What a difference a day makes

On Tuesday night the Yankees played about as badly as a team possibly can. First, their defense let them down, with Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon commiting costly errors. Then their pitching collapsed, as Mike Mussina was unable to recover after Jeter's error and failed to make it out of the first inning. Finally, their offense was completely stymied by Daniel Cabrera and Lance Cormier, who only allowed seven Yankees to reach base in the game.

Twenty four hours later, they looked like a completely different team. Every starter managed to reach base at least once, and only two (Melky Cabrera and Bobby Abreu) failed to either score or knock in a run. Meanwhile, Darrell Rasner absolutely sparkled, holding the Orioles to just five hits, one walk, and no runs while striking out six over seven innings.

The only constant over the two games was Alex Rodriguez, back from injury in style, as he knocked three long home runs into nearly the same spot in right center field (though one was erroneously ruled a double). The past couple of days have shown that the Yankees aren't as bad as they've shown so far, but they're also not as good as they ought to be. If anyone can elevate them to that level, though, it's A-Rod.

Saturday Afternoon Pics

Friday was my birthday, and I celebrated by heading down to the stadium for Saturday afternoon's game against the Mets. Unfortunately, no one told the Yankees as they suffered a pretty sloppy loss to the Mets. The goat of the game was obviously Kyle Farnsworth, who came in with the Yankees down by just one run and proceeded to allow two homers and a walk to the first three batters he faced, putting the game well out of reach.

What was almost even more disheartening, however, was watching Derek Jeter make a very rare mental error on the basepaths. In the bottom of the sixth Jeter got a clean hit into center field which he inexplicably tried to stretch into a double. It didn't work out.


As you can see, Jeter wasn't anywhere close to making it to second, and I have no idea what could have made him think that he should try.

On the bright side, Andy Pettitte did a good job dominating the Mets in the first three innings and recovering nicely after putting the first four batters on in the fourth inning.


In off the field matters, the Yankees have been conducting a little ceremony after the fifth inning of each game to count down the final games at Yankee Stadium.

Considering all the nostalgia and schmaltz that's going into the Yankee Stadium farewell hoopla, I think it's pretty weird that they would choose to set the background music for this particular ceremony as Europe's "The Final Countdown". So much for dignity.

April is the Cruelest Month

The first month of the baseball season is over and the Yankees find themselves in third place with a losing record. While this is certainly an improvement over last season, I don't think it's what any of us expected. Baseball, however, is all about the unexpected and a lot of what has gone wrong for the Yankees are things that no one could have seen coming, let alone do anything about:

• A schedule which started by playing twenty games straight without an off day.


• Miserably cold and/or rainy conditions in the first thirteen of those games.


• A Papal visit to Yankee Stadium which created a schedule where the team would play a Major League record 18 road games in April, with only two days at home between 8 and 10 day trips.


• Injuries which caused Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Alex Rodriguez, three of the most valuable and durable players in the game, to miss significant time.


• Injuries to the backups for Jeter and Posada, with Jose Molina only able to catch sporadically as he worked through a hamstring strain and Wilson Betemit unable to play at all thanks to corneal ulcers.


• The freakish coincidence of A-Rod going pulling his quad the night before his wife gave birth. This kept him from getting an MRI, something which might have kept him from aggravating the injury.


• Pneumonia which hospitalized Joba Chamberlain's father and caused the pitcher to leave the team in order to be with his family.


• A torn Lisfranc ligament in Brian Bruney's foot which may cause him to miss the rest of the season

Looking at that list, I have to say that it's something of a minor miracle that the team is only one game under .500. This isn't to say that the team shouldn't be doing better. While you can't really blame anyone for the above mishaps, you can question how Brian Cashman, Joe Girardi and the rest of the Yankees' staff have reacted to them, and I'll be doing that tomorrow.

Hijinks

It's been a very strange couple of days for the Yankees, and even stranger ones for Yankee fans as the team made some very confusing moves in response to injuries and the weather. Let's see if we can straighten this out.

First, Derek Jeter is out till Friday at the earliest, but will almost certainly stay off the DL. Also avoiding the DL is Jorge Posada, as an MRI revealed no structural damage in his shoulder. What's unclear, however, is how long it'll be until he can actually play. That's all pretty straightforward. What's bizarre is what the Yankees did next.

