I can has runs?
Game 31 Spillover Thread
I hope Joba treats the O’s like the last place team they are.
Game 31: Finding a new way to lose
The Yanks are 1-6 in their last seven games, and are 5-11 in their last sixteen. They’ve lost games in every way imaginable; walk-offs, blows outs, defensive ugliness, pitcher duels, you name it. You can bet the team would like to go into tomorrow’s off day on the heels of a victory, rather than having to think about what went wrong in yet another loss.
Joba Chamberlain will make the start this afternoon despite popping a blood vessel in his pitching thumb yesterday. I’m a bit shocked that they’re sending him to the mound, the Yanks have always treated their young arms with kid gloves. The fact that he’s going pitch makes me feel better, because the thumb issue can’t be that serious then. Hopefully he’s ready to go from first pitch, rather than waiting until the game has pretty much already been decided, like in his last two starts. Joba will be opposed by Koji Uehara, who beat the Yanks in the second game of the season.
The lineup:
Jeter, SS
Damon, LF
Teixeira, 1B
A-Rod, 3B
Matsui, DH
Swisher, RF
Cano, 2B
Melky, CF
Cervelli, C
And on the mound, the blood vessel poppin’ Joba Chamberlain.
Happy Mothers Day to all the RAB moms and wives out there.
A crazier Bronx Zoo
Today’s Yankee fans love to bemoan the presence of Alex Rodriguez. He’s a distraction, they say. He causes more problems than he’s worth. Rick Cerone, former Yankee catcher, simply laughs at that notion. Cerone, speaking at the induction ceremonies for the New Jersey Hall of Fame, said that the Yankee clubhouse during his years with the team and for the few seasons prior to that was a study in dysfunction. Reggie Jackson and his teammates would physically fight each other, and despite these Bronx Zoo distractions, the team still managed to win two World Series and play in a third. This A-Rod, he ain’t no thing.
Enter for a chance to win a Fourth of July Luxury Suite
Longtime RAB reader David Yaskulka brought this to my attention, and I wanted to pass it along. The nonprofit organization Green Chimneys is raffling off the chance to win an amazing Fourth of July outing at the New Stadium. The organization is dedicated to helping children with emotional, behavioral, social and learning disabilities by promoting a philosophy of dignity and sense of worth through animal-assisted therapy. You can read all about the great work Green Chimneys does at their website.
As for the raffle, here’s what you’ll have a shot to win:
- Luxury Suite between home plate and the Yankees’ dugout with accommodations for 16 people for the Saturday, July 4th game against Toronto
- VIP parking for three vehicles
- All the food and drinks your heart desires.
Only 500 raffle tickets are available, and you can get yours for just $100. The drawing will be held on June 7th, and of course all the proceeds go to Green Chimneys. If you’re interested in purchasing a raffle ticket, go here to do so. Don’t wait, they may run out faster than you think. Good luck!
Pitching fails Yanks again in 12-5 loss.
Phil Hughes faced 11 batters in the second inning last night. He got ahead of six of them and got two-strike counts on five. He retired just one of them, and on that play a run scored. It was clear from the first inning that Hughes was having some issues, but I never thought it would be that bad. So instead of putting the Yanks in a position to assemble a win streak, he basically precluded it himself. He left the game with the score 7-0 Orioles, and one batter later Edwar Ramirez had let an inherited runner score.
Edwar’s damage was considerable. He did retire 10 of the 14 batters he faced, but three of them came around to score — including a home run by a guy who was hitting .167/.235/.267 coming into the day. Not that it made a difference in the outcome. Hughes’s runs were all the Orioles needed, even though they trotted out one of the worst starters in the game, who was backed up by one of the worst bullpens.
While the pitching was pretty horrible, the offense still managed to screw up in every way imaginable — except, of course, for Johnny Damon, who apparently isn’t in on the game fixing deal. Adam Eaton, who has never recorded an ERA below 4.08 in his major league career, and who hasn’t gotten his ERA below 5.12 since 2005, held the Yankees in check early on. Through three innings he had to face just 11 batters. How in the world can an offense which makes a collective $111 million (and that doesn’t even count Jorge) go down so easily against one of the worst pitchers in the AL? It makes no sense, yet it seems to happen regularly against the absolute worst pitchers the Yankees face.
