Baseball’s Savior

Is it just me, or has pitching taken over in Major League Baseball?  Averages are down, offensive numbers seem to be down, teams relying on power and the long ball, are struggling to get past .500.  It is understood to be a pitching game, over there in the National League, but here in the American League we like our offense(i.e. the DH).  The number being put up lately seem to be down.  Just ask the Detroit Tigers lineup where that $Yankee Money$ power is at.  Heck, ask the $Yankee Money$ Yankee’s where their power is.

Anyways, we had another pitching dual today, Mike Mussina took the mound for the Yankees, and James Shields took the mound for the Rays.  Everything looked very similar through the first 3 innings, no runs from either team, and nothing looking like it was about to change.  In the 4th and 5th innings the Yankees snuck a couple of runs from the bats of Abreu and Cano. 

The Rays responded with a run of their own in the 7th, ending Mussina’s day, and brought in Ohlendorf for his second hold of the season.  Then things from there (8th and 9th innings) were just like they should be.  It should not matter how many runs we are ahead of our opponents coming into the 8th inning as long as we are ahead.  That is because we have Chamberlain and Rivera to close out the game.

That is exactely what happened.  Chamberlain pitched a 4 batter, 3 strikeout and a walk inning, for his 10th hold of the season.  Then Mariano Rivera enters and does what he does best.  He allowed no hits, and struck out one for yet another perfect inning, and the save. 

This is how it is supposed to go.  Take the lead into the 8th inning, and lights out.  This was reassuring to see.  The Yankees are now 3.5 games out of first place, behind these Tampa Bay Rays.  There record clips one game closer to .500 at 20-21.  The last game of the series is tomorrow, and hopefully the Yankees can come away with a split 2-2, after going down 0-2 after the first two games.

It took 11 innings to decide this one, and the Tampa Bay Rays came out on top, 2-1.  Chien-Ming Wang pitched another great game for the club.  It is the bats that need a kick start.  Again today, the offense was silenced by the pitching staff of the Rays.  And wouldn’t you know it, Mariano Rivera took the lose, and saw his ERA sky-rocket to 0.56!

Wang gave up only one run in the 4th inning, to Hinske’s bat, but other than that he was again spectacular.  There was some defensive help that came his way as well, as Matsui made a great grab in left.  But overall, it was what you have come to expect out of Wang, just no run support.

Matsui did it again in the 9th inning, being the hero to tie the game at one and send this one into extra innings.  It wasn’t until the 11th inning when the Rays finally broke the tie, winning it 2-1.

This win boosted the Tampa Bay Rays into 1st place in the division, 0.5 games ahead of the enemy Boston Red Sox.  It also dipped the Yankees to 19-21, 4.5 games out of the lead in the division.

We have two more games to be played before this series come to a close, so let’s see if the Yankees can turn things around, and play for a split.

The Yankees could not get anything going today, and provided no run support for Andy Pettitte, today, as he was looking to extend his seven game win streak, in as many starts.  He ran into a team, in the Tampa Bay Rays, that wanted it pretty badly. 

Let’s not forget the bad blood that was started in the pre-season, in spring training, when a Ray drove into our  rookie catcher and broke his wrist.  Or the game following when Shelly Duncan slide hard into second, making contact with their second baseman, clearing the benches, and mayhem ensued.

Pettitte just could not seem to get relaxed out there today.  He was avoiding danger well in the first three innings.  It wasn’t until the 4th inning, that things seemed to come unravelled.  He gave up 4 more earned runs in that inning, bringing his total to 5 for the game.  That was the last inning of action he would see today, and he took the loss, going only 4 innings, with 8 hits, 5 earned runs, and 2 walks against him.

Garza for the Rays, on the other hand, pitched a wonderful game, going 7 innings, giving up NO runs, and only 5 scattered hits.  He pitched very well today, and kept the power in the Yankee lineup silent.

A positive, though was that the 5 hits came from the #’s 6, 7, 8, and 9, hitters in the lineup.  Just no run support, or enough hits together to do any harm.

With this loss today the Yankees fall into 4th place in the division, behind Baltimore, Tampa Bay, and Boston.  They are behind the league leader, Boston Red Stockings, by 4 games.  Their record, again, drops below .500 to 19-20.

The game was delayed due to rain, and a rescheduled date has not yet been determined.  Stay tuned for further information regarding this game.  As soon as I find out anything I will pass it along to you.

