If we’re to believe Professors Hershiser, Morgan, and Miller, this was a successful weekend for the Boston Red Sox. Or it was a successful weekend for the New York Yankees. By only splitting the four-game season in the Bronx, the Sox leave town with the same six-game deficit they brought with them, and since the Rays have been scuffling as well, the Yankees are still two games up in the division — never a bad thing.
The disappointing thing, though, is that this game could easily have gone the other way. Phil Hughes had a bit of trouble in the second inning, giving up two runs on a handful of stolen bases and infield singles, but then recovered nicely. Aside from a two-out double in the fifth surrendered to Victor Martínez, Hughes was perfect the rest of the way. He fell victim to his high pitch count and left after six innings, but Kerry Wood, Boone Logan, and Joba Chamberlain held down the Sox hitters over the final three innings, giving the Yankees three different chances to win in the later innings.
Jon Lester was almost unhittable for most of the afternoon, not faltering until the seventh inning when Jorge Posada opened the frame with a ground ball single to left field. Marcus Thames came up next and smoked a rocket towards the bullpen in right center field. The game hung in the balance for just as long as it took the ball to fly from Thames’s bat to the very tip of the wall. Another inch — seriously — and it would’ve scraped over the wall, tying the game at two, but the fence held the ball in, gently dropping it onto the warning track in front of Jacoby Ellsbury. On the radio broadcast John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman went on and on about the terrible bit of bad luck that had just kept the Yanks from evening the score, but it’s not like they were in bad shape with men on second and third and no one out. Five pitchers later things looked even better as Lester plunked Austin Kearns to load the bases. With Curtis Granderson, Derek Jeter, and Nick Swisher lying in wait, the game would surely be tied at the very least.
But it didn’t happen that way. Lester muscled up to strike out Granderson and was relieved by flame thrower Daniel Bard who dismissed Jeter and Swisher on six high octane fastballs. Threat over.
Mark Teixeira led off the eighth with big home run off of the same Mr. Bard who had been unhittable only moments earlier, and when Alex Rodríguez followed that with a single, things were suddenly interesting again. But then Mr. Girardi entered the fray. Now, even though I was a bit critical of his performance in Sunday night’s game, I don’t usually criticize Girardi — or any other manager, for that matter. But there’s one habit Girardi has that drives me absolutely crazy. He loves to pinch run, and it doesn’t matter a bit who’s coming out of the game. So when A-Rod, singled and reached base as the potential tying run, Girardi pulled him in favor of Brett Gardner. First of all, I love Brett Gardner. Love him. And I understand that he’s a walking stolen base, but I have two huge problems with Girardi’s line of thinking. First, by running Gardner, you’re essentially playing for a tie. This is fine, except that you’ve just removed one of your best hitters, a hitter who otherwise might’ve helped you win the game when his spot comes around again. Second, it’s not like you’re running for Jorge Posada; A-Rod can steal a bag. Gardner then added to my frustration by staying anchored to first for the first five pitches of Robinson Canó’s at bat. He finally ran as Canó grounded out to second, putting him in scoring position, but if you’re going to pinch run Gardner in that spot, shouldn’t you send him to first base with explicit directions to run early in the count so that Canó, Posada, and Thames would each have an opportunity to drive in the tying run? But what do I know?
Now back to the actual game. After Posada walked, Lance Berkman hit for Thames and popped out to left for the second out, then Jonathan Papelbon came on to retire Austin Kearns on one pitch. Another threat over.
True to form, the Yankees mustered one final rally in the ninth inning when Jeter walked with one out and stole second, but Papelbon wrapped it up by striking out Swisher and Teixeira. Red Sox 2, Yankees 1.
I missed the whole series, a split is fine.
Joe G pinch-running for A-Rod then not havign Gardner run right away...can someone check on MattPat11 to make sure he's OK?? :)
RIP Don Wakamatsu..I 've seen quite a few M's games on tv here this year..awful, awful team. How is it his fault? I get the Orioles firing Trembley, he had a few years of bad results, but the M's did well last year...well, does this mean Bobby V heads to Seattle? With his Japan ties and M's being owned by Nintendo....makes sense..
Two things.
Joe Girardi loves to put punch runners in the game. He doesn't necessarily like to pinch run. A pinch runner entering the game and doing absolutely nothing is fairly common.
