River Avenue Blues

Thunder drop Game 4, lose Championship Series

by 13 Comments

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

by 2 Comments

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

by 190 Comments

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.

Game 145: Nova Returns

by

(Jonathan Daniel/Getty)

The Yankees have revamped their rotation a bit this week, most notably with the scheduled return of Andy Pettitte. Today they’ll get Ivan Nova back from the DL, who is replacing Freddy Garcia from here on out. Garcia has allowed 15 runs in 17.2 innings over his last four starts, failing to complete five innings three times, so it won’t take much for Nova to improve on that performance. That said, the Yankees need more than out that of their right-hander, a lot more in fact. They need him to start looking like the guy he was in the second half last season, someone who has only shown up in one month this summer. Here’s the starting lineup…

LF Ichiro Suzuki
DH Derek Jeter
2B Robinson Cano
3B Alex Rodriguez
RF Raul Ibanez
1B Eric Chavez
CF Curtis Granderson
SS Eduardo Nunez
C  Chris Stewart

This afternoon’s game is scheduled to start a little after 4pm ET and can be seen on FOX. Enjoy.

Derek Jeter Update: Jeter (ankle) is unlikely to play the field before Tuesday. The Yankees are off on Monday, so the Cap’n will only spend one more game at DH.

Gardner ran the bases and bunted today, could be activated soon

by 24 Comments

Brett Gardner has only played in nine of the team’s 144 games this season, but it’s possible the Yankees will have their speedster in a limited capacity for the stretch run. Gardner ran the bases and practiced bunting on the field today, and Joe Girardi said it’s a “possibility” they will use him as a pinch-runner/defensive specialist in the coming weeks.

A right elbow strain/bone bruise suffered sliding for a ball in April has kept Brett on the shelf basically all season, though he did end up having three different setbacks during his rehab before finally having surgery earlier this summer. The Yankees would have to make a 40-man roster move to activate Gardner off the 60-day DL, which really isn’t a huge deal. It’s always a concern when a player can’t swing a bat, but expanded rosters should allow Joe Girardi to limit his usage.

Poll: Joe Girardi’s job security

by 157 Comments

(Jonathan Daniel/Getty)

The Yankees are mired in a brutal second half slide that has seen them lose 27 of their last 52 games and blow a ten-game division lead. They still remain tied atop the AL East because the Orioles can’t seem to find a way to break through to take over sole possession of first, but any time a team crashes as hard as the Bombers have, the manager’s job security will come into question. Fair or not, it happens.

Two weeks ago I said that I would be surprised if Joe Girardi keeps his job through the winter if the Yankees miss the postseason only because situations like that call for a scapegoat, and the manager is as good a scapegoat as any. Ken Rosenthal wrote yesterday that Girardi is “a good manager who doesn’t deserve to be fired” while also acknowledging that he’s likely to be on the hot seat if the Yankees fail to make the postseason. Although Girardi was hand-picked for the job by Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner and remains under contract through next season, I can’t imagine a second playoff-less season in five years would sit well.

It’s probably worth noting that Girardi has had some blow-ups in recent weeks — he lashed out at a fan in Chicago and got into a shouting match with Joel Sherman after calling him into his office — which were very uncharacteristic. Could the stress of the collapse be getting to him? Maybe, maybe not. We’ll never know, but the narrative can be spun any way you choose. Point being, the two incidents could give the brain trust more of a reason to part ways with their skipper of five years after the season if there is no October baseball in the Bronx.

What happens to Girardi if the Yankees miss the postseason?
View Results

Sabathia falters again as Yanks fall to Rays

by 109 Comments


Source: FanGraphs

Winning three in a row was just too much ask, I suppose. The Yankees used a familiar script to lose to the Rays on Friday night, taking a lead early before giving it back and putting together a late-rally that fell just short. Let’s recap…

  • The Lead: The Yankees managed to get on the scoreboard first, with a second inning single from Steve Pearce that plated Russell Martin with two outs. That little flare to shallow center all but guarantees that Pearce will continue to get regular at-bats against lefties these next two weeks. For shame.
  • Four Losses: For the first time since he signed in New York, the Yankees have lost four straight CC Sabathia starts. The left-hander turned in another underwhelming performance, which again featured a blown lead (just the one run though) and four runs in 6.2 innings. Know what the worst part is? Sabathia threw first pitch strikes to 25 of 29 (!!!) hitters, which is just insane. Off-the-charts good. Yet the Rays still tagged him for six hits and two walks. CC just has to be better. There’s no other way to put it. They’re going nowhere without him.
  • Fight Back: The Yankees did not go quietly into the night after Tampa took the lead, getting a run back on Curtis Granderson’s solo homer in the fifth (off the top off the right-center field wall) and two back on Alex Rodriguez two-run shot in the eighth. David Price has allowed just three homers to lefties this season, and two have been by Granderson. The other was hit by Robinson Cano. A-Rod’s shot was a no-doubter off Joel Peralta, hitting the facing of the second deck in right.
  • Leftovers: Eduardo Nunez made some very nice defensive plays early in the game, including two ranging into the hole to his right. Then he whiffed on a routine ground ball with two outs in the ninth that led to an insurance run … speaking of bad defense, this won’t be one for the Russell Martin highlight reel. He let three balls get by him (two were called wild pitches, but one of those went right though his legs) and Tampa stole three bases in three attempts … Derek Jeter (two singles) was the only Yankee with multiple hits, though A-Rod (homer and walk) reached twice as well … the Rays scored six runs in this game after scoring six runs total while getting swept in Baltimore over the weekend … Jerry Meals got in the way of a would-be double (it was a single instead), the second time in a week he’s screwed something up and cost the Yankees in some way.

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 have sole possession of and they lost to the Athletics so they’re still tied with New York for first place in the AL East. The Rays are three back. The Yankees will look to get back into the win column on Saturday afternoon when Ivan Nova makes what I hope is a triumphant return to the rotation. He’ll be opposed by Jamie Shields. Check out RAB Tickets for some last-minute deals if you want to catch the game.