Game 18: When The Lights Go Out

The Yankees have won their first five series of 2010. If they're going to open the season with six straight series victories for the first time in club history, they'll have to capture their fourth rubber game of the young season.

Javy Vazquez goes to the hill for the Yankees this afternoon. His three starts in 2010 have gone from poor to mediocre to satisfactory. Today he'll try to continue his upward trend and turn in his first quality start of 2010 after recording 22 quality starts in 32 outings last year. Vazquez faced these Angels eleven days ago, getting booed off the mound at Yankee Stadium after allowing four earned runs over five and a third innings. I'd tell you what his career numbers are against the Angels, but b-r.com is having all sorts of server problems today, and the splits pages have disappeared. He's made only one other start against the Angels since 2005, getting a no decision with two earned runs over six and two thirds in 2008.

Scott Kazmir gets the ball for the Halos. The lefty made his 2010 debut in the series finale against the Yanks just over a week ago, and they abused him to the tune of eleven baserunners, six runs, and three homers over four innings of work. He rebounded to pick up the win against the Tigers on Tuesday, going five and two thirds of shutout ball, giving up six hits and no walks against seven Ks. While with Tampa Bay, Kazmir had a great deal of success against the Yankees, but has lost both his starts against them since moving out West. He also had an ugly go of it in last year's ALCS, surrendering five runs, four of them earned, over four innings in a start and two thirds of an inning of relief. Overall though, the Yankee hitters do not have good numbers against him.

So as the lights go out on both the west coast portion of the Yankees' road trip and their only visit to the Big A during the 2010 season, the Yankees will try to win yet another rubber game to take yet another series. As such, we'll turn to The Black Keys and the lead track from their album Rubber Factory.

You can be, oh so mean
I just can't see, no in between
You know what the sun's all about
When the lights go out

-Lineups-

Yankees:
Nick Johnson's stiff back keeps him out of the lineup for the second consecutive day. Combined with tomorrow's off day, Johnson will have three days to rest. Nick Swisher moves up the two spot in the order, where he can further showcase his bunting skills. Jorge Posada takes Johnson's spot as the DH, giving the Cisco Kid his third start behind the plate in the last four days. Facing the lefty Kazmir, Marcus Thames is predictably in the lineup, playing left field. It's a bit of roll of the dice with flyball pitcher Vazquez on the mound for the Yanks, which says nothing of the hot bat Brett Gardner's been swinging this weekend.

Jeter SS
Swisher RF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Cano 2B
Posada DH
Thames LF
Granderson CF
Cervelli C

Angels:

Maicer Izturis SS
Bobby Abreu RF
Torii Hunter CF
Hideki Matsui DH
Kendry Morales 1B
Juan Rivera LF
Howie Kendrick 2B
Mike Napoli C
Brandon Wood 3B

Swept Away

As far as sweeps go, that one was pretty bad. It occurred against the Red Sox, involved a blown save by Mariano Rivera, a fackin' Kevin Youkilis walk-off homer onto Landsdowne St., a grand slam by Jason Varitek, games called by Tim McCarver and Joe Morgan, and the coup de grace, a fucking steal of home by Jacoby Ellsfairy. 

It's only one run. It didn't decide the game. I'm guessing it probably won't happen again. But that perfectly placed the poo cherry right on top of the shit sundae that was this series. If you look closely at the replays (or watch the end of the slideshow below), you'll see that he tripped about 10 feet from home plate, which actually helped him barely sneak under the tag. The expression on Andy Pettitte's face pretty much says it all: 

It looks like he just watched someone kick his dog. Although, to complete the analogy, Pettitte would have been holding the leash when it happened. 

The only thing that eases the pain is the fact that this weekend was absolutely beautiful this weekend here on the Eastern seaboard, and still is. Would you trade three Yankee wins for three straight days of 50 degrees and rain? I'll get back to you in September. 

It's still April, and the Yanks are 9-9. They are heading to a pitcher's park and will have their ace on the hill tonight. I just hope this is the last sweep at the hands of the Sox this year, because this is (not surprisingly) the only song in my iTunes library that has anything to do with sweeping. 

[Disclaimer: It's only a little over a minute long, but please be sure to remove all sharp objects from your reach, because this show is about three times more depressing than I intended it to be.]

Paging Sigmund Freud

Take A Bow

Dear Jacoby Ellsbury,

Thank you for giving us a reason to hate your fucking guts. In the meantime, suck a bag of dicks.

Cordially,
Fack Youk

Game 18: Spotlight

Was yesterday's 16-11 shitshow the worst game ever? It was far too nice out to spend four hours and twenty one minutes in front of the TV yesterday, so I only saw about 15 of the lead changes. Let's take a lazy Sunday stroll around the blogoverse and see what we missed, shall we?

• PeteAbe tells us that it was only the second game in franchise history that the Yankees lost by 5 or more runs after leading by 6 or more
  
  
• Kim Jones got her wish for 9 innings, but somehow I don't think that was quite what she had in mind
  

• Ben K. thought the umpiring was terrible
  
  
• Matthew Pouliot of Circling the Bases wasn't a fan of the managerial maneuvers either
  
  
• Andrew from Scott Proctor's Arm recapped the ups and downs
  
  
• The Chucknoblog wonders why Damaso Marte sucks so much
  
  
• The blog Center Field surveys the wreckage through Sox-colored lenses
  
  
• She-Fan tries to take a look on the bright side
  
  
• And Alex Belth makes everything okay ("There's music in the ay-uh").
  

All is not lost, friends. A win tonight and the Yanks can salvage some dignity, stop the Sox 9 game win streak, and stay above .500 on the season. Andy Pettitte takes the hill against Justin Masterson, who is off to a good start filling in for Matsuzaka.

The rivalry shifts to primetime tonight, or as some might call it, the Spotlight.



(Not a huge DMB fan, but that's a pretty cool version of that song, which he hasn't played live since 1993)

Regardless of your rooting affiliations, I'm sure you are you are thrilled by the inevitability of being entertained by the vocal stylings of Jon Miller, the flawless logic of Steve Phillips and of course the sage insights of Joe Morgan. If you hear anything egregious, feel free to preserve it in eternity by dropping it in the comments section.

Just remember this it's not only an East Coast thing.