Game 72: The achin’ Yankees
ByWhile the core of the Yankee lineup has recently been hitting the tar out of the baseball, Hideki Matsui has not. In 57 June plate appearances, Matsui is batting .260/.351/.340 with just two extra-base hits. He’s hit just one home run since May 18.
Matsui has always been something of a streaky hitter, but something larger seems to be up. Hideki is not in the Yankee lineup tonight, and his left knee is under examination. Matsui, according to PeteAbe, will get his knee drained and may be heading for the MRI tube. He’s definitely not available for tonight’s contest, and I’m sure he’ll be sitting during tomorrow afternoon’s game as well. The good news, at least, is that this is not the same knee Matsui got surgically repaired last year.
The Yankees can ill afford another injury right now, and they will take every precaution possible with Matsui and his balky knees. The hot-hitting Jason Giambi gets the start at DH, and the swing-at-everything Wilson Betemit will attempt to man the first-base bag.
On the hill tonight is Darrell Rasner. Once the Cinderella story of the season, Rasner has struggled — or is that regressed? — a bit over this last four outings. He is 0-4 with a 5.09 ERA over that span, and he’s allowed 31 hits in 23 innings. He’s keeping the walks down and the strike outs up, but opponents are hitting .326/.356/.495 off of him. We need the good Darrell Rasner to re-emerge, and the weak-hitting Padres may be just the key. San Diego countering with Jake Peavy, one of the few legitimate stars on the team.
Damon LF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Giambi DH
Posada C
Cano 2B
Betemit 1B
Cabrera CF
Rasner P
Game Notes: The Yankees have re-signed Sidney Ponson. Sir Sidney finds himself in Scranton for now but could start one of the games of next Friday’s Subway Series double header.
FIRST! I hope the rain doesn’t F this up. I’m loving me some Giambi right now, picked him up on my fantasy team as soon as he hit that walkoff and have been enjoying the ride ever since.
this ain’t PeteAbe’s comments, no FIRST!!! necessary
But the Giambi comment is welcome
Well for those of you who are praying for Brett Gardner to get a start, we might just yet see it. Even if he doesn’t go on the DL, we might see Gardner up in case we have a situation like in Houston where a guy needs a day off but we don’t want to see Matsui in left
What’s are Rasner’s numbers for the first three losses, excluding the clunker last time out?
off the top of my head not bad at all.
Gave up one run in six innings in aloss to Baltimore.
Gave up two runs in 8 innings in a loss to KC.
Gave up like 4runs in 5 or 6 innings against the Twinkies.
Yea, that’s what I remember. He deserved wins in at least two of those; I’m not worried about him.
I’m glad I didn’t go to the game tonight, if the game gets called I would’ve been pissed. Taking the train from Bronx to Brooklyn after a loss is aggravating enough, can’t imagine how I would feel going back and forth after a rain-out.
Package just says rain delay, any word on a possible start time???
I know it blowed through my area in 30-40 min, they said around 7:45-8
just read over at pinstripesPlus a posting that says BA reported Chris straight outta Compton Smith just signed… don’t have BA myself so can’t double check, maybe one of you fellas that do can
with DeLeon the GCL yanks could have a kickin outfield
Yeah but that’s a LOOOONG ways down the road, a lot can go wrong with these guys before that
Wait. How is that a long way away? GCL starts tomorrow.
I don’t suppose Smith will play tomorrow necessarily, but Smith, Urena, and DeLeon could be the outfield, right?
My bad, I misread it to say that we’ll have a great outfield for the Yankees soon
Chris Smith indeed is signed according to NoMass’ draft blog who contacted a West Coast source of their own to confirm BA’s reports.
http://www.nomaas.org/draft/?p=65
According to PeteAbe Smith signed for slot money. I know he was not highly, highly regarded as a sign-ability guy but to sign for slot money with a scholarship to USC? Seems odd but I’m not complaining.
Chris Smith seems to be the flavor of the week. It’s like, people are down because the Yanks didn’t take any big-name signability guys, so they’re making Smith out to be more than he is. So he hit .708 in high school, that and $1 will buy him a cup of coffee somewhere.
Flavor of the week or not, he’s got a ride to USC, figure he could have propped the offer up somewhat
Smith hit .708 in HS, with a 1.361 slugging %…decent, though Shawn Dunston hit something like .770 his senior year of hs
Damn, Dunston…I remember being in high school and watching WGN listening to Harry Carey rave about him. Where is Shawn now? Where is Harry now? All we are is dust in the wind. You’re my boy, Blue.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/articl.....p;c_id=mlb
Richie Sexson possible DFA candidate? It would be cool if Yanks can ink him to a minor-league deal, his strikeout numbers are too appalling for a bench job.
Shelley > Sexson
Yeah, OK
Not even close.
