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Follow us on TwitterThe Yanks are mired in something of an offensive slump to start the season. As a team, the Bombers are hitting .227 with a .285 OBP and a .378 slugging percentage. For all the talk about their offensive, they’ve plated just 12 runs over the first four games.
The bats, of course, will wake up, and today’s game may be just what the doctor ordered. Facing the Yankees today will be the righthander Edwin Jackson. For years, Jackson has been hyped as the Next Big Thing. He started out with the Dodgers and made his Major League debut a few months later. But control — and Big League succes — have so far eluded Jackson. Over five seasons and 272.2 innings, he has an ERA of 5.64 and a WHIP of 1.71.
The Yanks haven’t shown their trademark patience at the plate yet. They’ve drawn just eight walks as a team. With Jackson on the mound, the Yanks’ bats may get the reprieve they so need after facing Toronto’s own big three starting pitchers and a surprisingly effective Andy Sonnanstine last night.
On the hill for the Yanks will be Andy Pettitte, making his 2008 season debut. No, my April Fools joke did not come true. He isn’t missing time due to his back right now, and he won’t be replaced by Kei Igawa. Against Tampa last year, Pettitte was 0-2 in four starts with a 5.32 ERA. Hopefully, he’ll find success this season. In all likelihood, Jonathan Albaladejo will be sent back to AAA to make room for Pettitte, and I am not a fan of that move.
The lineups:
Yankees
Damon CF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Giambi DH
Cano 2B
Posada C
Matsui LF
Duncan 1B
Pettitte LHP
Rays
Iwamura 2B
Crawford LF
Pena 1B
Upton CF
Gomes RF
Aybar 3B
Bartlett SS
Riggans C
Johnson DH
Jackson RHP
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I have to say, Michael Kay is dressed to impress.
I’m just not quite sure who he’s trying to impress though.
Christina Staffo, of course
There’s one walk. I like that.
Jeter looked silly there.
Those were some nasty pitches.
Ah, Jonny Gomes gets the Kangaroo Court fine for that one.
Boy is his face red…
Laughing out loud at Jonny Gomes.
Ben, can one of you guys do a post about Giuseppe Franco? It won’t make him go away, but it would make me feel better.
Oh, at some point this season, we can probably find something about Giuseppe Franco. That guy’s commercials are pretty annoying.
You called?
Today is not one of Jonny Gomes’ better days on the field.
Wow, that’ll make you appreciate Abreu’s “defense”
Jonny being Jonny.
Not a great day for Jonny Gomes.
could not happen to a more deserving guy.
I guess we’ll chalk that up to excellent pitches again…
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
That one’s on Derek. Same pitches, same results.
Jeter must have been out with the ladies last night. He’s looked horrible in both at bats today.
Baseball lip reading is great. Johnny Damon’s arm, not so much.
damon is a bitch.
Hahahaha, I’ll never miss that throwing arm. It’s like he’s playing in the Sunday Softball League
And these unearned runs will kill ya.
Yeah but the offense isn’t doing much to help. I’m not seeing the patience that we should be expecting. Jackson looks very prone to mistake pitches when he’s behind in the count. *Some* players don’t seem to grasp this concept. *Some* players look worse than they should against this mediocre pitching costing us some runs…
Wow, that was awful.
This offense is horrible. You have a guys who can’t throw strikes consistently and yet they are swinging at everything.
I think they’re just a little over-anxious right now. Hopefully a week or so of games will settle them down.
Maxoderm commercials? Really?
That pickoff move is really sexy!
Anyone else think Matsui should be hitting fifth?
Anyone else think Damon sucks?
I hate Johnny Damon, besides Pavano , he is the worst signing the Yankees have made this decade. I think after the emergence of Melky the Yanks should’ve just cut there losses and released or traded Damon.
Dear Mr. Jeter,
Please do something useful to make up for your uselessness thus far today
Signed,
Your favorite fan
lol.
I wonder when is this offense going to come out of hibernation.
If they can’t do it against Edwin Freakin’ Jackson, we migth be in for a looong season.
This is the Yanks new M.O. for the first month of the season they struggle offensively , and then they suddenly click in May, and become a prolific offense.
My dream line up
B Gardner LF
D Jeter SS
B Abreu RF
A Rodriguez 3B
J Posada C
H Matsui DH
Duncan 1B
Cano 2B
M Cabrera CF
You forgot Big Tex instead of Duncan. They’ll get him next year.
That is this years roster, next year they will get hopefully get Tiexiera
If you could put your blind hate of Damon aside you would see that Gardner was overmatched by AAA pitching last year. What makes you think he could handle big league pitching?
We are playing like the Rays and they are playing like the Yanks.
ugh..more come from behind action
I don’t know what you guys see in Duncan. Yeah, he’ll one out every now and then, but he’s not good at the field, he’s not gonna hit for average and more often than not he will strikeout or simply pop up because of his long swing.
Uhh… wtf , how are we losing to the Rays the bottom four of there lineup, and there pitcher are all career minor league scrubs.
Giambi hurt or we’ve just given up?
No, Giambi just sucks, and the skip finally recognized that.
lol
I liked what I saw from Pettitte. Command did desert him in a couple innings and the HR by Gomes obviously are low points but other than that he looked good.
Every time I hear someone talk about David price it just makes be giddy knowing that there was a debate (before the health issues) on who had a higher ceiling, Price or Yanks #1 pick, Andrew Brackman.
Bruney is straight owning Mofos.
I’ve got to say, I’m pretty impressed with Bruney so far. Its early in the season, but he’s shown marked improvement.
Bruney was great last April too.
Boston bullpen getting owned, 6 runs in the 6th and the Jays lead 10-2. Buchholz struck out 7 over 5 and allowed 3 ER.
Yeah bruney has impressed me unlike Farnsworth. Why is it that Farnsworth is kept when Albie is clearly better.
Hey I,ve always likd and supported Bruney. Even when he sucked, I liked him more than Farnsworth, because his fastball has life life through the zone and has that extra at the end. I said it before and I said again, if his command is solid and has a reliable secondary pitch he could be a devastating arm comming out of the pen.
This impatience is kind of annoying me.
It’s the same story with Farns. If he could stop falling behind the count he can use that slider effectively. Also he said that he will use his 2-seam more this year, let’s see.
Elevation Holmes. Cmon Ohley, drive that sinker down.
i hate the rays and our offense right now. and life
losing sucks
I actually am real happy about what I’ve seen from the Yankees this year. Going in we were all paying attention to the bullpen. What we’ve seen has been great multiple outings by the recently optioned Jonathan Albaladejo, Bian Bruney, Ross Ohlendorf, and Billy Traber. Phil Hughes was great and so was Wang. Mussina and Pettitte looked good with some mistakes sprinkled in. Lastly Kennedy was not hit overly hard just struggled horrendously with his control which should not be an issue over the course of the season.
The offense will be the offense, so I am not worried one iota about that. Only thing I want to keep my eye on is the effectiveness of Hawkins/Farns.
I want to keep my eye on the day Farnsie gets cut.