The one that got away!
Yankees fail to bury Red Sox in 4-game split

There were no winners and no real losers. The Boston Red Sox came into this weekend’s wrap around series at Yankee Stadium trailing the New York Yankees by six games. They left the Bronx after Monday’s game trailing by the same six game margin by virtue of a four game split. The Yankees, on the other hand, fared a little better. Although not able to gain ground on the Red Sox they did pull further ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays are in action tonight against the Detroit Tigers. A win would pull the Rays within a 1-1/2 games of the division leaders and a loss would put them 2-1/2 games behind.

Sox starter Jon Lester was absolutely dominating in the early and middle innings of the contest. He didn’t allow a hit until the bottom of the fifth inning. He went seven innings, surrendering only four hits and no runs while striking out six and walking three. He threw 99 pitches before turning the ball over to reliever Daniel Bard in the eighth inning.

Phil Hughes pitched a doozy himself. Even though he wasn’t quite as dominant as Lester Hughes threw six strong innings and only allowed two runs, all in the second inning, on six hits. He struck out three and walked one in the loss.

The pitchers were the story of the day, but the story of the weekend was the Yankees failure to take advantage of playing this series at home. If the Yankees had won the series or had swept the Sox they could’ve taken a commanding eight to nine game lead in the division race. As it is Boston remained six games behind the Yankees and depending upon what the Rays do are within striking distance of the wild card slot.

The Red Sox took the lead in the game in the second on a throwing error by catcher Jorge Posada. LF Ryan Kadish hit a one out single to right and then stole second to set himself up into scoring position. Posada threw the ball wide of the bag and into the outfield. Kadish popped up and took third. He scored the first run on 2B Bill Hall’s infield hit to shortstop. CF Jacoby Ellsbury followed with a single to shallow center field allowing Hall to go to third. Hall scored on RF J.D. Drew’s grounder to Robinson Cano at second. Hughes got catcher Victor Martinez to ground out to end the inning.

Lester kept the Yankees off balance by mixing his pitches all afternoon. The Bombers best chance came in the bottom of the seventh when Posada led off with a single. DH Marcus Thames doubled to deep right, narrowly missing a game tying home run, but the slow-footed Posada could only make it to third. Lester then hit LF Austin Kearns to load the bases with no one out. Boston manager Terry Francona kept Lester in the game to face CF Curtis Granderson and Lester rewarded Francona by striking Granderson out on three pitches out of the strike zone.

Francona made a pitching change bringing in the hard throwing Daniel Bard to face SS Derek Jeter and RF Nick Swisher. Bard struck both of the Yankee hitters out leaving the bases full of Yankees and nothing to show for it.

The Yankee had one more shot at winning the game in the bottom of the eighth when 1B Mark Teixeira led off with a long solo shot into the second deck in right field off Bard. 3B Alex Rodriguez followed with a single and he was replaced on the bases by the speedy Brett Gardner. Gardner moved to second on a ground out by Cano. Posada walked, but neither runner advanced as pinch hitter Lance Berkman popped out to left. Berkman ran off the field to a chorus of boos.

At this point Francona went to his stopper Jonathan Papelbon to record the final out of the inning. He did so on one pitch as Kearns swung at the first pitch and grounded out to second.

Papelbon returned in the ninth to close out the game. He struck out Granderson, Swisher and Teixeira to put the final stamp on an afternoon of terrific pitching.

"Give them credit because they made the big pitch when they needed to," Teixeira told reporters after the game. "It was kind of a bend but we don't break attitude for them today, and we just couldn't come up with the big hit."

Manager Joe Girardi said the Yankees had their chances to score, but the Sox bullpen kept the Yankees at bay.

"We missed a lot of opportunities in the last three innings," Girardi said to the media. "We had some chances to score some runs. Obviously they have a good back end of the bullpen, but we had our shots."

Hopefully for the Yankees they won’t look back on this series as the season winds down to wonder what if? The next meeting between the two clubs won’t be until September 24, and they might be the most important games of all.

