The Yankees need a winning streak but quick and lookie here, a chance to win two in a row. Ivan Nova’s breath-of-fresh-air blows to the mound against mid-season trade acquisition Scott Feldman. Feldman has only completed six innings in four of nine starts for Baltimore and this is the Yankee lineup looking to knock him out of the box:

Brett Gardner CF
Derek Jeter SS
Robinson Cano 2B
Alfonso Soriano DH
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Curtis Granderson LF
Mark Reynolds 1B
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Chris Stewart C

RHP Ivan Nova

Play today; win today.

It’s going to take an absurd run to catch the Oakland A’s or Tampa Bay Rays. The A’s coast through the California Penal League to finish the season and while the Rays have it a little bit tougher, they have only three match-ups with the Yankees for the rest of the year. If the Yankees have an absurd run in them, they better start this weekend when the Yanks play the Orioles (also ahead of the Yankees), the Indians (also, also wik) play the Tigers and the A’s and Rays go head-to-head.

After much consideration, the Yankees need to win a bunch and the Rays need to lose a bunch and then the Yankees need to beat the Rays head-to-head. That’s the only way this goes down the way we want it to. So root for the A’s tonight and for the rest of the weekend, and root, root, root for the Yankees, but that goes without saying.

The Yankees took care of their end of the bargain tonight as the lineup bailed out CC Sabathia with a fifth-inning onslaught and the bullpen nailed down the victory with 3.1 scoreless innings. Of all the story lines for the season, the sudden pumpkinization of CC Sabathia is the most perplexing and, for me, the most frustrating. Some might say the injury heap, but I think if we considered which was more likely in December – a lot of injuries or CC Sabathia being healthy and shitty, we’d say the injuries without a blink.

CC will be here for a long time and I’d hate to have this version of him around for the long haul. Not just because the Yanks need him to be their ace, but because, damn, the guy has a great career going and it would be a shame for the bottom to just fall out like that. Anyway, CC was on his way to another depressing loss in a huge game when the revamped Yankee offense seized control. Doubles from Granderson and Reynolds preceded a long homer by Ichiro. Romine, Gardner and Jeter loaded the bases and Cano singled home two to make the score 7-4, and the Yankees held on from there to win 8-5.

“Held on” could have been “romped” but the O’s cut down three Yankee-runners on the bases (Reynolds at third, Reynolds at home and Soriano at home). Reynolds at least made reasonable decisions, but we have to discuss Soriano’s insane play in the seventh.

With two outs and an 8-5 lead, Soriano stole third and Arod followed to second. It’s not “by the book” but replays showed the defensive alignment allowed him to get a good jump and the play wasn’t close, so maybe he just knows what he’s doing? Then he got thrown at home by 15 feet on the next play.

Granderson bunted against the shift to net himself a single, but Soriano wasn’t ready for the bunt and froze midway down the line. Machado fielded the bunt and had no play at first and barely twitched as he looked up to see Granderson fly by. That twitch was enough for Soriano to break for home. Machado flipped to the catcher and Soriano was a dead duck.

Soriano made corn-beef hash out of the play for sure, but the bunt was a dumb play from the get go. Since Soriano didn’t know it was coming, Granderson took the bat out his own hands. He gets a single, but with two outs and first base open, the Yankees would rather have Granderson swing away against a right-hander to break the game open and save Mariano for later in the series. A little signal there from hitter to runner and the bunt scores an important run.

There was one fan in right field who was sure happy that the Yankees didn’t break the game open. As Mariano Rivera entered the game, the YES cameras caught her shaking with joy as he jogged to the mound. “I love you Mariano!” she said over and over again. You could read her lips without any trouble. It was a sweet moment and I couldn’t complain about the blown chances any longer.

Mariano didn’t get any breaks from the ump. Not that he should have, but he usually does get some leeway on the outside edge when a left-hander is in the batter’s box. No matter, a few potential strike threes turned in to ball threes, but he eventually set the side down in order.

Can’t be a winning streak if it doesn’t start after a loss. Right Yogi?

The Yankees pounded out 19 hits on Tuesday, 12 hits on Wednesday and I was worried the hittin’ shoes would be all worn out for Thursday’s afternooner, which I’d be attending with the extended family. The Yankees kept on hitting – 15 more hits today – but they stopped at third most of the time and wound up in a familiar spot, the losing end of a Phil Hughes start.

Next time, leave the cycle at home boys, and back up the score truck.

My father has fed a steady stream of criticism to Hughes through the TV this season, so I’m sure he was overjoyed when his Father’s Day gift turned out to feature the much maligned starter. We took bets on his outing: six innings / two runs; seven innings / three runs; four innings / four runs. Overall, we were an optimistic group and came close to nailing the actual line, six innings and three runs.

Hughes got touched for a run on a couple of singles in first, but he struck out Mike Trout on a slider with teeth so you almost had to forgive him. The Yankees were all over C.J. Wilson with hits in every inning and multiple base runners in most of them. But they turned a triple and three singles into only the tying run in the third as Vernon Wells rapped into rally-killing 5-4-3 double play with the sacks packed.

The Angels reclaimed the lead with a quickness in the fourth. It was the bottom of the order, and I don’t know if Hughes let up or if it was just one of those things, but they punched him up for a big double (Erick Aybar), a long sac fly and a 2-out homer (Chris Nelson) that really let the air out of the crowd.

But this is not the limp-bat lineup we’d have written off a few weeks ago. This team had plenty of offense left and, to their credit, the crowd perked up each inning rising to a crescendo in the bottom of the seventh. Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez both took big hacks at tying the game. All the kids in my row were really hollering, making up chants and cheers for the hitters. But neither big hack resulted in the much wished for big fly. And this time the air was out for good.

Mike Trout hit a 2003-ALCS-Game-7 double to lead off the top of the 8th and my seats for today’s game (third base side, upper deck) gave me the same vantage point as when Posada hit his double all those years ago. I could see right away that the ball was falling in and instead of watching Cano track into short center, I focused on Trout sniffing the double from about halfway up the first base line. He turned on the jets and, well, damn. That’s the best player in baseball for you.

Trout appeared to be stuck there at second, but with two outs, Girardi got cute, walked a .236 hitter intentionally and set-up the end game. Logan battled the no-stick catcher Hank Conger and lost him to an unintentional walk. Then Chris Nelson wacked him for a grand slam. Nelson had two RBI in ten games for the Yanks earlier this season. He had five RBI and quite possibly won the game this afternoon.

You know, it’s not everyday that you get to see Phil Hughes and Joba Chmaberlain get beat around by the same team – it’s every fifth day. Wocka, Wocka. Hughes wasn’t terrible though, especially for the new-look lineup. The Yanks had one more rally in them in the ninth, but they were too far behind and the final score of 8-4 is both unfair to the Yankees and the Angels in a weird way.

It’s not the 1995 Cleveland Indians or anything, but as currently constituted, this a fairly dangerous lineup and a well-rounded team. It almost looks like a contender if they were starting today.

But they’re not, and that’s why we had a blast at this game. For pennant fever, we watched the scoreboard for Pittsburgh-St. Louis updates (we’ll be in Pittsburgh on Saturday for the D-backs) and for sheer baseball excellence, we watched Mike Trout. And oh-by-the-way, the Yankees have some great players too, as Cano (Henry’s favorite), Arod, Granderson, Soriano and Gardner reminded us with 11 hits and three walks.

Much like Henry and this ice cream cone, the battle was lost but it was a hell of a ride.

The Yankees returned from the All-Star Break in fourth place in the standings and somewhere around eleventy-th place in our hearts. The first-place Red Sox, palpably better than the Yankees a la 2008 or 1916, took the first game of this three-game series playing it close at 4-2 but without breaking a sweat.

Andy Pettitte pitched into the seventh and put himself in great shape for a win in any other year of his Yankee career, but allowing four runs in front of the 2013 Yankees is a death sentence. And though the bullpen did cough up that last run for Andy, his performance, marred by two early homers, was nothing special.

