Yankees top ChiSox behind Colon, Cano
ByIt’s only been three relief appearances and two starts, but Bartolo Colon has turned into must see television. The 38 going on 29-year-old hurler brought the pain again on Wednesday, giving the Yankees eight innings and a sorely needed win.
Like a boss. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)
Bartolo Gets The Last Laugh
Before his year long hiatus in 2010, Colon last pitched for Ozzie Guillen and the White Sox in 2009, though not very well. Ozzie had some fun at the right-hander’s expense during his pre-game press conference, poking fun at him for being back in the big leagues. A few hours later, Colon was the one laughing while Guillen sat helplessly in the clubhouse.
Simply put, Bartolo was brilliant. He dominated the ChiSox hitters with the hard stuff, throwing 88 fastballs out of 99 total pitches. He didn’t just top out at 96 mph, he hit that with his 94th pitch of the game. The Spring Training concerns over his ability to hold velocity over multiple innings seems silly now. Of the 24 outs he recorded, six were strikeouts and 13 (!!!) others came on plays made on the infield (ground ball or pop-up). Bartolo threw nine or fewer pitches in four of his eight innings, so he was effective and efficient.
Colon’s biggest jam came early, right in the second inning when the White Sox loaded the bases with no outs. He struck out Gordon Beckham looking for the first out, then sat down Omar Vizquel and Juan Pierre on routine fly balls to escape the inning. Granted it wasn’t exactly the most formidable of batters, but it’s tough to escape bases loaded and no outs in the big leagues regardless of who you face. That was it, Bartolo retired the next nine men he faced before allowing a run on dinky ground balls with eyes in sixth. There’s no other way to put it, Colon was masterful. Regardless of what happens from here on out, he’s been worth every penny of his contract.
That poor baseball. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)
A Homer, Then A Dormant Offense
After the previous two games, the Yankees needed to do something early in this one to put everyone at ease. Robinson Cano did just that with a first inning three-run homer, giving Colon breathing room and fans a reason to unclench their fists. After that hit though, the bats went back to sleep. Mark Buehrle used his slow, slower, slowerer, slowest approach to retire 19 of the final 24 men he faced, allowing a mix of harmless singles and walks in the meantime.
Aside from Cano (1-for-4 with the homer), Andruw Jones (2-for-3), and Derek Jeter (1-for-3 with a walk), the rest of the team combined for just two hits (singles by Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez) and a walk in 20 plate appearances. Buehrle completed seven innings on just 106 pitches, not nearly enough for a finesse pitcher against the Yankees. They’ll bust out of it, but it’s always frustrating to sit though.
u mad?
Leftovers
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a manager get kicked out of a game as early as Guillen did on Wednesday, getting run up for arguing balls and strikes between the top and bottom of the very first inning. He got angry, went to the clubhouse, and tweeted what you see above. Patetic indeed.
During the last turn through the rotation, the five Yankees starters combined for this line: 36.1 IP, 23 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 8 BB, 26 K, 50 GB, 33 FB. That’s a 1.49 ERA and a 0.85 WHIP. Too bad they’ve only won two of those games because of the offense, but that will definitely do. Keep up the good work, fellas.
What’s Wrong With Mo™ Week is over, and there was much rejoicing. One-two-three went the ChiSox in the ninth, and neither of the two balls in play were particularly threatening. That’s how we like it.
At two-hours and 11 minutes, this was the shortest game in New Yankee Stadium history. Oh, and congrats to Joe Girardi on his 300th win as Yankees manager.
WPA Graph & Box Score
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Up Next
The Yankees will attempt to salvage a split of this four-game series with CC Sabathia on the mound tomorrow. The new version of Edwin Jackson gets the call for Chicago, and if you’re interested in going, check out all the still available and dirt cheap tickets on RAB Tickets.
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Bodacious Bart does it again. I have no idea how long this turn-back-the-clock thing will last, but damn, man.
hopefully long enough for the Yankees to wring some Cy Young innings out Millwood and Silva.
Shit, at this rate, call Jermaine Dye and Randy Johnson, see if they’ve been working out…
Bartolo is partying on the mound like it’s 2005. I guess you could say the White Sox got a Colonoscopy tonight.
Btw, when told of Ozzie’s remarks after the game Colon said he bore him or the White Sox no ill will and appreciated the opportunity they gave him in 2009. Bartolo: 1 Ozzie: 0.
I guess you could say the White Sox got a Colonoscopy tonight.
*snort*
I’m not worried about the offense busting out, so much as I’m worried about Cano’s patience and Jeter’s power. Gardner I’m not as worried about because a.) he’s easily replaceable if he sucks, b.) he’s not costing the team much money, c.) he’s hit two jacks already, and d.) he’s still a monster defensively and provides usefulness there. Jeter on the other hand, none of those things are true, unfortunately.
If Gardner sucks till around the all-star break, could the Yankees look to trade for an OF at the break? Sure, they have bigger holes but they can’t dictate what’s going to be available on the market.
First off, solid name. Second, I can almost assure you that the Mets will be willing to trade Carlos Beltran. David DeJesus might be available, my idiot Tribe fan friend keeps on lamenting that Grady’s going to get traded no matter what, and maybe even Matt Kemp if the Dodgers go down hill.
Maxwell is hitting pretty well. We have pieces in the farm to test out before going to a trade. Pitching i think is still priority.
The offense got a little annoying (stop hacking at everything, Yankees) but damn, Bartolo. He made getting out of that bases loaded nobody out jam look really, really easy to boot. Awesome.
mega efficient offense Yankees (featuring unsustainable HR rates…) spoiled you over the past month.
the super hacky with men left on base everywhere Yankees we’ve come to expect are finally here!
OMGOMGOMGOMG The MSM was riiiiiiiight! We suck, the Red Sox will run the table!!!
Can we get Tony Pena to advise on this year’s draft?
Al Campanis says Pena doesn’t have the necessities and buoyancy to give advise.
That was awesome to see Colon throw that kid. I could tell from the first inning that the ball was coming out of his hand nice. Some of the movement he was getting on the inside fastball was ridiculous. For some reason I felt that the White Sox threat really wasn’t. Colon didn’t let the little dinky hits bother him and pitched out of it perfectly. Love to see Colon pitching like this, good for him,
I want Colon to pitch like this until his arm falls off. The early results are stellar, and he’s making Cashman look like a genius (until he gets lit up or his arm, indeed, falls off). This last turn through the rotation was sick. The Yanks should have won all of the games, but I digress. I wouldn’t mind a couple more turns like that one. I can’t help but think Millwood is getting in pitching condition on the Yankees’ dollar and will be released this weekend (when his contract is up, IIRC).
They’ll find a spot for him, Buddy Carlyle can already hear the footsteps…
this offense will be monstrously good. even worst case jeter/gardner/posada won’t stop us from scoring 900 (ish) runs. playoffs or not depends on the rotation holding its own. this is turning into a compelling “bridge year” for the staff
This pitch to K Dunn was nasty: http://bit.ly/m4xgfB
His 2-seamer is so fun to watch. I just hope he continues to be at least serviceable for a while.
Hate to be “THAT guy”, but the meme is “U mad” sans the question mark.
So how long before we go after Felix Hernandez?
I’m sure he’s been looked into. The answer has been no. Don’t think we’ll see anything significant till this offseason. I’d rather have Josh Johnson anyway. Lower price to pay, and IMO, just as good of an arm.
seattle gm is a bullshtter! i doubt cashman will deal with him again!
for Felix Hernandez???
I would sit across the Table from Hitler, Hussain, Bin Laden, Mussolini, Dr. Evil, Kim Jong Il, Fidel Castro, the Octomom AND the Burger King if it landed the Yankees Felix Hernandez.
Cashman agrees.
Yeah really. You put hard feelings aside for Felix, but no one else on that roster is worth the trouble.
Geez, can you imagine if the octomom and the burger king had a baby?
“I would sit across the Table from Hitler, Hussain, Bin Laden, Mussolini, Dr. Evil, Kim Jong Il, Fidel Castro, the Octomom AND the Burger King if it landed the Yankees Felix Hernandez.”
+1
Can we please stop with the King Felix trade talk!
