Yanks avoid sweep against M’s

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There is no shame in losing to Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez. They’re good. It happens. The consolation prize was Ryan Rowland-Smith, the weakest cog in the Mariners’ strong starting rotation. But still, the offense didn’t come. The Yanks drove him from the game by working him for 109 pitches through six innings, but they couldn’t bring home the runners they put in scoring position — the whole four they had. Thankfully Sabathia did that Sabathia thing, and the Yanks took the finale from the Mariners 4-2.

Biggest Hit: A-Rod ::clap clap:: A-Rod ::clap clap::

Photo credit: Frank Franklin II/AP

The way things were going, the Yankees didn’t need much out of their lineup. CC Sabathia was going strong, on pace for another eight-inning outing. Through seven he had allowed just three hits and one walk. He added another walk to that tally right off, and then got into just a little trouble. But just a little.

An Ichiro singly put the tying run on base, but not in scoring position. But on the 2-1 pitch CC dropped a slider right over the middle of the plate. Jorge missed it and it rolled to the backstop, moving Ichiro into scoring position. Worse, the umpire didn’t even call it a strike, even though it clearly was. Branyan ended up taking the 3-1 pitch to right, scoring both runners. He got caught between first and second to end the inning.

That’s why the Yankees needed A-Rod in the eighth. David Aardsma was out there, whipping fastball after fastball. He struck out Swisher with five of them and then got a called strike one on Teixeira. He went back to the same spot with the same pitch, and Tex lined that to center to put the go-ahead run on base. That didn’t stop Aardsma from continuing to throw the same pitch. A-Rod fouled off a high fastball for strike one, and then hit an even higher fastball to right.

In all Aardsma threw 14 pitches that inning and, according to PitchFX, didn’t use anything but his fastball until the 12th, when he threw a splitter. That seems to be what he’s done since coming to Seattle. It’s worked better than whatever he did earlier in his career.

Biggest Pitch: Close, but not quite

Photo credit: Frank Franklin II/AP

CC got into that jam in the eighth by putting two on with one out. It was the only time the entire day he’d face a situation with two runners on. In other words, the rest of the game was pretty unremarkable in terms of big situations. The only time a runner even reached third was Milton Bradley after a leadoff double and a ground out. But Josh Wilson popped up and Ryan Langerhans struck out to quell that mini threat.

With those two runners on and one out CC faced Chone Figgins, who he started with three fastballs high. Figgins took the first for a ball and swung at the next two, missing one and fouling off the other. Then it was a high changeup, another foul. Again CC went with the change, but this time put it low in the zone. Figgins hit a little fly that Cano caught. They were just one out away, with a lefty-lefty match-up. It all seemed so good.

Damn.

So, do you like…stuff?

Granderson goes 2 for 4 against Cliff Lee but 0 for 3 against Rowland-Smith? Y’know, Suzyn…

Tex and A-Rod were the only players to get two hits. More of the two hits part, less of the only players part.

Coming into this season Robinson Cano hit a home run once every 34.94 PA. Last year he hit one every 26.96 PA. He’s hitting one every 21.06 PA this year.

Mo’s ERA: 0.88. Mo’s WHIP: 0.593. He even has a 2.16 FIP (though Mo always outpaces his FIP). Mo’s ERA+ heading into the game: 446.

Also, no celebration pic. All the good pics were of the Mariners.

Graph and box and highlights

Oh, this little guy? I wouldn’t worry about this little guy.

Green lines, numbers in a box, and highlights.

Up Next

1:00 Starts, Game 2 features the Blue Jays coming into town. It’s the second straight year in which MLB has scheduled the Blue Jays, a Canadian team, to play at Yankee Stadium on Fourth of July weekend. This amuses me probably more than it should. We cannot let the Canadians come onto ‘Merican soil and beat us during our celebration of independence!

Oh, and the Blue Jays are now .500, so all is right with the world again.

