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River Ave BluesWell, that was a short exile. Just 11 days after his demotion, Ian Kennedy is back with the Yankees. We’ve all certainly debated the pluses and minuses of his demotion and his quick return for the last 11 days. Let’s see how he does now that crunch time is here.
While in the Minors, Kennedy made two starts, one shortened so that he could pitch today. In 8.1 innings with Scranton, he allowed two hits and no walks while striking out eight. Those numbers are a far cry from the 8.37 Big League ERA he currently sports. In 23.2 innings prior to his demotion, Kennedy had allowed 28 hits and had a 20:15 BB:K ratio. Opponents were hitting .298 against him.
Kennedy’s biggest problem in April was his pitch count. He kept running up the counts early on, averaging over 7 pitches per out. If he’s throwing strikes today and finishing off hitters, all will be well.
For the Rays, Jim Duquette’s biggest mistake takes the mound. Scott Kazmir — yes, another lefty — makes his third start of the season. He’s 1-1 on the year. During his first start back from the DL, he gave up four runs, three earned, in four innings to the Red Sox. Last week, he shut down the Angels over six innings, allowing three hits while striking out six. He has walked three batters in each of his two starts.
The Yanks are sticking their righties out there against Kazmir. Bobby Abreu and Hideki Matsui both have the day off, but why Morgan Ensberg is hitting above the very hot Cano is beyond me. Game time’s at 4:10 p.m. Starting the Mets’ series at .500 sure would be nice. The Amazin’s, by the way, have just dropped their third out of four to a bunch of softball girls. Hopefully, the Yanks can avoid a similar fate against a much better club than the Nats.
Damon LF
Cabrera CF
Jeter SS
Giambi DH
Duncan RF
Ensberg 1B
Cano 2B
Gonzalez 3B
Molina C
Kennedy P
Great job by Mike Pelfrey, dumb ass play by Jose Reyes, great fucking play by Willie Harris and an over-agressive play by Carlos Beltran were the big points in that Mets loss. Really, Jose Reyes is one the players I love but what in God’s name was he doing trying to go 1st to 3rd on a Sac bunt? Risk far outweigh the reward there, runner on second with one out and David Wright and Carlos Beltran due up, you do not need to do anything extra there.
If you told me at the beggining of the season this would be our lineup, i would not have believed you.
PeteAbe says A-Rod could be in a Yankees uniform on Tuesday and Jorge Posada could start a rehab assignment following the Yankees’ upcoming home-stand. Yay!
http://yankees.lhblogs.com/200.....s-at-rays/
you better believe if Jorge puts on a Thunder uniform, i’m getting tickets.
good to see IPK back in pinstripes… now attack the strike zone and make them look stupid!!
Giambi over Matsui in the DH?
per chad jennings blog, mccutchen is not on his way to scranton at this time.
Fuck George King. He’s an idiot and he can’t even report, at least PeteAbe is a good reporter.
Bobby Abreu and Hideki Matsui both have the day off, but why Morgan Ensberg is hitting above the very hot Cano is beyond me.
ensberg has a career OBP of .400 against LHP.
i’d imagine the idea is for him to get on in front of Cano.
i think it’s an ok idea.
how else are they going to score at the bottom of the order? if Cano gets a hit you have Ensberg, Gonzalez, and Molina coming up behind him.
if Ensberg was hitting 3rd and Cano 8th, i’d question it. but 6 vs 7? does it really matter?
i agree with what you’re saying
Nifty play by Eva Longoria down at third.
I don’t think there’s a more annoying stadium in Tampa between the horns and the cowbells. How do the 10 fans put up with it?
1st HR of the year let up by IPK.
Gameday had it at the knees ump, asshole. But the ground-out anyways.
Kennedy certainly hasn’t gotten the benefit of the doubt so far. Granted, it’s not like he’s a 20 year vet who supposedly has “earned” that right. I don’t know. I guess I’m a sucker for a uniform strike zone.