The Yankee lineup, weak as a kitten under normal circumstances, lost outfielders Zoilo Almonte (hurt ankle) and Brett Gardner (hurt feelings) mid-game to drop them to Threat Level Koala. Let’s put it this way – in the crucial eighth inning, the Yankees had the tying runs in scoring position, two outs, and Luis Cruz, who was released earlier this year by the Dodgers for failing to be a better hitter than any of their pitchers, was allowed to bat for himself.

The season will likely slip away from the Yankees in the next few weeks as they face superior competition on the road. They have one asset that might bring back a meaningful player for their future and that’s Robinson Cano. But will whatever they get back for Cano be better than just signing the best second baseman in baseball to a long term deal? If the Yankees want to keep Cano long term, then they become buyers, but with a long, non-2013, view. And that allows them more flexibility and less urgency at the deadline.

I hate contemplating the end of the season at the break but the team is filled with bad players playing badly. Ichiro, who has been much maligned, is the third best offensive player on the team. Derek Jeter crawled back into his Bacta Tank and I saw Curtis Granderson’s face on a milk carton this morning.

Alex Rodriguez is reported to be coming back though, so the good news is that, finally, we’ll have somebody to blame for all of this.

Let’s pick this up at 3-1 in the fifth inning. Leonys Martin had just hit his second homer of the night off Hiroki Kuroda and Yu Darvish had a two-run lead to protect against this year’s gluten-free version of the Yankee lineup. Darvish dropped a little curve ball into Brett Gardner’s trigger zone – low and in – and boom, 3-2.

This curve ball was not the worst curve ball Darvish threw all night, but it was the wrong pitch in the wrong spot to the second best hitter on the New York Yankees (shudder). No, the honors for the worst curve ball of of the night must be split between the loopy bits of nothing Darvish threw to Travis Hafner (in the fourth) and to Jason Nix (in the seventh) which were both also hit for solo jacks.

Yu Darvish has been ridiculously good this year, loading up strikeouts against very few hits and walks. The only thing keeping him from full flight is a few more homers than you’d like to see – 14 after tonight. I can’t speak for the first 11, but for one game at least, he was handing out lollipops.

I snuggled up with Willa, the recent addition in our house and main reason why I’m not around the Banter much this season, and administered her first full-inning dose of Mariano Rivera. She stretched out on my chest and filled her diaper just about the time that Mo’s nastiest cutter reduced Lance Berkman’s bat to so many matchsticks.

Both catchers gunned down potential base stealers in the late innings to ratchet up the excitement a few notches. Chris Stewart pegged Elvis Andrus with the help of Robinson Cano’s nifty sweep tag. But A.J. Pierzynski evened the ledger by wiping Brett Gardner off the map in the bottom of the ninth. If you told me a few years ago that Brett Gardner became the Yankees second best offensive player while simultaneously losing his ability to steal bases, I’d have asked you how you got a hold of Doc Doom’s time machine and why you hadn’t also altered the 2001 and 2004 postseasons if you were planning on creating alternate Yankee universes.

The game seemed destined for extra innings, though with Rivera and Robertson nothing more then empty casings on the dugout floor heading to the top of the 10th, not many extra would likely be required. Then with two strikes and two outs, Ichiro lashed out and bit into a 97 MPH heater from Tanner Scheppers and ended things right then and there. Yankees 4, Rangers 3.

Hiroki Kuroda and Yu Darvish battled to a stand still. Darvish was more brilliant, but inefficient and only lasted six innings. Kuroda had plenty left in the tank and only came out because Leonys Martin had his number. And if any Japanese fans (I know a few who scalped tickets tonight) felt they didn’t get their money’s worth with the double no-decision from the starters, they hit the jackpot when Ichiro said sayonara.

And here’s our newest fan, as captured by my wife just after the homer, happy with a great victory over a good team.

Photos by Jason Szenes (1 & 2) / Getty Images & Kathy Willens (3) / AP & Amelia DeRosa (4) 

The sun hung up through the early evening begging for some baseball to be played. Anyway, that’s what I thought. One boy wanted to race scooters with a legion of cohorts. The other wanted to dig for buried treasure – gold, jewels, something ancient. “If it’s valuable, we can sell it and become rich and famous.” I stood with the bat on my shoulder. Baseball had to wait.

We heard the bracing cough before we came through the door. Pregnant to popping and sick with cold and fever, my wife was holed up in bed. We shut her door and proceeded towards bedtime with the boys taking advantage of me when they could, as always. The Yankees were already in the second inning, I guessed.  Baseball would have to wait some more.

“The laundry bag looks like a ghost,” Henry said. He has chosen a bedtime story about a boy who imagines monsters for three nights in a row and he’s mastering the racket. Last night is was a painting of a giraffe that’s been stationed on his wall since before he was born. The Yankees must be halfway to a win by now.

When I came out to warm up Chinese food and watch the game, I found my wife stretched out on the couch. “All I want to do is to fall asleep with the TV on,” she said. I didn’t have the heart to suggest a ballgame and I figured I would try to catch the ninth if Mariano was pitching. But to my surprise, she already had the TV switched to the Yanks and Astros.

I came in just as Kuroda found his groove and the Yanks scored some runs. Kuroda was as terrific as you can be after being terrible for a few innings. The first part of the game must have been a sluggish affair with all the base runners and walks.

David Robertson had one of those innings where he looks like the best pitcher in baseball but lets up two runs including a big homer. He absolutely blew the Astros away except for when the Yankee shift turned a ground out to short into a single. He had his chance to strike out Chris Carter, just about any kind of pitch in any spot would have done it, but the one Robertson threw unluckily hit Carter’s bat and ended up 20 rows deep.

Mariano had a night a little bit like mine. He was all set to go when Robertson hit Carter’s bat, but then the Yanks added a whole bunch of insurance in the ninth. Eduardo Nunez had an especially nice game and Ichiro and Hafner chipped in as well. Mariano sat back down, figuring it wasn’t his night. But Shawn Kelley got touched up and the score got close enough for Mariano to earn a save with one sweet strikeout, 7-4.

Winning is always worth the wait.

Photo by Elsa/Getty Images via ESPN

One trip through the Blue Jays’ order and Hiroki Kuroda did not look long for this April Night. The first eleven batters racked up six hits, all bullets. Kuroda rolled a double play and stranded some runners, or else Toronto’s two homers would have accounted for more than the three runs they got. The Jays could be forgiven if they thought they were going to romp.

But Kuroda worked through his early-bird specials and began serving up the good stuff by striking out Jose Bautista to end the second. That began a string of 13 of 14 Jays who wouldn’t reach base – the only runner safe on Lyle Overbay’s error in the 4th. It was a resilient performance and the Yankees didn’t waste it.

Robinson Cano again tested the breadth of his back and found it stout enough to carry the team to victory with a three-run shot in the third. Francisco Cervelli and Vernon Wells bookended Cano with solo blasts and the scoring held at 5-3 for a satisfying Yankee win.

Cano’s homer came on a 3-1 “fastball” from Mark Buehrle. Buehrle seemed to hit his spot on the inside corner, but he had two problems – he threw it 86 MPH and he threw it to Robinson Cano. Cano’s so quick on the inside pitch that he can get the barrel to a much faster pitch in the same location. Say what you will about his hitting approach, he doesn’t often get jammed.

Flip to the ninth inning and consider what Mariano Rivera, pitching as well at 43 years old, I’m pretty confident, as any pitcher in Major League history, did to Colby Rasmus with pitches is the same vicinity. Obviously, the cutting action of Rivera’s pitch separates it from Buehrle’s, but even more telling than the pitch action and velocity is the swing path.

As Rasmus whiffed at two of Rivera’s insidious cutters and scragged a bat on a true devil, I drifted off imagining a match-up between Cano and Mo. I think Mariano would be able to use Robbie’s aggressiveness and get him to chase high pitches. But I bet Cano would fair better against the inside/outside cutter gambit than almost any other left-handed batter.

I snapped out of it just in time to witness a true “Mo-Classic” (I woke up realizing that this should be a “Mo-fecta”) – three up, three down; strike out swinging, broken bat, strike out looking. I wonder how many times he’s done that in his career?

