Escape from LA
By Benjamin KabakDown to their final two outs, the Yankees stormed back with four runs in the bottom of the ninth off Dodgers’ closer Jonathan Broxton. A two-run home run in the top of the 10th off the bat of Robinson Cano gave the Yanks an 8-6 lead, and Mariano Rivera didn’t need more. The Yanks’ closer worked two scoreless innings as the Bombers drove a stake through the heart of Joe Torre’s Dodgers in a thrilling and emotional victory. With the win, the Yanks sealed their series victory in Los Angeles and an 11-7 record in interleague games.
Improbable heroes
We start at the end. With their Win Expectancy bottoming out at 0.4 percent after Mark Teixeira‘s 9th inning strikeout, the Yanks had a long road ahead of them and little support for the key batters. With Brett Gardner out of the game after getting struck on the wrist by a pitch and a few double-switches at play, Chad Huffman and Colin Curtis were due up 5th and 6th in the inning. It is a reflection on the current Yanks’ bench that, with Marcus Thames shelved, these two were the best hopes for the Yanks.
They were, of course, the improbable heroes of the game.
After Teixeira’s strikeout, A-Rod singled and Robinson Cano doubled. We saw the stirrings of a comeback, and the Yankees were suddenly tugging on our heartstrings. A Posada single pushed Cano to third, and then Curtis Granderson walked. The Posada and Granderson ABs shouldn’t be overlooked. Jorge fouled off five pitches and singled on the tenth pitch of his plate appearance. Granderson walked on the eighth pitch he saw from Broxton.
Waiting for his chance, Huffman had seen 18 pitches. He came up ready to go and drove a 1-1 pitch to right. Two runs scored, and the lead was down to one. Still, though, it seemed like a tease. Colin Curtis, a minor leaguer with a career .709 OPS, had come in for Nick Swisher in a double switch. The Yanks needed a fly ball; the Dodgers a double play. LA almost got their wish.
Curtis battled Broxton. Foul, foul, ball, ball, ball, foul, foul, foul, foul. On the 10th pitch — Broxton’s 40th of the inning — Curtis hit a ground ball to James Loney at first. With Granderson speeding down the line, Loney could have thrown home for an easy out. Instead, he tried to be too fancy; he wanted both outs. Loney ran over to tag first and then made an off-balance throw to the plate. It was to the first-base side of the plate, and Granderson slid in without a tag. Tie game.
Had Loney thrown home, the game would have been saved. It was a mental error in a game filled with them. Meanwhile, the kids were alright. At some point, the Yankees will look to upgrade their bench, but tonight, Huffman and Curtis made believers out of all of us.
Torre’s bullpen management, in reverse
For years, Yankee fans bemoaned Joe Torre’s bullpen management. We saw him wear down reliable relievers, using them in unnecessary situations day after day. Scott Proctor, Paul Quantrill, Tanyon Sturtze, Steve Karsay. The early 2000s are littered with the discarded arms of the Torre Era. Tonight, we saw it benefit the Yanks.
In a curious move last night, Torre went with Jonathan Broxton, his stud closer (3-0, 0.83 ERA, 13.2 K/9 IP before tonight), with the Dodgers up by five. He later said he wanted to make sure the Yanks didn’t start to rally. It was, in his mind, a save without actually being a save situation. Tonight, with a four-run lead, Torre did the same thing, and it blew up in his face.
Broxton couldn’t overpower the Yanks tonight. He battled through 10-pitch at-bats against Jorge Posada and Colin Curtis. He walked Curtis Granderson on eight pitches. By the time the Yanks tied the game, he had thrown 40 pitches in a single inning and still Torre left him in. Instead of cutting his losses in a 6-6 game, Torre let Broxton face two more hitters. He threw 48 pitches, and the strain on his arm for that one inning of work is arguably greater than what Edwin Jackson went through en route to his 149-pitch no-hitter. It was vintage Torre at his worst.
An inning later, Torre’s bullpen management struck again. After Ramon Troncoso got an out on an A-Rod fielder’s choice, Torre went with the match-ups, bringing in George Sherrill to face Robinson Cano. The Yanks’ second baseman had been 0-for-11 vs. the lefty Sherrill, but as the announcers on ESPN noted, Sherrill’s fastball isn’t what it once was. Cano took an 88-mph fastball over the fence in left-center. The book isn’t always right.
Joe Girardi, meanwhile, showed us the anti-Torre in him. After getting burned in an extra-inning affair in Toronto when Mariano Rivera never pitched and the Yankees lost, Girardi has shown a willingness to use Rivera for two innings in tie games on the road. Against the Diamondbacks, Rivera threw two innings and nabbed a win. Tonight, Rivera came in to face Andre Ethier, Garrett Anderson and Casey Blake in the ninth. He stayed out for the 10th and earned his second win of the season. As the Dodgers argued the strike zone, Mo’s two-inning, three-strike out performance capped off one of the best games of the season.
A sloppy game early on
The game, however, didn’t start out on a positive note. Andy Pettitte, pitching to earn his spot on the All Star Game, ran into trouble of his own making. He threw two balls away when the Dodgers started to bunt, and both times, he hesitated to make the right play. After a Reed Johnson double to open the third, Clayton Kershaw bunted, and with A-Rod yelling at him to throw to first, Pettitte made a wild throw to third. The run scored.
Two batters later, it happened again. Ronnie Belliard tried to bunt with two on and no one out, and Pettitte looked to third for a force. A-Rod was charging though and by the time Andy recovered, he had to rush the throw to first. It, too, went wild, for his second error of the inning. Pettitte looked flustered and annoyed. He had to grit it out through five innings tonight, but the Yanks’ bats eventually picked him up.
General Grievances and Observations
Joba Chamberlain continues to have a maddening season. His run allowed loomed large until James Loney’s mental mishap, and he just wasn’t pitching smart. Someone called for an 0-2 pitch-out with two outs, and Joba couldn’t locate his pitches. The only thing consistent about his season is his inconsistency.
After years of enjoying a wide Mariano Rivera strike zone, the tables turned on Joe Torre and his players. The Dodgers argued nearly every strike from Rivera and two of them — Anderson and Russell Martin — were tossed in the 10th. Life is good when Mo lives on the black.
Damaso Marte wins the Unsung Hero award tonight. Last night, the Yanks’ pen couldn’t pick up A.J. Burnett. Tonight, Marte came in with runners on first and third and two out. He struck out the dangerous Andre Ethier and then retired Manny Ramirez, Casey Blake and James Loney in order in the 7th. The game could have gotten away from the Yanks there, but Marte kept his cool.
Grabbin’ a victory from the jaws of defeat
The WPA graph is a beauty tonight:

Up Next: Cliff Lee
The Yanks’ scouts won’t need to travel beyond the Bronx to see Cliff Lee in person this week. After a well-deserved travel day that allows the Yanks to bask in their 4-2 road trip, the team will host the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night. Cliff Lee will face Phil Hughes in a must-see game.
127 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)
Eric Schultz (Archives)
Weekend Writers
Hannah Ehrlich (Archives)
Matthew Warden (Archives)
Special Contributor
J.R. O'Grady (Archives)
Technical Consultant
Jay Gordon
Subscribe to RAB by RSS
Follow @RiverAveBlues
Search RAB
Yankees News from YESNetwork.com
- New York City Football Club names Claudio Reyna Director of Football
- Yankees, Manchester City to own NYC MLS team
- Yankees, Manchester City announce NYC MLS team
- New York Yankees fall to Baltimore Orioles on Nate McLouth's homer in the 10th
- Ex-New York Yankees pitcher Scott Proctor retires
- Ex-Yankees farmhands Gil Velazquez and Cody Johnson find new homes
- New York Yankees top Baltimore Orioles in dramatic fashion at Camden Yards
- Rehabbing Alex Rodriguez partakes in defensive drills, hits in batting cage
- Robinson Cano surprises a young fan at the MLB Fan Cave
- Texas Rangers designate RHP Derek Lowe for assignment








That was a fun ride…Might be the best game of the year so far.Not bad,considering how it began.
best game of the year is the 2 homeruns off paps at yankee stadium
But we were much more depressed coming into this game.