Montero’s hot hitting continues in SWB win

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Frankie Piliere threw some love the Yankees’ way in his mid-season Top 25 prospects list. He’s got Jesus Montero at #5, Austin Romine at #15, and Gary Sanchez at #25. Montero’s fine, but the other two seem like aggressive rankings. Nothing wrong with that, nice to see someone stick their neck out there and go against the grain.

David Phelps has been promoted up to Triple-A, so congrats to him. He’s put just 86 men on base while striking out 86 with a 46.3% ground ball rate in 88.1 IP, so clearly he was ready for the next level.

Triple-A Scranton (8-6 win over Pawtucket)
Justin Christian, RF-LF: 2 for 4, 2 R, 1 RBI, 2 BB – 13 for his last 38 (.342) with six walks & three strikeouts
Marcus Thames, LF: 2 for 4 - playing six innings in the field by design
Greg Golson, LF: 1 for 2, 1 2B, 1 RBI
Eduardo Nunez, 3B: 3 for 6, 2 R, 1 RBI, 2 K, 2 SB – 17 SB against just three CS (85%)
Jesus Montero, C: 1 for 3, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 2 K – 11 for his last 29 (.379) with four doubles, two homers, five walks & four strikeouts … love that he’s turned it around, good to see
Jorge Vazquez, 1B: 1 for 4, 2 RBI, 2 K
Rene Rivera, DH: 2 for 4, 1 RBI
Reid Gorecki, CF: 1 for 3, 1 R, 1 RBI, 2 BB – got picked off first
Reegie Corona, 2B: 1 for 5, 1 R, 1 K
Eric Bruntlett, SS: 0 for 4, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K
Ivan Nova: 7 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 8-10 GB/FB – 61 of 97 pitches were strikes (70.9%)
Royce Ring: 1 IP, zeroes, 1 K, 2-0 GB/FB – 10 of his 16 pitches were strikes (62.5%)
Zack Segovia: 0.2 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 0-1 GB/FB – 11 of his 20 pitches were strikes
Jon Albaladejo: 0.1 IP, zeroes, 0-1 GB/FB – both of his pitches were strikes … gotta love the two pitch save

[Read more…]

Open Thread: A pair of reminders

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Nick Swisher, a man of the (young) people. (Photo Credit: Jason DeCrow, DH)

Got two things to remind you about, so let’s start with the easy one first: All Star Game voting. It ends tonight, so make sure you go and vote for who you think should start the game in Anaheim in two weeks. Here’s the ballot, and here’s who I voted for:

AL: Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Robbie Cano, Derek Jeter, Evan Longoria, Carl Crawford, Josh Hamilton, Shin-Shoo Choo, Vlad Guerrero
NL: Brian McCann, Joey Votto, Martin Prado (only because Chase Utley’s hurt), Hanley Ramirez, David Wright, Matt Holliday, Colby Rasmus, Andres Torres (write-in)

Remember, you can vote up to 25 times per email address, so vote or die.

Second order of business: The RAB Mailbag. We announced our plans for this on Sunday, but it’s just a friendly little reminder to send your questions in to us (at any time) via email or the Submit A Tip box. We’ll pick a bunch and post our answers. If some require a full-fledged post, we can do that too. We’ll figure this thing out as we go.

And finally, here’s your open thread. Depending on where you live, you’ll get either the Rays-Twins or Giants-Rockies on MLB Network, plus the Mets are in the nation’s capitol. You can always talk about NBA and NHL free agency as well, I couldn’t care less (four years, $20M for Darko Milicic … really?). Talk about whatever, just don’t be a jerk.

You can now get your Yankees tickets on RAB

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During the last few series I’ve been winging it with Yankees games. If there were cheap tickets available on StubHub I’d jump on them, making last minute plans to hop on a bus up to the Stadium. During the Phillies series, though, I encountered a logistical issue. StubHub stops selling tickets two hours before the game. So while I waited for tickets to come down below $10, they became unavailable completely.

