Last week, the Boston Red Sox ended a streak of 11 straight games with at least 11 hits.
How often has this happened? Only three times since 1956. In addition to the Red Sox, the 1992 Mariners and the 1979 Cardinals accomplished this feat.
I'm surprised the 2007 Yankees weren't on the list- they had some amazing offensive runs at the end of last year.
Final Score: Yankees 8, Orioles 0
Yankees: 21-25
Orioles: 24-21
W- Rasner (3-0)
L- Olson (3-1)
Offense: Finally, the offense woke up! After weeks of miserable hitting, the hitting finally scored more than two runs, as they blew the Orioles out 8-0. A-Rod hit his second home run since returning from the Disabled List, and it would have been three if not for a blown call by the umpires in the sixth. Beyond that, Damon, Abreu, Cano, and Moeller all had multi-hit games, and the only starter to go hitless was Hideki Matsui. A-Rod's three hits ended up being huge, and his presence in the lineup adds so much to the offense. After winning two MVP's in the last three years, the Yankees are finally finding out why A-Rod is so valuable to have in the lineup. It just took a stint on the Disabled List to realize that.
Pitching: In his third start of the season, Darrell Rasner continued his dominating pitching, shutting down the Orioles through seven. His final line: 7 innings, 5 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, and 6 strikeouts. He now has a 1.89 ERA through three starts, all of which he has won. He has emerged as a solid, reliable, and consistent starter at the back end of the rotation, and his ability to perform will determine how well the Yankees play here in the early part of the season. So far, he has done a magnificent job, coming out of nowhere ala Shawn Chacon/Aaron Small to give the Yankees a huge boost. Joba Chamberlain pitched two scoreless innings in the eighth and ninth, tying his career high with 35 pitches. After the game, Joe Girardi said that they are going to try and stretch Joba out more often in preparation for his eventual starting role.
Final Notes:
- This was the first time since May 8th that the Yankees had scored more than 5 runs.
- Alex Rodriguez is now 15th on the all time home run list, with 524.
- Well, here's some bad news. Chien-Ming Wang apparently has a calf strain that may cause him to miss his next start. He will throw a bullpen session tomorrow and gauge his level of pain. Hopefully, nothing major comes of this.
- The Yankees are now 21-25 on the season. It's certainly a below average record, but tonight's game gave a glimmer of hope for the future months of 2008.
I was listening to some sports radio talk this afternoon, and everyone is just going crazy over the Yankees.
People are saying, "This is a huge, make-or-break series for the Yankees," and "I'm already counting the Yankees out." Whatever happened to having faith in one's team?
If you look back at a lot of Yankees blogs from May of 2007, people were saying the exact same thing. How did that turn out? Well, the Yankees made the playoffs without a problem.
Considering the injuries and the lack of offense these last few weeks, the Yankees are doing alright. They're 20-25, which is certainly a concern, but it's no time to panic. There are nearly 120 games left on the season, and the Yankees are notorious for heating up in the summer months.
So if you are a Yankee fan out there, relax. Tonight's game against the Orioles won't make or break their season. The series is not that important.
Still, the Yankees need to start getting wins unless they want to dig a deeper hole.
After finishing his rehabilitation of a strained right quadriceps, Alex Rodriguez is set to join the team tonight against Baltimore. While on the DL, A-Rod missed more games than he had in the last seven years combined.
"I'm excited to get back into Yankee Stadium and playing baseball. It's where I belong," Rodriguez said after going 2-for-6 in an extended spring training game Monday.
Without A-Rod, the Yankees have certainly struggled. They are last in the East with a 20-24 record. Their offense, more so than their pitching, has been a detriment to the team, and hopefully the return of A-Rod will provide a spark.
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Here are some other notes from Yankeeland:
- 17-year-old Dominican outfielder Kevin DeLeon is playing with the extended spring team and homered Monday.