And Brett Gardner hasn't been a walking stolen base in a long time. Brett only runs every once in a while, and almost exclusively with two strikes. I don't know if he's hurting, afraid of getting caught, or has an awful time getting reads off pitchers, but Brett Gardner has been a lousy "speedster' for the better part of the last two months.
[1] I don't think it makes sense for Bobby V though; let's face it, he wants the right situation as much as Buck did when he took the O's job; something that would add to his "legend, and for Buck that means having a strong hand in reorganizing and building an organization to contention, something he's good at. In Seattle, the complaint is that the Nintendo ownership is not supportive enough to spend what it takes to get the pieces they need; like most corporate owners, they are more concerned about the bottom line and how a sports franchise relates to their diversified portfolio. Nor do they have people who are good at evaluating talent (Jack Z is next on the hit parade), the consensus is Wakamatsu is a good baseball person who will land on his feet somewhere else, but was dealt a bad hand and subsequently lost the clubhouse.
Then the biggest issue for the M's is... Ichiro? Some say that because of ownership's supposed synergy with him concerning the Japanese market and an enormous ego, he pretty much has carte blanche to do whatever he pleases, much like LeBron in Cleveland, and that not only undermined Wakamatsu's authority in the clubhouse, but created tension among newcomers like Figgens and Bradley, both having relatively poor seasons and problems with the team in general. A lot of M's fans are pretty much up in arms because of the perception that Ichiro's an $18 million singles hitter with a God complex and a tendency to contribute when it least matters. I doubt Bobby wants to walk into a similar conflict to the one that pretty much drove him out of Japan in the first place, but if he does God bless him; at least the money will be good.
Now about the Yanks... I wonder if Joe's "caution" is prevailing over Gardner in that he doesn't want to be blamed for running the team out of a rally if he's CS. Something has deflated the aggression of the young guys, I don't know what. But Joba's not the same, Gardner's not the same, Cervelli's clearly not what we'd come to expect and even Pena has lost some spirit, for lack of a better term. Is it a letdown from the World Series, from the off-season moves or are they wearing out quicker than most? Or are they being held back by some innocuous decree or has something gotten into their heads where they are afraid to be aggressive? It seems that Joe has gotten that way himself; is the team playing follow the leader? If this team is better than last year, why aren't they playing like it?
With the relative down year Jeter, Posada and Alex are having, plus the nontributions of Granderson, AJ and Vasquez overall, has much of the rest of the team been directly effected by this, or is it a slippery slope where one problem begets another and another?
[2] I wouldn't mind if he sought advice from someone like Rickey Henderson if he's having read problems; I've thought about that for a while. But if he's afraid, that's something only he can change, and I don't think Girardi has the will or ability to help him there. As for being hurt, well it's that old "warrior" mentality that needs to change; fat chance there, especially when you have players who go on the DL for falling on their asses or sneezing too hard, and especially when you're on a team that's expected to win every single day.
[4] I've been thinking about that for a while as well. I'm pretty sure Rickey would do it, too. But even if he wouldn't, Christ, Mickey Rivers has no life. Bring him in.
[3] To conclude my point, Bobby wants to walk into a situation where the pieces are there and he can push the right buttons to make it all work. His genius, like all other managers, is having the right players to fit his style or system. My bet is he's waiting for Texas to finalize their ownership and move Ron Washington into another job in the organization. If Nolan Ryan gets settled in before net season, don't be surprised if Bobby openly lobbies for a couple of jobs there. Speculation, but it makes the most sense in my opinion.
[5] (haa!) But I don't see why Rickey wouldn't do it; he only stands to gain re-entry into the coaching fraternity if he does a good job, or at worst being a high-paid private consultant with HoF credentials. And if he throws in some lessons about hitting to contact or where the pitch is thrown, bonus!
I know this is not the place for it, but the best thing; rather the two best things that could happen to New York would be if I, Thomas were to work either directly for Cablevision or to be an analyst on ESPN. Neither one could feasibly say no without eating a whole dogpile of their own sh-... Talk about killing two birds with one stone!
[6] Hmmm...I wonder if Bobby V would want to work for Nolan Ryan? I sense ego combat..
[3] wow, interesting stuff about Ichiro..you don't get any coverage of the M's here beyond his hit total and stats (J media doesn't care about much besides how the J players are doing..)
But baseball is not a "team" sport..if Ichiro gets 200+ hits and plays good D, would his teammates really care if he's an arrogant, aloof a-wipe? Even Barry Bonds' special treatment was OK when they were winning..
[8] Oh shit, Chyll!! I was away a couple of days, just heard about "The Return of Isaiah"!!! (That sounds like an Oral Roberts U seminar class...)
WTF is wrong with Jim Dolan???????
[9] You have a point with Ryan; that could be an explosive combo even if Ryan were both gracious and considering the notion of making a big splash by hiring someone with name recognition in the event that he could not re-sign Lee and/or add a big name or two to the roster. I wouldn't expect him to be the second coming of Ol' George, but still... and Bobby V generally wears out his welcome every few years anyway. Still, I don't see anywhere else that makes the most sense unless he's given the same powers Buck might have in Baltimore, which would likely mean he'd move Ichiro asap. I just think Nintendo (not their US operatives, mind you) would be wary of him given that his act wore thin over there.
I've read more than a few comments after the firing of Wakamatsu, and the common notion is that Ichiro is a cancer in the clubhouse and W was not strong enough to deal with it. That could very well be displaced anger over them being a sucky team, but around here numbers have the amazing powers of veracity and the numbers suggest he's having a down year; his WAR is less than half of what it generally is, though if you don't have anyone on base in front of him, he's not gonna drive anyone in (which he hardly has anyway). For the money he's making, he's hitting a lot of singles. As for his attitude, Bonds didn't exactly bring the Giants (or the Pirates, for that matter) to the promised land, and by the time he left his team was in shambles. Ichiro is in the same boat, and you have to wonder why he hasn't been offered to a contending team so the M's can rebuild. Ichiro might actually be a team guy if he had a real team to play with, but given that his preferential treatment has not translated to wins, there's a lot of smoke to suggest that his presence and salary is not doing them any good now and in the long run.
And about [8] yes, Jim Dolan is really Max Montana grown up and coked out. The fact that David Stern suggested the man get rid of his team president for the sake of his own club and he has to sneak him back in as a consultant suggests that he has neither clue nor care for the welfare of of his team, and Knicks fans are just as clueless and carefree in that they have not shut him down by boycotting the arena. Isiah (either his mom couldn't spell or he told her he was God's gift to basketball and therefore only needed one A in his name) has turned everything he's touched into shit; I would not be surprised if he ends up shutting all of FIU down before he jumps back in FT with the Knicks.
But the real menace is Dolan, because he's one of those self-centered trash bags who no one is capable of doing anything with. If you were to go on Knicks blogs, you'd see that there are plenty of people openly wishing that something natural or (mostly) unnatural happens to him and Isiah both. Rather than that, I hope that fans would simply stop going to Knicks games, stop buying Knicks merchandise, stop paying any attention to the Knicks and in two years when the Nets arrive in Brooklyn they ditch the Knicks altogether and support the new NY team. If only Spike would lead the way (and Spike is getting old if he's allowing himself to be referred to as a team mascot, never mind a mascot for a team with this kind of sickness running through it)...
Ichiro isn't the problem in Seattle. General suckiness is.
[12] I'd have to agree with that. The team was poorly constructed.
As for Girardi's caution sapping the enthusiasm of the kids, well, I don't buy that at all. Although I hate his game management, he seems to evolved as a very good manager of people. He has gone above and beyond the call to protect guys like Joba and Cervelli, and has reportedly been Gardner's biggest backer in the organization.
Gardner's hesitance has been a well known problem for a while now. During the ALCS, the FOX mics caught Kelleher imploring Gardner to run, saying something to effect, forget about your jump, this guy can't throw anyway. And yet, Gardner still remained anchored. I don't blame Girardi for that, but I do blame him for not understanding his players and utilizing them accordingly. The best use of Gardner would have been as a pinch hitter for Granderson in the 7th or Kearns in the 8th, not as a late game pinch runner.
[13] A lot had to go right for the M's to contend this year, but then several players underperformed. Then there was the Griffey situation as well as the Figgins situation. Maybe Wakamatsu lost the clubhouse, maybe he didn't but I'm sure it didn't help that a couple of established veterans didn't agree with Wak.