So Close Yet So Far Away, Yanks Lose To Red Sox Yet Again

I've been sitting in front of my laptop now for about 15 minutes trying to figure out what to write. My mind is pretty much blown after watching the Yankees choke away yet another game to the Red Sox, running their record against them this year to 0-8. I'm flabbergasted. I really am.

My friend and co-worker Nick and I were talking about tonight's matchup at work today. Nick is pretty big into sports betting and much of the discussion was around whether or not the Yankees would cover a 1.5 run spread. We both thought for sure that the Yankees were going to hammer Brad Penny. Penny isn't exactly a dominant pitcher. He came into tonight's game with an ERA a little south of 6 and we thought for sure the Yanks would light him up. And what does Penny do? He throws 6 shutout innings! Are you freaking kidding me? The Yankees offense is scuffling as of late, especially when it comes to hitting with RISP. They were 1 for 11 tonight and were 3 for 28 in this series. They're hitting the ball, just not when they need to. And what the freak is up with Nick Swisher? He had a horrible series. A misplayed fly ball and a baserunning mistake yesterday. A big baserunning mistake today. Today's blunder was inexcusable. It looked like he got punked a little by Bay but even still, Swish was way too far off the bag. He scores easily if that ball drops. Inexcusable. CC pitched a great game and deserved better.

Despite getting the loss, CC Sabathia pitched a great game. He deserved much better than what he got. I don't blame him that much for melting down in the 8th. I was a little surprised that he started that inning. It was the bottom of the order. It was raining. His pitch count had to be around 100. If I'm Girardi, I go to David Robertson. I'm surprised when he actually pulled Sabathia that he went with Aceves over Robertson. I understand why he went with Ace. It wasn't a bad move. I just thought Robertson was the guy to go to. Had it been Robertson maybe the Yanks would have squeaked out the win and maybe Nick would have won his bet. When it comes to betting on MLB, I'm like a curse. Don't take my advice. Anyway, is it me or does it seem like no matter what RP Girardi trucks out there, they blow it? The Yankees bullpen for the most part is awful. It's better than it was a few weeks ago, but it's still in need of improvement. I'd start with dumping Veras. Come back soon Brian Bruney. And come back healthy.

The Yankees are now 2 games behind the Red Sox. You'd think the Yankees would be further back considering they're 0-8 against them. The good news is that the 2 teams don't meet again until August 6th. Hopefully by then the Yanks will figure out a way to beat those guys. It's now time for the Subway Series. 3 games at home versus the Mets and then a well deserved off-day. The Yanks need to bounce back and take at least 2 of these 3 games. It'll be tough but it's doable.

Now go out and start hitting with RISP!!!

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Yanks Fall To Red Sox (Again)

I just shook my Yankees Magic 8-ball and asked it if the Yankees would ever beat the Red Sox? The reply was "outlook not so good." I don't really have a Magic 8-ball but if I did, I'm sure that's what it would say. The Sox have the Yankees number. No doubt about it. The loss tonight makes it 7 straight losses to the Sox. The loss puts the Yanks 1 game back of 1st. Can you imagine what would happen if George Steinbrenner was still George Steinbrenner? Heads would roll.

Chien-Ming Wang was terrible again. I stepped away from the game to give my son a bath. The Yanks had just tied things up. When I returned the Yanks were down 4-1 and Wang was out of the game. I saw on the replay that Swisher misplayed what looked like an easy fly ball. Who knows what would have been had he pulled that in? It's hard to say what exactly is wrong with Wang. He appears to be fully healthy. Like A.J. Burnett yesterday, he just couldn't find the plate and when he did, he got hit. I'm not ready to give up on Wang just yet. I see little gilmpses of that 19-game winner we all know and love. They're very little glimpses but they're there. I'm not sure how much longer the team can commit to him as a starter. He's been horrible. He's only lasted 13 and 1/3 innings in his 5 starts. Most guys knock that out in 2 starts. Wang needs to make a huge turnaround and pronto. I guess the silver lining is that he lowered his ERA .12 points. It dropped from 14.46 to 14.34. Yikes.

Phil Hughes did a good job in relief. He made 1 real mistake. Outside of that, he was pretty damn good. You can totally see that Hughes is a different guy out there. He appears to be a hell of a lot more confident. They mentioned that on the YES broadcast. I forget who said it. It was probably Michael Kay. Kay and I agree on something. What's the world coming to? While I'm talking about Michael Kay, I really hate it when he drops the phrase "rally in their bones." I cringe whenever I hear it.

