Game 90: When last we met
ByCC Sabathia and Justin Verlander last squared off on April 27, and what we witnessed that day was a clinic in pitching. Sabathia threw a complete game, allowing just six hits and no walks while striking out seven. Verlander was nearly untouchable. He lasted seven innings, gave up seven hits and struck out nine. He also walked no one.
The final score of that game was 4-2. Magglio Ordoñez’s two-run home run — just his second of the season — bounced off the top of the right field wall and landed on the wrong side. The Yanks would plate two in the 9th but couldn’t mount the comeback.
Today, these two aces meet again. Sabathia is coming off of a bad start against the Angels. On Sunday, he gave up five runs on nine hits and three walks as the Yanks lost 5-4. Verlander, who leads the AL in strike outs, is coming off a seven-inning shut out start against the Indians. He is 10-2 with a 2.22 ERA over his last 15 starts. Runs should be scarce.
For CC, the second half has always been kind to him. He has a career 3.39 ERA and strikes out nearly a batter an inning more in the second half than in the first. That should be good news for those wary of his declining K numbers this year.
The game starts at 1:04 p.m., and it is a bee-yoo-tee-ful day for baseball in New York.
Jeter SS
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui DH
Posada C
Cano 2B
Swisher RF
Cabrera CF
Sabathia P
341 Comments
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The Mason Williams Watch
Forget Halladay, keep all the young players and continue to build. Let’s see what Mitre can do Tuesday and maybe Wang can come back and be a descent fifth starter.
The fifth starter position isnt that important, Joba seems to be the wildcard as does Pettitte. Both need to improve.
“Injured NY Yankees pitcher Chien-Ming Wang says he’s pain free, ready to throw on Monday”
http://www.nj.com/yankees/inde.....r_chi.html
Good news
Yes, wonderful. He still could be a great addition in the second half. Probably the best trade that could be made is to have him back and pitching well.
Yea, he is a really great #2 when right so yea it would be nice to get 2007 Wang right.
I wish someone would pull an Orwell on those red hats and just dump them down the memory hole.
A healthy and effective Wang would be huge for this team, but I don’t have faith in that happening until next year. Hopefully I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
I’m a big CMW fan, but even then I am with you on seeing him better next year than this year. It will take him some times to get back to his old self.
I hope CC shuts them down and the offense scores some runs off Verlander so we win..
Would Lugo be a good pick up? Can he play third? We really don’t have a good utility infielder. Cody Ransom is an error machine. I would rather see Pena called up and Ransom released. Why no Ramiro Pena? he played well when he was here.
Nah, he’s not so good defensively now and that’s why the Sox relesed him. Of course his offense isn’t good but it
s decent for a backup guy.
Ixnay on Lugo. He’s been injured this year, and it led to his defense being in the toilet.
OK so what about Ramiro Pena, I thought he did a great job and had a better bat than Ransom
He’ll be up in September, but sooner in Ransom keeps shitting the bed.
That might be a spot to make a trade, for a utility infielder that can actually play
This looks like a pitching duel, but it seems like everytime I think a duel is on both guys get knocked around, or it’s a blow out for one side. Hopefully we get to Verlander early.
Isn’t today game 90? The Yanks are 52-37, so they’ve already played 89 games.
Yeah, lohud has it wrong too.
Melky seems to be getting the nod over Gardner to start the second half.
Any thoughts on starting Melky in RF over Swish? Nick’s average has plummeted to .235 last I checked
Swisher still has a 114 OPS+ and Melky still has a 104 OPS+. I’d take Swisher for now.
Swisher definitely has his issues, but it’s really out there how much rage he inspires.
Useful logic, thanks Ben. To clarify, how meaningful is that 10 point differential? Granted, On Base Average and Slugging are key…
A radio game today, blacked out on the west coast because of FOX, I hate FOX
Cone with the first pitch, any juice left in the tank?
That was the best first pitch I’ve seen in awhile. I bet Coney can’t lift his arm above his shoulder.
Hahah, coney throws a slider.
So what inning do we see Cone in the booth?
26 outs to go for the perfect game
Jesus Christ, what is up with Johnny?
