Game 88: Blah
ByI dunno about you, but I hate these 4pm Mike Mussina starts on FOX. Something about it just makes me feel very uncomfortable. The only way it could be worse is if the game was in Fenway.
The Damon situation adds injury to insult, and it’s just another in a long line of debilitating injuries that includes (at one time or another) 60% of the Opening Day starting rotation, a HOF third baseman, a HOF shortstop, an All-Star catcher, an All-Star DH, three serviceable if not down right reliable bullpen arms, and a utility man. I’m not making excuses, this team needs to start playing better. Bases loaded with one out? You have to get some runs in, doesn’t matter if you’re the Yankees or the Red Sox or the Pirates. You don’t come through in those situations, you’re going to lose ball games.
Sox starter Justin Masterson has been pounded for 8 earned runs (3 homers) and 21 baserunners in 12 IP over his last 2 starts. Double-A Trenton beat the sidearming sinkerballer from Jamaica on not one, but two occasions last year, so let’s hope the big league team follows suit and gives him the same Bronx welcome they gave The Laptop Stealer earlier this year.
Righties are OPS’ing .501 off Masterson, lefties .864.
1. Gardner, LF
2. Jeter, SS
3. Abreu, RF
4. A-Rod, 3B
5. Giambi, DH
6. Betemit, 1B
7. Cano, 2B
8. Melky, CF
9. Molina, C
Notes: PeteAbe says Jorge Posada is a little under the weather, otherwise he’d almost certainly be playing … Brian Bruney’s road back started yesterday with a 2 inning stint in the Rookie Level Gulf Coast League





Not a lot of Jamaicans in MLB history, I would think. Devon White? Its not exactly a baseball hotbed.
That being said, I hope we send the bumbaclot to a early shower.
let’s get a split. we’re still better off than we were on this day last year. grind it
The Yanks need to kick Masterbation’s arse.
Like to see Gardner lay down a bunt or two today, just like Ellsbury did yesterday. Any way he can get on base is a positive.
are zoilo and abe almonte brothers? because their birthdays are 17 days apart
Wouldn’t that be impossible for them to be brothers then? I cant imagine a woman being in labor for 17 days.
yea i guess so
Maybe they just have a pimp of a Dad.
to those killing girardi, he has managed the bullpen extremely well this year. their 3.57 ERA is considerably better than the AL average of 3.81. no one is overused or underused.
it’s hard to blame him for the hitting. if it had to fall on one person, it would have to be kevin long. and they’re only the 3rd worst AL team with RISP (ahead of Toronto and Seattle), not the very worst.
a win would be nice, and Moose throwing up and in at Manny would also be nice.
“Batting 4th, ManRam playing DH.” How do you play DH Papelbon?
Nice throw by BG.
The RedSox are the Goliaths of the MLB? Ok…Joe Buck, Tim McCarver. Where is Deion Sanders when you need him?
Nice clean inning or Moose. Gotta make Masterson work for it, can’t just keep rolling over every time a guy throws something that moves.
Nice at-bat, A-Rod.
I think Crisp trapped that….
C’Mon Melky!!! Get a hit!
Got Melk! RBI single. Nice slide by Giambi
Vaya Melky!
What a slide by the Big G. He’s an ath-uh-lete.
Yeah, and his mustache cleaned off the plate as he went by…umpires like that kind of effort!
i thought giambi would’ve been out by a mile
Great to see Melky come through. It wasn’t a great looking pitch he took a swing at though … and coincidentally it was the first pitch.
It would be nice to see Moeller get one start every now and then….Molina never takes a pitch
Melky Cabrera does have a .300/.364/.400 vital line for July coming into today, I’m just sayin’.
Robbie Cano is a fucking man.
I’ve always felt he was under-rated defensively. That was a great play.
With that range he shows at Second Base, was he really that awful at Short Stop? I have to think the superior range at Second Base would translate to below average to average range at Short Stop.
He was bad. Bowa really helped him become the defender he is today.
So now that he’s improved so, do you think he can be an improvement over Derek Jeter at Short Stop by Spring Training 2009?
Jeter making plays going left. The Yanks just might win today.
Heh, that wasn’t Derek Jeter.
Mark DeRosa has 11-HRs this season, his career high is 13 in 2006 playing in Texas.
