Game 37: He’s not a blower
ByI don’t think Brian Cashman will ever be able to live down those words. Yes, tonight we see the return of Kei Igawa, or Kei Igawa’s ghost, or the ghost of Kei Igawa’s Ghost. Expectations are low, so i’d easily take six innings, four runs from him.
We’re up against The Gambler. Do I still harbor ill feelings from his failed stint in the Bronx? Eh, it’s been a while. Still, you gotta love it when he gets creamed.
Couple of notes. Jorge and A-Rod got in some rehab work today, taking BP. A-Rod could be back Thursday. Posada could be back next month.
The Padres claimed Sean Henn. You know he’s going to dominate out of the bullpen out there.
Chris Britton was optioned out for Kei Igawa, while Jose Veras remains. The Yankees made that move rather transparent, pitching Veras a couple of times against the Indians.
All right. Who’s ready for some Friday night baseball?
1. Melky Cabrera, CF
2. Derek Jeter, SSS
3. Bobby Abreu, RF
4. Hideki Matsui, LF
5. Shelley Duncan, 1B
6. Jason Giambi, DH
7. Wilson Betemit, 3B
8. Robinson Cano, 2B — seriously? Betemit ahead of Cano?
9. Chad Moeller, C
And on the mound…I’m not sure what number he’s wearing…Kei Igawa.



Again, poor Britton. I’m going to start a hunger strike until Britton is called up from Scranton again.
looks like that hunger strike will end quickly, per PeteAbe Alby on DL, Britton coming right back.
Did I miss something regarding Cashman’s words?
Does that mean that Igawa won’t be frequenting gloryholes?
Interesting seeing Morgan Ensberg ride the pine in favor of Wilson Betemit against a southpaw.
It’s funny.
On the same day that Igawa is making his first start of the year Ted Lilly pitches 7 innings of 3 hit one run ball with 10 strikeouts. That’s easily his best game of season.
Some of Cashman’s moves just seem to hunt his ass don’t they?
LOL
And Gil Meche is pitching tonight. That’s just plain spooky.
LOL
sorry, but as bad as igawa has been, i still think passing on lilly and meche was the right deal, no way they are worth the 4 and 5 years, and the loss of the draft picks.
Thank you, I live in Seattle- you do not want to see Gil Meche every 5th day- I did for years and the question always was, “Why is Gil Meche still here?” His success thus far in KC is mind bottling.
Well you got Igawa for 4 years and those picks are probably going to take at least that long. Those better be damn good draft picks at 46 million dollars ( what it took to get Igawa).
now don’t quote me on this i’m just thinking out loud. too lazy to look it up, plus i’m at work …
if we signed lilly or meche, so we lost a first round draft pick that year, wasn’t it 2006 ? we would have lost our draft pick, who did we get in the first round that year, mr ian kennedy and mr joba chamberlain … now i couldn’t be completely wrong, but who would u rather have, igawa chamberlain and IPK or lilly
(i really hope i’m right on this one.)
Facts:
1-The Joba pick was a compensation pick from Philadelphia for Tom Gordon.
2-By all reports the Mets had the second highest bid for Igawa. 15-16 million.
3-Ted Lilly was 15-8 in 2007
4-Yankees 2006 1st round pick was IPK.
So if you’re asking me would I lose IPK and Igawa for Lilly 15-8 last year? Plus the cherry of watching Igawa pitch for the Mets.
Is hell yes strong enough?
Oh, you meant signing Igawa and not Lilly. I thought you meant trading Lilly for Jeff Weaver. Another of Cashman’s brilliant ideas.
at the time that deal was brilliant
so many to choose from they are bound to be noticd fom time to time
i never thought i’d say this but damn that lineup looks weak.
Igawa looking good so far…lol
THANK GOD i have a game to ump at 8, cause after seein the first 4 batters hit ROCKETS off of Igawa and the lineup Girardi put out tonight, this is gonna be a LONG, LONG game. well at least the Tigers somehow only scored 1 run in the 1st inning…..