This game didn’t involve blowing a five run lead
On the other hand, they WERE at home. And it WAS the Red Sox.
Yeah, I’m going to have to go with a tie on this game and the BoSox game.
Agreed. Tonight was fantastic, but two homers off Papelbon is much sweeter.
I love that “lazy” Dominican. Great comeback.
That was such a satisfying win for the Yankees. It showed classic Torre killing his bullpen’s arms. Scott Proctor is laughing somewhere.
I wonder what Joe Torre’s thought process was when he saw Rivera come in the 9th?
“Joe, Joe, Joe, who’s going to pitch the bottom of the tenth if you go ahead in the top of the inning? Classic rookie mistake.”
IETC.
Atlanta style comeback from last year? It’d be nice to see them get some more of their hitters going now and get on a nice run into the ASB.
Well, more like pulling away by the ASB. It’s hard to comeback from the best record and baseball.
Hey, that’s why they get paid $200 million, right?
yes?
Best game of the year? Best game of the year!
Missed it (except from the Tex K and on in the top of the ninth…awesome timing, right?) but I gotta go back & watch it. Seems like a satisfying win.
I’m like you, except that I saw them play awful defense in the 3rd, then I got back home to watch the top of the 9th. You may want to skip the bottom of the 3rd… pretty ugly.
At one point, the Yankees had a 0.4% chance of winning this game.
See, that’s why we don’t have computers play the game!
/Stupid fan’d
Haha, Ietc.
Which reminds me, Suzyn, that You Can’t Predict Baseball(tm)
Now who wants some Johnsonville Sausage?
Can it be delivered by W.B. Mason along with my Green Mountain Coffee and cleaning supplies?!?
You can’t say enough about the tough at bats from Posada, Granderson, Huffman and Curtis. Broxton didn’t throw 40 pitches by accident–they made him work and he eventually cracked.
I think Torre using him for 4 outs in a non-save situation yesterday helped. LOL
This game…
This was just so many different kinds of awesome. Fuck you, Manny.
I’ll be polite to Torre. Screw you, Torre.
I’m such a gentleman. Amazing, exhilarating win.
robneyer
And with that home run, Robinson Cano locks up the Gold Glove. 3 minutes ago via web
during the game recap on espn, when Granderson scored the tie run, did they say “you could almost hear the hurt on es–” and then he stopped himself?
correction, after hearing it again, someone else cut him off from saying that. he said “you can hear the hurt on es..”
You had a whole game story written before the 9th, didn’t you
ietc
Good one haha.
My friends who are Dodger fans hate me. Including the lead guitar player for Tea Leaf Green, to whom I sent an extremely obnoxious gloating text. Mwahahahahahaha!
the photo caption should read:
That man on the left is very, very
happyarousedTSJC’d
The mlb.com caption is “Whad’ya No” next to a pixture of Ribbie and the HR. Really? Don’tchano is too normal for you?
Maybe Sterling got it trademarked and they don’t want to pay royalties
What would happen if Cano batted against Mo? Would the world blow up? Would man cease to exist?
a shattered bat weak ground ball to second base
Cano is a damn good baseball player, but he is still on this plane of existence
The way he’s playing he might have one foot in the otherworld and the other on this planet.
insert something about Jesus Montero and Melvin here.
four roped foul balls in a row and then a strikeout looking on a backdoor cutter. Just like everyone else. Das how He do.
As funny as it may sound, this a worse loss for the Dodgers than a great win for the Yankees. Broxton giving up those four runs, two guys ejected, five games in back of San Diego, that is about as bad as it gets.
that is about as bad as it gets
False
Yeah, but if you’re an Orioles fan, you don’t expect anything going into the season. The Dodgers are actual contenders.
It does still get worse though.
Fair enough, but while they didn’t expect to contend, they certainly didn’t figure to be this bad. You win though
Fortunately for the Dodgers, they have the luxury of playing in a very winnable division. They and the Rockies are the class of the NL West. Trailing the Pads and Giants is a lot more manageable than trailing the Sox and Rays.
The Dodgers seem extremely streaky. They were terrible for a while to begin the season, then they went on a ridiculous hot tear, followed by them going something like 4-11 in interleague. They didn’t have the easiest schedule but that’s really bad.
Agreed. That was an implosion. And a big hit to their confidence. You gotta love seeing your opponent so frustrated they throw temper tantrums and tell umps to fuck off when they are rightfully called out looking.
Also gotta love the Rays fighting with each other. I don’t love injuries, but Pedroia and VMart both are injured.
All is well in Yankeeland right now. (Until the next loss, and then of course it is all falling apart)
ietc. Our cover is blown.
Let Jeter win all these SI awards and most caring sports athlete.MO is the best Yankee in the last 30 years.End of story.
/logic fail
Rivera is my favorite athlete ever, but one must admit that Jeter has clearly been more important over the years than Mo. Short stops > relief pitchers.
Also, MoBoy, your post seems anti-Jeter, and that’s a no-no.
Is that a shot at Jeter, A-Rod, Cano, Pettitte, Sabathia, Mattingly, Teixiera, Giambi, and Bernie Williams?
…A-rod, Mussina.
I mean Posada, not A-rod, oops.
I didn’t watch the game, so I’m going on Ben’s recap. But if there was one reason above all that made me support Joe Girardi’s hiring – and Joe Torre’s departure – it was Torre’s horrid mismanagement of the bullpen.
I think the Yanks were right in making the managerial switch. Tonight just provides more evidence. Sorry, L.A.
If Torre managed last season, Hughes wouldn’t be starting this year.
And I feel bad for you, you missed a great game.
if you had told me that the longest winning streak in the AL east as of now is the orioles at 4 games, i would’ve asked for some proof of sanity
anyways, good shit
My train home from Pennsylvania was delayed two hours, and then it was freezing on the train and there was a loud annoying family near me. So it sucked and I was very irritated. I figured I’d come home to see Andy pitching well because that’s what Andy does this year, and instead I came home to see him being botarded with bunts. I was upset.
Then the ninth and tenth innings happened. I am no longer irritated or upset.
The ninth and tenth innings of this game: Why I love baseball.
This was just too fucking awesome. Wow, what a fun game.
It’s so nice having Torre in the other dugout!!!!
LOL! Okay, now I’ve found my fave commenter nick. Wow.
Like I said on Twitter, What we witnessed tonight was GREATNESS! GO YANKEES!
Raise your hand if you didn’t miss a single pitch of the bottom of the ninth because you gave up on the game.
/Raises hand
me here. i was about to be content with a 3-3 road trip, and the yanks go all out on me and come back to win
Unless I’m really tired, I don’t think that makes sense. You didn’t miss a single pitch because you gave up on the game?
It was poorly worded. Worded differently:
Raise your hand if you watched every pitch of the bottom of the ninth and didn’t miss any of it because you gave up on the game.
ohhhhh, after like 5 reads of that I got what you are saying. It really is too late, ha.
It still doesn’t make sense.
and didn’t give up on the game, thereby missing some of it.
better?
Nicely done. The sun needed to come up on the comment thread. RAB’ers need off days, too, apparently.
