Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

"Post hoc ergo propter hoc," is a Latin phrase that translates to "after this, therefore because of this". It's a logical fallacy where a person assumes that one event causes another just because it happened in that order, and they're often wrong. For example, if you stepped on a fissure in the sidewalk and then your mother had a spinal injury, you might believe that "step on a crack, break your mother's back". It's lazy thinking, and I hope Hank Steinbrenner is smart enough to avoid it. The fact that the Yankees won on the night after he ranted about them having to play "smarter and harder" doesn't mean that he's the reason they won. Just as Mike Mussina didn't start pitching lefthanded, Mariano Rivera didn't suddenly realize he hadn't been trying the night before, and Robinson Cano didn't think his way into four hits.

All that happened last night was the same thing that happened the night before. The Yankee hitters stranded lots of men on base, and the Yankee pitchers did the same. The only difference was that this time the hitters managed to plate one extra run. In the great scheme of things, that's not a lot, and anyone who thinks that last night was evidence of real improvement is fooling themselves.

Comebacks

Yesterday afternoon I made my way down to the stadium for the first time this season and was rewarded with a win that was filled with great signs from players who have been struggling. The first came from Robinson Cano, who entered the game as arguably the worst hitting regular in the American League. In retrospect, it's pretty obvious that his performance wasn't going to remain so terrible. Beyond the fact that he's just too talented a player for that to happen, his .165 BABIP is just too low to be anything but horrible luck. It's one thing, however, to know that he'll turn it around and another thing altogether to see it happen. He had two hard hits with the double and the home run, and the flyout he made in the third inning was hammered as well. He's now hitting .273/.304/.591 in May, and I think we can declare this slump officially over.

Also making a comeback is Wilson Betemit who hit a solo home run right after Cano's. He's now got two hits in as many games since coming back from the DL, and has looked solid at third base. It's a far cry from how he performed while struggling with corneal ulcers in April, and proof that sight is a valuable tool for a baseball player. Just in case anyone was wondering.

Then there were the rebound performances of Joba Chamberlain and Ross Ohlendorf. On Tuesday, Chamberlain revealed that he's some kind of strike throwing cyborg sent from the future by blowing the lead and picking up the loss. Yesterday he showed that, while he is human, he's a resilient one, striking out the man who hit the big home run against him, David Delucci, as he retired the top of the Indians lineup in order. Ohlendorf, meanwhile, continued to show that the beatings he took in the last half of April really were the product of overwork. He threw two efficient, scoreless innings, and as long as he doesn't have to continually throw three or more innings at a time, I think he'll be very dependable.

Opening Day Live Blog

At long last the first game of the season is nearly here, and I'll be posting through the whole thing. To start, here are the lineups:

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

Blue Jays
1. David Eckstein - SS
2. Shannon Stewart - LF
3. Alexis Rios - RF
4. Vernon Wells - CF
5. Frank Thomas - DH
6. Lyle Overbay - 1B
7. Aaron Hill - 2B
8. Marco Scutaro - 3B
9. Greg Zaun - C
Pitcher: Roy Halladay

It's very interesting to see Cano get bumped up the lineup over Posada and Matsui, especially considering Posada's fantastic season last year. Joe Girardi obviously thinks highly of Cano, and isn't afraid to show it.

Update 12:15PM: Well, it's pretty ugly out and the tarp is on the field. Assuming that they get this game going, it's going to be a cold one.

Update 2:45PM:Looks like we'll have to wait a day to start the season. Check back here tomorrow night for the Opening Day live blog version 2.0.

Popping the Corks

Thursday the Yankees passed a difficult test in their quest to win the championship: they celebrated clinching a playoff spot without suffering a single injury, no small feat when Shelley Duncan is in the clubhouse.

A few random thoughts:

• Joba Chamberlain's picture on his official MLB player page freaks me out. It's like some sort of very disturbing photoshop job.
  
  
• Robinson Cano has been showing a lot of extra power of late, not just hitting home runs, but hitting long home runs the opposite way. Thanks to the fantastic you can see that he's hit nearly half of his 19 home runs to left and center field. It's one of the reasons why I think Cano is going to be much more consistent next season.
  
  
• As Thursday's celebrations began, YES' cameras clearly caught Jason Giambi dousing Doug Mientkiewicz with champagne and Mientkiewicz exclaiming "God that's #@!$ing cold!" This, my friends, is what digital video recorders were made for.

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.

Wang to the rescue

Monday was just a terrible day for the Yankees. First came the news that Andy Phillips' wrist was fractured when he was hit by a pitch on Sunday, and will miss 4-6 weeks, which is essentially the rest of the season. If it wasn't for bad luck, Philips wouldn't have no luck at all.

Then, Roger Clemens left last night's game after allowing five runs over four innings in order to get an MRI on his elbow, which was "tightening up," according to Joe Torre. All that's known right now is that Clemens will definitely miss his next start, but he insists he'll pitch again this season. Of course Clemens is the kind of guy who'd say that if his hair was on fire, so I think I'll wait and see what happens after he heads back to Houston to see his doctors and get a cortisone treatment.

Finally, after Clemens left the game, the Yankees went on to lose the game 7-1, allowing the Mariners to narrow the Yankees' lead in the Wild Card race to just one game.

All of this meant just one thing; it was time for the Taiwan Kid to ride to the rescue. Chien-Ming Wang pitched a classically Wangesque game, throwing the sinker low in the zone and watching the opposition hit it right into the ground. The first seven batters he faced all hit ground balls, only one of which snuck through the infield for a hit, and out of the 26 batters he faced a ludicrous 17 of them were retired on ground balls. Supporting Wang's dominance were Jorge Posada, Bobby Abreu and Robinson Cano, who had four hits each, including two homeruns by Jorge, leading the Yanks to 12 runs.

As big of a blowout as it was, though, there were a couple of scary moments in the game. In the bottom of the seventh, Alex Rodriguez turned his ankle sliding into third base, and in the top of the eighth, Wang had to leave after retiring the first batter (on, of course, a ground ball) due to tightness in his lower back. Thankfully, the word is that they're both fine, though A-Rod may need a day or two off and Wang will probably get an extra day of rest before his next start (which shouldn't be a big deal with the off day on Thursday).

A-Rod's injury, by the way, led to the first major league at-bat for our former Attorney General, who seems to have found a new job rather quickly. Or maybe that's Alberto Gonzalez with a "z".

Anyway, tomorrow's rubber match pits the struggling Philip Hughes against Jarrod Washburn, who's been tough on the Yankees in the past. I'll be in Tier Box 635, Row F if anyone wants to say hello. Once again, just look for the shiny, shiny head.