I don't know what was more memorable about this game; Mo's 500th save or the fact that he got his first major league RBI when K-Rod walked him.  I mean, Derek thought the idea of Mo batting to start with was hysterical and in a way it was, because that late in a game, usually the pitcher is PH for.  I'm glad Girardi let him bat because otherwise we wouldn't have had that great comedic moment.  Too bad he didn't hit a granny.....now that would have been good!  What more evidence do we need of how monumentally amazing Mariano Rivera is?  I've watched him pitch for the Yankees his entire career and it's been a pleasure the whole time.  He just goes out there and does his job, no stupid histrionics or dramatics on the mound.  Just business.  We wouldn't have it any other way, I suppose.  Congrats, Mo......you are the greatest. 


But enough about Mo, let's talk starting pitching.  Wang didn't do nearly as bad as several at bats would let on.  He gave up only 2 runs on 4 hits which is great, and he even got his first win of the season out of it.  I can't really complain about his performance tonight, but I would say I would have liked it if he was more economical with his pitch count and stayed in the game a little longer.  It shouldn't have taken 5 pitchers to beat the Mets. 


Our offense tonight was rather dead.  We got 3 runs in the 1st didn't do anything else until Mo's heroic bases-loaded walk in the 9th brought in another run.  We squandered opportunity after opportunity to knock Hernandez out of the game and I don't know how many DPs Robbie Cano hit into but it was annoying as hell.  Thankfully the Mets are horrible or else they could have capitalized on our inability to put the game way early.  Tex had a 2-RBI double and Jorge had a sac fly and really.......that was it.  The sac fly was really the winning run as without Mo's RBI we still would have won the game 3-2, but insurance is always great.  For the next game, I'd like to see more than 4 hits.  I'll always take the win, but come on.....don't start getting cheap.  Either way, what a great game and even better......the Crazy Stein has returned.  :-D



Star of the Game™

See that little slice of heaven over there?  That's where I was all day today.  Wrightsville Beach, NC is probably the most beautiful stretch of land I've ever seen.  A 3 1/2 hour drive from where I live, it was well worth it.  The one thing I never quite got used to was the salt water.  Coming from Chicago and going to the beach at Lake Michigan, that's freshwater.  If it gets in your eyes, big deal.  It's like getting hit in the face with bathwater.  Not so much here, though.  That stings like you wouldn't believe and I had the misfortune of getting knocked over by a wave and swallowing some.  EGADS.  I had to drink 2 bottles of water just to get the salt out.  Either way, it was a fantastic way to spend a Saturday afternoon and knowing the Yankees were playing this evening, I hoped they'd win and cap off this great day.  And they did! 

 

AJ Burnett pitched marvelously and just continued that which CC started last night.  He went 7 innings of 1-hit ball and walked 3 while striking out 10.  That means in the last 2 games, the Mets have had a grand total of 4 hits.  Maybe tomorrow they'll get 2 hit.  That'll complete the 1-2-3 trifecta, I suppose.  Brian Bruney came in to relieve him and pitched the 8th, giving up no hits and no runs, while walking none.  Robertson relieved him for the 9th and also gave up no hits and no runs.  Can't complain about the pitching again tonight, the shorter the blurb on a winning GDS, the better!

 

We didn't get tons of offense tonight, but when your pitcher is doing as well as AJ was doing, very little is ever needed.  Jorge was the big winner tonight, hitting a 3-run HR in the 6th.  Alex got an RBI as well, knocking a single in the 6th that scored Tex. We got our other run on a solo shot by Swish in the 3rd.  I hope we can go for the Crazy Stein tomorrow on a game that's as easy as the last couple have been.  No drama.  :D

 

 

 

Stars of the Game™

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

Coming off a series win against Atlanta, it was imperative we set the right tone against the Mets and with Crooked Cap on the mound tonight, it was a sure bet.  Sabathia has been the closest thing to dominance we have had in our rotation all season and when he pitches, you know you're getting at least 7 innings of quality pitching.  I do apologize for this summary coming late, I'm going out of town today and was running around trying to get everything we need to go and I kind of got sidetracked.  In any event, on to the pitching.......