It made me desire more options for finding tickets. There are sites out there that search multiple directories, but I’ve never had much success with them. So when the guys from TiqIQ got in contact with us, we were receptive. What they’ve provided us is essentially our own outlet for Yankees tickets.

As you can see in the photo above, the TiqIQ-powered RAB Tickets lays out options for you, from which you can select the best seats at the best price. Here’s what’s going on for the Jays series this weekend:

And here’s what TiqIQ provides:

  • Aggregated Listings: TiqIQ track tickets from major sellers including Stubhub, TicketsNow, eBay and TicketNetwork.
    • We show these in both a Market Tab (Stubhub, TicketsNow, TicketNetwork, eBay) and Auction Tab (eBay)
  • TiqZone Categorization: TiqIQ breaks each stadium up into TiqZones, which are groupings of sections that we’ve determined are comparable in value. 
    TiqIQ Statistics:     TiqIQ provides ticket-level buying intelligence through the IQ rating and TiqIQ Statistics.
  • Event Details: TiqIQ gives you time and location information on the event.

If you’re looking to head to a game now or in the future, make sure check RAB Tickets along the way.

Game 78: Salvaging a lost series

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No CC, you're the man. (Photo Credit: Kathy Willens, AP)

The Yankees have already dropped this series with Seattle thanks in no small part to Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez, but allowing the game’s second worst offense to hang 14 runs on the board in just two games is pretty inexcusable. If anyone can right that ship, it’s CC Sabathia, who hit his stride in June like clockwork. The big guy has completed at least seven innings in his last five starts, during which time he’s held opponents to a .191/.269/.252 batting line against. He’s basically turned everyone into the June 2010 version of Frankie Cervelli. Imagine that.

On the bump for the Mariners is not one of their two aces, but the Australian born lefty Ryan Rowland-Smith and his 6.02 xFIP. Dude has a 3.90 K/9 and a 4.03 BB/9, for goodness sake. This pitching matchup is so lopsided, that I’m tempted to say this game has reverse lock written all over it. Here’s the lineup…

Jeter, SS
Swisher, RF
Teixeira, 1B
A-Rod, DH
Cano, 2B
Posada, C
Granderson, CF
Gardner, LF – first game since being hit by that pitch in the forearm on Sunday
Pena, 3B

And on the mound, Big Stoppa.

Gorgeous day for baseball here in New York. First pitch is set for 1:05pm ET and can be seen on YES locally or MLB Network nationally. Enjoy, folks.

Outfield at the Stadium in poor shape

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On June 3, as fans filed out of Yankee Stadium following a 6-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles, the preparations began. While the Yankees would spend the next week on the road, the Stadium would not cease activity. Instead, it would host its first boxing match in 34 years. The event went off without a hitch, it appeared, and they got the Stadium back in order for the Yankees’ return on Friday the 11th. Yet not everything was right.

The first thing I noticed after taking my seat in the bleachers that night was the condition of the outfield. You could see the outline of a stage, which did not come as a surprise. But that wasn’t the worst part. Instead, it looked like half the outfield had been overrun by a football team running drills for the past seven days, from morn till night. My friend commented that the grass looked brown, unwatered. It wasn’t that, though. It was that in many places there was almost no grass at all. The outfield was a shambles.


Photo from Flickr user baseballoggie, who also writes about the games he attends on his blog.

The Yankees played nine games in 10 days there before hitting the road again. They spent eight days on the West Coast, but that wasn’t enough time to get the field back in shape. That was the first thing I looked for when I got to my seat on Tuesday, and I was disappointed to see that it actually looked worse. That was just aesthetics, though. They patched up some parts, but clearly not all. Some parts are light green, others a darker forest green, and others are an even darker mix of green and brown.

In his notes column in the NY Post today, Brian Costello relays Curtis Granderson‘s take on the matter.

