Game 30: Easy Goin' Evening (My Mama's Call)

Despite weathering what seems like an interminable and unwaivering onslaught of injuries, the Yankees find themselves carrying a six game winning into the series finale at Fenway tonight.

Since Curtis Granderson went down last Saturday during a losing effort to the White Sox, the Yanks haven't lost again and are averaging almost nine runs per game. The real key to their success, though, has been in holding the opposition to just 16 runs over that time, and allowing them to score more than three runs just once (and in that game, four of the five runs came in the 8th and 9th innings when the Orioles had little chance of coming back).

Smack dab in the middle of that streak was a 7 1/3 inning, one run gem tossed by A.J. Burnett in the Bronx. With Francisco Cervelli behind the plate, Burnett finally discovered his long lost Uncle Charlie and fanned eight Orioles in the process. While he continued to feed the birds a steady diet of two and four-seam fastballs and induced 10 groundballs, it was his curve that allowed him to set a season high in K's.

Burnett only dropped 8 of his 19 hooks in for strikes but five of those were the all-important strike three. Perhaps the comfort of knowing that Cervelli would be able block the wilder curves (something he likely doesn't have with Jorge Posada) gave Burnett the confidence to finally attempt to harness it in game action. We'll see if he goes back to it this evening as the battery will be united again as Posada is still not ready to put on the catcher's gear yet.

For the Sawx, it's Jawwny Lestah. After three poor starts to begin the year - including a five run, four inning effort against the Yankees - the lefty has really found his stride. He's given up just one run in his past three starts, spanning 20 2/3 innings. Over that time he's allowed just 18 baserunners (10 hits, 8 walks) and struck out 23. He's thrown over 110 pitches each of those times out - including the 5 2/3 innings against the Orioles - but that's not a big deal for Lester; he did it in 12 of his 32 starts last year.

Coming into this series, given all of the attrition to the Yanks' roster, taking two out of three would have been terrific. Thanks to some solid pitching and two offensive explosions, they've already guaranteed themselves that much. A sweep would be tremendous, putting the Sox two games under .500 and eight games back in the standings, but the Yanks are playing with the house's money tonight. Whichever way it goes, it will be difficult to complain with the results of the series and that should make for some pleasant viewing if it weren't for the overenunciations of Jon Miller and the inane ramblings of Joe Morgan. Do your best to tune them out and enjoy the game.

[Song Notes: This one is an instrumental so any purported significance has to be derived from the title. The reason for picking this one should be pretty self-explanatory. I'm not going to get all sentimental like last year but I wanted to take a moment to wish my mom a happy Mother's Day. She reads the blog on a pretty regular basis and has started watching more baseball in an effort to better understand what we are talking about. She's probably more proactive about telling other people about the site than I am and actually seems fairly proud of what we do despite the fact that I don't always use G-rated language and all this writing probably keeps me from doing more productive things with my life. Thanks Ma.]

-Lineups-

Yankees:
At long last, Jorge Posada returns to the lineup for the first time since Monday. He won't be behind the plate, but will DH tonight. Francisco Cervelli gets his fifth straight start behind the dish. Robinson Cano returns to second base, but for the moment at least, it appears Kevin Russo will stick around for another night. With Posada's bat back in the middle of the order, Nick Swisher's power isn't quite so needed in the heart of the line up. He moves up to the two spot, pushing Brett Gardner back to the bottom of the order. Lastly, with a lefty on the mound, Marcus Thames gets the nod in left. Thanks to the big green wall, he doesn't have too much ground to cover.

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Jorge Posada DH
Marcus Thames LF
Francisco Cervelli C
Brett Gardner CF

Red Sox:

Marco Scutaro SS
Dustin Pedroia 2B
Victor Martinez C
Kevin Youkilis 1B
J.D. Drew RF
David Ortiz DH
Adrian Beltre 3B
Jeremy Hermida LF
Darnell McDonald CF

Game 2: We Gotta Live Together

Coming off a tough loss in Fenway on Sunday night, the Yankees face an even tougher pitching match up against the Red Sox this evening. The true ace of the Sox staff, 26 year old left hander Jon Lester gets the call this evening while the Yanks counter with A.J. Burnett.