With Posada and Jeter unavailable, it was obvious that some kind of move needed to be made to get some help. They elected to call up Alberto Gonzalez to start at shortstop tonight, which is not the move that I would make. Wilson Betemit may have looked shaky in yesterday's game, but I think the greater need is for a catcher to back up Jose Molina. Right now, if Molina were to get injured in a game, he would be replaced by Morgan Ensberg, who, as far as I can tell, hasn't played the position in this millenium. However, that's just a questionable move. The bizarre move came when it was time to make room for Gonzalez on the roster.

First, Joe Girardi told reporters that Ensberg had injured his ankle and implied that he was headign to the DL. This, apparently, was news to Ensberg, who told Tyler Kepner of the Times that he was fine. Finally, after tonight's batting practice was over, the team revealed that Shelley Duncan had been sent down to Triple A.

So that's all there is for the injuries, but the wackiness didn't end there. About fifteen minutes before gametime, the Yankees stopped Ian Kennedy from warming up and announced that he had been scratched from his start, without providing any reason. Thankfully, it turns out that there was no injury. What happened was that Joe Girardi, perhaps because of the advice of team meteorologist Al Roker (no, seriously, he really is on staff), felt that the game would be postponed or delayed due to rain and didn't want to waste a start by Kennedy. It probably would've been a good decision, except that tonight's umpires are apparently a little crazy, as we're now in the sixth inning, even though it's been pouring all night and the field is an absolute mess. Meanwhile, Kennedy has finally taken the mound after Brian Bruney, Billy Traber and Kyle Farnsworth combined for four good innings, and one not so good one from Farnsworth.

Live Blogging 10/07

I'm back for another night of liveblogging. Here are today's lineups:

Yankees
1. Johnny Damon LF
2. Derek Jeter SS
3. Bobby Abreu RF
4. Alex Rodriguez 3B
5. Jorge Posada C
6. Jason Giambi 1B
7. Hideki Matsui DH
8. Robinson Cano 2B
9. Melky Cabrera CF
Pitcher: Roger Clemens

Indians
1. Grady Sizemore CF
2. Asdrubal Cabrera 2B
3. Travis Hafner DH
4. Victor Martinez C
5. Ryan Garko 1B
6. Jhonny Peralta SS
7. Kenny Lofton LF
8. Trot Nixon RF
9. Casey Blake 3B
Pitcher: Jake Westbrook

The big changes from the last couple of games are Giambi, who takes Doug Mientkiewicz's spot at first, and Nixon, who is the Indian's third right fielder in as many games. They're both pretty obvious moves. Nixon is a left hander with good numbers against Roger Clemens, and Giambi will hopefully provide some spark to an offense that's been pretty well shut down thus far in the series. The Yankees may get more of a spark from Westbrook, who has not done well against them. He gave up four runs over seven innings in his last start against the Bombers, and was pounded for eight runs over one and two thirds innings the last time he pitched in Yankee Stadium back in April.

Of course the big pregame news is George Steinbrenner letting the world know that Joe Torre's job may depend on the outcome of this series. It'd be ironic to me if Torre lost his job after this season, since I've been impressed by his performance in bringing the team back to the playoffs. Of course, even if I didn't feel that way, I'd still think that he deserves better, but that's the Steinbrenner Way, and Torre should be commended for showing, once again, amazing professionalism and class.

Update 6:38PM: Anyone looking for the game on TBS, switch over to TNT. They're showing the game there until the Boston-Anaheim game is over.

Update 6:41PM: I'm sure some of you are thinking it, but I really doubt Doug Mientkiewicz could have made that play. Even if he had been able to catch Jeter's errant throw, it would've been extremely difficult to tag Cabrera.

Update 6:53PM: A tough first inning for Clemens, but he seemed to get better as the inning wore on. I'm hoping he's just shaking off the rust that comes with not having pitched for three weeks.

Update 7:06PM: Ouch. Looks like Eric Wedge made the right call by putting Nixon in. That ball was hit so hard that it almost didn't have time to elevate over the fence.

Update 7:14PM: The Yankees' are going to need to get to Jake Westbrook soon, because I don't think that Clemens is going to settle in. It might be time to get Mike Mussina warming up.

Update 7:18PM: Excellent at bat for A-Rod. He seems to have gotten comfortable with the fact that the Indian pitchers are afraid of him and aren't going to throw him much in the strike zone. So, he watched some balls go by, pounced on a mistake and didn't try to do too much with it.

Update 7:32PM: It's certainly got to be frustrating for the Rocket to be pulled in favor of a kid that hadn't even been born when he made his major league debut. However, I'm glad that Torre didn't let that factor into his decision making. Now we've got to hope that Hughes is in command of all his pitches, because it looks like he's going to need it.

