Finally, our long national nightmare is over. Marc Carig reports that pitching coach David Eiland will return from his personal leave of absence on Tuesday when the Yankees begin their series against Seattle. The Yanks are off Monday following tonight’s rubber game against the Dodgers. Hopefully everything worked out well for Eiland, but for selfish reasons I’m glad he’s back.
Jeter named USA WEEKEND’s 2010 Most Caring Athlete
As if Derek Jeter needed any more hardware for his mantle, he was just named USA WEEKEND’s Most Caring Athlete of 2010 for his work with a youth league in Washington Heights. Jeter’s sister Sharlee arranged for the children for participate in the league, except most of them had never played baseball before and the team literally couldn’t score a run. Jeter volunteered to coach a game and help teach baseball to the kids, and then took them all out to eat after they scored the first run. Great guy, that Derek.
Burnett blows his big chance in Hollywood, Yanks fall 9-4 to Dodgers
You can’t win them all, but some losses are uglier than others. This was one of the ugly ones. A.J. Burnett continued his streak of awful starts, the bullpen wasn’t much better, and the lineup blew a few chances on their end. Kinda felt like business as usual during a Burnett start, didn’t it? With the Red Sox and Rays each winning, the Yanks’ lead in the AL East was trimmed down to two.
Can’t Stop The Bleeding
Believe it or not, the Yanks actually held a lead in this game. Not a cheesy little one runner either, Mark Teixeira hit a three run jack after birthday boy Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson led off the game with walks. Yanks were up three-zip before Hiroki Kuroda even recorded an out, but even Bad A.J. couldn’t screw this up, right?
Wrong. Burnett gave two of those runs right back on a single, single, ground rule double, and sac fly in the bottom of the inning, then gave up even more in the 3rd when he walked the bases loaded and allowed a hit or two. There’s really not much more to say than that. He was wild, got hit hard, same old same old. He and Boone Logan put 16 men on base in five innings. They’re lucky they only gave up seven.
NL Fever … Catch It!
Let’s take a walk through the height of baseball stupidity. It’s the top of the 4th inning, the Yanks are down by one, and there are runners at the corners and one out. The runner at first was Brett Gardner, at third was Nick Swisher. Burnett steps up to the plate and promptly squares around the bunt. It’s a safety squeeze with the intent of getting the runner to second and avoiding the inning ending double play. A.J. eventually got the bunt down and moved Gardner over, but off course the inning ended with no runs scored after Derek Jeter struck out. Icing on the cake: Burnett allowed the first two batters to reach in the next half inning before being pulled. Again, the height of baseball stupidity.
I mean, where do I start with this? You want to avoid the double play with the pitcher up? Fine, then tell Brett Gardner to steal second. It’s what he does. I’d rather see him get thrown out than gift wrap them a free out on a bunt. Also, if you’re just going to pull Burnett at the first sign of trouble the next inning, then just pull him and pinch hit. You’ve got a long man for a reason. If you’re going to make a move, make it too soon rather than too late. Oh, and Logan in a relatively close game? FAIL.
Girardi made a comment during one of FOX’s between inning interviews about being worried about his players when they start thinking too much, well what about himself? We’re not splitting atoms here, it’s just baseball. Stick with the KISS method: Keep It Simple, Stupid. We’ve seen this movie before, doing this fancy smallball crap never works with a team build to hit the ball far, far away.
Random Acts Of Mediocrity
It really is a shame no one could have foreseen Chan Ho Park struggling in his second inning of work. It’s not like I’ve been beating on that drum for weeks now, but what the heck. Maybe this time will be different. I don’t get how Girardi goes to CHoP for multiple innings in a three run game and wait until they were down by five to use David Robertson. That’s the opposite of common sense.
Jeter came to the plate three times with two men on base. The result? Three strikeouts. Not his best day, but then again this hasn’t been his best month either.
Big ups to Joe Torre for using both Hong-Chih Kuo and Jonathan Broxton for multiple innings tonight. That’ll help tomorrow.
It’s worth mentioning that Burnett’s grandfather passed away yesterday, so I’m not going to get on him for pitching poorly regardless of how the rest of the month played out. I’ve been there, it’s not easy.