Sexson can actually play first.
The Seattle bureau of River Ave Blues can tell you straight up- stay the fuck away from Sexson. They “tinkered with his stance”- overall he is hitting like .218 with 9 homers, but since his stance tinkering, he hasn’t had a homer since May 24th- in fact, he hasn’t had an extra-base hit since May 24th. His new open stance approach has turned him into a .270 opposite field singles hitter since then.
Question- if the worst team in baseball is going to DFA a player making $14 million a year and eat his salary, shouldn’t that be an indication that he sucks?
Maybe Long can fix the problem. He is going to be a bench guy and adefensive replacement. I think for minor league deal it’s worth it.
Also the fact that he would go from Seattle to NY might help.
But he doesn’t bring spark and energy.
And I forgot how good Sexson is defensively.
Lol…yes, that is what is so perplexing about the Mariners- they have such great chemistry and energy, Bavasi couldn’t understand why they sucked.
Watching Sexson play defense at first is a bit like going to a little league field and watching six year olds attempting to coordinate hand and eye.
I guess you haven’t seen Shelley play first.
Get over it. Shelley’s not even with the big league club right now. Richie Sexson is an overpaid, immobile, crappy baseball player. His last good season was 2006; he last great season was 2005. Why would we need yet another guy on the wrong side of 32 clogging up the bench?
There is nothing to get over. He will cost nothing if he gets released and at least he has had some good years. Maybe they catch lightning in a bottle if it doesn’t work let him go who cares. I guess what they should have on the bench is a young guy that high fives everyone real hard and doesn’t have position.
Oh, sorry.
Yeah Sexson was always a bat guy…
I agree.
I’m pretty sure I saw Ponson at an AA meeting earlier this month
Not happy to see the Yanks sign such a major a-hole like Ponson.
Even with Wang out, I didn’t think we were that desperate up and would use a stop gap from the minors. Guess I was wrong…..
Sidney Ponson is a stop gap from the minors and is the best stop gap we probably have right now. He was decent this season, don’t write him off because of makeup issues, those are worthless 90% of the time IMO.
I would like it if there were a tough old Marine like Hank Bauer who could play on every MLB team and just bitch slap a-holes like Ponson when they get out of line. Wait- can we use Farnsworth for this?
Agree.
4-1 ERA around 4 for Texas they could do a lot worst.
Igawa
Ponson had a 1.56 WHIP and a 4.09 Kper9. He was one lucky mofo in Texas.
Your right, but maybe with the Yankees offense he might be ok.
Anything not to see Igawa again.
It’s just patch work anyway he is not the final answer.
Heh, agreed. A.B.I. Anybody but Igawa.
Jose Tabata hit a homerun. It’s going to be a good night.
Yeah we also signed 33 round pick Tom Baldridge out of Coastal Carolina(PA). It’s the 2nd straight year we got someone out of CC dating back to last year when we got Chris Raber.
Homer Bailey sent down, 22-year-old Darryl Thompson the likely starter Saturday against the Bombers. Have anything on Mr. Thompson, Mike?
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/articl.....p;c_id=mlb
Thompson will be the best player to come out of that horrific Kearns-Lopez-Wagner for Bray-Majewski monster deal a few years back. Don’t know anything about him though, he’s not exactly a budding superstar.
Brendan Harris was the other player that went to Cincy in that deal, I forgot who the last player was earlier.
He’s a kid, 23 years old, drafted by the Expos in ‘03 I believe. Then traded to Cincy. He’ll be making his debut.
http://www.thebaseballcube.com.....pson.shtml
Game’s starting.
Jody Gerut sucks.
LoL.
In 2004 Oliver Perez pitched 196-innings, in those 196-innings he K’ed 239 and posted a 239:81 K:BB. He also posted a WHIP of 1.15 and a *ERA+ of 145. Christopher Russo argues against Jon Heyman’s belief of Perez having a great year by saying “HE WAS 12-10!!1!11!!!!111!”. Can it get much better than that? Lmao.
*”McBase-Hit”? Fuck you, Michael Kay.
BTW, the segment with Jon Heyman is up on http://www.wfan.com if you want to hear that for yourself, you can’t help but laugh.
Sorry, but those idiots make me want to rip my ears off.
1st and 2nd no outs!
That kid in the hoodie is the epitome of “gay emo”, LoL.
Wow. The Padres are horrible.
A-Rod sitting breaking pitch. Ugly.
D-Ras is dealin’ yo.
When David Cone says he drinks “half a gallon of coffee” who here is not the least bit surprised?
Paul McAnulty plays the outfield like Ruben Sierra.
Send down Cano!1!1!!!! Give Alberto Gonzalez more At-Bats!!11!!
