Jul
04
Game 85: Fourth of July
ByHappy Fourth of July, everyone. The Yankees are looking for their second straight win (!) and are in the right place to do it. They’ve been close to unbeatable in Target Field over the years. Here is the Twins lineup and here is the Yankees lineup:
- LF Brett Gardner
- 2B Brian Roberts
- CF Jacoby Ellsbury
- 1B Mark Teixeira
- DH Carlos Beltran
- RF Ichiro Suzuki
- C Frankie Cervelli
- 3B Kelly Johnson
- SS Brendan Ryan
RHP Chase Whitley
It’s cloudy in Minnesota but there is no rain in the forecast. This afternoon’s game will start a little after 3pm ET and you can watch on YES locally and ESPN2 nationally. Enjoy.
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Happy Birthday, Boss. Let’s get ‘em today.
Interesting to have Brob in the 2 hole. Would rather have Ells/Gardy b2b, but he does see a ton of pitches, and actually has played better offensively than Jeter.
Shit, 61 hot dogs is a bit much for me.
merica.
MERICA!
/fixed
Lou Gehrig = Greatest ever homegrown Yankee (TM).
Man, Gardy is so good.
Brian Roberts batting 2nd? Ridiculous.
And Roberts rewards the bad decision.
Rewards the decision again.
2doubles and a triple are quite the reward for Joey G
And a third double. Maybe the high socks are making his swing more efficient.
Higher Wrc+ than Jeter, hits more fly balls, and sees more pitches.
And is rated as being a better baserunner still.
When Roberts batting second is an upgrade, you’ve got problems.
Roberts showed signs of getting healthy last yr. The guy can still hit some, it woulden’t be a big deal if the guy hit 290BA or something, so i’m not surprised he came through. Hes struggled to this point but he’ll have his hot streaks from time to time.
YS3 would’ve made this a 3-run game.
Did the offense finally wake up? I was so optimistic for so long, I finally started to lean they woulden’t gel offenively the past couple days and boom, the offense is looking how we expected.
Its only 2 days but still, its something.lol
Belty gets the job done. 4ribs in past 2 games so far. Still alot of AB’s left in this one.
3runs, a bunch of ex-base hits, and the pitchers pitch cound nearing mid 20′s. July 4th baby!
fireworks started early.
They just clobbering this guy.
Uht oh.lol
And we giving them right back.
well. july baseball.
Come on Whitley. How can you go from so good to not being able to get a guy out in blink of a eye? Baseball is a crazy game man.
I think you answered your own question
Usually pitchers who were never that good in the minors, throw 90, and leave the ball up in the zone won’t be that good for too long. Regression to the mean hittin him hard
There we go. Mix that change/fastball. Its that Change that is his on pitch.
By the way, for those who thought Morales would help the offense, he’s hitting .217/.247/.304
This offense doesn’t score a lot. So when they do score, the pitching has to hold up. And Whitley has been sinking like the Titanic
3 outs in and we already have the hits for the cycle.
Wow, I count 2 or 3 fastballs this inn so far. Rothschilds out now. Maybe there is something wrong with him? Nerves coming off a bad outing and worried his heater will get pounded?
Haha, the 1st pitch after Rothschilds visit to mound was hardest of night, 91mph fastball.
Whitley has only thrown 1 ball at 90mph or better(90 on dot), but has a couple outs and a K. All off speed or is his velocity down? I can’t totally call it yet?
Ok, there was another 90mph fastball. Tons and tons of offspeed stuff. Whitley must be feeling good about his stuff today, no?
At least he was better than Gibson.
ROthschild def told em to not be afraid of his heater. He started throwing mostly fastballs and got got the K.
Gonna be seeing a lot of David Huff today.
And maybe the Twins longman too.
28 pitches for 1 inning. At least the bats were coming alive, otherwise I’d be pretty worried.
Wish I was old enough to have watched Righetti’s no-hitter on July 4th, 1983 (i was only 3 yo at the time). When I got older he and Mattingly were my favorite players but I only remember Rags as the closer not as a starting pitcher.
Cervelli does what Cervelli does when hes played for the big club. Hits.
And he shows his speed for a catcher. I think Cervelli’s just great!lol
That 88 career OPS+ begs to differ.
LOL Cervelli
Good thing Cervelli swung at the next pitch. You have to think Cowboy Joe would ave rung him on any pitch after the 3-0 businesss.
Derek Jeter making fun of Suzyn’s sparkly vest is hilarious. That thing is a monstrosity
That was some seriously good baserunning there by Cervelli though to tag up. A lot of runners I think would have instinctually started going halfway on that.