Photo by Kathy Willens via AP/ESPN

On the way to lunch this afternoon I spotted a shiny new Frito Lay delivery truck, adorned with navy blue pinstripes and a giant interlocking NY on the back door. I tried to maneuver to get a picture for tonight, but a baked potato cart was blocking the good stuff. Ah well, I thought, the Yanks probably won’t hit enough to warrant a score truck picture anyway.

If you didn’t see the game and are reading this for the first time on Wednesday morning, the good news is you had two hits last night and one of them was a homer that went about 420 feet. The Yankees reached .500 with a 14-1 victory over the Indians with an offensive explosion that overshadowed a second fine performance from Andy Pettitte.

The hit parade featured every Yankee starter but Hafner. They pounded out five homers (Cano, Ichiro, Youkilis, Boesch and Overbay) and six doubles. Around those bases the Yankees shall roam.

Speaking of parades, this weekend was the opening ceremony for the Inwood Little League. It’s over-the-top in all the right ways and the kids felt 100 feet tall walking up Broadway.

Google maps tells me the parade route was 1.25 miles. If I asked my kids to walk a quarter mile to get an ice cream soda and meet Spiderman, they’d fall down on their knees in tears accusing me of child abuse. They did this walk without complaint with pants drooping down around their ankles, hats falling over their eyes and carrying a banner designed specifically to make them trip over like the Keystone Cops.

If there are further notable items from our family’s first foray into organized baseball, I’ll let you know.

The Yankees won their first game of the 2013 season like they have won so many others – with Andy Pettitte throwing the first pitch and Mariano Rivera throwing the last. As contemplating the starting lineup remains a daily dose of disappointment, Andy and Mo served much-needed notice to all us sad-sack fans – there is still something very special about rooting for the Yankees.

After CC Sabathia and Hiroki Kuroda issued the Red Sox seven free bases in 6.3 innings, Andy Pettitte reminded us of the benefits of staying in and around the strike zone. He walked only one in eight strong innings and avoided  trouble almost all night long. Three ground balls with men on base turned into three double plays. On the third double play, the key play to getting Andy through the eighth, an audible “hoot” leapt from my couch. I was surprised to learn it came from my throat.

Brett Gardner and Francisco Cervelli hit solo homers to give the Yankees a little breathing room in the ninth and set the stage for Mariano’s return to the mound for the first time since his knee injury last May. Mariano’s cutter broke sharply throughout his outing and, as David Cone noted, looks more and more like a suped-up slider every year.

He battled Dustin Pedroia but lost him to a walk when the umpire didn’t bite on a 2-2 pitch just off the corner. It was a ball, but it’s a call Mariano gets nearly every time. Jonny Gomes yoinked a double just over the third base bag which set up Pedroia to score on the second out of the inning. Even though the tying run was up in the form of very impressive rookie Jackie Bradley, there was no need to fret. Mariano gave the lefty-hitting rook a time-capsule experience.

The first pitch was the show-me cutter, hard and low but over the plate for a called strike. The second pitch started on the inner half and rode so far in on Bradley’s hands he could do nothing but foul it off his own chest. And on the third pitch Mariano pegged a blue dart at the outside corner which might as well been a mile away to poor Bradley. It was a ball, but the umpire finally caught on to what was happening and rung him up. Yanks 4, Sox 2.

It was the 69th time Mo saved one of Andy’s wins. But as familiar as it was, it’s also the new blueprint they’re going to have to follow to win while the lineup features the understudies. Starting pitcher keeps it close. A few timely hits and good defense. Bullpen holds the line.

There ‘s no shame about not being geeked up for this season given the injuries and the looming payroll decisions. I’ve haven’t been less personally invested in the Yankees since 1982, but I’m sure glad I watched this one.

After the owners and players agreed on the most recent CBA, the Yankees, and everybody who followed the Yankees, saw there was a giant, flaming loophole begging to be jumped through in 2014. It’s entirely possible the loophole was forged and set aflame specifically to incentivize the Yankees to lower their payroll – temporarily or otherwise.

The Yankees, as gleeful, recidivist violators of the salary threshold, stand to be punished at ever-increasing rates according to the new CBA. However, if they get under the salary limit in 2014 ($189 million), they can reset their clock. The next time they go over, which we all hope and pray will be 2015, they will be punished as first time offenders and save a ton of dough.

Thus a goal was born in the winter of 2011 – to trim annual salary from the customary $210 million down to $189 million within two years. This is made more difficult because the Yankees owe a lot of money to CC Sabathia, Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira in 2014, and Alex and Teix no longer play up to their paychecks. To field a World Series contender in 2014 would take creativity, starting right then and there.

Spending big on free agents isn’t as easy under these new constraints, but there are other ways to acquire talent. International free agents have no track record and less bargaining power, so their first contracts are often very reasonable. Posting fees don’t count towards the salary cap and the contracts that follow them are also very reasonable.

Of course without the Major League track record comes a huge risk of getting a crappy, Kei-Igawa-level talent. That’s why the Yankees usually have an advantage when it comes time to sign them; they can absorb that hit better than anyone else. The Yankees employed Hideki Irabu, Orlando Hernandez, Jose Contreras, Hideki Matsui and Kei Igawa via these routes and, on the whole, they received excellent return on their investments.

Two major players came down the pike just after the Yankees signed the CBA. The Oakland A’s Yoenis Cespedes was one of the best outfielders in the American League last year. He makes nine million dollars a year.

Rather than find out just how much ground Brett Gardner can cover, the Yankees just gave Ichiro Suzuki a two year commitment for $13 million. And now they’ve pumped more 2014 cash into Vernon Wells, where’s there’s plenty of room where his baseball talent used to be. There no question that Cespedes was a risk, but I have a hard time thinking he was a bigger risk of failure than the players who have already proven they have straight sucked eggs for the last two years.

Yu Darvish was hot topic around here last year and he divided the room. Japanese pitchers have faired poorly in the USA, though not universally, domo arigato Kuroda-san, and Darvish came attached to a big posting fee. He won 16 and struck out 221 in 191 innings for the Rangers. He walked too many and wasn’t a Cy Young candidate or anything, but he sure looks good at $9.3 million a year for the next five years. After one-year deals to Kuroda and Pettitte expire and Phil Hughes files for free agency, the 2014 rotation looks like CC Sabathia and a wishing well.

The Yankees did not seriously pursue either of these players, nor did they get close to Aroldis Chapman, though his courtship took place before the current CBA and its loopholes. Whether that makes the Yankees lack of effort to acquire his raw yet undeniable talent more or less forgivable is up to you.

Either the Yankees don’t know how to evaluate international talent or they are cheaper than we thought. When Chapman came and went without any news of an offer from the Yankees, I was surprised. When they lost with a whimper on Darvish and Cespedes (not to mention Jorge Soler)?

The acquisition of Wells and Suzuki suggest a combination of penny-pinching and incompetence and incompetent penny-pinching that is downright scary.

When Pablo Sandoval launched his third homer on Wednesday night, I selfishly rooted for the ball to hit the wall. I didn’t like seeing Reggie’s signature moment so easily matched. It used to be just Reggie and Babe and that properly placed the feat on hallowed ground. And fine, if they had to make room for someone, then living-legend Albert Pujols was the right guy. But in the instant Sandoval’s shot soared towards center field, I decided the guy named after a cartoon Panda wasn’t welcome.

As many decisions hastily reached and selfishly born, this one does not stand up to scrutiny. First of all, two of Sandoval’s homers were off Justin Verlander, the best pitcher in the game right now. Second of all, those first two homers occurred in a very tight game with an unreliable pitcher on the mound for the Giants. And he did it in his own home park – a notoriously hard place to dinger. 

I remembered Pujols’ homers did not seem critical in their Game 3 blow out of the Rangers lat year. I know Reggie’s homers like I hit them myself, but I didn’t know much about Ruth’s.

Shall we?

Babe Ruth 1926 – Game 4

The Yankees were down two games to one against the Cardinals. The Redbirds threw a pitcher named Flint Rhem. Rhem is not a household name, but he pitched over 1700 innings in the big leagues, and in 1926 he led the National League in wins while posting an ERA of 3.21, 22% better than the league. It would be wrong to call him the ace of a staff that included two Hall of Famers (Jesse Haines and Pete Alexander), but he did have the best numbers and the most innings pitched that year.

The Babe did not have the advantage of hitting in a ballpark built to his specs for this game, but Sportsman’s Park was, by the standards of the day, one of the easiest places to hit homers. The Cardinals and Browns both played their home games there, and though the two teams didn’t have much else in common, their pitching staffs finished one-two in homers allowed in 1926 (and 3-4 in 1928).

In the top of the first, Babe Ruth hit a solo homer with two down to draw first blood. St. Louis countered with a run off of Waite Hoyt in the bottom of the first, so it was all tied-up again when Ruth batted with two down in the third. He hit another solo homer, giving the Yankees the lead for a second time.

The Yankees tacked on another run in the top of the fourth inning and the Cardinals put up three of their own in the bottom half. Babe Ruth walked in the decisive Yankee rally in the fifth, which left the score 7-4 in favor of New York. When he hit his third homer, it was a two run blast in the sixth off a relief pitcher named Hi Bell and it put the game out of reach, 9-4. The final score was 10-5. 

Looking back over the game, Ruth gave the Yankees two early leads and sealed the victory. His homers accounted for only 40% of Yankee runs however. His cumulative WPA for the homers (hWPA) was 0.31, but then again, two Yankee doubles in the fourth had bigger impacts on the result (by WPA) than any of the homers.

The Yankees needed this game to even the series. They ended up losing in seven games, but this outcome was vital to the extension of the season. Ruth added two walks to his three jacks, scored four and drove in four. His total WPA for the game was 0.35 and his third homer still had impact on the outcome, at 0.09 WPA, something none of the other guys can say.

Babe Ruth 1928 – Game 4

In a revenge series, the Yankees stood on the precipice of a sweep of the Cardinals in Game 4 in St Louis. The Yankees again turned to Waite Hoyt as the Cardinals pitched Bill Sherdel. Sherdel, like Rhem in 1926, was the best pitcher in the St. Louis rotation that year, leading the team in innings, wins and ERA. But he was one of four interchangeable parts and probably not at the top of the pecking order. 

The Cardinals broke a scoreless tie in the third on a sac fly by Frankie Frisch. Ruth knotted the score one batter into the fourth with a solo homer. The Cardinals struck back with a run in the bottom half. Sherdel and Hoyt kept it there until the seventh. Ruth again homered to tie the score. This time Gehrig backed him up and took the lead for good.

It was 6-2 when Ruth took his final hack in the eighth and plopped another solo bonk to finish the Yankees scoring. A few outs and one meaningless Cardinal run later, the Yankees were World Champs, four games to none.

The Babe’s impact on this game was muted slightly because he hit into a double play in the first and grounded out with two on in the fifth. The hWPA was 0.33, higher than in 1926, but for overall WPA he landed at 0.24 since he helped kill two rallies as well. Gehrig’s homer which finally gave them the lead was the biggest play of the game, but Ruth homers occupied the next two places in line. 

Of course this was Game 4 of a sweep, so there was more margin for error than during his previous three-pronged attack. But the fact that he clinched the Series is pretty cool too.

Reggie Jackson 1977 – Game 6

Moving to more familiar territory, there’s Reggie Jackson eliminating the Dodgers in 1977. Reggie did it in Yankee Stadium, making good use of the short right field porch for his first two homers. He could have used the Grand Canyon for the third one.

Burt Hooton got the ball for Game 6 and tried to get the Dodgers to Game 7. Like the Cardinals above, these Dodgers featured a deep staff of which Hooton was just one of several good pitchers. He didn’t age as well as Don Sutton or Tommy John, but at the time, he was as good as any of them, leading the 1977 Dodgers in ERA. He pitched 59.7 Postseason innings and went 6-3 with a 3.17 ERA (3-3 against the Yankees from 1977-1981).

Reggie had hit a meaningless homer in the ninth inning of Game 5 in Los Angeles. The Dodgers routed the Yanks 10-4 to force Game 6 and they kept the pressure on when Steve Garvey tripled home two runs in the top of the first. Reggie led off the second inning with a four pitch walk and Chris Chambliss homered to tie the game.

The Dodgers scored again, so when Reggie batted in the fourth with Munson on first, the Yankees trailed 3-2. Reggie hit the first pitch on a line into the right field seats. The Yankees led 5-3 when Reggie faced Elias Sosa in the fifth. Reggie again leaped on the first pitch he saw and ripped it into the stands in right and the Yankees took a 7-3 lead. It was probably a double in most other parks.

For his final at bat of the night, Reggie must have been very happy to see knuckle-baller Charlie Hough on the hill. Hough had pitched a scoreless seventh but Reggie was fortunate they left Hough in to face him. Reggie killed knuckle-ballers. Reggie sent the first pitch into orbit and if you squint at the replay you might see the scorch marks from re-entry as the ball settles way back into the black seats in center.

Mike Torrez gave the Dodgers one more run but he completed the game and the Yankees won 8-4. Reggie had homered on four consectutive swings if you go back to Game 5. His first homer, which gave the Yankees the lead, was the biggest play of the game. He amassed 0.35 hWPA and, overall, 0.39 WPA thanks to his walk, four runs scored and five RBI. His three homers accounted for five of eight total runs, the highest percentage on this list. The margin of victory was also the slimmest, along with Game 4 of 1928.  

The Yankees won the Series and prevented a do-or-die Game 7 with a Dodger team that was unlikely to go quietly. It was a happy day at the zoo.

Albert Pujols 2011 – Game 3

The 2011 World Series will go down as one of the most dramatic ever, and very little of that memory will be devoted to Albert’s three homers. The Cardinals and the Rangers had split the first two games and 14 (!) runs were already on the board at the hitter’s paradise in Arlington when Pujols hit a three-run shot off of flame throwing reliever Alexi Ogando in the sixth. This was a critical blow in the game as it turned a two-run lead into a five run bulge and the Cardinals were not threatened again.

Pujols added a two-run shot in the seventh (off Mike Gonzalez) and a solo shot in the ninth (off Darren Oliver). The sum total of the WPA for those two homers was 0.02 as the outcome was pretty much decided when he hit his first bomb. The hWPA is the lowest of all the three-homer games, clocking in at 0.17. Pujols had himself a very good game overall, going 5-6 with two lead-off, rally-starting singles, but there were so many runs scored in the 16-7 drubbing, that his contribution to the victory was only 0.23 in terms of WPA.

Hey, all World Series wins are huge wins, but being tied at 1-1, this game did not have the pressure of an elimination game nor a clincher. The loser would not love his fate, but neither would he be on the brink of disaster. Fun to watch and an amazing performance, but the context puts Albert’s day at the bottom of this list.

Pablo Sandoval 2012 – Game 1

As you know, Pablo Sandoval cracked three homers on Wednesday night. McCarver said that AT&T Park had yielded the fewest homers in baseball this season. This is in a league which contains San Diego’s cavernous PetCo.

Sandoval caught up to a neck-high Justin Verlander heater to give the Giants a 1-0 lead in the first inning. It was the only home run Justin Verlander allowed on an 0-2 all season. With a 2-0 lead and two-outs in the fourth, Sandoval reached down and away and redirected a low fastball into the left field seats. It didn’t look like much off the bat, but it certainly did the trick. The two-run homer made the score 4-0 for the Giants. 

Verlander missed by a lot on the high heater in the first. He got the elevation, but instead of forcing Sandoval to reach to the outside corner, he threw it right over the plate. This second homer was off a nastier pitch: down, hard and slicing away from the left handed batter. 

The Tigers were trailing 5-0 and pinch hit for Verlander in the fifth. So Al Alberquerque got to give up the Panda’s third dong. He threw a decent breaking ball but Sandoval is gobbling up nasty pitches right now, so don’t bother with decent. His homer made the score 6-0. The two teams traded runs and the game ended 8-3.

Sandoval’s homers gave the Giants 0.26 hWPA, but his single in the seventh didn’t move the needle, so his total for the game was also 0.26. Obviously, that number does not take into account the fact that Barry Zito was facing the best pitcher in baseball and nobody had given the Giants much chance of winning this game.

If you rank the homers by hWPA, it goes Reggie, Ruth (28), Ruth (26), Sandoval and Pujols. If you consider the pitcher faced, the score of the series, park effects and anything else you want to throw in there (Bronx Zoo stuff, the spectre of Pujols leaving St. Louis etc), it gets cloudier. I think we can safely put Pujols at the bottom and then work from there.

Reggie’s homers depended on the cozy dimensions of right field in Yankee Stadium. Babe Ruth may have had similar help in Sportsman’s Park. I like that Ruth gave the Yanks two different leads in 1926 and two different ties in 1928. I like that Sandoval abused Verlander. I can’t forget the fact that the Yankees lost the 1926 Series. I also know that the first game of a Series is probably the least important – maybe even less important than Game 4 of a sweep given the scars we now wear from 2004.

The only real knock against Reggie’s game is that one of the homers was a true Yankee-Stadium Special. He did it in a clincher deep in the Series with a charging opponent. He turned a deficit into a lead and then he turned a narrow lead into a safe one. And I’ll admit bias; it’s the foundation stone for my interest in baseball. Reggie’s got the top spot for me and I’ll call it a tie between Sandoval and the two Ruths.

So make room for the Panda, he deserves to roll around and hock bamboo chunks on this hallowed ground.

This Friday night, of the hundreds of bands that will play New York City, Special Patrol Group will attempt to blow the doors off Arlene’s Grocery at 7pm. It’s a tall task to blow the doors off a rock-n-roll club. It’s taller when it’s 7pm.

But for Special Patrol Group, this is a sweet slot. Their fans, largely drawn from the coveted demographic overlap between young parents and parents of young children, require a decent bed time so they can make pancakes and attend soccer practice at 9 AM the next day.

I know Special Patrol Group because I met one of the founders of the band, Matthew DeMella, at one of those Saturday morning soccer practices a couple of years ago. He’s a music teacher, a dad, a husband, and a fellow harborer of inappropriate expectations for post-toddler soccer players. And after we talked about that stuff, he told me about his band.

Here at Bronx Banter, Alex lends us insights about the creative process, almost on a daily basis. One of the things that he says a lot, and that I take to heart, is that just showing up counts for more than you’d think. I think that’s a Woody thing. And when Matt told me about Special Patrol Group, I immediately thought about the importance of showing up.

Special Patrol Group was formed in 2005 and they’ve been recording and “touring” ever since. But when you’re a teacher, a dad, a husband; when you attend soccer practice, make pancakes, and consider those events as essential, what’s left? How the hell can you rock and roll in a sliver? Hint: a big part of the answer is having an amazing wife who says, “O.K.”

The band is comprised of four regular members. Matt and his brother Jon play guitar, Katie Patrizio provides the vocals on more than half the cuts, and Mike Blancafor is on drums. Logistics present as big a challenge as anything else.

Jon DeMella, gifted with not only musical talent but also the unflinching ability to advocate for gigs that the band may not actually deserve, does promotion. He’s awesome at it. He lives in Seattle. Katie Schmidt had to miss a gig last Halloween because she got snowed in and caught pneumonia. It would be like Derek Jeter missing three months of the season.

Special Patrol Group , as expected from a band that only plays four gigs a year, is not flawless. But they’re comfortable on stage and with each other and that gives them sufficient leeway to find their groove before long. When they do, they’re a mash of seventies and late-nineties influences that suggest a group of musicians who’ve been loving and leaving different kinds of music their whole lives. 

The songs are intelligent, unafraid of complexity, and often contain some stretch that you will be humming to yourself on the way home. Matt says “Belle and Sebastian, Elvis Costello and Dinosaur Jr.” I think I hurt his feelings when I said “Pavement,” but that was intended to be a compliment.

After last year’s Halloween snowstorm, when their lead singer and most of their fans were unable to leave their homes, they played before an audience of two. Not their fault, but still, that had to sting. On some nights, they’ve had venues give them crap about not bringing enough paying customers through the door and they wonder why they signed up for this. But there are more nights when they fill it up. There are nights when the band clicks and the fans all get sitters and, in that sliver, they’re rock stars.

When Matt told me he was a teacher and had a band, I thought of Robert Pollard, the patron saint of teachers-with-bands. Pollard taught fourth grade as he pounded out a dozen lifetimes worth of dingy, unforgettable riffs. Guided By Voices was an influential band, and can mount credible reunion tours for each of their many incarnations. They packed in venues like Irving Plaza and Hammerstein Ballroom and us sardines chanted G-B-V until our throats ran red. And the prevailing wisdom on Guided By Voices is that they never made it.

“Making it” is important to most, and it’s attractive to all, but it’s an obvious trap. A saner calculation utilizes your own proprietary formula and measures things privately. I can’t speak for Special Patrol Group, but it strikes me that they wouldn’t dedicate this small space in their lives to something so big unless it made them feel good. They might aspire to more, but this is what they’ve got right now. And on Friday night they’re showing up, again, and that’s pretty great start.

For more information about the band and a list of available songs, click here. 

It was already 1-0 when I got on the train to come home this evening. It was 2-0 when I went out of cell service deep beneath Harlem. I held my breath as the train climbed up from 191st St to Dyckman, 6-0 and the season was over before I even got to my stop.

The Yankees completed their crash out of the ALCS with a loss to the Tigers, 8-1. Swept for the first time since 1980. They had only two hits to finish the series batting .157 as a team. If justice prevails, this will not be remembered as Arod’s Waterloo but rather as lineup-wide systemic failure.

The roots of this sweep are buried in Game 4 of the ALDS when the Yankees failed to finish the Orioles. They could have started CC Sabathia in Game 1 of the ALCS and then who knows? Some will say it doesn’t matter, that the Yankees didn’t hit enough this series to bother entertaining “What If” scenarios, but for three games out of four, they were one hit, or one call from an umpire, away from winning.

CC Sabathia pitched a whale of a game in Game 5 of the ALDS, but he didn’t have anything left for this one. For the first time in nine games, the Yankee starter didn’t give the lineup a chance to win. CC came up small, no way to sugarcoat that. I think his two games against the Orioles probably speak louder than this stinkifesto, but we’ll see how the fans react.

I know Alex Rodriguez was bad in this postseason. He looked incapable of hitting a right handed pitcher and I don’t fault Joe Girardi for seeking other options. Eric Chavez pinch hit for Alex Rodriguez in Game 4 of the ALDS. He replaced Alex for 12 at bats in total in the Postseason and went 0 for 12 with six strikeouts.

As disappointing as this series was, from Jeter’s injury to the Alex-drama to today’s drubbing, I refuse to be crushed about this outcome. The Yankees played a very gutsy series with Orioles, and won even while hitting like shit. They played three tough games with the Tigers and lost, while hitting even worse. They have been playing playoff-tension-level baseball since early September and have answered every must-win game with a win until the ALCS. They have earned a lot of respect.

I refuse to be crushed because I am part of a household that is just learning about baseball and if you can’t take losing, you can’t enjoy this game. I am part of a household, that for reasons that will never be entirely clear, cares as much about the Pittsburgh Pirates as the New York Yankees. In this environment, disappointment is allowed but rending of garments is exposed as self-centered silliness.

I rarely felt like I was watching a World Champion when the Yankees played this year, but they were the best team in the American League for 162 games and they own as much claim to the “best team in baseball” as anybody. Admittedly, 2012 didn’t feature a truly great team, but hey, maybe that means 2013 is wide open, too. The Yanks don’t have that much to do to be right back in it again next year.

Photo via Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images

With two swings of the bat, Raul Ibanez won Game 3 of the ALDS for the Yankees 3-2. Joe Girardi, in one of the ballsiest managerial moves in Yankee history, asked Ibanez to pinch hit for currently lost-in-the-woods Alex Rodriguez in the ninth inning. The Yankees trailed 2-1 at the time, there was one out, and the needle on the season was edging towards “disaster.”

