For all the sturm und drang over Chien-Ming Wang’s mechanics and the dimensions and dynamics of the new Yankee Stadium, the Yankees just went 4-2 on their first home stand in their new ballpark. Like the rest of the series, yesterday’s game wasn’t pretty, but it ultimately worked out in the Yankees’ favor.
It was cool and rainy in the Bronx yesterday afternoon, and CC Sabathia wasn’t sharp. He opened the second inning by putting the first two men on base via a walk and a single, then giving up just the fourth Oakland home run of the season to Kurt Suzuki. Suzuki’s shot would have been a wall-scraper had a fan in left field not reached over the wall to snare it. Johnny Damon was there to attempt a catch, but the ball was too high for his reach and would have reached the seats had the fan not been there, as the umpires correctly ruled after reviewing the replay.
The Yankees got two of those runs back against A’s rookie left-hander Brett Anderson in the bottom of the second on solo homers by Hideki Matsui (a no-doubter into the right-field bleachers), and Melky Cabrera (a right-handed poke into the visiting bullpen), but the Yankee defense gave one back in the top of the third. With one out, Damon dropped an easy pop up behind third base allowing Jason Giambi to reach second base. Holliday then singled Giambi to third. Cust followed with a chopper back to Sabathia. CC checked Giambi at third, then threw to second to get Holliday. Because Sabathia checked Giambi, Derek Jeter didn’t have time to relay to first for the double play, but Giambi broke for home after Sabathia threw to second, so Jeter fired home only to realize after he made the throw that Giambi was running because no one was covering the plate. Jorge Posada was backing up first base, Cody Ransom had been holding Giambi at third, and Sabathia had to field the ball off the bat. The ball sailed to the backstop, but Cust held at first and Suzuki flied out to end the inning. Nonetheless, the Yankees were down 4-2.
But not for long. Mark Teixeira and Posada led off the bottom of the third with a single and a double to put runners on the corners. Robinson Cano got Teixeira home on a groundout to second and Swisher singled home Posada to tie the game at four. Sabathia then worked a 1-2-3 top of the fourth and Derek Jeter came through with a two-out solo homer into Monument Park that gave the Yankees their first lead of the game at 5-4.
At that point the Yankees appeared to have taken control of the ballgame. Sabathia retired eight straight from the last out of the third to the first out of the sixth, but then things began to fall apart again. Jack Cust walked, moved to second on a ground out, then scored on a Mark Ellis single up the middle that nearly undressed Sabathia. That tied the game at 5-5, but once again the Yankees answered back.
Melky Cabrera drew a one-out walk in the bottom of the sixth to drive Anderson from the game at 97 pitches, but was then thrown out trying to steal second. Undeterred, the Yankees put together two-out rally ignited by a Cody Ransom double. Jeter again came through with a key two-out hit, doubling home Ransom to again put the Yankees ahead 6-5. Damon and Teixeira then added singles, the latter of which plated Jeter to give the Yankees an insurance run and a 7-5 lead.
Again Sabathia couldn’t hold it. The top of the seventh started with a Bobby Crosby single, a Ryan Sweeney walk, and an Orlando Cabrera sac bunt to move both runners into scoring position for the heart of the order. With Sabathia at 110 pitches, Giambi scored Crosby with a groundout to second, that brought righty Matt Holliday, who had singled and walked in three trips to that point, to the plate with the tying run on third base and two outs. Joe Girardi had Jonathan Albaladejo warming in the bullpen, but after visiting the mound, decided to leave Sabathia in the game. It was one batter too many as Holliday singled Sweeney home to tie the game at 7-7.
And there it remained. After all of that back-and-forth, neither team was able to score over the next seven innings. The Yankees loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh, but Melky Cabrera had a miserable at-bat, striking out on four pitches, Joe Girardi made a bizzare decision to pinch-hit for Ransom, who had doubled in his last at-bat and has sac-fly power if nothing else, with Brett Gardner only to let Gardner swing away rather than attempt a squeeze bunt. He was playing the matchups against righty reliever Michael Wuertz, but if your pinch hitting-option is Brett Gardner and you’re not going to have him bunt, you’re better off not making the move and saving Gardner for a pinch-running or defensive replacement spot later in the game. Gardner popped out, as did Jeter, who proved unable to deliver three clutch two-out hits in as many at-bats.
