Game 11 Recap

[WPA data via FanGraphs]

1. The Yankees loaded the bases in the second inning on singles by Jorge Posada, Nick Swisher and Derek Jeter. With two outs, Nick Johnson worked the count to 3-1 and fouled off three straight pitches before taking a cutter high for ball four and forcing in a run. Mark Teixeira followed that with a broken bat single that just reached the outfield grass between first and second base, putting the Yanks up 2-0. With the bases still loaded, A-Rod swung at the first pitch he saw and flew out to center, ending the inning.

2. Scott Feldman ran into more trouble in the third. After getting Robinson Cano to ground out to second, he gave up a single to Posada and a double to Curtis Granderson before Ron Washington had seen enough. Wash called on Doug Mathis to face Nick Swisher.

Swish hit a fly ball to shallow left, not deep enough to score Jorge Posada and the Rangers once again were one out away from getting out of the inning. However, Brett Gardner hit an infield single, scoring Posada and brining Jeter to the plate. With the Captain at bat, Gardner took of for second base and Taylor Teagarden sailed the throw into the outfield and Curtis Granderson took off for home.

Jeter then followed with a rare home run to left, a two run shot that put the Yanks ahead 6-0.

3. A-Rod hit his first home run of the year in the bottom of the 4th, a solo shot that extended the lead to 7-0.

4. Despite getting 8 men on base against him, the Rangers didn't get to A.J. Burnett. The same could not be said for Alfredo Aceves. Nelson Cruz blasted a three run homer off of him in the 8th inning to bring the score to 7-3 Yankees. That was the final.

IFs, ANDs & BUTs

• The Yankees had a host of infield hits today. Gardner picked up three of them, and one each for Granderson, Jeter and Teixeira.
  
  
• In the at bat that Teix eventually came up with the RBI single, he took a 0-1 curveball that was clearly low and outside but called a strike. Obviously, 0-2 is worlds away from 1-1 and it looked for a moment like that call might doom the at bat, but alas it did not.
  
  
• A.J. Burnett had three 1-2-3 innings but had a runner get to at least second base in the other four, although none of them came around to core. The Rangers loaded the bases in the 5th inning with one out but Burnett got Julio Borbon to pop out to first and Michael Young to fly out to right. His final line: 7 IP, 0ER, 6H, 2BB, 7K.
  
  
• Cano's ten game hitting streak to begin the season came to and end, but after a 3-4 effort, Jeter's rolls on.
  
  
• The Yanks worked only two walks in the game, both by Nick Johnson. They only struck out four times whereas the Rangers had 10 Ks.
  
  
• Ramiro Pena entered as a defensive replacement in the 8th inning, his second appearance of the year.
  
  
• After Aveces gave up the home run, Damaso Marte and Joba Chamberlain combined to get the final five outs without giving up a baserunner.
  

The series - which the Yanks have already won - concludes with a matchup between Andy Pettitte and Rich Harden at 1:05 tomorrow.

Game 11: End Of The Line

The Yankees have completed three series this season, taking them all by virtue of winning the rubber game. Today, A.J. Burnett had the opportunity to deliver the club's fourth series win of 2010 without having it go down to the final game.

After a fair but unimpressive start at Fenway Park in the season's second game, Burnett had a very good outing in last Sunday's series finale in St. Petersburg. He surrendered two runs in the first, then shut the Rays down over his final six innings of work, scattering six hits and three walks over the afternoon. Perhaps the only blemish on his line that day was an uncharacteristic strikeout total, with just one K on the afternoon.

In his career, Burnett has made on relief appearance and eight starts against the Rangers, with three of the starts coming during his first year in pinstripes. Burnett pitched quite well against Texas last year, posting a 2.84 ERA and fanning 27 while allowing just 23 baserunners in 19 innings of work. His first two outings against them came in back-to-back starts on May 27th and June 2nd. In the latter, Burnett buzzed the tower of Nelson Cruz, after the Rangers had taken some liberties with Mark Teixeira earlier in the game. Though Burnett was not ejected from the game, it did earn him a suspension, which was later reduced to the point that he didn't miss a single start. His final 2009 start against the Rangers came on August 27th. He got saddled with the loss in that one, but did manage to whiff a season high twelve batters over six innings of work.