- The Yankees' May 11th rainout at Detroit has been rescheduled for September 1st at 1:05 P.M.
- You probably heard or saw that Jon Lester threw a no-hitter last night. It was the fourth Red Sox no hitter since 2002, and it was almost the fifth, considering Curt Schilling was one out away from throwing one last year. The Yankees haven't had a no-hitter since 1999, when David Cone threw his perfect game. Mike Mussina was one out away in 2001, and Chien-Ming Wang was five outs away last year against the Mariners. It's just been too long- I'm calling a Yankee no hitter in the very near future. But I've been wrong before.
The Yankees, now 20-24, are in last place for the first time since...well, May of last year. In fact, they were in last place as late as May 28th last year and still managed to win the Wild Card without a problem.
Right now, it's tough to blame a specific player or coach. I think it's safe to say that the blame can be shared among a lot of the players. The pitching has been very inconsistent, and the offense has scored twelve runs in the last six games. You're just not going to win games with those numbers.
I'd like to be optimistic at this point, considering A-Rod will return this week and Posada is on his way back. But still, the Yankees have just looked awful these past few weeks, and if they don't turn it around, it could be a long summer.
The same scenario existed last year, and they managed to dig themselves out of the hole. Hopefully the same happens this year.
1) Jason Giambi caused quite a stir on Saturday when the Daily News reported that he often wears a gold thong under his uniform pants when trying to snap out of a slump. "I was blown away," Yankees broadcaster David Cone said with a smile. "You've got to be pretty confident in yourself to let that one out." Several teammates have acknowledged they've tried wearing it too, including Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon. In fact, before yesterday's game against the Mets, a sign on Mike Mussina's locker read: "Pitchers need thongs too." Stange superstitions are nothing new in baseball. Hall of Famer Wade Boggs ate chicken before every game. Nomar Garciaparra fidgets with his batting gloves after each pitch and sidles down the dugout steps two feet at a time. But in my opinion, the golden thong tops them all.
2) The first round of interleague play ends today, and one main message has been surging through baseball: wow, look at the National League. The N.L. suddenly carries greater offensive clout, scoring more runs per game and having fifteen of the top sixteen home run hitters in baseball. Joel Sherman of the Post has a theory for this: we have morphed from the Steroid Era to the Age of the Rat. In other words, the A.L. has been slumping because of trainers, ex-wives, doctors, and even family members that are coming to the forefront of the baseball world and telling all they know about players' use of drugs. And historically, A.L. teams go after older, stronger veterans than their N.L. counterparts. The A.L. has dominated interleague play through the years, going a staggering 100 games over .500 in the past four seasons alone. But that might be about to change. For two decades starting in the early 1960s, the N.L. dominated the A.L. in the All-Star Game because they were quicker to fully integrate players of color. Now they might be on the brink of this turnaround because of a quicker devotion to younger players in the Age of the Rat.
3) Damn, I am glad I drafted Brandon Webb in my fantasy draft. For him, it's another year and another record run. When Webb won his ninth consecutive start in an 8-5 victory over Colorado on Thursday, he became just the fifth pitcher since 1920 to win his first nine starts. Last season, he threw 42 consecutive scoreless innings, which tied with Rube Foster for 12th place on the all time list. "It's pretty amazing," Webb said of his current run. "Things are just happening. Almost every time I've been out there, they've gotten me a lead."
4) Mets manager Willie Randolph called a closed-door meeting in response to the latest remarks by closer Billy Wagner, who said Friday he was being critical of the media, not his teammates. When asked about the meeting, Randolph said, "I don't try to insulate them. I don't care that they know that my head's on the block or something like that. I mean, that shouldn't be their concern." Then, Wagner, in response to questions about his comments, said that, "Whoever wrote that I pointed out Delgado and was calling guys out is wrong. I don't call out anybody. We get along good around here. We lost a tough game and we're a little frustrated." For all the hoopla that's going on in Metsland, they still have a better record than the Yankees do.