Tonight's game was very winnable. The Yankees knocked the Sox pitchers for 11 hits and 5 walks. There were plenty of opportunities to score some runs. They had runners on in every inning and had runners in scoring position in 7, They needed that big hit and it never came. As a team they went 2 for 15 with RISP and left 10 on base. It was definitely a game the Yanks could have won.

Mark Teixeira had a huge night at the plate, going 4-for-5 with 2 doubles and a jack, raising his average to .296, which is remarkable considering how poorly his season started. What's most amazing is that Teixeira has the 2nd highest batting average on the team, .001 point behind Jorge Posada, who is hitting .297. Tex is now ahead of Jeter (.295), Damon (.291), Cano (.293), and Melky Cabrera (.293). It's hard to believe that Tex was hitting .191 on May 12th. In less than a month, he's raised his average over 100 points. Insane.

Melky Cabrera's star is rapidly falling to Earth. After going 3-for-5 against the Phillies back on 5/24, Melky was hitting .328. He were are 9 games later and his avergae is now 35 points lower at .293. He's gone 6 for 36 over that stretch. I'm not sure how much of that slump, if any, can be attributed to his shoulder injury. How long will it be before his average is down in the 250 range? Hopefully it won't get that low but it is Melky Cabrera we're talking about. I just pulled up Melky's situational stats and they're less than stellar. Coming into tonight's game, Melky was hitting .315 with the bases empty. The average drops considerably with runners on base. With runners on, he's hitting .264. With RISP, he's hitting .250. With RISP and 2-outs he's hitting .136. As a team the Yanks are hitting .272 with runners on, .265 with RISP, and ,243 with RISP and 2 outs. Melky is on the down side of all those stats. I have a bad feeling that it's only a matter of time before Gardner gets some more starts in CF.

The Yanks really need to win tomorrow. The standard for a 3-game series in Fenway is to win one game. It's tough to go into Fenway and win 2 out of 3. It happens, but it seems like most of the time, the Yanks take only 1 game. Hopefully, for the team's sake, that game is tomorrow. CC Sabathia gets the start and if anyone can beat the Sox, it's CC. He's the ace. He gets paid to win these kind of games. The Yankees should be able to beat Brad Penny. On paper, this is the game that most favors the Yankees. If only it were played on paper.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

My Heart Bleeds For Selena Roberts

I just came across an article posted on Yahoo about the tell-all book Selena Roberts wrote about Alex Rodriguez. For those that don't want to read the article, here's a brief summary of it: Nobody is buying the book. The book is no longer on any best seller lists. According to the article, via stats from Nielsen Book Scan, the book has only sold 16,000 copies, 11,000 of which were sold in the first week of release. Considering the first printing of the book was 150,000 copies, it's sold just about 10% of the total printed. Talk about bombing, or should I say, A-bombing.

Roberts obviously has an agenda when it comes to Alex. I would not be surprised if she comes out with another cockamamie story about Alex to try and drum up sales of her book. Nothing makes me happier than seeing the sales for this book tank. My faith in humanity is restored.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Yanks Leave Their Bats In The Bronx, Fall to Sox 7-0

I didn't get to see tonight's Yanks/Sox game as the My9 games aren't broadcast here in Buffalo. I guess I should consider myself lucky because the Yanks got their asses handed to them. I caught a little of the game on XM Radio but it failed to hold my attention, largely because of hoe bad of a game it was. A.J. Burnett, in a word, was awful. Thanks for showing up, right? 5 hits and 5 walks in 2 and two-thirds. In 2 starts this year, he's thrown 7.1 IP and has allowed 13 runs (11 earned) on 13 hits and 8 walks. The Sox have taken him deep 3 times. The Yankees need to do everything in their power to prevent A.J. from pitching in Fenway ever again.

The offense didn't do anything to try and pick him up. They managed to get only 2 hits. Beckett pretty much dominated them from what it sounded like. Not much more to say about that.

The Yankee defense has done a total 180 as of late. As soon as they set a new MLB record for most consecutive errorless games, they fall apart, committing errors now in each of their last 7 games. Unbelievable.