Cervelli really trying to piss Cowboy Joe off (nice slide)
Damn
Tim.K is so boring hes funny sometimes.lol
Brilliant AB for Gardy. A triple, BB, Run, and now get ur SB Gardy, and you’ve pretty much filled ur leadoff hitter stat chart for the day.
Nice ells. Managed to create 2 more runs with 2 outs.
Now we’re talking. And here I was just about to curse that Grounds Rule Double.
Ells baby! You could say something bout Jeets not being in the lineup but he was last night when they scored 7 and has been hitting well recently.
I think John Sterling is drunk. He’s already blown like three calls.
How is that different than normal?
76th birthday drinking?
The Yankees can’t lose this game under any circumstances.
Little early to make that proclamation.
i’m sure he means mustn’t.
Better word. Thank you
I’d certainly agree with that. It means they’d better keep scoring runs by any means necessary.
Gardy on pace for 47 ex-base hits 99runs and 29SB.. Not to shabby.
for a fourth outfielder.
Yeah sure. Probably only been one of our best hitters. If he’s a 4th outfielder what are Ichiro and Sori?
Yeah, lots of 4th OF’ers score 100runs with 30SB , 47ex base hits, a 290BA and a 363OBP..
I think a couple of broken sarcasm meters above…
Wow, I just caught it. Should of mentioned the sarcasm though.
Remember when that was kind of expected for a leadoff hitter. Nothing against Gardy, it’s just offense really has gone downhill far.
Just turned my set on to a 6-1 lead. Is this still 2014?
Yep. We’re facing the Twins’s worst starter.
big wheel woulda made that.
Very nice of these two teams to just decide and stage of replay of their 4th of July game in 2013.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/boxscore?id=330704109
I missed that game because of work, among other things, and that day sucked, so it’s been nice to see it now.
cant believe that lineup scored 9 runs
twins. enough said.
In their defense, they were playing in Minnesota. How has this team scored 13 runs in 11 innings? Minnesota.
Can we just negotiate a swap of home ballparks for the rest of 2014?
I know.
Ichiro leading off, Zoilo 2nd, Hafter, Wells, Overpay as the 4,5,6. And then that bottom 3, you just have to laugh how bad that lineup is.
Can t believe that lineup won 85 games!
Whatever Whitley.
Jesus, two infield hits in a row. This isn’t Whitley’s fault.
Gotta love the Twins, they always deliver.
i detect a pattern.
Very noticeable pattern.
Awww come on.
Thanks Cervelli.
Cervelli having himself a game…
Anyone see Johnny Damon’s comments on ESPN? It’s funny and sad at the same time. He’s become delusional.
Does he still think he’s a Hall of Famer? Is he trying to catch on with a team?
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_.....t-playoffs
Thinks he can outhit half the league. Also suggested Boras hasn’t come to him with any offers because they’re too embarassing.
He’s 40 and he doesn’t have a job for a reason.
He needs to give it a rest. He really thinks he can outhit half the league? LOL
what a drag it is getting old.
not “half the league,” but i bet he’d outhit sori.
Not much of an accomplishment there.
Mick Jagger would outhit Sori.
I can totally see Deduno shutting down the lineup after they struck early.
Whitley needs to hold.
He won’t.
I know. That’s why he needs to be taken out very soon.
I’d say this should be Whitley’s last start, but I have no idea who they’d replace him with.
Matt Tracy right from Double A? I have no idea. Chris Leroux on a pitch count?
Huff and Whitley swap roles?
Yeah I was thinking that too. What a choice.
Honestly our best option if we’re limited to internal guys. Whitley started out as a reliever anyway. Need to replace Nuno as much Whitley though.
*just as much as Whitley
Come on Whitley. Jesus!
Take him out NOW
WHITLEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Whitley experiment needs to be done. Go get Saunders on a minor league deal and stick Whitley in the pen.
And, yes, I’m well aware how bad Saunders is.
Gonna be a long day, kids.
bring me huffles.
Whitley’s ERA has really skyrocketed recently. Wasn’t around 3 not to long ago? Now it’s above 5.
Was under 3.
this is bad we need a couple of arms.
Again, I’ve seen it happen a lot where the Yankees score a lot of runs early and then put it on cruise control and don’t score again.
You shouldn’t need insurance runs when you have scored 6 runs.
They better not lose this game.
Unfortunately you do need insurance runs when you score 6 runs if Chase Whitley or Vidal Nuno is your starting pitcher.
Then they are going to lose.
Isn’t this the time of the year we get Cliff Lee?
When’s huff come in?
That moment when you realize that the Yanks scored 6 runs in 3 innings with Ryan Ichiro Roberts Cervelli and KJ in the lineup.