Man I really hate pedrioa
So do I. Luckily he’s already maxed out his skill set; he’s got basically no room for improvement, except maybe for a few more stolen bases.
Yeah and I’m going to be pissed if he only hits .300, plays excellent defense and occassionally hits a dinger each season
That was dirty.
I hate not getting the game because of Cards vs Cubs!
Buck and Mcgarver are making my hangover worse
That is the third hit Mr. Gardner has had taken away from him these past four games, wow.
eat it rook !!!
That’s at least 3 hits taken away from Gardner since coming up - the comebacker vs Texas the other day, the comebacker to Masterson, and that shot to Lowell. Eventually they’ll start finding the holes, and he’ll go on a nice little tear.
such is life when you want to make a career of hitting 3-hoppers to the same side of the infield all day, and hope to beat the throw to first….i hope his college correspondence course schedule is current
Is it me or does Dustin Pedroia diving for every single fucking ball going to lead to hip replacement surgery at age 29?
That’s call grit Jamal.
I’ve always wondered if all that diving is to make up for an utter lack of range.
The sad part is that ff he was say, 5′10″ instead of 3′5″, he’d get most of those balls on the dive.
it’s also called lack of range.
BG is so unlucky
Make ‘em pay Giambino.
does anyone have a good website i can use to look up random stats such as how mike mussina pitches at 4:00pm starts? etc.
Oof, not for stuff like that. I usually hit B-Ref or Fangraphs for my stats, that usually covers it.
this has day/night splits, but not necessarily start times
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/pl.....Cxi8CFCLcF
“The one thing young pitchers lose with the bases loaded is the ability to pitch inside. They’re almost forced to stay on the outside half” says McCarver.
Next two pitches: inside to K the Big G.
Are they really going to load the bases with less than 2 outs and not score a run again? Really?
Hey Betemit…Alex Cole called, he wants his glasses back!
Screw it, all you can ask for a hitter to do is smack it, that’s what Wilson Betemit did but he just hit it right at someone.
*I love these Burger King Steakhouse commercials.
we could ask him to get a hit……
Well if you know how baseball works you know you can’t just ask someone to get a base hit, he smacked the ball, that is all you ask of yourself as a player and of your hitters as a coach.
I love how we can’t ever get hits with the bases loaded
Wow, nice job by the kid to get out of that.
We have seen this picture before.
Isn’t the makeup game on July 10th?
why does it feel like the Yanks are losing, but in reality (except for last inning)they have been playing reallly good ball all day?
It probably feels that way because they’re missing chances…I wouldn’t worry too much today though, they’ll either break through against Masterson or the bullpen cause he’s not good for much more than 6 innings…
This ump is fucking terrible…….. nice play melky
Haha….Youkilis’s hot zone starts after his AB. That quite hilarious Mr Tim McCarver. Hah!
I thought Clay Buchholz was the untouchable pitcher between he and Jon Lester. Didn’t the Red Sox say you can have a Lester package or Jacoby Ellsbury package but not both?
So that’s one for Joe Buck and two for Tim McCarver (the pitching inside with the bases juiced and saying the PIT game is 7/7 when in fact it is on 7/10).
That’s the way I recall it too Jamal…
Man the media do A-Rod dirty sometimes. They never give him a break with these stupid stuff with his wife or Madona, but how many writers jump on the story of A-Rod helping an 18 year old kid with cancer and making his day. Nice job media people.
I wear shin guards but I swear that shit is a jinx, no matter where you put it the ball always finds a way to hit you right where it’s not.
Bah, it was 3-1 Melky, take a damn pitch.
Anyone else think that Melky should have been given the take sign?
Is it just me or are the ugliest brides the ones to always get married on a baseball field or get proposed to at a baseball park?
Damn Jose Molina is short, Moose looked huge there.
The Sawx have really given away some outs on the bases this series.
Jacoby Ellsbury has been owned this series, that’s the third pick-off/caught stealing right?
When will people learn to not run on Molina?! Hopefully, never…
i feel like if we were just a little more patient with crappy pitchers like masterson we’d be in a much more successful homestand. Half the pitchers we’ve faced are incapable of throwing 3 strikes before they give up 4 balls.