I don’t have cable and ESPN screwed me from watching it on the mlb.tv
I listened to the whole game from Sterling until the bottom of the 9th at 11:45 when I said “I don’t need to hear the Yankees lose this game I’ll just read about it tomorrow.” /facepalm
I’ll always take issue with the idea that Torre ran “reliable reliever” Tanyon Sturtze into the ground. He turned back into a pumpkin.
I do agree to a certain extent. Not only Sturtze but Proctor too and others I can’t think about. He got the most out of this otherwise crappy relievers when they were actually pitching well. I don’t think it was necessarily bad for the team, considering they were bound to suck it up at some point.
But, he didn’t do their careers any favors. He definitely abused their arms.
Tom Gordon’s arm has flashbacks every time it sees Joe Torre.
Tom Gordon had problems staying healthy long before Torre got to him. Not saying he did any favors to him either though. But Torre did get a lot of good innings out of those guys while they were healthy and pitching well. With the volatility of mediocre middle relievers, maybe it is best to work em while they can get outs.
it wasn’t so much his wrecking of some relievers’ arms. It was that by exclusively using 3 relievers, he consistently ran into trouble towards the end of the season because he’d have two burnt out setup men and four guys who had barely pitched all year, and therefore sucked. Pitchers need to pitch.
Not for nothing, but Rivera pitched for him too and he’s still going strong. It’s not the expectation of anyone to be performing as he is, but he made it through the Torre era is all I’m saying.
Fantastic game. So glad I stayed up to watch it. The ninth inning was magical. Great at bats for the newbees Huffman and Curtis.
A pretty cool game. I approve.
The bottom of the third inning sucked. The idiotic commentary being spouted by the goofs in the booth somehow managed to make it work.
Make it worse, not work. Yikes.
Oh my god, I have never been more annoyed with Joe Morgan in my life than I was in that inning. And that’s really saying something.
“Well Jon, in the NL they bunt, and the Yankees are losing right now because DH’s don’t bunt.”
Right, because everyone knows that every AL lineup is made up of 9 DH’s. and who would want someone who can hit a homerun when you can have a pitcher who BUNTS?
WHAT A WIN! WOOO!
what a win! woooo!
sorry for double post
Having checked Pitch f/x I really can’t figure out what Martin and Anderson wanted from the umpire. The fact of the matter is that not only were they clearly strikes, ball 2 to Martin should have been a strike as well.
Here’s the Martin at bat:
http://www.brooksbaseball.net/.....anmlb_1%2F
If anything, that actually looks like he got lucky and a strike was called a ball (bottom right, pitch 2).
You said that already. Sorry. I clicked the link before finishing.
Pure frustration from the Dodgers, it was pretty clear even without checking PitchFX that Mo was throwing strikes. It’s definitely satisfyingly schadenfreudetastic watching players on the opposing team get themselves tossed arguing what are clearly strikes thrown by Mo – especially when it’s Torre who has to trudge out there and half-heartedly defend his guys when he knows they’re wrong and his team is going down.
While this is true, the Dodgers were upset because the low pitch was a ball for 8 1/2 innings, including on 0-2 to Colin Curtis. It only became a strike in the bottom of the ninth.
Interesting, thanks. I actually did a little Sunday night tv-watching with Ms. Mondesi and only turned on the game in the 8th so I didn’t have any feel for the zone as it was called earlier in the game last night.
I’ve gotta say though… The pitch to Anderson, at least, was clearly a strike, I was shocked that his reaction was so strong and animated. And he was a defensive replacement, right? So it’s not like he saw that pitch called a ball earlier in the game, other than from the bench.
Yeah, it was the typical strike zone for the first 8 1/2. Both pitchers were being squeezed on balls over the dish, but getting an extra 3 inches on the outside corner.
If MLB wants to speed up the game, and can exercise any control over it’s officiating, this is the number one thing to change. The ball at the hollow of the knee is not a hard ball to put in play, but the ball off the corner gets fouled off constantly. Make that one little change, and you’ll shave 20 minutes off of games, easily.