Damon that was ugly
No harm no foul, would’ve been a double anyway.
Yikes. Need to fix the GPS Johnny.
Walk Cabrera, set up the DP
Paul O’Neill made that play Damon missed ten years ago.
Damon makes that play last year.
I don’t think anyone makes that play until it hits the wall. he split the OFers.
Yeah, that was the old “you’re not getting a damn thing to hit” pitching sequence to Miggy.
Double play ball please
sabathia’s off speed stuff today is 95. nice.
Really, what’s the point of the YES gun? It just registers everything at fastball speed.
that changeup was 96.
YES or Gameday? If it’s YES don’t trust it.
Do those magical “eye drops” Big Papi got work for Defense too? We need to get Damon some
The “mystery of Magglio” says Sterling, only 4 HR, JUICE?
I’m going off the top of my head but I believe he had the best season of his career a few years into testing.
Maybe so, a knee jerk reaction for me, hard to believe that players lose power that quickly
BABIP
2007: .385
2008: .338
2009: .300
Career: .320
Well, BABIP alone doesn’t tell you everything. Maybe he was hitting the ball harder so more of them landed. You gotta check his LD% with that too.
2007: 19.2%
2008: 20.4%
2009: 15.8%
Career:19.8%
Ok so it was some luck then I guess. Interesting.
Eh, if you remember watching him that year, he was arguably the best hitter in the game. It wasn’t like he was getting dinkers to drop in.
Well, I’m sure you didn’t watch his EVERY game. And they don’t have to be dinkers. Instead of hitting line drives in the OF that would be sometimes caught, this time a lot went into the gaps. And thats luck as you can’t hit the ball where you want.
he was 8th in the AL in singles, did he kill the ball? yes. but he also hit singles
YEah he was absolutely killing the ball in ’07, it had little to do with luck.
he batted .053 points higher then his career average, and .043 higher then his previous career best, you cant disregard luck
He’s also had 6 seasons in which he’s hit over .315. I don’t disregard luck but, I’m not going to say he wAs second in MVP voting because he was lucky.
Zach and I aren’t saying he was completely lucky. He was damn good but also had a bit (not too much but enough) luck too.
Exactly, was he a good hitter? yes. and if he hit .350 in multiple years then no i wouldnt attribute it to luck. but that big of a jump for only one year equals more luck that season in my book
Too many pitches in that inning
CC, please settle down.
Let’s knock that muskrat off Verlander’s chin.
way too many pitches for CC early. Hopefully he can settle down.
I don’t know about u guys, but im still high off that Phil Hughes performance.
Yeah that was awesome, that should make him the 8th inning guy with no doubt
What makes a pitcher a “fly-ball” pitcher?
He doesn’t generate many groundballs
i knew someone would say something stupid and arrogant like that. Sinker ballers induce grounballs, but what about a “fly-ball” pitcher?
A guy that pitches to contact but doesn’t induce a lot of groundballs.
I would guess lots of fastballs up in the zone, pitching to contact, changeups
Pitching up in the zone and having a “rising” fastball.
WTF?! Stupid and Arrogant? That’s exactly what it is. Look at Chris Young, that guy just doesn’t get many groundballs. He gives up a lot of fly-balls and therefore more HRs
It was an ok response. Can’t read minds or too much into anything on e-mail or chat rooms. People project their own stuff.
Ok yeah but that’s exactly what it was. A guy that doesn’t give up many groundball has to give up flyballs and/or K’s instead. It’s kinda obvious, no?
obviously if your a fly-ball pitcher you don’t give up many groundballs. Maybe stupid and arrogant was the wrong way to put it, but my question was aimed at the pitch selection that a “fly-ball” pitcher has in his aresenal.
Oh, gotcha. You see, I thought you asked what does a pitcher do to become a fly-ball pitcher and I answered.
El Duque is available, worth a look?
Well, that was a Joba-esque 24 pitch inning but I’ll take it since he allowed no runs.
Jeter in the leadoff, great move
Nice start Jete
I Damon ever going to hit another homer?