Update 7:42PM: I think Hughes needs to mix in his other pitches a little more. He threw 13 pitches, 10 of those were fastballs. The rest were three beautiful curveballs, which I'd like to see more of, as well as the slider and change. Still, he appears to have good command on the fastball, and its up to 93mph, so I think we'll see some solid innings out of him.

Update 7:47PM: Kudos to Matsui for legging out that infield hit with that gimpy hamstring. You could definitely see he was in pain as he ran down the line.

Update 7:52PM: Who would've thought that Matsui would be making contributions with his legs. Great baserunning on that play, especially with his slide into third. That gutsy play not only puts him ninety feet from home, but keeps Melky from being out at first. That could well be a turning point in this game.

Update 8:05PM: Hughes has got to be feeling good about his curveball, because he shook off Posada twice in order to throw it. He's definitely got good reason for it, as its got some great break, and he's been spot on with his command. Plus, there's a huge speed differential there, as , at 70mph, it's more than 20mph slower than the fastball. And there's that slider coming in at 81mph. The kid's looking really good out there.

Update 8:40PM: It was only a matter of time before the Yankees broke through against Westbrook. Beyond the runs, Damon's home run is great since it eliminates the possibility of Jeter, who has been the rally killer in this game, grounding into another double play.

Update 8:48PM: Joba's warming up. With nary a bug in sight, He and Mo ought to be able to lock this down if Hughes can get through this inning unscathed.

Update 8:59PM: It's surprising to see Westbrook back out on the mound. Not that I'm complaining.

Update 9:06PM: I can't say I really see the point of that bunt. Considering who's coming to the plate, I think sacrificing a chance to bust this game open is a mistake.

Update 9:10PM: Well, it looks like they didn't need any more chances to bust the game open anyway. Big hit by Cano, and a bigger error by Nixon.

Update 9:14PM: Now the question is what do you do about the bullpen. One of the Joba rules is that once he starts warming up, he has to come into a game. However, with such a huge lead do you only use him for one inning so that he's available tomorrow? Do you use Mo, or do you trust the end of a must win game to a lesser pitcher? I say hand the ball off to Ohlendorf, Vizcaino or Veras. Five runs is a big enough lead to start thinking about tomorrow.

Update 9:21PM: That strikeout is exactly why Joba's stay in the bullpen is temporary. He just struck out Cabrera on three exceptional pitches. The fastball and slider we've seen plenty of, but that curve hasn't been used much as a reliever, and it's fantastic. Anyone with that deep an arsenal needs to be in the rotation.

Update 9:30PM: Tonight's public address announcer, Jim Hall, sounds so much like Bob Sheppard that it's creeping me out.

Update 9:40PM: I'm having a hard time figuring out who is annoying me more, Dane Cook in these "There's Only One October," commercials, or this Frank guy and the endless promos for his show.

Update 9:52PM: I think the bullpen phone is broken again. Joe Torre is signaling Robinson Cano to check if Jose Veras is ready. This happened a few weeks ago, and you'd think that after the first time someone would think to bring a cellphone out there.

Update 10:10PM: Man, I really hate to see Mo here. I'm not knocking Torre's decision to use him, mind you, because I think it's a good call. It's just annoying that there's no one else in the pen you can really trust.

Update 10:15PM: And Mo closes it out against the top of the Indians' lineup looking like he was barely trying. I won't be able to live blog tomorrow's game, but I'll try and keep on top of the pregame stories, especially who the Yankees' will be sending to the mound. My vote is for Chien-Ming Wang, whose sinker ought to be better on short rest than long rest.

Makin' Me Sweat

Never let it be said that I'm not man enough to admit when I'm wrong, even when no one would know. I didn't get around to writing it before the game, but I didn't think Roger Clemens should have started tonight's game. I simply did not believe that his elbow could stand up to the Red Sox offense. Granted, Clemens said he could pitch, but I'm pretty sure he'd say the same thing if he were run over by the bus. He's just that kind of Texas son of a gun. The Rocket, however, was pretty sharp, pitching an efficient six innings, allowing only one unearned run, while striking out four and allowing only six men to get on base. While he had only thrown 87 pitches at that point, Joe Torre wisely decided that he didn't want to push Clemens' elbow to hard and turned things over to the Joba Chamberlain.

