Garcia is officially my least favorite Yankee starter. I don't enjoy watching him pitch.

[1] Slop is not for everyone.

Strikezone is kind of bizarre so far.

[1] [2] haha, yep.
i miss fartolo - i enjoyed his starts the most this year.

Ouchie on Ramiro.
This is like watching a Mid-March game. aka spring training.

C'mon Cervelli, lean into one. We've got to turn this lineup over!

Reds announcer: "Here is their catcher, Cervelli. He's a .185 hitter, but..."

But?

Oh, this is the game thread. I thought it was the "Let's play a couple".

[7] ... he sure is cute!

nice catch from swish.

WOW. Great catch! Applasue form the homers, too.

does mk really think all the yankee fans in chicago and cincy flew in from ny?

My bold prediction is Freddie's streak of homerless innings pitched will end today.

[12] I decided to give the Reds broadcast a chance...so far they are not too bad.

Meanwhile...I LOVE Freddy Garcia!!

Ha!

Gardy channeling his inner Melky.

The ol' Melky trick into first base. : /

Gardner with a Red Shift Special!

I think this is very, very distracting for Leake. I hope it isn't distracting Curtis.

[8] i thought so too, from the title.

i can only half-ass follow. got a plane to catch later...

Awesome. That kind of AB is so satisfying when you're on the 'winning' end of it and so infuriating when you're on the other side.

Leake at 52 pitches.

Reds just optioned Monday's starter and called up a long man. They might need him.

[20] Cool, well, banter really hard right now to make up for it!

Ump is calling a tight zone.

One would be tempted to send Grandy.

Veteran batter, young pitcher. The effect of a distracting base runner is supposed to be to our advantage here. Leake really does look like he can't concentrate, yet he's ahead in the count...

Uh oh. Is he okay??

He should have gone 3-6-3. Nice slide by Gardner.

[27] Who?

[29] Brett.

Sweet.

That was an extremely moral hit, don't you think?

Yikes! That would have been a helluva play by Votto.

[32] The entire inning has been highly virtuous, right down to the pitcher swinging th ebat for himself.

[30] He looked fine to me.

score truckin'!

Oh, Jorge...Strikeouts are the product of weak moral fiber. Why did you have to soil the inning?

[34] He was getting some minor treatment in the dugout. I think Hanigan stepped on his ankle or something like that.

Paul says when he was playin' no one had even heard of Twitter. That's an interesting way of putting it. Or puttin' it.

[37] Yeah, Hanigan spiked him in the leg. He was hopping around a bit. And you could see the rip in his sock.

I guess he's all right, though. Taped him up and sent him back in.

Slop works.

The Chief.

[39] is it you or rbj that lives in Ohio? i think it's rbj, but i'm not positive. i'm playing in Springfield, OH in a coupla weeks and was just curious...

[42] I'm in upstate NY, not Ohio. But have a lot of friends in Ohio, and visit there pretty frequently.

It would be awesome if Peña or Cervelli could get on base.

... or if Bill Gates sent me an iPad.

[44] Ever.

Actually, that was a great AB by Peña.
Considering it's Peña, I mean.

Cervelli Fail.

Hmm.

Didn't someone ask the other day what exactly Frankie Cervelli is good at?

[43] acha! i'm not hitting upstate NY on this tour. i have family in the Binghamton & Syracuse areas...

i'll have to try and remember to see if rbj is anywhere close to Springfield (wherever springfield is...).

[49] Yes, we had a contest.

Freddy!

Damn, Fred.

Chief!

[50] I'm in the Hudson Valley, but I did visit the Syracuse area a couple of weeks ago. Caught a few games at Alliance Bank Stadium, and visited the beautiful parks out there - Green Lakes, Watkins Glen, etc.