WPA Graph & Box Score
Teases. Here’s the box, here’s the other stuff.
Up Next
Another night game for the rubber match, with ESPN carrying the Andy Pettitte-Clayton Kershaw matchup at 8:00pm ET.
Big nights for Montero, Heathcott & Murphy
Make sure you don’t miss Mike Ashmore’s post-game coverage of Andrew Brackman’s first Double-A start yesterday. Also, Mark Newman said the team would consider shifting Brandon Laird to the outfield after the season, though they like him better at first and third. And finally, here’s video of UCLA righty Trevor Bauer long tossing before his start in the College World Series this afternoon. That’s pretty nuts. He’s expected to be a first rounder in 2011.
Triple-A Scranton (2-1 win over Rochester in 13 innings, walk-off style) took them until Rochester put a position player on the mound to win
Justin Christian, LF: 2 for 6, 1 SB
Reid Gorecki, RF: 1 for 5, 1 BB, 2 K
Eduardo Nunez, SS: 2 for 5, 1 3B, 1 BB, 1 K – 12 for his last 34 (.353)
Jorge Vazquez, 1B: 1 for 6, 2 K, 1 E (missed catch)
Jesus Montero, C: 3 for 6, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI – finally has as many homers as Reegie
Rene Rivera, DH: 0 for 6 – that stinks
Reegie Corona, 2B: 1 for 4, 1 R, 1 3B, 2 BB, 1 K, 1 SB – 12 for his last 26 (.462)
Eric Bruntlett, 3B: 0 for 5, 1 BB, 3 K
Greg Golson, CF: 1 for 4, 1 RBI, 1 K – walk-off sac fly
Ivan Nova: 6.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 1 WP, 11-4 GB/FB – 57 of his 94 pitches were strikes (60.6%) … one of the walks was intentional … he hit 95-97 tonight
Royce Ring: 0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K – all three pitches were strikes
Eric Wordekemper: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 0-4 GB/FB – just nine of his 19 pitches were strikes (47.4%)
Jon Albaladejo: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 3-1 GB/FB – 18 of 28 pitches were strikes (64.3%)
Mark Melancon: 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 4-0 GB/FB – 14 of his 22 pitches were strikes (63.6%)
Zack Segovia: 1 IP, zeroes, 2 K, 0-1 GB/FB – nine of his 13 pitches were strikes (69.2%)
Game 74: Happy Birthday to the Cap’n
I can’t believe he’s 36-years-old already. I was too young to remember much of anything when Don Mattingly broke in, so Jeter is the first homegrown Yankee superstar that I’ve had the pleasure of watching from day one. I don’t know what’s going to happen with his contract after the season, but let’s not worry about now. Today, let’s just wish the Cap’n a happy birthday.
Here’s tonight’s the starting nine…
Jeter, SS
Granderson, CF
Teixeira, 1B
A-Rod, 3B
Cano, 2B
Swisher, RF
Cervelli, C
Gardner, LF
Burnett, SP
I’m sure Frankie Cervelli will fix whatever was causing A.J. Burnett to have a 10.35 ERA this month by whispering sweet nothings into his ear, so I expect seven innings of two run ball, at the minimum. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10pm ET and can be seen on FOX. Yes, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver have gone prime time. Mo save us all.
Open Thread: USA vs. Ghana
I have to admit, the World Cup has sucked me in. USA and Ghana meet in second round today, with the winner advancing to take on Uruguay while the loser goes home. Game starts at 2:30pm ET, and can be seen on ABC. Chat about it here if you want.
Mariners have been scouting Yanks’ farm system
This one should come as no surprise, but the Mariners have scouted the Yankees’ farm system in advance of a potential Cliff Lee trade. The Yanks have, in turn, scouting Lee, but it’s nothing more than routine coverage of a pitcher they intend to pursue as a free agent. Yesterday we heard that the Bombers just weren’t focusing on the lefty right now given the strength of the team’s starting five, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be prepared and cover all their bases. The Indians received four prospects when they dealt CC Sabathia two years ago, so we have to assume that’s the blueprint for any Lee trade.