a double is hit and not score. Rodriguez strikes out. How can a player be this far above and below his career averages in back to back months? Breathtaking regression to the mean. If you just look at the totals, he's having a pretty good year. This doesn't look like the Yankees' night. With one out, they hit two doubles and don't score in the inning.

Bottom 3 - At first Clippard was only throwing strikes, but now he's diggin' him some balls. Chavez works another walk. Beltran squibs a grounder for a fielder's choice. Delgado grounds into an unorthodox double play and the inning is over relatively quickly despite the walk.

Top 4 - Morgan made the wild claim last inning, I believe, that Beltran has like, the highest stolen base success rate ever, or something. I went and checked it, and it's actually true, except he doesn't have enough at bats yet to qualify in a lot of lists. Interesting. Abreu works a walk somehow. The Yankees use a hit and run to stay out of a double play as Cano grounds out. You see how Maine's pitching to Mientkiewicz even though the pitcher is up next and first base is open? It's because Mientkiewicz is not a good hitter. I don't care how bad the pitcher is, Damion Easley has no business being intentionally walked. Mientkiewicz ends up walking anyway, hilariously, and Clippard is up. He successfully bunts the runners over, even if that might not really be success since it decreases the average number of runs scored in that situation to the end of the inning. It worked out in the end, as Damon fists a double in front of the outfielders and two runs score. Two more score on a home run by Derek Jeter. What's this feeling? Is it... joy? Hope? I won't embrace it yet. Matsui a drives a long fly out to left and the inning is over, Yankees leading 4-1.

Bottom 4 - If Clip-dog can give two more innings without much incident I'll be psyched. He gets revenge on Wright, striking him out on three pitches with some help from the umps. He comes back from 2-0 on Green to get him to ground it to Cano. Lo Duca hits a single up the middle. Is it a good sign that the three hits off Clippard have gone for fewer bases each time? Miller calls a bad curve a hanging slider despite Clippard not having a slider in his repertoire. Is it really that hard to check before the game to make sure you know what a pitcher does and doesn't throw? At least the starters. A quick inning has gotten longer with a full count on Easley. He strikes out swinging on a nice curve, and that's the inning. Long game, only 4 innings in about 100 minutes.

Top 5 - As pointed out by Peter Abraham from LoHud, A-Rod's high leg kick is back, and it seems to be there whenever he's not hitting well. He pops out. Posada absolutely CRUSHES a home run, and both he and Jeter have used the long ball to help extend their hit streaks to 15 games. Abreu flies out to center. Reyes dives to stop a grounder from Cano and just misses throwing him out at first. Why did Cano just try to steal? He doesn't run fast. Inning over.

Bottom 5 - So, there's this drug for older guys with prostate problems who have trouble urinating. It's called Flomax. I think that's awesome. Maine is out, and grounded out for by David Newhan. Reyes copycat-grounds out to the same place. Morgan is going on about how Clip-dog falls off to different sides of the mound based on the pitch he throws, but I don't think it's really a problem. Even if hitters are capable of seeing where he's going and then getting a read on where the pitch is, they can't guess what it is because he has a fastball and an offspeed pitch in both directions. Chavez makes the third ground out to Cano of the inning.

Top 6 - Schoeneweis is in, which could mean more runs. Mientkiewicz is up, and if I see a pinch hitter up after him I'll be mad, because Clip should be allowed to try the 6th. Eye chart strikes out. Fortunately, he's batting, so he'll get a shot. They're saying he helped his own cause by bunting in the third, which is only true if you assume he would have hit into a double play otherwise, because four runs would have scored on a double and homer whether or not those runners advanced. He's somehow working the count, and miraculously hits a freaking double in the gap. Amazing. Imagine if he did that instead of bunting. Of course, Maine is much better than Schoeneweis. Damon strikes out as well. Jeter is being walked to face Matsui, who flies out to left. He's not hitting lefties like he used to this year.

Bottom 6 - Here's Clippard against the heart of the Mets' batting order for the third time. He'll probably be taken out if he allows a base runner. Beltran hits a deep fly out to Damon in left center. Delgado strikes out looking on five pitches. What I find funny about Gameday is that they don't acknowledge mistakes by umpires. It doesn't matter how outside the zone a pitch actually was, they'll pretend he was right and draw the location like it was a strike. There wasn't a real mistake here, they just drew a swinging strike near the middle of the zone when it was clearly half a foot above it from the video. Wright pops out. Hell, let Clip start the seventh against the bottom of the order. Who cares, they won't do much.