(Remember, too, that the Phillies are paying Eaton to pitch for the Orioles. The same Phillies who have no starters with an ERA under 5.00. Just sayin’.)
There’s no reason for a lengthy recap tonight. It was a painful, horrible game right from the beginning, and even the Yankees mini rallies didn’t do much to alleviate the pain. In fact, the one in the fourth inning only added to the pain. Again, one of the worst starters in baseball walks the bases loaded with no outs, and the manager leaves him in there. So what do the Yakees do? Sac fly and a double play. That’s seriously all they could muster. I’d say it doesn’t get more frustrating than that, but this whole game made me bash my hat against the bar.
The goodnot so bad news is that the Yankees aren’t taking this one as hard as the fans. Girardi was downright Torre-esque in his postgame talk, answering questions pretty directly and remaining as calm as a manager can be after a blowout. He joked a little, was serious for most of it, and in the end said that it’s one bad game and you can’t let it affect you too much. Hughes was just as composed in talking about his arm slot and how it affected his performance. The results sucked, obviously, but Hughes took all the blame. Watch him the next time he wins; he’ll give the credit to everyone else on the team. You can learn all that and more at the Crash Davis School of Baseball Public Relations.
They’ll have a chance to pick up the series win tomorrow heading into an off-day. Either Joba Chamberlain or Al Aceves against Koji Uehara. We can only pray that the offense strings together some hits…though that hasn’t happened for quite a while now.
Melky leads Charleston to victory with another homer
Lots of notes tonight, so let’s bullet point ’em:
- For some unknown reason, the DJ Mitchell was removed from the Low-A Charleston roster and assigned him to Short Season Staten Island. Manny Banuelos was activated from the DL and takes Mitchell’s roster spot. Staten Island’s season doesn’t begin until June 19th, so this is just a paper move. I’m sure Mitchell’s down in Tampa working out with the Extended Spring Training crew, but this seems odd because he was dealing (42-6 K/BB, 2.21 GB/FB, .228 BAA in 37 IP). I’ll let you know if I hear anything else.
- The 9th Inning took a look at the correlation between Carmen Angelini errors and Yankee losses. Hopefully he stops botching so many plays soon.
- The Yanks signed Josh Towers to fill out the Triple-A rotation. As long as he never sees the Bronx, I’m cool with it. DJF must be laughing though.
- Last, but certainly not least, the Yanks are scouting Yu Darvish. I suspect the other 29 clubs are too. He won’t be a free agent for another five years, and he’s still relatively cheap (making $1.75M this year) so his team has no reason to post him anytime soon. Hopefully the Yanks do their homework, we don’t want another Kei Igawa.
Also, make sure you scroll down for news on Joba’s popped blood vessel.
Update (11:30pm): Mitchell was sent down to control his innings according to Robert Pimpsner at Baby Bombers.
Triple-A Scranton (3-2 loss to Louisville)
Doug Bernier & Luis Nunez: both 1 for 4, 1 R – Bernier drove in a run & K’ed twice … Nunez swiped a bag
Eric Duncan: 0 for 5
Todd Linden: 1 for 3, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K – 18 XBH in 29 games
John Rodriguez & Juan Miranda: both 0 for 4 – J-Rod K’ed
Austin Jackson: 2 for 4, 1 2B, 1 K – breaks out of a little 2 for 15 (.133) funk
Chris Malec: 1 for 4, 1 K, 1 SB
Chris Stewart: 2 for 5, 1 PB, 1 E (throwing)
George Kontos: 6.1 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 1 WP, 6-5 GB/FB, 1 E (throwing) – 63 of 92 pitches were strikes (68.5%)
Mark Melancon: 1.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 4-1 GB/FB – 11 of 15 pitches were strikes (73.3%) … vintage Melancon