Ibanez took a curve ball low and inside from Jim Johnson to start the at bat. The Oriole closer came back with his trademark sinker aiming low and away. The ball hung over the middle and Ibanez leaped on it. It was a lot like his homer to tie game 161 against the Red Sox, but struck even better than that.

There was a whole a lot of tense nothing after that until Ibanez led off the bottom of the twelfth against lefty Brian Matusz. Matusz had handled lefties Eric Chavez and Ichiro Suzuki with ease in the eleventh, giving them one decent pitch to hit early in the count and then driving them out of the strike zone. He tried the same trick on Ibanez, but Raul had target lock engaged and destroyed the 91 MPH fastball for the game-winner and possible season-saver.

Enough cannot be said of Ibanez, Girardi, Kuroda and Robertson. Ibanez will get, and deserves, every headline and accolade, but he wouldn’t have had a chance in the ninth if it wasn’t for Kuroda. Ditto the twelfth if it wasn’t for Robertson. And of course Joe Girardi, who never gets any credit and often takes a ton criticism, especially on the internet, chose the perfect time to pull the plug on his support for Alex Rodriguez. With Ibanez he gained the platoon advantage and the confidence advantage as the lefty slugger had just come through in a similar spot against a right-handed closer. If Girardi has lost Rodriguez for the rest of the series, so be it. I’d rather be up 2-1 without Arod than down 1-2 with him.

Going back to the pre-Ibanez portion of the game, Hiroki Kuroda was tremendous. A likable stalwart in a season full of uncertainty, he delivered a solid performance into the ninth inning. Kuroda cruised through his night on only 105 pitches and only allowed six base runners. Two solo homers to the bottom of the order were the only marks on his record. Yankee fans gave him the ovation he deserved as he left the game.

As good as Hiroki Kuroda was, Miguel Gonzalez was better. He went through the Yankees for seven innings with ease. He rung up eight Yanks, allowed almost no hard hit balls (were there any other than double and triple that plated the Yanks’ lone run?) and crucially walked no one. He was too tough.

Or maybe he was just pretty good and the Yankees met him halfway to awesome. I openly wonder if the Yankees would have had a more productive night if they just never swung the bat. For three straight games now, they’ve missed almost every cookie they’ve been served with foul balls and pop ups. And they’re so eager to do some damage that they’re expanding the zone in very counterproductive ways. Of the eleven times the Yanks struck out in this game, all were swinging whiffs, and the vast majority were on balls out of the strike zone. The Yankees were over aggressive, undisciplined and rendered utterly ineffective.

Derek Jeter picked up two more hits, though his RBI triple was a gift from Adam Jones. He’s one of the few Yankees who might get a hit at some point tomorrow night, so it’s bad news that he had to come out of the game with a leg injury. He smashed a foul ball off his toe and never looked comfortable after that. When he struck out in the eighth, he was barely able to gain his balance after each swing. Still put on a better at bat than anything Arod, Cano, Granderson or Teixeira could muster. Unless that foot has to be sawed off, Jeter’s playing tomorrow. If they amputate, downgrade him to probable.

But back to Raul Ibanez. He just hit a couple of the most important home runs in Yankee Postseason history. He’s on the list. From the color TV days, there’s Chambliss ’76, Dent ’78 (not Postseason but still), Jeter/Bernie ’96, Leyritz ’96, Justice ’00,  Tino/Brosius/Jeter ’01, Boone ’03, Arod ’09. Probably missing some, but that’s a pretty good start (Reggie and Matsui of course, but maybe that’s a slightly different list, and heck, put Ibanez on that one too with his two bombs tonight).

The lack of hitting in the Postseason always confounds me. I always think, “Why can’t this be the year where they just get hot and blast their way to the Series?” But it never works that way and I need to stop being surprised that Jason Hammel, Wei-Yin Chen and Miguel Gonzalez turn into the 1963 Dodgers as soon as the calendar flips to October. The difference this time, hopefully, is that the Yankees have the starters to support the offensive outage.

All three Yankee starters have worked into the eighth and two of them were still on the hill in the ninth! A timely hit in Game 2 and the Yanks would have just swept this thing. Phil Hughes gets the baton and it doesn’t matter who he faces. It’s gonna be Koufax, Drysdale, Alexander, Gibson and Schilling all wrapped into some Oriole schlub and Hughes will need to be his best to keep them in the game. The Yankees probably won’t hit, but they just might win.

Top Photo by Bill Kostroun/AP via ESPN

Other Photos by Alex Trautwig and Al Bello / Getty Images via ESPN

Mike Trout should win the American League Most Valuable Player Award. His bat, glove and legs produced more runs for the Angels than any other player did for their team in 2012. And it wasn’t particularly close.

However, the decision to award Mike Trout the MVP over Miguel Cabrera is not as cut and dry as WAR-touters would have you believe. A three win bulge for Trout makes this an open and shut case to them. There are several factors that bring Cabrera back into the discussion. Unfortunately for us, many of them suck.

The Tigers made the playoffs! Fine, but the Angels won more games against much tougher competition.

Miguel Cabrera won the Triple Crown! Awesome, but ask the ghost of Ted Williams if the Triple Crown guarantees the MVP Award.

Miguel Cabrera has been so good for so long, he deserves an award! Players who are “so good for so long” get into the Hall of Fame. There’s no need to manufacture an MVP award they don’t deserve.

Give Trout the Rookie of the Year Award. If he’s not a fluke he can do it again next year! Yes, they will give him the ROY and no, that has nothing to do with the MVP award.

These invalid arguments may be the loudest on Cabrera’s side, and that’s a shame because there are some valid ones that we haven’t heard much of yet. I will state in advance that I don’t think these arguments cover the gap, but I do think they make it close enough that a Cabrera MVP Award would not be the miscarriage of justice that Fangraphs and other such sites will claim it is.

Games Played

Trout’s massive production came in only 139 games. Cabrera compiled his Triple Crown over 161 games. Some would argue that this is an argument for Trout, since greater than or equal to production over a shorter time necessarily implies a greater rate of impact per game. However, showing up counts. It’s not Trout’s fault that he was left in the Minors to start the season, but he wasn’t there to help the Angels as they stumbled through April.

A player in the lineup can change the result in many ways. Most commonly, by the statistics we measure and discuss all the time. But what about a game where Cabrera goes 0-4 but works the pitcher over for 20 high stress pitches? Perhaps Prince Fielder could be the benificiary of a fat pitch in one of his plate appearances as a result. How many pitching changes were made in games this year just because Miguel Cabrera loomed in the on deck circle? How many fastballs were called because Mike Trout was leading off first base? A player of this quality influences the course of the game whether he is padding his WAR total or not.

The point being that a player can generate negative WAR in a game and still impact that same game in a very positive manner by doing things that WAR does not measure. A player who is not on the roster cannot.

Or imagine the Tigers play the Angels in a four game series. Cabrera hits four home runs in the series, one in each game. Trout stays in AAA for the first three games of the series and then comes up and hits two home runs and steals two bases in the final game. Trout’s overall value may be equal to or greater than Cabrera’s especially per game, but Cabrera’s ability to impact four results is superior to Trout’s ability to impact one result.  Since each result is a discrete event, production tomorrow does nothing to address today’s game.

Cabrera was able to impact 161 games on Detroit’s schedule. That’s the most important point in his favor.

Roster Creation

Mike Trout is an excellent defensive out fielder and Miguel Cabrera is a terrible defensive third baseman. This difference goes a long way to creating the WAR gap in Trout’s favor. And it should. Trout’s superior defensive ability can and should be used to differentiate these two players. However, once we dig into the reason Miguel Cabrera is playing third base, I think we can cut him a little bit more slack than raw comparison would dictate.

I am reminded of the excellent Red Sox teams of 2003-2008. The Red Sox won two World Series and a lot of games during this period; you might have seen the pink hats. As they did this, Manny Ramirez hit a ton in the middle of their lineup and was a putrid defensive player. Manny Ramirez may have been better served as a DH. But the Red Sox certainly would not have been better served, because they already had David Ortiz there. The Red Sox paired two of the best hitters of the generation and rode them to glory. Manny Ramirez’s ability to put a glove on his hand and stand in front of the Green Monster was essential to this plan. Yes, his poor play out there cost the Red Sox some runs and should count against him in our analysis of him as a player. But looking at the team overall, and what they accomplished and why, mitigates some of those negatives.

