Phil Hughes is lost right now. He’s lost velocity on his pitches and is now lost in space. He threw more BP fastballs tonight and the O’s feasted on that weak sauce to the tune of five runs in four-and-a-third innings. It’s clear that something ain’t right, but what that something is, well, that’ll keep the angst-meter on blast for the foreseeable future, won’t it?
The Bombers inched their way back into the game behind a strong relief outing from Bad Bart Colon and trailed 5-4 going into the eighth. Colon put runners on the corners with one out and was replaced by Joba Chamberlain who uncorked a slider past Russell Martin. Felix Pie charged home from third but Joba beat him to the plate and blocked Pie’s leg, took the throw from Martin and made the tag for the second out.
Went something like this:
Joba struck Mark Reynolds out looking with some easy cheese on the outside corner, end of inning.
That looked to be the last thing to get excited about as Alex Rodriguez, still hot, and Robinson Cano had two out hits in the bottom of the inning but Nick Swisher, ice cold, rolled over a grounder to end the inning. Joba pitched a scoreless ninth and then Jorge Posada hit Kevin Gregg’s first pitch into the right center field bullpen to tie the game.
And Yankee Stadium was happy.
Even more so when Curtis Granderson lined a ball off Nick Markakis’ glove in right field for a double. But Martin could not get a bunt down and whiffed. Brett Gardner, who has looked overmatched, did the same and Derek Jeter tapped out to short and the inning was over.
Yet all praise the Great Mariano, who worked around a lead-off single, and got the Yanks back up in short order. The lefty Mike Gonzalez walked Mark Teixeira on a full-count pitch to start the inning and then Rodriguez, who has been hitting just about everything on the screws, ripped a double to left. Second and third, no out. Robbie. Worked the count even at two, smacked a line drive right at the shortstop, one out.
The O’s chose not to walk Swisher, batting from the right side. Swish hit a hump back liner to Markakis in right, deep enough to score the winning run.
A.J., pie, game.
Yanks 6, O’s 5. Applause.
[First picture by Michel Gravel]
Helluva comeback. Fuck sample sizes, Colon should be starting and Hughes should work out his issues in the pen or in AAA.
It's a Modamn good thing Joba didn''t have his leg busted into smithereens on that play. Scary ass stuff.
Alex, I am so digging those screen-pix you're putting up now. Keep them coming!
Friday, Yanks win, warm spring day, skrits are out, and got Grant Green and Sonny Clark on the iPod..life is still good in Atomic City here!
Those really are great pictures.
I just looked over the game thread. Nobody commented on Showalter's odd tenth-inning tactical decisions.
They were Not By the Book. But they may have been sound moves. Anyway, the last one failed, fortunately1
3) Me too! Those are fun. I forgot to DVR the game so I just snapped away and then put them through Camera Bag and took the best ones.
Nifty win.
If Joba's play had happened in the World Series it would be considered one of the greatest defensive plays ever.
[5] Me three! Is that App, Camera Bag (I believe you called it) free?
Great game and win, but has anybody else noticde how tedious Derek's at-bats have become? If if was discussed in the game-thread, I'm sorry. And if I'm beating a dead horse, sorry for that, too. It just seems like he's swinging at everything and hitting nothing solid.
[6] That's an interesting point. I can picture that.
[8] I don't think he's swinging at everything, and his isolated patience is still pretty good. But he is clearly not hitting anything solidly.
[8] In fact, checking his P/PA on espn.com, at 3.93 he is seeing the most pitches per AB since they started recording the stat in 2002.
was there tonight, what a great game. a few thoughts:
- If Hughes keeps going this way, and Joba keeps going this way...can we please stop saying how the Yankees "ruin" young arms. Sometimes they're up, sometimes they're down. Injuries aside things usually even out. But I think after a long strange trip, Joba might just be back. He was DEALING tonight.
- I'm just as lost about Hughes as he is. Unless something is hurting, I HAVE to feel like this is fixable. I think a trip down to Scranton for 2 or 3 starts and sliding Colon into the rotation is the way to go for right now. I could get on board with giving him the next start in Toronto as a last chance. Things go bad there, gotta make the move.
- A-Rod is locked in, and its scary. That is all.
[11] Maybe it just seems that way, because he always (seems to?) swing at the first pitch.
That was my first non Castillo related walkoff win in the New Stadium.
[14] Oh man..I remember that game..god, must be just torture to be a Mets fan..then again, they have two of the most famous WS championship teams ever. Better than a lot of other teams..
Hey, Good Ol' Johnny Damon also got a walk-off yesterday -- a homer. And Upton pied him! I wonder if AJ owns the copyright.
i wonder how much of joba's play was intentional or just good luck - because he perfectly moved pie's leg off the plate so his leg didn't get in before the tag and then joba used his fat ass to block pie's body off the plate and put the tag on him twice. pretty amazing bang-bang play.
[17] It seemed like a bit of both - he was obviously trying to block the plate, but it would be pretty hard to position your leg that perfectly on purpose in that situation.
I think Jeter will come out of this, because he looks uncomfortable. His swing is just awkward a lot of the time; once he settles in I think he'll improve. The only caveat is if he slides back to his old swing, which I take on faith in Long needed to be changed.