Giambi might’ve walked w/ the bases loaded if he wasn’t trying to hit a damn GS. Melky popped out on a 3-1 count. are you serious? take a damn pitch! better yet, take 2!! mastersons hitting more batters than he’s striking them out. it’s so frustrating to watch.
Damn nice play by molina.
Fu Ellsberry. Great throw by Molina freaking hose
The Yankees would kill to have a guy like Buchholz waiting in the wings?
Ok Tim McCarver, what about Joba Chamberlain, Robinson Cano, Jose Veras, Edwar Ramirez, and Chien-Ming Wang? How about the fact that the Red Sox are the fourth oldest team in baseball you shit.
Those players aren’t RedSox, so they don’t count. Deion Sanders needs to bring his bucket of water and dump it on McCarver again.
Jamal, I think you misunderstood what he said. What he was implying is that Buchholz has been lights out since he went back to AAA, and he’s currently ready to come up at the drop of a hat. He’s saying the same thing you guys have been saying lately which is there is no yankee starter dominating at the AAA level so therefore nobody is “waiting in the wings” The guys you mentioned are all performing at the ML level (or are injured, but established, in wang’s case).
The yanks are trying to give the 4th and 5th starters jobs to somebody but nobody seems to want them. If Kennedy or another young gun was pitching lights out, they’d surely be considered “in the wings” too.
buck just called giambi “girardi”. he really just did that?
McCarver just called him Joey Cora too.
Fuck these two assholes, fuck them. “Where are the players going to come from?” How about the fifth best fucking farm system in baseball.
you can’t listen to them. they’re absolute idiots…
I’m used to the hate. People were bashing the Yanks’ system when they were running Alfonso Soriano and Nick Johnson and Robinson Cano and Chien-Ming Wang out there. Whatever man.
i want arod to steal home. i know it’ll never happen, but that’d be sweet.
And as he ran home, he’d pretend to run over Varitek. Then when Varitek stared at him, A-Rod would say “we don’t run over .223 hitters!”
I don’t care what anybody says, A-Rod was gonna kick Varitek ass.
You see, only difference between that AB and his AB with the bases loaded was placement.
Did Tim McCarver just say Steve Nash was a “tall guy”?
Son of a bitch
Friggin’ Youkilis….
oh my god!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t get to see Fox broadcasts very often…..but these broadcasters may aswell be wearing Redsox uniforms!
The Sox are amazing….so young…have the best farm in the history of the world
While the Yanks are old…”where is the youth in there system”. .. Joba is taking too long to convert to starting….IPK and Franchise are nothing!
Unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!
Hey People like sucking the Sox dick.
You guys never complained for years while the yanks got their dicks sucked though did you? Every Sox fan believes that McCarver and Buck are biased towards ny so I guess it’s just how you interpret the comments.
That’s about three RBIs taken off the board by hard hit liners that were right at fielders. Wilson Betemit’s liner to Dustin Pedroia with the bases loaded and just now by Jason Giambi with a hot shot to Kevin Youkilis.
Man it just seem the yanks can’t get a break.
omg. that was strike three. mastersons getting that call ALL DAY
That umpire is smoking crack.
In the twelve starts prior to that horrid three game stretch last season Mike Mussina allowed three Earned Runs or less in eleven of those starts. He pitched less than six innings in just three of those twelve starts. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, his season was not as bad as it seems.
*MOOOOOOOOOSE
I thought Rocky was the Moose. Why is McCarver calling it Bullwinkle?
Bullwinkle was the moose. Rocky, the squirrel…
My bad.
that is Sad Mike A.
Suck it long and suck it hard manny. This ump still blows
Betemit’s been really good of late. People bashed him because he went like, 0 for 4 with 3 K over a 3 week stretch, but he’s a solid bench guy.
You see, only difference between that AB and his AB with the bases loaded was placement for Betemit.
Did Tim McCarver just say Steve Nash was a “tall guy”?
To be fair, Nash is tall for the average human, but in the NBA, no.
Greatest blow up ever Mr. Brett
Oh PLEASE bring Timlin in. Please please please…
“You’d think that New York would name Sixth Ave. International Ave…” No Tim McCarver, we wouldn’t, we aren’t lame.
Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeze!
Watching Robbie is such a frustrating experience. The guy just oozes talent, but has no ability/desire to learn the strike zone.
Although, to be fair, Robbie is downright selective compared to Molina. He just throws his bat at the ball no matter where it is.
neither does Vlad but he’s the exception.
I worry Robbie is never going to become the hitter he could if he just showed a little patience/strike zone judgment.
well part of what makes robbie so talented is his ability to put good wood on bad pitches, which he’s been doing of late. He’s just not hitting to gaps.
Bases loaded. One out. At least Gardner’s fast enough to beat out a GIDP.
Showing a little pop there to the opposite field.
Emphasis on “a little.”
one run. the way the yanks are struggling, it feels like we scored three.
With the way this bullpen has been going you can’t blame Joe Girardi for the early hook. This ‘pen has been nothing short of dominant.
Your a bitch youk
Kevin Youkilis is a pussy (Although our Captain has been guilty of doing that now and again).
is masterson bald? he looks sickly…
Rick Ankiel is a beast.
Moose threw only 89 pitches, why take him out? Oh that’s right, because Veras is the 7th inning guy.
but they way Veras was throwing can argue with it.
Mike, this bullpen has been fantastic. You and I both know that we are going to ride Mike Mussina into the ground to make a playoff push in the second half so why not be as cheap as possible with him before that time comes? Also when you have four or five guys doing their thing in the bullpen all at once you can go to them a lot without overworking one or the other.
I thought it was an unecessary move though. A move for the sake of making a move. Why not let Moose at least start the inning?
He’s not some 22 year old kid pitcher who’s never been through the grind of a full 162 game season before. He’s been around the block, he knows what he’s doing.
I see that argument but I don’t think it is worth criticism. Not saying it was a perfect move just not something that is worth criticism.
Veras just made Varitek his bitch.
Hit a HR A-Rod. Just think Homer.
Mike, what’s the story on Josh Vitters? Serious injury, anything that could be related to his struggles last season?
Not sure. I know he was hurt at the start of the year, but he’s certainly been disappointing. Imagine if he was in the Yanks’ system, people wouldn’t give it a rest with how big of a bust he is and how terrible of a pick he was.
Farns getting loose; should be an entertaining 8th inning.
He’ll be fine. He’s been borderline dominant the last month or so.
I assume this was in response to my post.
Yeah I just check MiLB.com. It seems thebaseballcube.com has failed to update their stats on him for 2008 in Short Season ball.
No, it was in response to the Farns post. I responded to yours above.
As you did. My bad.
You see? Lights out.
Yes I do. From now on, I’ll have more faith in Farns when he hits the mound.
LoL McCarver, sit the fuck down.
Is it just me, or have the Yanks’ catchers been taking more of a beating than usual this year? The toughest job in baseball right there.
i’d say so. after chris snyder’s fractured left testicle it’s clear that catchers from every team this year have taken a huge beating behind the plate.
That shit was fair.
Sssshhhh….can u keep a secret?
Arm strength and dive-less range, sorry Dustin.
can buck and McCarver shut the fuck up about our Farmsystem please.
Mo missing his spots.
How awesome is Mo? Giving the Sox a little bit of hope just so he can crush their spirits even more later.
Jesus, you called that.
A loss here would cripple the season says McCarver. Overreact much?
Wow, he looks like he has nothing today.
Coco needs to get rid of that Bo Derek hair style.
Swings like Bo Derek too.
Now thats gangsta.
dont forget “throws like”
Jason Varitek is so gritty.
Comeon mo shut this shit down
I would classify that second strike as “generous.”
I’m really liking the ump’s strike zone now. lol.
PHEW
Wow, to come back from bases loaded and no outs - Mo redeems himself.
A devout Christian versus a man who beats his wife, who’d you think God was going to let win?
Bases loaded, nobody out and down one run, Mariano Rivera does not fold. He is the best.
See? I told you.
i know its fun and all, but Mo doesnt need to do that. I was trying to relax this weekend.
I would pay like 10 bucks to watch Joba throw a fastball into Tim McCarver’s back on national TV.
http://thedaveburbarevolution.blogspot.com/
i would pay like 50 bucks to see joba dominate the sox tomorrow - i.e. like 12 or more Ks, no runs, 7/8 IP. I hate hearing abou thow he’s never faced a good offense yet.
arod will never be clutch a loser
to get rid of jeter. arod is a loser .