River Avenue Blues

Sunday Night Open Thread

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#BuryTheRays (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

I’m going to sound like a broken record here (that’s nothing new, actually), but man do off-days feel better coming off a win. The Yankees didn’t get the blowout that would have allowed them to rest their core relievers, but they did get the win this afternoon and that’s all that matters. Now they’ve suddenly won four of five and seven of their last eleven. They aren’t back in ass-kicking mode just yet, but things are definitely starting to trend in the right direction.

Anyway, here is your open thread for the evening. The ESPN Sunday Night Game is a pretty good one, the Nationals at the Braves (Gio vs. Minor). The late NFL game is the Lions at the 49ers. Talk about those games or anything else here. Have at it.

Game 146: Win and relax

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(Jeff Zelevansky/Getty)

The Yankees are off tomorrow and boy would it be nice to give the four core relievers — Rafael Soriano, David Robertson, Boone Logan, and Joba Chamberlain — this afternoon off. They’ve been worked real hard these last two weeks and I’m sure two straight days of rest would be much appreciated. Hiroki Kuroda needs to take the ball deep into the game and the offense needs to really put up some runs. Not five or six, more. Win, stay in first, enjoy the off-day. Here’s the lineup…

DH Derek Jeter
RF Nick Swisher
3B Alex Rodriguez
2B Robinson Cano
C. Russell Martin
LF Andruw Jones
CF Curtis Granderson
1B Steve Pearce
SS Eduardo Nunez

RHP Hiroki Kuroda

This afternoon’s game is scheduled to start a little after 1pm ET and can be seen on YES locally and TBS nationally. Enjoy.

Poll: Brian Cashman’s job security

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(AP Photo/John Marshall Mantel)

The Yankees have won six of their last ten games, but that is barely a footnote in the second half slide that has brought they back to the pack in the AL East. Their ten-game lead has vanished, and when leads that size are blown around here, people tend to lose their jobs. Yesterday we examined Joe Girardi’s job security, so it’s only natural that today we look at his boss, Brian Cashman.

It hasn’t been a good year for Cashman in terms of his roster moves and decisions, not at all. Last season he hit on nearly everyone, but his only significant success story this year is Hiroki Kuroda, who has been better than anyone could have reasonably expected. The Michael Pineda trade is already looking like a disaster, Andruw Jones and Raul Ibanez have cratered in the second half, Jose Quintana is thriving for the White Sox, Justin Maxwell and George Kontos are performing well for the Astros and Giants, and there were no significant moves made at the deadline to shore things up. Here is a recap of the team’s moves over the last twelve months for reference.

Cashman’s off-the-field issues are worth mentioning, as his very public divorce and stalker trial haven’t exactly brought positive attention to him and the Yankees. That said, Cashman is the third longest-tenured GM in baseball and it wasn’t until this past offseason that something resembling a line of succession was established in the front office. He is under contract through 2014 and reportedly is very tight with Hal Steinbrenner, which could save his job if the Yankees wind up missing the postseason. Whether it should is another matter entirely.

What happens to Cashman if the Yankees miss the postseason?
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Nova strong in return as Yankees hold off Rays

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Source: FanGraphs

For the 20th consecutive season, the Yankees will finish the year with a winning record. They won their 82nd game of the season on Saturday afternoon, an important win over the Rays in a tight division race. Let’s recap…

  • Back-to-Back: Jamie Shields is as tough a right-hander as you’ll find in the league, but he can be a little homer prone. The Yankees took advantage of that weakness in the second inning, as Curtis Granderson (two-run) and Eduardo Nunez (solo) went back-to-back to open the scoring. Granderson’s homer was his fifth in the last six games and 39th of the season while Nunez’s was his first of the year. Raul Ibanez, who came into the game on a 3-for-48 skid, deserves some credit for working a walk ahead of Grandy’s dinger.
  • Nova’s Back: After roughly three weeks on the DL with a sore shoulder, Ivan Nova returned to the rotation and looked an awful lot like the guy he was in the second half of last season. He was limited to 80-90 pitches but still managed to strike out eight in six innings, allowing just one run on a solo homer by Evan Longoria with two outs in the sixth. No biggie. Nova was throwing hard (averaged 94.07 with the fastball) and got 15 swings and misses, including seven apiece on the fastball and curveball. The most important thing was his location — he kept the ball down and out of the middle of the plate, and his breaking pitches broke out of the zone instead of right into it. Ivan was very good and I really hope this is the guy we’re going to see the rest of the way. That would be an enormous help.
  • Bullpen Near-Meltdown: Things got a little interesting late, as Boone Logan (double, one out) and Joba Chamberlain (single, two outs) allowing the runner they inherited from Nova to score as well as one more for good measure. Luke Scott’s two-strike, two-out, two-run ground ball single through the right side off Joba was the back-breaker; it looked like they would escape the inning unscathed. David Robertson tossed a perfect eighth before Rafael Soriano put the tying run on-base in the ninth, though he got out of the inning without a run scoring. After Nova allowed six baserunners in six innings, but the bullpen put four men on base in three innings.
  • Leftovers: The Yankees went 2-for-3 with runners in scoring position as Derek Jeter plated Ichiro Suzuki (who singled and stole second) with a two-out, full count single in the fifth before Alex Rodriguez singled in Robinson Cano (who doubled on a ball that turned B.J. Upton around in center) in the eighth. Both singles line drives right back up the middle, textbook hitting in those situations … the only starter who failed to reach base was Eric Chavez, though Cano and A-Rod were the only players to reach twice.

