When I was about to go to sleep last night, I had an idea. I was going to write my thoughts about Curtis Granderson’s latest bad luck injury. But when I woke up this morning, I realized it would probably just be one bad word and not enough to be made into an entire blog post.
So a few minutes ago, after I started watching some clips of old baseball games, I decided to just write whatever came to mind about what I’m watching, what happened last night, today’s weather, etc.
There’s no rhyme or reason and I may go all over the place. Or I may actually write something coherent and thoughtful with some randomness thrown in there. You never know.
Enjoy.
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Scranton/Wilkes-Barre lost to Durham 9-4:
The Bulls broke through in the top of the third, as Juan Apodaca singled to short and scored on a double by Brandon Guyer. A double by Wil Myers plated another run and Durham had a 2-0 lead. Shelley Duncan started the fourth with a walk. Mike Fontenot lined a single to center and Duncan scored on a Tim Beckham single. Apodaca was hit by a pitch and Jason Bourgeois drew a walk, bringing another run home. The Bulls scored two more runs on a pair of ground outs, taking a 6-0 lead. The RailRiders finally scored in the bottom of the fifth. Melky Mesa started with a single and Bobby Wilson reached on an error. A single by Corban Joseph plated Mesa. Brennan Boesch grounded into a force out, bringing home another run, but the RailRiders still trailed 6-2. Durham added three more runs, giving Scranton a tough hill to climb as they entered the ninth inning. Gonzalez drew a walk and Joseph singled. A triple by Zoilo Almonte plated two runs, but that was all they could manage, falling 9-4.
Joseph went 3-5 with a run scored and a RBI. Thomas Neal and Mesa both went 2-4 with Neal picking up a double and Mesa scoring. Graham Stoneburner lasted just 3.1 innings and gave up six runs on six hits, three walks and a strikeout. Chase Whitley threw 1.2 hitless innings, striking out three. Mark Montgomery gave up two unearned runs on a hit and four walks over 1.2. He also struck out three. Clay Rapada gave up one run in his 1.1 innings, allowing three hits. Sam Demel finished the game with a pair of Ks and a hit in his inning of work.
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The Yankees won the game which is a very good thing.
- This means that they have ended a possible extended losing streak and this is now the latest they’ve gone in a season without suffering through a three-game losing streak since 1955.
- They won a game in Tampa which is no small feat. The Yankees have terrible numbers there of late.
But, of course, there was also bad news tonight. It seems like we can’t go a day without hearing some. The Yankees lost Curtis Granderson to injury, again. He was hit by a pitch, again. He was hit in his left hand with the same result as the J.A. Happ pitch in Spring Training, a fracture. This time it’s his pinky.
[Insert a very long and drawn out expletive here]
I swear, this season is astounding in regards to injuries. This team should not be 29-18 but they are.
Of course, Granderson wasn’t the only injury in the game. They seem to come in pairs this season as well. David Phelps, who picked up the win with seven innings of work was hit with a line drive in his right forearm.
I have a joke with my friends. I always talk about being fly paper for freaks. Apparently the Yankees are fly paper for errant hits and pitches or better yet, they are magnets for baseballs. At this point, they might as cover wrap Robinson Cano in bubble wrap.
Okay, enough of the melancholy nonsense. The Yankees won and that’s a good thing. Like I said, Phelps passed the seven inning mark (7 and 2/3 before getting hit), gave up four runs on six hits with three strikeouts and he didn’t walk a batter.
Offensively, the Yankees got contributions from the usual suspects like Travis Hafner and Lyle Overbay who both had doubles. Overbay finished with two RBI, Brett Gardner hit a two-hit home run, his fourth of the season. The Yankees finished with 11 hits. Six of those hits and five of their runs came off of Rays’ starter Roberto Hernandez, the artist formerly known as Fausto Carmona. They scored three off Cesar Ramos who was the pitcher who hit Granderson with the pitch.
