Game 69: Okay, win this series
ByFor the third straight series the Yankees face a rubber match in the final game. They won in emphatic fashion against the Mets, but lost in a shutout to the Nats. Since I always like to talk about taking series, how about the Yanks go out and not only win this three-game series, but win this set of two out of three series. It would be a nice present heading into one of those always-boring off-days.
Once again, the Yankees will face someone they’ve never seen before in 22-year-old Chris Volstad. The 2005 first rounder is in his second year in the majors, and has hit some speed bumps. After pitching to a 2.88 ERA over 84.1 innings last year (14 starts and one relief appearance), that ERA has climbed nearly two full points to 4.75. Despite the rising ERA, Volstad has struck out more, walked fewer, and has a lower WHIP than last season. Unfortunately, he allowed home runs last year at an unsustainable rate (just three in those 84.1 IP), and has allowed 14 in basically the same span this year. That’ll make the difference.
Volstad is a fastball-curveball-changeup guy, and it sounds like his change is his best pitch. He sets it up with a fastball that tops out at 92, so despite his large frame (6’7″) he doesn’t feature overpowering stuff. Much in the same way as teammate Sean West, Volstad is a big dude without a lot of extra mass on his bones — he’s listed as 190 pounds.
The year started out well for Volstad, as he allowed just one run in each of his first two starts, and then, after allowing three runs in his next start, held the Phillies and Cubs to two earned runs each over seven innings in each start. That put his ERA at 2.76 for April. That climbed about a full run in May, as he allowed fewer than three earned runs just once (3 R, 2 ER against Colorado). His ERA jumped more than a run above that in June, as he allowed two runs over six innings to the Giants, and then six runs over 5.2 to the Cardinals and eight runs over 3.2 to the Red Sox.
CC Sabathia toes the rubber for the Yanks this afternoon. He’s been the most solid pitcher in the rotation all season, and especially since the calendar flipped from April to May. He’s run into a bit of trouble in June, as one bad inning in each start allowed the opposing team to either get back into the game or take it. On June 6 against the Rays he had the three-run shot to Willy Aybar. This past Tuesday he had the three-run shot to Anderson Hernandez. And, of course, on June 11 against the Sox he had the eighth inning. So in all three games he was basically one (or in the Sox case two) at bat away from having a truly dominant outing. Putting it together would be a big deal for the Yanks today.
As a quick note, A.J. Burnett‘s suspension has been reduced to five games, and he’ll start serving that today. The off-day will allow the Yanks to juggle the rotation to accommodate the MLB’s asinine suspension policy. Sounds like it will be Wang, Joba, and Pettitte against the Braves, followed by CC, Burnett, and Wang against the Mets.
Also, Johnny Damon is out with a sore calf, which could just as easily be baseball lingo for “could use two straight days off.”
Lineup:
1. Derek Jeter, SS
2. Nick Swisher, RF
3. Mark Teixeira, 1B
4. Alex Rodriguez, 3B
5. Robinson Cano, 2B
6. Jorge Posada, C
7. Melky Cabrera, LF
8. Brett Gardner, CF
9. CC Sabathia, P
283 Comments
RAB Info
The Founders
Mike Axisa, Ben Kabak, Joe Pawlikowski
Editor-In-Chief
Mike Axisa Archives | Email
Managing Editors
Ben Kabak Archives | E-mail
Joe Pawlikowski Archives | E-mail
Contributing Editors
Larry Koestler (Archives)
Moshe Mandel (Archives)
Stephen Rhoads (Archives)
Weekend Writers
Hannah Ehrlich (Archives)
Matthew Warden (Archives)
Special Contributor
J.R. O'Grady (Archives)
Subscribe to RAB by RSS and Twitter
Follow @RiverAveBlues Search RAB
Spring Training Countdown
Just 6 days 'til pitchers and catchers report.Banner Design By
nick green? NICK GREEN???????????
seriously.
atleast Ramirez and Okijima both earned a BS today
Product of Fenway? Or just playing out of his mind now that he’s away from the Oppressive Yankee Environment?
He’s had a few timely hits, today’s was most certainly a product of Fenway Park, but overall he’s been respectable with lapses at times that show why he’s struggled to stay in the bigs.
by the way, anyone noticing how TORONTO MANHANDLED Shairon Martis, who we could barely hit?
very interesting
2 games, not all that interesting.
Single, DP, Walk, Single, Walk, Single, Single, Fly out -led to 4 runs in the first inning. Then gave up 2 runs over the next 4 innings.
yeah manhandled him for sure
giving up 6 runs in 5 innings is getting manhandled
4 singles and 2 walks is not manhandled sorry, you’re just looking to start trouble.
santana shut boston down, while yankees MANHANDLED johan
very interesing
Did you notice that the Nationals beat them in the first two games of the series?
yeah but we never faced the other pitchers, so not much to comment there about
“OMG TERRIBLE TEAM BEAT THE YANKEES!!!!”
“Hey, that same team beat the Jays too.”
“Whatever, that doesn’t support my thesis that the Yankees are a disgrace.”
hold up, i never said the nationals were not a good offensive team, however, the one pitcher that the jays faced that we faced, they beat.
We didnt beat him. Thats an even comparison. Go look at the old game thread for the nationals, i gave them props for having a great offense, but our hitters should’ve taken advantage
Yes, they should have. But so what? I’m sure there are a lot of good pitchers the Yankees have beaten up that other teams haven’t. Like Johan Santana, for example. Ultimately, it’s completely meaningless unless there’s a big enough sample size to really make a useful conclusion.
2 games is not an even comparison
MY father’s day musing: 101 essential baseball experience for fathers and kids http://bit.ly/YQKm3
That took me forever.
And did anyone catch the soccer this afternoon?
Great job on the list but I only watch good sports
I can’t wait for the All-Star break. This team needs some rest.
i just hope the yankees win today. Volstead can be good at times, but he’s been shaky the past month
CC should be able to shut down their weak lineup. They should be able to get a couple runs at least off Volstad and that should be all CC needs. With A-Rod back, the lineup is much more formidable.
So have the Mets taken over the title as worst bullpen in NY?
Pujols is just ridiculous. It’s not fair at all for other teams
Makes you wonder why they continue to pitch to him. There is not much protection in front or behind him.
the last time i saw him walked ludwick hit a granny.. they better not walk him constantly or my fantasy team is fucked
i’m kinda excited to see CC hit. and that 3rd pitch was definitely a ball
Happy fathers day to all the fathers in the blog
.
That Swisher is a bum. Nady can’t get back soon enough.
haha
LETS DFA HIM
Swish is fine, but would you really say that having Nady wouldn’t be useful? Cause Nady >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Berroa
No one is saying having Nady wouldn’t be useful. That’s a strawman argument.
In fact we’ve been saying he’ll be useful and would add depth to the team but Swisher >> Nady still.
Yeah Nick Swisher is sooo bad guys.
Happy Father’s day to everybody out there.
LETS GO YANKEES!!!
good to be back in the lineup today
Boooooooooooooooo, you suck
3-0, that was your pitch.
my bad guys, i’ll work on it next time
wow tex that’s a good pitch to swing at
Let’s go Yanks…get Swisha across.
Is it me or is Tex swinging at alot of bad pitches lately and getting out reaching on pitches out of the zone more often than usual.
I’ve noticed that too..its odd
Yeah, a few of them have been doing that of late.
even Swisher i’ve noticed
A-rod is tired of walking
him and tex both swung at ball 4.. nice
ah man, he could’ve walked
Swisher took time out of his pregame workout to say Happy Father’s Day? Who does this bum this he is, he hit .219 last year! He needs all the BP he can get!1!!!
not sure who he this he his
We are so totally on our way to winning this game.
I HATE 1-2 and 0-2 hits
wow, great start CC
already 1-0 wtf
Great start to this game.
Posada needs to stop calling all these belt-high meatballs.
Is CC due for a bad start?
oh fuck this. wake up CC we needed a good start today
We got one yesterday =/
We need our offense to step up, not our pitching.
CC’s command isn’t too great so far. Hopefully he can get that straightened out quickly.
That’s better. Now for some runs, Yankees offense.
damn it, already 1-0
we’ll get back into this
hit a HR in front of home crowd today and we’re good
Got it coach
I predict a HR in the 5th inning for me
Good…BTW how was Kate last night?
Yay the patience level for today is already gone.
Nah, I’m cool. The first two hits were off hangers, though.
how old is everybody here?
19
22
your 34
im 17
lol
*you’re
just turned 20
Turned 29 on Friday
wow you got lucky there CC
what is wrong with CC Sabathia?
Aren’t you watching? He gave up one run He’s a bust. He was supposed to give us a perfect game in 27 pitches while going 4-4 with 4 HR’s. Anything less of that is considered a bust.
He looks like he does not know how to pitch a baseball
looks like you were right
Cmon CC, we will give you runs today, just give us outs
Posada called a terrible game that inning.
sarcasm? I can’t tell
Of course.
Yeah, he needs to stop throwing down the “miss your spot by a foot” sign.
