Once again, CC was great. He powered through seven innings, allowing just three hits. His only real mistake was a low fastball that caught a bit of the plate, and even then few hitters other than Evan Longoria would have deposited it in the right field seats. Another hit was a grounder that found a hole, and the final was the result of Dioner Navarro sticking out his bat head and dumping one into shallow right.
He did walk four, including Jason Bartlett twice, but none of those came back to bite him. It did hurt his K/BB ratio, though his 10 strikeouts offset some of that. Carl Crawford, Gabe Kapler, and Fernando Perez were his most frequent victims, going down twice each. Wily Aybar, Evan Longoria, and Dioner Navarro managed to avoid the 10 K machine.
Matt Garza pitched as well if not better than CC, turning this one into a bona fide pitcher’s duel. He also went seven innings, allowing five hits and one walkd but no earned runs, thanks to the first-inning error. Strangely, even though he walked just one his strikes to balls ratio wasn’t very good at all — 67 strikes to 53 balls. In any case, he got the job done.
The Yanks got two breaks which led to their first run. First, Jason Bartlett booted a Mark Teixeira grounder, which put him on first base with two outs. The other fortuity was Alex Rodriguez working the count full off Matt Garza. That allowed Teixeira to get a running start, which allowed him to score on A-Rod‘s absolute rope over Crawford’s head.
Once Garza was out of the game, the Yankees struck. Nick Swisher led off the eighth by drawing a walk, and Mark Teixeira followed that with a single to right. Rob Thompson noticed Gabe Kapler bobble the ball in right, and waved Swisher on to third. That caused a poor throw, allowing Tex to mosey into second. The aggressiveness paid off, and the Yanks were set up.
Smartly, the Rays walked Alex Rodriguez, who was 3 for 3 to that point, to load the bases. They’d rather take their chances with Robinson Cano and his anemic results with runners in scoring position. Still, Cano is not hitting .000 in those situations, so he comes through some times. This was one of them. He skied a ball to center, allowing the pinch-running Jerry Hairston to score and give the Yankees the lead.
Joe Maddon used three pitchers to record the three outs in the eighth, but they allowed three runs along the way. They all go to Cormier in the box score, but Chad Bradford did give up a hit to allow an additional runner to score. It was a team effort, and it was the difference in the game.
The Yanks bullpen, on the other hand, slammed the door. Phil Hughes got off to a shaky start by walking Carl Crawford, but got a break when he decided to make a run for it on the first pitch. The Yanks pitched out, and thanks to an accurate throw and quick tag they put Crawford back into the dugout. Hughes finished off the inning, and Mo made his return with two strikeouts in the ninth.
That takes care of Game 1 for the day. With Mo and Hughes unavailable for the nightcap, the Yanks would do well to knock around Andy Sonnanstine. A.J. Burnett will try to get back on track and bring the Yanks magic number down to 16. We’ll be back in a couple of hours.
Just 5 days 'til pitchers and catchers report.
Lets keep it going!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fastest recap ever.
Yea, I was surprised. It’s like how the professionals do it. You gotta start early. Nice job, Joe.
Is that Oscar Charles Gamble as 17 on the count down?
Yessir.
Good pick coolest hair of any Yankee.
http://news.cnet.com/i/bto/200.....70x371.jpg
I was hoping to see Bob Cerv for #17. No one would have guessed his name, but you probably couldn’t find a picture for him very easily.
Here you go:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LSnR.....tacerv.JPG
Thanks – That’s great. I thought it would be hard to find a pic of him with the #17 visible.
But I couldn’t find anything with the number 17 on his back.
Great player – well, pretty good – who had the bad luck to back up Mantle. Still, he cashed a number of WS checks, when those were a significant part of his pay. Showed his stuff later, when traded to KC.
yeah man you must’ve started typing this during the 8th inning!
wow!
Damn, even with the strikezone the extended all the way to Tampa, Garza couldnt throw a lot of strikes. We would have murdered him if he didnt get all of those calls. But whatever, a win is win.
19 to 16 (hopefully) in 1 day, awesommmee.
Damn, I love this team. Unless I’m mistaken, first to 70 & 80 wins and closing up on 90.
Now if that slumping SS would just get in a few hits…
Although it stinks for the Rays that Pena is out for the year now (and it pretty much will kill their chances for getting ahead of Bahston, no matter how small they were), it’s good for us for today as he could’ve hit some HRs with the short porch and him being a lefty.
Where did you hear that Carlos Pena was out for the year??
http://www.draysbay.com/2009/9.....wo-fingers
And PeteAbe’s blog just posted it too.
Hmmm. (Doubtful) chance Pena would be dealt in off-season, says the blogger. Wonder if he can play the outfield…
Pena is a badass. Fractured two fingers in his hand and just shook it off.
Yankees are looking real, real good. If Burnett goes on one of his hot streaks, this team will be tough to stop.
They don’t think it be like it is, but it do
/Gamble’d
for real?
That is an incredible quote.
Nice post, but i think Hairston was the one who scored in the 8th inning pinch running for Swisher.
I think I tried to mentally block that out. Hate the pinch runner on third base.
I think it was a combo of a defensive upgrade in conjunction with the upgrade on the basepaths. An outfield of Jerry Hairston Jr., Brett Gardner and Melky Cabrera from left to right is the best possible defensive outfield this team can put together.
17 to clinch the division 15 to clinch a playoff spot right?