And Anderson heard all the yipping from his bench, and saw the ball to Curtis. It’s a very different game if Curtis is wrung up there. Fine that he wasn’t, but the balls to him and Martin were no different. I totally understand the frustration.
You may want to check this out:
http://www.theyankeeu.com/2010.....ripe-19157
What an awesome game. I live about 4 miles from dodger stadium and took a shot with a mets fan buddy of mine at scoring tix the old fashioned way. As we were heading up the hill from sunset to the stadium I saw one scalper dude and for once when a scalper was saying he needed tickets, he really needed tickets. He had nada. There were big sold out signs but I dropped the $15 for parking anyway. Not often the yanks are close to home, had to take the chance. We wandered around for about 30 minutes with no luck an headed towards the entrance towards the freeway as a last ditch effort. We were about to give up and go to a bar when my buddy points at this guy walking down the road and says that guy looks like the type of schmo who might have tix. Turns out he had 2 last minute cancels (he was on the phone finding out about it when we walked by and did the “got extras”). He asked for $100 for the pair (I expected to drop a c-note on 1) and I offered $80, which he took. Right field bleachers. All you can eat section. Rowdy, rowdy crowd. Dudes getting ejected left and right as the game reached the 8th. Must have seen at least 30 people escorted out, including the guy who was tearing up napkins and handing pieces to Yankee fans saying we needed tissues. Too bad he got kicked when it got to 6-5. My buddy wanted to leave after the 8th, but I don’t buy into that LA leave early theory. Good thing we stayed. Awesome to be there as the taunters turned into the taunted. Dodgers fans left en masse when cano homered. Reminded me of Anaheim back in 2000, Aka Yankee stadium west. Best game I’ve been to in years and it all came down to walking by a guy on the phone at the right time. Tonight was a night to buy a lottery ticket.
attaboy
nice story
It was funny that people on the Dodger’s blog were pinning for a Kemp for Cano swap now. The responses were, “Maybe two years ago, now you would have to package Kemp with Kershaw to get them to answer the phone.”
That trade idea has spun a very drastic 180.
Yea, I never wanted to give up cano for kemp. respectame?
same here. I always thought Cano was basically the same player – solid defender at an up the middle position with ~.370+ wOBA ability
Wait, did you just infer Matt Kemp was a solid defender? He’s arguably the worst defensive CF in baseball.
Ok, now can we say that it looks like Girardi learned his lesson about bullpen (and more specifically Rivera) management in tie-games on the road in the ninth inning or later?
I don’t think it’s a matter of Girardi learning his lesson, it’s more about having a bunch of off days so Mo is well rested. He’s said it a couple of times (and I agree with him) that if your closer is only able to go one inning, then there’s no reason to bring him in to a tied game. These last two games, he made the call that Mo was able to go two innings, so it made sense to bring him in. I have no problem with Girardi being cautious about using Mo for more than one inning – he’s 40 years old and had shoulder issues a couple years ago.
If it’s about off-days it’s got to be about the day-off following the game, not before the game, so it’s not about “having a bunch of off days so Mo is well rested.” Mo had one day-off prior to last night’s game, same as he had going into the Toronto game. If it’s just about the day-off following the game I see the point, though I’m not sure I necessarily agree with it. But if that’s what he’s thinking, then yeah, I guess my impression of him changing his strategy was a bit off.
(And I’ll note that not agreeing with this strategy doesn’t mean someone has a problem with Girardi being cautious about using Mo for more than one inning, I think that last sentence is a little out of place in this discussion.)
I don’t think it’s as simple as looking at his days off since his last appearance. You have to take into account how many pitches he threw in that appearance, how much he was used prior to that, what your upcoming schedule looks like, etc. Once he factors all of those things in, Girardi needs to make a decision on whether he’s available for 2 full innings or not.