CC will dominate from here on out and hopefully our offense wakes up
that was an excellent K by sabathia
CC needs to get his act together. Andy and AJ shut this lineup down.
1 ER is not the end of the world.
agreed
Damn, that’s a nice play.
Barry Zito? Really?
The New York Yankees are not good at hitting
i wanna see a yankee pitcher hit a homerun i never seen a yankee pitcher hit one out.
Oh god, i’m getting really worried about Melky. Why is he always so good in April and mediocre after that? doesn’t make any sense
Lazy Dominican loses motivation and focus
Because he’s not actually that good a player?
I would go beyond that to “Because he’s actually a sub-mediocre baseball player.”
aa damit sumtins wrong.
Who is injured?
CC. Well, they think it’s the heat.
I thought he loves the heat?
Girardi came out to check on CC but he said hes fine but thats the second time they came out to check up on him.
CC apparently ?
The trainer and Joe went out to see CC after the warmup pitches.
CC giving up bombs
CC will be ok man, don’t worry too much about it
im not that worried but a bit…he just gave up a double
CC Sabathia is giving up hits
sumtins really wrong get him out of there.
Something’s. Something’s really wrong.
Also, this sucks, and so does the Ump’s zone. He’s not calling strikes that are solidly in the zone. At least, not for CC.
there’s definitely something wrong with him
Bah, lame.
If he is not really hurt, I couldn’t agree more.
i dont get why they think he’s injured?
Well that streak of games with 7+ innings pitched ended.
Fucking great.
Oh boy…hopefully CC is OK.
Oh. Shit.
Better get him out now before things get outta hand. he’s getting rocketed
CC pulling a David Wells.
Really curious now. This is n ot an investment the Yanks can afford to lose.
we dont get to see CC bat
WHAT IS GOING ON HERE
WTF?
what the hell has he done to show how he’s injured?
give up 3 hits?
how about 5 bombs, plus something else must be wrong if they’re takin him out
I rather they take him out now if he is injured he probably would of injured himself more and been out for a while.
Anyone pick up anything, physically? I didn’t really see him favoring anything.
Man, I really wanted to see him hit.
Hopefully we see him hit against the Mets.
But I really don’t get how everyone is upset about taking him out – I’m sure they have a reason for it, so let them protect CC…
well now well see aceves hit.
how many did hughes throw yesterday? can he pitch today??
If something is wrong because he is injured its one thing. But if he is leaving because he is dehydrating because of the heat, that is pathetic Im sorry.
CC wanted to play on the west coast, it’s probably nothing to do with the heat.
Sucks that we don’t see him hit.
No thats what Im saying. If it has nothing to do with the heat thats fine, hopefully its not something serious God forbid.
But if it does have something to do with the heat that is pretty sad.
Is he really hurt?
Yeah … I’d feel a little better if you took a few more warmup pitches Aceves. I’ll wait, no biggie.
300+ lb pitchers don’t fare well in high temp’s.
Should’ve got Johan.
sarcasm right?
Of course. But, I believe Lanny was big on sayin’ how the Yankees screwed up by not trading for Johan.
CC says he likes to pitch in the heat, that can’t be it
South FL heat is much different from SoCal heat. Very very humid, heavy as hell. I live in South FL, stepped outside for a minute and was dripping.
Sir, you could quite possibly have a weight problem.
5’9″ and 160 lbs, 20 yrs old and pretty athletic, I don’t think so, it’s just hot as hell (literally)
I was jking.
I know, love ya Pop (Cowboys still suck though, even they’re practice facility hates them)
Yeah its hot as fuck today down here.
Damn here goes our poor bullpen again. They’ve been used so much
Eh, day off tomorrow. Aceves could get them through the 3rd or 4th, Hughes and Tomko should be good for one or two each. Then you have Coke, Bruney and Mo to finish the last two innings or so.
oh yea forgot about that off-day
Ace throw strike its a pitcher.
I hope this ignites the offense to pick us up
i agree they need it
So this in interesting. Since scoring 5 runs on Friday night, the Yankees have scored once. in that time span, they have 9 walks, 10 hits (only 2 extra bases) and have ground into 5 DP’s. – Jeter 3 (2 yesterday), Cano 1, Swisher 1.
Offensively, this team seems to collect many hits and runs at once and then goes through periods of droughts where a hit here or there but few to no runs.
So does that mean they are a great hitting team, average hitting team, great scoring team, average scoring team – what is the combination based on everyone’s perception?
I think if you charted most every team in the league you’d find the same up/down result. The Yankees are, when healthy, a great hitting team.
they were kinda like that last year too but i think its just a little rough patch, we’ll be okay
Well they are 2nd in baseball in runs scored and 1st in OPS if im not mistaken. They do also lead baseball in HR’s which could be part of the problem in terms of these droughts, too reliant at times on HR’s.
