Prior to the 10th inning, the Yankees had six at bats with runners in scoring position and no hits. On the seventh at-bat, Robinson Cano delivered. It was a no-doubter, gone off the bat, and the Yankees went home happy, 5-2 winners in 10 innings over the reeling White Sox.
For much of the game, CC Sabathia was the story. He utterly dominated the White Sox for six innings before running into trouble in the seventh. A great throw by Nick Swisher and a stellar bare-handed tag by Jose Molina held the White Sox at two runs, and it would be enough.
On the night, CC threw seven innings and allowed just those two earned runs on eight hits and a walk. He struck out 10 White Sox and recorded a season high — for any pitcher — 25 swing-and-misses. He threw first-pitch strikes to 22 of 29 hitters and didn’t walk away with a win because the Yankees’ offense just didn’t come through. Of the 113 pitches he threw, 78 of them were strikes. With 41 K in his last 37.1 innings pitched, Sabathia is on.
For the Yankees’ offense, the night was one of frustration. They knocked out eight hits against Mark Buehrle and six in the first three innings. Yet their two earned runs scored on solo shots by Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon. It was a tough night — 14 baserunners with three runs scoring on a two-out home run in the bottom of the tenth by Robbie Cano. But a win is a win is a win. While the Blue Jays and Red Sox sit out a rain delay, the Yanks’ magic number will go down to at least 29 tonight.
After Sabathia left, the Yankee bullpen took. Phil Hughes went first, and he dominated. He faced three batters, threw 10 of his 14 pitches for strikes and walked away with three K’s. Mariano Rivera followed suit. He struck out just one hitter and threw just 10 pitches in his 1-2-3 inning. For reasons unknown both Rivera and Hughes did not throw multiple innings tonight. With such low pitches counts, both pitchers could have gone a second inning. But it was not to be, and Brian Bruney threw a 1-2-3 tenth. He walked away with the win.
In the tenth, the Yankees paid back some of those two-out runs they had been giving up in bunches lately. After Mark Teixeira went down strikes and A-Rod flew out to center on a ball that, on a warmer night, would have been a walk-off home run on a warmer night, the rally began. Hideki Matsui drew a key walk, Nick Swisher drew a key walk, and up came Robinson Cano.
Prior to tonight, Cano was not the guy we wanted up in that situation. With runners in scoring position this year, he was hitting just .204/.237/.313 with just two home runs in 156 plate appearances. In those situations, he has a .211 BABIP, suggesting a great amount of bad luck. With two outs and runners in scoring position, Cano is even worse. He’s hitting .181/.218/.277 with a .171 BABIP. Yet, on a 2-2 pitch, Cano lined a ball over the right-center field fence for a walk-off home run. He got his pie; the Yanks got their win; and we all went home happy.
The Yankees have only had one homestand ALL SEASON in which they did not have a walk off victory.
Now that’s a great stat.
Really? That’s absolutely fuckin awesome!
Yep. Here’s how it breaks down:
Homestand #1: Cleveland and Oakland: Melky Cabrera walk off HR in the 14th inning.
Homestand #2: LA, Boston, TB: Jorge Posada walk-off single to cap off a five run comeback in the 8th and 9th innings.
Homestand #3: Minnesota, Baltimore, Philadelphia: Three walkoffs in a row vs Minnesota and then one against Philadelphia. Melky single, A-Rod homer, Damon homer, A-rod to tie and Melky to win.
Homestand #4: Texas and Tampa Bay, only walkoff-less stand of the year.
Homestand #5: Mets and Nationals, Luis Castillo dropped pop up.
Homestand #6: Mariners and Blue Jays, Jorge Posada 12th inning HR on Independence Day.
Homestand #7: Detroit, Baltimore, Oakland: Hideki Matsui bottom 9th HR against Baltimore (2-1 game).
Homestand #8: Boston and Toronto: A-Rod HR in 15th against Sox and Robinson Canó game-winning hit against Jays.