MLB.com has the box score and video highlights while ESPN has the updated standings. The Orioles are out on the West Coast, and if they beat the Athletics they’ll remain tied with the Yankees for first place in the AL East and they lost to the Athletics so they are one game out in the divison. The Rays are four games back either way. Hiroki Kuroda and Matt Moore square off in the rubber game of this series on Sunday afternoon. Check out RAB Tickets for some last-minute ticket deals.

Thunder drop Game 4, lose Championship Series

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OF Tyler Austin was not going to play any more this season due to ankle discomfort. He had an MRI yesterday and doctor’s cleared him to play, but they weren’t going to bother risking anything at this point.

Double-A Trenton (6-1 loss to Akron) Akron wins the best-of-five Championship series three games to one, so congrats to them
CF Adonis Garcia: 1-3, 1 3B, 1 BB, 1 K
LF Ramon Flores, 3B David Adams & RF Zoilo Almonte: all 0-4 — Almonte whiffed once, the other two twice each … Flores also committed a fielding error … that’s why they lost right there, tough to score when the 2-3-4 hitters do that
SS Addison Maruszak: 2-4
C J.R. Murphy: 1-3, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
1B Kevin Mahoney: 0-2, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 HBP
DH Rob Segedin: 0-4, 2 K
2B Walt Ibarra: 0-3
LHP Nik Turley: 6 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 1 HB, 5/2 GB/FB — 66 of 101 pitches were strikes, plus he picked a runner off first … solid finish to the year
RHP David Aardsma: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 0/2 GB/FB — had a bit more on him earlier
RHP Ryan Pope: 0.2 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 1/0 GB/FB — 11 of 21 pitches were strikes
LHP Lee Hyde: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 1 WP, 1/0 GB/FB — only nine of 20 pitches were strikes, but one of the walks was intentional

The seasons for Triple-A Empire State, High-A Tampa, Low-A Charleston, Short Season Staten Island, and the Rookie GCL Yanks ended a few weeks ago. The next DotF post won’t come for another few weeks, not until the Arizona Fall League season begins on October 9th. The Yankees are sending seven players to the desert (as usual), including OF Slade Heathcott and RHP Dellin Betances. Thanks for another fun season, we’ll pick it back up in four weeks or so.

Aardsma walks a batter, throws scoreless inning in latest rehab outing

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In his latest minor league rehab appearance with Double-A Trenton, right-hander David Aardsma walked a batter in an otherwise uneventful inning. The runner was thrown out trying to steal second and the other two outs came on fly balls. Ten of his 17 pitches were strikes.

Aardsma pitched last night, and this was the first time he appeared in back-to-back games as part of his rehab from Tommy John surgery. His 30-day rehab window expires on Wednesday and the minor league season will be over tomorrow no later than tomorrow, so it’ll be interesting to see what the Yankees do with him next week.

Saturday Night Open Thread

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Five homers in his last six games. (Elsa/Getty Images)

I’m well beyond the point of caring what wins look like these days. I don’t care how convincing they were, how lucky they were, how ugly they were, how RISPFAILy they were, nothing. A win is a win is a win. The Yankees got that win this afternoon, guaranteeing themselves at least a share of first place for another day. I’ll take it.

Here is your open thread for the evening. The Mets are playing the Brewers (Mejia vs. Marcum) and MLB Network will air a game as well. Who you see depends on where you live. There’s also college football on somewhere, I assume. Talk about that stuff or anything else here. Go nuts.