"We know that there's still a lot of baseball and we have to continue to try and win series," Girardi stated. "I'm going to say it again and you probably get tired of hearing it. No one said it was going to be easy."

The Yankees take their show on the road as they fly to Texas to take on the Rangers in a 2-game series in Arlington before moving onto Kansas City to face the Royals in a 4-game set. The Red Sox head to Toronto to play three against the always tough Blue Jays, and then follow the Yankees down to Texas to face the Rangers in a 3-game series.

© 2010 Yankees Talk Shop @ yuku.com.
Redistribution, rewriting, rebroadcast, or republication of this story without the prior written consent of Yankees Talk Shop, Pride in the Pinstripes or its affiliates is strictly prohibited.

Another Boston Massacre in the Making?
Yanks need to bury long time rivals this weekend in the Bronx

By virtue of a day off and a late rally by the Minnesota Twins yesterday down in Tampa Bay the Yankees, find themselves atop of the AL Eastern Division today by a slim ½ game over the Tampa Bay Rays. They also lead the Boston Red Sox by 6 games going into this weekend’s wrap around series against the boys from Beantown.

The Yankees need to make the most of their opportunity in the next four days and make a statement, because, quite frankly, other than their head-to-head record against the Baltimore Orioles the Bombers fortunes against their AL East opponents aren’t all that great.

So far this season the Yankees are 5-6 against the Rays, 5-3 against the Red Sox and 4-5 against the fourth place Blue Jays. That gives them a 14-14 record facing teams not named the Orioles. That, too, may change, because the New Yorkers have six more games down the road against the O’s and they’re going to face them with a new manager in the dugout by the name of Buck Showalter.

Just ask the Angels how they fared against the Orioles these past 3 days. Under Showalter the Orioles are 3-0 and all three victories came at the expense of the Halos who were swept out of Baltimore, basically ending any realistic run they may have had to the playoffs. They trail the Texas Rangers by 10 games.

The Yankees can do the same to the Red Sox by winning this weekend’s series. The Sox just found out they lost another key piece to their team as Kevin Youkilis was placed on the disabled list with a torn right thumb requiring season ending surgery. They are still without Dustin Pedroia, Mike Cameron and their emotional leader Jason Varitek. That said, the Red Sox have played all year without various players in their clubhouse. At some point in time they have had to do without the services of Jacoby Ellsbury, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell to name a few. Despite all the setbacks the Sox refuse to go away.

If the Yankees aren’t careful they just may give Boston the idea they can supplant the Bombers for one of the coveted playoff slots. They are like a very dangerous, wounded animal. You can’t let them get too close.

Both the Red Sox and Yankees have scheduling problems as well. Starting tonight they face each other for four games. Then Boston goes on the road to play three in Toronto, followed by three in Texas before returning home to face the Angels, Blue Jays and the Seattle Mariners. Then they hit the road again to face Tampa Bay (3 games) and Baltimore (3 games). September-October is going to be tough as they face Chicago White Sox (3-home, 4-away), Tampa Bay (3-home), Oakland Athletics (3-away), Seattle (3-away), Toronto (3-home) and the Yankees (3-away, 3-home). Those six teams have a combined winning average .535.

The Yankees remaining August games pits them against the Red Sox (4-home), Rangers (2-away, Kansas City Royals (4-away), Detroit Tigers (4-home), Mariners (3-home), Blue Jays (3-home), White Sox (3-away) and Oakland (4-home).

Their September-October schedule gets brutal after that. The Yankees face the Blue Jays (3-home, 3-away), Orioles (3-home, 3-away), Rangers (3-away), Rays (3-away, 4-home) and Red Sox (3-home, 3-away).

Throw out Baltimore and the Yankees are playing the teams with the second, third, fourth, and sixth best records in the American League in the last month of the season. Those four teams are a combined 506-185 for a .732 winning percentage. With the Orioles it’s still .523 YIKES!

