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
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Last night’s game was one of the most frustrating regular season games I’ve ever watched. 9 innings of letting a pitcher off the hook has become the norm for this sad group of supposedly talented offensive players. The team has found more unique and mind-boggling ways to lose games this year than they ever have in the past. Any breaks that the Yankees used to be given from the hypothetical baseball gods have vanished and been replaced by a Murphy’s Law level of ineptitude. The loss doesn’t fall on the shoulders of pinch-runner Justin Christian getting picked off, but it was certainly a backbreaking error on the basepaths. Still, the team had so many other chances with all of their “best” run producers at the plate that one flop by Christian should not have killed their chances. In fact, it didn’t. When you get 2 rolling infield singles, a clean single, and a walk in the 9th inning of a one-run game and STILL can’t find a way to score, you have to know that this offense is completely done, completely in the tank and completely hopeless at this point in the season.
As I now check in on today’s game later into the action, I notice that nothing has changed miraculously overnight: the offense still squanders every opportunity to score runs that they’re presented with. Last night they were 3 for 13 with RISP and left 11 men on base. Now this afternoon, the 4th inning sees the Yankees load the bases with nobody out, and Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi coming up with ample opportunities to do damage. Predictably, A-Rod strikes out and Giambi hits into an inning-ending double play. Giambi last night made the final out with the bases loaded, and also struck out in a situation earlier in the game where a hit would have delivered a much-needed offensive lift.
To me, Giambi it the biggest culprit in terms of the year-long, team-wide epidemic of poor hitting with RISP. His season average is a putrid .212 with RISP, and a much-improved .224 with RISP and 2 outs. Sure, he has a good number of RBIs, but he could have produced so much more considering how many opportunities he gets while hitting out of the #5 spot in the lineup. And yet in spite of his futility, Joe Girardi NEVER takes him out of the slot in the lineup behind A-Rod.
It’s a stubbornness in both guys that is extremely frustrating: Giambi has done nothing to make adjustments with men on base, his swing remains long and home run-minded. Girardi has put blind faith in Jason’s ability to somehow turn it around in those situations, and has not backed off it all season long.
At this point, when the offense looks as awful as it does, why as a manager are you not just trying anything to try and shake things up? Demoting Melky Cabrera and playing Brett Gardner is doing nothing to get the offense turned around. The lineup hasn’t worked in months, so why keep running the same one out there day after day?
Honestly, it seems as though Girardi and his players have checked out. Today we’re about to be through 7 full innings, and the offense has yet to crack the scoreboard. Zack Greinke is a great young pitcher, but the Yankees have had enough opportunities once again—runners on 2nd to lead off the last two innings—and have yet to do anything productive. It is going to be a depressing stretch run, since the Yankees are already playing as though they’re ready for the offseason. Not the best way to say goodbye to Yankee Stadium.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Much was made of how Joe Girardi would be a great motivator, how he was a natural leader of men and would bring a spark that the Yankees had been missing during the stoic and calm Joe Torre years.
But this year has been full of nights like tonight, where the team looks as though it is going through the motions. It's as though the offense fails once early on, and then starts pressing and pressing, attempting to make it all up with one swing. Not the right way to get what is supposed to be a good offensive team off the snide.
Ivan Rodriguez and Melky Cabrera spit the bit bigtime tonight, stomping out the only rally the Yankees were able to muster against randomly unhittable Glen Perkins. It is amazing to me that Melky Cabrera has nine lives this season. How does a team that presents itself as a contender, plugs in 3 major league veterans at the deadline, allow a literal automatic out all year long to remain in the everyday lineup?
It's not as though Cabrera is some 10-year veteran who has a long track record of steady play. He's had one good full offensive season. This year he looks completely out of sync at the plate. Girardi seems to love Justin Christian enough to sit Johnny Damon, who is only leading the AL in hitting, but he won't sit Cabrera for an extended stretch after he keeps burning the Yankees' offense with a terrible approach and complete offensive futility?
The problem is that Gardner and Christian are not good enough to make anyone forget Melky. At the same time, though, they can't be too much worse at the plate. Gardner looked pretty terrible in his cameo, but are there no repercussions for 4 straight months of terrible baseball? Atlanta demoted what they considered a future offensive star, Jeff Francouer, for his terrible hitting throughout the year in an effort to get him started. Didn't work.
Isn't it worth a shot? And, this is in no way intended to point all the team's offensive blame at the feet of Melky, the expected #9 hitter who in a perfect world would be an offensive afterthought. But if he's going to remain in the lineup, there's going to be a chance for him to have important at-bats. And if he fails in those at-bats all year long, why does he keep getting the opportunity?
4 straight losses and a 2-6 road trip is a complete disaster. Best case scenario of 4-6 is ugly, and just getting to that point seems like an extremely up-hill climb considering Rasner throws on Wednesday afternoon. Things are looking bleaker by the day with the 2008 Yankees.