1.) This has nothing to do with the game last night
2.) What makes you think we will be available? Seattle will either grab Rendon or Cole in this years draft. So they’ll either have an infield of Rendon, Nick Franklin, Ackley and Smoak, or rotation of King Felix, Cole and Pineda. Add in Ichiro and if Gutiérrez can finally get healthy, they could become really good very quickly.
88 fastballs out of 99 pitches and probably more changeups than curveballs for the other 11. Amazing what movement and location can give you with essentially 2 variations of a fastball: straight and late left to right movement.
Maxwell 10 HR’s plus better arm/speed/defense than Swisher’s 0 HR’s etc. Anybody think Swish has low level thoracic outlet syndrome? What’s wrong with him? Is he hitting BELOW .100 from the left side? He is going to have to get incredibly hot to match last year’s #’s.
The Jeter pirouette throw from short center is ummm….sad.
Swisher has lost his mojo .
So you’re advocating replacing an established major leaguer, who has shown no sign of decline other than a slump, with a 27 year old in AAA?
That’s your position?
Got to give him credit, at least he’s moved off of replacing Swisher with Golson.
Of course that’s his position. He would put Montero at DH & dump Sado.
No-I will wait till Sado is 50 for that.
You don’t give up on a guy with a proven track record for the guy demolishing AAA “just because”
I’ll partially blame this win on Girardi for not bringing in Soriano or Joba in the 8th. Yipee skipee.
Ozzie is a real asshole for not believing in Bartolo. Everyone here knew he was going to do a fine job, right?
Do you realize there’s a difference between not expecting him to succeed and openly mocking him? Or should I not be surprised because you’re always like this.
Yeah, the second.
1. Ozzie never said he didn’t believe in Colon, at least not that we know if.
2. No one called Ozzie an asshole.
Two more failed Poopy Pants straw men.
he was being sarcastic
Sarcasm can still be used as a poorly thought out, trollish argument, as is Poopy Pants’ forte.
I was replying to Mike, who (I thought) didn’t notice the tone
… not considering Poopy’s commenting canon, but thanks.
Ha ha! “What’s Wrong with Mo Week” – LOVE IT!!!
Kevin Whelan gets his 8th save for SWB. He’s on pace to be pitching in Japan next year.
I think Whelen would be better off pitching in Japan than his other likely destination… traded to KC as part of a Dejesus or Francour package…
Francour is one guy I could see Cashman avoiding at all costs. At least the Yankees who aren’t overly patient (Cano, Jeter) have a history of solid contact rates. I think Francour just swung and missed again.
Indeed, Francour has about as much value as Brad Hawpe which equates to maybe two-thirds of Maxwell’s value or three-quarters of Golson.
Yes two of our OF’ers look lost at the plate but are playing great D…I see Gardner as the one who is in trouble come June if his bat doesn’t correct. Hopefully they (Grit & Swish) get corrected, Jete improoves & ‘Sada maintains the power while the average heads North to a .250-range.
Francour is not exactly a bad defensive player.
And Francour doesn’t have too much value to the Yankees anyway, since Andruw Jones is a righty and Nick Swisher is crushing from the right side.
DeJesus is no longer with KC, I think it is either Oak or SF now.
Can’t wait for Prior to come up and contribute. The emergence of Colon has to be one of the most random/hilarious/awesome/shocking yankee storylines of the last 5 years.
And it’s not like it’s smoke and mirrors. His fastball is back and “the Maddux” is a legit plus pitch for him. Obviously, as everyone said, the question is health. It’s a long season and the odds are not in his favor, but the stuff is there.
i think the oddest thing about this is that he’s pitched for like 3 other teams since he’s been good. he shows up in Tampa and looks like a young (well, old) Catfish Hunter.
The issue with Colon isn’t that he isn’t good; he is, he owns a CY and his FB has great movement. The issue is that he’s so badly out of shape that he constantly gets injured.
I think his innings should be capped at a number less than 99. He threw more pitches last night then he had in 3 years, so, great results but let’s take it easy here, his health is paramount. The probability of Millwood and/or Silva duplicating what Colon has done is infinitesimally small.
99 innings???
Do you mean 99 pitches per outing or 99 innings this year?
Throwing 96 is way more than any of us or them (NYY) could of thought. The question to me is his arm in August-form due to the winter ball & if so do we;
A) ride it out for 60 days & pick up 8-10 wins while we can?