The team with, arguably, the easiest road to the playoffs is the Rays. For the remainder of August they face Blue Jays (3-away, 3-home), Tigers (3-away), Orioles (3-home), Rangers (3-home), Athletics (4-away), Angels (3-away) and Red Sox (3-home). In September-October the Rays get it on with the Orioles (3-away, 3-home), Red Sox (3-away), Blue Jays (3-away), Angels (3-home), Yankees (3-home, 4-away), Mariners (3-home) and the Royals (4-away). Those teams combine for a .474 winning percentage.

The Rays are going to be watching this weekend’s series between Boston and New York with keen interest. They have to take on the Blue Jays on the road, and they have to watch out and not stub their toes in Toronto. Even if the Rays sweep the Jays the Yankees can eliminate one of their competitors by taking at least 3-of-4 from Boston. Lose the series or split it and the Red Sox are still in business with a number of their walking wounded returning for the final weeks of the season.

Make no mistake this weekend’s series is important to both teams. However, it’s probably more important to Boston, because their season is going to live or die by how they do this weekend in the Bronx.

Do the Yankees have another Boston Massacre in their bag of tricks? They better hope so.

© 2010 Yankees Talk Shop @ yuku.comRedistribution, rewriting, rebroadcast, or republication of this story without the prior written consent of Yankees Talk Shop, Pride in the Pinstripes or its affiliates is strictly prohibited

Yankees having a roller coaster season
Mediocre Bombers under .500 after first 31 games

First of all, I want to wish all of you baseball loving moms out there a Happy Mother’s Day.

UGLY! There is no other way to describe the New York Yankees. This team is ugly. It wins ugly and it loses ugly. Today’s finale in Baltimore was no different. It was ugly. Yeah, they won 5-3 on Johnny Damon’s 3-run home run in the top of the 7th inning, but getting there is an E-ticket ride Yankee fans are getting tired of watching.

Coming out of spring training, the Yankees were pegged by most baseball experts as one of the three best teams in all of baseball this season. Unfortunately for the Yankees the other two teams mentioned play in their division. Along with the Bombers, the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays have also been talked about as being at the top of the class. It was predicted that between the three teams one would be AL East champion, one would be the wild card representative and the last could possibly win 90+ games and still go home.

So far New York looks like the odd team out. In fact, they don’t nearly resemble any team projected to win over 90 games this season. Besides the Red Sox and Rays you can add the Toronto Blue Jays who are playing tremendous baseball so far.

After 31 games (including today’s win in Baltimore) the Yankees record stands at 15-16. Projected out over an entire 162 game campaign the Yankees would finish 78-84. That is hardly the kind of record that would catapult a team into the playoffs.

The fall guy in all of this drama is Yankee manager Joe Girardi who, last year, took over the reins of the team from the departed Joe Torre. The baseball gods smiled cruelly on Girardi and the Yankees. After Torre headed for the sunny weather in Los Angeles as manager of the Dodgers the Yankees under Girardi’s guidance failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 1994. Torre’s teams made the post season 12 straight years, making 6 World Series appearances and winning four of them. That’s the kind of record which leads to a direct membership in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

To make matters worse Torre took the 2008 Angelinos to the playoffs, beating the heavily favored Chicago Cubs in the first round before losing to the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS 4-1. No Dodger team had gone that far since Tommy Lasorda’s crew surprised the baseball world by upsetting the Oakland Athletics in the 1988 Fall Classic in five games.

While the Yankees flounder around on the east coast the Dodgers and Torre are currently enjoying life and the best record (22-10) in baseball on the west coast. Those facts must have the Yankees brain trust standing on its ear.

You can just hear all the arguments right now. Yeah, the Dodgers were nothing until they got Manny Ramirez from the Red Sox. Or, the Dodgers play in the weakest division in baseball. While some of or all of that may be true it doesn’t change the actuality of the situation. Torre and the Dodgers are winning (now without Ramirez who was suspended 50 games for a positive drug test) while Girardi and the Yankees are barely treading water.