 

CC went 7 innings of 3-hit ball, giving up only 1 run in the process.  He walked no one and struck out 8.  Brett Tomko relieved him and pitched 2 innings of no-hit ball and struck out 1.  I love when the pitching summary is short and sweet because that means we used at most 2 pitchers, and neither of them gave up anything of importance.  If only we got starts like this out of everyone. 

 

On the offense side of things, again we were able to combine runs with hits and really dominate at the plate.  Brett Gardner gets the absolute Star of the Game for going 5-6 with 2 RBI.  Alex went 1-2 with 2 RBI and passed Reggie Jackson on the all-time HR list.  Robbie went 2-6.  Ramiro Pena, subbing for a scratched Derek Jeter, went 3-5 with an RBI.  I can't really complain about the job we did tonight, it was a combined effort from all sides and it was great.  I hope to see more of this while I'm gone and lounging on the beach.  :-D

 

 

Stars of the Game™

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today was definitely weird.  Farrah Fawcett dies this morning and then hours ago, Michael Jackson dies.  One wasn't that shocking because she'd been ill for some time, the other was literally out of the blue.  They say these things come in threes, so we had Ed McMahon, Farrah and then Jacko.  I hope no one else dies for a while, or else CNN, MSNBC and Fox News will shut down.  They've been going into overdrive the last few hours.  In any event, my condolences to the families of both Farrah and Michael - I can't imagine what they're going through right now.

This crocodile was so excited the Yankees finally won a game, that he jumped in the air in exultation.  When you can make animals dance, you know you've done good.

 

It feels like forever since I last was able to do a write-up like this, and it really couldn't have come at a better time.  While we've gotten some great pitching the last few games, our offense was stagnant.  We just couldn't get anything together.  Thankfully that ended tonight; we were finally able to combine a great start from Joba and some decent offense.  I had hoped Joba could finish out the 7th, but we really couldn't complain with what he gave us; 6.1 innings, 7 H, 2 ER, 0 BB and 5 K.  Coke, Bruney and Mo all relieved him and combined to give up 1 ER on 1 H, with 2 BB and 5 K.  Mo got 4 of those strikeouts.  Regardless of what we did offensively, no one can complain about the pitching we've been getting during this mini-slump.  Let's hope that streak continues tomorrow night.

 

After what seemed like eons of futility, we suddenly got off our ***** and hit the damn ball.  We can thank Frankie Cervelli for getting that ball rolling if you will, when he hit a solo HR in the 6th inning to end our 15 scoreless innings streak.  Hopefully the 2-run single Alex hit in the same inning to give us a lead is a sign that he's coming around.  I hate when he slumps because a) he's too good for it and b) when he slumps everyone else does too.  After the 6th inning, we scored at least one run per inning until the end of the game.  Now if we could do that in innings 1-5 too, that would be great.  The top of our order did well, going a combined 7-17 with 4 RBI.  Nick Swisher also had a great night, going 1-4 with 2 RBI.  I hope we see more of this in games to come so that we can crawl back out of his small hole we dug for ourselves.

 

 

Stars of the Game™

 

 

 

 

 

Stars™ also go out to our offense, whom I cannot find pictures of at the moment.  Great job everyone!

Hmmm.  The Yankees are mired in a pretty bad slump; we've gone 4-9 in our last 13 games.  I'm disheartened by it, but I'm optimistic that we'll get past it and have a great July.  We can't be slumping forever.  

Due to my father's illness and subesquent recuperation (he's doing quite well), my time watching baseball has been sapped pretty much entirely.  There's too much to do around the house right now that he can't, that now falls to me.  And with family coming in (not that we're looking forward to this), there's even more to do.  I tried to check various sites to at least follow the scores, but I haven't been able to really sit down and watch anything for a few days.  So this will be a very cursory summation of the game. 

 

I'm very disappointed that we were unable to win our series against not just Washington but Florida.  Especially after going through a spell where we were winning at a pretty decent clip.  We went from 1 1/2 games in first to 4 games out in a matter of a couple weeks, and that's pretty disheartening.  Although the season is not over, the bulk of it is still in front of us and there's plenty of baseball to be played. 

