Game 129: Riders On The Storm

Sergio Mitre has the unenviable task today of wandering around the clubhouse and biding his time while Tropical Depression Danny shifts shapes amorphously out in the Atlantic and tosses rain down on Yankee Stadium. Sergio might be used to the suspense by now though, since he's only appeared in two of the last 15 games for the Yanks. He makes Phil Hughes seem taxed by comparison.

Mitre had his best start of the year (still not all that good) in Seattle on the 15th, but since then has only popped up once, in two innings of relief during the Red Sox game the Yanks won by 9 runs. After working a perfect 8th inning, Mitre allowed 4 runs in the 9th including two homers before recording the final out. Who knows which Mitre we are going to get today, but the recent inactivity doesn't bode very well for his success.

Former Yankee Jose Contreras will take the mound for the White Sox today. El Titan de Bronze got off to a rocky start this year, getting sent down to AAA after an 0-5 start with an 8.19 ERA. He reemerged triumphantly, however after being called up for the first game of a double-header a month later. He pitched 8 innings of scoreless ball and then duplicated the feat in his next start out. Since then, his ERA has hovered around 5, mixing some good performances with some terrible ones. Since he varies his arm angle his control is erratic, sometimes allowing too many walks, and other times compiling lots of strikeouts while walking hardly anyone. This is the essence of Contreras, brilliant at times, but consistently inconsistent.

Jose Molina will be doing the catching again today as Jerry Hairston Jr. spells Melky in centerfield. Other than that, it will be the usual suspects, including Hurricane A-Rod at 3rd.

Last night's game went late, but not for the reason I envisioned in the preview. Today however, with Danny slowly meandering his way up the East Coast, it's clear there are going to be some delays involved with riding out this storm.

Riders on the storm,
Into this house were born,
Into this world were thrown,
Like a dog without a bone,
An actor out on loan,
Riders on the storm.

Since there will likely be some time to kill before game time, here's a Snoop Dogg remix of the song that I didn't know existed until I searched for the original on YouTube today. Truth be told, I think it's pretty damn good.