And they might lose that game
Roberts’ apparently likes the 2 hole
Getting better pitches.
This offense better wake up against the new pitcher or this will be a gut-punch loss.
It has nothing to do with the offense. All about the pitching.
When you score 6 runs that should be a win.
Not when Chase Whitley is your starting pitcher.
Exactly. That’s why it’s the pitchers fault.
Who cares about fault? Whitley is a nobody. He can’t be expected to produce. He started melting down almost immediately. The offense certainly saw it happening, and saw it happening early. Scoring in the first two innings and then going to sleep is never a good idea.
how ’bout that two-hole?
Sure, why not?
HUFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank god.
He might suck, but it’s the right move.
He can at least keep his era near 4-5.
Mentioned this earlier, wish I was old enough to have watched Righetti’s no-hitter on July 4th, 1983 (i was only 3 yo at the time). When I got older he and Mattingly were my favorite players but I only remember Rags as the closer not as a starting pitcher.
Saw Star Wars that day with my son who s 42 now.:) Saw the last 3 innings on the “tube” (TV) as called back then. Who made the last out? How? Need a hint? Just ask.
2 triples in one game.
is because the park they are playing in.
Plus they’re actually hitting.
What would it take to get or Colon or Burnett (after all Kenny Rodgers was here twice).
Well yes, but Whitley is not exactly Mr. Shutdown. It’s not about who’s right or who’s wrong. Whitley isn’t a factor. The offense will have to win this game.
They still have the lead at least. Anyone unavailable in the pen?
But their offense for the most part has proven incapable of winning games on their own. So when they do score some runs, gotta make it stick.
You can throw around words like “gotta” and “must” but it’s irrelevant to the reality of this game. They will almost certainly need to score more than 6 runs to win this one. It’s depressing, but then much of this season has been depressing.
Right. And besides, the reality is only this: whoever scores the most runs wins.
We seem to hit better in bigger parks maybe we should exchange Citi Field and Yankee Stadium.
They obviously can’t actually do that but it sure does seem they play better in big ball parks with big power alleys.
i bet the mets would be down for that too.
Yeah, the offense is going into roll-over mode now. It was fun while it lasted.
Knew it was coming.
Luckily Huff looks poised to the challenge for the moment
Suzyn wants David Huff to start. Yikes.
She might be right
She might be right that he will start, not that it’s a good idea.
Last year Girardi used Hughes/Huff. They may try the same formula with Whitley/Huff.
OK so if Huff starts, and Whitley goes to the pen, then Huff can go the three or four and Whitley can come in to give them another three or so. It’s a wash.
But if Huff is doing better you go him first. Can always throw the game to the rest of the bullpen, if you out of it throw it to Whitley.
Agree. But Whitley was also doing better..until he wasn’t.
Looking out the pen workload, we really need to use Thornton more often. I know he’s not the best option to bring in, but we really should start taking the pressure off of Dellin and the others. I think he’s done well recently too. Huff has been pretty active recently so he won’t last long. May have to use Miller in this one along with Thornton.
Thornton’s not even on pace to throw 35 innings this year. Betances and Warren are already in the 40s in IP.
Thornton is godawful against righties though. He’d be facing a ton of them.
The Phillies are one of the rare teams who are out of it. AJ Burnett is most likely going to retire after the season. I’d try to work something out with the Phills.
True, but he hasn’t even hit 20 innings yet. If we give him more innings in blowouts that’ll help Huff and they can use him more often against lefties when we’re ahead so Betances/Warren/Kelley need to face fewer batters.
“if we give him more innings in blowouts”
Would be nice to have some blowouts for these innings. This could have been one.
Thorton is a below average pitcher, it’s that simple. We haven’t exactly played many laughers (in which we were in the lead).
Don’t need the lead to use him. Just give him an inning in any blowout and just give him a LHB or two to start/end an inning instead of Warren/Betances/Kelley throwing an entire inning too often.
The problem is he blows. If you can use him as a mop-up guy, I agree, do it.
But as a “lefty specialist”, which he supposedly is, he just does not have the ability.
Not true. Vs LHB this year:
.220/.289/.220
Not saying he should pitch really often or regularly, but just put him out there more often in the right spots (low/medium leverage, higher leverage for a LHB or two. nothing more than that) For example, if Warren has been used a lot but can still pitch and then there’s back to back lefties coming up 2nd and 3rd with a 2 run lead, use Warren to start the inning and use Thornton to get the next two and finish the inning.
The Phillies are one of the rare teams who are out of it. AJ Burnett is most likely going to retire after the season. I’d try to work something out with the Phills.
How about no.
