Games 125-127
at Toronto Blue Jays
Pitching Match-ups
Tonight, Tuesday August 19
Darrell Rasner (5-9, 5.18) vs. A.J. Burnett (15-9, 4.67)
Wednesday, August 20
Andy Pettitte (12-9, 4.30) vs. David Purcey (2-3, 5.93)
Thursday, August 21
Sidney Ponson (7-3, 4.20) vs. Roy Halladay (14-9, 2.64)
Prognostications
Toronto features its two best starters in this series, who have both dominated the Yankees in their starts against them this season. The third guy, David Purcey, is a soft-tossing left hander that the Yankees have never faced before, which has meant that the offense got shut down and the guy had a career game, regardless of how bad his ERA was coming in. Looking at just the pitchers, you assume the Yankees are going to have a tough time in this series.
Then there is the fact that Toronto is red hot as a team, coming off a sweep of Boston in Fenway and a 3 out of 4 game swing through Detroit earlier last week. Alex Rios has been killing the ball, and he is a perpetual thorn in the Yankees’ side. Vernon Wells returned and has swung the bat well, and he too has a strong career track record of clobbering Yankees pitching.
And then you have the Yankees, puttering along after a terrible road trip and a mediocre yet effective enough 3-game homestand against Kansas City. Pessimism envelops the Yankees at this point based on the difficulty of their schedule and the depth of the hole they’ve dug themselves. The feeling is that they will finish behind Tampa and Boston, and could even finish behind Toronto considering the teams are now only separated by 2 games in the standings, and that could swing Toronto’s way by the end of the night on Thursday.
A.J. Burnett is 2-0 this year against the Yankees and has overpowering stuff, Halladay absolutely dominated them for a CG shutout the last time he faced their lineup, and they’ve never seen Purcey so he’s due for his best game in the majors. All this seems to add up to the Yankees being lucky to win one of the three games, with the potential for a Blue Jays sweep as evident as ever.
Do I believe any of this doom and gloom, and do I admit that this 2008 Yankees season will go out with a whimper in Toronto in late August?
No I don’t, not for one second. It’s all about the Yankees’ offense, and what a lot of people are saying is: “If the team hasn’t been able to hit for the first 124 games, why will they suddenly flip a switch and start now?”
I can’t answer that question directly, but I will say that it shouldn’t be a matter of flipping some type of hypothetical switch. The team has been putting itself in positions to succeed offensively all year long. If they begin to build up some consistency in delivering in those potentially productive situations starting tonight and carrying through the rest of this week, and actually win some tough games and show some resiliency and some determination, then it won’t be a matter of “the light bulb has gone on, the switch has been flipped”. It will be a team playing like a team, a team of highly talented individuals figuring out how it works to feed off each other and collaborate to win baseball games. Something that they were great at for the last 2 years they were together, but have inexplicably forgotten how to do this year.
I say that, considering the reputations and abilities of the players taking the field for the Yankees, it is not impossible that they will start playing winning baseball again. No, their offense will not reach those storied heights that pundits expected them to reach, there will be no 1,000 run season. But to say the offense can’t do enough to win games in the major leagues, to me, is silly.
Granted, it will be difficult to take these types of steps if the pitching struggles, which puts a lot of pressure on the shaky Darrell Rasner tonight. But winning this evening’s first game, no matter how ugly it is or what kind of effort it takes, would do a lot for this team. It means beating someone they haven’t been able to solve all year, and it means beginning to make the case that “Oh yeah, rest of the American League, we are the Yankees and we still do have all these big-name players. So maybe we’re not completely out of the race, just yet.”
I personally think tonight will go a long way towards deciding if the pennant race happens in New York this September or not. This is the type of game that needs to swing the Yankees’ way, because it simply has not all year long. I don’t know how it will happen or if it will actually happen, but I am certainly optimistic that it will. Call me crazy, call me unrealistic, call me a pinstripe glasses-wearing buffoon, but I think it is possible.