The Sox are now 6-0 against the Yanks this year. I picked the Sox to win the East this year over the Yanks via a the head-to-head tie-breaker. The Sox are well on their way to taking the season series. These games are pretty important and the Yankees need to step things up. These 3 games will be a better barometer of the series as opposed to the first 5 because the Yankees for the most part are fully healthy. I'd expect the Sox to win 2 out of these 3 because of the home-field advantage. If the Yanks get swept, I'll be shocked. Chien-Ming Wang starts tomorrow so who knows who the game will go. I hope Phil Hughes is ready because odds are good that he'll be needed.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Yanks Use The Longball To Drop Rays 5-3, Bring On The BoSox

OK. I'm having a total writer's block moment as I try to figure out how to open this post. I've been staring at my laptop for a good 10 minutes now and nothing is coming to me. Probably a sign of being tired. I have the sneaking suspicion that this post won't be my best work. Let's see how it goes.

The Yanks took full advantage of the new Yankee Stadium tonight, belting 4 dingers en route to a 5-3 win over the Rays. They took 2 of 3 from the Rays which means another series win. They've won 8 of their last 9 series and are now 11 games over .500 at 34-23, a full game ahead of the Red Sox. They didn't exactly dominate tonight, but it was enough to get the job done.


Andy Pettitte didn't have the sharpest outing but he did pretty well. As I watched the game I kept expecting the wheels to fall off. I'm still wondering how Pettitte fared as well as he did. I also can't believe Pettitte leads the team with 6 wins. Amazing. I'm now sure why I'm so underwhelmed by Andy. He is after all 4-1 in his last 6 starts. But his line over those 6 games is pretty bad: 35.2 IP, 40 hits, 21 walks, and 16 ER. That's an ERA of 4.04 and a WHIP of 1.71. How the hell is he doing it? He's battling through these games and he's coming out on top. So whatever he's doing, I hope he keeps it up. Andy is one helluva 5th starter I'll give him that. Anybody else feel underwhelmed when it comes to Andy?

Despite going deep 4 times, the Yankees offense was again a little lacking today. Rays pitcher Andy Sonnanstine is having a pretty bad year. His ERA is over 7 and opponents were hitting .329 against him coming into tonight's game. The Yankees offense managed only 6 hits in 26 at-bats (.231). Thank God they were playing at home as all 5 runs came courtesy of the longball. June is being very kind to Nick Swisher. He's hitting .500 (9-18) this month. Swish needs to keep it up as the team is really going to need that bat, especially with the slumping bat of Hideki Matsui in the lineup. It's becoming painfully obvious that Matsui's best days are long over. Matsui is hitless in his last 5 games (0-14) and is 0 for his last 17. He put together a nice string of games before this slump so the potential is there but he has this mechanical flaw at the plate that he just can't seem to shake this year. It's as if he's falling out of the batter's box on each swing. Maybe "falling out of the box" isn't the best way to describe it, but if you pay attention to him you'll see what I mean. Get on that Kevin Long.

The bullpen tonight was rock solid. Phil Hughes looked really good. Really really good. His fastball seemed to have a little extra zip to it. But as I blogged earlier today, he needs to pitch more than 1 inning. I'm all for him pitching in the majors but not if he's going to top out at 3 innings a week. With Wang starting Wednesday, perhaps there are some more innings in the cards for Philly Boy. If not, then I hope they consider sending Phil back to Scranton so he can pitch regularly. The Yankees need him to pitch if they want to keep that arm strength up. Phil Coke scares me every time he pitches. I was getting all fired up after he walked Zobrist. I fully expected him to blow it and that's not good. The Yankees have too many relievers that I feel that way about. Thankfully, they're not pitching that often. Yeah, I'm talking about Jose Veras, who hasn't pitched since June 2nd. I think it's safe to say he's at the bottom of the pecking order. That's exactly where he belongs.

Oh yeah, and Mariano Rivera is still awesome.

Bring on the BoSox. The Yankees are winless against the Sox this year but they're a much different team then they were when they last faced them. A-Rod is back. Teixeira's average is 88 points higher. The Yanks are 21-10 since the teams last played each other. The Yanks have the best record in the AL and are playing some great baseball. A sweep of the Sox would be nice, but I'll settle for 2 of 3. I'm ticked that tomorrow's game is on My9. If you've been reading the blog regularly, you know that I don't get the My9 games here in Buffalo. I'm hoping for a miracle tomorrow night when I turn the TV on at 7pm. Gimme my My9!!

