Mess in the Subway, Posada at first, and All Star Musings…

June 16, 2007

YANKEES WIN GAME 2

Well, we pulled it out this afternoon Yankees fans and managed to capture an ugly win at the stadium that ended up with a football game esqe score of 11 to 8 and at the end of the game the Mets successfully completed a two point conversion off of Mo with 5 hits in the 9th to make the final frame a little too close for my particular comfort level.
The Yankees ended up using five pitchers in today’s game as Clippard went for 3 and a third highly ineffective innings in which he threw 77 pitches to allow five earned runs on five hits with three walks and two home runs and three stolen bases.
The remaining four pitchers were Luis Vizcaino (1.2 innings with 1 hit, 1 walk, and no runs), Proctor (2 innings with 2 hits, 1 walk, and no runs), Farnsworth (1 inning with 1 walk, 1 hit, and 1 run), and then Rivera (1 inning pitched with 5 hits and 2 runs).
Of course you can read the offensive facts for both teams for both teams in the graphic to the right here — but it bears repeating how great Matsui and Jeter were today at the plate.
Cario, Cano, and A-Rod also were solid at the plate and did their share as well (especially A-Rod who hit a BIG two run home run in the third) — but Jeter was masterful with his 4-5 day that included a key steal of third from second in the 7th off of Mota and had a home run and two RBI’s to go along with his four base hits.
Then Matsui came up to the plate in the 7th inning and really had a key base hit.
Jeter was on third with 1 out and A-Rod walked and stole second but Posada struck out.
That left Jeter at third and Alex at second with two outs and the Yankees needing a base hit to break the game open.
So Matsui singles on a pitch from Mota to center field and that scored both Jeter and Rodriguez to give the Yankees, what would be at that time, a ten to five lead.
It seemed like it might be a blow out at that time…
But now take another look at that messy 9th inning jam Mo got into…
It ended with Carlos Beltran popping up to Posada with a ball into foul territory.
But think about it again.
We had a 11-6 lead and Mo loaded the bases.
Then Carlos Gomez hit an RBI single to make it 11-7 and then Jose Reyes singled to make it 11-8 and then Beltran popped up with the bases loaded.
If Matsui hadn’t have gotten that hit we would have a scenario where the score starts out 9 to 6 and then Carlos Gomez and then Jose Reyes
singled to make it 9-8 and then Beltran pops up with the bases
loaded to end the game.
That would have made it a much scarier moment for the Yankees and for Posada.
Anyhow, it’s not how you draw it up with a drawn in in-field.
But I’ll take it.
The Yankees remain 2 games over .500 and with a one to nothing win over the Giants by the Red Sox keeps us at 8.5 games back from the AL East lead.
It also keeps us 4.0 games out of the Wild Card lead.
So we win a game and tomorrow we try for the series win on ESPN.
Hopefully Wang will give us a really fantastic pitching performance like he’s always capable of doing and we’ll take this series.
Also, give any pitcher who decides not to walk Reyes, let him steal second, and then score on a single or a ground out an extra cookie.
I’m tired of seeing Reyes running around the bases and then doing his little homie dance and hip bump with Carlos Gomez on the bench.
As a matter of fact I wouldn’t mind seeing somebody (probably Proctor because he likes it) bean Reyes — as long as we are ahead by a bunch.
On another interesting note — after the game was over today the Yankees optioned Tyler Clippard to Triple A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and recalled outfielder Kevin Thompson.
Hmmmm….
Maybe Cashman is reading our blogs and our blog comments?

POSADA TO PLAY SOME FIRST?

It seems like Moose has set his mind on having Wil Nieves as his personal catcher.
And in the last two games that Moose has pitched he’s had Will Nieves as his catcher and in the last
game Posada was the DH so that we don’t lose Posada’s bat in the game.
So in the interleague games coming up Moose still wants Will Nieves to catch him and the Yankees are trying to figure out a way to keep Posada and his hot bat in the line up where there isn’t a DH.
Posada doesn’t seem too wild about the idea but has been taking infield practice and Joe Torre says that we may see Posada at first base, Moose starting the game on the mound, and Nieves behind the plate as the catcher this coming Tuesday against the Colorado Rockies in Colorado.
Georgie has played first base in 17 previous Major League
games, including one last season, a June 4 loss at Camden Yards in which he
switched positions after five innings and recorded two putouts, both on double
plays.Posada didn’t seem extremely comfortable but said he would categorize himself as a "fair" first baseman and that he is doing his best to run through a crash course in first base with Donnie and the rest of the coaching staff.
Still, Torre, who is quite familiar with the move himself
from his playing days, cautioned that he would not think of a day’s work at
first base as an acceptable substitute for rest.

ALL STAR GAME BALLOT MUSINGS

O.K., I’ve heard lots of belly aching from a lot of different fans of a lot of different players and a lot of different teams about the All Star Game fan voting.

I’ve heard fans complaining about every position and every vote.
This was the last fan ballot update that I read about:

David Ortiz, Derek Jeter, and Alex Rodriguez have prodigious leads at first base, shortstop, and
third base — nobody will catch them.
Polanco has about a 50 thousand vote lead over Cano at the second base vote and that could possible flip flop, Pudge has about 120 thousand votes over Posada and looks like he’ll take that race, and right now Vlad Guerrero, Ichiro, and Manny Ramirez lead the outfield candidates.
Of those three Vlad is a lock and he’s got a huge lead over the field.
Magglio Ordonez is fourth in the outfield ballot and could possibly displace third place vote getter Ichiro — but would need a 120-130 thousand vote boost to do so.

So my question to all you guys and gals is this…
If you are going to be TOTALLY IMPARTIAL…
Who are your American League starters for the 2007 All Star Game this year in San Francisco.
I have a few Red Sox fans that sit next to me sometimes at the Texas Rangers games and one of them commented to me that he wanted to be fair with his vote and some of the Red Sox players didn’t deserve his vote and wouldn’t get it.
But he then said he wouldn’t vote for any Yankees players.
That’s was his version of being impartial.
It’s not mine.
My version of being impartial is voting for whoever you think is best at each give position so far this season.

And I especially get weary of the belly aching from the Angels fans who want more representation.
California is a BIG state.
Get out there and start voting for your precious little Angel Orlando Cabrera if you think he should be in there so badly…

Anyway, here’s my starters right now:

1B – Kevin Youkilis RED SOX
2B – Placido Polanco TIGERS
3B – Alex Rodriguez YANKEES
SS – Derek Jeter YANKEES
C – Jorge Posada YANKEES
OF – Maggio Ordonez TIGERS
OF – Vlad Guerrero ANGELS
OF – Torri Hunter TWINS

Well, like I said — that’s how I voted…
What do you guys and gals think?

Written by mlblogsmointhe9th Posted in Dailies