“It’s not necessarily better,” center fielder Curtis Granderson said. “They put some new grass out there, but it’s not everywhere. It looks like there’s a lot of seed stuff maybe. There’s a lot of green stuff out there. I don’t know what it is. Before it looked like paint. [Brett Gardner] slipped and his uniform turned bright green. I’m not sure what’s out there.”

The grounds crew will have to do their best to maintain the field as the Yankees play the next four games, but after that they’ll have 11 days to get the outfield into better shape before the team returns on July 16 to play Tampa Bay. While it sounds like they could get the job done in 11 days, they had eight days last time and didn’t accomplish much.

I’m not sure that they’re going to get much accomplished before the off-season, and even then it’s going to be a pain. Jay-Z and Eminem come to the Stadium on September 13th and 14th, so that’s going to take a further toll on the outfield grass. Just in time for the postseason, too. After that maintaining the lawn will be difficult not only because of the winter conditions, but because of the Pinstripe Bowl on December 30.

It’s nice that they’re getting more use out of the New Stadium than the old park, but this is first and foremost a baseball stadium. Are we going to have to look at a half-dirt, half-grass outfield every year?

Riding out the first half

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Photo Credit: Jae C. Hong, AP

With the season no longer young, it’s not uncommon to run back and see where this team stands compared to last year’s club, and why not? A World Championship team is the gold standard, and if the Yankees can replicate that success in any way this season, it makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

As I’m sure you remember, the 2009 club really didn’t hit it’s stride until the second half, and quite honestly until August. They went to bed on night of August 1st having just lost three to the White Sox, losers of three of their last four, and just half a game up in the AL East. They then went out and won 12 of their next 13 games, and finished the season on a 41-17 tear that carried right into October.

Much like last season’s team at this time, the 2010 squad has yet to really hit it’s stride. Despite owning the best record and best run differential in the game, we haven’t seen this team fire on all cylinders just yet. At times the pitching has carried them, at times it’s been the hitting, at other times it’s been plain old luck. They’re a full game in up the division compared to last season’s two-and-a-half run deficit on July 1st, and even though they’ve scored 13 fewer runs, they’ll allowed 44 fewer as well.

At 47-30, the Yanks need to go 4-7 over the next week and a half to finish the first half with the same 51-37 record as last year. Of course, the 2009 squad went into the break with the sourest of tastes in their mouths, having just been swept at the hands of the Angels in Anaheim in a particularly frustrating fashion. After today’s series wrap up against the surging Mariners (they’ve won nine of 12), the Yanks will welcome the free-falling Blue Jays (9-17 in their last 28, so once again that early season talk about them being a contender has proven to be premature) to the Bronx for a weekend series before heading out on their final West Coast trip of the season. A three game set in Oakland (they’ve lost eight of ten) precedes a rematch with the Mariners in Seattle.

Both Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez will pitch in that four game set that closes out the first half, but I would assume playing in Safeco will keep guys like Michael Saunders from hitting the ball out of the park. Winning four of the next 11 games shouldn’t be tough considering the relatively light competition, and really the goal should be greater than that. The Yanks haven’t been in first place at the All Star break since 2004, so that’s the plan right now. Finish up strong, and start the second half in control of your own destiny with eight of their first 12 games against the Indians and Royals.

Yes, the Yanks do have some needs to address before the trade deadline. It’s painfully obvious that they need a designated hitter, or at the very least a platoon partner for the soon-to-return Marcus Thames because extended playing time has unsurprisingly exposed Frankie Cervelli as anything but a starting big leaguer. They need to shore up the bullpen, get A.J. Burnett straightened out (woo Dave Eiland!), manage Phil Hughes‘ workload, and figure out a way to get Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira performing up their lofty standards. And yet despite all of that, the Yankees are ahead of last year’s World Series winning pace.

It hasn’t been as easy as it was in the second half of 2009, but that’s okay. There’s no reason to expect this team to not improve in the second half, and that should scare the crap out of the rest of baseball.