Verlander is only at 92-93? his shoulder must be messed up
They should put him in the bullpen
Yikes, nice arm gerald
That was a perfect throw
Running themselves out of a good inning. Just great.
a guy on first equals a “good inning”? jeter was 17 for 20 this season in SB.
I like the steal call, good aggressive baseball int he first inning of a potential pitchers duel, get the runner into scoring position. Either that or bunt? Not with Damon.
Angels would have bunted the runner over and had two shots to single him in
It’s the first inning, why the hell would you bunt?
Or steal?
If you expect a low scoring game, then getting a run on the board might be a good idea, I can see a bunt or a steal in that situation.
Lugo > Ransom, Crap > Ransom- does anyone think the Yanks win yesterday if lets say Bruney or Robertson pitches those innings instead of Hughes? Aceves yes maybe. Then today would have no one in the pen.
Bruney’s got to get right eventually. Who knows if we win yesterday without Hughes, it’s kind of irrelevant.
OK, can we stop with the name changing and having the subject as the name? It’s kind of annoying.
Nasty change up
It just seemed like every pitch in Tex’s at bat clocked at 97 on the YES gun. Included the “change up” he struck out on.
Does Mussina count as a dynasty Yank?
he shouldn’t
Not really, Mussina was underrated though, he could probably have still pitched this year, he was learning to pitch without velocity.
He def could have. No offense to him, but you can’t be a dynasty Yank if the team didn’t win shit when you were there. No fault to him, he was very good with us.
there goes senseless yankees fans discounting their consecutive playoff appearances again. other ball clubs would KILL to sniff october baseball.
and by “didn’t win shit” i surely hope you don’t mean their 6 STRAIGHT YEARS of winning the AL east title..
*AL east title while he was on the team. they held the AL east title from ’98 – ’06, obviously.
That’s tough…he’s borderline. I would say no.
…much as I liked him.
Looks like those extra days off did not agree with CC.
CC needs to find his groove if he keeps pitching like this its gonna be tough to beat verlander.
CC looks horrible today, AJ looked horrible yesterday…
WTF Eiland
yup, Eiland’s fault for struggles from 8+ year veterans
mad days off
CC is having a hard time hitting the outside corner to RH batters. He better figure it out soon or this will be ugly.
Settle down there CC
Its all JoPo’s fault. If only Cervelli was still in the majors…
Lets go CC.
RAB had a feature on flipflopflyball.com a month or so ago, I remember everyone really enjoyed it. I was just there and the author added a few new ones. Check it out if you haven’t already, it’s a great site. I still want him to make them available for purchase
hey guys – I’m about to buy tickets to the old timers game tomorrow. Just making sure the game tickets also allow entry early to the game. Also, what time should I plan on being at the stadium? Thanks a lot
It’s interesting that JoPo is working a day game after a night game. So, Joba has a personal catcher now?
51 pitches already.
I was thinking the same thing. If he don’t come down, we’ll need 4-5 innings out of a pen minus a 2 inning stint from hughes. (I’m not complaining about yesterday. it was the right move). I guess you try and get 3 out of Ace, 1 bruney and hopefully 1 from Mo.
Or they could just hang double digits on Verlander and run Tomko out there.
Oh, well, yeah. there is always that.
51 pitches to get through 2 innings. Hope Aceves is ready to pitch at least 3 innings.
Tigers are smartly being patient.
Or CC isn’t making his pitches. ya know, either one.
It’s probably a bit of both.
That’s about as ugly of a two innings you can have without allowing any runs. Must be nice to have that sort of stuff in your back pocket.
Hopefully that time to sit has affected Verlander adversely.
Well, he got out of it. Hate the 50 pitches .
This might be a game in which Sabathia struggles for a couple innings and then it’s lights out till the 7th
That is possible and would be nice.
Verlander is really getting the neighborhood call at the plate.
He can go six if he averages 15 an inning, that would mean command
Is it just me or does it look like Verlander is getting a bigger strike zone?
No I see it too.
Millar up against the Red Sox, bases loaded, no one out. Grounds into double play…then the next guy flies out. Good god.
He’s still on the payroll.
