Game 1: Sabathia/Price Rays win 1-0 in 11 Game 2: Nova/Garza Scoreless after 1 Game 3: Wednesday, 7:10 PM Shields/Hughes Cervelli starting tonight. Swisher still out with the knee injury. Yankees a half game behind Rays
Carlos Pena has never hit for average, but this year, his contract year, he's struggling to stay above the Mendoza line.
Unreal. I shut the game off at 6-0 Yankees. Garza had been knocked out and the Rays couldn't hit at all, and the Yankees had the bases loaded, but the Rays got out of it and scored 7 in the 5th.
2 outs in bottom of the 9th, tied at 7, Robertson vs. Zobrist. Zobrist smokes one to deep right-center, but Granderson robs him of a double with an all-out dive. Great catch. Going to extras for second night in a row. Wheeler comes in in the 10th, after the Rays used closer Soriano in the 9th, and promptly gives up a long homer to dead center from pinch hitter Posada. He allows a single to the next batter and then exits.
Golson guns down Crawford trying to advance to third in the 10th on a fly ball to right. Man. Great throw. He caught the fly ball only a few feet from the right field line. 8-7 final.
I was a little disappointed with Nova in the end. He was given every opportunity to get the win. Girardi stayed with him longer than he deserved. He pitched great until that implosion. Posada's shot was insane. It hit the top of that restaurant. And on replay it didn't even look like he hit it cleanly. Wow. Granderson's catch was the play of the game. That's at least a 3-bagger if he whiffs on it. Instead, he ends the inning. Wow. Golson's throw was the kind of thing you used to see from guys like Winfield. Dead straight line right to the bag, one hop. Wow. I think Alex blew the tag, but there's no way you can call Crawford safe there. Awful baserunning from him that entire inning. As for Golson, I said a while back he shows flashes of brilliance, and that play was one such example. That wound up being some game.
Granderson hits a 2 run homer to make it 4-3 Yanks in the 7th. I should note that Sterling's home run call for Granderson is somehow even more ridiculous sounding than his others.
blown call with the ump claiming Jeter was HBP, when it really hit off his bat anyway, Dan Johnson reclaims the lead for TB with his second homer of the game. 4-3
Three straight one run games with TB says we CAN compete. Pettite coming back will be huge; if the bats get it going there's no reason why we can't beat the Rays in a 5 or 7 game series.
Well, hopefully in the playoffs, Gardner and Swisher will be in the lineup instead of Colin Curtis and Austin Kearns. And it's not like they were getting blown out, either. They'll be fine.
There are a number of factors at play here. 1) In the playoffs we'll have Swisher and Gardner, rather than Kearns and Golson. Hopefully Berkman will get less ABs as well. 2) Andy Pettitte will be back in the rotation, which cannot be discounted. Hughes pitched fantastic last night until he just gassed out. That's a side effect of over-rest, but once the playoffs are here he'll be regularly working again. 3) Those things said, this team has to drive in more baserunners. They leave way too many guys on base. That's not the way to win ballgames. Especially grounding into a 1-out, bases loaded double-play when you've got a big-game pitcher on the ropes early in the game. Unfortunately, it looks like we'll probably lose the division at this point. Unless we destroy Tampa Bay at home it's going to be difficult to better them when we have a far more difficult schedule the rest of the way.
I loved Jeter faking getting plunked last night, only because of the sideways glance that he gave the umpire halfway through his act to see if he was buying it. It's funny, when Jeter does something like that it's gamesmanship. If A-Rod had done it, it would've been an international incident. Also, it's worth pointing out that it was a great play by Jeter--he did score the tying run one batter later, after all.
I'm a little torn on calling it a great play. Did it help his team? Sure. But it's the equivalent of flopping in basketball and soccer, and I rarely see fans applauding one of their team's players taking a dive. A great play to me is a legitimate play in the field or at bat, not faking being hit when you weren't.
This is another case of "unwritten rules" in baseball being unbelievably stupid. You never hear Lakers fans complaining when Kobe draws a call going to the rim, you didn't hear any Baltimore fans complaining when their receivers drew PI flags against the Jets on Monday, but we're all supposed to be outraged that Jeter scammed his way onto first? The Yankees offense was struggling, he found a way to get on base, and he scored the tying run because of it. Great play in my opinion.
No one said you had to be outraged, just usually that that kind of thing is not usually applauded. A fan of NBA Team A may not complain if his team's player flops to draw a call, but he is unlikely to tell people that said player is a great flopper and should be applauded for his magnificent dives.