Sigh. It’s the same old Igawa.
Igawa is in midseason form. Duck everyone!
My other boy is back, let’s go Jason Giambi!
Rumors of Jason Giambi’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Big G is loose!!
I’d still like to see Giambi hit a ball off of someone whose fastball can break a pane of glass. But yes, at least he’s hitting the ball against somebody.
Damn that was a good pick-off move, even I froze on that watching it, LoL.
That tuxedo commercial with the kid trying to pin the corsage (sp?) on his prom date cracks me up everytime.
LoL, it really does but those things suck. Doing it last year it was hard because my prom date had a thin strap dress and I damn sure wasn’t going to try and pinch her tit with a needle. So me being a genius I just switched with my friend and got the one where you just slide it on her wrist, nice.
I was going to say always go with the wrist corsage.
Lmao at Michael Kay saying “A one, two, three inning for Kei Igawa.” like it didn’t make sense in the English language.
So I missed the bottom of the 2nd, but had the Yankees and Tigers been playing in Yankee Stadium, I think Igawa would have given up four HR in the first inning. That’s stellar pitching. I can’t wait to see how Kennedy does this weekend.
Who is that man and what has he done with Melky Cabrera?
which Melky is missing? I can’t keep track anymore.
Thank you matsui. 2 rally enders.
“You’ve got tigers with balls in their mouth.”
-Michael Kay.
Let’s just savor that one for a second.
I was just LoLing at the fact that he emphasized “balls”.
What, where’s the sunglasses?
I was just thinking that. Now, I know what Kei Igawa looks like. He should probably put the sunglasses back on.
race card.
Nah. He’s just an unattractive person. And his pitching sucks.
How in God’s name can that be an error?
2 defensive gems in a row…
You know how good Zach McCallister has been? He has given up 8 ER over his first two innings tonight and is still sporting a nifty 2.63 ERA.
Oh fuck, Sunday is Mother’s Day? Michael Kay just keeps making my day worse and worse.
i hate to acknowledge it but kay actually made a valid point. to paraphrase: “betemit sucks at third base.”
In reality Ensberg has NO range so it wouldn’t make much of a difference
The Igawa experiment has gone awry
The silver lining is he is still about 30 pitches under where IPK would have been right now.
I wouldn’t say so. First inning was tough but he calmed down in the second and here in the third his 3B has been so bad he should be charged with the ERs.
Lack of range from your infielders really, really hurts.
UPDATE, 7:19 p.m.: Igawa is better than I thought he would be. It took two pitches before he gave up a hit.
I’ll give Pete credit, that was pretty funny.
I think they should just do away with the 5th starter, call Britton back up, and pitch four relievers for a couple of innings a piece. Shit, they all end up in the game by the fourth inning anyhow.
Pretty much defense or not Igawa has shown nothing is different from before, he’s not very good and when he throws the ball up it gets ripped…wish we saw McCutchen tonight
Talk about a bad combination, a powerful right hand hitting line-up, Betemit down at 3rd, and Igawa pitching (if that’s what they call it).
Which is why the “4 runs over 6 innings” call in the blurb was wildly unrealistic. I put the over/under for Tiger runs at 10 prior to the game.
tell me about it.
top of the 4th is over, fasten your seat belts everyone.
best half inning ever. The commentary was shut off.
Betemit is awful at 3rd, Why no love for ensburg?
I want IPK back.
why? it’s The same thing.
IPK beats himself with walks, and he has the power to change that. They’re just teeing off against Igawa, nothing he can do about it.
Anyway you cut it the end results is out by the 4th bullpen in.
Lets give some other guys a chance.
Igawa has no potential to help this team in the rotation. IPK does.
The word I love “potential “.
The New York Yankees are measure by wins not potential.
I should tattoo that on my ass.
LOL
I like said McCuthchen.
Take him out before someone is killed.