Jays should just quit and sell off the pieces of the team
thats why Penny is worth a Smoak type bat
They have all the luck. Genius Theo must have worked a new way to get his team luck.
I guess cano got the boot from the 5 hole
What’s the pitch count for Verlander?
32
Atleast theyre working the count..?
yes.
At least they’re making Verlander work.
Well, at least they are making Verlander work. maybe he’ll be out of the game after 6.
Predicting a Jorge HR
-fail
Yankees are having some good ABs.
Jorge’s AB…not so good.
Jorge must have missed that memo.
Well, even after that 3 pitch K to JoPo, he had to throw 19 pitches
Good game so far, what you would expect with the starters
score’s misleading. way too many pitches for CC
Going to Tampa to see the Yanks play the Rays on the 27th and 28th, I need something clever to put on a sign so I can be on YES. I’ll try not to make fun of Michael Kay or his head. Any suggestions?
Verlander is dropping first pitch strike like Wo!
Posada really dont even swing at that on 0-2.
Oh well hopefully the Tiger’s bad bullpen comes in around the 6th or 7th.
What would it take to get Jarrod Washburn?
Pass.
2.96 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, only 28 Walks in 112 innings, .225 BAA.
slap me silly and call me betty.
Mediocre flyball pitcher gets good defense behind him in huge park, puts up good numbers.
We’ve seen this movie before.
Too much.
CC needed a short inning like that.
horrible AB from Thames
That’s one way to lower your pitch count.
nice quick inning i like it CC.
Now that was an efficient inning.
Everett as great defender really messes with my head. He doesn’t seem that quick.
I think I could get use to no Michael Kay on these Yes broadcasts.
I miss Kay.
you’re the only one. singleton and leiter are the two best announcers the yankees have.
Fuck CC throw strikes stop walking people.
AHHHH!!! This is very irritating.
CC, settle down there buddy
Damn it CC get a strike out. I don’t want any of that, bouncedbackthepitcher shite!
an out is an out is an out…
it’s all about adapting.
Are you being sarcastic? His pitchcount is too high. for the 4th inning. The less pitches it takes to get hitters out the better…
Come one. Seriously. If you can’t read sarcasm in this post I feel sorry for you.
Another day another passed ball by Posada…
Sets up the DP, at least.
I’m so good it hurts.
Excellent.
But now we have to rely on Aceves..
Let’s get CC some damn run support.
It would be nice if we could get something going against Verlander now.
Jeter is intrigued by your ideas and wishes to subscribe to your newsletter.
I can do without Professor Leiter.
Leiter is awesome. He and Cone do nothing but speak honestly.
i still love when Leiter was on WFAN the other week killing bjobbers, brings a smile to my face
I didn’t hear that. sounds like a good show.
well paraphrasing, he was just echoing what everyone else here says; you put any young starter in the bullpen and they’re going to be successful as a 1 inning pitcher. and if you always did that you would never have any aces, no Beckett, Halladay, CC, etc.
Jim Kaat calling Red Sox games just sounds wrong.
really wish he would have stayed with the yankees. i grew up listening to rizzuto and the kaat/singleton tandem.
Verlander just walked a guy. Why not take a pitch?
Hoping he’d get a cookie.
No, Arod had a good idea there. Verlander has been throwing 1st pitch strikes. Arod was hoping to jump on one and was a little off, but I don’t think it was a bad move.
Except he didn’t throw one to Tex, the previous batter. And the batter after Arod, Matsui, didn’t get a first pitch strike either and got to a 3-1 count. It was a bout of wildness, too bad Alex didnt see it.
If only Alex had your baseball brain..
+ 1.5 It’s all Arods fault. Trying to hit a first pitch fastball of a dominant pitcher is so bush league.
That sure looked like ball four.
it was inbetween strike 1 and ball 3 on gameday
Sure looked like a good pitch to hit to me. Matsui was under it.
98, 99, 98, 98
ouch
Brad Penny’s physical appearance offends me.
This is what frustrates me about Matsui – realize I am in the minority here – but he cannot hit a fastball over 93. His bat is just dragging through the zone and he is back to trying to pull everything.
