Rocket launch successful.
6.0 IP, 3 R, 5 H, 2 BB, 7 SO. I'll take that every time and then some. I was already pissy that I couldn't watch this game since FUX seems to think that living in Atlanta, I'd rather watch the Braves game, even though I don't like the Braves. Great convoluted way of thinking. Fortunately, Rocket and the Yankees gave me a reason to not be pissy for the rest of the day. Before the game even started, I was hearing a lot about what people's expectations for this first start would be and not all of them were very complimentary. This is Roger Clemens and whether you agree with the contract or not, he gives us a lot. I mean, how freakin' awesome was it to see him out there on the mound again? That just totally made my day. It's like, a belated birthday present. What was even better though, was the fact that Vizcaino and Farnswoth both pitched in this game AND THEY DIDN'T BLOW THE LEAD. Shocking. So a nice big round of applause for the pitching today.
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Yet again, offense showed up. I'm liking this new look Yankees team. Situational hitting! It exists! And it works. It was nice to see the Yankees continuing to work walks, make pitchers work, and get timely hits. Even sacrifice flys! I know, I know. Our Team LOB this afternoon was 11. Not horrendous, but not sparkling either. Better than the last couple of games, so we've got that going. Robbie was the big offensive guy today, going 3-5 with an RBI. Other offensive stars were Johnny Damon and Bobby Abreu. This was just an all-around great game. It was our 3rd straight series victory and tomorrow we go for the broom. Go Yankees!!
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Stars of the Game™
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****. YES.
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Now, they didn't have pictures of Robbie or Bobby, so I chose this picture to represent the Yankees offense as a whole. Work with me here. If some new pictures come up (right now it's all Rocket, but that's to be expected), I'll add them to this post. :-D
Match-up for Sunday:
Next Game:
Sun., June 10 @ 1:05 p.m. ET
TV: YES | Radio: WCBS, 92.7 WQBU (Sp.) | ||||
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Awww, Shawn. I remember what he did for us back in 2005 during that dismal and bleak season. Him and Aaron Small were like, the big wild cards on that pitching staff. Fortunately he doesn't pitch for us anymore, so my hoping he loses badly doesn't make me feel so bad. SWEEEP.
Never will I complain about having a picture of Jeter represent the team! And is that a picture of a painting of Clemens? It's awesome!
I agree with you- it was nice to see all the little things come together: working the walks, sac flies (they couldn't buy a sac fly with all the money in the world in the beginning of the season), and let's not forget the beautifully aggressive baserunning (2 double steals!) nice to see it all coming together...
can I give an honorable mention to Melky for letting yesterday roll off his back and just hanging in there bc that catch in the 7th was GREAT!
I loved Chacon too (then), but get out the broom- sweep, sweep!
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Great post Beth. I agree about Chacon. I hate to cheer for a sweep against him, but we must, and we need it. But Chacon was just terrific and tough in 2005, and we won't forget what he did anytime soon.
The offense has been good, and I love the running that the team is doing. Major kudos to Torre for that, and for supplementing the scoring chances without Giambi in the lineup. Dollars to donuts that they begin to run a lot more. Cano has been on fire, Damon is picking it up, Melky has been clutch again, and Abreu and A-Rod are back to being a devastating 3-4 combination. Good point about Nuke + Vizcaino.
But today was Roger's day, and what a terrific performance from a guy who hasn't pitched in the bigs since last September. Seven K's? Ridiculous. Two walks? Roger will be more a control pitcher if he can keep his pitches down than people think, and can get the double-play ball as he did today. Just outstanding. 8 of 10, and 5 straight. Yes!
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That's a great point about Melky's catch, poohhh, especially after the inside-the-park home run last night. Melky is very good, and really is coming around at the plate. Very true about the situational hitting as well, Beth and poohhh. Great to see, and necessary for any team to be successful. It doesn't always have to be the long ball. Nice to see some opposite field hits, too.
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//And is that a picture of a painting of Clemens? It's awesome!//
Yes it is. I love it. It's one of my favorite images of him. I felt it appropriate to lead off with the picture.