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Above Average Pitching + Below Average Hitting + Average Defense = 2 Game Split For The Yanks

Good afternoon everyone. I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend. Mine was nice and relaxing. I just hung out and enjoyed the family. The weather was nice and we spent a lot of time outside. Good times. I did get to catch the 2 games versus the Rays? Was it me or were both games pretty similar in nature, the defense withstanding? Both were exciting. Both went down to the wire. If only they could have won both games.

I thought CC pitched pretty well on Saturday. He was definitely better than his pitching line. Joba pitched pretty well on Sunday. It looked like he just ran out of gas in the 6th. Overall, solid outings by the two.

I hope Joe Girardi learned a lesson on Sunday. Let Mariano do what Mariano wants to do. It's not like Mo is some chump. It's Mariano Freaking Rivera. For my money he's the greatest closer of all time. If he wants to pitch to a guy, you let him pitch to a guy. I know the numbers were better for a Rivera/Upton matchup, but still. It's Mariano Freaking Rivera. So when it comes to Mo I say numbers schmumbers. You let Mo make the call. Who knows what would have happened had he faced Longoria? Longoria could have taken him deep. Mo could have gotten him to ground out weakly to end the inning like he did on Sunday. I guess we'll never know. Mo was pretty bad on Saturday. He was the polar opposite on Sunday and was vintage Mo. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little worried about Mo. He hasn't been his dominant self this year. His ERA (3.33) and batting average against (.263) are higher than they've been since his rookie year (5.51 and .266). He's definitely having a down year statistically speaking, arguably the worst of his career as a reliever. Well, it's definitely the worst year of his career as a reliever. But he's Mo. Before the year is all said and done, those numbers will be more Mo-like.

What happened to our solid defense? They break the record for most consecutive errorless games and then commit at least one in 5 straight. WTF? Let's get back to some clean baseball.

The offense over the last 2 games was pretty blah. They've hit to the tune of a .200 average (13-65) and are 1 for 18 (.056) with RISP. I expected them to struggle against David Price. The Yanks, as Jane pointed out in the comments, aren't good when it comes to facing pitchers they've never faced before. Most of the time, the pitchers they're facing aren't exactly highly touted and are below average pitchers. David Price is probably the best rookie pitcher the Yankees have faced in a long time. He's definitely the best that comes to mind. So struggling against him was not a surprise. Matt Garza has been one of the league's best pitchers over the last 3 seasons. It's understandable that they'd struggle against him as well. I did expect a little more but it's nothing of concern.

The series wraps up tonight and the Yanks can pull out a series win with a W. We have what I hope is a healthy Andy Pettitte on the mound tonight. If he has any missteps, I'd expect to see Phil Hughes get some innings. Hughes hasn't pitched since May 31st, which is over a week ago. I really wonder what the team's plans for Phil are. I agree with him pitching at the major league level but I disagree with letting him juts sit around. I know if he pitched on his regular rest he would have started on the 5th so it's really only been 3 days, but still. It's obvious to me that Girardi prefers Aceves over Hughes when it comes to pitching a few innings in relief. I'm not sure what their plan is as I doubt there are enough innings to go around for both Aceves and Hughes. I'm curious to see how this plays out. If you're not going to pitch Hughes, send him down.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Darryl Strawberry Interview

I got an e-mail tipping me off to an interview done with Darryl Strawberry. In it he talks about a bunch of interesting things, including his stance on Pete Rose and steroid users and their Hall of Fame prospects (he says that Rose absolutely belongs in the Hall and to put all steroids users who were bound to make the HOF into it), how he believes that Derek Jeter is the best player in baseball right now (talent and overall lifestyle considered), an update on his son DJ, and other interesting stuff. I haven't gotten the chance yet to watch it myself, but figured I pass it along because it should be interesting. The running time is just over 14 minutes. If you're interested in watching it, you can find it by clicking here. I've also added it below. There 's also a 28 minute interview they have with the Straw where he answers questions from RootZoo readers. That can be found here. Enjoy.

Melky (Again) Powers Yanks To Win

Why is it whenever there is a day game that I can't watch, it's an exciting game? Following along on the radio at work is OK, but i can't give it my undivided attention. I had a conference call today from 1-2 so I missed the beginning. Luckily, I didn't miss the end. Melky goes deep. Mo gets the save. Yankees win. Thuhhh Yankees win.

I blogged during the game about Chien-Ming Wang's outing. If you want to read my thoughts on that, scroll down or click here. To summarize, I thought it was a step in the right direction.