[55] nice! i'm going to be at Penn State all weekend (my alma mater). they have a fun minor league team - State College Spikes, NY-Penn League - and a great little stadium. unfortunately, they won't be playing this weekend. i get in too late tonight and then they're on the road. i was really hoping to catch a game...

i'm sure the new Braves AAA park is excellent. and it's not far from me, but i haven't been and don't have plans to go. then again, The Ted is really really close to me and i haven't been to a game since the Yanks were in town end of June, 2009. i was there when Brains homered! (about the last time he did anything good, haha...)

leake is the young kid who started out really great last season w/out going to the minors, then got caught shoplifting this year and had a really terrible excuse about trying to return the clothes, or something - is that right?

I figure Leake is done if a Red gets on this inning.

[57] Yep.

Oy, that sucked. Jorge.

E5. Hmmm. Teix would have caught it.

[57] The booth explained his side earlier. It actually made sense to me and sounded like something I would do. Bought 5 shirts. Left the store. Realized they did not fit days later. When he went back to return them there was no one to be found. Left the 5 small shirts he bought and left with 5 bigger ones.
Could be bullshit. But it makes more sense than a dude making hundreds of thousands ripping off 5 stupid shirts.

[57] They caught it all on camera, and he really did try to exchange the shirts without dealing with a clerk. Maybe it's arrogant - thinking he's above waiting like the rest of us - but it wasn't theft.

For Fuck's sake Pena. Nice fucking throw! Bollocks!

Huh, so, catching the ball: not what Cervelli is good at.

um, this inning is not off to a good start.

[61] huh. okay, cool!

holy crap. the young defenders cannot defend! : /

[62] very cool. i liked the kid last year and was hoping it was more of a misunderstanding than a stoopid thing to do...

[58] you might wanna re-figure...

[67] Yeah, I wasn't imagining 1&2 with nobody out!

I wonder if he would have batted had they just thrown out the previous batter at first instead of going home.

I like that shot of Russell Martin. I believe he was thinking, "My job is safe."

Two unearned runs.

shit sox spot the friars a run in the 1st. aw, how nice of them. now they'll win eleventy-four to 1.

Quite the Leakey, Sloppy pitchers duel.

That was an awesome inning. I love Frankie Cervelli AND Ramiro Peña.

jorgie!!

Atta boy, Jorgie!

[70] Martin is probably thinking that, but then again, he has never before played for the Chessmaster™.

Yikes, what a line drive---I thought that had too much topspin at first.

That was good.

hip-hip!!!

Once we get past the euphoria, however, the sober reality sinks in that HRs are both immoral and rally killers. Thanks a lot, Jorge.

[77] The Chessmaster is drooling over the possibilities with this afternoon's pinch hitters, by the way.

Hm. Do chessmasters drool?

"Driven".

[82] They only drool if they want you to see them drool. We are all putty in their hands.

[83] I missed that. I'm listening to the Reds broadcast, which features a refreshing variety of phrases and, especially, the active voice.

Great short hop by Cano. Word!

Hot damn.
How many DPs can Brett get????

So, so gritty.

[84] Putty in a drooly guy's hands. That's not a good thing to be.

[85] Jorge's homer was 'driven' -- fair enough. (Note the em dash.) Peña's loopy fly out was also 'driven'. That's the one I echoed. (Derisively.)

Cervelli is very good at making sure no balls are harmed in his ab's.

Cervelli is reaching that point where making outs has only a negligible impact on his numbers. He like a differential equation, or something.

[91] I've lost track of what other entries there were in the contest, but that's surely going to make the Final Four.

[92] Hm, I might have to go with 'something' on that one. However, if he would bat ninth, right next to Gardner, there could be a relativistic effect and Frankie's batting average could actually go up if he makes a highly virtuous out. Grounding to the left side of the infield with a runner on second, say.

Ladies and gentlemen, Ramiro Peña.

If I were the Reds, my strategy would be, "Hit it at Pena."

What is Ramiro Peña good at?

[95] Take that! : )

Not bad, kid. Not bad.

[98] Hey, I was just typing out his props. Geez, tough crowd!