Swisher on Gardner: He’s the fastest white man in the country. It’s good to have him back.
I heard that. Pretty funny.
Great quote – Swisher comes up with some good ones.
My name being one of them (although technically this is a Kim Jones quote based off of a Nick Swisher quote).
Haha, Swisher is the best.
That catch Gardy made was absolutely unbelievable.
I don’t know, maybe it’s all that grit, but I just love Brett Gardner.
if it’s 2-1 in the ninth tonight who pitches?
Marte?
Bruney? That’ll make a lot of us crazy!
I say they just pound the shit out of Sonnanstine and make Dunn pitch the 9th.
+16
Yeah, but he blew up in his first appearance as a Yankee.. so he truly sucks… what a bust..
No lead is safe.
Robo?
I like Mike’s idea better – Just pound that crap out of Sonnanstine. Then we don’t care who pitches the ninth.
If its not a blowout, I’d go with K-rob too.
I assume Alfredo Aceves will be the closer, and David Roberson the top set-up guy, and Damaso Marte and Brian Bruney the late-inning guys used in lefty-righty situational spots.
Swish just called Gardner the fastest white man in America. Hah.
JMK mentioned that earlier. Pretty funny.
Got a chance to stretch the lead over the Angels, too
KC up 5-3 heading to the bottom of the 8th.
That Farnsworth signing sure looks good for the Royals – he allowed two inherited runners to score in the 7th, and has a nice fat 5.52 ERA
4.5 million a year. Ewww
Im sure he wasnt a hot commodity so they could have gotten for a way cheaper price. But thats Dayton Moore for ya….signed until 2014.
Contracts like that and the Guillen contract are part of the reason that I have no sympathy for payroll whining. There are multiple mechanisms to spread money around; if you still can’t compete because you’re giving out bonehead contracts and trading for Mike Jacobs and Yuniesky Betancourt, I’m sorry but that’s your own damn fault.
In the last spillover game thread someone posted that Carlos Pena was out fo the year (was he confusing Carlos Pena and Ramiro Pena, perhaps?). I haven’t seen that anywhere and think that might be a false report. Anyone hear something definitive?
I replied to your reply of my comment above.
Thanks – I missed your response. Tough break for the Rays but it probably didn’t matter anyway. They’re done for the year.
no pun intended
Not sure if this was commented on earlier, but I just wanted to register my incredulity with the following sentence that Sterling uttered, verbatim, on the radio in the eighth inning: “You can’t pitch better than Garza pitched today; Sabathia pitched just as well, if not better.”
Typical Sterling idiocy.
well Jawn, I absolutely agree with you there
/Waldman’d
nope. john was right.
YOU can’t pitch any better…ZZ, on the other hand, pitched just as well if not better.
I remember Waldman saying when the Yankees lost to Tazawa “they’re just not getting hard hits off this guy.”
That sounds totally reasonable until you realize that in that inning the Yankees had a lineout, a single, and a fly ball to the warning track.
Genius comment there, Suzyn.
Sorry, should be “they’re just not getting hard hit balls off this guy.” I want to make it clear that she wasn’t referring to their general lack of offense. She made it sound like he overwhelmed them.
haha, ietsq
Yanks are now 15-0 when tied after 7
that is my very favorite stat about this team
…am i the only one that thought maybe phil could have pitched the ninth, or at least given it a shot?
i mean, i know i was complaining that mo didnt make that four out appearance in KC early this year–and i think the arguments made against my thoughts then are still pretty valid:
dont over use him
he’s getting older
just coming off an injury
rest down the stretch
weather (was it hot today, it was cool that night)
and now, a little rest before the playoffs
i’d hate to see us with the bases loaded up by 1 in the bottom of the ninths two outs now…i’d rather lose tonight then (dont say it) blow out Mo’s groin…
GET THOSE HITS JEETS!!!
El Capitan goes 6-6 with 8 runs, 3HR, and hit for the cycle.
(yes, he got HBP the last two times up…)
And all of that happened before being taken out after the 5th because of the blowout.
He had already warmed up by the time they took the lead. I imagine they weren’t going to give him dry-humps today.
+6 to both of you
Wow. Beckett took the lose today one more win and him and Andy have the same record. Who would of guess that one ?
Well, one thing I’ve always said…you just can’t predict baseball. It’s not possible.
Sterling’d
I’m going to the game tomorrow…what should i get to eat?
whatever you want, everything is expense, but the sausage and peppers were pretty good when i was there
It was, but I felt like the roll/bread they put it on sucked. It was like a shitty hot dog roll with a tasty sausage and some good peppers and onions on it.
Aren’t the cheesesteaks supposed to be good, too?
Do yourself a favor go early and eat cross the bridge in Washington Hts. With what your going to spend at the stadium you can eat a great meal with drinks for two for a lot less.
Or go a bit early and hit up Giovanni’s at the Grand Concourse. There’s some excellent Italian restaurants around the Bronx
For me, when I’m heading in from my cousin’s house in suburban northern NJ, I like to stop at Manny’s Stateline on Route 303 in Tappan after the game (or during, if I don’t have tickets). Now I’m jonesing for churrasco
I passed Manny’s Stateline on Route 303 in Tappan A few times never tried it. Giovanni’s at the Grand Concourse I will try it next time I go to game I love Italian.
Thanks for tips.
went for the first time today and enjoyed the pulled pork.
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