The Yankee offense returned to form today. They knocked the Rangers for 8 runs on 10 hits and 5 walks. The hero today, as has been the case several times this year, was Melky Cabrera. He came through again late, belting a 2-run dinger that ended up being the game-winner. Melky has been an extremely pleasant surprise this year. I don't know anyone who didn't write Melky off after the season he had last year. He's making us all eat crow and I don't think any of us are complaining. I know I'm not. He's kicking ass and taking names. He's Melktastic! No? How about Melkalicious? Yeah, still pretty bad.

Nick Swisher's June is off to a great start. In May, Nicky Swish his a buck-fifty. He had 12 hits in 27 games. He's got 4 games under his belt in June and he's already halfway to his May hit total, going 6-for-10. He's looking a lot better at the dish and that month long slump seems to be behind him. Mark Teixeira also had a good day. He had the big hit that got the Yanks back in the ballgame. This was Teixeira's 9th multi-hit game in his last 13. His average is up to .284, which is where I thought he'd end the year based on his start. He got that average up there in a hurry and it's still climbing. A .300 average for Teixeira doesn't look like it's too far off.

The Yankee bullpen had a pretty good day. Mo and Aceves were a tad bit shaky, but collectively, the 4 RPs gave up only 1 run in 4 and a-third. I was a little nervous about getting the 5 outs that were needed to get the ball from Phil Coke to Mo, but Coke and Robertson did a great job keeping the Rangers from scoring. I'll admit. I didn't think they would.

Great win today. The Yankees have won 7 of their last 8 series. If the Yankees can keep that up, getting back to the postseason won't be a problem. Winning a series pretty much means you're playing at a .667 winning percentage, which is pretty damn good. The LA Dodgers are the only team right now that have a winning percentage higher than that. Sabathia kicks things off against David Price. CC has been awesome as of late and if he's going down the same road as he did last season, we should expect big things from the big guy. It won't be a walk in the park but CC has the stuff to get it done.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Wang Roughed Up In Return To Rotation

Chien-Ming Wang made his return to the Yankee rotation today. It was Wang's first start since April 18th. After spending about a month on the DL, Wang was activated and went to the bullpen, making 3 appearances in 13 days. He threw a total of 8 innings in those 3 relief appearances, pitching well, allowing only 2 earned runs in 8 innings. Then pretty much out of nowhere, Wang was announced as today's starter, with hopes that he could throw about 80 pitches, lasting 5-6 innings. While he didn't do as well as everyone hoped, it wasn't all bad.

I didn't expect Wang to be perfect right out of the gate. I wanted to see a kick-ass outing, but deep down knew it was a long shot. He hasn't really pitched all that much lately. One of the things plaguing Wang earlier this season was his arm strength, which was tied to his leg issues. It would be foolish to think that pitching a total of 8 innings in 13 days would be enough to keep Wang's arm strong. He was good in short bursts, which is why I think he did well in short relief appearances. As we saw today, Wang did really well in the first 2 innings. You can't get much better than perfect. The wheels kind of fell off in the 3rd but it's not as if he was getting hammered like he was before he went on the DL. It's going to take a few starts for Wang to get back into starting form. All things considered, I think today's start was a step in the right direction. He did after all lower his ERA from 16.07 to 14.46. Wang has a long way to go to get back to respectability. It'll take 41 and a-third scoreless innings to get his ERA to 4.50.

Mark Teixiera just knocked in 3 to tie it! A-Rod just singled him home to put the Yanks up 6-5. It's now a whole new ballgame.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

In A BS Move By MLB, Burnett Suspended 6 Games

A.J. Burnett has been suspended by MLB for throwing over the head of Nelson Cruz. This suspension is complete and utter BS. I thought the same thing about Josh Beckett's suspension for throwing over the head of Bobby Abreu. Now if Burnett were ejected from the game that's one thing. But suspending someone who was allowed to stay in the game and pitch is BS. MLB is setting a ridiculous precedent where there now going to have to suspend every pitcher who gets an umpire to issue a warning. Now, I'm not sure if MLB is doing this now as I don't follow every other team as closely as I do the Yankees. But suspending guys that weren't ejected makes no sense to me. The worst part of this story is that Vinvente Padilla wasn't suspended. He hit Teixeira twice. He was fined, but not suspended. I fail to follow that logic.

Burnett has appealed the suspension. It'll probably get knocked down to 5 games, which means his start would get pushed back a day. Not the end of the world, but BS nonetheless.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie