Game 138: Back on grass
ByI bet the Yanks are happy to not be playing on artificial concrete turf. Not that it was the only cause for their woes yesterday, but whoooboy, was that one ugly. They’ll get two chances to redeem themselves today, and with their two best pitchers on the mound, no less.
Kicking things off will be CC Sabathia. Need we even look at how incredible he’s been since the break? Well, yes. If there’s one number I’d share about CC in the second half, it’s his strikeout to walks ratio, at a nasty 6:1 (72 strikeouts to 12 walks). CC was at 5.12 last season after the trade to Milwaukee. Sometimes the term “second half player” is bandied about without much statistical backing, but it’s absolutely true of Sabathia, at least over the last two seasons.
While a win would be redemption for the Yanks’ poor play yesterday, it would also be redemption for Sabathia. His last bad start was down in Tampa, when he allowed six runs, five earned, over 5.2 innings. He’s pitched just a little better since then.
Matt Garza is amid another solid season, though he’s dropped off a bit in the second half. After heading into the All-Star Break with a 3.73 ERA, he’s pitched to a 4.58 ERA in the second half to this point, raising his overall ERA to 4.11. The raise is mostly due to a short start in Anaheim, in which he allowed four runs in 3.1 innings, and a shelling at the hands of the Tigers.
This will mark Garza’s fourth start against the Yanks this year. He’s done a fine job each time, but the Rays are 1-2 in those games. In the last one he allowed three runs over seven innings, though the Yanks should have punished him a bit more for the 11 baserunners he allowed. Maybe he’ll wave goodbye to another Robinson Cano home run today.
The Yanks made two roster moves today, recalling Shelley Duncan and activating Brett Gardner from the disabled list. Gritt Girtner gets the start in center for the first game.
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. Eric Hinske, DH
8. Melky Cabrera, LF
9. Brett Gardner, CF
And on the mound, number fifty-two, CC Sabathia.
296 Comments
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The Mason Williams Watch
Gritsners back! Woot.
Doubleheader with CC and A.J. pitching.
Doesn’t get much better than that for a Yanks fan today. Win the first one though
More importantly, get AJ back on track during game 2
Great to see Gardy back!
Should have called up Juan Miranda and had him DH.
Shelley’s up? Guess he’s not getting to 100 RBI for SWB. And I guess they aren’t going to have their cleanup hitter in the playoffs.
yep, they got him up to the big time club
100 RBI’s for a AAA team wasn’t gonna get him anywhere anyway. not that there’s a real need for shelley on the yanks, though.
let’s go CC
I got Shelley’s autograph in Scranton! It’s like my life was made!
best autograph i got this year was montero at the aa allstar game whoop whoop
I made my cousin’s girlfriend get Jose Gil’s autograph. After all, he gave her the ball, but she also got Austin Romine’s signature too.
Did you get a Shelley Smash to the elbow too?
Nah, I’m too short, couldn’t reach over the wall (we were in the bullpen box party/picnic/whatever area…it’s got high walls)
as good as they’ve been, its kinda crazy that people have suggested CC, Halladay, and even Beckett as Cy Young contenders. To me, its a two man race between Greinke and Felix, with Greinke clearly in first for now. Maybe Verlander steps in if they struggle and he dominates the last few weeks.
This.
+42
How many wins would ZG have if he were on the Yanks?!?!
a lot, probably 17-18. that might have been rhetorical, but oh well.
10 QS in which he’s gotten and ND or a loss.
The post season awards in the AL are a friggin’ slam dunk this year, barring major changes, Mauer and Greinke.
You really expect the MSM to get it right? In our minds, it’s definitely a slam dunk but for the people of the MSM, it’s not. At all.
Grienke has been the best, but he’s not winning the Cy Young with 14 wins.
Damn game is FSN Network. I don’t get it at work. Stupid basic cable.
Just watching to see if Melanie Oudin can beat her third straight blonde Russian.
Why are you working on Labor Day?
There are no holidays at a Country Club.
Isn’t every day a holiday for the country club set?
Pretty much.
Tiger shot 6 under on the front 9 and it’s not even on tv yet… ugh.
It’s funny when people say that he’s had a bad year because he didn’t win any majors.
wow thats incredible
does jeter get the record today?
i say he gets it against sonnanstine
Night game.
Got enough flags, guys? Jeebus.
lol i think they were trying to make sure everyone knew they were super patriotic
Anyone else have school on a labor day?
i think its BS that my school (Texas A&M) has classes today
i’m essentially going to miss the beginning of the night cap thanks to class
I had school on Labor Day last year.
yeah our school has never given labor day off
we started aug 31, so eh
I went to Vanderbilt, and they told us the classes on Labor Day were because the school was founded by wealthy industrialists who didn’t take kindly to labor unions. Seems like it’s a little more common than I thought, though.