Alabaladejo worked around a leadoff single and A’s reliever Andrew Bailey worked around a leadoff walk in the eighth. Mariano Rivera worked around a one-out single and A’s closer Brad Ziegler worked around another leadoff walk in the ninth. Damaso Marte survived a pair of walks and Ziegler worked a second scoreless inning in the tenth. Jorge Posada gunned down Ryan Sweeney trying to steal second after a leadoff single off Edwar Ramirez in the top of the eleventh, after which Jose Veras worked around a walk to Giambi to finish the frame. Josh Outman then worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the eleventh.
The two teams combined to make 14 straight outs from the last out in the top of the 11th to the first out in the bottom of the 13th. Damon broke the streak with a single off spring training teammate Dan Giese, but Giese managed to strand him. Meanwhile, Veras locked the game down for the Yankees. After walking the first batter he faced (Giambi), he retired ten in a row, four of them by strikeout, to deliver 3 1/3 scoreless innings of relief. Joe Girardi was going to go to rookie Steven Jackson in the fifteenth, but he didn’t have to. Nick Swisher led off the bottom of the fourteenth by working an eight-pitch walk off Giese. After Hideki Matsui flied out, Melky Cabrera swated an 87 mile per hour 1-0 fastball up in the zone into the right field bleachers for a game-winning two-run home run.
Yankees win, 9-7.
Looks like you gave the Yankees credit for 2 extra wins. They went 4-2 on the homestand, not 6-2.
I've probably been Melky's biggest backer here, but I really hope Girardi starts shifting playing time away from Gardner, who has done little to make his fantastic spring stand-up. Melky will give you bad ABs from time-to-time, but he does still have potential that I don't see with Gardner.
I'm with William here, as I said/typed yesterday. I don't even see it as a tough call for Girardi: two mediocre CFs, play the one giving you something at the moment, unless there are match-up issues at work. I am trying to keep my visceral response to Gardner's uppercut swing out of this.
I am also using a variant of Jeter's slap on his right hip when he half-commits to a ball outside, to keep myself BACK on a growing sense that Girardi isn't very good.
I have one savvy baseball friend who doesn't think managers matter 'all that much' and who quotes Bill James that the best style of manager is 'the opposite of the one just sacked' (it actually makes some sense to me, that last). But when you look at Win Share analysis, you realize that even great players are only worth 4,5,6 games to a team over replacement ... so a manager who adds 3 games, even, or costs you 3, has played a huge role. There are a lot of ways to add value as a manager and some of them we never see, but I have next to no idea why Sabathia faced Holliday yesterday afternoon in the 7th. I'm not even sure why he came OUT there in the 7th. Oh. Right. He's the ace. And he's a big guy. Sigh.
Melky's problem is that his bad at-bats are so atrociously ugly that they stick in everyone's mind, including the manager's. Brett just doesn't look as bad, and also you can't help thinking about his dazzling speed.
I'd be very happy to see Melky get some extra playing time for a while. By early June his stock might well be plummeting (I think he's been much better in the early part of the season in past years), and if so then Brett can pick up those at-bats again. And as we approach the trading deadline... who knows?
I hear Holliday says he'd be happy to play in New York. I frankly believe he will be overpriced, but if next year's FA market is like this year's, he might have to settle for a reasonable contract. It's a little worrisome to hire a 30 year old OF, though.
Fixed that home-record to 4-2. Sorry about that.
I still think that we need to be patient with Gardner. Remember that we've seen three years of Melky disappointments. Brett is still a rookie.
[6] I tend to agree. It is pretty clear in my mind that Melky is not that good. Gardner is also probably not that good, but I would give more than the first few weeks to prove it. Bit not much more. Ultimately, [3] and [4] offer perhaps the best approach: ride the hot hand and/or work out some sort of rotation--then trade high.
In any case, with Matsui only able to play about half of the time, that opens up the space for Swisher to DH and Melky to start in the OF. Moreover, when A-Rod get back and Ranson/Pena is relegated to the bench, batting Melky and Gardner in the same lineup is not as frightening, provided that Molina's name does not join them.