5) Let's look at some league leaders around baseball. Chipper Jones continues to lead baseball with a stunning .412 average. Lance Berkman, who is having a phenomenal season so far, is second with a .399 clip. Berkman leads the majors with 16 home runs, while Chase Utley, Dan Uggla, and Nate McLouth round out the top 4 with 14,13, and 12 home runs respectively. Josh Hamilton of Texas continues to lead baseball with 49 RBI's, which means he is on pace to break Hack Wilson's single season record of 191 RBI's. On the pitching side, Brandon Webb leads all pitchers with nine wins, and Daisuke Matsuzaka and Joe Saunders are each tied for second place with seven wins. Tim Lincecum has 63 strikeouts, tops in baseball, and Jake Peavy and Javier Vasquez are just behind. The top 5 in ERA are just absurd: Cliff Lee (0.67), Edinson Volquez (1.12), Tim Lincecum (1.92), Zack Greinke (1.93), and Daisuke Matsuzaka (2.15). Remember, the all-time record for ERA is 1.12, by Bob Gibson.
Who's Hot: Derek Jeter, Mike Mussina, Jason Giambi, Robinson Cano, Chien-Ming Wang
Who's Not: Ian Kennedy, Jose Molina, Kyle Farnsworth, Shelley Duncan
Quote of the Week: "I was trying to speed up the game." -- Lyle Overbay, after lining out to Asdrubal Cabrera, who turned the 14th unassisted triple play in history.
Link of the Week: Click here
Standings
Tampa Bay 25-18
Boston 26-19
Baltimore 23-19
Toronto 22-23
New York 20-23
Final Score: Mets 7, Yankees 4
Mets: 21-19
Yankees: 20-23
W- Johan Santana (5-2)
L- Andy Pettitte (3-5)
SV- Billy Wagner (9)
Offense: After scoring just six runs in four games at Tampa Bay, the Yankee offense continued to slump, scoring only four runs in a game where their pitching suffered. Last year, in games like this, the Yankee offense could often dig the pitching out of poor games, but that has not been the case this year. The four runs came off a Derek Jeter two-run home run in the first, a Jason Giambi home run in the seventh, and a Bobby Abreu home run in the eighth. The Yankees had a bunch of opportunities to score more runs, but their base running and situational hitting was horrible. On the positive side, Derek Jeter had three hits to raise his average to .314, and Abreu and Giambi each had multi-hit games. On the negative side, Hideki Matsui, Alberto Gonzalez, Melky Cabrera, and Chad Moeller all went hitless, and Shelley Duncan and Morgan Ensberg both got out in pinch-hitting roles in the ninth. The Yankees, at three games under .500, really need to start hitting and manufacturing runs; hopefully, more runs will come with the return of A-Rod next week.
Pitching: Andy Pettitte looked dominant in his first few innings, striking out five of the first seven batters he faced. Through three innings, he had allowed just two hits and no runs. However, he imploded in the fourth inning, allowing three runs, four hits, and two walks, which gave the Mets the lead. He left the game down only 3-2, but the bullpen ended up allowing more runs, and the Yankees just could not come back. With the loss, Pettitte moves to 3-5 on the year with a 4.42 ERA. Kyle Farnsworth, who has been so good for the Yankees this year, gave up three runs in the seventh inning on home runs by Jose Reyes and David Wright. Edwar Ramirez pitched a scoreless eighth, and Joba Chamberlain gave up one run in the ninth to raise his ERA to 2.95. If the bullpen had held the deficit to one run, the Yankees had a very good chance of coming back, but in this game, the bullpen was not successful in doing so. It looks like Willie Randolph's job is safe for one more day.
Final Notes:
- Billy Wagner has now allowed 0 earned runs in 17 innings this year.
- Johan Santana has allowed 11 home runs in 9 starts for the Mets. He allowed 33 with the Twins last year.