Jamal… To be fair, coming into tonight Cano was hitting .230 and OPSing .605. I’m not one of the people who called for Cano to be demoted or anything like that, but it’s a little unfair to get on people who have been less than satisfied with his performance thus far. Being down on Cano was not unreasonable.
The Yankees have scored 26-unanswered runs. Michael Kay says “I guess you need hitting and you need pitching.” Thank you for that Mr. Kay, that is just great.
Johnny D is redic right now.
You see, a good centerfielder starts charging in as soon as the catcher throws the ball on the steal attempt. If Gerut breaks in sooner, instead of standing around, Damon’s still standing on second.
I think we need to create a new statistic for the Padres starting pitchers, Strikeouts-to-Run Support ratio. Any bets on Jake Peavy’s K:RS tonight?
Are the Padres this cheap that their lineup is mainly made of back-ups
Lots of injuries. Iguchi’s hurt, Kouz is hurt, Bard is hurt, Hairston’s MIA.
terrible relay, there goes the unanswered runs streak
Rasner gave up the booming double to the wrong Gonzalez brother.
Michael Kay is way too enamored with pitch counts.
Pitch count of 105….so pretty much normal
Well Hawk as the long man, means we really shouldn’t see him in high leverage situations
Perhaps the vintage Rasner is starting to re-emerge
Monster shot
That was majestic.
If that wasn’t majestic, I don’t know what is. My God.
Wow, unlucky
That Rodriguez kid is pretty good. Maybe we should tie him up long term.
Trivia answer: Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson … need two more
Webb and Pedro. Booya.
Damn, stupid Glavine. I figured it was Maddux because he’s won so many damn Cy’s.
A-Rod is locked in defensively
betemit striking out? what a shocker…
Stanford is 3 innings from bouncing the #1 team in all the land.
Did Bleich start tonight? or not till next game
he didnt pitch.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa.....2817000241
what an annoying laugh…
Nice job by Rasner gutting it out for 5 innings. Ohlendorf-Farns-Veras-Mo time.
With Yankeeography ‘98 set to premiere I remember watching Baseball tonight after the Yanks were 0-3 or 0-4 something like that to start the season, and Dick Schapp goes at their current pace the Yankees will loose 162 games, and Mark McGwire will hit 162 hr, neither are likely to happen… and bam they seemingly don’t loose a series for the rest of the year
Wow, so Baseball Tonight was always stupid and anti-Yankee?
Yes, even before they started with “the nation”
haha they had a shot of Spags scratching his balls…lol
After seeing Kobe Bryant in the Championship series can anyone still argue the point that LeBron James was not the NBA MVP? You don’t think with Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol on a team with James could have beaten the Celtics? James did take the Celtics to Game 7 this year with Zydrunas Illgauskas and Daniel Gibson and his two leading regular season scorers.
That’s cool, didn’t know that Ken Singleton and Doc Rivers were cousins.
The way Odom and Gasol played, no
True.
The Montreal Canadiens have 24-Championships, that is not far behind the Yankees’ 26-titles.
One “brilliant” sox fan tried to convince me that since Boston Univertisy has 27 Beanpot titles the Yankess don’t have the most titles in sports.
Given the Beanpot has only 4 Teams and 1 school has never won it, it’s not that big of an accomplishment, its easier than a AL East Title
Odd the catcher was that far out, then Headley said nothing to him
nice insurance
Edwar for 2, Veras, Mo?
Farns will make an appearance
In that case, let us hope it is not close. Edwar should go two though since he hasn’t pitched in awhile and needed just 9 pitches there
I have no idea who that is pitching for Miami right now on ESPN2, but the Yanks must acquire him to further their monopoly of the fat reliever market.
Rich Garces could be brough in as a special pitching coach to the fatties
what fucking loser tools biasedly Republican at Fox
cut your hair punk
*biased Republicans
That tool from the Fox Business Report is the only person in this world more annoying than Michael Kay.
that spot kinda makes you miss guisseppe franco
Yeah, my mute button is the only thing more valuable than Giuseppe Franco’s reputation.
Damn i missed it, i love the Fox busniess report, because the girl obv can’t stand the guy, and they tell us nothing of value
Ben and I were just talking about going there one day to heckle them.
“Cut your ha-ir, clap clap clapclapclap, cut your ha-ir, clap clap clapclapclap”
Miami is down six in the 8th, they have the bases juiced with nobody out.
Gotta get Drew Storen in there ASAP.
Kudos to Erik Davis. Bases loaded jam in the 8th inning of a CWS game against #1 ranked Miami and you get a sac-fly followed by two K’s swinging, including 3rd RD. pick Blake Tekotte.
Stanford wishes they had Gutierrez to shut the door
Hah. Gutierrez has given up like, 10 runs in his last 3 appearances. Storen’s gooder IMO.
They don’t even need Gutierrez or Storen. Erik Davis took care of bi’ness.
