Yankees Choke Away Win And It's All Your Fault YES Network

Curse you YES Network! The brain trust at the network decided that 1 out in the bottom of the 9th was a good time to award the player of the game award to the Yankee bullpen. A few batters later Jason Bay takes Mo deep to tie the game. Can you say jinx? How do you give an award to the bullpen before the game is over? A little premature don't you think? As soon as I saw that I knew we were done. I hope they learned your lesson. Friggin' jerks. There goes my pre-season prediction that Mo would have a perfect season and not blow any save opportunities. Aargh. Up until that point the bullpen was having a great night. Phil Coke was awesome. Johnny Albaladejo was awesome. They both had great games. But then those a-holes had to open their yaps and award the pen the POGA and here we are, on the wrong side of a 5-4 score. This one hurts. Way to go YES. Stupid effers.

Now the real reason the Yankees didn't win tonight was because of the offense. The Yankees offense had a lot of chances tonight to blow the game wide open. They stranded 2 in the 2nd. They stranded 2 in the 3rd. Bases loaded one out in the 7th and they mustered one run. Bases loaded no outs in the 9th and they failed to score. They stranded guys on 2nd and 3rd in the 10th. They had 2 guys on in the 11th with 1 out and Melky grounded into a DP. Melky had an awful night at the plate when it counted. With guys on 1st and 2nd in the 7th, he grounded out to end the inning. With runners on 2nd and 3rd in the 9th, he fouled out to end the inning. With runners on 1st and 2nd in the 11th, he grounds into an inning-ending DP. That pretty much makes me forget all about that walk off HR.

I was really disappointed that the Yankees didn't score in the 9th. It would have been nice to have picked up an insurance run or two. Then Bay's HR is meaningless, Mariano probably gets the save, and I'm writing a totally different post. As a team the Yankees were 4 for 19 with RISP and they left 14 guys on base. The Yankees had 22 baserunners and only managed 4 runs. They've got to start knocking those guys in. Aarghhhhh.

Joba wasn't terribly impressive tonight. He was OK, not bad, not good, just OK. I can't believe he only gave up 2 runs. It could have been only 1 if not for that BS balk in the 1st. That was ridiculous. Joba's ball-to-strike ratio was horrible. He threw 91 pitches, 49 for strikes. I'm also disappointed with Joba's lack of velocity. I made mention of that in spring training and it still hasn't come around. I know he's not going to breaking off 98 mph heaters regularly, but he should be able to at least 95 consistently. I know building arm strength takes time but come on, shouldn't we be seeing some gains? I wonder if something is wrong? His night would have been a lot worse if not for getting 4 double plays. But credit to Joba for getting those when he needed to. That's what good pitchers do. Joba is a good pitcher but he needs to start pitching a little more efficiently. Maybe I'm being too critical. He did after all only give up 1 earned run.

It's always interesting when Joba Chamberlain faces the Red Sox. You just never know when he's going to bust somebody, namely Kevin Youkilis, up and in with some high heat. I was really interested to see if anything went down tonight considering David Ortiz made some comments the other day about Joba throwing inside. If you ask me that whole article was pretty stupid. I would normally link to it but I have no desire to. Just another stupid writer making a story out of nothing.

I'm a little puzzled by Girardi's management of the bullpen. Where was Brian Bruney? He's the 8th inning guy, right? Well where was he? Why did he let Albaladejo throw a pitch to Ellsbury? I seldom agree with Michael Kay, but why not just have him throw to 1st? I'm also a little surprised that after Albaladejo had Ellsbury down 0-1, Girardi went to Mo instead of Damaso Marte. Don't get me wrong, the last guy I wanted to see coming into the game was Marte, but I thought for sure Girardi was going to go with the lefty-lefty matchup. Had this not been game 1 of the series, he probably would have. Joe must have really wanted to win this one considering Joe went to Mo to try for the 4-out save. Too bad it didn't work out. Friggin' YES Network. Anyway, I hope there's nothing wrong with Brian Bruney. Even though I'm cursing the jerks at YES and want to turn the TV off, I'm definitely watching the post game show. update - Bruney has a sore elbow and was sent back to NY to get checked out. I hope all is good. The 8th inning needs him.

Am I the only one that thinks Jeter and Cano need to work on turning two and flipping balls to second? They totally botched one and a couple of the others looked a little questionable. I was nervous every time a grounder was hit to the middle infielders with a runner on 1st.

There's been no additional movement on the baby front. There's been a contraction here and there, but nothing serious. The latest the little one will arrive will be Saturday May 2, a week from tomorrow. We're hoping that's when it happens though I'm not so sure we're going to make it. Hopefully, he stays in there thru the weekend so I can fit in the whole Yankees/Sox series. Even though I think the rivalry isn't what it used to be, it's definitely something I want to be tuned in for. I was so happy tonight's game wasn't on MY9. Apparently, nobody in Buffalo has the channel that the MY9 games are on. Sucks to be us.

Hopefully the Yanks fare better tomorrow. It should be a good one. Josh Beckett vs. A.J. Burnett on Fox. Hopefully they have the good sense to wait until the final out before they give out a POGA.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie