When Hideki Matsui stepped into the batter’s box to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning, his team trailing by two runs, YES broadcaster Michael Kay said, “For the last couple of games it’s like the Yankees have been trying to climb a greased pole.” Then Matsui grounded out to second. Groundhog’s Day all over again. Or something like that. It’s as if the Yankees have been playing one long, awful game for a week now.
Andy Pettitte gave up four home runs and the Yanks were in an early 4-0 hole. Robinson Cano is slumping and Mark Teixeira went 0-5 and was booed loudly. But Johnny Damon was on-point, driving home two runs in the sixth and crushing a two-run dinger in the eighth. The home run tied the game. The crowd was pumped.
Mariano Rivera–remember him?–pitched the ninth. He struck out Jason Bartlett, and then had a tough duel with Carl Crawford, who fouled off good pitches and work the count full. Then he turned on a 3-2 cutter and slapped it over the fence in right field, his first regular season homer since last June. Evan Longoria followed and launched a flat-cutter over the wall in left. It was the first time Rivera has ever allowed back-to-back homers in his career. That’s four this year. He allowed four all of last season.
Carlos Pena popped out and then Rivera was pulled, an uncomfortable sight if there ever was one.
That sucked the life out of the building, took the juice out of the team, and put a fitting end to a miserable four-game homestand. The Yanks went down like lambs in the ninth and lost their fifth-straight.
Final score: Rays 8, Yanks 6.
Ga-bige.
You know, watching the team play like this is demoralizing enough.
Watching Mariano Rivera play like this makes me feel like someone died.
I know we've all been on Mo watch for like four or five seasons now, whenever he goes into that August funk, wondering what's going on in the cosmos, but now it's not August and he's not getting any younger.
It will be absolute agony to have to watch him sink into mediocrity, if that's what's in the cards.
Like watching Mattingly strike out three times in big spots against Randy Johnson in that godforsaken Kingdome. It was the kind of failure that transcended the game, the tragedy of the fallen hero.
I don't know how I'll bear it.
I welcome the A-Rod circus. At least it will be funny.
If they cut their loses and deploy the right people, they'll be fine.
This is the guy who pitched three, not one, not two, but *three* scoreless innings against Boston in 2003.
That was his finest hour. Whatever happens, we'll always have that.
[4] Agreed..3 innings in the toughest possible situation, legendary performance. It has to end sometime..like Mays on the Mets, or the Stones releasing "Undercover of the Night"..But Mo will still be a good closer, just not a great one..
[4] The guy has volumes more than that. Volumes.
I know the Mo HRs are shocking, but this team's problems are so deep and systemic, I don't think we need to worry about him that much. Instead, everyone should be fed up with how this team is being managed. At what point do the Yankees acknowledge that Girardi is not the man to lead this team?
The issue isn't that Mo is great, that's beyond dispute. It's about recognizing when and if he is done or at least diminished, and making the necessary adjustments, like developing your best young relievers and living with the growing pains, if necessary.
[6] Of course he does, but that one is, far and away, the One iconic performance that springs to mind. The others were all "routine," in my mind. I remember his two failures (Alomar and Womack) and his triumph in 2003, both because he shut down the league's best offense for three innings and because it was redemption for 2001.
Which performances stand out in your mind?
I was hoping to see some anger from someone in that clubhouse. None.
[8] In the previous thread you mentioned rare candor by Flaherty -- what did he say? Thanks.
[11] He said that this performance by Mo was a concern.
The only saving grace for this season might be that the league seems to be down across the board. The Red Sox are probably a lock to win the division, so if the Jays come back to earth, maybe the Yankees can sneak past the Rays for the wild card. I don't think even that is possible if the status quo is maintained.
[12] Thanks.
Too old and injury-prone. Bullpen completely unreliable. Starting pitching OK, but overrated. Wrong manager for a veteran team that plays in a fishbowl.
87 wins.
Please choose one of the following:
"Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking." - Lloyd Bridges as Steve McCroskey in "Airplane!"
"Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking." - Lloyd Bridges as Steve McCroskey in "Airplane!"
"Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue." - Lloyd Bridges as Steve McCroskey in "Airplane!"
"Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines." - Lloyd Bridges as Steve McCroskey in "Airplane!"