‘but he cannot hit a fastball over 93′
love statements without statistical evidence
Yes, and stats support everything that the visual does not. So my mistake, Matsui is awesome, the .269 ba and .880 OPS override the gun reading and what we all see.
How could I miss that obvious.
good, because i dont see any other Yankees hitting Verlander’s fastball today either.
but lets DFA matsui and put Hinske as our DH, or Posada and start Cervelli
Yep, there you go, make the extreme bullshit response that is far removed from my original comment. I did say DFA Matsui and did say Hinske was better and did say that Matsui was the only one not hitting his fastball.
Dude with abilities like this, why would anyone else post. I think I am just oging to say Zach, what is on my mind, and you can spin it however you want. Fantastic!
Ok, breath. Matsui can hit a fastball, so can most everyone else in the mlb. But everyone will have a hard time with a 99 mph fastball, including every mlb player, when the pitcher has + breaking stuff.
your original post was about some unsupported comment that Matsui cant hit FB over 93, so before you call BS on me show me that matsui is hitting .128 against FB over 93
Again, if there was a stat I would provide it. So without a stat, it does not exist. Ok.
Then you win. He is hitting only .254 against power pitchers before today, but then again, no body hits power pitchers.
He’s been rolling over outside pitches since he played in Japan. It’s nothing new.
Hitters have trouble with big fastballs. Film at 11.
Blue Jays are winning 4-1
guess we can bitch that they’re rolling over for Boston but they play us hard
This is the type of game where they could use a boost of grit from guys like Gardy and Cervelli…
Yeah, that’s what they’re missing.
Those guys wouldn’t even put up a fight against Verlander. Cervelli’s bat would be knocked out of his hands before it got off his shoulders.
Verlander’s facial hair makes me think he wouldn’t throw behind a hitter.
Maybe the Yankees could sign “Lucas”. That kid had heart.
Is Rudy still alive?
Could you imagine Lucas and Rudy back to back? Throw Scrappy Doo in that lineup, and the Yanks would have #27
This is one of those games where CC and the rest of this pitching staff has to win the game for the yanks.
will Posada swing this AB?
Verlander is dominating the yanks.
He dominates most lineups.
How many pitches CC has thrown?
95.
90-something.
95
That play was way closer than it should have been.
What are you trying to say? Jeter is good or Thames is slow?
Jeter made a good throw.
Then I agree.
I totally, 100%, disagree with Al Leiter.
I say make all amateurs free agents. Get rid of the draft.
Anyone else siked for the Montero talk from Singleton?
Speaking of, Montero’s been mediocre at Trenton (.596 OPS)
It’s an unforgiving ballpark. Look at Jackson’s splits last year.
.645 OPS. Wow.
move the decimal over to the right a bit and that’s more like it =)
Bear down CC. You got this.
Bare down CC
Big out there.
Good pitching CC.
CC is not an ace.
If the pen yaks it up, you will see people making this argument.
They will be serious. I’ll just shake my head.
Ace’s go more than 6 IP. CC didnt go over 6 IP. therefore CC is no ace.
No ace you say?
it was sarcasm
Nope, he needs to pitch more like Joba to be an ace.
It wasn’t pretty, but 6 scoreless innings works.
Uuuggee pop up right there.
My money’s on Girardi trying to squeeze another inning out of CC.
I’d just sit him down, but Laird/Everett/Granderson is tempting, though.
It’s been a stressful game, just sit him.
I think he’s gonna bring in Aceves.
With the gas. At least the seventh is probably Verlander’s last inning.
Now the Yankee take the lead.
swinging at the fist pitch come on at this rate verlander could go past 9 shut out innings
Hey lets not make Verlander work and get him out early or anything.
Johnny, the right porch misses you.
He said hello, but didn’t give it big hug.
It was good enough for me.
Nice Damon.
Damn, we could have used a HR there. Still, nice AB Johnny.
greedy much?
Right now, I think it’s greedier to expect more than one hit per inning.
What can I say, I would like a win today.
Cmon Big Texy
Being very careful with Teix or pitching around him.
That was only 99mph…hot damn.