Homestand #9: Tonight, Robinson Canó 3r HR.
http://www.baseball-reference......ores.shtml
Add em up, and that’s 11, which means I’m still missing one…
Dayum! I love this year’s team.
I agree. Good times!
July 4th vs Toronto is the missing one, I think. Posada single.
Or I just didn’t parse independence day as July 4th.
And we’ve had 6 walk-off HRs after having only one in all of last year.
Funny thing is, Melky Caberera hit a go-ahead home run in the 8th inning in the June 4th, 8-6 victory over the Rangers. So, the Yankees have missed having a walk-off win every homestand by an inning.
Yogi said it best.
Fantastic win, shame the starters have come up empty in terms of W’s these last 2 games. Question re Cano’s BABIP (and I guess BABIP in general): how does one tell if its ‘bad luck’ or a result of, say, swinging at bad pitches thus making bad contact and weakly popping up/grounding out?
I believe its a combination of both.
Two things to do: watch the games, and look at his batted ball rates.
Obviously, if they gave me 200 at bats against major league pitching, I’d be lucky to go 2 for 200, with 150 Ks. That’d be a BABIP of 0.040, but it wouldn’t be bad luck in this case.
Well as a follow up to that: Is there a way to break down BABIP to get the rate on LD, FB, and GB? That might shed some light on luck vs poorly hit balls.
Not including tonights game 86.9% of Cano’s plate appearances result in a ball put in play. Cano also has the lowest K-rate and BB-rate among active Yankee hitters.
In the AL this year (from B-Ref):
LD BABIP – .731
GB BABIP – .237
FB BABIP – .134
Thanks. I should have realized they’d have it over there, too tired I guess. Now I’ll have to check out the rates for the other Yankees to compare. I’m assuming the LD are mostly his doubles, the FB are HRs, and the GB seems a bit low, but he does lead the team in GDP.
Walk-off victories are the best. While they are bad for your heart while it’s going on, the ending includes the best feeling ever. It’s good for me as it gives me a extra shot of energy for the gym. And I am in the greatest mood for the night and day after.
Looks like the Yankees won the Powerball tonight.
hughes threw some great cutters in the 8th. let’s hope he polishes the change up next year.
Amen to that.
The cutters had so much movement, Gameday classified them as sliders so I like call them Hughes’ slutters.
Nice.
i hope mo’s been blessing phil with some knowledge.
I hope and think he has
I hope jeter is teaching him how to hit on A-list actresses
He can pick them up with his slutter
haha IETC
Phil Hughes: But Derek… I want to party like you do!
I want to get my Bone on!
Derek Jeter: I guess you are becoming a man now, Phil.
My, where do the years go?
Now, you have to understand, getting one’s Bone on is a big responsibility!
Are you sure you’re ready?
Phil Hughes: I… I think so.
I even have some cologne.
Derek Jeter: Never mind cologne!
Have you got a jimmy hat?
Phil Hughes: Y-yes.
Derek Jeter: Good!
Now… you know how to put the jimmy onto your wee-wee, right?
/achewood
Agreed. He didn’t have the curve tonight (think he threw two, both for balls), and he still blew them away.
It was a great win. CC was brilliant through 6 and really deserved the win. Bullpen was lights out again. Disagreed with Hughes only pitching 1 inning. There might be some secret rule with limiting Hughes that has been put in place by someone above Girardi, I don’t know why else he couldn’t pitch 2 tonight in a tie game. Bruney looked shaky vs. Texas, but really has pitched much better the past few weeks.
You mentioned Swish’s awesome throw and JoMo’s good play but forgot A-rod’s throw to home to save a run and diving stop of a potentially 2-run double. I’m still pissed at that fly-ball (including 2 more from Melky and Tex) for not going out. I really wanted him to get a walk-off. I wanted Tex (since he doesn’t have one and it would be awesome to see him get pied in the face), A-rod (for the haters), Swish, (again for the haters), or Robbie (again for the haters) to get a walk-off. Thank Mo Robbie did.