Sucks but I start school tomorrow so meh.
I have a job interview tomorrow.
/gulp
Good luck man!
Thanks, dude.
good luck man
See above.
wow that sucks.
i just assumed we had it off, now i have to go look it up
The State of Texas hates America.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....87490.html
Don’t mess with Texas’ Taxes.
people think perry is a moron in texas, so its ok
I’ve never had school on Labor Day but I feel for you!
Peace, Carl.
excellent job with the K CC
He might as well get them out of the way before he becomes a Yankee.
Who would’ve thought Ben Zobrist would be batting 3rd for the Rays on Sept. 7?
gameday is saying that cc has thrown a few sinkers. i didn’t know he had a sinker. maybe his fastball just moved a bit and gameday got confused or something
Gotta love Pena’s .311 IsoP.
boy pena will swing at schlop it seems
O-Swing% is up from 20.8% to 23.1%.
what does that mean? could you explain it for me?
O-Swing% is swings on pitches out of the zone.
From Fangraphs: The percentage of pitches a batter swings at outside the strike zone.
See the article if you want a little more detail.
thanks guys for the help on that
NO SOUP FOR YOU PENA
NO SOUP AGAIN!
good job CC
Mike, Do you think Dinoer Navarro’s year last year caused the Rays not to draft Buster Posey? Do you think they regret it now?
Nah, I think they’re smarter than that.
Really?
4 to go Jeter!!!
Of course Willie Aybar will have the game of his life now.
+4
damn
alright, maybe marky t can work the count
that’ll do!
Let’s go A-Rod.
There we go.
Wow, CC misread that one.
Nevermind, no shot at that one. What a rocket.
yeah he looked really lost there
A-rod with the RBI!!!
AROD!!!!
GET SOME ALEX.
Raked !!!
Doubles hitter.
Damn…Nice job Alex.
man i really get tired of the “proud of his pitches” stuff
if he wasnt proud of it, he wouldn’t throw it john…
How come Hinske’s not hitting second?
Some generous calls on the outside corner to LH batters.
seriously. I guess he’s at least being consistent? Garza’s not afraid to come inside, though. If you have to worry about a pitch 5 inches off the outside, I don’t know how you can still be ready for the pitch inside.
damn, scott richmond got lit up in the first inning against MIN
5H 5ER 2BB
There’s at least one post on NoMaas favorably comparing him to Phil Hughes. Hilarious.
My Gameday sucks.
Working just fine for me, until I saw In play, run(s) from Evan Longoria…
My Gameday sucks.
wow
evan almighty crushed that ball
I didn’t think it was really hit that hard.
yeah it seemed harder hit from the sound i guess.
it did barely go over the wall
Bet you thought it was a pop-up, huh?
You’re kidding, right? That barely cleared the wall…
not really
Fucking cheapie…
Longoria has such a punchable face.
That homer was totally Jorge’s fault.
that groundball from navarro is how its supposed to bounce, which is why i hated the astroturf this weekend.
boy that had to be a frustrating series for the yanks fielders
That’s why I can overlook Pena’s error in Toronto. How often does he play on turf like that?
same here
“He’s a superstar, he does the commercials.”
That’ll be my new meme. Thanks, Kay.
Old time pitchers? Every pitcher does it in every single game.
boy that outside corner to lefties is going to be hell to face with that generous K zone from the ump
I hate Garza..
I heard he hates you, too.
wow today is suzyn waldman and kim jones’ birthday
So which player gives Kim the birthday sex?
Melky. He has a thing for dyed blondes.
Haha, good guess.
Are you suggesting that there’s something unnatural about Mary Carey?
Has to be Cano rite?
she’s really tall in person by the way, i was shocked
not that it matters sicne i’m 6’2…
I’m guessing she gets the double play combo.
Boy u have to go there uh?
Slider is just nasty today…
Please stop trashing the Kazmir trade. The Rays unloaded a ton of cash and received a middle infielder OPS’ing .900+ in AAA and two other good prospects, and they had Wade Davis to plug into the rotation.
It’s called being smart and maximizing assets.
agreed, i thought it was a good trade
Plus, his #’s the last couple seasons has gotten worse and even though he’s 25, he seems like he’ll never reach the maximum of his potential.
Well these are the same ppl who killed the Pirates for trading McClouth and the immortal Jack Wilson. Cuz after all, The Pirates were a good team with those players.
So Kay is more or less alright with the Rays trading Kazmir and the resulting salary dump, but gets pissy discussing the Jays doing the same thing with Rios?
Well the Rays did get prospects.
True, true.
the kazmir trade was a good one for the rays. the jays didn’t do the same thing. they just dumped rios for literally nothing but salary relief. that move was ok, too, cause rios is an underperformer and is way overpaid.