What's most interesting to me about this young season is how the Gardner-Melky "battle" winds up. Remember, Melky has been hot before and then looked worse than terrible. Gardner has his AAA numbers and that plate discipline that should just appear any moment now (still waiting...). I would much rather watch this play out than having to watch Nady and Matsui in every lineup with them struggling to find time for Swisher. At least that worry has become moot. I have always thought Melky had corner talent. Even if it just comes in stretches, the manager can take advantage and sit Matsui, DH Damon, and run out a good defensive OF with some upside. Better to see what we have for next year and beyond. Nady was goners any ways (and hopefully Damon and Matsui too).
@7
Agreed, but let Damon DH.
@4
Holliday hasn't hit a homer since last August. No thanks. If anything, hopefully Boston lets Bay walk. If they didn't have two LF's already, he would have been the better acquisition over Nady and Marte. Now the Pirates have two starting pitchers (Karstens and Ohlendorf) and the Yanks got what exactly?
The Brett Gardner pinch hitting appearance goes into my file of "Joe Girardi making a move for the sake of making a move." There was no rhyme or reason to it, it reduced the team's chance of getting a sac fly and nothing was accomplished. I don't know if Giardi got bored and decided to liven things up by making a move, or if he wanted to be hailed as genius if this happened to work out, but it was a fucking stupid idea that goes right up there with pinch running for the trail runner and not putting on a play.
I don't think I need any more time to evaluate Gardner. He doesn't swing that way because it's natural - he swings that way because he and his coaches have determined that this is only way it's possible for him to make contact with a Major League quality pitch. He has no upside beyond his speed, and his speed is generally useless since he is never on base.
When a player is completely overmatched we don't have to wait for the sample of his crappiness to become statistically significant. I'm sure he could improve, over a long exporsure to MLB pitching, but hopefully that will never happen within the confines of the Yankee lineup.
C'mon-guys, are we placing-the-hyphens completely at random-now?
[6] [7] et al - I tend to agree. Gardner's had 55 PAs so far this season. If that's not a small sample size, I don't know what is. That's pretty quick to give up on a guy, especially given who the replacement would be. We don't know what Gardner might do in 300 or 400 PAs, though we can speculate all we want.
Meanwhile, we know what Melky is - a .268/.329/.374 hitter in 1608 MLB plate appearances prior to this year. I'm not sure why we should let his current 26 PAs worth of .304/.385/.826 hitting outweigh that.
If July rolls around, and Gardner still has a sub-.340 OBP, then perhaps its time to make a switch. I wouldn't do anything until then.
And FWIW, monkeypants, I agree with everything you said in your last post in last night's game thread about YS 2.0.
[9] I'm not crying over the loss of Karstens and Ohlendorf.
Hey William, just to get back to an earlier request, unfortunately it seems as if there is no way around the structure of the comments section now. I'm sorry for the trouble. I appreciate you putting up with it.
[0] "Just 4-2"? Isn't the rule: .500 on the road, 2/3 at home and you're in the playoff hunt.
I think Moose said a pitcher is going to have 10 good starts, 10 mediocre starts and 10 bad ones. As long as the Yankees can win a bad CC start, it's fine.
[13] Brett Gardner is now up to 196 major league plate appearances.
Why separate last year's incompetence from this year's incompetence? I have no problem predicting what he might do in 300 PA becuase he's 2/3 of the way there.
Not "went just 4-2" I wrote "just went 4-2" as in just now they went 4-2. It was meant as a positive statement.
@ 10
I disagree. The pitcher was right-handed and there was a chance of a double play with Ransom. It was a tough, borderline call. Much more problematic - why does the bench these days consist of Molina, Melky/Gardner, and Pena/Ransom? That's beyond pathetic.
@ 14
I'm not either. I'm crying because they gave another team 2/5s of their starting rotation and all they got back were an average, now injured, outfielder and a middling bullpen arm.
[12]
To paraphrase The Offspring, "You gotta keep 'em hyphenated ... "
[0]
Was it the "Heat of the Moment" that made you choose that title?