NOTE: Hideki Matsui has been activated from the 15-day disabled list. Justin Christian was optioned to Triple-A Scranton to open up the roster space for Godzilla. Japan's power hitter is in the lineup tonight, batting 7th and DHing.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
Brian Bannister brought out the best in the Yankees’ offense. His line was pretty impressive:
1 IP 10 H 10 ER 3 BB 0 K 3 HR
Top to bottom, the offense did what many have been waiting for: exploded, and beat a team with a mediocre pitching staff to a pulp. Granted, something can be said for how bad the offense looked the first two games of the series against bona fide AL starters Gil Meche and Zack Greinke. However, even in those two low-scoring, hotly contested games, the Yankees had plenty of men on base and therefore had plenty of opportunities to push runs across.
Sunday could not have started worse for the struggling lineup, either: Mike Mussina immediately put the cold-swinging hitters at a 3-0 disadvantage as a result of a soft rally by the Royals that featured a lot of bleeders and bloops. A-Rod, however, turned the momentum around in the bottom of the 1st, when he launched a game-tying three-run home run off Bannister, the first of those three homers he would allow.
Mussina wouldn’t surrender another run on the day, and the Yankees pretty much kept their foot down on the gas offensively and bludgeoned Kansas City to earn an even split of the season series. As I said, top to bottom is how the production spread out. Be it Derek Jeter going 4-for-4 (they were all singles, though, so I guess he still stinks and can’t hit with any authority), or A-Rod’s 3-for-3, or Jason Giambi actually getting a big hit with numerous runners on base (a grand slam, no less). Brett Gardner had a 2-out RBI triple, Xavier Nady ended a small slump by going 2-for-4 and hitting the go-ahead longball in the bottom of the 1st, and even Cody Ransom blasted his first home run as a Yankee.
The team goes into the off day having gained 2 games on Boston in the Wild Card race this weekend after Josh Beckett had a disastrous 2.1 inning performance (8 hits, 8 runs) against Toronto in Fenway, as the Red Sox fell 15-4.
Those same Toronto Blue Jays are the next foe for the Yankees, as they start a 3-game set north of the border tomorrow night. The Yankees have drawn some tough pitching match-ups for the upcoming series, which I will spend more time in previewing tomorrow.
For now, though, yesterday was a good day in the Bronx. The Wild Card race will continue to include the Yankees as long as they continue to win series and perhaps begin to play some consistent offensive baseball. Help may or may not be on the way with Hideki Matsui set to return in Toronto, although it is unknown what his swing will look like and how he’ll perform after a lengthy time disabled, as well as how his knee will hold up.
Still, at least today is another day that the Yankees didn’t lose. Tomorrow may be a different story.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Professional sports always involves discussions of momentum. Baseball has a cliché to neutralize any speculation that a particular win can jumpstart a middling team: your momentum is only as good as the next days’ starting pitcher. In the Yankees’ case, at least Darrell Rasner is starting on Tuesday instead of this afternoon.
The team had a chance to win the series in Minnesota but the bats remained dormant in the third game of that series. They again have a chance to overcome two days of insipid performance with the bats in RBI situations with a strong showing this afternoon against soft-tossing Brian Bannister. At least Meche and Greinke can somewhat be attributed to the offense’s futility Friday and Saturday, although the “tip your hat to the pitcher” card as been played to ridiculous excesses this season. But if the bats aren’t swinging today, there are no excuses other than just not being capable of performing anymore this year.
After yesterday’s grueling almost 5-hour Chinese water torture session of stranding runners and pitching superbly keeping Kansas City scoreless for 11 innings, this afternoon is a sure-fire must win. Throwing around labels like “must win” on baseball games is never an exact science, but all the stars are aligned for the Yankees. They have to start this stretch of baseball against inferior teams with a 2-1 mark. Going to Toronto 1-2 against K.C. means the death knell has sounded.