"No really, I'm taking female fertility drugs because I saw a physician for a personal health issue!" - L.A. Dodger Manny "Ramiroids" Ramirez
"You can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit!" - My elderly father...
: )
Come on - Rivera has had a long and illustrious career. It has to end at some point, somehow. Even if it's not this year. But there's nothing tragic about a 39 year old losing his touch. Maybe if he was younger but give me a break, the guy has been phenomenal for years and years and years. I'm not saying it's easy to watch, but a tragedy - even in sports terms - it is not!
[16] He obviously never heard of tofu >;)
Re: Recent play on the field - HOW DO I GET THE BOREDOM OUT OF MY HEAD???
[18] "He obviously never heard of tofu."
Of course he hasn't! But he has been following the Yankees for almost 75 years! He probably thinks tofu is some kind of foot odor, or the Asian equivalent of toe jam.
"HOW DO I GET THE BOREDOM OUT OF MY HEAD?"
Do what I did! I've been playing DEVO's "Don't Shoot! (I'm a man!)" Video over and over and over. So much in fact that I noticed the Queen of Hearts in the monkey's right hand is actually the Jack!
: )
Oh I almost forgot...
We spuds are never bored!
We are DEVO! And "That's Good!"
: )
In 1996, Mariano Rivera gave up one home run. Just one all season. I was at that game.
Last night he gives up back-to-back jacks for the first time in his career. I was at that game.
I'm hoping those aren't bookends and that he's just having a rough start to his season.
Meanwhile, Pete Abe asks, "who gets fired for screwing up the new Yankee Stadium?" I seem to recall Lonn Trost and Randy Levine were the executives heading up the project . . .
[21] The only problem is most people outside the media seem to really like the new Stadium.
My question would be who gets fired for 1+ seasons of a very talented team underachieving, but maybe that question is too difficult, so it's probably easier to keep complaining about who isn't sitting in which seats.
Buck Showalter said it best. People don't come to Yankee Stadium to see the Yankees; they come to see the Yankees win. I think we can now add a wrinkle to that: People don't come to see the New Yankee Stadium; they come to see the Yankees win in the new Stadium.
If the organization continues to ignore the continuing trends surrounding this team, the empty seats behind the plate will be a moot point because they will be joined by scores of empties in every section of the ballpark. Perhaps at that point the Steinbrothers will be shaken to action.
The Yankee's rotation and bullpen are in shambles, it's time to consider replacing Dave Eiland with a coach that has more experience handling pitchers in a game situtations. All these solid veteren pitchers and no one is right ?
Kevin Long is up next if the offense doesn't rebound. The Yankee's make every pitcher they face look like a Cy Young candidate.
I think shaking up the coaching staff will fire a warning shot acroos the top of Giradi's head.
Mo?
Mo?!
MO!?!
This season's snake bit. That's all there is to it. Now I just need to find a dark corner to curl up in and hide.
That wasn't Mo last night, it wasn't Mo. It was his evil twin.
Why can't Mariano have a few bad games? He got ripped by the Royals last season, letting up homers in the same series to DeJesus and Guillen. And that was in the middle of one of his best seasons ever.
As with everything, this is a results oriented position. So he failed and they lost and that hurt bad. That Crawford homer was shocking - it came after several emergency hacks and at-bat saving foul tips, but to Crawford's credit he won the tough battle. I was too shocked to even yell.
But of all the topics that are beaten to death here, the one that is by far the most off-putting (and that's saying something) is the "is Mo finished?" every time he gets touched up.
He was never perfect. He was always excellent. And from what I'm seeing, I have little doubt that he'll continue to be excellent for the remainder of the contract. Do you win a prize or get a cookie if you are the first one to predict his demise? You certainly don't any penalty for all the times you've been wrong.
I haven't looked up the numbers to back myself up, but it seems a likely possibility that the park is as much or more to blame for some of the Yanks' problems than anything else.
Last night, A Pettitte gave up 4 HR. I don't think he's ever given up 4 HR in a game.
Last night, Mo gave up back to back HR. He's never done that before.
Seems like almost every run scored at the new Stadium is the result of HR's.
Of course it doesn't explain everything, and the team is playing horribly, etc., etc., but 81 games that all come down to who hit the most homeruns don't figure to be very fun to watch. They need to fix the new launching pad fast.