Granderson, according to manager Joe Girardi, will miss a minimum of four weeks with his fractured pinky. Phelps was sent for precautionary x-rays and Girardi is hoping it’s just a bruised forearm.
We all are.
Just as I was finishing this up the news came out that it’s just a forearm contusion for Phelps. Halleljujah!
…
Poor David Phelps. I can’t say much more than that.
I guess the good thing is he slammed his glove down with the arm that was injured but who knows. With the way the Yankees’ luck has been this season, he may have to get his arm amputated.
Seriously?!!?!?
So Curtis Granderson was hit in the left hand and taken out of the game. Judging from the looks on people’s faces in the dugout, the news is not good.
In case you didn’t already know, the Yankees have really terrible numbers in Tropicana Field. In fact, they’re so bad in that abomination of a “ballpark” that I wish it would be condemned. It won’t be and the Yankees will be stuck having to play there whenever they make the trek to Tampa for the foreseeable future but a girl can dream, right?
I think the Yankees have lost 150 out of their last 155 games there. Okay, that’s an exaggeration, it just feels like that many. The numbers are pretty bad though. In 2011, the Yankees lost six games out of nine in Tampa. Last year, the Yankees went 8-10 overall against the Rays and seven of those 10 losses were in Tampa. This year, so far, they’re 1-2.
Wait, the Yankees and Rays have only played one series so far? That seems so odd. I think it’s funny how the Yankees have played Toronto nine times already and they’ve played both the Rays and Red Sox only three times to this point.
Anyway, will the Yankees reverse their recent bad fortune against Tampa this weekend? Anything is possible.
Here are the lineups for tonight’s game:
YANKEES
Gardner CF
Cano 2B
Wells LF
Hafner DH
Granderson RF
Adams 3B
Overbay 1B
Nix SS
Stewart C
Phelps P
RAYS
Joyce RF
Zobrist 2B
Scott DH
Longoria 3B
Loney 1B
Johnson LF
Fuld CF
Lobaton C
Escobar SS
Hernandez P
I’m being a tad lazy right now but here are series of tweets from the beat writers in regards to Mark Teixeira‘s impending return. I’ll give you a hint, he could be back by the end of next week just in time for the series against the Red Sox.
Exciting, right?
(Tweets after the jump on the main page i.e. click on view full post)
This morning, Andy McCullough of The Star-Ledger published a piece on yet another Yankee rookie, Austin Romine. He discusses a little bit about his early offensive struggles, the Yankees hopes for his bat, but more importantly, his ability to catch. The relationship between a pitcher and catcher can be a huge factor in a baseball game, and it’s one that’s often overlooked. Romine has been dealt a difficult task, catching a number of veteran pitchers, as well as young and inexperienced pitchers, and doing so on the biggest stage in baseball.
“You’ve just got to get in their heads, try to know the pitcher and what his strengths are,” Romine said. “That’s mainly what I try to do.”
For the most part, the pitchers seem to be extremely happy with Romine. Adam Warren applauded the catcher, saying it only took one start in the minors for him to understand his repertoire and thought process. Warren even added that Romine could read his mind.
Outside of his relationship with his pitchers, it seems that the backstop is also taking a strong interest in video analysis. Following his first major league start of the year, a dud by Andy Pettitte, Romine jumped to the video to see what worked and what didn’t.
“I watched the whole game,” Romine said earlier this month. “I’m trying to figure out what went wrong, and what can we do to fix that, so it never happens again.”
As we all wait for his bat to break through, it’s interesting to see how in-depth his preparation is for a single game. I wondered, has going back to the video improved the pitching staff? So I crunched the numbers.
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Gardner 8
Cano 4
Wells 7
Hafner 0
Granderson 9
Adams 5
Overbay 3
Nix 6
Stewart 2
Phelps RHP
According to the beat writers, Chris Stewart was testing out his cranky groin earlier today on the turf in the Slop* and I guess everything is fine because he’s in the lineup.
*I call Tropicana Field “The Slop” because I loathe it and think it should be imploded.
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