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Bronx, N.Y., September 3 (or 14?), 2010 — The Yankees beat the Blue Jays in the first of three Friday afternoon in a game some thought wouldn’t be played with Hurricane Earl heading up the coast toward New York. The anticipated Ivan Nova/Jose Bautista confrontation also blew over much like the hurricane did. And although the rookie righthander held the Jays to three runs with an impressive array of pitches, he began the game without the fastball we’ve seen, and left it before qualifying for a victory. Continue reading Wood Bats and Arm Beat Jays

Bronx, N.Y., September 1, 2010 — The Yankees may not have cashed in their place in the 2010 postseason yet, and who could blame them, as they cling to the smallest of leads in the American League East? The team is still trying to settle on a reliable rotation, and hasn’t played with their All Star third baseman in two weeks. But up in the Grandstand, the fans are thinking playoffs, and Wednesday night we got a lesson in playoff baseball 101. Continue reading Tying Run On

Bronx, N.Y., August 30, 2010 — There have been a few things that have happened on August 30 over the years that have taken some time. But it’s hard to imagine any of them dragged on longer than the first inning of the A’s/Yankees game in the Stadium Monday night. The German siege of Leningrad in 1941 started this day, and must have taken longer, even if that seemed hard to believe as Trevor Cahill struggled to record even a second out in the bottom half. Given a trusty time machine, I can believe that the aged Casey Stengel may have retired on this day in 1965 because he saw this inning coming. Who knows? Maybe Cleopatra, who surrendered herself to the asp’s bite this day 2,040 years ago, got wind she’d be sitting in the moat as Cahill’s 2-0 fastball to Jorge Posada missed for a 3-0 count. Continue reading Long Inning, Monster Inning

Bronx, N.Y., August 22, 2010 — Yankee fans and baseball enthusiasts looking to bask in the glow of Sunday’s 10-0 destruction of the Seattle Mariners in Yankee Stadium might be disappointed reading this report. As one of the Pinstriped persuasion who feels brought low by losses both big and small, and who agonizes over every pitch in a close game, I love a good old blowout as much as anyone. But if you’re looking at the Sunday contest through 10-0 glasses, you’re missing much of what transpired in the Yankee palace. Continue reading Forget the Zero

Bronx, N.Y., August 21, 2010 — I felt the years melt away watching the Yanks bat against the Mariners down 2-0 in the first inning in Yankee Stadium Saturday afternoon. Derek Jeter’s bouncer up the middle deflected off southpaw Jason Vargas’s glove for an infield single and Nick Swisher flied deep to left. Mark Teixeira took a strike then fouled one off, falling behind quickly 0-2. Tex got a tiny piece of the next pitch, but didn’t miss by much, flicking it straight back. He lashed the next throw into the left field corner, to put two runners into scoring position. Continue reading Only Takes One

Bronx, N.Y., August 19, 2010 — In a game where the word “remarkable” could be used to describe both the Yankees’ nine-run sixth inning and a play Mark Teixeira made on Johnny Damon in foul territory down the first base line in the fourth, the pitching got off to a “remarkable” start as well. Cumulatively, of the first 10 batters in this game, eight faced an 0-2 count.

Although the stat was largely achieved via Phil Hughes throwing strike one and two to six straight once Austin Jackson flied out to start the game, that wasn’t as good a thing for the home team as you might imagine. You see, the object of the game is not to have your guy pitch to more batters than the other team’s guy. Of course, going 0-2 on six straight is good, and Phil was pitching well, but unfortunately three of those six batters actually reached Hughes for a hit. Jhonny Peralta would roll a single through the first/second hole to start the second inning on an 0-2 pitch to no harm. But in the first, Will Rhymes poked a single off Ramiro Pena’s glove going the other way to left after six strikes (four fouled off). Ryan Raburn struck out on his 0-2 pitch but Miguel Cabrera worked the count from 0-2 to 3-2, then homered for two runs into the Yankee bullpen.

Fans were divided as to how bad a thing this was. The Yankees were routinely hitting shots off righty Rick Porcello, but Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira liners in the first and Robbie Cano and Nick Swisher hard-hit grounders in the second were all “at’em” balls, stroked directly to infielders. Sometimes early near misses are a sign of thunder to come; sometimes they represent the few real chances a team will have to score. We wouldn’t discover what was in the offing this game until the fourth inning.

Meanwhile Phil Hughes’s troubles were behind him. Featuring a 92-mph fastball but mixing in an effective cutter and a nice curve, he set the Tigers down in the second and third innings each around a single, then reeled off nine outs through the next three frames. Despite all the early strikes, Phil was pushed to 44 pitches through two frames, but he needed but 40 more to pitch the third through sixth. All the early strikes served him well: He pounded 18 of 22 first-pitch strikes, and the 61/23 strikes/balls ratio was, well, remarkable. The young righthander allowed three singles and the Cabrera homer, walked none, and struck out six, five swinging, to earn his 15th victory of the season.

