The Yankees picked up today right where they left off in the ninth inning last night. Back-to-back doubles by Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson drew first blood in the first inning; that was followed by a two-run Andruw Jones homer in the second, and a Garnderson double and Mark Teixeira homer in the third. Jones’ second two-run homer three innings later was nice insurance, but the Yankees had the game well in hand by then.
Freddy Garcia, meanwhile, hasn’t been as impressive as Bartolo Colon this year, but I wonder if his generally competent but non-dazzling performance is more sustainable. Garcia gave the Yanks 6.1 innings and allowed three earned runs, walked none and struck out four, and his ERA stands at 3.26. I doubt that’ll last, but he’s already contributed much mroe than I would’ve guessed. Can’t complain.
After Robertson and Chamberlain did their parts, Mariano Rivera took care of the ninth – it wasn’t a save situation, but he needed to get some work in. It was his 1,000th career appearance, and like most of them was largely uneventful – single, fly out, fly out, strikeout. What does 1,000 appearances mean to you?, Kim Jones asked him after the game. “It means I’m old,” Rivera said.
Yeah, we should be lucky enough to get old like Rivera is old.
Final Score: Yanks 7, Jays 3.
Great recap Emma. Rivera will be forever young no matter how old he gets. (sorry I just had a Yogi moment) I think the boys are starting to jell. Can't say enough about Granderson. WOW~!
Freddy's been more than adequate for a five starter, and had the Yanks' offense not stunk for such an extended period I bet he'd be at least 5-2 at this point. Give Cashman his due for signing him, if as nothing more than a hedge on Phil, Nova and now Colon.
Meanwhile, interesting reaction to Dice-K's injury report in RSN...
[2] Yeah, that's going to be fun sports talk radio. (They will also be hating on the Heat.)
Emma, you didn't mention that Jo-Jo Reyes made his 28th consecutive start without a W. That's mind-boggling.
(Also, "millennial" has two 'n's. In a row.)
Mo is the only pitcher to have his 1000 appearances all with the same team, too. There's only one . . .
Mariano, what can you say?
[2] Wow..seems he causes Sox fans (I refuse to use the annoying rubric RSN) way more angst than I thought. He and Lackey have been awful for the most part, two more genius signings by genius Theo.
Maybe too late for this thread, but David Pinto has a Baseball Analytics piece,The Excellence of Rivera, in honor of his 1000th appearance.
When Mariano throws a pitch out of the strike zone, batters swing 38% of the time. That's the highest percentage in baseball. When batters take one of his pitches, 36% of the time it's a strike. That rate is at the 95th percentile of all pitchers.
Of course, the question neither Pinto nor anybody else answers is: how the hell does he fool all those batters with one pitch?
7) Remarkable.
I keep thinking to myself "how much more can people write about this man before it starts getting tired". It doesn't. It never does. It never will.
Praise be to Mo!