Mike Mussina will be leaned on heavily to keep pitching like the reinvented maestro on the mound that he’s become—if he shows any signs of laying an egg today, it will be dually disastrous as the bullpen had to work a long long afternoon yesterday. They could use the rest, and the offense could use the assurance that they have their best performing up to his capabilities on the hill. Perhaps that will remind the hitters that they, too, should be performing up to their much-talked about but rarely seen “capabilities” this year.
Here are some other interesting notes to wrap up before today’s game:
Hideki Matsui has had 8 at-bats for the High-A Tampa Yankees over the last 2 days, and he also took part in a simulated game this morning in Tampa, according to Peter Abraham’s blog. Abraham also speculates that he could return to the lineup as early as Tuesday, if his knee holds up. I guessed that they might wait until Friday since they wouldn’t want him running on the artificial surface in Toronto, but a win today could increase the sense of urgency in terms of putting the best offensive foot forward for the stretch run. Either way, adding a professional hitter like Hideki into the #5 spot, which has been a black hole this year while he’s been disabled, could do wonders to help the lineup as a whole, as well as New York’s #1 head case who hits cleanup. Giambi looks like total dead weight at the plate, and Nady has gone into his first slump as a Yankee, so the spots in the lineup behind A-Rod could use some reinforcement.
Granted, though, a lot of this optimism needs to be taken with a grain of salt and also shrouded in the potential for a let-down. His knee is guaranteed to require surgery. Meaning he is not any healthier than he was when he first went on the DL, he’s only been able to get to the point where he can treat it, wear the right protective gear, and deal with the level of pain that comes with hitting and running the bases. However, if anything goes wrong, if there are any tweaks, or if it swells up again and just doesn’t respond to the grind of playing major league baseball, Matsui’s return will end up being very short-lived, and the lineup will go back to relying on Jason Giambi for big at-bats with men on base. Along that line…
Brett Gardner got the game-winning hit yesterday, but if Matsui returns his playing time most certainly will evaporate. Granted, Matsui won’t be able to play every day, but he will be in the lineup at DH as often as Girardi can swing it, meaning Damon will be in CF and Brett will be on the bench. It would be encouraging going forward, though, if Gardner could string together some good games at the plate until Matsui is ready to return. It gives him more confidence in his ability to hit at the big-league level, and it also makes the question of who will be starting in CF in 2009 a little harder to answer. Furthermore, if Matsui breaks down, there is already a backup plan in place, with Brett sliding back into center field and Damon mostly DHing and playing left. Also, looking ahead to 2009, a good stretch run for Brett may give him as much of a chance of winning a job in Spring Training as Melky or anybody else brought in from outside the organization. All in all, interesting consequences follow Brett’s at-bats at this point in the year.
Phil Hughes will make his 3rd start for Scranton today, with their game scheduled to begin at 5:35 pm. My hope is that if he pitches well, finishes strong and doesn’t fatigue once he gets up to around 100 pitches, he needs to make a start in Baltimore. He has too much ability and he could be too much of a stabilizer to their rotation to leave at AAA to continue to “work on some things”, as Girardi put it when probed about Phil starting on Tuesday in Toronto. At this point, a rotation of Mussina, Pettitte, Ponson, Rasner and Hughes is serviceable enough, and if Joba is ever able to return in September, their rotation looks a lot better, as Ponson and Hughes at the back end look extremely appealing. Still, though, Hughes will have a lot to prove upon his return this year—fans will not be accepting any guff about him having to work his way back into big-league form, as was the case last year when he returned in August. Coming off his putrid April and combined with his ceiling-free expectations in the eyes of the faithful, Hughes will be expected to step right in and contribute. It’s a lot to ask of a 22 year old starter that’s been inconsistent and injured most of his short career, but based on his handful of shining moments it is not out of the question for Phil to live up to those expectations.
That’s all for now, I’ll write again this evening to talk about this afternoon’s game and wrap up any other relevant pieces of information that pop up.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Wanted to briefly go over some relevant news that’s developed in the last day or so. It’s amazing that even on off days there are so many nuggets of information that pop up and warrant some discussion.