Lester is coming off of two straight seasons with 200+ innings and sub-3.50 ERAs. Although he started one fewer game in 2009 then in '08, Lester recorded 73 more strikeouts, jumping his K/9 from 6.5 to 10.0. Predictably, his FIP dropped almost an entire run from 4.08 to 3.13 as a result. There are a host of other factors of course, but the increased velocity he saw across the board probably helped generate more swings and misses.

During that same span, Lester continued to allow under one hit per inning and walk just under 3 per 9. Despite the dramatic increase in strikeouts, Lester's ERA actually increased a tick from 3.21 to 3.41 based mostly on an increase in his home run rate from an incredible 0.6 to a simply solid 0.9. As a lefty in Fenway, has done an admirable job of keeping the ball in the park, allowing significantly fewer long balls at home than on the road.

In order to combat the southpaw on the mound, Joe Girardi has elected to go with Marcus Thames over Brett Gardner.

Why this makes sense: The Green Monster makes it more likely that Thames' will do more damage on offense and less on defense. The small left field at Fenway means less ground for him to cover in the bottom halves of the innings and large, looming target for doubles and home runs in the tops.

Why it doesn't make sense: If anyone should be sitting against lefties (based on previous track records - which is clearly why Thames is getting the start), it should be Curtis Granderson. Gardner hasn't even had a chance to make a start against a lefty this year and Girardi is already sitting him. There is strong an argument to be made for playing both Granderson and Gardner because each can exploit the soft-throwing Victor Martinez if they get on base.

Perhaps Girardi will give Gardner some chances against lesser lefties or in parks with bigger outfields, but Thames gets his shot tonight.

While it might be advantageous to Thames, Fenway was not kind to Burnett last year as he gave up 22 runs in 12 2/3 innings over three starts. The last one of those was a 5 inning, 9 run shellacking on August 22nd that saw Burnett and Posada clash over pitch selection. Burnett was apparently intent on throwing his curveball while Posada thought the Sox hitters were waiting on it. Whether or not there was real animosity between them, Burnett made six more regular season starts and 5 in the postseason, none of which were caught by Posada.

This season, however, appears to be a different story. Burnett has been working with Posada all throughout Spring Training in an effort to get on the same page. Posada apparently endeared himself to Burnett by staying late to catch a simulated game after A.J.'s scheduled start against the Braves got rained out and together, they've been attempting to refine his changeup.

Burnett and Posada aren't the best match. Burnett's tendency to bury curveballs in the dirt doesn't mix well with Posada's 38 year old body. Apparently they have different ideas about what to throw to which hitters in certain counts. But now they Jose Molina is gone to Toronto, they've gotta do their best to figure it out how they can make their battery combination a successful one.

-Lineups-

Yankees:

Jeter SS

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

Red Sox:

Ellsbury LF
Pedroia 2B
Martinez C
Youkilis 1B
Ortiz DH
Beltre 3B
Drew RF
Cameron CF
Scutaro 2B

Fiesty Small Market Underdogs Near Luxury Tax Threshold

Good morning, Fackers. Any guesses as to the identity of the team in the headline? From WEEI:

The signings of John Lackey to a five-year deal in the $82.5 million range and Mike Cameron to a two-year, $15.5 million contract would push the Sox payroll — as calculated for Major League Baseball’s luxury tax purposes — to an all-time franchise high.

Based on salary projections for the players who were offered contracts last Saturday, the Sox are already nearing the $170 million threshold for 2010 at which clubs will be assessed a luxury tax penalty.

It might have been the acquisitions of Lackey and Cameron that put the Sox very close to the Luxury Tax threshold, but as Matthew Pouliot from Circling the Bases points out, the deals given to their homegrown players are a big factor as well:

Prior to last year, the team was so conscious of its position straddling the luxury tax that it avoided signing young players to long-term deals. That changed as Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis and Jon Lester all received extensions that kept them into their free agent years.

And it's those contracts that could put the Red Sox over the top. In reality, those three players, all of whom signed extensions last winter, will earn $16.375 million next season. However, for tax purposes, they're valued at $23.03 million.