The Tigers, as the A’s are no doubt shaking about right now, have a similar pair of hitters. The only reason Prince Fielder is on the team is because Miguel Cabrera can put a glove on his hand and stand next to third base. When we look at all the runs that Miguel Cabrera’s poor defense cost the Tigers this year, we should also ask if the Tigers would have done it any other way. When a player would have been better off individually playing one position, but made a move which enabled the team as a whole to be better (or to pursue the course of action which the team envisioned would give them the best chance to win, regardless of outcome) we should not hold the totality of his negative defensive value against him.

Trout’s a better defensive player than Cabrera. That should go into the discussion. But if we just say Trout is+X and Cabrera is -Y, that’s not fair either.

September

As the races tightened in September, Miguel Cabrera had an insane month and Mike Trout had a good one. From September 1st to the day the Angels were eliminated from the playoffs, Trout hit .283/.397/.500. From September 1st until the day they clinched the Central, Cabrera hit .330/.395/.688 (and Fielder, on the team because of Cabrera’s flexibility, hit .308/.410/.567).

If we think of a baseball game, the late innings are more important than the early innings because there is less time to make up for any changes in the score. Leverage of the late innings is higher than leverage of the early innings, and this is why Mariano Rivera should pitch the late innings of the closest games. The same goes for a season. The games in September have higher leverage attached to them than those games in April because there is less time to make up any changes in the standings. So we do have to give Cabrera a little bump for his late season heroics. Not because of the result (see above) but because of the timing of his individual contribution.

I have read a lot arguments saying that production in April counts as much as production in September and that giving Cabrera credit for his strong finish isn’t warranted. To that I say bringing up April hurts Trout much more than September. I’ll give Cabrera some credit for producing so much in September, but in my mind that’s a much smaller bump than the other factors above.

We started out talking about a 10.4 WAR player versus a 7.2 WAR player. To keep the discussion in the same units of measure, I’d say this more like a debate bewteen a 10 WAR player and an 8 WAR player.  I ding Trout a little bit for missing too much of the Angels schedule and I give Cabrera a little bit of a break for playing third base so poorly because it enables Prince Fielder to be a Tiger. I’d still vote for Trout, but it’s close enough to bring up the topic to the guy on the barstool  next to yours.

10/2 11:48 PM
Alex Belth:

Holy shit that was great.

Hey, I don’t mean to be greedy but in name of superstition and not fucking with a good thing if you are available to recap tomorrow’s game that’d be awesome. If not, totally understand and no problemo.

10/3 8:35 AM
Jon DeRosa:

I can do it.

That was probably the most calm extra inning Red Sox game I’ve ever experienced. I just never felt like they were a threat to score.

10/3 8:55 AM
Alex:

I wish I could have felt the same.

Dude, such a HUGE game for our man Hiroki tonight. I want so badly for him to do well.

10/3 9:02 AM
Jon:

Not to jinx him, and he might be a little gassed right now, but he’s going to rip through these guys pretty easily. They really have few decent hitters in that lineup. And the Yankees are going to destroy whatever comes their way.

This is going to be an 8-1, 9-2 type game like Monday.

10/3 9:28 AM
Alex:

That would make me very happy.

***

I had one of those nights tonight. Laundry and the Yankee game is a full slate at this time of year. A visit from the sore throat fairy, weird and time consuming things happening with credit cards, and then to top it all off, at 9:30 PM my wife gets an email that her very important 8:30 AM flight (she’s presenting at a conference) has been cancelled and she’s been rebooked to Friday. All the turmoil and panic floating around here, and not one ounce caused by the Yankees.

After a season on the brink, the Yankees gave us one night off. And it was glorious. Take a couple of days now and watch the Orioles and the Rangers in Stress Fest 2012, ie the Wild Card game. There sure was a lot of stress involved trying to avoid the stress of that game.

Another 95 win team. Another American League East Division crown. We’ve criticized this team more than most other Division champions, and often deservedly so, but there were times when they deserved more praise than we gave them I think. Like we were holding it back because we weren’t really sure how good they were. Turns out they were pretty damn good.

Top Photo via AP/ Frank Franklin II, Bottom Photo via Getty Images / Al Bello 

It isn’t love if it’s easy. Home-run binges, clutch hits and flawless closers put happy bubbles in the brain.

It isn’t love if it doesn’t hurt. A division clincher in mid-September is a breezy balm.

It isn’t love if your eyes are dry. It’s just a game, after all.

It isn’t love if your pulse is flat and blood is settled. The level head is free of passion.

It isn’t love if you never want to give up.

It isn’t love if you give up.

***

I thought I wrote all that for us when they were going to lose. To help us get psyched for tomorrow. But now after watching him draw one of the grittiest walks I’ve ever seen, Paul O’Neill 2000 World Series gritty, I think I wrote it for Francisco Cervelli.

The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox in a game that tested the very fabric of fandom, 4-3, in 12 innings. The Orioles also won. They beat the Rays in a tough-as-nails 1-0 duel in Tampa, so that means the Yankees have clinched at least a tie for the American East crown. Even if everything goes to pot tomorrow, the Yanks get to go head-to-head with the O’s in Baltimore on Thursday to decide things once and for all.

But everything is not going to go to pot tomorrow.

This game served as an unpleasant reminder of every single RISP frustration we experienced as fans this season. Mark Teixeira would have earned a place next to Javy Vazquez in Yankee infamy had they lost this game. He came up with a man on third and less than two outs three times. He registered five outs in those at bats and drove in zero. I felt awful for him, even as I cursed him to burn for eternity. The Yankees left runners on all game. Much like their loss in Toronto, but with more on the line, they came up small when even medium would have done the job.

Joe Girardi deemed Ivan Nova too risky to start this game and wisely opted for David Phelps instead. Phelps put in 5.3 solid innings before giving way to the bullpen. He left down 2-1 thanks to Teixiera’s woes with RISP. It stayed that way through many torturous innings. The Yankees seemed sure to break through almost every inning, and then they wouldn’t.

After Brett Gardner got picked off / caught stealing to end the eighth, the Yankee closer came on to pitch the ninth. We’re not expecting Mariano Rivera anymore, and that’s sad in itself, but when Soriano coughed up a looping homer to James Loney to push the bulge to 3-1, Mo’s absence was shining.

Curtis Granderson led off the ninth with a single off Sox closer Andrew Bailey. Girardi sent up Raul Ibanez to bat for Eduardo Nunez. Ibanez, who has only 91 hits this year, but about 40 HUGE ones, lashed a 1-2 fastball into the short seats in right. Bailey caught too much of the plate, but it was mostly a fantastic job by Ibanez of staying down through the ball and yanking it just high enough to be a homer.

With one out, Derek Jeter doubled and the Red Sox intentionally walked Swisher to get to Arod. Alex put up a wonderful at bat, even got jobbed on a call, and still worked a walk. Bases loaded. Bobby Valentine called on Mark Melancon, owner of a 6.44 ERA, to get Teixeira. I never, for one second, entertained the thought that Teixeira would fail to drive in the winning run. It was the perfect redemption to his horrid night.

Melancon worked carefully, but after several pitches and another questionable call (the ump was wide all night long according to Cone), Melancon threw the kind of pitch that is no doubt responsible for his 6.44 ERA. It was right down the middle, belt high, and Teixeira saw it clearly. But his timing was off. He swung too late and extended too far and what should have been devastating contact was broken lumber. His bat exploded and the ball popped into shallow center. Robinson Cano followed, failed to hit, failed to hustle and the threat was over. Raul Ibanez’s inspirational homer seemed like it happened a year ago and I felt like the Yankees were losing a game they had just tied.

It stayed tied for a few more innings. Rafael Soriano may not be Mo, but it was damn gutty of him to come out for his second inning and hold the line. Derek Lowe chipped in with two good innings. The Yankees didn’t do much for awhile, but Swisher’s two-out hit in the 11th brought Alex up again with a chance to win it. Alex crushed a ball to the gap, but as we have well noted, those shots fall short these days and Ellsbury did a heckuva job to run it down. Kay was fooled, but I doubt the fans watching on TV were.