---Touching on what I wrote yesterday, Darrell Rasner has been officially named the starter for Tuesday night’s game in Toronto, replacing disabled Dan Giese. Chris Britton will be in the bullpen tonight to take Giese’s place on the roster. Britton has become quite the punchline in the “Yankees Universe”. I honestly don’t know what to make of keeping a player in such limbo as Britton. I guess he must be glad that the team keeps calling his number to come up to the big leagues, but he is never given a real chance to pitch with the Yankees so I doubt he’s ever really that thrilled to show up in the clubhouse anymore. Oh well, I’m sure he’s crying a lot when he looks at his six-figure paycheck.
---Tyler Kepner wrote on the NY Times blog that the Yankees’ 1st round pick in this June’s draft, right-handed high school starter Gerrit Cole, has decided to forgo signing with the Yankees, instead choosing to go to college. The way it seemed to shake down: Cole is represented by the nefarious Scott Boras, with Cole also receiving influential counsel from his father. Boras’ demands apparently were for a major-league contract with a $9 million signing bonus. So that would mean that Cole would be added to the Yankees’ 40-man roster, even though he is a ripe 18 years old and years (3 or 4 in best case scenario) from cracking the majors. Furthermore, to put the rumored money demands into perspective, the Rays signed the draft’s #1 pick, shortstop Tim Beckham, to a minor-league deal with a bonus of $6.15 million. So, Boras has decided that Cole deserves to get the richest bonus of any player in the draft. It seems possible that the Yankees might be okay with the obscene money demands (since they are, after all, the Yankees) but would not be willing to give up a precious 40-man roster spot. The team gave last year’s #1 pick Andrew Brackman a big-league deal with a 40-man roster spot, but he is years older than Cole. Plus, giving one #1 pick a spot should not dictate a norm for years to come, especially since the Yankees have had to juggle their 40-man all year to keep from losing players.
A truly sticky situation is what the Cole process seems to be. Kepner’s post makes it seem as though the deal is totally dead because Cole and his father will turn down any offer and are fully set on Gerrit attending U.C.L.A. in the fall. In that scenario, though, he wouldn’t be eligible for the draft again till his junior year, which is an eternity for a young pitcher—his stock could completely disintegrate in that time, and he may never approach the type of interest/deal he could get this year from the Yankees. However, this is Scott Boras that is involved with these negotiations, and the deadline for draft picks to sign is tonight at midnight, so I don’t think this issue is completely dead. If anything changes, I will be sure to post an update.
---Sports talk radio in New York has seen a radical change announced yesterday: Mike and the Mad Dog, mainstays on WFAN for 18 years, will no longer be on the air. Chris Russo is leaving WFAN, apparently signing a big-money deal with Sirius Satellite Radio, leaving Mike Francessa solo on the airwaves at The Fan. I never enjoyed listening to or watching their show, but they were the biggest names in the country’s biggest market. Oodles of New York sports fans tuned in to their show every afternoon and listened to these two buffoons preach on the good and bad of every team in the city (except for hockey because, to them, it wasn’t a real sport). The writing had been on the wall for their split for quite a while, so this news comes as no surprise.
---Rehab notes: Hideki Matsui’s scheduled debut in the Single-A Tampa Yankees’ lineup was sidetracked by rain last night. He is scheduled to play tonight, so it will be interesting to see how he comes through that. Phil Hughes is still scheduled to start Sunday in Scranton, and should get up above 90 pitches for the first time in his rehab appearances. There is mucho speculation that it will be his last appearance in the minors, and I think that will be case as well—but if he struggles with control or labors in any way, I think the team takes it slow with him. The struggles early in the year of both Hughes and Kennedy, and the short leash on Kennedy when he returned last week, makes me believe that they would rather let those guys work it out at AAA then put them in the majors before they’re completely ready.
