The Yankees had a scary day on Wednesday. In an afternoon rubber game against the Blue Jays, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, and Alex Rodriguez all got hit hard by baseballs, Jeter in the foot, Posada in the hand, and Rodriguez in the elbow. As fits how well things have been going for this team, however, the Yankees turned what what looked like a series of season-altering injuries into a pair of runs and yet another walk-off win.
Jeter got hit in the right foot by a 1-2 curveball from Jays lefty Ricky Romero leading off the bottom of the first. He crumpled to the ground like one of those old toys, but got back up, limped to first, hobbled to third on Johnny Damon’s ensuing double, made a slick baserunning play by drawing a throw home from Edwin Encarnacion on a potential inning-ending around-the-horn double play, then diving back to third ahead of catcher Raul Chavez’s throw, and finally scored on a Jorge Posada groundout.
Jeter didn’t get a fielding chance in the top of the second and in his next at-bat in the bottom of the inning, he ground to an inning-ending fielder’s choice and headed straight for the trainer’s room after hobbling to first. Fortunately, his x-rays were negative.
Randy Ruiz–a Bronx native, former Trenton Thunder teammate of Phil Hughes, and now a 31-year-old rookie with a career .304/.378/.531 line and 192 homers in the minor leagues–deposited an A.J. Burnett fastball in the visiting bullpen in the top of the second to tie the game at 1-1. Johnny Damon and Robinson Cano added solo shots in the third and fourth to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead.
Burnett gave that up in the top of the sixth when Ruiz and Encarnacion singled with one out and moved to second and third on a wild pitch. Chavez singled home Ruiz, then with two outs and a 2-2 count on Marco Scutaro, Burnett uncorked another wild pitch that bounced between Posada’s legs and brought Encarnacion home with the tying run. Burnett led the majors with 14 wild pitches entering the game, added three more to his total and also hit home plate umpire Joe West in the chest on the fly with a fastball that crossed up Posada, but refused to discuss his wildness after the game.
In addition to having to chase all of those wild pitches, Posada was hit in the throwing hand (specifically the knuckle of his middle finger) by a foul tip in the top of the eighth. He stayed in the game and said afterwords that his hand will be fine.
Meanwhile the game remained tied at 3-3. Romero left after a 1-2-3 sixth and 109 pitches. Brandon League followed by allowing just one baserunner in three scoreless innings. Burnett also left after coughing up the lead in the sixth, having thrown 107 pitches. Phil Coke, David Robertson, Phil Hughes, and Chad Gaudin, making his Yankee debut, combined for five scoreless frames in relief with Gaudin pitching around a single and a walk and striking out three in his two innings of work.
Gaudin, incidentally, looks like a converted position player, though he’s not. He’s short, but athletic in build, and effectively mixes a slider and changeup with low-90s fastballs. His stuff isn’t electric, but it’s legitimate, and the hitters will let us all know when it is and isn’t working. Perhaps because he’s spent most of the year starting, he worked from a full windup with the bases empty, something you rarely see from a relief pitcher these days.
Shawn Camp replaced league and pitched a 1-2-3 tenth, but he fell behind 2-0 on all three hitters, throwing just six of 14 pitches for strikes. In the eleventh, he threw ball one to Hideki Matsui but rallied to strike him out looking. He then got ahead of Alex Rodriguez 0-2 before hitting Rodriguez flush on the left elbow. Rodriguez wears a pad on that elbow, but he, too, crumpled to the ground, then walked into the grass toward the visiting on-deck circle, and knelt down in pain, holding his arm. He was behaving as if his arm was broken, but as Paul O’Neill explained on the YEScast, he was most likely just hit in the funnybone, which when it’s done by a major league pitch (in this case an 89 mph fastball), can render a hitter’s arm completely numb.
Rodriguez eventually took his base, but looked like he was going to hurl from the pain. Fortunately, he didn’t get the opportunity. In the space of the next three pitches, Posada singled him to second and Robinson Cano shot a gapper to the wall in right-center that brought Rodriguez home with the winning run.
Yankees win, 4-3 in eleven innings, thanks in part to the feeble Blue Jay offense leaving 14 men on base.
So now the walking wounded head out to Seattle. Jeter and Posada are both questionable for Thursday’s game. Rodriguez was going to get the day off anyway. Meanwhile, Gaudin will start on Sunday allowing the Yankees to push Joba Chamberlain back to Wednesday to keep his innings down. Word from Brian Cashman is that Joba will remain in the rotation throughout the regular and postseasons. These large gaps between starts are their plan for keeping his innings down, and his limit is now said to be higher than the 150 we’ve been assuming all season.
Oh, and Mariano Rivera was unavailable on Wednesday because of a “cranky” shoulder and the 25 pitches he threw Tuesday night, but should be available on Thursday as well. The Yanks just went 6-1 on a homestand that included a four-game sweep of the Red Sox, are 8-1 over their last nine games, all against division rivals, and are 9-1 over their last ten including wins in games started by Mark Buehrle, Roy Halladay, Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and Rookie of the Year candidate Ricky Romero, and four of their last five wins were either extra-inning walkoffs or late-game comebacks. They’re feeling no pain right now.
I've been saying that Jeter and A-Rod should get a day off for a week now, so I have no problem with tomorrow.
With the Cody Ransom error over, I have no problem with the bench filling in
I do not like the phrase "Mariano's cranky shoulder.."
Btw, didn't relief pitchers in the Golden Days of Fingers, Goose, Sutter, etc use a full wind-up? I can't quite remember..
[1] hey man, i have NO idea what Twitter is, but i grew up like 10 minutes from you! my parents are still there. in fact, when my grandpa was in the nursing home, i was going to Long Beach everyday. i grew up hanging out in Atlantic Beach and the areas of Long Beach we went to, were the beginning parts, like Laurelton Ave. i didn't realize how big and cool of a city/town it's become. really hip place! : )
[2] i have a cranky shoulder myself. it's been bothering me for 2+ months now. i've already had major shoulder surgery on it and i'm NOT gonna be like Bedard and have another! sucks, b/c i've got a majorly important gig next week. i'll be alright though...
[4] Hey man, The return of the Fusionistas! Look forward to seeing some footage of that one day, get it up on Youtube asap!
Heading to an old jazz bar this evening, built in 1953 when Tokyo was still rebuilding after the war..will report back tomorrow with some comments.
Supposedly Mo's shoulder is a "this time of year" thing. Nothing to worry about . . . [knock knock] . . . and he should be ready to go Thursday night.
[6] great news. i hope whatever personal stuff he has going on, causing him to travel separately from the team, is okay too...
[6] I am sure many feel the same, but Mo is my Yankee security blanket..am not ready for it to be taken away..
How's the parenthood, Cliff? My Jr is sleeping through the night now, but upu at 5:30 or 6 most days...at least he watched baseball with me in the evenings :)
[6] make sure you get Rowland-Smith's awesome nickname in your M's preview - "The Hyphenator"!!! : )
it's a good thing we're missing King Felix. also good if we're sitting a bunch of regulars tomorrow, as i believe Ian Snell has been rather wild of late...
[9] Six walks in 1 1/3 his last time out.
[8] Amelia is generally sleeping 9pm to 5 or 6am, but she's not really napping during the day, which is tough on her mom because I've got a job to do through the end of the month and haven't been able to contribute as much as I'd like (I'll be the stay-at-home dad after that). Still, I can't even begin to complain. Amelia has thus far been a really low-key baby and is the absolute apple of my eye.
Actually, you guys will get a kick out of this. I noticed today that her onesie had five vertical ruffles or pleats on the chest, so I decided to play her like a guitar using her left arm as a whammy bar. She loved it! Huge smiles and laughs as I strummed her chest and made silly "deedly-deedly" noises. That'll be part of my usual repertoire now.
You'll also both be glad to know that I ripped whatever jazz, blues, pre-rock rhythm and blues, etc. that I had in the house and loaded it up on the iPod for her. I have a 4,700-song shuffle of jazz, blues, vocal standards, R&B, soul, and early rock 'n' roll that I play for her during play time. Good stuff.
[10] Life is good, Cliff. Enjoy those moments. There really isn't much better in this world than the belly laugh of little kids - especially those real little ones. It just puts a smile on my face thinking of it, and makes me remember times like that with my own girls.
Quick aside - the Kim Jones interview of AJ yesterday was just terrible, especially the follow up where she was explaining why she asked about the wild pitches. Reminded me of that scene in "A Few Good Men" :
"I strenuously object?" Is that how it works? Hm? "Objection." "Overruled." "Oh, no, no, no. No, I STRENUOUSLY object." "Oh. Well, if you strenuously object then I should take some time to reconsider."
She is like the queen of awkward moments in post game interviews. And if I hear her one more time ask "So how big was that " type of question, I'm going to go ballistic.
Ok - sorry. Aside over. Ranting done.
[10] You are blessed, Cliff. Reading the phrase "using her left arm as a whammy bar" just knocks me out. Next time, you should get her right foot involved as the "wah-wah" pedal (but obviously not too much or your wife will end up doing the same to you!) >;)
[10] Awesome stuff. Being a dad is, quite possibly, the greatest job in the world.
[8] [10] Get used to that 6 am stuff - my daughter (now 3 and a half) has been getting up at 6 for a long time now. It (finally) doesn't phase me anymore.
[13] I remember as a child the impetus for waking up at six in the morning changing drastically once elementary school was brought into the equation. But that was probably conditional since I went to rather non-descript schools; the kind of schools that are named after local streets or community leaders. The only school I went to that had any significant ties to the currents of history was John S. Paulding Elementary in Tarrytown; named after the patriot who captured Major Andre during the American Revolution. It sits on a steep hill that overlooks a park with a statue dedicated to the moment and precise spot where he was captured and summarily hung as a British spy.
Man, the things you learn in kindergarten, huh?
Hey, great write-up, Cliff. Sounds like that mightta been more fun than fact-checking in the library.
I'm nervous about Sat and Sun for the Yanks. I'm strenuously hoping they don't tear apart the bullpen over those 2 days, leaving no-one avail for the A's on Monday. Especially if JG is gonna be retarded and bring in relief to face one batter and then say he's unavail. (although matchups are fine)
[10] That's great things are going well with the lil red blog. Enjoy those fairly immobile days while they're here. Milestones are great, but once they walk, they run. JJ is a hoot these days. he's 5½ years old now, and can't get enough baseball. It's so much fun to play catch with him (although I admit he's not fearless, nor an excellent thrower - but not bad, either), and to watch the games on TV. He got to see the walk-off win yesterday and spent the next half hour sneaking up on my wife, daughter, and myself and putting imaginary pies in our faces. So there's a lot to look forward to, as well!