And 100mph on the last one. Hot damn again.
Damn!
Borderline there…damn
Lets go pitching.
had to run the dog to the vet to drop off, what did I miss? Looks like Sabathia settled down!
Hey look, it’s CC…
CC at 105 already. How far do we push it? Shouldnt we let Melancon or Bruney handle 8-9-1? Have Al up to put out any fire.
0-0 ball game. CC > Bruney/Melancon
He subtly complained about his over-useage before. Dont need to push it with the 2nd half of the season still to go. Bullpen has been doing its job. Doesnt matter now tho. Inning over.
“Bullpen has been doing its job”
Not Bruney or Melancon
well Bruney hasnt, and i dont trust Melancon in a 0-0 (or 1-0) game right now
I don’t want Melancon anywhere near this game unless one of the teams goes up 5+ runs.
Sticking with the big buy.
I think the pitch count thing is overrated, we need to go back to the 4 man rotation and pitch till your arm falls off, that way the pitchers would really be worth the dough and a horse like CC could do it.
If there werent guaranteed contracts
The pitch count isn’t necessarily a precise tool, but you have to manage workload. No reason to shred arms if you can avoid it.
Someone might go to the 4 man rotation (maybe Texas?), but baseball is so afraid of change.
Was there a five man rotation in the days of Gibson/Koufax? A pitch count?
wow, who would have bet CC would end up throwing 7 shutout innings after the first two innings?
Me, I guessed he would settle down and maybe go 6, not 7, here’s to 8
Let him pitch 8
Definitely UGLY, but I’ll take these 7 shutout innings
I think this CC is a stud. Do I need stats to support what I have watched all year?
A horse agreed
But does the horse work for ESPN?
Yes.
Couldn’t hurt.
Mo, what a game by CC. Unreal to do what he did after the first two innings.
After the 2nd inning he averaged what, twelve pitches an inning or so? Solid stuff.
10, 15, 13, 15, 10
Not too shabby.
Thats what top flight aces do. Didn’t even have his best stuff or relly his control and still pitch a 7 shutout innings. Terrific.
We could use a bandbox solo homer right now
+1
I called it!
Props
Well, its time for the offense to produce.
CC Should pitch the 8th unless we get the lead, then……….ABOMB
Oh no he di’int.
OH YES HE DID!!!
and just like that it does
A-ROD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A-Rod. Stop doing un-ARod things like being clutch.
A-Rod is an over the hill DH.
/Onley’d
Verlander, you mad? Maybe if he shaved, stuff like that wouldn’t happen to him.
97 mph means nothing when its down the middle
Now CC next inning and then MO
BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE
Alex!
Ace for the 8th?
It’s kind of hard to believe it’s decade since the perfect game by Cone. I still remember watching that as a lil kid.
By the way, while perfect games you need a little bit of luck, outside of Larsen, every pitcher on the perfect game list was a top flight pitcher in there hey day, and yes even Kenny Rogers.
I dunno, Tom Browning seems like more of an innings eater type, and Len Barker seems downright mediocre.
Clutchitudenousness!
They should boo ARod. That was such a selfish hit
Cano goes deep too! His spot, c’mon!@
So unclutch. Where’s Angel Berroa when you need him playing third?
I think you go to the bullpen in the 8th. CC is looking good but he’s over 110 pitches, he could lose it fast
CC Ace or Bruney next inning?
Ace would be my choice.
Bruney doesnt come near the 8th right now. Esp in a 1-0 game. Gotta be Ace.
Ace.
Bruney only if we get five more runs this inning.
2-3-4 hitters. Go with Mo, then bring Aceves in for the ninth.
Siwssshhhaaaaa
wi*
tha fourth outfieldaah!
Geez Arod, thats just so selfish! Always padding his stats with homeruns. If he was gritty and clutch, he would have hit a triple and Cano would have struck out, making the game “grittier”!
Verlander’s world is crumbling around him!
Let’s make this a big inning, Clutchy!
Melky is balls
Also, fast
MELKY!!
swisha is good at base running
Wow, he looked out.
Melky’s hustle = money
Im surprised Melky didnt head dive for first.