More “remarkable” still? Phil did it while his team was struggling too. The Yanks tied the score at 2-2 on four hard singles in the fourth, but entering the bottom of the sixth they were still the only Yankee hits. Thirty-five minutes and three pitchers later, the home team had piled on six hits, including a team cycle, and nine runs. Cano scored the first run with a double into the left center field gap and the last two on a home run to dead center field, a ball that not only landed in Monument Park, but at the feet of the monuments that center the whole memorable scene. Nick Swisher had stroked an rbi single on a 3-0 count in the fourth and now Jorge Posada did the same, followed by an Austin Kearns two-rbi double to the wall in left center, a walk on a wild pitch to Brett Gardner, and Derek Jeter’s two-run triple off the wall in center.

On the fourth day of Hope Week, the Yanks welcomed You Are Beautiful People, an organization that works with special needs children, whose head threw out the first pitch. Not only did these children and their families get to see the game, they played a game with Yankee players following the one in which the Yanks spanked the Tigers. But more “remarkable” still, perhaps, sixteen-year-old Daniel Fratto did a flawless job as the PA announcer in the big game’s bottom of the fourth inning, when the offense got off to its start. It was strange hearing a voice other than the late Bob Sheppard’s announcing captain Derek Jeter, but if the Yankee shortstop can handle it, so can the fans.

The Tigers got to feel a little better about themselves, as Joe Girardi handed the last three innings to a Sergio Mitre badly in need of work. Everything was up from the sinker ball pitcher, and the visitors did reach him for three runs on six hits to close it to an 11-5 final. Worthy of a second mention is the play Teixeira made on Damon’s foul popup. We’ve seen Mark tumble to the ground as he lunges for these before, but this time the ball jarred loose as he hit and the Yankee first sacker had the presence of mind to bat it in the air, then recatch it as it tumbled toward the grass. The play that followed was exceptional as well, as Peralta’s long drive to left center went into and through Gardner’s glove, only to end up lodged in Curtis Granderson’s, as their gloves touched on the play in the gap. Neither outfielder gets to that ball on some teams, but both got there for the Yanks.

Hughes only achieved two more 0-2 counts after the remarkable six straight early and, strangely, the Tigers staff equaled him, though it took five of them to get the eight 0-2s. And 3-0 counts played a part too. Phil’s only 3-0 count was to Damon in the at bat in which Tex robbed him. But Tigers pitchers went 3-0 four times, resulting in two rbi singles on the next pitch and two walks.

So after dropping the first of four to the Tigers, the Yanks came back to win three straight. They scored a run in the ninth inning of that loss on a bases loaded walk, the only run the team scored in 18 innings. And now they have scored 20 runs in two games.

Remarkable.

BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!

Bronx, N.Y., August 17, 2010 — If you agree that during Tuesday night’s pivotal game in Yankee Stadium, CC Sabathia’s in-game stats over seven innings of nine strike outs, 114 pitches, and an era and of 2.86 were good, consider this: The era for the last 113 pitches was 1.43. Continue reading Sweet Sixteen

Bronx, N.Y., August 6, 2010 — On a night where Derek Jeter not only passed Babe Ruth in his hits total, but drove in three key runs as well, two relative newcomers largely carried the Yanks to a 7-2 victory over the Red Sox in Yankee Stadium. First, emergency starter Dustin Moseley proved he could more than pitch with Boston ace Josh Beckett. Then Yankee-for-a-week Lance Berkman showed a little of the bat speed the Yanks hoped they were getting when they acquired him from Houston. Continue reading Dustin, Derek and Lance

Bronx, N.Y., August 7, 2010 — The altered hours baseball games are played in the name of national TV contribute some strange effects to the experience, something Yankees and Red Sox fans will know only too well when their four-game wraparound series in Yankee Stadium concludes with a rare 2 pm start Monday afternoon. Locals will find out how well mass transit handles thousands of bodies once Sunday night’s 8 pm tilt concludes at an hour when most weekend revelers have been home for hours, and in bed for some time as well. Continue reading Victory in the Afternoon Sky

Bronx, N.Y., August 6, 2010 — “Kiss of Death,” I guess you could call it. But it was so hard to resist, just such a cool stat. The Yankee Stadium Scoreboard has been coming out with them repeatedly, like when they informed us in the bottom of the first when Derek Jeter singled past short that he had tied Babe Ruth for career base hits. No possible harm in that, I guess, unless he happens to never get a hit again (perish the thought — literally not possible). But even given that improbable scenario, how could we not celebrate yet another Captain milestone? Continue reading What Goes Up…