Unfortunately, Curt Schilling was just as sharp, if not more so. He only needed 69 pitches to get through seven innings, giving up only one run off a solo homerun by Robinson Cano in the 5th. Considering that Chamberlain was available for two innings, and Mariano Rivera was pretty well rested too, it seemed like we might be in for a long night, waiting for someone to scratch out a run against these dominating pitchers. Derek Jeter, perhaps having plans for the rest of the night, had other ideas.

After Melky Cabrera struck out to start the eighth inning, Doug Mientkiewicz managed to get on with a single. It was then that Joe Torre made a gutsy, brilliant call. Rather than have Jose Molina try to sacrifice Mientkiewicz into scoring position, Torre sent in Jason Giambi to pitch hit. What made this decision so surprising was that the only catcher who could replace Molina, Jorge Posada. For those who don't know, when you have a DH take over for a player in the field, the pitcher has to take over for that player at the plate. Torre, however, saw his chance to get a run and took it, deciding to worry about the pitcher's at bat when it came.

The gamble worked out beautifully, as Giambi singled and Damon grounded into what would have been the third out had Torre used Molina to sacrifice. Since Torre didn't, though, the Captain had the opportunity to come through in the clutch, and he did so in style, knocking a home run over the Green Monster to put the Yankees ahead 4-1. That would be all the offense the Yankees' needed, though the bullpen would make it close.

In the bottom of the 8th, Chamberlain gave up the first earned run of his short career when Mike Lowell took him deep for a solo home run. The 21 year old remained poised, as he came right back against J.D. Drew. Joba the Hutt struck him out with a breaking ball that Drew watched go by like he was frozen in carbonite.

The real nailbiting came in the botton ninth, which Mariano Rivera started by walking Jason Varitek. A Julio Lugo double would score him, and a hit batter followed by another walk would load the bases with two outs for David Ortiz. It's funny how Yankees/Red Sox games always seem to come down to big moments like these, where the game is on the line and each team has exactly who they want on the mound and at the plate. This time the moment was Mo's, as he got Ortiz to Big Papi out to shortstop with the classic cutter inside. The perfect ending to a game that was everything this rivalry is supposed to be.

Even though the Yanks won the series, without the sweep they're too far back to have a realistic shot at the pennant. However, by winning five of their last six against Boston, they've proven that they're more than ready to meet them in October. As far as getting to October, they remain two and a half games ahead of Detroit for the Wild Card, and their magic number drops to 10.

Sunday Notes

In the past five games, Alex Rodriguez has:

• Hit seven home runs.
  
• Hit two home runs in an inning
  
• Broken his own record for most home runs by a righthanded Yankee with 49.
  
• Passed Mel Ott, Eddie Murray and Ernie Banks on the all-time home run list with 513.
  
• Broken Mike Schmidt's record for most home runs by a third baseman in a season with 49.
  
• Joined Babe Ruth, Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, as the only Yankees to ever hit 50 home runs.
  
• Saved Western California from sinking into the ocean by turning back time and stopping the missiles unleashed by Lex Luthor.

Actually, that last one might be Superman. Its hard to tell them apart sometimes. Regardless, he curently stands at 52 home runs on the season, 15 more than the next guy in the league, and 516 for his career, good enough for 17th on the all-time list.

As much fun as it is to be playing the "how great is A-Rod?" game, he's actually not the best story of the week. That honor belongs to Harlan Chamberlain, Joba Chamberlain's father. By now, most of you probably know the Yankeeography-ready story of the Chamberlain family, and if you don't Peter Abraham wrote a nice feature last month for our sister paper, the Journal News.

With the Yankees traveling to Kansas City, the closest Major League team to his hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska, the elder Chamberlain had his first opportunity to see his son in pinstripes, along with a boatload of friends, family and fans from the University of Nebraska. It was a little corny and manipulative, but I couldn't help getting a little misty eyed watching Harlan, with tears in his eyes, pumped his fist in celebration as Joba struck Ross Gload out on a nasty slider.

In less heartwarming news, Derek Jeter didn't play today after leaving last night's game with a sore knee. The official diagnosis is patellar tendinitis, which is a weakening of the tendons in the knee. He's expected to be ready for Tuesday's game in Toronto, though he may be used as a DH to keep him off the astroturf. It doesn't sound major at the moment, but tendinitis is a chronic condition, so it's worth keeping an eye on.

Anyway, with today's win and Detroit's loss to Seattle, the Yankees hold a four game lead in the wild card and the magic number shrinks to 16.