---Speaking of Ian Kennedy, Chad Jennings’ S/WB Yankees blog has his catcher and pitching coach saying he threw approximately 30 curveballs in his start (5 IP 6 H 1 ER) for Scranton last night. They told him to work on his secondary pitches, and Ian took the note and ran with it, also throwing many two-seam fastballs, a pitch that seemed non-existent in his starts in the big leagues. He was in a lot of 3-ball counts as a result of the experimentation, causing his start to only last 5 innings. But it seems like the focus is not on his numbers, but instead on his ability to refine his pitches and be more than just a four-seam fastball/change-up guy. The next start for him will seem to be a big test, as he says in the Jennings post that he will look to incorporate the entire arsenal into one start. The key will be throwing his curveball for a strike—when he showed that pitch in the majors, it was never in the strike zone so hitters didn’t have to respect it. If he builds up consistency with that pitch and can throw it in any count, he becomes less predictable and ultimately less hittable, even in the majors. Should be interesting to see how he looks once he gets recalled in September, after doing all this work to reinvent his approach ¾ of the way through the season.
I’ll be back later with a preview of this weekend’s 3-gamer against the Kansas City Royals.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Last night was a rarity. The bullpen blowout that cost the Yankees a lead late in the game has generally been rare this year, although not lately (see: the debacle in Anaheim this past Saturday). Mariano Rivera serving up the game-tying gopher ball is the shocking part of the equation. The offense, specifically the Golden-Rod, producing a timely home run to give them the lead, was surprising. Even more so was their ability to tack on 2 more runs after A-Rod’s blast to give 12th inning closer Edwar Ramirez a 3-run cushion.
What’s most shocking to me, though, is that they actually won an extra-innings game on the road. They had lost their only three extra inning road games this year, including one on that same Minnesota field on May 31st. Since 2007, their record in such games was a whopping 1-10. Not a huge sample size when you consider how few games it is total. However, all those circumstances make the win last night a satisfying one. The problem, however, is that there’s no way to predict if that win will have any positive residual effect on this afternoon’s matinée affair in the Hubert H. Humphrey Dome. The cliché is that a team’s momentum is based on the next day’s pitcher. That doesn’t seem to favor the Yankees, as Darrell Rasner is fresh off a demotion to the bullpen that he escaped thanks to Ian Kennedy’s physical and mental implosion in Anaheim. They are going to have to put some runs up on the board, early and often ideally. Kevin Slowey is a good candidate to comply, as the Yankees have already touched him up on two occasions so far this year. Should be an interesting game, for a number of reasons:
--A terrible Rasner performance could force the organization’s hand in deciding what to do next with the rehabbing Phil Hughes. This weekend’s starters are set, with Pettitte, Ponson and Mussina scheduled to toe the rubber. Next Tuesday in Toronto, however, is where it gets interesting, and Dan Giese is the central figure of interest. Giese deserves another start based on his performance Saturday in Anaheim. However, Dan is also the team’s best long reliever. It’s feasible that he’d be needed to pitch today and perhaps one game this weekend, if either Rasner, Ponson or Pettitte flame out early in their starts.
If he pitches twice between now and Tuesday, Phil will be up and starting in Toronto. If he doesn’t pitch today but is used over the weekend for an inning or two, I still think he starts on Tuesday. All of these scenarios aside, though, I think barring injury or poor performance at Scranton, Hughes is back in the rotation next weekend in Baltimore.
--Derek Jeter fouled a pitch off his instep of his left foot last night, and even though Girardi said that he thought he’d start today’s game, Jeter is on the bench. Wilson Betemit is starting at SS today, and you assume that Jeter will be well enough to start Friday night in the Bronx. It’s unbelievable to me how bad Betemit has looked at the plate all this season, yet how much confidence Joe Girardi has in constantly putting him in the lineup. How can occasional home run power overcome tons of strikeouts and defensive mediocrity? The Yankees’ bench has not been good in 10 years because of players like Betemit littering the roster.