In five head-to-head meetings this year the Red Sox are perfect against New York. As their greatest rival, that record grates on the nerve endings of anyone even remotely associated with the Yankees. Against all East Division rivals the Yankees are 5-11. With a new $1.5 billion stadium to show off and after spending $425 million in the off season upgrading the roster this start is hardly what the Steinbrenners and general manager Brian Cashman had envisioned.

Girardi’s trip to the hot seat is hardly all his fault. The offense has been sketchy at best. Owning a team average of .273 the Yankees rank sixth in the American League, trailing Toronto, Boston and Tampa Bay. The Yankees trail the same three teams in RBI, but trail only the Texas Rangers (50) in home runs (45).

While the hitting has been mixed the pitching has been absolutely horrendous. New York presently ranks at the bottom of the American League with a team ERA of 5.88. That average is nearly two and a half runs under front runner Kansas City who owns a team ERA of 2.39. In the AL East the Yankees trail the Baltimore Orioles, the next lowest team by a little under half a run (5.39) per game.

The starting rotation, including three disastrous starts by Chien-Ming Wang, has a combined ERA of 5.73. Without Wang it’s 5.22. The relief corps has been very unreliable. In 96 innings pitched the bullpen has surrendered 68 runs for an ERA of 6.38.

Even Mariano Rivera, arguably the greatest closer in history, has had his problems. Rivera has already surrendered four home runs this season, nearly equaling his career high (5) set in 1997. On May 7 against the Rays Rivera gave up consecutive home runs, which, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, hadn’t been done in 862 appearances by Rivera. His 3.97 ERA is 1.67 points higher than his career average.

In fairness to Rivera he is coming off shoulder surgery and he has said his velocity isn’t where it should be. Admittedly, Rivera said he has enough tools to get guys out. But, keep in mind Rivera is approaching 40 and as a closer he has been at the top of the ladder much longer than most of his contemporaries. It could just be Rivera has begun the inevitable downward spiral that ultimately catches up with every player.

Another thing which is out of Girardi’s control is injuries. The Yankees have had an inordinate amount of them since Opening Day. So far this season Girardi has had to juggle his starting rotation, bullpen and lineup card a number of times. The Yankees have lost RHRP Brian Bruney (15-day, right flex muscle mass), LHRP Damaso Marte (15-day, left shoulder tendinitis), C Jose Molina (15-day, strained right quad), RF Xavier Nady (15-day, right strained elbow), C Jorge Posada (15-day, strained hamstring), 3B Cody Ransom (60-day, right quad tear) and RHP Chien-Ming Wang (15-day, weak hip abductor muscle) to the Disabled List.

Up until this past Friday you could have included 3B Alex Rodriguez who has been out since the beginning of the season due to having surgery performed on his right hip. A-Rod came back with a flurry as he hit a 3-run bomb off the first pitch he saw from Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie. Still, as A-Rod returned both Posada and Molina went on the DL.

Girardi hasn’t had a full complement of players since he took over the team last year. Regrettably, he knows that the blame for failure has to fall somewhere, and it usually falls squarely on the shoulders of the manager. Cashman’s neck should be on the chopping block as well. As the general manager he is the guy, along with the manager, who recommends where the money spent on high priced players goes. Looking at the Yankees successes so far this year the team has overspent for its newly acquired talent.

This team still has time to right the ship. Going on the road and facing opponents in other divisions may be the tonic the Yankees need to turn their season around. However, their success or failure begins with each individual player. Unless each player is willing to come out every game and leave it on the field the 2009 drive will result in another year of failure. Some guys have stepped up, while others have stepped back. The Yankees still have to come back and face the other teams in their division and if they can’t get by them, then it doesn’t matter what they do against the other foes in the Central and West.

Where is the Gipper when you need him?

© 2009 Yankees Talk Shop @ yuku.com

Redistribution, rewriting, rebroadcast, or republication of this story without the prior written consent of Yankees Talk Shop, Pride in the Pinstripes or its affiliates is strictly prohibited