I got up from the living room and retreated to the kitchen to pack tomorrow’s lunch. It was the top of the order for the Red Sox and Derek Lowe is not good. I took extra care cutting off the crusts and washing the apple. I packed it away in the fridge and knew it was time to face the music.

The game was still knotted at 3, Cervelli was up, down 0-2 in the count with two outs. Michael Kay talked about what a tough year it had been for Cervelli. He had been the “forgotten man” – left to languish in AAA all season as another guy took his job backing up Russell Martin. Chris Stewart might be a little better than Cervelli, but by not by enough to make that an easy situation to accept. I thought about a homer, but it didn’t seem possible.

Cervelli fought all the way back to work a walk. Curtis Granderson followed by taking four straight balls. And Raul Ibanez deflected a fastball into left field. It was a harmless roller and if Boston had an infielder anywhere near it, they would have thrown the lead footed Ibanez out by plenty. But there was no one there. If Francisco Cervelli did not touch home plate I would have forgiven him. He was flying.

Photos by AP & Getty Images via ESPN.com

The Yankees announced that Andy Pettitte was coming back to the rotation on May 8th.  The Yankees ripped off 31 wins against 15 losses before he got hurt. They announced he was coming back from injury on September 13th. They have gone 6-1 since then. So that’s 37-16 with the notion that Pettitte is on the staff. And 49-47 without him.

From a logical point of view, Pettitte’s presence – and quality – deepens the staff and, just as crucially, lengthens the bullpen. So we should expect the Yankees to perform better than usual when he’s healthy and effective. The rest is just dumb luck.

But given the fact that they’re playing must-win games every day for the remainder of the season, I need something more than logic and dumb luck to hold onto. Andy Pettitte’s the good luck charm that turns this ordinary team into a powerhouse. If they win it all, that’s why. If they don’t well, we know it was all foolishness anyway.

It was the fifth inning and the Yankees were in trouble. CC Sabathia had protected a 1-0 lead since the second (in itself a minor miracle) but that lead was history. The Rays now led 2-1, had the bases loaded, and, if the root canal wasn’t painful enough sir, here’s a kick in the shin with a steel-tipped boot: Evan Longoria was at the plate with nobody out.

Sabathia threw a tub of junk at him and up 0-2 in the count, got Longoria to bounce to third. Alex Rodriguez, whose leather was strong and supple in all the right places tonight, charged. He had everything in front of him: the ball, the third base bag, the runner racing home and Longoria breaking for first. He had a fraction of a second to decide what to do and three options, none of them perfect.

He could fire home and prevent the run from scoring. That would keep the score 2-1, and with David Price on the mound for the Rays, every run is precious. But the bases would still be loaded and there’d only be one out. He could step on third and sling the ball across the diamond hoping for a double play. He’d concede a run but he’d give Sabathia the chance to end the inning with an out. Or he could step on third and still try to cut the run off at the plate. The degree of difficulty on that play is absurd. The runner might beat the throw home anyway, and to make a perfect throw, on the run, with no angle… and the catcher still has to block the plate and make the tag.

Alex chose the 5-3 double play and I immediately thought two things: 1) Good for you Alex. You are showing belief in your team that you can score a couple of more runs in this game. 2) The Yankees probably just lost this game.

The Yankees never did take the lead again, but it would be inaccurate to say they lost the game there in the fifth. No, the Yanks had some runs in their tank tonight. Curtis Granderson homered off David Price. Eduardo Nunez ripped a single off the leg of third base umpire Jerry Meals. The bad news is that it was clearly going to be a double. The good news is that it hurt. The bad news outweighed the good news unfortunately, because had the inning played out the same way with Nunez starting at second, he scores the tying run. As it was, he was rounding third when Elliot Johnson dove to snag Arod’s dribbler. It was ticketed for right field, but the ball was in no hurry to get there.

The Rays padded their lead in an especially disheartening fashion. CC Sabathia, if you remember from opening day, is supposed to have some kind of Jedi mind trick in place when pitching to Carlos Pena. Pena drew a crucial walk in the three-run fifth and led off the seventh with an infield single. Neither was as loud as the grand slam from April 6th, but CC’s inabilty to retire Pena was a big part of another loss.

Elliot Johnson tried to bunt Pena to second, only CC jumped on the bunt and erased the lead runner. Yay. Johnson stole second and scored by a whisker on a two out single to center. Fuck. Pena would never have scored on that hit. B.J. Upton hit a tall homer in the eighth. It was 5-2 and all those close decisions that would have made this an agonizing loss didn’t seem to matter so much.

Then Derek jeter pounded a single into the right field corner and Alex Rodriguez hit a vintage 2007-era blast to left and made the score 5-4. Oh it’s an agonizing loss again, that’s better. The Rays turned a bloop, a steal and an ghastly error by Nunez into an unnecessary insurance run and made the final score 6-4.

In the seventh, Ben Zobrist squared up a high fastball right down the middle from Sabathia and stroked a blue dart back through the box. It was a bad pitch, but Zobrist didn’t miss it. He also didn’t try to do too much with the high heat. The Rays scored a vital run with two outs. In the eighth, Curtis Granderson tapped a grounder to second with two outs and the tying run on second and go-ahead run on first. It was a lousy swing, but it was also an excellent pitch, a strike, but low and away where Granderson couldn’t get good wood to it. The Rays got the vital out and protected their slim lead.

It’s not that simple, but it’s not that complicated either.

The Yankees have not won a game that they have trailed in the eighth inning (or later) all year long. This wouldn’t matter so much except that they’re behind in the eighth and ninth almost every night these days. Tonight they trailed 6-1 with two outs in the top of the eighth and looked deader than disco. Alex Rodriguez stroked a double. Eric Chavez and Russell Martin worked gutsy walks around an RBI single from Curtis Granderson. Pinch hitter Chris Dickerson faced the erratic Pedro Strop with the bases loaded and took four straight balls to push the tying run to second. Ichiro Suzuki bounced a game-tying single to right.

The Yankees had just completed their most important comeback of the season and sent out the best of their bullpen in the bottom of the eighth. David Robertson quickly got ahead of Adam Jones 0-2 and went for the kill with his great curveball. But that pitch is gone. When he attempted to throw it to Jones, it slipped out of his hand and he nearly plunked him in the noggin. I thought he needed to go right back to curve because a) no way Jones is looking for a curve when he just gagged one so badly, and b) might as well see if he’s got any feel for it whatsoever for the rest of the outing. Instead Martin called for a fastball up out of the strike zone. Robertson put it on a fucking tee. I threw batting practice for fifty kids today, mostly underhand, and I didn’t throw a pitch that hittable.

After Adam Jones homered, Robertson kept sucking. He let up a single and another homer before he spun dizzily into the showers. In a show of solidarity, Boone Logan let up another homer as soon as he got in there. Robertson’s stats aren’t as good as last year, but I don’t think we had any business expecting that kind of year again. He’s still been pretty good. It’s his timing that has been so shitty. Robertson’s 4-0 record last year has turned into a 1-6 tally this year. That swing in the standings has been crippling for the Yankees.

In the fourth inning of this game, when I finally tuned in, David Phelps allowed the first three batters of the inning to hit the ball a combined 1200 feet. It was just dumb luck that two of them ended up as outs. The third was a homer by Robert Andino which made the score 5-1 and officially designated Phelps outing as “dogshit.”

The Yankees have played the Orioles four times recently, with the division title clearly on the line, and the Orioles would have swept all four if Pedro Strop could throw a few strikes. Even with Strop screwing things up for them, the Orioles have kicked the Yankees asses in three of the four games. They crushed three homers tonight on their way to an easy win. Strop made things complicated, so they smacked three more to win comfortably, 10-6.

The Orioles have looked the bully in the eye and found out he’s not so tough. The Orioles are playing great baseball and I can’t think of any reason why they would stop. I’m usually ok with the phrase “may the best team win.” But the best team is usually the Yankees.