The WEEI article provides a player by player estimate of the Sox salaries as they pertain to the Luxury Tax and a breakdown of some of the nuances involved in how the league calculates payroll for it. As far as the MLB is concerned, deals which buy out some arbitration years like the ones singed by Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedrioa and Jon Lester are all taxed at the average annual value of the deal meaning that, although Lester is making $3.75M this year, the Sox pay tax on the AAV of his 5 year, $30M deal.

The Luxury Tax is structured like the taxes we pay to the government, so it only applies to the amount spent over $170M, meaning the amount of money to the Sox will be next to nothing if they do exceed that mark. But the larger point here is that despite the much bemoaned free agent acquisitions the Yankees made last off season, when the dust settles, the two teams are likely to be fairly close (~$30M, 15%) in terms of payroll this year.

To many of the deluded members of Red Sox Nation like the ones who reared their ugly heads here, the Sox are David to the Yankees' Goliath, when in reality, the Sox are playing the role of Goliath to the rest of the league with the exceptions of the Mets and Cubs. Why do Sawx fans cling to the belief that their team is one of the "have nots"?

Part of this is the fact that Boston itself actually is a small market. The city itself has a population of about 600,000 and even expanding to the Greater Boston Area encompasses fewer than 5 million people. However, the Red Sox have a monopoly on the territory that stretches from Maine through New Hampshire, most of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and about half of Connecticut. There isn't one truly large city in that region, but there are a whole lot of small towns. Add them all up and you are pretty close to 10 million people.

Another factor is that deal just given to John Lackey will actually be the second largest in terms of total dollars that the Red Sox have on their books (behind only Matsuzka's if you include the posting fee). A.J. Burnett was given the same exact deal from the Yankees, but it's only the 5th largest the team has on the books, trailing A-Rod, Jeter, Teixeira and Sabathia. This is a positive for the Sox in that they have more future flexibility without those long term commitments, but it also means that they continually have to either develop players from their system or find new free agents to fill their needs.

Do the Sox do this because they can't afford those longer deals or because they typically choose not to employ that strategy? Since they committed over $100M to Matsuzaka and went down to the wire with the Yanks on Teixeira, I would guess it is the latter.

There is a chance that the Sox will have a significantly lower payroll than the Yankees 3, 4 or 5 years from now, but there is also a chance that their prospects don't pan out and they are forced to overpay for stop gaps like Marco Scutaro, John Smotlz and Brad Penny as opposed to having elite but aging players already under contract.

Such is the trade off between living by the seat of your pants and making long term investments in blue chip players. However, at the present moment, the difference between those two strategies in terms of dollars spent isn't especially significant.

Yanks Flip The Script On The Sox

After a week of people declaring that the Yankees weren't built for success in the postseason, it was the Red Sox last night who took some hits - both literally and figuratively - to what John Kruk thought was the only team "ready for the playoffs". Now Boston's rotation is under the microscope.

It was a tough night for Jon Lester who was getting hurt by the Yankees even before Melky Cabrera ripped that line drive that hit him just above his knee in the bottom of the third. It was a scary moment for all baseball fans when Lester hit the deck. He was on his back for quite a while, appeared to be in serious pain and had to be helped off the field. However, X-Rays were negative and Terry Francona thinks Lester will make his next start.

Last night was the young lefty's worst outing since May 9th against the Rays, as he allowed 11 baserunners in just 2 1/3 IP, four of whom scored on his own watch and the last who probably would have came to the plate regardless of who was pitching. His post game comments sounded like something Joba Chamberlain might have said: "I felt like I had good stuff tonight, but it was one of those nights where [the Yankees] made it seem like I didn't."

Marc Carig of the Newark Star-Ledger declared early on last night that it was backwards night at the Stadium and instead of his usual routine Chamberlain has decided to pitch well but then rip himself to the media after the game. That latter part didn't come true, but Joba's final line of (6IP, 5H, 3ER, 1BB, 5K) probably undersells his performance last night just a bit. He'd retired every batter he faced until allowing a solo shot to Victor Martinez with two outs in the fourth inning. As Michael Kay endlessly reminded us, the long bottom of the third due in part to Lester's injury delay probably didn't help much.