Who next to come up ?
After watching Betemit and Ensburg, not only do you appreciate A-Rod hitting but his defense is surely miss right now.
McCuthchen….McCutchen…..McCutchen !!!!!!
When’s the next plane to Scranton.
He’s scheduled to pitch in Tampa already so he has at least one start before he’s sent back down.
That can be hastobe changed….why not give Steven White a go?
we can always scratch him… sure his 3b didn’t help much but he did give up rockets to the ht corner…
Good thing we have Igawa on our team. IPK is AWFUL!
:’(
Bigs up to Mr. McAllister to gutting it out for a few more innings.
One more inning. The milb box score was effed up.
Jeter grounding intro a double play? NO WAY!
Look at the Giambino.
The pitch was at his speed, per Singleton.
Man I hope Albaladejo is okay, he’s been pretty damn good this year.
Watching on gameday, what happening to Alby?
I understand Doc Halladay is a horse and everything, but when he has thrown 109 pitches and has the bases loaded with nobody out, John Gibbons as the manager needs to make a move. I’m not just saying this to second guess Gibbons because Halladay just gave up a 2-R 2B to Casey Blake and the Indians have a 2-1 lead. There have been rumors out of Toronto that people in the front office are a bit irked that Gibbons is abusing the starting staff.
Seriously guy, 109 pitches in the 7th with bases loaded and nobody out, yet you don’t go to the bullpen?
Come on dammit, if the Tigers pen can give up four runs to the Red Sox with an 8-4 lead they can run into some trouble here as well.
Curious am I about starting a lefty who is shaky at best against the besy righty lineup in baseball (on paper)…was the result really a surprise?
After watching Igawa, I am suddenly nostalgic for the days when Boss George would really tee off on one of the marginal pitchers after he screwed up a game. I can imagine what he’d say about Igawa: “He spit the bit…we’ve seen enough of Mr. Igawa..the fat toad.” Anyone remember any other good ones?
Don’t call it a comeback, they’ve been here for years!
Shel-ley Dun-can, clap, clap, clap clap clap, Shel-ley Dun-can, clap, clap, clap clap clap!!!
Crap.
Ah Fuck. Good job though Yankees, sucks to see Matsui’s hit streak end on an IBB.
He’s still got a streak of being on base though, right?
I’m thinking of Jim Leyland as Emperor Palpatine and Shelley as Anakin Skywalker, with Palpatine toying with Anakin’s head before finally using him to get his own way.
He got a good pitch and drove it – just not hard or well-placed enough. Still, a surprising and welcome comeback. I’ll take it as a good sign.
Hey Giambi and Cano are starting to hit, Mussina is throwing good….it’s starting to come together. To quote Major League, there’s some potential all-stars on this team…lol
I was just thinking – at this point who would you vote for the All-Star team from the Yankees based on merit? I’d say Melky, Wang, Mo, possibly Jeter & Joba. Thoughts?
Wang and Mo for sure, maybe Melky. That’s pretty much it I’d say. Althought I suspect A-Rod and.or Jeter will get voted in as a starter.
The votes are supposed to consider the second half of last year as well, right? If so I’d think Joba would get some consideration as well.
Am I the only one that thinks we win that game if Alberto Gonzalez plays third?
Probably.
nope. i was thinking along that line too. if betemit makes one more play, maybe it’s a win. usually he’s a solid defender, but ugh. 9 hits off rogers and just 2 damn runs?!
on the bright side, igawa didnt walk anyone.
its actually amazing with Igawa because even crappy pitchers throw out gem once in a while that is why it is so tough to bet on baseball, but this guy is aweful every single time out. i think his best outing was 4 uns in 5 innings last season
one good thing i found out now to make some money – bet on th yankee’s opponent every time he pitches.
this guy is really a joke. i hope it doesnt disourage the yanks from going after japanese pitchers in the future because there is a guy over there, darvish, who the japanese are annointing the next dice-k