I will be the first to admit that I was more than worried after the home run was hit by Tiger’s very recent call up, Matt Joyce.  It just seemed to be an automatic out to me.  But after that Rasner settled right in and pitched an excellent game.  He ended up going 6 innings, giving up 4 hits, and 2 earned runs.  One of those runs he was responsible for after he we taken out of the game.  He pitched to one batter in the 7th inning.  All in all, a very good performance today, and for his second win in a row.  It is sometimes surprising where your good ballplayers, for now, are going to surface from.

Derek Jeter hit his first home run of this 2008 season, in the 1st inning off of Jeremy Bonderman, with no one on, to contribute one of the two runs scored in that inning.  The rest of the RBI’s came from four different players, which is good to see performance spreading out throughout the lineup.  They amounted enough offense to win this one today 5-2. 

That creates a rubber game situation tomorrow, as the Yankees play the last of a three game series against these Detroit Tigers.  It is an early start, 1:05pm EST, so if you are attending the game, make sure to get there early enough to enjoy batting practice, a Ball Park Frank, peanuts and a beer, I know I will.  Go Yankees!

They were down by 4 runs heading into the 9th inning, and found themselves with the tying run only 180 feet from home plate.  But, it was not meant to be, as the final out was recorded at Comerica Park in Detroit before that base runner could come home and send it into extra innings.

Kei Igawa had a very rough day, getting the loss, and seeing his ERA soar to 18.00.  He was hit hard and often by the high powered offense that has been assembled in Detroit.  He lasted 3 innings, and pitched to 4 batters in the 4th inning, recording no outs, before getting the hook from manager Joe Girardi.  Igawa’s miserable numbers look like this: 3 innings, 11 hits, 6 earned runs.  Dismal to say the least.  None of those runs scored, scored on homers, so it goes to show how bad he was hit around.

The bright spot for the pitching staff was the bullpen.  When they came on in relief, in the 4th inning, they proceeded to pitch shut out baseball for the remainder of the game.  The totals for the rest of the game saw only 2 hits, and 4 strike outs over the 5 innings left in this one.  By the way, that was 4 strike outs more than Igawa had this time around.  OUCH!

The Yankees didn’t stop until the umpire called the last out, surging late in the game, with a 9th inning rally, scoring three of the needed four.  The Tiger bullpen is somewhat known for it’s collapses, so as the inning stretched on you felt more and more confident about the results.  They had the tying run on second, and that was as far as they could take it.

They end up losing a tough one, and again drop below .500 (18-19).  Staying pretty steady at .500 is not bad, but it is not Yankee baseball.   With approximately 1/4 of the season behind us now, it is time that they do the necessary things to straighten up that pitching staff. 

Well, you can’t have a Cliff Lee take the mound everyday.  The Cleveland Indians showed some signs of being human today, as they gave up numerous home runs to Yankee batters.  They were a different team out there.  Without their ace(s) on the mound, the Indians take on a different look, at least not as confident for sure.  Can you blame them?  Who wouldn’t be confident (cocky even) if your pitcher won’t even allow base runners, let alone runs?

But it was another story today, as the Yankees faced Paul Byrd. They took some time mounting an attack, as they didn’t score their first run until the 4th inning.  But once they scored that run, it was like the flood gates opened, and they started launching the ball all over the park.  Byrd was hit hard and often after that.  He ended up lasting 6.1 innings, after giving up 8 hits, 5 earned runs on 3 homers, giving him his third lose of the year.

Mussina won his forth straight, going 5 innings, giving up 4 hits, and 3 earned runs.  He pitched well, and again, well enough to give the offense a chance to win it, which they did.  The offense gets the “most valuable” in this one, with a barrage of homers throughout the game.

Here is how it looked in the box score provided by MLB.com/yankees:

HR: Damon (5, 4th inning off Byrd, 0 on, 0 out), Giambi (6, 4th inning off Byrd, 1 on, 2 out), Cano (4, 7th inning off Byrd, 0 on, 1 out), Betemit (1, 7th inning off Kobayashi, 0 on, 1 out).

This is exactely what you want to see if you are a Yankee fan.  The offense just needs to build on this, and a .500 record (18-18) can be a thing of the past.  Next up are those dreaded Tigers out of Detroit.   This is the team that swept them at home only a week ago.  Hopefully they can return the favor, starting tomorrow in Detroit.