Can someone explain to me all the bitching about the new stadium? It seems to be the effect of said bitching will be a reduction in prices to the costliest seats? So Abraham calling it a place for Richie Rich, how does that help me, Begging Bob? Why should I care that they priced the rich out of $100 seats?
And then you have people saying the attendance for the series was pathetic? Um, hello, it was 90% capacity with crappy weather.
Weird axes to grind...
[13] At ages 21 and 22, Melky posted two pretty decent seasons for a CF'er. Meanwhile, Gardner, who is older, consistently looks anemic. Stats aside, Melky seems to possess alot more tools, so that along with age and a few positive glimpses leads me to think Melky has much more upside.
[15] No problem...thanks for checking.
[19] Last year, Rasner and Ponson were 2/5s of the Yankee rotation. I don't see how that's relevant. Ohlendrof and Karstens were not going to factor into the Yankees plans.
[21] Couldn't agree more...but I am trying to steer conversation toward what happens on the field as opposed to in the stands.
Are we forgetting Brett's defense? He had already stolen 3 XBHs that Melky doesn't come near. What might happen first... Brett getting stronger or Melky getting smarter?
[18] Ah, thanks.
And how about Veras? What with yesterday's performance I may have to change my mind about cringing every time he comes out of the pen.
[23] Gardner is 26; Melky is 25. I think it is far more likely that Melky will get smarter before Gardner gets stronger.
[23] Also, Garnder's UZR in CF has been -21.8. It's a small sample, but you can't make the argument that he has been asset in the field.
@ 26
I agree with what you say in Melky vs. Gardner, but that UZR is likely skewed by Wang (and even Sabathia) getting smoked.
What I was trying to suggest at the top of this thread is that there's no NEED to make sweeping arguments for or against Melky/Gardner. Both are mediocre, at best, neither shows a lot of evidence he'll be more than that. Play the hot hand, look for match-ups (harder with young players without a lot of exposure to pitchers). It puts a bit of pressure on Girardi, but that's what he makes the big bucks for: to let us second guess him.
As for pinch hitting with Gardner, maybe he thought the famous uppercut swing would get him a sac fly? (All the way to deep short, maybe?) He doesn't need to nourish Ransom's ego, Cody stops mattering (we all hope) in 2 weeks. That inning exposed both Melky and Gardner (and the bench) pretty badly. Word is, last I checked, Nady is back in a month or so, not gone for the year. Plenty of time to be a help, deepen that bench a lot.
OYF ... not sure it is accurate to exalt Gardner's D so much over Melky's. The D stats from last two years have Melky as a seriously above-average CF. (He's overexposed as a corner OF, where you need to be able to hit.)
I'm biased, but Melky has the edge in my book. Defensively, Melky has the arm, Gardner has the legs. Offensively, Melky has the power and Gardner has speed - put Gardner can't get on base. I agree with others that Melky still has more potential ... It seems like he has some maturing to do still, whereas Gardner seems fully-formed to me.
Gardner has more speed, Melky more power. Gardner has better range, Melky a better arm. In the end, they are both 4th outfielders. Gardner may even be more of a 5th outfielder/pinch running specialist.
But given the age and injuries of the current OF corps, they should both get plenty of playing time.
If two HR including the game winner y'day doesn't get Melky starts at The Fens, just what is it going to take, anyway? Gardner getting hurt?
Egad!
If Gardner continues to be overmatched at the plate, we may even see Austin Jackson sooner than we think. He's destroying AAA ball currently with an OPS of .985! Not bad at all for his debut at that level!
With Ransom proving to be an automatic out in a Molina-type fashion, I really don't believe they can afford to start Gardner at this series in Fenway, unless they DH Damon, which is unlikely now that Matsui is getting better. Gardner is more of a PR/late inning defensive replacement than a full-fledged starting CF at the moment in my opinion.
I agree with the "hot hand" approach. And if Ransom continues to be this flat out fugly, let Pena get some extremely valuable reps in Boston, especially against Beckett! He couldn't do any worse in all honesty. And he's not afraid of popups or rolled up tarps like our "esteemed" rehabilitating 3B!
:)