 

 

I'm hoping our next series goes much better and we exhibit much better baseball fundamentals.  Let's get it done.

What a pathetic, pathetic game.  AJ Burnett pitches damn near 7 innings of 2-run ball, strikes out 8 and what we do have to show for that?  Losing.  I thought AJ deserved much better than that, especially since he's been struggling of late.  He absolutely deserved the win and as a result, the team should buy him steaks and beer for about a week.  Even our relievers did a damn good job today -  the pitching was 100% not the issue tonight.  I expect a lot more from the offense tomorrow.  Win it for Dad. If my dad was a Yankees fan, I'd say win it for him but since he roots for the Red Sox (Boston native that he is), win it to piss him off.  :-D

There will be no write-up for the game tonight, I wasn't able to watch the game due to extenuating circumstances.  Namely, my father having a tumor removed from his kidney.  We just got back from the hospital not more than 10 minutes ago and I'm too drained physically and emotionally to even watch over the highlights of another loss (to the Nats, no less) and write anything up.  I hope you'll forgive me.  Go Yanks.  

Saturday's game was pretty awful.  No offense, shoddy pitching from Andy although it was an entirely winnable game.  When you think about the fact that we only scored 2 runs on 5 hits, one of them a solo shot from Alex, it doesn't say much about your chances to win, regardless.  That being said, we had many chances to get something done and we squandered them all.  A leftover malaise from the Boston series.  

I am not a happy camper this evening.  My Yankees won, however my hockey team did not.  I missed the baseball game (and a very dramatic conclusion) to watch my beloved Red Wings take one up the you-know-what with no lube, at home.  Kinda like Game 7 of the '04 ALCS, just to continue with the dredging up of bad memories.  So thanks a lot Detroit, now I've got to see clip after clip of Sidney Crosby skating around OUR ice with the Stanley Cup.  If I didn't love you so much, I'd hate you.  In any event, I've gone back over some clips of the game and the recaps and such so I can provide a somewhat thorough post-game wrap-up.

 

Joba Chamberlain had an okay outing tonight.  He only gave up 2 ER on 1 hit, but lasted only 4 innings.  He walked 5 and struck out 3.  His high pitch count is what forced Girardi to go to the pen earlier than he probably expected.  Tomko came in to relieve him and promptly gave up 4 runs.  On three hits.  Not so good.  Robertson, Coke and then Mo came in following him in that order, giving up only 1 run on 3 hits while striking out 5.  Admirable showing from the rest of the pen given the crap they had to work with.  I didn't like Mo giving up another run while in relief, but these things will happen and we just have to accept them.  Thankfully some of that Mystique & Aura from the old park traveled over, because BOY did we need it.

 

After the sh!tshow against the Red Sox this week, I was hoping to get some big offensive explosions from this lineup against the Mets, and 9 runs will do.  I just hope we can score some in the next two games.  Derek had a big night, going 2-5 with an RBI, Tex had ANOTHER great night, going 1-3 with 2 RBI and 2 walks, Robbie Cano went 2-4 with an RBI and Godzilla went 1-4 with 3 RBI.  Then you have Alex's "we'll call it clutch since it won us the game" can o'corn in the bottom of the 9th.  Apparently from what I've been reading, he hit it and it had a funky spin on it that made catching it rather hard, especially when you're trying to do it with one hand.  I do hope the slump he's in breaks out soon, because when both he and Tex are on, this lineup is damn near infalliable.  Maybe this was the little stroke of luck he needed to get back up there.  Screw the haters, I'm rooting for you.  Go Yanks.

 

 

Stars of the Game™

 

 

 

 

 

 

I missed yesterday's game as I was watching my hockey team choke instead.  Way to go Red Wings.  At least you haven't lost a home game in this series yet, so the odds are good you'll win on Friday.  Please win on Friday.  I want at least one of my sports teams to win a championship this year.

I missed the entire game because I was in Charlotte all day hanging out with my sister.  I came back to see that we blew our lead in the top of the 9th and I am not happy about that at all.  Suffice to say, Sabathia went 8 innings and got completely jacked for that effort.  You all owe him a steak and a beer.