If there was a Cy Young being given out right now in the American League, you would be hard pressed to come up with another pitcher more deserving than Cliff Lee of the Cleveland Indians.  He pitched another outstanding game, and against possibly the hottest pitcher going, in Chien-Ming Wang for the Yankees.  Don’t misunderstand me, Wang pitched a very good game dispite his first lose of the 2008 season.  He went 7 strong innings, giving up only 5 hits, 3 earned runs, striking out 4.  With any kind of run support from his teammates, Wang probably was looking at his seventh win of the season, and staying undefeated.  However, three runs was two more than Cliff Lee needed today, leading his Indians to victory by a score of 3-0.

Since there is no offense to speak of in this game for the Yankees, it goes without saying that Lee’s ERA dropped, again, to a whopping 0.81.  He went 7 innings also today allowing 6 hits, with 7 strike outs.  It is always impressive to see a pitcher when he is on his game.  But, even more impressive is when that pitcher does it against these Yankees.  Let’s face it, the Yankees are one of the better teams in baseball annually, and to come in to their park, and pitch a shut out over 7 innings is incredible.  To have an ERA under one is unexpected, and with the American League Cy Young winner as your teammate, things can only get better.  This is good news for the Indians, but bad news for every team they face.

This lose today takes the Yankees below .500 again this season (17-18), as they can’t seem to leave this mark behind them.  The American League East is starting to seperate, with Boston still on top.  Tampa Bay has broken the 3-way tie for second, and passed the Yankees who are now staring at third place, 4.5 games out.  Hopefully they can avoid the sweep tomorrow, and start a winning way.  In less than a week they will be facing the Tampa Bay Rays in Tampa, so if they do not fall farther behind them in the standings, this is the opportunity to knock them out of second place, and continue their hunt for the Red Sox.

Another good pitching performance was snubbed today as the Yankees blow their lead to the Cleveland Indians in the late innings.  Andy Pettitte did everything that you could ask the starting pitcher to do: 1. keep the club in the game, and 2. give them a chance to win.  He did both of those things.  Andy pitched 6.1 innings, scattered 5 hits, 2 earned runs, and had 6 K’s.  The two runs came from a home run with one on in the 4th inning, off the bat of Peralta.  Other than that, Pettitte pitched a very clean game.

Farnsworth came on in relief, and got the Yankees out of the 7th inning without harm.  It wasn’t until the 8th inning that things started to unravel.  With two base runners aboard, Joba Chamberlain gave up a 3-run blast to a pinch-hitting David Dellucci, who was in for RF Gutierrez, in the middle of the lineup.  That took the Yankee lead away from them, and the 3 game win streak came to an end. 

Usually when the bullpen enters and the Yankees have the lead, it usually translates into a win.  Just a couple of days ago that was the case.  The starting pitcher made it possible for the team to score a couple/few runs, and be in a real good spot to win the game.  Then the bullpen enters, and takes the side down, inning after inning, until the game is over, and Mariano Rivera pitches the last ball that rolls lazily to Jeter, who throws to first for the out.

Instead, the Yankees take one on the chin today, and fall to the Indians of Cleveland by a score of 3-5.  Their record, again, goes to .500 (17-17),  their 3 game win streak comes to an end, and they look ahead to meet them again tomorrow, and hopefully force a rubber game in this series.

Looking at just getting swept, at home, by the Detroit Tigers didn’t seem to bother the Yankees at all, as they have just completed a sweep of their own against the Seattle Mariners.  The score of 8-2 is somewhat shadowed by the story of Darrell Rasner, a Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre pitcher for the Yankees, called up before today’s (Sunday) game.  He was called up to replace the injured Phil Hughes. 

After giving up two runs in the first inning, no doubt due to nerves, he settled down, and pitched a whale of a game, and gave this team just what it needed, a win and sweep of the Seattle Mariners.  Rasner went 6 innings, gave up 5 hits, and 2 runs (both earned), struck out 4, and walked one batter.  All-in-all, a very solid performance, and who knows, maybe the coaching staff will have some decisions to make here as to the future of Darrell Rasner.

The game broke open for the Yankees in the 3rd inning, when Melky Cabrera (huge in this series) hit a 2 run blast off of Carlos Silva, and Robinson Cano followed that with a solo shot of his own, both with 1 out.  That was 3 of 6 runs that the Yankees would get that inning, giving Rasner a lead he would never lose. 