But overall they do have one of, if not the best offense in baseball.
So…if Swisher hits one TO the wall again, that will somehow be “better” than if he hits one OVER the wall? Because it will mean they’re not relying on the homer?
Ace is money
Don’t worry guys, i got em
Alright man, pick one name and stick with it, this is a grown-up blog
Lame.
Don’t, just don’t.
Gansta!
Nice Ace. OK Offense the onus is placed on you! Will you guys come through? We’ll find out after the break.
Good thing they put Joba in the bullpen!
ALFREDO ACEVES IS A STARTIN PITCHUH
I always enjoy that line.
I really wish CC could’ve batted but oh well, maybe next time
So did suzyn waldman ever get the scoop on the injury?
That pitched looked mighty low. Wow.
I’m sure it’s been asked, but what happened to CC?
No idea.
We don’t know :-/
Nice job Jeter
Jeter’s hit makes up for the line drives that have been caught. See ledgers, baseball rights itself.
Stop clogging up the bases Swish!
Nice job by swisha
Swisher walks with a man on second? He’s got to drive that guy in, swing at one of those bad pitches!!!
Not to mention he’s such a horrible baserunner.
Thank you Jim Rice.
Take advantage, guys.
Thanks for listening.
Damnit Swish, that’s a walk!!! You selfish #%&$…DFA HIM!
Joe was not leaving CC in that game, CC repeatedly said “I’m fine, I swear to God I’m fine.”
jeter with the steal!
JETER SCORES!
nice job TEX!
1-1 game!
It’s 85 degrees with 75% humidity so I can understand CC’s condition, especially after being in rainy NY for a while.
Its actually 93 with a heat index of 104.
I would kill myself immediately if required to exercise outside in that weather.
texxxxxxxxxx
He’s a big man.
I forget which announcer it was, but they were saying they should make a DVD of Tex chugging home from first on that dropped popup in the mets game and show it to little leaguers so they can see WHY you always play the game hard.
I think, if I had a kid who played ball, Tex and Mo would be the position player and pitcher I’d like him to emulate. Tex because he plays hard even though he’s a star, and Mo because of his clean mechanics on the mound — and the obvious, of course.
Niiiiice.
I like.
YAY Tex
A-Rod, keep it going!
Steal of 3rd by Jeter forced Cantu to hold Swisher at 1st which helped Tex squeeze that one down the line. Lets go Arod now!!!!
Fucking stat padder.
lol
aroddddddddddddddddddd
Unclutch bastard. We shoudl DFA A-Rod! BOOO!
Finally, A-Rod!
A-rod is money!
3-1 YANKEES!
WOOOO!!!
[/sorry i sound like a kid there
Yankees lost a potential run there by Swish standing at first on jeter’s steal. Although that makes no difference now.
God, ARod just hit a 2 run single…. Can’t even hit a HR. He sucks.
Aite Alex!!! First hit in front of your homies!
MARK DEFIES THE LOGIC OF YOUR TEX LAWS
Sorry I didn’t get over to the computer in time to post that one sooner.
Just a single?????? GOD he sucks!
Jeter’s steal set up this entire inning. If he doesn’t steal third, Cantu isn’t holding Swisher on, and Teix grounds out.
Maybe, maybe not, you never know…
ARod only hit .419 as a High School player? Chris Smith he is not.
boy is his mom happy he chose baseball. The only players to make as much money as he had in the NBA are shaq and kobe will be up there soon
I thought both of ARod’s contracts were the two richest in professional sports history.
he hasn’t earned the money yet.
To date, he has earned 216 million (at the end of the season)
Only shaq has earned that much
Actually kay she said how many dominican players and there wasnt any and denn he looked at the mlb roster and found many.
Eek, Mientkiewicz nearly got de-pantsed in that video.
hahaha i saw that too!
So he has the shortest start of his career since 2004 once he joins the Yankees? Did we make a deal with the devil for those 4 rings? WTF
Keep it in your pants, bub.
Are you talking about CC?
If he’d gotten bombed for 8 runs, I’d see where you were coming from. But this seems more like a super-cautious organization pulling their ace from a game where they were concerned about his health.
and the 22 milli
hold up AD, its not like he was knocked out of the game
we finally got a lead
Word on the Twitterwaves is the flu for CC.
very interesting. Even though K and singleton said he looked healthy today
Not that it applies here, necessarily, but when a guy sits due to “flu like symptoms”…is that baseball code for “wicked hungover”?
Got herpes with a skank at the hotel.