B) have him save some bullets…throwing 92 with movement is great, 96 with movement is sick and may lead to breaking down.
C) feel bad for our foes because of the beating they are taken.
Maybe him having an off-season last year he took that time to develop his health and thats why we are seeing his 2 seamer beast batters. Stay healthy Colon pretty pweeaaasee.
Mark Prior isn’t fat and he still can’t stay healthy… David Wells had a nice long career as a fat pitcher.
Colon is a 38 year old pitcher with a lot of innings on his arm. I wouldn’t just jump to the conclusion that Colon’s cardiovascular health has anything to do with his shoulder health. And he’s been managing to go deep into games, so I wouldn’t necessarily even assume his weight means is cardiovascular health is that bad.
This.
The Big Bart fat jokes are amusing, but come on, Wells was a fat alkie who threw a perfect game with a hangover.
Pitching doesn’t always require the same level of athleticism as say, being a point guard.
I went to check the grill when the ChiSox loaded the bases with 0 outs, not knowing what I was coming back to. When I came back, Yanks were batting. Still up 3-0. I didn’t miss another Colon pitch. That 2 seamer to Dunn was crazy. It almost ended up outside!
See what is most amazing is he looks BETTER than 2005 era bart. That running 2 seamer is new. He had one but he’s got a maddux type runner now. It can back door righties or lefties. Very very very very very impressive. Very.
And it’s not smoke “and mirrors. He has the second best stuff on the team right now. Amazing, it’s gonna hurt us all really bad when he finally gets hurt.
Hopefully he proves us wrong again. Fist, he would never make the team, then he could never start. Well he made the team and went 8 innings. Maybe the injury doesn’t happen. We can hope right?
anyone concerned that he’s gonna piss dirty? I mean seriously… 38 YO overweight pitcher throwing 96 into the 6th inning? I am nervous.
It’s sad this is what baseball has come to. Any time a player unexpectedly performs well, he must be on steroids.
Not that he must be, but that he could be. And every player could be. I don’t think there’s too much value in asking, but I don’t think there’s any harm either.
I don’t think steroids is going to make his ball move the way it’s been going. He could always throw hard. I think it’s more savvy, a year off and a long finger nail.
Knowing the pitching concerns now with Hughes I wonder if Millwood will get a look ? Anyone know how he did in his last AAA start ? Not saying he’s the answer I’m just curious.
He pitched 7 innings and gave up one run in a win but got hit pretty hard. Throws a fastball around 86/87 and an assortment of slow and slower stuff. He was supposed to start today in a game at Charlotte starting at 11:15 AM but not sure about weather issues.
Since Buddy Carlyle is still in the Yankees’ pen, I’d guess Millwood replaces him and is kept at least as the long-reliever and 6th starter for a while… who knows though?
It’s a shame the Yanks have wasted this pitching performance. You can add the starts in Toronto to this stretch also. Let’s not forget that this happens every year where the O goes silent for a little while so I’m not concerned.
Nitpick, the starters have 2 wins in this streak but the Yanks have won 3 of the games.
Did we waste this pitching performance? I thought we won last night.
I was talking in general about the streak, not last night specifically.
Yeah it’s better to just win them all, but they also will have some games where their pitching gives up 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 runs and they still win because the offense puts up 10+.
Totally agree. It’s disappointing when they pitch great and go .500. It will more than even out when the offense kicks it into gear.
Bartolo Colon will be our game 1 starter if we are fortunate enough to make the playoffs. Players can’t adapt to his movement.
So, anybody know why they took Tex out last night?
sore shoulder aggravated a bit by diving for a grounder. Day to day.
Jeter is a cool 8 for his last 20 + 3 BBs in the past 5 games… Not saying he’s back or anything and there’s no power at all, but nice that he’s strung together some good games.
Yea we’ll take anything. As long as he is putting the ball in play, getting on base, and playing good defense at this point thats all we can ask for. ha ha
You put 38 going on 29 year old. Unless Colon is not human and can somehow get younger as the years go by.
That was my cheesy (and obviously ineffective) way of saying that he’s pitching like he’s ten years younger than he actually is.