They were in different positions. No one was giving Toronto anything for Rios AND taking the 60m remaining, the fact that someone actually took Rios and his contract is a win for Toronto.
Between that and the Rolen deal they saved 80m+
wow, gameday has decided to completely not mention jason bartlett walking
I switched over to Safari, now everything is working fine. I hate IE.
Luggage tag day???
anyone else listening to sterling and waldman? there was just some kind of loud kazoo noise near the microphone. sterling stopped in mid-sentence, sort of covered the mike, and yelled at someone to “find out who that was”
Welcome back, Gardy. Hope you do well..
That last pitch was right there.
GRIT GUTNER is back
The Gritness was majorly missed.
Welcome back, Brett.
Glad to see Brett
In 1998, including the playoffs, Homer Bush had 8 SB and 3 CS. What a burner.
Damnit you beat me to it!!
What happened to Pena? Why did Aybar replace him?
Pena check-swung at an inside pitch and got hit on the fingers
Thank you.
He swung at a ball that ended up hitting his hand to go down 0-2 then tried to hold up on the 0-2, couldn’t, struck out, and the hand was too badly hurt for him to keep playing.
Thanks. I appreciate the info.
Someone please tell Michael Kay that Homer Bush had a whopping 6 SB’s in 1998.
.508 as a senior!!! wow
Jeter is saving his record breaking hits for the night game.
thats exactly what i think too
He wants to save it for a walkoff. He wants the pie in the face today.
yea, he still hasn’t gotten a pie this year. i can’t remember the last time jeter had a walk off hit
That was a nasty curve to Swisha…not a lot you can do there.
It was off the plate, but the ump has been giving that location all day.
Is the outside of the zone as big as Gameday’s making it look?
The outside to lefties, that is. I know it was mentioned earlier, but it seems like Garza just got a strikeout with two balls and a foul.
yes
garza is getting a ton of the outside on lefties
Michael Kay can actually cook?
baking =/= cooking
very true, but hell the guy bakes a good lookin cake
Cake appearance is all about frosting.
Damn do I love me some Gardner.
Baking = Mathematics
Cooking = Painting
Hey!
There is artistry in Mathematics. Baking = Accounting.
HEY! I’m going to be an accountant next year after graduation
You can get creative with accounting. Mathematics is what it is.
No way. Devising truly elegant solutions requires invention, intuition and deep insight. it’s not mechanical, it’s beautiful.
Beautifully mechanical
Bookkeeping is bookkeeping. There’s beauty in math.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler%27s_identity
cmon a-rod!
A-rod is on fiya!
half-way to the cycle
Half way to history!
/ESPN’d
(If he were a Red Sox)
god cano is so fucking lazy. did you see the way he lazily swung at that pitch?
this scene of pettitte and mitre is pretty cool to watch
Here we go again with Michael Kay and the SP’s sitting on the bench….
i don’t get where else they would go. what are they gonna sleep in their hotel rooms or sit in the clubhouse?
I missed you, Brett.
Gardner is back!!!!
BRETT GARDNER IS SOOOOOOOO AWESOME!!!
I LOVE THAT MAN!
The one tool you can’t teach:
GRIT
Gardner’s defense > Ellsbury
Gardner:
17 UZR/150
Ellsbury:
-13.3 UZR/150
Too bad Gardner’s catch won’t make the top 10 but Ellsbury making a routine pop up will.
/overreaction
Your numbers disagree with my pre-conceived notions and are, thus, “ridiculous metrics”
Brett Gardner loves UZR
WOW!! Melky definately doesn’t make that play… what a play.
It wasn’t even his ball though… swish should have had that
it looked like he could’ve gotten there
Gardner called Swish off. I am not sure if Swish would have gotten it, he looked in position though before he veered off.
that was seriously an extremely incredible play
Come on, CC, get the out at the plate.
that change looked pretty close to me.
it’s only the fifth inning, but I smell a walkoff brewing
ruh roh
cmon CC you can get outta this one, although crawford isn’t my fav person to face
ruh roh
Scooby Doo, is that you?
YEZZUR!!
CC IS AMAZING!
why couldnt girardi put in posada as the DH and let Molina catch sabathia once again?
Gonna let Burnett have Molina…
Because that would make the team less good?
Actually yeah that’s weird. Jorge and AJ needs to work together as much as possible to get on the same page but I don’t see Posada playing 2 games in one day…
Molina had caught CC’s last three starts; you want Jorge and CC to make sure they’re working together well too.
Good Fucking Pitch, wow.
Dirty slider once again..
way to look at a meatball hinske
wow he is getting every call he wants on the outside…
that wasn’t even a strike
The ump was thinking about that one, then he realized he had to cover two games and called Hinske out.
Strike calls are getting ridiculous now…comon blue.
Garza has really impressive command of his fastball today.