I know the Yanks are just loaded with starters. Good point.
Clean inning just what we needed.
Ichiro staying busy out there.
F9 F9 F9
Roberts has been sensing Refsnyder coming for his job.
Doing his best Refsnyder impersonation.
well done.
Roberts Looking like The Old Roberts the Extra base Machine.
Hands down Roberts’ best game as a Yankee. He’s padding his OPS today.
up over .700. whaddaya know.
good for fifth on the roster??? (with big wheeler first after his one game; so fourth, qualified.)
One pitch? Really?
They don’t tack on runs.
why not leave huff in and if he gets in trouble then bring in warren ?
Surprised Girardi didn’ at least leave Huff in for Fuld
Dont like this move. Think you could have gotten another inning out of Huff.
Huff has pitched often recently.
Pitched on Tuesday and Wednesday. Fair argument.
Hopefully BROB can hand this one off to DROB for a 4th of July W. Nothing as american as Yankees Winning.
Adding on to my point earlier, could use Thornton to go after Fuld, then brought in Warren. Or bring in Thornton against Parmelee.
But nope. Burn out Dellin.
Dan Otero from Oakland leads the majors in IP for a reliever with 52.1
So what? You’re just pointing to another overused reliever. Why have Thornton if he’s not going to be used? He hasn’t pitched in 3 days.
Jim Miller hasn’t pitched at all.
There are reasons for that. And Thornton.
But Thornton can be effective as a LOOGY.
Sure, but he’s really no better than Warren and worse than Betances against LH’s, and you don’t have to worry about PH’s with those guys.
Problem is in most cases, they can only use Thornton for one batter at a time, and even then, it’s not really worth it because their good righties are just as good or better than Thornton at getting lefties out.
Saving somebody one batter in an outing really isn’t going to make a substantial difference.
Really what they need is another reliable non-OOGY (or 2) so that Warren and Betances don’t have to pitch, or pitch multiple innings in, every close game.
That’s what Kelley was supposed to do.
and what he did, before injury.
Yes.
They need him to figure it out, or find somebody else.
And more innings from the starters would be a big help as well.
Yes but they don’t have that. Kelley could be that but isn’t pitching well. If Joe had been using Thornton for even just one or 2 LHB all season to ease off of Warren/Dellin, they would both have several less innings and may be more effective. Thornton has barely been used at all this year and has effective numbers against LHB. They can use him for at least a couple of batters. Most fans just don’t want to see him out there because Warren and Dellin have been so good.
Taking one batter (and a few pitches)out of an appearance isn’t going to have much or any impact.
No reason to go with a lesser reliever when there is likely to be little or no payoff.
If he could give Warren or Betances an entire day or inning off that would be different, but that’s really not the case.
It’s a worse reliever, but with a platoon advantage that closes the gap somewhat if not completely. He probably could give them entire innings off but would probably have to face a righty, which wouldn’t ideal. There’s nothing wrong with mixing and matching even for just one batter.
“It’s a worse reliever, but with a platoon advantage that closes the gap somewhat if not completely”
Unless they PH.
There is no advantage to using Thornton, so why risk it just to save 3-4 pitches?
Good point, although PH won’t happen too often. I looked up the numbers and Warren has a reverse split for some reason and I’m sure Betances is more effective than pretty much anyone, so I guess it is moot. Still Warren and Betances need more rest. Kelley needs to step up at the very least.
The alternative is sacrifice the game and bring in Thorton.
He is not going to pitch in big spots.
Not even that big of a spot and like I said earlier Thornton has been great against LHB this year. Hasn’t given up a XBH against them this year.
Even Betances is hardly a sure thing these days. He’s been very, very shaky of late.
Only problem with Betances lately is that his walks have started to increase
A real test of his durability.
Don’t seem those ex AB’s are doing much for KJ now a days. Pretty Solarte esque if you ask me.
Oh well, he’ll get into a power groove for a bit at sometime. Just dead wood lately though.
Why is Thornton on the team if you can’t use him to get out a lefty in the bottom of the 7th?
Because baseball rules – you must have a LOOGY in the pen.
Just be glad the Yankees have seemed to move on from the 2 LOOGY approach – for a few years they seemed to be determined to have 2 lefty specialists in the pen (though Logan could do a bit more than get lefties out)
Why is Jim Miller on the team?
Or Chase Whitley?
Or Vidal Nuno?
Lack of better options.
LHBs don’t have an XBH against him, are hitting less than .230, and he hasn’t pitched in 3 days. Meanwhile Dellin and Warren are overused. I don’t get it.
Take away one batter and Warren and Dellin are still overused, but you’ve now risked using a lesser reliever.
