I never do this, but last night I didn’t watch the Yankee game despite the fact that I knew I’d have to write it up in this space. You know why. I was watching Stephen Strasburg strike out 14 men in a major league debut that did the impossible by living up to all of the hype that preceded it. I clearly made the right choice, not because the Yankees lost (they didn’t), but because the opening game of their three-game set in Baltimore was yet another of those ugly, high-scoring affairs that made up in aggravation what it lacked in suspense.
The game was almost over before it begun as Derek Jeter led off by drawing a five-pitch walk and Nick Swisher sent Kevin Millwood’s sixth pitch over the center-field wall for a two-run homer. With two out in the third, Curtis Granderson inflated the Yankee lead to 6-0 with the second grand slam of his career. Phil Hughes let the O’s cut that in half with two runs in the fourth and one in the fifth, but though he allowed nine hits and struck out just four in his six innings of work, all of the hits were singles and he walked no one.
With Hughes likely out of the game after 102 pitches, the Yankees put the game away with a six-run top of the seventh against relievers Matt Hendrickson and Matt Albers, the key hit being a bases-clearing, bases-loaded double by first-inning hero Nick Swisher off Albers which was immediately followed by a solo homer by Mark Teixeira, just his second tater since May 15.
The aggravating part came in the final two frames as, after a solid inning from David Robertson, Chad Gaudin, in to mop up with a 12-3 lead, coughed up two runs in the eighth on a walk and an Adam Jones homer, and two more in the ninth to the first three batters he faced to bring the Orioles within 12-7. Gaudin managed to finish things off before Joe Girardi had to go to the big guns, but the O’s hadn’t scored more than five runs since May 20 (when they also lost, 13-7), and there was no reason to let them break in their hitting shoes in a route.
Still, it was a successful night of baseball. Strasburg dominated. The Yankees won, and I didn’t miss anything by opting to watch the former.
In other news, Josh Paul is up to serve as the bullpen coach with Mike Harkey subbing for Dave Eiland who is taking a leave of absence from the team for personal reasons. Paul is the manager of the short-season Staten Island Yankees, who have yet to begin play this year, and is best remembered as the catcher on the controversial “dropped third strike” call on A.J. Pierzynski in the 2005 ALCS. Paul is also three years younger than Chad Moeller and owns a comparable major league batting line (Paul: .244/.303/.341 in 797 plate appearances, Moeller: .226/.287/.352 in 1,533 PA). Is it a bad sign when your bullpen coach is as qualified to be your backup catcher as your backup catcher is?
In other catching news, Jorge Posada has started working behind the plate, though there remains no timetable for him to return to catching in games.
"Is it a bad sign when your bullpen coach is as qualified to be your backup catcher as your backup catcher is?"
Good one, Cliff. Cracked me up.
Sterling on Granderson. "It’s a Granderson Slam." Is that all you got, John? I really think he blew it, big time. Many of us have been waiting for this all year, and he gives us this sadly obvious line. IMHO it should have been like this, "It's a GranderSlam from Curtis." There's no need to add the "son" between "Grander," which the whole planet knows refers to our man Curtis, and "Slam." It's a GranderSlam! My version also hints that we are speaking of something a bit "Grander" than an ordinary grand salami. Word: Sterling screwed the pooch. After that he bellows into a psychotic version of "The Grandy Man Can," which basically has no literary footing or context except moronic alliteration. C'mon John!
swsiher is really swinging a great bat.
for that matter granderson has looked quite good too since his return - pretty impressive.
let's hope last night is a true turning point for tex.
if aceves is not back anytime soon, and it doesn't look like he is, cashman needs to make some kind of move, because gaudin clearly does not belong on a ml roster - dfa his ass.
[3] Maybe Gaudin has been very unlucky this year?
[4] hey mp. you back stateside? how was italy?
yes, he could well be unlucky, so getting dfa'd would just continue his unluckiness.
Strasburg made some of them Pirates look like batty boys. Considering the normal attendance at that stadium, I would think that they should recuperate their 20 mil dollar investment on Strasburg sooner than later (providing he stays healthy). They designed the rotation so that most of his starts are at home. Good day for the Lerners.
Nice to see Jeff Karstens. He still throws strikes, but is dangerously hittable.
Kept switching to the Yankees. It seemed they had the game in hand.
[5] LOL. As I say to my school-aged kids, I sense that you have strong feelings about this. Chad be bad.
[1] Yup
[2] I called it a Granderslam last night. It's a no-brainer. Which means Sterling has a negative brain.
