The Yankees started their West Coast swing with the type of play New York fans have come to expect this season, taking the first three games against Seattle. Sunday afternoon, the Bombers went for the four game sweep, but this time they came up empty. Joba turned in another lackluster performance and the bullpen failed to keep the Yankees in the game as Seattle ran away with a 10-3 victory.
Joba and Seattle pitcher, Fister, kept both lineups scoreless through the first couple innings. In the top of the third, Pena bunted onto first and scored when Jeter connected with an RBI double. Unfortunately, Joba was unable to hold onto the lead, giving up two walks and a single to load the bases with two outs. Jose Lopez doubled to left, scoring Langerhans and Wilson and giving Seattle the 2-1 edge. The Yankee bast struck again in the fourth, starting with Alex Rodriguez’s single and ending with Nick Swisher’s second two-run homeru
The Mariners capitalized on the Yankee hurlers lack of control. In the fifth, Joba walked Branyan and gave up a single to Lopez. Guitierrez then sent a RBI single into center, where Hairston might have had a play at the plate had he not dropped the ball on the transfer. Hannahan followed with a single to right and Seattle regained the lead, 4-3. Aceves relieved Joba in the sixth, and while he held Seattle scoreless, it was clear he did not have his best stuff with him. In the seventh, Griffey started thing off for the Mariners with a single, followed by a double by Gutierrez. Johjima loaded the bases, after he was hit by an inside fastball. Aceves managed to strikeout the next batter, before hitting Josh Wilson with a pitch, scoring Griffey and ending Aceves’ night. Gaudin replaced Aceves and promptly gave up singles to Ichiro and Branyan and a double to Lopez. At the end of the seventh, the Mariners had added 5 runs to their lead. Johjima homered in the eighth to cap off the outing for Seattle.
n in as many days, giving the Pinstripes the lead again.
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It’s only after reading/hearing about milestones like this do you begin to really appreciate the consistency and excellence of Derek Sanderson Jeter’s career:
One of New York’s few bright spots in the finale of the four-game set was Derek Jeter, who passed Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio for most hits by a shortstop in the third inning, when he fought off a pitch near his fists for an opposite-field double that scored Ramiro Pena. His 2,674th hit as a shortstop came two innings after he led off the game with a single.
Sure, Cal Ripken moved from shortstop to third, keeping him from this record. But Jeter remains a fixture at short and now has a pretty significant record to call his own. Figures it would come on an inside-out swing to right field.
Congrats!
I just love it when a local writer has the stones to really call out his team’s hypocrisy:
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OK, friends. Here’s the deal: Starting Thursday (8/20) through the following Friday (8/28), I will be on vacation in sunny San Diego. I’m looking for a few good contributions that I can post in my absence.
I’ll keep the subject wide open. Analysis, commentary, historical, anecdotal. Just make sure to spell check and edit appropriately. Sloppy work will be ignored.
Send me your contributions over the next few days and if it’s good, I will publish it during my time away.
(UPDATE: I will be at the Padres/Cardinals game 8/21. Pics to come)
Here’s something that I wasn’t completely aware of that I found interesting* (subscription required, sorry):
On top of all [more than $13 million in required repairs and renovations, at a minimum], attendance has dropped precipitously this season, and local fans have started to wonder about the franchise’s future. The team had drawn 267,190 fans through 45 home dates (the fewest openings in the league because of the drainage problems), but more troubling was the drop in average attendance to 5,937 per game, among the worst figures in the league. That’s after the Yankees averaged 8,802 and 7,147 fans a game in each of their first two seasons.
[...]
As a county-owned team, it has been dragged into politics for much of its 20 years, with political wrangling by local leadership afffecting everything from stadium maintenance to control of the front office at times.
