That's what this game was.  A complete and total bore.  I don't even know how we were able to get the seven hits we did.  The only person in the lineup who managed more than one hit was Bobby Abreu.  We were walked a grand total of ZERO times.  Where was the patience?  Hideki Matsui extended his hitting streak to 16 games, so that's some small note of positivity.  And Kyle Farnsworth now has a lower ERA than Joba Chamberlain.  Didn't think I'd see that happen anytime soon.  Congrats to them both for those accomplishments.  I think these games have really highlighted how dead this lineup is without Alex and Jorge.  We can't rely on Jose Molina for everything.  Wang was bound to lose a game, but much like last night's game, he's another pitcher for whom this lineup is loathe to score runs.  How many of his starts have had decent offense behind it?  Not many. 


Can we avoid getting swept tomorrow afternoon by oh I don't know, putting up some runs so Moose doesn't have to pitch like it's Game 7 of the World Series?  Thanks in advance.  

Well, that is not who I expected to blow the game.  What was more infuriating, to be honest, was again the lack of offense.  We had eight hits, were walked 6 times and yet still only managed to plate three runs.  We had Carmona on the ropes a couple times and yet still couldn't knock him out of the game.  I'm not taking blame away from Joba, he had a job to do and he did not do it.  However our offense had a job to do and they didn't do it either.  If we had a three run lead because the other team had zilch, that would be different.  We only had a 1 run lead, which is precarious enough.  We should have given Andy and the rest of our pitching staff a larger cushion to work with because when the lead is that narrow, the margin for error is just as small.  I was hoping we could start this series off on a high note, especially coming after the sweep of Seattle.  The most we can hope for now is to win the series by taking the next two games, and with Wang pitching tomorrow and Moose pitching on Thursday, it could happen.  Wang has been our ace and Moose has pitched well his last few outings. 


A high-point; both Robbie and Jason looked alive tonight.  They're both hitting .157, but it's moving up!  And that's what counts.

Yankees fan runs over, kills Red Sox fan



I hate the Red Sox and a majority of their fan base as much as the next Yankees fan, but this is far beyond my comprehension.  If you hate someone this much merely because of the team they root for, you need intense psychological help.  It says she's being charged with second-degree murder, but really.....it ought to be first-degree murder.  She never attempted to hit the brakes before she plowed into these people.....that shows extreme malice to me.  And if you kill someone because you don't like the team they root for......you should get the death penalty just for being a stupid f*ck.  Lock her up and throw away the key. 

Oh I know, he's a sight for sore eyes.  He's a tradition here at Yankees Chick; whenever we sweep a team, up goes the picture of Crazy Stein.  Because who else truly represents this team other than a half-cocked George Steinbrenner?  Didn't think so.


I was shocked to see Rasner pitching as well as he was and even more shocked that Girardi pulled him at only 76 pitches.  Please don't be doing a Torre.  Please.  Rasner could have kept pitching, we were winning by a rather decent margin for once.  I thought he filled in for Hughes quite admirably and let's face it.....none of us could have seen him doing this.  But with Kennedy being demoted earlier, that means one thing and one thing only.  Igawa.  So the days of decent pitching are soon to be gone.  Ohlendorf, Farnsworth and Rivera all relieved him and all did superb.....even Nuke.  He's been rather good lately, belying the fact that he really sucks.  But I'm all for smoke and mirrors if it gets us somewhere. 


So the Yankees decided to try and win this game, even after falling behind 2-0 early.  Now customarily, we would have folded like a cheap suit and lost 12-0, but we actually stormed back with improbable verve (thanks, Rewlster) and clubbed 14 hits and 8 runs.  We got a lot of contribution today, with many of our hitters having great games.  Johnny Damon, continuing from the great night he had yesterday, went 2-5, Derek Jeter went 4-5, Bobby went 3-4, Godzilla went 2-4 with 2 RsBI, and poor hapless Robbie Cano finally did something, hitting a HR in the 3rd.  He's still hitting .154, but it's a start, you know. 


