River Avenue Blues

Saturday Night Open Thread

by 95 Comments

(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Well, the four-game winning streak was fun while it lasted. The Yankees lost a game to the Orioles this afternoon that didn’t really feel as close as it actually was — the final score was 5-3 — because Phil Hughes was awful in the first few innings. Allowing runs early is a great way to make a game feel like a blowout despite the actual score.

Anyway, here is your open thread for the night. The Rangers and Islanders and playing a huge game with enormous playoff implications, so that will be a blast. MLB Network will also air a game (teams depend on where you live), but otherwise you’re on your own for entertainment. Talk about whatever, enjoy.

Game Ten: Strive for Five

by 525 Comments

(Al Bello/Getty)
(Al Bello/Getty)

Things are a little wacky this week because of the two rainouts, so it’s easy to forget the Yankees have won their last four games. They needed some major luck — dropped fly ball and a triple play, specifically — to continue that streak last night, but hey, everyone gets their fair of luck during the 162-game season. Here’s the starting nine…

  1. CF Brett Gardner
  2. 2B Robinson Cano
  3. 3B Kevin Youkilis
  4. DH Travis Hafner
  5. LF Vernon Wells
  6. RF Ichiro Suzuki
  7. C Frankie Cervelli
  8. 1B Lyle Overbay
  9. SS Jayson Nix

And on the mound is the 23rd overall pick in the 2004 draft, Phil Hughes.

The weather will finally be a non-factor. It is gorgeous outside. It has been all day and it will be pretty much all week. Hooray for blue skies and sunshine. This afternoon’s game is scheduled to start a little after 4pm ET and can be seen on YES. Enjoy.

Eduardo Nunez Update: Nunez is likely to miss tomorrow’s game as well after taking a pitch to the right wrist last night. The Yankees are off on Monday, so that would give him three consecutive days off.

Yankees, Indians will play doubleheader on May 13th

by 19 Comments

The Yankees and Indians will play a doubleheader on May 13th to make up the two rainouts from earlier this week, the team announced. Both teams are losing an off-day (obviously), and the Yankees will have to make a quick one-day stop in Cleveland on their way back from Kansas City before returning to New York. As a result of losing the off-day, they’ll play 17 games in 16 days. Not too bad.

Mark Teixeira was not cleared to swing a bat on Friday

by 15 Comments

Via Matt Ehalt: Mark Teixeira was not cleared by doctors to swing a bat on Friday as he had hoped. “[The doctor] was very happy with how it looked, how it felt,” said Tex. “He wants it to get a little stronger before I swing so the next couple of days I’m really going to ramp up the strengthening because we’re kind of going week to week with it … He wants to make sure it’s really strong enough before I swing. But all good news, just not swinging yet.”

Teixeira, 33, hoped to start swinging a fungo bat this weekend and then take batting practice within two weeks. His May 1st target return date was always on the optimistic side — the original 8-10 week estimate put him on pace for a mid-to-late-May return — so I’m not sure this changes much. Sure, it would have been great for Teixeira to start swinging a bat this weekend, but I’d rather see them be extra cautious now and reduce the risk of a setback later in the summer. Given the nature of the injury, they need to make sure he’s 100% ready for any steps going forward.

Bichette helps River Dogs walk-off with win

by 16 Comments

Josh Norris says OF Slade Heathcott did not play tonight due to a stiff neck. Hopefully it’s nothing serious and he’ll be back in the lineup in a day or two, but you can never be too sure with neck problems.

Triple-A Scranton was rained out for the third straight day. They’re going to try to play a doubleheader tomorrow.

Double-A Trenton (5-3 win over Richmond)

  • CF Ramon Flores: 1-4, 1 R, 1 K
  • DH Tyler Austin: 1-3, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K — been in a bit of a rut
  • C J.R. Murphy: 2-3, 1 R, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 1 BB — six hits in his last 13 at-bats (.462)
  • 3B Rob Segedin: 2-4, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 K, 1 E (fielding)
  • RF Neil Medchill: 3-4, 1 RBI — has been awesome early on
  • LHP Francisco Rondon: 4 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, 3/3 GB/FB — 34 of 60 pitches were strikes (57%) … still wish he was working out of the Triple-A bullpen, this seems kinda pointless

[Read more…]

