That’s what the Yanks did yesterday. They trailed in both games and came back to win ’em both. Ivan Nova was roughed-up early and then pitched a solid game; Phil Hughes did well, too. Robbie Cano was the star in the afternoon with Chris Stewart’s 3-run home run the big play, and Jayson Nix was the guy at night, hitting a game-tying homer and then the game-ending base hit in the bottom of the 9th.
According to Chad Jennings, “You guys can feel it,” Austin Romine said. “When you come in here it’s loose; it’s fun. We’re not out of it until we’re out of it, and that’s every game. We’re scrapping. We’re getting big hits from guys when we need it. Case in point tonight with Nixy coming up huge with that line drive to left. It’s fun. We’re having fun.”
Is this the start of a run or just a nice week? Either way, it’s always fun to see your team win both games of a double header.
[Photo Credit: Melissa Ann Pinney via MPD]
I wouldn't wager that this is anything more than a decent team playing well right now. Who knows about the playoffs, that depends on the other teams too of course... but sheeiit, it's fun to watch. A little bounce in my step. Yanks were even on reglar tv last night for me to watch! (in honor of E. Leonard, that will be the only exclamation point I use for the next 100,000 words)
[1] Fer sure a lot more fun to watch than a month or so ago. If you say for the sake of argument the playoffs just won't happen, I'd still rather finish the string watching this kind of energy.
Note on E. Leonard: He gives Tom Wolfe a pass on the bangers. To that list I'd add: Garry Trudeau!
How about Austin Romine?
Also: the Red Sox brought up SS phenom Xander Boegarts. They also brought up reliever Brayan Villareal, and used him in the bottom of the ninth because John Farrell was saving Koji Uehara for a S-situation. Villareal walked in the winning run on four pitches.
Farrell is a bad tactician. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if Girardi made the same move, but it's nice to see it happen with other managers. It's *obviously* the key point in the game: bases loaded in extra innings, it just doesn't get higher-leverage than that! You want your best pitcher in now, or a very jittery rook? Oh, you'll save your bullpen ace for later, good idea. Only problem: no later.
yea since selling, rebuilding, and shooting for a top pick was probably not going to happen for a lot of reasons better that they play well and are watchable these last couple of months.
post season is still a long-shot but within the realm of possible.
in addition to enjoying watching the yankees again, i find the arod circus both draining and mesmerizing. i normally don't root for people to lose their jobs, but i hope it costs randy levine his job and exposes mlb/bud for their bs.
[3] yea it is good to see romine might actually be a positive war player at some point.
The Yankees are just about as good as these other teams when mostly healthy. I guess that's somewhat comforting.
{1} don't get channel 9 in DC; MLBTV baseball was carrying the Toronto feed. Wound up watching the 9th inning on my phone with the NY feed. No exclamation points.
when guys like Romine, Nix, and Stewart are playing with swagger, I think it's a sign that this hot streak could be more than just a blip on the graph. These Yankees seem to be playing strong with a chip (we'll call him ARod) on their shoulder, and I don't see them getting soft against Baltimore and Tampa.
If CC was pitching like his old self I'd be more optimistic. In any event, games now are more exciting than they were several weeks ago w/o Alex, Soriano, and Curtis.
[3] As I said last night and several nights before: "Let's hope Joey Joe Joe noticed."
Because Chris FUCKING Stewart isn't any better than Romine RIGHT NOW and he's CERTAINLY NO FUCKING BETTER THAN ROMINE going forward.
[9] Agree about CC. He's at a point where he really needs to learn how to pitch differently. Velocity seems to be there, but location seems a problem.
I'm concerned that Sori, Robbie and even A-effing-Rod have been too hot (well, A*Rod may have cooled off yesterday) that we might be facing some loses to teams we need to beat to make a real playoff run.
But the zeitgest of the games is better; being down by 3 runs doesn't require turning off the TV.