River Avenue Blues

Montero’s grand slam leads Trenton to a win

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Longtime RABer TurnTwo sent me he photos from last week’s Double-A Eastern League All Star Game. Click here to see the slideshow.

Triple-A Scranton
Game 1 (3-1 win over Gwinnett) completion of yesterday’s game, which was suspended due to rain
Kevin Russo: 0 for 2, 1 BB
Ramiro Pena & Shelley Duncan: both 0 for 4 – Shelley K’ed
Austin Jackson: 1 for 4, 1 RBI, 1 K
Juan Miranda: 1 for 2, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB – seven of his twelve homers have come off righties
Frankie Cervelli & Colin Curtis: both 1 for 3 – Cervelli was caught stealing … Curtis hit a solo jack
Yurendell DeCaster: 0 for 3
Doug Bernier: 0 for 1, 1 R, 2 BB
Josh Towers: 1.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 3-1 GB/FB – 20 of 35 pitches were strikes (57.1%) … he got tossed in the second for intentionally throwing at a batter, or so the umpire thought
Amaury Sanit: 0.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 1-0 GB/FB – 8 of 13 pitches were strikes (61.5%) … he would have stayed in longer, but there was a long rain delay
Anthony Claggett: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 3-5 GB/FB – 26 of 49 pitches were strikes (53.1%)
Mike Dunn: 1.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 0-2 GB/FB – 15 of 25 pitches were strikes (60%) … AAA debut
Edwar Ramirez: 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 2-1 GB/FB – 28 of 43 pitches were strikes (65.1%)

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Wang, pain free, to begin throwing program on Monday

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The headline says it all, and Marc Carig has the news. After being sidelined since July 5 with a right shoulder strain, Chien-Ming Wang will play catch on Monday. While he has been receiving treatment on the shoulder, this tossing will be Wang’s first try at some baseball activities. The Yanks plan to take it slow with Wang and will not target a return date yet. Considering how little faith we collectively have in Sergio Mitre, the sooner Wang returns the better.

Game 90: When last we met

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CC Sabathia and Justin Verlander last squared off on April 27, and what we witnessed that day was a clinic in pitching. Sabathia threw a complete game, allowing just six hits and no walks while striking out seven. Verlander was nearly untouchable. He lasted seven innings, gave up seven hits and struck out nine. He also walked no one.

The final score of that game was 4-2. Magglio Ordoñez’s two-run home run — just his second of the season — bounced off the top of the right field wall and landed on the wrong side. The Yanks would plate two in the 9th but couldn’t mount the comeback.

Today, these two aces meet again. Sabathia is coming off of a bad start against the Angels. On Sunday, he gave up five runs on nine hits and three walks as the Yanks lost 5-4. Verlander, who leads the AL in strike outs, is coming off a seven-inning shut out start against the Indians. He is 10-2 with a 2.22 ERA over his last 15 starts. Runs should be scarce.

For CC, the second half has always been kind to him. He has a career 3.39 ERA and strikes out nearly a batter an inning more in the second half than in the first. That should be good news for those wary of his declining K numbers this year.

The game starts at 1:04 p.m., and it is a bee-yoo-tee-ful day for baseball in New York.

Jeter SS
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui DH
Posada C
Cano 2B
Swisher RF
Cabrera CF

Sabathia P

A weekend of celebrating the past

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After attending Old Timers’ Day in 2007, last year’s All Star Game and the final game at Yankee Stadium, I was old-timered out. There are, after all, so many times I could sit through watching the Yanks trot out a bunch of retired baseball players. But as Old Timers’ Day 2009 rolls around, one day after the tenth anniversary of David Cone’s perfect game, this weekend is a good one for Bronx baseball history.

On the David Cone, the ex-Yankee and current YES broadcaster will throw out the first pitch of today’s game. It was July 18, 1999, a Sunday, that David Cone secured his place in baseball history. Facing a young Expos squad, Cone needed just 88 pitches to face 27 batters that day. Scott Brosius caught the last out of the game off the bat of Orlando Cabrera in foul territory, and Cone was mobbed by Joe Girardi and the rest of his teammates.

