Over the weekend, the Yankees dropped two out of three to what was the worst team in baseball. They’re now a game and a half ahead of the Padres, who hold a 55-88 record. Bet you couldn’t have called that one on Opening Day.
Old friend Gary Sheffield has hit the 249,999th and 250,000th homers in MLB history. Just thought that’d be a little something interesting to talk about before the game.
Last week, Dave Pinto pointed out that Mark Teixeira is doing his job and then some since coming over to the Angels. He was hitting .380/.469/.645 with the Angels at the time of his writing, though the Angels were just 19-14 since the trade, which had actually brought down their win percentage. He’s now at .360/.441/.610 as an Angel, and the team is now 20-16 since the trade.
Why the discrepancy? Pitching. What else. Before the trade, the staff pitched to a 3.85 ERA, striking out 6.2, walking 2.7, and giving up a homer per nine innings. Since the trade they’re pitching to a 4.56 ERA, though they’re striking out more (6.6 per nine) and walking fewer (2.2 per nine). They’re giving up 1.45 homers per nine, which seems to be the difference.
Enough about Anaheim. I’d just like to win a few more games before the season is over.
Your lineup:
1. Johnny Damon, CF
2. Derek Jeter, SS
3. Bobby Abreu, RF
4. Alex Rodriguez, 3B
5. Jason Giambi, 1B
6. Xavier Nady, LF
7. Hideki Matsui, DH
8. Robinson Cano, 2B
9. Ivan Rodriguez, C
And on the mound, number forty-five, Carl Pavano.