--Tampa lost last night in Oakland so the Yankees picked up a game, and they’re now 8 back in the AL East race. No advance in the Wild Card hunt, as Boston won a football game against the Texas Rangers, 19-17. They were winning 10-0 after the first inning, yet Charlie “Tim Wakefield 2.0” Zink gave it all back in his major league debut.
It’s still unrealistic to be gunning for the Rays based on the size of the deficit, but Crawford and Longoria out of their lineup change their dynamic a whole lot. They have been winning all year with pitching, but their young pitchers have thrown a lot of innings and have never experienced the wear and tear of pennant race games in August and September. The possibility is still there, but the Yankees need to pretty much win or split every series they play from here on in, including against teams like the Angels, Rays and Red Sox. A tall order, for sure. Boston is more vulnerable head-to-head without Ramirez and with people like Lowell and Varitek struggling, but they are still winning games and scoring runs. The Yankees have to almost become a different team over the next 6 weeks, and a short-term personality makeover is hard to do in baseball. Usually by August, you are what you are as a team and your identity isn’t changing drastically.
--Mark Melancon gave up the 2 runs that Phil Hughes was charged with in Pawtucket last night, as he relieved Hughes in the 6th after Phil had allowed two men to reach base and had hit his magic pitch count number of 85. Still, though, bringing Melancon into the middle of an inning is a sign that the Yankees have to be considering promoting him to help their bullpen, which has struggled lately after a season of overachieving. It should be interesting to see if their from-within reinforcements (Hughes, Matsui, maybe Melancon) pan out this year. Kennedy is already firmly in the “didn’t pan out” category of reinforcements, and unlikely to move from there before October. But three out of four would be a great ratio.
Back later with more about today’s game.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
When a team looks as bad as the Yankees have in the last four days, the days leading up to a game are excruciating. You want to fast forward from 1 p.m. to, in tonight's case, 8 so the game can get here already and the team can try and erase their recent awful play. If you're like me and you read the comments of other Yankees fans across the vast internet wasteland, you really want to see the overwhelming negativity about the team and its players silenced for at least 3 hours. I know those negative vibes won't totally go away until the Yankees are breathing down the necks of either Boston or Tampa, a scenario looking less and less likely as the days wear on, but days like today make you dream.
In my dream scenarios, here are five things that will happen across the remainder of the regular season to get this fast-sinking ship turned around:
#1--Melky Cabrera is optioned to AAA Scranton/Wilkes Barre and told to get his mind right and work extensively on his offensive game. He is promised a call-back when rosters expand on September 1st. Called up for the millionth time this year is reliever Chris Britton. Johnny Damon and Justin Christian split the time in CF, with Damon playing center against righty hurlers and Christian spotting him against lefties.
#2--Phil Hughes, after a strong rehab start in Scranton tonight, returns to the rotation this weekend against Kansas City and starts a string where he pitches the kind of baseball that everyone expected from him at the beginning of the season.
#3--Hideki Matsui has a successful rehab stint and rejoins the team as full-time DH during next weekend's series in Baltimore (wishful thinking, early next week in Toronto, but why risk his knee on the artificial turf?).
#4--Joba Chamberlain works himself back with a clean bill of health and returns to the rotation when the team opens a series on the road in Tampa at the beginning of September, taking Dan Giese's spot after he did a serviceable job filling in. The rotation for the stretch run is Mike Mussina, Andy Pettitte, Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Sidney Ponson.
#5--Jason Giambi, Robinson Cano and Derek Jeter's offensive games come alive, and with the re-insertion of Matsui, the lineup consistently performs to the level that they were expected to coming in to the season.
Basically, all five of those things have to happen for this team to have any chance at making the postseason. The Melky Cabrera demotion, actually, doesn't have to happen--Johnny Damon playing 90% of the time in CF would suffice, although why not at least give Melky a chance to succeed at AAA and get his confidence up?