- Giambi's home run was his 185th with the Yankees, which tied him with Paul O'Neill for 15th most on the all-time Yankee list.
- With Jeter hitting third, Bobby Abreu batted second for the second time this season.
Every Saturday here at the Bronx Insider, I'll list a few "Short Hops," or oddities from around baseball, courtesy of athlonsports.com. Here are this week's:
- Like countless catchers, Luke Carlin can't hit a lick. But like countless catchers, he eventually found his way to the big leagues -- belatedly -- by handing himself well behind the plate, throwing out lots of runners in the minors and generally being a good dude. He may have started the 2008 season with a trifling .241 average in more than 1,500 plate appearances on the farms, but the switch-hitting Quebecer twice has won community service awards.
Last Friday, Carlin, who wasn't even starting during his third go-round in Triple A, was uneasy when he got word to report to the quarters of Portland manager Randy Ready. "The last time I got called in the office, I was released," he said. But this news was much different: The Padres needed him in San Diego immediately. And for a potentially historic reason.
Twenty-four hours later, the chatty backstop was staring at a box score with his name in it, and it wasn't flattering. He'd committed a passed ball and had struck out in each of his three plate appearances against the Rockies. For once, he said he was "pretty much speechless," yet managed to characterize his experience as the day "all my dreams came true at once." Carlin, in his major league debut, had just caught Greg Maddux's 350th win.
- Jason Giambi is the proud owner of seven home runs and six singles. Don Drysdale finished the 1958 season with those exact stats.
- Jose Guillen leads the Royals with 19 RBIs even though he's hitting just .216. That projects to 81 ribbies for the full year. Only two major leaguers have finished seasons with at least that many RBI and a lower average -- Dave Kingman twice and Gorman Thomas.
- Despite having only 29 hits, Rickie Weeks has scored 31 runs. The pace on this one is 129 tallies and 120 knocks, which would be a modern record for most runs with that many or fewer hits.
- The Rangers and Rockies, two teams notorious for burning through a staff, needed fewer than 35 games to send 18 different pitchers apiece to the mound this year.
- Brad Penny is now 5-12 with a 6.21 ERA in 20 starts versus the Mets, but 88-58, 3.74 against everyone else.
- Casey Blake started 2008 with a .219 average in 736 at bats with runners in scoring position. This season, he's 16-for-36 (.444).
- The Phillies intentionally walked Omar Vizquel three times on Sunday. That equals or exceeds his high for 19 of his 20 SEASONS.
- Houston's Shawn Chacon has set a National League record by starting the season with no decisions in each of his first eight starts. Cincy's Edinson Volquez has tired one by allowing two or fewer earned runs in each of his first eight.
- The White Sox lead the AL in home runs, but they're 0-10 when they don't hit one.
Ever since 1997, the Yankees and Mets have played an interleague series every year, which makes some fans eager and some fans displeased. Interleague play has always been a controversial subject, but either way you slice it, the subway series between the Yankees and Mets is always exciting to watch.
Here are the pitching matchups for the series:
Tonight, 7:05 P.M.: Johan Santana (4-2, 3.10) vs. Darrell Rasner (2-0, 3.00)
Tomorrow, 1:05 P.M.: Oliver Perez (3-3, 4.61) vs. Andy Pettitte (3-4, 4.40)
Sunday, 8:05 P.M.: John Maine (5-2, 2.81) vs. Chien-Ming Wang (6-1, 2.90)
My Prediction: Tonight's game gets rained out and the Yankees lose Game 1 tomorrow and then win games 2 and 3 of the series. Andy Pettitte pitches a shutout.
Jim Thome, Albert Pujols, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Ken Griffey Jr., Luis Gonzalez, Barry Bonds, and Hank Aaron all share the record for the most individual games with a home run in their team's first 40 games.
The number is 16.
In 2008, the most is 12 by Lance Berkman.
Recent Comments
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