Groundhog Day: Wintertime Blues

Good morning Fackers. We're coming to you a little earlier than usual this morning, with this publishing at 7:00 AM. Twenty six minutes from now, the sun will rise in western Pennsylvania, bringing daylight to the tiny town of Punxsutawney. Shortly thereafter, some quack wearing a tuxedo and top hat will hold a glorified rodent aloft, and it will magically determine whether or not winter will last for another six weeks.

If that furball sees his shadow, I'm gonna be pissed. I've had enough of winter and cannot wait for baseball to start. So I'm not putting my faith in any groundhog today. As we will remind you later on, it's just fifteen days until pitchers and catchers report. And you can't have Spring Training if it's still winter. So shadow or no shadow, winter ends in two weeks and one day. And I couldn't be happier about that.

And if Punxsutawney Phil doesn't tell us what we want to hear, perhaps Staten Island Chuck will have better news for us. At the very least, Chuck should have the decency not to bite the mayor this year; his company has developed some pretty sweet baseball analytics software. On the other hand, if Bloomberg doesn't eventually offer the general public some version of the pro software, I say chomp away Chuck.

Well, it's the same old drill,
About Punxsutawney Phil,
If he's sees his own shadow,
I'm shootin' to kill.

Come on over baby,
I stand accused,
There's a man going crazy up here,
With the wintertime blues.

Game 6 Postponed

Check out that radar. It doesn't take a meteorologist to figure out that ain't baseballing weather.

So much for walking between the raindrops, Fackers. No game tonight. Someone better tell Andy Pettitte.

That doesn't sound safe.

I pulled back the preview I wrote but I'll touch it up and re-post it before the game tomorrow, cause I sure as shit am not going to write a whole new one. Woulda been nice to be done with this series already, huh? Brutal.

Mitre Finally Delivers

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Who would have thought that after two dominant performances by A.J. Burnett and C.C. Sabathia which resulted in a loss and a no-decision that it would be Sergio Mitre who finally followed through and picked up a win? Ten runs in support surely didn't hurt, but the start he turned it was better that what either of the high-priced offseason acquisitions turned in the past two games, at least in terms of runs allowed: 0.

Mitre effortlessly plowed through 4 1/3 perfect innings before allowing his only hit of the game, a double down the line ot Jim Thome. He then induced back to back ground outs to Jermaine Dye and Alex Rios to keep the White Sox off the board. The only other baserunner Mitre gave up was via a walk to Brent Lillibridge to start the 7th inning. The very next batter, A.J. Pierzynski, hit a line drive off of Mitre's right forearm, which Mitre corralled and threw to first for the out, but ended his dream start after only 6 1/3 innings. X-Rays were negative.

The Serg had only thrown 73 pitches, and looked to be ticketed for at least the 8th inning and possibly a complete game. He only struck out two batters but benefited from some excellent defensive plays like the diving stop and throw to first by A-Rod to keep his perfect game alive in the 5th and a ridiculous ranging snag and toss by Robinson Cano behind second base in the 6th. Chad Gaudin came on in relief, finishing the game with 2 2/3 scoreless innings, 4 strikeouts and only one walk.

Oh yeah, the offense was pretty good in this one, too. The Yanks pounded Jose Contreras, tagging him with 7 runs without the use of a homer before chasing him from the game in the 4rd inning. D.J. Carrasco allowed one of his inherited runners to score so in all, 8 runs scored on the big Cuban's watch, 6 earned.

Continuing with the even-numbered inning scoring barrage, the Yanks tacked on individual runs in the 6th and 8th innings, the first on a single by Cano scoring Mark Teixeria and the second on A-Rod's 23rd homer of the year. Derek Jeter continued his impossibly hot streak by going 3-4 while everyone in the starting line up scored a run.

Today probably marks the last time I try to play amateur meteorologist for a while. Not only were there no delays, but it hardly rained at all during the game despite overcast skies. I wasn't alone in my assumptions, though, as the stands were sparsely populated, at least for a Saturday afternoon game.

The win tonight brings the Yankees to a season-high 33 games over .500 and one win away from completing the sweep of the White Sox in the Bronx. The Red Sox get underway shortly over at Fenway, and they'll have to win to stay 6.0 games behind the Yanks. Your move, Boston.