Stars of the Game™

One of our only two good pitchers left led us to victory tonight, which is great because another loss and the line of jumpers at the Brooklyn Bridge would have gone into Queens.  So we've got Wang and Andy, who aside from last night is pretty dependable......and that's about it.  Hughes has got more problems than there are bricks in a wall, Moose is basically a coin flip every time he goes out there and Kennedy is well.....Hughes-lite.  I was just happy to see a starter go past the 4th inning.  It seems like that happens so infrequently.  Wang is now 6-0, getting off to a similar start to that of Josh Beckett for the Red Sox last season.  Oh if only we end up with the same hardware he did.  Kyle Farnsworth, surprisingly enough, has been rather reliable for us this season.  He had another great 1-2-3 inning and struck out two batters.  Joba relieved him and looked good, only giving up one hit.  His ERA is now down to 1.46.  Mo closed out the game, not earning the save however, as we scored twice in the 8th.  Mo is looking lately like he took a trip in the way-back machine or something, because he's looked practically late 90s-esque so far this season.  Which is great, and I hope he keeps it up.  Doesn't mean I think the 0.00 ERA will last all season, although that should get him the Cy Young if it happens.  I think that's all he's missing. 


We scored more than 3 runs tonight, which I was hoping for.  We can only have dead, soulless eyes at the plate for oh so long before we finally get our acts together.  This is not saying 5 runs and not getting a hit after the 2nd inning until the 8th inning is a good thing.....just a step in the right direction.  We have a lineup that should be able to get more hits and runs than what we're currently getting, but when the team slumps......it slumps.  So at least we don't do anything half-a.s.sed.   We as fans should be proud of that much.  With a good chunk of our offense on the DL, we've had to rely on other players to step up and get it done.....and that really hasn't happened, but we'll take the wins when we can get them.  We were only able to scratch out 7 hits tonight, so there were no outright offensive stars for the game.  Bobby Abreu went 2-4 and he was the only player to have more than one hit on the night.  Melky Cabrera, who is quietly turning in a very good season so far, went 1-4 with 2 RsBI, and other than that....no one else really did anything.  We did benefit tonight from Seattle's atrocious defense; 4 errors, which nicely corresponded to the number of hits they had tonight.  So it was a great win and sorely needed.  Let's hope we can keep that up for tomorrow's game, provided non-s.ucky Moose takes the mound. 


Stars of the Game™

If this sh!t was funny, I'd laugh.  But it's not.  Another game where our starter didn't go deep into the game, another game where our offense crapped out and died, another game where our bullpen blew the tie (because when do we ever have a lead anymore)......just more of the same.  With seemingly no end in sight.  We can only hope that Wang puts an end to this skid before it gets any bigger.

Apologies are in order because I didn't believe he really was injured, so there's that.  However, the fact he was pitching with a broken rib for god knows how long doesn't make him a hero in my eyes, it makes him look like an idiot.  Worse than Alex forcing himself out there with a Grade 2 quad strain.  So according to Girardi, he'll be shut down for 4 weeks, which means he won't even begin throwing a baseball until June.  Then you figure he'll have about a month to get his affairs in order before he rejoins the rotation. 


This is not what we needed. 

I personally don't think Hughes is injured.  I would rather he be injured than have the brass lie to us about it because they don't want to demote the guy they wouldn't trade for Johan Santana.  I think they are sending him to Tampa to be closer to Nardi and the braintrust and by DLing him, they can call up someone to take his place, effectively killing two birds with one stone.  That's just my personal opinion.  If a team physician comes forward and says he really is injured, I'll gladly apologize.  Until then, we're being lied to.  But that's okay, the Yankees are a business and they need to protect their bottom line.  We live in a capitalist society, I can understand that.