So…he partied with Alex last night?
Or Jeter?
o thank god
Useless Yankees beat writers and injury expert guy (joking), who did you read that from?
No idea, but I saw Carroll retweeted it. Hopefully it’s not swine flu.
Thanks for that.
Uh, wouldn’t Joe Girardi be dead if he was unable to sweat?
….probably, especially since he, you know, exercised outside in the summer for a living.
i noe i was thinking the same shyt.
Yes, yes he would.
some people have their sweat glands that are malfunctioning. My brother has the same condition. He is more susceptible to getting sick and dehydration, but he has to drink a ton of fluids to keep his body cool. This is why you see girardi drinking all the time.
thankz for da info i notice that from girardi never new dat.
Whoa. Is it that his sweat glands function, but poorly…or they’re completely non-functional? That sounds like a tough condition to manage. Your body excretes a lot of toxins, in addition to dumping heat that way.
I know the upper body sweat glands don’t function at all. I have no idea why, he was just born this way. From all the stuff i’ve read, you can manage it by taking medicines that trick your body into trying to sweating less and drinking more water than you could ever imagine. I remember my little bro once went through a 24 pack of poland spring water in 1.5 days just helping to paint our house. Odd, huh?
Nah, Eric Davis II is in Baltimore.
Jones?
Bingo.
Heh on Gameday. A-rod’s highlight just showed up and it’s titled “A-rod’s 2-run rap”
Never heard that before.
They’re getting more creative with those. I forget what it was, but I saw a really, really bizarre one a couple days ago.
A-rod’s Rap:
Y’all thought we were bums
But I just brought home 2 runs
You may just say it’s fate
But I say it’s because I partied with Kate
Even though I was fatigued
I wanted to plant my seed
For all you fathers out there
We’re going to put on a hitting fair
Deuces!
does anyone know what happened to cc
they haven’t announced it yet
Apparently he has flu like symptoms.
WEll, on TV they announce he has left-bicep tightness.
wtf now they said is tightenees in his left biceps.
I’m sure that’s more accurate than whoever was randomly tweeting about the flu thing.
Tightness in left bicep
i don’t know about that. Usually tightness would cause decrease in velocity and the ball would go down more, am i wrong?
Who knows? Poor command in general, definitely.
ahh good point
It just hurts like a bitch. Probably some velocity lost but I’m no expert.
Last three pitches on Gameday: 93, 94, 93.
….Uh oh. That’s bad. Official YES word is tightness in left bicep for CC
No tests scheduled, so they don’t think it’s a big deal.
Worst-case scenario, what can tightness in one’s bicep lead to?
http://tinyurl.com/n4uae9
Those are horrible search results. It was a fair question.
Which bicept was it?
Just kidding…
Trivia: Boones…and then no clue.
Bells (Gus, Buddy, David). I think the Hairstons are, too (Sam, Jerry, Jerry Jr., Scott) though I’m not sure if Sam played in MLB, though.
google confirms.
The only three-gen family I know off the top of my head is the Boones.
The Bells maybe?
Yeah, I think that’s it – Bell; Boone; Hairston.
Wait, what about the Bells?
Wiki: the Bells (Gus, Buddy, David and Mike), the Boones (Ray, Bob, Aaron and Bret), the Hairstons (Sammy, Jerry and Johnny, Jerry Jr. and Scott), and the Schofield/Werths (Ducky and Dick Schofield and Jayson Werth). Jayson Werth is the grandson of Ducky Schofield and nephew of Dick Schofield, and also the stepson of Dennis Werth.
very dissapointed i wanted to see cc hit a bomb to straight away center
well we will have a chance next week
Getting close to the All Star break, so the Yankees skip a start of CC’s. They have Hughes who can pitch in his spot.
They need CC for the second half run.
I could see them doing that, if they feel it necessary.
This guy has a weird strike zone…not calling the bottom of the zone, and giving a lot on the outside corner.
GRIT GUTNER!
Melky with the catch!
I would’ve been so psyched if Aceves had gotten a hit there. For him, not necessarily because it would be good to have him running the bases.
aceves has a disgusting curve ball
The Marlins should name their new ballpark the “Floridian Estate”. I don’t know about you, but that’s just pimp.
THE MELK MAN!
I’m going to pray tonight that CC is okay
[...] Once again, the Yankees will face someone they’ve never seen before in 22-year-old Chris Volstad. The 2005 first rounder is in his second year in the majors, and has hit some speed bumps. After pitching to a 2.88 ERA over 84.1 innings last year (14 starts and one relief appearance),Read more at http://riveraveblues.com/2009/.....ies-13498/ [...]