I feel that the decision of whether he’s available for 1 or 2 innings is the critical point where you decide whether to use him in a tie game on the road. There’s little to no benefit having Mo pitch the 9th in a tie game on the road if he’s not going out for the 10th as well.
On the first point about off-days… Yeah, of course it’s about more than just counting the days since he last pitched, the same way counting innings is a limited way of determining a pitcher’s workload. But as a general signifier, it’ll do for our purposes. If you want to go and count up the pitches thrown and all that other stuff, go ahead, but I don’t think it’s necessary to the point of this discussion. We’re talking about whether a guy is well-rested – the method of determining that isn’t really all that important here.
“There’s little to no benefit having Mo pitch the 9th in a tie game on the road if he’s not going out for the 10th as well.”
I’m honestly not sure how I feel about this, but my initial reaction is that I disagree for the following reason: Whether it’s for one inning or for two innings, I want Rivera pitching in that game before the likes of Chad Gaudin, because I think the Yankees win more of this type of game if Rivera pitches before Gaudin does than they do if Gaudin pitches before Rivera does. The benefit of Mo pitching before Gaudin in a tie-game on the road, even if he’s only going for one inning, is that you’re going to either win in the bottom of Mo’s inning or get to the following inning with a chance to win more often than you will if you switch Mo and Gaudin, because Gaudin (or whatever lower-tier bullpen arm) will lose that game in his first inning of work much more often than Mo will.
Of course there’s a benefit to having Mo pitch the 9th (or a later inning) in a tie-game on the road if he’s not going to pitch a second inning, and that benefit is that he’s MUCH better than the other options and will give the team a better chance to win the game. When you save him for the save situation, you run the high risk of losing the game before he ever steps foot outside the bullpen. (See: June 5 in Toronto; Game 4, 2003 World Series.)
“The benefit of Mo pitching before Gaudin in a tie-game on the road, even if he’s only going for one inning, is that you’re going to
either win in the bottom of Mo’s inning orget to the following inning with a chance to win more often than you will if you switch Mo and Gaudin, because Gaudin (or whatever lower-tier bullpen arm) will lose that game in his first inning of work much more often than Mo will.”Brain-fart, sorry. Multi-tasking.
But as a general signifier, it’ll do for our purposes.
Sure, it works generally, but the Yankees look at more than just off days. In Toronto, I believe Girardi stated (after the game) that he didn’t want to use Mo for two innings. You can debate that decision, but I think it’s a completely different debate than the one we’re having.
When you save him for the save situation, you run the high risk of losing the game before he ever steps foot outside the bullpen.
That’s true, but if you’re only using him for one inning then the lesser pitcher is still going to pitch. Using the Gaudin/Mo example, is it really more likely that the Yanks win if Mo pitches the 9th and Gaudin the 10th than if Gaudin pitches the 9th and Mo the 10th? I don’t think there’s much difference there.
I do think it’s more likely, otherwise I wouldn’t be arguing with you, right? (lol) I don’t like losing games because the team held back their best bullets. I’m a little too busy to really get into this too deep right now, but, basically, yeah… I think the team will win more games when using their best players and when they don’t losing games before their best players have a chance to play.
Wow… Talk about posting a comment quickly and not proof-reading, huh? Busy day, sure you get what I meant.
Escape from LA
Not nearly as good as Escape from NY…but it has badass Kurt Russell in it so we take what we can get. (Hollywood will do a shitty remake of Escape from NY soon, because they literally ran out of ideas, which will ruin it)
Oh it was in reference to the game last night…amazing game. I’m not happy about Joba’s inconsistency but at least my mindset has changed when he’s in there. I’m no longer expecting him to be his once dominant self and now worry just as much as when any of the other bullpen guys enter the scene. Surprisingly, less things get broken this way when he gives up runs lol. Cano is a monster and the team is now started to win games they shouldn’t…which is scary for other teams. I believe this is the first win the Yankees have when the opposing team score 6+ runs? Or maybe there was one other…not sure.