To me, what sticks out most about that game was the way it ended. I spent that Sunday afternoon with my mom and sister at Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphonic Orchestra in Lenox, Massachusetts. When the 2:30 concert ended, I turned on my walkman and heard John Sterling say that David Cone was just three outs away from a perfect game. I blurted out the news, and the only people to react were my family members. A lawn full of people could have cared less.

After the perfect game, Cone would pitch in 73 more games but with little success. He went 16-29 with a 5.57 ERA, and it always seemed to me that he had sold his baseball soul for that perfect game. Now and then, he would flash his best stuff, but that was the apex of his Yankee career. Over at The Times’ Lens blog, sports photographer Barton Silverman remembers covering the perfect game.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, the Yankees will welcome back a bunch of old timers for the annual Old Timers’ Day festivities. The team announced some interesting additions yesterday. Mike Mussina, Don Zimmer and Mel Stottlemyre will all make their Old Timers’ Day debuts. You may remember Mike Mussina from such classic Yankee seasons as 2008, and unless Angel Berroa returns for the game, he will be the most recent former Yankee at the stadium on Sunday.

More intriguing are the Zimmer and Stottlemyre returns. Both coaches left on bad terms with the Steinbrenners. Zimmer and George got into some very public feuds following the 2003 season, and the Yanks haven’t really been the same since he left. Zimmer, if I recall correctly, swore never to return with George around. Stottlemyre resigned following the 2005 and was public about his disdain for George Steinbrenner. What the return of these two key members of the Yankee Dynasty coaching staff says about George Steinbrenner’s current state, I will leave for you to decide.

Mitre to serve as fifth starter, for now

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Prior to the start of last night’s Yankees-Tigers game, Joe Girardi made official what Joe mentioned at 4:30 yesterday: Sergio Mitre would be called up to the Bronx on Tuesday and will start against the Orioles in his Yankee debut. Mitre, 28 and a right-hander, will be making his first start since Sept. 15, 2007. He missed all of the 2008 season with Tommy John surgery.

For the Yankees, the need to turn to Mitre comes out of a variety of circumstances. At the top of that list is, of course, Chien-Ming Wang’s woefully bad 2009. When Wang injured his foot last June, no one knew it would mark a downward spiral for the two-time 19-game winner. In fits and starts this year, Wang is 1-6 with a 9.64 ERA, and he is out indefinitely with a right shoulder strain.

Beyond Wang, the Yanks had two other pitchers ahead of Mitre on their depth charts. Phil Hughes and Alfredo Aceves were slotted to be the sixth and seventh starters respectively, but then the bullpen happened. Hughes, as we all know, had been pitching decently in the starting rotation in place of Wang in May, but when the Yanks activated the sinker-ball specialist in late May, Hughes was bounced from the rotation.

Instead of sending Hughes back to the minors to work on his innings, though, the Yanks decided to slot him into a bullpen role. Hughes, who no longer was challenged by AAA hitters, has more than exceeded expectations as a set-up man, and last night’s two-inning, six-strike out performance solidified his role as the Bridge to Mariano. At the same time, though, the Yankees have limited Hughes’ innings, and he isn’t prepared to jump back into the starting rotation.

Aceves’ path is a similar one. A starter at AAA to start the season, Aceves was summoned to the Bronx when it was clear that the Yanks needed a long reliever. He made one spot start — against the Twins before the break — but has been far better as a swing man in the pen. There, he is 5-1 with a 2.02 in 40 innings spanning 21 games. As Joe LaPointe reported, the Yanks know Hughes and Aceves are better options than Mitre. These two, however, are not really stretched out, and the team is very hesitant to mess with bullpen success.

So Mitre it will be. The Yanks signed Mitre for depth over the off-season, and now, it is depth they need. Never much of a heralded prospect, Mitre is 10-23 with a 5.36 ERA over 310.2 innings spanning parts of five seasons for the Cubs and Marlins. With a K/9 IP of just 5.4, he doesn’t strike out many hitters, but he has decent ground ball numbers.

The Yankees have to hope they can catch lightening in a bottle with Mitre. He has earned wins in back-to-back starts just three times in his career and is simply an arm right now. With Joba Chamberlain and Andy Pettitte scuffling lately, the Yanks’ pitching depth and the team’s 2009 success is resting on what Mitre can do for a handful of starts. My fingers are crossed.