I replied above.
Because Girardi knows that Dean Anna has better stuff than Thorton. The only reason Thorton is still here is that he is left handed and he is a Cashman off-season FA signing getting decent money.
I think he is gone soon.
Not a chance.
He wastes a roster spot. They can’t continue doing that.
He’s signed for 2 years, and he hasn’t been the worst reliever in the bullpen.
He isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
You may be right. Another bad move by Cashman.
Yeah, as I was saying about Betances…
Jeez those guys got alittle close for comfort there. Ichiro makes the grab though. 1down. 2 more Big D!!
Fucking shifts.
Man, this has had a tight rope feel to it many times today and never more then right now. Just has had a bad feel after taking big lead and giving much of it back so quickly. Please hope i’m wrong. Come on Big D!
Jesus. What a play.
Zealous is a chubby little guy, isn’t he?
Has a little Kirby Puckett thing going on.
Nice play by Roberts.
Without the addiction to shifts, this might have been a relatively stress free (and scoreless) inning.
And an even better one by Tex!
One DROB scoreless inn away.
TEX!
Cervelli’s made the most of his start today.
Halfway through the season and Betances already looks like he’s been Scott Proctor’d.
Warren is pitching too much as well, but consider the alternatives.
3GB’s, a weak popup and a HBP (though one grounder was hit pretty hard)
It only looked like a high wire act because of the shift.
Proctor threw 102.1 innings in 83 games in 2006 as a reliever.
Betances has thrown 50.1 in 37 games here.
He’s on his way
Unfortunately Girardi has to play the shitty hand dealt to him by Cashman.
Gardenhire is using his closer down a run? Is that allowed?
Tony LaRussa is somewhere clutching his chest.
WHEELER
Wheeler!!!!lol
My oh my…
Tremendous
Won’t count, but tremendous.
all is not lost. scored a few fan fave points there.
Hi all.
See that Nats are shopping Ross Detwiler.
He’d be our No. 2 starter.
Go get’m Cashy!
New league, lefty, funky. And still low 90′s mph. Seen him at 94.
Buried in Nats pen and complaining he wants to start.
He’d help us.
Regards.
No. 2 starter? What? He hasn’t been good this year at all and would need to be stretched out anyway.
Its gonna be reversed? They should have a door then they have to close so its a border all the way across. That should be a judgement call, and I think a out.
Wheeler’s pretty lovable.
that’s kinda a dumb rule, when you catch a ball over the wall its still a out andn your feet are still in the air or hanging on the wall.
That’s a bullshit rule IMO. If you catch it, you catch it. Doesn’t matter where you catch it
So teams should be allowed to put some in the OF stands too?
**someone
And leave two in the outfield? That’s dumb
If you don’t like that example, should you be allowed to climb into the stands and run up the stairs on a pop foul?
That sounds kind of awesome; so, yes.
Yes, if possible
Well, we disagree about what “dumb” is, but I think it would be dumb to have infielders running into the stands and catching the ball among the fans on every pop foul.
It’d be very interesting to see Pedroia try to do that in YS.
Of course, that would be in the Legends seats, so the people there might just politely get out of his way.
Two problems with that scenario
1) Pedroia would need a step stool and/or ladder to get over the wall.
2) There are people in the Legends seats?
No one will end up doing it because of that risk and effort needed, but it should be open to them.
I have to admit even though I agree with the rule, I would like to see this.
Depends who’s pitching.
whew. this thing was stamped for a nuni walk-off, and you all knew it.
All of these DRob K’s are getting boring.
Almost as boring as TOO MANY HOMAHS.
Wheeler’s teammates rather unzelous response to protecting their teammate. Not one of them there in time to keep the Zelous one on the field and safe. Wheeler could have seriously hurt himself there once those cleats hit the dugout steps/floor. You gotta get off your butt, stop watching, and react to help your teammate there.
Seriously.
Some teammates.
Cowboy Joe! Might have been a bit generous… but it was down the middle in the box score.
What a great game this has been. Gotta get this 3rd out though.
good gamee yankees win
Winning Streak!!!!lol
Seriously monster win and huge game for BROB and Cerv!
Damn, DRob strikes out the side every game!
for reals. as vulgar as his k/9 and k%; watching the games, it’s almost surprising they’re that low.
Another win with jeter on the pine.
I really hope you’re kidding.
I am not.
So you’re taking this opportunity on July 4th to bash the greatest Yankee of our lifetime? That sounds really fun. Great fan.
I’m older than you, and have several candidates for greatest Yankee of my lifetime who rank ahead of Jeter.
Two of them played CF, for starters, and one caught.
Lets go A’s!