/can I give an honorable mention to Melky for letting yesterday roll off his back and just hanging in there bc that catch in the 7th was GREAT!//
Absolutely. I think it's a mark of increased maturity that he didn't let what happened last night affect him today. He's been great for us this season and everyone screws up once in a while.
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//The offense has been good, and I love the running that the team is doing. Major kudos to Torre for that, and for supplementing the scoring chances without Giambi in the lineup. Dollars to donuts that they begin to run a lot more. Cano has been on fire, Damon is picking it up, Melky has been clutch again, and Abreu and A-Rod are back to being a devastating 3-4 combination. Good point about Nuke + Vizcaino.//
Yeah, things are [finally] starting to come together. I'm enjoying seeing this new-found energy they have. The last few games have really been a joy to watch. Wish I could have said that about the games earlier this season, but what's done is done and we just have to keep moving forward and winning games.
//But today was Roger's day, and what a terrific performance from a guy who hasn't pitched in the bigs since last September. Seven K's? Ridiculous. Two walks? Roger will be more a control pitcher if he can keep his pitches down than people think, and can get the double-play ball as he did today. Just outstanding. 8 of 10, and 5 straight. Yes!//
Yeah, unfortunately I couldn't see for myself just how well he pitched, but according to people who COULD watch the game, he looked good. I do know people who were expecting him to blow chunks out there and it'll be nice to let them know they shouldn't underestimate someone with his talent.
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I admittedly was trusting the Gameday feature for the pitch locations, which from cross-referencing with actual game footage, is usually pretty accurate. I watch that while listening to the game when I do listen, and that it has updated pitch counts, location, and information is a big help. Even with listening to games, it's easy not to miss much with Gameday. Faux Sports is an unmitigated joke, and the MLB blackout rules are nothing short of a crime against fans.
It kills me that people would expect Roger to be bad, given his tireless work ethic, Hall-of-Fame standards, and plain pride. As if he would thrust himself out there are not be major-league worthy and ready. Jeez, I agree, if there's anybody not to underestimate, he's right near the top of that list.
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I also wanted to mention another great accolade for Clemens on top of 6 innings and 7 strikeouts: the pirates tried to test out Clemens' legs and groin by bunting in the first (the first batter, unsuccessfully). But I guess he's feeling good because thee barehanded fielding and throw to first was fantastic! (You can see it on MLB.com for those who missed it)
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Didnt the Yankees win 95 games that year Chacon pitched well?
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//Didnt the Yankees win 95 games that year Chacon pitched well?//
Did you follow the 2005 Yankees season? No, you probably didn't. Yes we won 95 games, but it was a s--tty season. We only won the division because of a tie-break with Boston. That was not how well we could have played. We lost too many games we should have won and we had to play over our heads for the rest of the season just to win the division in the first place. Then we didn't advance in the playoffs.
So it was a dismal season, especially when you were watching every game.
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//We only won the division because of a tie-break with Boston//
95 games? You had Kevin Brown and Jaret Wright pitch like **** only to have two pitchers, that you would not expect to pitch well, come in and pitch way above expected. A normal "dismal" and "bleak" season is much worse than that. That season our "ace" was Wakefield, and Schilling experimented with closing coming off injury, but I dont feel that either of our seasons were what you described compared to what most fans have to go through.
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I'll ask you again, did you watch every game? I did. Do you know how many train wrecks we put on the field every day because of injuries? Tanyon Sturtze had to start a game because we had no one available and it completely screwed us over when we needed him to come out of the pen in relief. It made him ridiculously ineffective.
We only won the division over Boston because we won the season series by one game. Otherwise, they would have won because we ended with the same records. Yes compared to the **** Royals our season wasn't "dismal", but compared to what the team should have done and could have done, it was. This team this year for a while made the '05 team look like the '98 team.
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Wow, I can only imagine what would happen if there was a salary cap, and the Yankees (yes, and the Red Sox) could not pay more than any other team. Both cities expect so much from their teams, and sometimes all the millions don't add up to a win (can you say "Pavano").
When a team is willing to pay a pitcher over $800K per start (Clemens) or $50 million for the rights to sign a pitcher (Matsuzaka), things are getting a little silly.
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