Top 7 - Morgan tried to make excuses near the beginning of the game that Clippard was getting outs because the Mets haven't seen him before, but he's gotten better as the game's gone on. Rodriguez hits a laser to left for a homer, and maybe he's getting hot again. Posada clubs an out to Beltran. Abreu doubles to right, and maybe Clippard's spot will come up and he'll be pinch hit for. Who am I kidding? He's not starting the seventh either way. Torre allow a rookie to throw over 100 pitches? Never. There's a pitching change for Cano. A lot of people seem to think Clemens' ability to leave the team between starts is actually written in his contract, but it isn't. It's just an agreement with the team. Cano grounds out. Mientkiewicz is hit with the ball, but the umpire is saying he didn't attempt to get out of the way. It looked to me like he just turned the wrong way to avoid it. The at-bat continues. How come they never call that for Bonds and Biggio who wear all that padding and just stand there waiting to get hit? Doug pops out to end the inning.

Bottom 7 - Amazingly, Clippard gets to start the seventh. Wait, that's Scott Proctor on the mound. Never mind. Morgan thinks it's great he was taken out after pitching well because it builds his confidence. Wouldn't being given a chance to pitch the seventh build more confidence? Either he finishes it and gets even more confidence, or he gets hit and taken out, but still is in line for the win and knows Torre let him give it a shot, building maybe less confidence but still more than just pitching six. Torre and Morgan are the twin Joes of baseball idiocy. A Lo Duca single is sandwiched by two pop outs to Rodriguez. Pinch hitter Gotay hits a double, runners on second and third. Reyes strikes out looking, inning over. Rivera should pitch the ninth because he hasn't gone in a while but I wonder who gets the eighth.

Top 8 - Aaron Heilman has the goofiest picture I've ever seen on Gameday. Here, look at it:

What the hell, right? He doesn't normally look like that (His picture has been changed to a less goofy one since I posted this). Scott Proctor strikes out, leading me to believe he'll pitch the eighth. Awesome. Which is worse, a blister or tearing the skin on your finger? Apparently blisters are a bigger long term problem, at least for Josh Beckett's pitching hand. Damon pops out to the catcher. Jeter skies it to Beltran to end the inning.

Bottom 8 - Another inning for Scott. I hope he relaxed his arm good during that suspension, because he's gonna be using it a lot soon. I'll be surprised if he doesn't log more than three innings against the Red Sox in the next series. Chavez grounds out. Beltran hits a single in front of Abreu. I'd just like to take a moment to remark on how amazing the faces are in Half-Life 2. They look supremely realistic and manage to completely avoid the Uncanny Vally. Good stuff. Delgado advances the runner while grounding out. Wright strikes out to end the inning.

Top 9 - Until the Yankees stop winning blowouts and stop losing close games, they'll never live up to their Pythagorean Record. Matsui squeaks a single past Wright. They just showed a hilarious video of a grounds crewman unrolling some turf or something and there was a kitten inside that popped out. It was pretty hilarious. A-Rod pops out. Posada does so as well. Abreu works a walk. Many players are showing signs they may be awakening from their slumber. Cano grounds out, inning over.

Bottom 9 - Mariano in the ninth. He only has three saves this year, which is insane. Few opportunities + ineffectiveness = not many saves. As long as he does his job I don't care how many saves he gets, I just feel bad for unfortunate fantasy owners. Shawn Green grounds out to Cano. Lo Duca flies out to defensive replacement Melky Cabrera in center. The last inning of a game that isn't close is always boring, and the last hitter always seems to not want to give up. Just let it go, dude. Or hit a home run, whatever. Julio Franco pinch hitting for the pitcher. Did you know he's like, really old? Crazy, huh? What's interesting about him is that he's only in his nineteenth year of service despite being 48. He joined the bigs late but he still managed a pretty long stay through crazy conditioning. He strikes out to put this one to rest.

Wrap-up - Woo, game over. In the three games I blogged, the Yankees are 2-1 with a Grade 1 hamstring pull. Because of the bad outcomes of the first two games, I thought I might be cursing the team, even though that's ridiculous. From tonight's win, we know it isn't blogging games, we know it isn't blogging Yankee games, and we know it isn't blogging Yankee games started by rookies. It could still be a curse of blogging Yankee games started by rookies in their second career start, so I'll lay off doing that. Also, I wonder if calling the Yankees terrible in the post title helped. I'll try to continue the trend by doing that next time.