Yes he did
seems like cone is in the booth every time that edwar pitches
A-Rod is such a dork, who tucks in an Ed Hardy shirt?
I thought only Brett Michaels and the girls on Rock of Love wear Ed Hardy.
Ed Hardy is the shit man, I have a lot of their trucker hats and a couple hoodies. Expensive as all fuck but hot nonetheless.
I take it back. I’m lame. Brett Michaels DOES wear a shitload of Ed Hardy though. Just saying.
Dude, trucker hats are so 1999. Heh.
i thought the same thing haha
grrrr brian giles
Too many Changeups in succession there.
Ignore me.
Not even Yankee Stadium could boo that kid for not throwing it back.
Farns could have done that.
Farns would have looked worse doing it though. At least the first one was a Stadium job and the second one I just give credit to Gonzalez for because he was all over the pitch down
grrr edwar
Geez, come on Edwar
Well this sucks. Come on, just four more outs.
Do or die time for the ‘Canes.
Nice 2B for Alonso
Miami’s not goin’ without a fight.
Drew Storen is filthy. He reminds me of Robb Nen.
Smooth catch by Storen
Yanks need to turn the bats back on
Good start anyway
I’ll take it
Damn, who thinks these Yankees look old and slow now?
And A-Rod will probably steal second here as well
Wow, what a crappy way for your season to end. Sucks for Miami.
So are they warming up farns when veras was already warming because they scored runs? thus Veras would have only handled the tight score
And people say Girardi is a bad manager. Veras will be up again soon after that homer though
Classic Farns, thanks for helping my fantasy team
Congrats to Mr. Headley on his first career jack, although it shouldn’t count because it was given up by Farnsworth
Why did farns go away from the wind-up
Uh oh. Hairston eats clutch situations for breakfast.
Somebody please tell me either Mo or Veras is up again in the pen
No one was up. That inning was going to be all Farns.
Scary
LOL, breakout game for the Padres offense. I would expect nothing less against the Yanks.
I cringe when farnsworth pitches. Makes me wish that we had a bullpen.
Our bullpen (outside of our mop-up guys aka Ohlie, Hawkins and Farns) has been pretty good so far. Veras, Edwar, Rivera, Britton (when used) and Giese have done better than we could ever hope. Once we get some guys back in the rotation, get Giese back for the long man, use Ohlie as a one inning guy and DFA Farns and Hawkins, we’ll be good!
I like how Farnsworth’s Slider went from bad, worse, to just plain nasty.
wait… since when do the Pads score more than 3 runs? I thought its like similar to the law of gravity–the Padres may not score more than 3 runs per 9 innings.
i wonder if edwar ramirez thinks to himself “Ok, thats 3 K’s, better not let them get too used that. Let’s give up some longballs. Ahh, there we go, don’t wanna set that bar too high. Hawkins, come in here and make what I did look better by comparison.”
Padres just can’t catch a fucking break, ah wells.
I honestly can not remember the last time I saw Johnny Damon make an out.
I get your point but it is funny you make that statement when his last out was his previous AB before the 1B.
If both he and A-Rod keep the averages above .333 I’m going to say the Yankees have a good offensive season
If both he and A-Rod need to keep their averages above .333 for the Yankees to have a good offensive season then that’s a bit scary.
They don’t NEED to but they’ll carry the team even if Cano and Melky don’t turn it on in the second half
I want MO to get at least one K here just so I can say our closer has a 12:1 K:BB.
There ya go, Giles was too afraid to even swing at one
He’s human? I don’t buy it
Mariano Rivera has not allowed a run in save situations (18) this season, come on MO, keep the streak alive!
The streak is alive! 19-save opportunities for Mariano Rivera without giving up a run.
And I got my K, so that’s a 36:3 K:BB in 35.0-IP.
Since when does Mo give up hits to mere mortals
Game. Nice Mo, nice. You is GOD
There, he made up for the hit by getting a double play
You know, I think it’s time we accept that this is a rebuilding year, and that this team simply is not good enough to win.
Somewhere, Axl just shed a tear.
PSSSTT, Axl, He’s just kidding.
i thought jeet was supposed to hit into double plays, not turn them
is A-Rod the batting leader for the AL now?
Yes he is. At a .337 clip he leads Joe Mauer (.332) and Milton bradley (.330, did not play tonight).
Something about Kimberly Jones tells me she will age horribly, and I mean horribly.
BTW, do you think she went up to Michael Kay and literally told him to cut the shit with the “Lil’ Kim” crap? I would pay to see the reactions of some here at RAB (I’m looking at you Mike) when Kay used to say that.
I don’t remember him ever saying that. I usually change the channel right after the last out is made.
In other news, the Mets are losing again.
It’s all Willie’s fault.
Oh Oliver Perez, what has thou become?