The other two runs Chamberlain allowed come via an opposite field 2 run homer by David Ortiz with two outs in the 6th, so he very nearly escaped with only one earned run. Even still, Joba needed only 86 pitches to do his work and there was plenty to be encouraged about.

Chamberlain got into trouble in the fifth inning with men on 2nd and third with no one out but squeezed out of the jam without allowing a run by getting Jason Varitek to pop out to third, striking out Alex Gonzalez swinging and inducing a grounder to Jacoby Ellsbury.

Speaking of the Red Sox' Captain, the Yankees ran absolutely wild against him tonight, stealing a season high 7 bases. It started when Derek Jeter singled and immediately took of for 2nd in the bottom of the first, setting the tone for the rest of the game. The inability to prevent runners from stealing could turn out to be a tragic flaw for the Sox when they match up with the Angels in the ALDS. The Yanks did their part to expose that tonight with Robinson Cano even getting in one the action, picking up just his 5th SB of the year.

A-Rod was the biggest thief of the night, swiping three bags but that only begins to describe his contributions. Alex didn't make an out all night, going 3-3 with a HR (off of Lester), a double, two walks and 4 RBIs.

It was an excellent night for the Yankees and a terrible one for the Red Sox. It was a testament to how quickly things can change. Which of these two teams looks primed for the playoffs now, pundits? Let's not get too excited though because things will probably change a little more today when CC and Dice-K take the mound at 4:00.

Game 154: Empire State Of Mind

The Yankees return home tonight, coming off what was a pretty decent road trip. They got themselves in a 1-3 hole starting with a series loss to the Mariners, but won the last two against the Angels to break even on the six game swing.

This 3 game set in the Bronx will round out the Red Sox final road trip of the season. After dropping the first two against the Royals, the Sox rallied to halve the four game set and these next three against the Yanks will determine if it will be a winning or losing one. It will also determine if the season series between the two teams will be won by the Red Sox or be a wash. It currently sits at 9-6, so if the Yankees win all three, they can square it up.

The tiny superstitious part of me that hasn't been beaten down by studying game theory, years of analyzing market research data and attempting to do objective baseball analysis would rather see the Yankees simply take two out of three than sweep. I guess the fear is that a sweep would make it seem like the Red Sox were due to win some games should they meet in the ALCS.

However, I really hope that one of those two games is tonight. Young Master Joba only has two chances to come up with a respectable start or he might have to face the reality of being left off the postseason roster. His last start in Seattle was downright terrible and even his most ardent supporters need to see something good out of him tonight to regain some confidence in him. Not getting shelled would be nice. Making it though the sixth inning would be a pleasant surprise.

Jon Lester faces the Yanks tonight for the first time since throwing 7 innings of one run ball against them in the Boogie Down back on August 9th. He and Andy Pettitte were locked in a scoreless duel until the 7th inning that night when A-Rod took Lester deep. Victor Martinez answered with a two run homer in the top of the 8th but Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira countered with solo homers off of Daniel Baaahhhd in the bottom half to put the Yanks over the top.

That night the Yanks completed a 4 game sweep, went up 6.5 games up in the division and they haven't been separated by less than 5 games since. With the margin sitting at 5.5 right now, the Sox have the chance to breach that 5 game barrier.

When the schedule first came out in the beginning of the year, there was certainly the potential that this series could have more direct implications on the outcome of the divison. Nonetheless, there's a good chance some champagne will be popped at some point over the weekend. I'm just glad that the best case scenario for my team isn't celebrating it in the Stadium of the club we're trailing for first place.

Unlike the Red Sox, the Yanks got last night off, slept in their own beds and should be refreshed and ready to go as they open their final homestand of the year. Let's hope for an inspired performance from Joba et al. tonight.

Concrete jungle, where dreams are made of,
There's nothing you can’t do,
Now you’re in New York,
These streets will make you feel brand new,
Big lights will inspire you,
Let's hear it for New York, New York, New York.