I don't believe all 5 will happen, and I don't believe this team is postseason bound. I just hope that they don't cash in their chips now and keep playing like a team that is giving in to the fact that injuries and inferior performances from expected contributors have already ended their season. Hank Steinbrenner today basically said he doesn't have a ton of confidence in the team rebounding this year but is psyched for next year. I don't want to give up yet, regardless of what he says.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Games 118-120
@ Minnesota Twins
Pitching Probables
Tonight, Monday August 11
Sidney Ponson (7-2, 4.23) vs. Glen Perkins (8-3, 4.38)
Tuesday, August 12
Mike Mussina (15-7, 3.27) vs. Nick Blackburn (9-6, 3.60)
Wednesday, August 13
TBA (Darrell Rasner, Dan Giese, Chase Wright?) vs. Kevin Slowey (8-8, 4.07)
Series Predictions
Yankees will take 2 out of 3, winning the first two games and having a letdown on getaway day with TBA on the hill. Ponson will struggle tonight but the offense will have a good game against Perkins, who could have beaten the Yankees in his last appearance against them, if not for his second baseman forgetting how many outs there were in an inning and also being matched up against a locked-in Mike Mussina.
The Moose will not have his best start on Tuesday, but he will persevere and pick up his 16th W.
TBA will get shelled.
-Good news out of Tampa today, as Matsui continues to progress while he's now strapped into a clunky knee brace. He is running the bases again tomorrow, and he could end up playing in rehab games as soon as this weekend. Girardi said he might come back as early as next week, barring any setbacks. That would change the dynamic offensively, and might actually provide the lineup a good situational hitter, something they sure could have used in Anaheim.
Also, Chamberlain says he's ready to begin throwing again. He wanted to start building himself back up on Wednesday, but Girardi pushed him to Friday. Probably a smart move, Girardi's rationale in the pre-game was that they wanted to have his own staff present to evaluate Joba throwing, thinking that they would pick up if he was trying to mask discomfort better than minor league coaches or organizational execs.
-Even more good news out of Tampa, as well: the Rays lost Longoria to a fractured wrist, a stunning turn-around after he and the team downplayed his injury as a short-term problem. He joins Carl Crawford on the DL, who is out with a ligament sprain in his middle finger which could linger and prove serious, as well. Frustrating considering that the Yankees have dug themselves an enormous hole in the division race and this is the first true prolonged adversity that team will have to face, possibly for the rest of the year. Until they show signs of cracking, the Wild Card has to be the focus.
-In non-baseball news, I had my greatest moment ever watching the Olympics last night. The U.S. swimmers winning that 4x100 relay race, outstretching the thuggish smack-talking French and keeping Michael Phelps in line to win 8 gold medals...it was absolutely riveting. The pure passion that Phelps and his teammates displayed upon winning reminded me why I love watching sports, something that has been dormant throughout this extremely flat Yankees season. It stirred awake my still-fresh muscle memory of February and the New York Giants vs. New England Patriots, albeit for only a few fleeting seconds. Great stuff. Hope Phelps wins another gold tonight.
Back again soon with updates. Can't wait to see which version of your #3 Starter Sidney Ponson shows up tonight.
8:35 PM, End of Top 2nd Inning: Couldn't have played out any better for the Yankees. 1st and 3rd nobody out and they manage to completely squander that opportunity. Pudge pop-up, Melky GIDP. Unbelievable is the word that Michael Kay used. Nothing unbelievable about it if you've been watching all year.
10:00 PM, Bottom of 8th Inning: Eight listless, completely pathetic innings from the Yankees' offense tonight. Strong outing for Sidney Ponson, but now Girardi is trying to stretch him for 8 innings. Going down by more than 3 is lights out, although it seems highly unlikely that any lights are coming on in the top of the 9th, whether they're facing Perkins (another underwhelming lefty the Yankees have made look like a #1 starter) or Joe Nathan. Michael Kay will undoubtedly ask, going into the commercial break, "Do the Yankees have a rally in them?", and the answer, as it has been all year, seems like it will be no.