With all that goes into pitching physically and mentally, it’s remarkable how little a pitcher has to do right to shut down an offense. Placing a good fastball on the corner is more than half the battle.
when the corner is 6 extra inches wider, it makes it easier.
True, but that’s part of the game isn’t it? Credit Garza for throwing the toughest strikes he can get away with.
Too lazy to swing the bat?
http://i27.tinypic.com/znuhea.png
lol chumps
what are you trying to prove?
woops lol, wrong pic
here:
http://i26.tinypic.com/crll4.png
Yeah…that really does nothing for anyone if you’re trying to make a point to everyone.
Why the Rays relied on Isringhausen and Percival is beyond me.
Can we find the numbers on pitchers ERA’s who have been miserable all year or especially in the past few starts…and then what their collective ERA’s are against us immediately after that…
I mean Matt Garza, Cliff Lee earlier this year, Scott Kazmir, Roy Halladay, etc. There are so many more too
All those pitchers you mentioned are pretty damn good.
Yeah. And it’s just a coincidence that they go through long terrible slumps and “find themselves” when they face us
Wow, shows you what kind of season Mauer’s having that even Michael Kay thinks he should be MVP.
damn
garza is on his game
although that was a corner strike on the inside to a righty
the man has been spotting that ALL DAY
Jeter is so mailing it in
wow that kid cannot eat a lollipop!
hahaha
lmao that was so adorable though. I bet his coloring books are the same.
i love it when young kids are enjoyin the baseball games
it makes baseball so much cooler
He’s not good in the clutch, the cameras have been watching him all day, he’s just melting under the pressure.
3-1 Clean Sox
Josh’s ERA slowly creeping to 4
I don’t understand what your name links to. But your name is great.
lol thanx but its a sad face camron(the rapper) smilie
LETS GO WHITE SOX!
smart move i think to walk longoria
Dude Swisher struck out Kapler, he is definitely easier to get out than Longo.
Wow. BULLSHIT
agreed
garza has gotten that all fucking day
That 0-2 pitch should have been a strike. Garza is getting that call…
not sure you make your ACE intentionally walk longo…
Is Gabe Kapler a FAR worse hitter?
Yes?
Then why, why, why would you not do it?
because you rather face kapler than longoria
CC says CC-YA!
thank god
do we send sabathia out there for the 7th? i hope so
and what the fuck offense, get CC some RUNS
Score some runs Yankees!
there we go swishahouse!
Bring him home TEX!
my god, that was not a strike
Yeah wow that 3rd pitch from Garza to Tex was more outside than the 2nd
yet another called strike for garza in the other batters box
THAT was actually closer and he calls it a ball
Nice call there Flaherty.
well that was a nasty curve..
ouch
wow he dropped a deuce on him
Comon Tex, that’s right down the middle.
Umpire is getting fooled by Navarro on his frames.
great job hitting A-rod!
please cano, come through!
Now Garza is getting BS calls to both sides of the plate. Amazing.
Come on Robbie!!!
Get it done Cano!
$32 MilLion siNgLe H1tter!!1!1
Just couldn’t sneak through or take a high hop… Nope.
oh wow i thought there were 2 outs before cano stepped up to bat
well cmon posada!
someone pinch hit for hinske if it comes to him. PLEASE
why not pinch hit for hinske with matsui?
another outside strike call
PAYROLL
DO YOU HAVE IT
If Posada walks they have to bring Matsui to hit for Hinske, right?
UGH!!!
DAMN!!
god dammit
where did the jetstream go
Garza got lucky…
Anyone ever notice that the guy on the BK commercial has a canadian accent?
this is exactly what the playoffs will be like i guess
ace vs ace
this has been an excellent game to watch
Too bad CC isn’t a “true ace.”
CC is getting some horrible calls…
Does anyone else find it curious that according to his wikipedia article, Michael Kay is nicknamed “K-Dawg?”
Really??
maybe he’s called that by friends that suck up?
lol
CC last inning?
Fo sheezy
can a brotha get a strike call on any borderline pitch?
THERE WE GO
why the fuck isnt CC getting that outside part of the plate?
i can see why you’d let cc pitch this inning, but at the rate he’s been going the past few years it’d be suprising if his arm held up to the end of his contract.
look at verlander.
the idea of 100 pitch limit is pretty dumb, history has shown us.
yea but cc has thrown at least 180 innings every year of his career, he threw over 250 last year, and has thrown 206 now with a few weeks to go in the season plus the playoffs. that seems like a lot
finally
phil hughes better be warming up
can we get a hit with risp?
Can we get rid of Garza?
can’t believe it took him forever to get that K call on the outside
Hughes for the 8th and Mo for the 9th?
Albaladejo looks like a zombie with that shiner
double digit strikeouts by CC
That was beautiful.
THERE YA GO CC!!
10Ks for CC
this man is just a freaking horse
That guy has a cool accent.