They tacked on two more runs in the 4th inning for good measure, and the Yankees celebrated the first win for Darrell Rasner this year, and a sweep of the Seattle mariners, bringing their winning streak to 3 games, and their record to 1 game over .500 at 17-16.  The Yankees enjoy a day off tomorrow, and then welcome in the Cleveland Indians for a 3 game home stand.  This win also takes the Yankees into a 3-way tie for 2nd place in the American League East with Baltimore, and Tampa Bay, at 3 games behind the league leading Boston Red Hosiery.

In a game that was strangely similar to yesterday’s pitching gem by Chine-Ming Wang, Mike Mussing  also stepped up and produced for the Yankees  another  great day from the mound.   He also went 6 innings.  He also had 5 strikeouts.  He also gave up one run.  He gave up 7 scattered hits, instead of Wang’s 3.  He was relieved by a fantastic bullpen, also giving up one hit, and not allowing any runs to score.  In other words, pretty much a carbon copy of yesterday.  Nice job.

The runs came in a very similar fashion as well.  Another Yankee stepped up big in this series.  Johnny Damon had a monster day behind the plate.  He doubled twice, and hit a two-run home run in the 6th inning to take the Yankee lead to 6-1.  That was your final score. 

This is good to see some of the veterans playing so well, and seemingly injury free.  Both Damon and Mussing admit to having injury-plagued seasons last year, as older players normally do.  But the production is up from these guys, and the team tends to ride that wave. 

This is the second win in a row, and the Yankees are back to that illusive .500 mark, again, at 16-16.  Tomorrow presents an opportunity for the club to sweep the Mariners, right on the heels of being swept by Detroit.  This is baseball.

Just when you need a boost from the pitching staff, who else would you ask, other than your ace.  Chien-Ming Wang pitched another dandy today, scattering only 3 hits and giving up only one run, over 6 innings, and became the American Leagues first pitcher to 6 “w”ins, and remain without a lose.  5 strikeouts total is more than we are used to seeing, but will gladly take it.  He is more of a ground ball pitcher, but if he can keep the bat from even touching the ball, he is only that much more dominating.

He was relieved by the very impressive tandum of Farnsworth (7th Inning), Chamberlain (8th Inning), and Rivera (non-save situation).  Together they only gave up one hit, and kept the Mariners scoreless for the remainder of the game (what else can you ask for from your bullpen?).

Melky Cabrera (2 RBI’s), and Matsui (1 RBI) were 3 of the 5 total runs scored today.  The offense was good, moving players around the bags.  But the story was pitching.

This takes their record one game shy of .500, at 15-16.  Hopefully tomorrow will produce similar results.

The 4-8 lose marks the first time the Yankees have been swept at home this season.  The rain seemed to be coming down harder than it looked, but there was definitely noticeable precipitation.  This miserable display sent the club to 2 games under .500 with a record of 14-16, and a 3 game losing streak.

The Yankees took the lead early scoring 3 runs in the 1st inning, off a 3-run blast from Abreu against Robertson for Detroit.  But that was not good enough with the pitching that was offered up today.  Ian Kennedy only lasted 4 and 2/3, giving up 4 earned runs, 5 Hits, and 3 Walks.  Albaladejo came in relief of Kennedy, and was charged with 4 earned runs himself, after giving up an opposite field home run to Miguel Cabrera in the 7th inning.  Granted it was Miguel Cabrera, but we have to be able to count on our bullpen to keep the runs off the board, while our offense hopefully works us back in the game.  If our bullpen can’t stop the bleeding, what good is it then, really?

Again, this is one of those games that the Yankees would like to win.  Bad weather, cold and rainy, it would be a nice game to win, for moral if nothing else.  Instead it capped off a sweep in front of their home crowd.  It also let them know that they are just a small step behind, right now, from some of the elite teams in baseball. 

This takes the team to a record of 14-16, and 3 games back of a tie for first place in the Central with Boston/Tampa Bay, and 2 games behind Baltimore (in third after the tie-break)

A follow up…Phil Hughes has been put on the 15-Day DL, with a fractured rib, and another article just claimed he won’t be back until July.  So that is that.  I wonder how much of this is baseball, and how much of it is real.

A quick note…The run that Jeter scored in the 5th inning off of Shelley Duncan’s RBI hit, was magic number 1390, tying him for forth all time on the Yankee list with Joe DiMaggio.