Error, triple play help Yankees take series opener from Orioles

by 94 Comments


Source: FanGraphs

Friday night’s 5-2 win over the Orioles was one of the more interesting Yankees games we’ve seen in a while. Good pitching, timely hitting, catastrophically bad defense, insanely clutch good defense … this one had it all. Let’s recap…

  • Big Time: PitchFX says CC Sabathia averaged 90.3 and topped out at 92.3 with his fastball in the blistering cold on Friday, but the radar gun readings didn’t really matter. The big man held the Orioles to two runs (one earned) in eight innings in the series opener, striking out nine and walking zero. The unearned run scored when Kevin Youkilis bobbled a ground ball, the runner was balked to second, and a ten-hop ground ball squeezed through the infield. Of course, Sabathia needed some help to escape a first-and-second, no outs situation in the eighth, but we’ll get to that in a bit. Otherwise, he was awesome.
  • Smallball: With the game knotted at one in the fifth, the Yankees employed some good ol’ fashioned smallball to take the lead. Frankie Cervelli worked a ten-pitch walk to leadoff the inning before Brett Gardner bunted him over to second. Robinson Cano got a mistake first pitch fastball — Matt Wieters set up outside but Miguel Gonzalez caught too much of the plate — that he laced into left to score the run. The epitome of a manufactured run.
  • Errorball: This was too good. After the O’s tied the game in the top of the seventh, the Yankees answered right back thanks again to Cervelli, who worked another walk (six-pitch) to leadoff the inning. Gardner bunted him over to second again, but this time Cano grounded out to short. Southpaw Troy Patton was ordered to intentionally walk Youkilis to setup the left-on-left matchup with Travis Hafner with two-outs, but Pronk worked a full count before taking a pitch to the left thigh. The bases were loaded with two outs when Vernon Wells lifted a hard-hit but certainly playable fly ball to center. Rather than the final out being recorded, this happened…

    He just muffed it. All three runners came around to score and the Yankees took a decisive three-run lead. (GIF via DERP)
  • 4-6-5-6-5-3-4: A half-inning after the Jones error, Alexi Casilla (infield single) and Nick Markakis (single to left) started a comeback rally by reaching base to leadoff the eighth inning. Sabathia’s pitch count was getting up there and David Robertson was warming in the bullpen, but then this happened in the blink of an eye…
    Yep, a 4-6-5-6-5-3-4 triple play to end the inning. It’s the first of its kind in MLB history and the second triple play the Yankees have turned in the last three seasons. You might remember the around-the-horn job in Oakland back in April 2010. Sabathia was on the mound for that one as well. This was the team’s first triple play at home in over 40 years. Very heads up play by Jayson Nix at second base to go to third there. That was a smart play even if they only turn a boring double play. (GIF via @GoldAndOrSmith)
  • Leftovers: Mariano Rivera allowed a single in an otherwise uneventful ninth inning for his second save of the season … the Yankees only had six hits (all singles) on the night, and Cano (two) and Youkilis (three) accounted for five of ’em. Lyle Overbay had the other … Gardner drew two walks in addition to the two sac bunts while Hafner walked in addition to the hit-by-pitch … Ichiro Suzuki went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and continues to look just awful. I wonder how long his rope will be … Eduardo Nunez left the game after taking a pitch to the right wrist, and he is day-to-day with a contusion. Wrist injuries can be very scary, he and the Yankees got lucky the x-rays came back clean.

MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs has the nerd score, and ESPN has the updated standings. Hooray for being over .500 and tied for first place in the division. Yes, it’s only April, but still. These same two teams will meet Saturday afternoon, when Phil Hughes gets the ball against Jason Hammel. Check out RAB Tickets if you want to catch the game in person.

Carlos Carrasco suspended eight games for throwing at Kevin Youkilis

by 9 Comments

Indians right-hander Carlos Carrasco has been suspended eight games and fined an undisclosed amount for intentionally throwing at Kevin Youkilis earlier this week, MLB has announced. He was making his first start after serving a six-game suspension for throwing at Billy Butler. That incident happened back in 2011, but Carrasco’s Tommy John surgery got in the way.

In case you forgot, Carrasco threw at Youkilis on Tuesday after Robinson Cano had taken him deep one batter earlier. Given his history of throwing at people, the suspension isn’t surprising. Just glad Youkilis wasn’t hurt more than anything.