Nice inning for IPK. The ball Iwamura hit out was at his eyes, most batters woulda taken that pitch.
I agree. He also didn’t seem scared of the strike zone throughout the inning.
according to gameday Kazmir has thrown nothing but fastballs (90-92 mph) Can anyone watching confirm or deny this?
It’s true.
Little odd, Scott Kazmir is throwing 90-92MPH when h’s supposed to be at 93-95.
what was the injury he’s coming back from? That would probably explain it, it’s his first start since his injury, right?
Elbow injury and it’s his third start. You’re probably right about the elbow being a factor.
Nice story by Ken Singleton, never knew who Mendoza was either.
yankees need to get Kazmir out of the game after 6. get that pitchcount up.
You know IPK actually leads the Yankees rotation in K/9 with 6.08 (Thank You PinstripeAlley.com).
who is this pitching for the Yankees?
IPK
sorry, just read it again, you’re being funny
First time I read it pretty quickly lol
oh ok i recognize him now
Jamal, third start since being back from the injury or third start total?
Both. He started the season on the DL.
thanks, I should probably be following our AL East competition more closely, but classes have been kind of making everything else a blur
Nice early start for IPK, he’s thrown 25 pitches with 68% strikes through two frames with a 4-1 GB-FB ratio and a 1:0 K:BB.
Who would have thought a quarter way through the season the Rays would be leading the Division and the Marlins would have the best record in baseball.
Anybody as excited as me for that Tampa Bay, Florida match-up?
Any idea why Kazmir has thrown 46 of 46 pitches as fastballs?
No but it’s something to keep an eye on. Whether it’s Tampa’s game-plan against the Yanks or it’s Tampa’s game-plan overall is something to pay attention to.
Well it looks like its working for Kazmir.
Nibble Nibble….same crap.
Johnny Damon flashing that rocket arm..Melky would have speared that dude with the ball lol.
Was Damon going for a 7-10 split with that throw?
lmao
Had he hit the cutoff man, maybe they had a shot at Riggins at the plate.
guess IPK didn’t wake up today thinking he was going to make the Rays look stupid.
He’s really not pitching that poorly. Fifth starter against a first place team. It’s just that two runs seems like an impossible deficit these days.
I was thinking, could we re-post Igawa so the Japanese clubs could bid on him from the Yanks? I’ll take a few sushi rolls and a bottle of watter for him at this point
There we go IPK, bases loaded and nobody out and he gives up just a Sac fly to Johnny Damon and his “arm”.
Gotta love it.
Big inning by IPK! Just pretend the bases are loaded to start the next inning.
Florida and NY sure want people to quit smoking…here in VA where alot of Big Tobacco is based you never see anything about quitting lol…
Theres the first non-fastball.
I just saw what Gameday has classified as a “change up” which would be the 1st offspeed pitch of the game for Kaz
I got a hint for the trivia, fiery Venezuelan.
I don’t know the question, but with tat hint I would say Ozzie Guillen.
Which team did Joe DiMaggio start his 56-game hit streak against was the question. Yes, you are correct, he went 1-for-4 with a single in a 3-1 Yankees L.
Sorry, it was the White Sox.
Damn, I missed the question.
whats with Jeter and swinging at every first pitch. My fault if I never noticed this before but he hasn’t taken pitches this year at all.
good grief melky!
He was out, I love the luck.
I’m going to do my best ESPN analyst impersonation.
Well. A home run here would tie the game, and an out would end the inning.
Kennedy’s missing his spots, and a lot of that has to do with location.
That is a Joe Morgan classic. How do the people in the booth with him not laugh out loud when he spews obvious statements and passes them off as analysis.
Shelley Duncan has been running into some bad luck lately, sucks we couldn’t get the run in though.
Shelley Duncan’s been running into the fact that he’s just not that good. Luck doesn’t have that to do with it.
yeah im going tohave to agree. it might be time to send shelley down. He just isnt very good.
Mike R:
Thats one of the best “Joe Morgan”s I’ve ever read!