OK folks, who's already with me thinking about Strasburg in pinstripes. Nats would be fools to trade him for anything less than a young Jeter + young Mo, so we'll have to wait until free agency. But who's comfortable with a $200 million contract for a pitcher.
The Orioles are pathetic. They should move out of that once-proud baseball city to the Gulf Coast ,and change their bird logo to the oil-soaked pelican.
Lame wisecracks at the expense of dying seabirds aside, what a wretched and infuriating mess that is down there. Literally sickening, what's happening, and what will be for years to come.
Sorry, baseball, I've got tarball on my mind this morning.
[5] I'm back---I even tried to banter a bit last night, but jet lag and Sterling drove me from the game and game thread. Italia was bella as always, but the month was pretty taxing this year for a variety of reasons. Good to be back.
[8] When I think about Strasburg in pinstripes, his face transmogrifies into Mark Prior's. So I'll put those thoughts out of my mind for a few years at least.
The Nats might pay Strasberg. It does happen occasionally that other teams pay players as much as the Yankees are willing to!
[9] What tarball? File compression? Gulf of Mexico?
Dave Trembley has to be smiling right now.
[8, 10] this is why the terrorists hate Yankee fans
Supposedly, Strasburg set record for fewest pitches required for a 14-K game (94). The caveat being he "only" pitched 7 innings.
deep breaths...deep breaths...in and out...in and out
http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/yankees/expect_yanks_to_make_cliff_bid_pKw2dvYWZbB9nA0OjQAm2K
I was at the game and it was the most electric the stadium has been since it opened - hell it was the most electric game I've ever been to. It seemed like every inning had everyone on their feet clapping and chanting in what is really a quite fine stadium for community feel. In my case, at least a dozen friends were spread around the stadium - it really felt like a community event and anyone can go - very solid front row seats in the 200 section bought just a week ago for this game was only $17. Despite the sold out hype, tickets were available in a very good buy tickets to three games get one free (plus a hat) deal until the morning of the game. Doesn't that seem nice? A big exciting game you can buy reasonably priced tickets for?
And Strasburg - lets just say you don't see too many pitchers with ZERO walks alternating between loopy 82 MPH curves pitched for strikes and consistently throwing 99 fastballs. I'm pretty skeptical that his body can keep up the beating it must take from all those fastballs - but he has an amazingly smooth and slow delivery. He doesn't look like he's trying very hard.
He was struggling at some point in the middle innings giving up a hit and a hard hit out, and it was a real pleasure to see Pudge roll/bound out to the mound and talk to him, it became especially pleasurable when he seemed to add a few to his velocity and shut down the Pirates* for the rest of the game - Pudge reinforced his veteran stripes there. But lets be clear that this was the Pirates. They weren't patient (though that might be hard with all the strikes he was throwing). And he'll keep seeing that level of opposition for a while, I suspect. The Nationals need and want him to be successful.
[8] The Nationals have the potential to become a big market team as their % of MASN television revenue increases from something like 10% now to 33% (according to the MASN wikipedia article) over the next 20 or so years. MASN gets all Orioles and all Nationals television revenue. On the other hand, the Orioles will do even better should the Nationals TV-generated revenue increase. In any case, the Lerner family has a lot of cash and a long-term view and may just be willing to pony up for big spending (as they did with Strasburg's massive signing bonus) and the solid money spent on Dunn, for example.
[14] Happiness in seven words:
Consider the sources:
TheNYPost
GeorgeAKingIII
Worry not!
[0] Cliff, Tex hit a 2 run dinger and not a solo shot I thought.
Peter Angelos must have had the Orioles cooperating with Strasburg's debut because I was able to flip between games and not miss too many pitches of either.
I get that Strasburg was great (even though he really still hasn't faced a mjor league lineup yet), but some of the commentary this morning has been a little over the top. The idea that there has never been another pitcher with as good pure stuff is pretty silly.
[18] Let them bask in the afterglow, reality will hit soon enough.
[18] you'll appreciate this then
http://deadspin.com/5558822/bob-costas-feeds-the-strasburg-hype-machine
[20] Heh.
"Hell, if Costas wants to say he's better than Johnson right now, that's his privilege. "
Well yeah, right now I'm better than Walter Johnson. But that's only because I'm alive right now while Johnson is dead right now.
[20] The constant references to Johnson were odd. I get the Washington connection, but comparing a rookie to the greatest pitcher of all time was a stretch.
[21] Yep, it's been a 64-year dead arm phase for the Big Train.
I thought Costas was gilding the lily last night in his call of the game. Also, as much as I enjoyed Kitty when he was doing Yankee games I have to say, I don't really miss him at all.
[19] And if reality doesn't "hit" us, then I guess it will "hit" you.