I can’t believe the White Sox laid down for the Yankees tonight
I can’t believe Marcus Scutaro laid down for the Red Sox tonight.
Nah we earned this shit. We didn’t win because of some stupid error or in a blowout. In fact, if it wasn’t for the weather stealing 2 HRs, CC would have the win and we wouldn’t have had to extras. We needed 2 good plays from A-rod, one great throw from Swish, another good play by Molina, a dominant CC , and shutdown relief to win.
Of course you earned it, I was just making the statement so people could see how rediculous it is when they say teams “lay down” for Boston, but the Yankees have to somehow play harder to beat them. They know it’s wrong as they type, but still the press on.
The great thing about baseball is there is no clock. You have 27 outs to use, none count more than another, what happens in the 3rd inning is just as important as what happens in the 8th inning because it all counts the same on the scoreboard.
The Yankees have certainly won their share of blowouts, as any team with an excellent offense and solid pitching will do, but they’ve had their share of games where a dumb error, Luis Castillo’s comes to mind, helped them win a game too.
Anyone know what got into Tomko?
He shut down the Angels tonight
And to think, he gave up runs to them before the ASB
He might be doctoring the ball with Flubber.
hahahaha
I bet Flubber makes the ball move real nicely.
Meh, started off nicely for us too. However, he has good peripherals. 7.36 K/9, 2.84 BB/9, 1.00 WHIP, 3.44 FIP, .82 HR/9 (compared to a 2.18 HR/9 with us), .205 AVG against, but he has a 100% LOB%)
The problem is his peripherals in his stint with the Athletics look good because of the sample size. His K rate is up 1.36 and his HR/FB rate is half his career mark. All this makes his FIP and ERA look studly. But we’re talking about Brett Tomko, when he regresses it’s not going to be pretty.
Yep, agreed on all points. Like I said he started off nicely for us too before imploding. I’m expecting him to implode soon again.
He probably went out and bought himself some good luck charm.
No thanks to those damn BJays for letting Crapelbon off the hook by striking out twice with the bases loaded and only 1 out while being down only 1.
Let’s not forget the Rangers…
I missed the game. What was Swisher’s throw that I keep seeing?
swisher threw out ramon castro at the plate to save the white sox from getting the winning run at the plate
it was an awesome throw
From Sweeny Murti: Sabathia faced 102 batters between un-intentional walks (2nd inn 8/13 at SEA until 7th inn tonite vs. CHI)
That’s pretty hard to do.
He was great again. That one walk is probably why they scored anything. Rios followed a bloop double and Nix extended the inning with an infield single. Robbed him of a win but still impressive.
…Marian Rivera followed suit…
What can I do, my dear, to catch, your ear? I love you madly, madly Madam librarian, Marian!
[Some typos are better than others.]
loved cano’s ‘stand-there-and-stare’ after the bat hit the ball. such a badass moment.
I didn’t. Now, Robbie wasn’t Barry Bondsing it, puffing his chest out and showing up the pitcher and self-glorifying, it was more like an expression of relief and pride that he got the job done.
Still, I like it best when they hit it and just start trotting…head down. Matsui is the best at this.
Why didn’t Hughes throw another inning?
Because they’re wooowied about his wittttle arm bwakeing down before the pwayoffs.
Personally, I think it’s a legitimate strategy. Seeing as some of our starters (*cough Burnett, Joba cough*) are prone to blowing up now and then, who knows what we get in the playoffs. I’d rather have a Hughes that isn’t at the end of some innings limit and is able to come in & pitch 3-4 innings in a big spot – possibly a few times in one series.
Does anyone doubt that Cano is going to get a pitch high and tight this afternoon? I mean, it’s Ozzie Guillen.
Robbie is so lazy… last night he just got tired of playing and said “Im taking my bat and going home, keep the ball”