Can the economy improve in Scranton quickly enough to salvage/maintain the Yankees presence? I have no idea. Yanks honcho Lonn Trost gave Scranton a “vote of confidence”, but you know what usually follows votes of confidence…
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OK, so maybe the truth is that he misses the NL minor leagues. Because clearly he had no fun pitching against the Yanks last night:
“That lineup is just stupid. They shouldn’t be allowed to have a lineup like that, but that is why their payroll is what it is,” Mariners stater Ian Snell said after getting tagged for eight runs and nine hits, including two homers, in six innings Thursday. “That is a lineup nobody in the National League has.”
It’s late, so this will be a very short, but sweet, post.
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The Yankees started their trip out west with a bang and shows no signs of slowing down. CC was dominant and the Bombers’ bats were hot, apparently they have never heard of jet lag. Matsui seemed to be on a personal mission, lighting up the Seattle pitchers as the Yankees ran away with the 11-1 win.
Ian Snell got into trouble quickly, giving up a single to Matsui in the second and walking Swisher. After getting the next two outs, Hairston put the ball into center field, where Franklin Gutierrez made a nice attempt at a diving catch, but watched the ball bounce away after it hit the heel of his glove. Matsui scored on that play and Swisher scored on a wild pitch, giving the Yankees the 2-0 lead. The Yankees brought out the long ball in the third inning. Derek Jeter started things off sending a monster mash over the Nikon sign in left center. Damon doubled and Godzilla got a hold of another Snell mistake, parking it in the right field stands and giving the Yankees the 5-0 lead. In the fourth, a single by Jeter and a double by Teix would put the Bombers up 6-0.
CC was dominant through the first few innings, only giving up one hit. The second hit given up by Sabathia, however, was a big one as Josh Wilson put the Mariners on the board with a solo shot in the fifth. The Yankees continued to pour it on to the Mariners in the seventh. Damon doubled for the second time in the game and Teixeira walked. Seattle decided to go to their bullpen and brought out a lefty to face Matsui (apparently they don’t have the “Matsui hits lefties” memo). Godzilla drove a rocket into right for a hard single and another RBI. Swisher walked, loading the bases and Cano struck out for the first out of the inning. Melky grounded into a fielder’s choice that scored Teixeira. Hairston sent his second hit into right for an RBI single and the Pinstripes held a 9-1 lead. CC was still dealing in the seventh, striking out the first two batters and retiring the side in order. In the eighth Matsui once again reminded us why he is called Godzilla, sending his second two-run homerun over the head of a leaping Ichiro. Bruney pitched the ninth inning and quickly retired Seattle in order, giving the Yankees another victory.
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Like most of you, I was born well after The Mick was done playing. Also, like many of you, The Mick was my father’s favorite player when he was young. I didn’t realize that today was the 14th anniversary of The Mick’s passing until I read Matt from Fack Youk’s tribute to him (and the Scooter). Matt’s posting, complete with a picture of an infant Matt being held by The Mick, inspired me to post a few personal shots of The Mick.
Yep, that’s my Dad, circa 1985, down at the first (I believe) Mantle & Ford Fantasy Camp, next to The Mick himself. Dual signatures, dualing #7 jerseys. More than half of the guys wore #7, I am told. My Dad might have been the only one with knees* as crappy as The Mick’s, though.
*EDIT: I remember pinch running for my Dad (a time or three) in his softball games when I was 13, 14, 15 years old. Except I stood in the lefthand batters box and ran TO first. Most hitters, you know, have to, um, make it to first before being pinch run for.
My Dad got to live every baseball-lovin’ kid’s dream: playing ball with your heroes. The Mick, Whitey Ford, Hank Bauer, Moose Skowron, Tom Tresh, Jake Gibbs, etc. The autographed ball behind me is proof!
I’ve put a few other pictures up here (below), after the jump, in case you wanna have a laugh. Remember, it was 1985, the hair was puffy, and in my Dad’s case, dark. These days, not so much.