"You Got No Wins Here, So Better Luck Next Time"

Victor Martinez probably thought he was going to be the hero of last night's game. You could tell by the way he watched his two run homer run off Phil Coke soar into the left field seats in the eighth inning. It was understandable. He was 1-14 in the series to that point, the Red Sox had been trailing 1-0 and were mired in a 31 inning, 116 plate appearance scoreless drought. The difference between 4.5 games back and 6.5 is increasingly significant at this point in the season considering there are only 6 head to head match ups remaining. Instead of saving the Red Sox from a brutal four game sweep, Martinez's shot was more of a last stand; a heroic effort that only temporarily stemmed the tide.

The game started as another pitcher's duel up. Andy Pettitte distributed seven baserunners over 7 innings while striking four without allowing a run. Jon Lester was almost as good, with the only run he allowed in 7 frames coming on a solo shot to A-Rod in the bottom of the seventh inning to break the scoreless tie.

Daniel Bard came on in the bottom of the 8th and looked as if he was about to hand the lead over to Jonathan Papelbon after Hideki Matsui and Derek Jeter both grounded out after a barrage of 97 and 98MPH fastballs. However, Johnny Damon scorched the next one of those he saw into the Yankee bullpen. For the third time in the series, the Red Sox had taken the lead and the Yankees responded by scoring in the next half inning. But they weren't done there.

With Mark Teixeira at the plate, Bard went away from his fastball and instead threw two breaking pitches. In stark contrast to Damon's bullet before, Teix turned on the second one and lofted a sky high shot down the right field line and followed it towards first base with his bat lofted triumphantly in the air. It hung in the air interminably, allowing the crowd noise to swell even louder before landing in the second deck. Teix stole Victor Martinez's thunder and then took a curtain call to top it off. Bard had faced 138 hitters in his major league career to that point and allowed just one home run. Make that that 140 and 3.

Bard allowed the inning to continue by walking A-Rod and was lifted in favor of Hideki Okijima. The lefty allowed three consecutive base hits, a double to Jorge Posada and singles to Robinson Cano and Nick Swisher, which pushed the Yankee lead to 5-2. In all, they sent six runners to plate with two outs in the 8th.

The Sox brought the tying run to plate in the top of the ninth after Mariano Rivera walked David Ortiz, but Jacoby Ellsbury grounded out to first base to end the game.

The Sox are now reeling, having lost 6 straight and fallen into a tie with the Rangers for the Wild Card with the Rays lurking only a game and a half behind them. The Yanks have won seven straight and have the best record in baseball.

I know we don't usually drop songs in our game recaps, but this one is too good to pass up.

Straight like that, straight out the gate,
Cause it's never too late, to set this fuckin' record straight.

But it is too late, for you and your crew, son,
You had the audacity to come against me, the gifted one?
And Primo with the tracks, to inspire my next line,
You've got no wins here, so better luck next time.

You thought you brought your best lines,
But they couldn't touch mine,
I rocked you in your knot,
Hope you have better luck next time.

Game 111: Built To Last

The Yanks look to put a cherry on top of this weekend's ice cream sundae, and not even the inane idiocy of Joe Morgan on tonight's ESPN telecast will spoil the collective high of the Yankee fan base right now.

Andy Pettitte gets the ball for the Yanks, and he's been on fire since the All-Star break: 2.36 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, 29:7 K:BB, in 26.2 IP. He's 16-9 with a 3.76 ERA in 196.2 career IP against the Sox, but is 0-1 this year and has a bit of a score to settle with them. Pettitte outdueled the AL's best pitcher last time out, and his draw doesn't get much easier this time.

Jon Lester will try to salvage the series finale for the reeling Red Sox. Along with Josh Beckett, Lester is one of only two reliable starters the Sox have right now. After squandering Beckett's masterful performance Friday night, the Sox really need to capitalize on having Lester go tonight. He's 3-0 with a 3.43 ERA in six career starts against the Yankees, with one of those victories coming on April 24th this year. I look at those numbers and prefer to think that he's due for a loss rather than think that he dominates the Yanks.