Our bigger problem is the fact that with or without Hughes, we have no pitching and no offense.  We all had hoped Andy would be the stopper tonight and for a while it looked like he would be, but then the wheels fell off and that was the end of that.  Couple that with the fact that we had the bases loaded in the 1st inning, got diddly-poo out of it and then did nothing for the rest of the game.....it's beginning to show a major flaw in the construction of this team.  Without Alex and Jorge, we've got no offense.  And I know we don't play in a video game where you just hit a button and all of a sudden everyone starts hitting HRs, but at the same time, they should be able to pick up some of the slack.  Someone should be able to do SOMETHING.  I'm tired of watching this team flail helplessly at pitch after pitch, unable to hit even the worst pitcher.  We're not facing RJ in his prime here.  This was Jeremy Bonderman for God's sake.  Something is wrong with this team, something that needs to be addressed soon.

We kept this guy rather than getting Johan Santana?  Okay so he's 21.  Joba Chamberlain isn't much older and he hasn't had nearly the kinds of problems that Hughes has been having.  Okay, so the weather hasn't been optimal.  Wang and Pettitte have been pitching in the same weather, and they're both doing very well; in fact, they're our only dependable pitchers right now.  I'm all for giving the kid a chance to succeed here, but what have we seen from him this season that is going to make any of us feel good?  Every time Hughes, Kennedy and Moose start, it starts as a loss and if we get lucky, we manage to win.  That's 3 pitchers out of 5.....so basically we're punting 60% of our games and if we get lucky, we win a few of them.  How is that supposed to help us win the division and then go past the 1st round of the playoffs? 


And as if our pitching wasn't enough of a problem, our offense has been comatose, stagnant, dead and buried since game one.....with maybe 3 exceptions.  There was that time we scored 15 runs (and then proceeded to jack sh!t offensively afterward) and that time we scored 9 runs (and then did jack sh!t offensively afterward) and then I think there was one more time after that I am forgetting.  Alex in on the DL now according to YES, Jorge will be out for God knows how long, Giambi/Cano/Damon/everyone else except Molina are stinking up the joint....it's no real wonder why we haven't been able to win games.  If pitchers like Hughes and Kennedy don't get offense from the lineup, they're more apt to over pitch in order to try and compensate.  Wang and Pettitte can win with very little hitting going on behind them.  So when we give them 2 or 3 runs, they make it work. 


Another bone to pick about tonight's game:  Girardi should not have sat Melky.  Damon in CF is like watching Bernie Williams circa 2006 out there; it's embarrassing.  A couple of balls hit out there tonight, Melky would have caught.  Maybe that changes the tone of the game, who knows.  I get that he wanted the lefty-lefty match-up, but screw the match-up when it effs with our OF defense, which is already abysmal.  That didn't help us one bit.  Especially since Melky has been hitting the ball well this season and Damon really hasn't.  Overall, this was a sh!t game, one I'm sure we're going to see more of this season.  *sigh*

Mo notched his 450th career save yesterday, joining Trevor Hoffman and Lee Smith as the only closers to achieve that feat.  That's such an incredible statistic.....Yankees fans are very lucky to have had this man on our team doing what he's done for as long as he has.  And he's still throwing 94-95 even now.  I know the day will come when he won't be pitching in pinstripes anymore, I just hope that day comes at the end of a brilliant, WS-winning season.  That way he can go out on top.


A couple things about yesterday's game I wanted to comment on aside from Mo's achievement, is first, this team's complete inability to score runs.  A shutout win is great, especially when it's stopping a slide.  A great pitching performance is great, especially when we blow games like this in the past.  Only scoring one run is unacceptable.  Our offense is so frickin' stagnant, it's not funny anymore.  We'll score something like 15 runs and then be unable to do anything for days after that.  Whether we win or we lose, the story seems to be the same.  NO OFFENSE.  The second thing I wanted to discuss was Jorge Posada's injury.  I think it's more serious than the team is letting on, but we should all wait until Dr. Andrews gives his assessment before we all start freaking out.  Chris Stewart was called up to be Molina's backup since Molina will now be our full-time catcher while Jorge is out for God only knows how long.  Jorge has been one of the few players this season who has been hitting consistently, so who knows what kind of affect this will have on the team.


I had to work all day yesterday so that explains the lack of game summary when it ended.  Here's the Star of the Game (only two because we did jack-sh!t today).


Stars of the Game™