A Triple For The Ages

In a sport with a boatload of arbitrary stats and quirky accomplishments, the cycle stands out as perhaps the most contrived of them all. It's not like a perfect game/no-hitter, where the end goal is the best possible outcome. If Melky Cabrera had hit two homers, a double and walked once it would have equal or greater value but wouldn't have met the narrow definition of a cycle and therefore would been remembered as a great individual game, but not recorded in the annals of baseball history.

As Mike from RAB pointed out last night, cycles occur about as often as no-hitters, but are in fact much rarer considering only one pitcher per team has a chance to throw a no-hitter in each game, whereas nine batters per team have a chance at a cycle. Coincidentally, there have been roughly the same amount of "natural" cycles, which is achieved by hitting 1B, 2B, 3B, HR in order (14), as there have been perfect games (18). Only three players have ever hit for more than two cycles, Babe Herman, Bob Meusel and John Reilly, with three apiece.

Despite the fact that a cycle doesn't have a perfect correlation to value within the context of the game, Melky's triple in the 9th inning was one of the most exciting moments of the season, in my eyes. So often, we hear the announcers point out that a player is "only a triple short of the cycle" when of course even a great triples hitter would only have maybe a 1 in 50 or 60 chance to hit one in that specific plate appearance. The odds were considerably longer for Melky, who hadn't hit a triple in over a year and before that not since August 25, 2007. That's one three-bagger in over 850 PAs... you do the math.

Just last week it appeared that Robinson Cano had a pretty good chance at a cycle, when he had notched a triple and a home run by the sixth inning. Alas, he did get two more plate appearances but only managed to walk and fly out to center. For him, walking twice in the same game was quite rare, but Tony Fernandez's 14 year old achievement still stood.

Until yesterday. Over the 289 cycles that have been recorded I'm guessing that Melky's .381 WPA would rank pretty high up on that list. The Yankees' offense as a whole only contributed .457. He drove in four runs and scored three, directly contributing to the 6 of the Yankees' 8 runs. He put them up 3-0 with a 3 run homer in the second, scored the tying run in the 4th after Sabathia gave back the lead, put the Yanks ahead 5-4 in the 5th with a single and scored a big insurance run in the 9th, stretching the lead from 2 to 3.

Michael Kay said that the game was "too close to take a chance" in reference to going for a triple on a ball hit into the gap when Melky was up in the 9th, but the Melk Man motored into third and beat the throw by the slimmest of margins.

Baseball has a lot of quiet moments in between pitches, innings and at bats. There are a lot of lopsided games where the outcomes are seemingly already determined in the ninth inning. It's not often that a play in baseball reaches such an extended crescendo, with a 270 foot sprint, capped by a slide successful by only a split second. Remember this one because they might be mentioning it during Yankees games for a long, long time.

Yanks Salvage Series Finale

The Yankees played the Texas Tornado to the White Sox Mr. Perfect on Sunday, touching up Mark Buehrle for 12 hits and 7 runs over 4.1 IP.

CC Sabathia wasn't particularly sharp, giving up four runs through the first three innings, leave the Yanks down a run. But he settled in from there, and finished the day scattering 1o hits over 7+ innings, giving up 5 runs, fanning five and walking none.

The story of the game however is Melky Cabrera, who homered in the first, doubled in the fourth, singled in the fifth, and tripled in the ninth, becoming the first Yankee to hit for the cycle in nearly 14 years.


Hey fans! Did you know that Tony Fernandez was the last Yankee to hit for the cycle, doing so on 9/3/95? Of course you did, YES only brings it up about once a week. Much like Derek Jeter's previous grand slam drought, this little nugget had become my pet peeve meaningless historical reference that the announcers beat into the ground. So as I texted to Jay, and he put up on our Twitter feed, the best part about Melky's cycle is that we never have to hear about Tony Fernandez again. I can only imagine what the next stat-to-beat-into-the-ground will be.

Melky finished at 4 for 5 with 3 runs scored and 4 RBI. He also made a nice diving catch. I've been critical of him as he cooled off considerably after his torrid April, but I have to say, since Gardner has gone down, Melky has really stepped it up, going 14 of his last 35 (.400), with 8 extra base hits and six walks. Now if he would just throw to the right base.

Nick Swisher also had a nice game against his former team, 2 for 3 with 2 BB and 2 runs scored. Jerry Hairston Jr started at third, giving A-Rod a half day off, and went 2 for 3 to raise his Yankee batting average to .500.

Phil Hughes and Mo closed it out. I don't quite understand Joe Girardi's rationale as to why Mo can nail down a four out save, but not a five out save, nor do I understand the rationale behind yanking Hughes mid inning at all. Maybe he'll tell us straight on WB Mason presents the Joe Girardi Show only on YES. It worked though, even if Mo had to sit through a 25 minute top of the ninth before getting back to work.

In all it was a nice to end an otherwise brutal series. The Yanks are still in first by a half game and I'm sure the Monday off day will be far more enjoyable having avoided a sweep - even if they do have to spend it in Canada.

(Photo from AP/ESPN)

Game 105: Perfect Day

CC Sabathia remains the Yankees last hope to scoop the last game of this series, leave Chicago with a portion of their dignity intact and guarantee that they will still have a share of the lead in the AL East when play ends today. The Red Sox are just a half of a game back now and begin play in Baltimore at 1:35, so you can expect some scoreboard watching.

The Big CCheese hasn't been especially good as of late, and the offense hasn't been particularly productive behind him all year. Over his past 7 starts, he's been mixing in some solid performances (three games with 7IP and one or fewer runs) with some stinkers (three starts with more than 5 runs allowed). He's allowed more than a hit per inning over that time in addition to 12 walks while striking out 39. The Yanks need their man to step up in order to get their first win against a team with "Sox" in their name this year.

The White Stockings will counter with their own lefty ace. Mark Buerhle has been pitching in some rarefied air as of late, following up his perfect game against the Rays by retiring the first 17 batters he faced in his next start against the Twins. Dating back to his previous start against the Orioles, Buerhle had retired a Major League record 45 batters in a row without allowing a walk, hit, hit by pitch or having an error committed behind him. Pretty remarkable stuff.

Of course, the wheels came off for the lefty and he ended up getting tagged for 5 runs and the loss against the Twins. But such is the delicate balance of being a pitcher. For all of the efforts to reduce it down to mechanics and execution, it remains incredibly difficult to have extended runs of dominance and when they do occur, they can vanish instantly. It's not like golf where the ball is stationary. It's not like basketball where the hoop is. It's not like football where the person you are throwing it to shares a common goal. As evidenced by the at bat I detailed last night, a batter can intervene at any time and spoil the hurler's plan.

As a reminder of how rare elusive perfection can be, before Buerhle, the last perfect game thrown by a Pale Hose pitcher was by Charlie Roberston in 1922. It was followed by a league-wide perfect game drought that lasted over 34 years and ended with Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series.

It's yet another rainy shitshow on the East Coast, but it could scarcely be nicer out in Chicago. Great day for some baseball. Some might even say it's a...

Just a perfect day,
Problems are left to know,
Weekenders all night long,
It's such fun.

Just a perfect day,
You make me forget myself,
I thought I was someone else,
Someone good.