In roster news, as expected, Josh Towers has been DFA'd to make room on the 40 and 25 man rosters for Chad Gaudin. Unlike douche bag Brett Tomko, Towers is handling his exit gracefully, saying he's happy the Yanks chose to call him up and that he's eager to get back to Scranton.

For the second time in three days, I'm choosing to go with the Grateful Dead. As I mentioned earlier in the week, last Saturday would have been Jerry Garcia's birthday. Today marks the 14th anniversary of his death. As such, it's been Jerry Week on Sirius XM's Grateful Dead Channel, and seeing as I've already logged close to a thousand miles behind the wheel this week, I've been listening to a lot of Dead.

The Yankees are playing with house money tonight. They've already won the series. They have a 5.5 game lead in the AL East, the largest lead they've had since the end of the 2006 season. They will wake up tomorrow morning up at least 4.5 games up with more than two thirds of the season in their rear view mirror. Things are looking a bit dire for the Sox right now, but only a foolish heart would be booking flights and hotels for October just yet. The tables sure have turned from when these teams last met in early June. The Yankees carried a one game lead into that series before getting swept. Things are looking much better right now. I just hope that this lead is built to last.



Don't waste your breath to save your face
When you have done your best
And even more is asked of you
Fate will decide the rest

All the stars are gone but one
Morning breaks here comes the sun
Cross the sky now sinking fast
Show me something built to last

Number 1,775

It has been just shy of 108 years since the Yankees and Red Sox first met. It was the first year of the American League, and neither team was know by it's current name yet. The Yanks were still in Baltimore and went by the Orioles while the Sox were based in Boston but had no official nickname. That same day marked Christy Mathewson's first of 373 Major League wins.

Led by player-manager John McGraw at Oriole Park in Baltimore, the Yankees won the very first match-up in the storied rivalry 10-6. They took the second and final game of the series 12-6, but ended up splitting the season tilt 9-9.

When Byron "Ban" Johnson reorganized the Western League in 1893, he was only a newspaper reporter, but had the blessing of former St. Louis Brown Stockings star Charles Comiskey and was elected president of the league. He remained at the helm for 35 years. In 1899, the National League dropped four cities (Baltimore, Louisville, Cleveland and Washington) from their circuit, creating an opening for the Western League to establish teams in those locales.

According to Bill James, one of the things that made the American League preferable to the National League for fans was the elimination of the dirty elements of the game that had characterized baseball before the turn of the century. In his Historical Baseball Abstract, James says "[Ban] Johnson realized that the bad manners and frequent fistfights the National League permitted were restraining the public's enthusiasm for the game". It turned out he was right and the American League overtook the National League in terms of popularity, thereby forcing the NL to clean up their act.

After relocating to New York two years later, the Yankees were known first as the "Highlanders" (because they played their games at Hilltop Park in Washington Heights), and then the "Americans" so as to distinguish them from the National League team in New York at the time. The Sox were first known as the Americans as well, so as not to be confused with the Boston Braves. Not very far removed from the Civil War, the name Yankees was synonymous with "Americans" in the North at the time, and the moniker stuck.


It's hard to imagine what it must have been like for the players on the starting rosters of what would become the Yankees and Red Sox on April 26th, 1901. They were miscellaneous parts of no name teams, in a fledgling league, at a hand-me-down park.

Little did they know that over a century and 1774 regular season contests later, the games would be played in billion-dollar palaces, broadcast in HDTV all over the world and people would be complaining that the heated rivalry between these two teams was being covered too much by the national media.

Tonight, the season starts in earnest for many Yankees and Sox supporters. Until now, us Yankees fans have watched baseball being played in an desolate Camden Yards, a full Tropicana Field, a remodeled Kaufman Stadium and the Structure That Mariano Rivera Erected, and none of them seemed quite right.

There will be a certain familiarity to seeing Fenway packed full of hostile exuberance on an absolutely perfect summery night. The pitching match-up pits the two young guns on either team tagged as future aces, Joba Chamberlain and Jon Lester. Does a game in April get any better than this? I'd argue that it does not.

Let's go Yanks.