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Overall: 60-54. Third in the AL West
Offense:
Catcher: Johnson, Johjima
Infield: Branyan, Lopez, Beltre*, Wilson
Outfield: Saunders, Gutierrez, Ichiro
Jack Wilson left yesterday’s game early with a hamstring tweak. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but it looks like he’s heading to the disabled list. Beyond him, Ichiro is having another Ichiro type season. He’s second in the AL in batting average and has 23 steals. Russell Branyan remains among the AL leaders in home runs with twenty seven. He’s a fun player to watch; when he connects, they go a long way. His batting average has plummeted since last series in the Bronx, but he’s always a threat to go deep. Franklin Gutierrez is having a nice year at the plate as well. He already has a career high fourteen homers, and is posting a .350 wOBA. The rest of the offense is lousy. As a team, the Mariners have the fourth lowest wOBA in the major leagues, and last among AL teams. (.313).
*[EDITOR'S NOTE: Adrian Beltre is on the DL with with a severely contused right testicle. Kids, remember to wear a cup, will ya?]
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Look who’s been I-spy’d visiting IIATMS (by the label of their network):
Executive Office Of The President Usa
Wow.
If you don’t care about your legacy and reputation, only about your performance, you would sound and act awfully like Bronson Arroyo:
“I have a lot of guys in (the locker room) who think I’m out of (my) mind because I’m taking a lot of things not on the (MLB-approved) list,” Arroyo says. “I take 10 to 12 different things a day, and on the days I pitch, there’s four more things. There’s a caffeine drink I take from a company that (former teammate) Curt Schilling introduced me to in ’05. I take some Korean ginseng and a few other proteins out there that are not certified. But I haven’t failed any tests, so I figured I’m good.”
[...]
He says that to gain an edge he also took amphetamines for nearly nine years from 1998 to 2006 and that, as a minor leaguer in 1999, he was stopped by customs agents in Canada while trying to cross the border with such pills.
“When you’re trying to establish yourself and you’ve got people saying, ‘Try this, it will help you get stronger,’ “ Arroyo says, “I’m trying (it). There was nothing to be caught about because nobody was testing.”
[...]
“I don’t regret a thing,” Arroyo says. “Neither should anyone else.”
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AJ Burnett’s start Wednesday afternoon was similar to his start Friday night, as far as him leaving a tied ballgame that would go into extra innings. Unfortunately, Burnett did not pitch with the control he had on Friday night, sending Posada after three wild pitches, however, the Yankees were able to come up with another walk-off win. The Yankees, who are 12-0 when they are tied after the seventh inning, beat the Blue Jays 4-3 in eleven innings. It was another exciting game to cap off an incredibly eventful home-stand for the Pinstripes.
Jeter got on base in his first at bat, as has been the pattern lately. However, this time it was not because he got a hit, rather, it was because HE got hit. A breaking ball broke right down onto the top of Jeter’s back foot, sending him to first. Damon followed with a double into the right field corner and Jeter moved to third. A-Rod then hit an infield single, thanks in large part to Jeter drawing the throw home before quickly getting back to third. Jeter scored as Posada grounded out. Cano then flied out to end the inning. Burnett gave up a homerun to Ruiz, who sent a fastball deep, but was able to get through the rest of the second without a problem.
Ramiro Pena replaced the Captain in the top of the third, as he was clearly limping. Pena let Lind reach on a broken bat hit, but Burnett struck out Overbay and got Wells to hit into a double play. In the bottom of the third, Romero gave up a homerun to Johnny Damon, for his 22nd of the season. Burnett moved quickly through the third and Cano gave the Yankees a 3-1 lead with a solo shot into the second deck in right field. In the sixth, Ruiz struck again, singling up the middle. He advanced on a wild pitch by Burnett. Encarnacion singled, putting runners on first and third with one out. Chavez scored Ruiz with a base hit and Burnett’s third wild pitch of the game allowed Encarnacion to score the tying run.
The Jays and Yankees would get to the eleventh without either team making much of a threat. Camp, now pitching for Toronto, hit A-Rod in the elbow with a pitch, which caused concern as Alex looked like he was really hurting. He eventually made it down to first and Posada followed with a nice single. Robinson Cano, who has often been criticized for his failure to hit with runners in scoring position, drove the ball towards center and just off the top of the wall for a walk-off RBI single.
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