In other news: In the span of 3 days, Dustin Pedroia breaks his foot (Posada style), Clay
ShawBuccholz goes limp around the bases with a hamstring issue, and VicDamoneMartinez also may have broken his foot.“Hollywood will do a shitty remake of Escape from NY soon, because they literally ran out of ideas, which will ruin it”
I read recently that they’re thinking about setting the remake in a penal colony in the future that is not in Manhattan, which kinda makes it a remake of “No Escape” instead of “Escape From New York.”
Yeah? That wouldn’t be bad as long as they didn’t use “Escape from NY”…which if it didn’t take place in Manhattan – I don’t see why they would. “No Escape” was a good movie…can’t find it anywhere on DVD though. Although they changed the script for the new Karate Kid that’s out…where it’s still called The Karate Kid but the kid is taught Kung Fu…
Trivia: Die Hard was actually supposed to be a sequel to the badass movie Commando but when Arnold Schwarzenegger backed out due to him filming “Predator” – the script was re-written into Die Hard. Bruce Willis was actually last on the list for the role of John McClane.
http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/.....rk-remake/
Nice! Eisner’s “The Crazies” was actually a pretty good movie. I highly recommend it.
Pretty sad Torre put his personal desire to beat the Yankees ahead of his team’s best interest.
I hope he has fun playing a 3 game set against his division rival Giants without a closer.
My friend and fellow (yet more spontaneously ridiculous) RAB poster “Bill R.” was at the game last night. Said Tom Cruise was chanting “Let’s Go Yankees!” after Cano’s bomb. My personal favorite
Samantha MiceliAlyssa Milano was also there (die hard Dodgers fan)…Must be nice, Bill R…must be nice.
i liked Knight and Day
RELEVANT!
General Grievences
http://www.cannonspike.com/Cam.....salute.gif
Martinez actually broke his thumb on that foul ball. Can’t say enough about the great at bats by Posada, Granderson, Huffman and Curtis. I really thought Curtis was gonna get rung up on that pitch that was called low. PHEW! Also, couldn’t understand why Loney didn’t throw home immediately after fielding Curtis’s grouder. He would have had Granderson there. So glad he didn’t. Anyway, GREAT WIN!!! And big since Yanks will see Lee and King Felix this week against Seattle.
but…frittoman told me they lost…. SO CONFUSEDD
Did anybody else notice Rodriguez with his head in his butt at 3B in this game? Pettitte had the force play at third–he should’ve hung at the bag–and what was he doing on Carrol’s “infield single” in the eighth? Joba had a nice one-two-three if Rodriguez doesn’t play that one from the porch swing.
You’re right on the infield single, but as for the bunt, he can’t hang at the bag. How was he supposed to know that the ball would go right to Andy? He has to charge incase the ball is bunted down the line, and Andy isn’t 20 years old anymore and thus not light on his feet. Bunting past him wouldn’t be that hard, and it would be Alex’s ball. Hell, the fact he charged, backed up, and was still in a good position to catch the ball that Andy threw away shows how well A-rod is moving now.
Not the first one, the second one. He played the first one the right way, but he did not retreat to the back on the second ball.
What a game! And yeah, I didn’t understand why A-Rod failed to run back to cover third on the second one as soon as it was laid down.
Saint Joe,destroyer of pitching careers.
But Frittoman was telling me the game was over, and my foolish words of it being just the top of the 5th were dumb.
That guy disappeared in the ninth inning. Can’t imagine why.
Some major, major LA Times fail:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.co.....dgers.html
You should probably wait until the game is over until pressing enter.
And seriously…
Pettitte instead dug an early whole, and Yankees shortstop Alex Rodriguez’s two-run home run was not enough to spark a Yankees comeback in the final game of the series.
This whole paragraph is a fail.
HAHAHAH! That’s hilarious.