Opposing Burnett will be Scott Feldman. Armed with a new contract extension that could pay him just over $20M through 2013, the 6'7" righty has been impressive in his two outings thus far this season, allowing just twelve hits, one walk, and four earned runs through fourteen innings of work.

Feldman has four career appearances against the Yankees, three of them starts. In them, he's 2-1 with a 3.72 ERA and 1.45 WHIP over 19.1 IP, and has allowed four home runs. He picked up the victory in his only 2009 start against the Yankees, June 3rd at the Stadium, allowing eight baserunners and two runs over six and a third.

The forecast isn't great for today, with temps in the mid-fifties, breezes at 10 to 15 MPH, and the sun may not shine, but it's all right, at the very least the chance of rain is much less than it was last night. After playing a rain shortened game last night, the first for the Yankees since September 2006, the two clubs will look today's game right to the end of the line.

Well it's all right, riding around in the breeze
Well it's all right, if you live the life you please
Well it's all right, even if the sun don't shine
Well it's all right, we're going to the end of the line

-Lineups-

Yankees:
Not much to see here folks. The "A" line up returns after a couple games with a few subs scattered in the order. Posada is back behind the plate to catch Burnett for the third time in as many starts this year. Marcus Thames grabs some pine for the first time since Wednesday; Mark Teixeira continues to look to snap out of his April funk.

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

Rangers:

Julio Borbon, CF
Michael Young, 3B
Josh Hamilton, LF
Vladimir Guerrero, DH
Nelson Cruz, RF
Chris Davis, 1B
Joaquin Arias, 2B
Taylor Teagarden, C
Elvis Andrus, SS

April All Over Again

After a rain delay of 12 minutes the gametime temperature sat at a rather chilly 55 degrees. The air was opaque with mist and a huge amount of seats sat empty. The atmosphere was eerily reminiscent of the game that Schiff and I went to on April 21st. Andy Pettitte was the starter that night as well, but the main difference was that the lefty lasted seven innings, gave up two runs and the Yankees came away with the win. Not tonight.

Tonight was another frustrating outing with RISP (1-6) although it wasn't as bad as the series finale in Cleveland (3-16), which they won. Pettitte got the Yankees in the hole right off the bat, allowing three runs in the first inning. Nelson Cruz hit a ball right back toward Pettitte that would have likely become a double play if it hadn't deflected off it Andy's leg. A DP would have ended the inning, but Ian Kinsler scored on the play and the Rangers worked across two more runs on a groundout and a single. The inning would have continued on longer if it weren't for Melky Cabrera's outfield assist, throwing out Marlon Byrd at third base from right field.

Pettitte did not look sharp at any point in the game, but the first was the only inning where the Rangers would do significant damage. Allowing 13 baserunners in 5 innings typically leads to more than four runs, but Pettitte has always found ways to sneak out of tight situations. The six strikeouts and the double play he induced certainly helped his cause. 

It looked as though his back problem was flaring up as replays showed him wincing as he labored towards first base in the fourth inning. He apparently got through whatever it was and came back out for the fifth, finished the frame and ended up throwing 104 pitches.

The Yankees brought home a run on a single by A-Rod, the only one they would plate in the first six innings. Despite throwing only 59 of his 98 pitches for strikes, Feldman mostly stumped the Bombers. He gave up three walks and five hits, the last of which being a homer to Jorge Posada before getting pulled in the 7th. Of the 14 outs Feldman got on balls in play, 11 were grounders. Although he's not a name brand guy, Feldman's ERA of 3.79 and 5-0 record in seven starts (four in Arlington) is nothing to sneeze at. 

The Yanks shot themselves in the foot plenty of times, however. A-Rod rapped into a double play with one out and the bases loaded in the third inning. After Johnny Damon advanced to third on an errant pickoff throw by Feldman, A-Rod struck out in the sixth with a man on third and only one out. He struck out again in the eighth with Nick Swisher on first, bringing the total number of runners he left on base to five. The bottom third of the line up, (Melky, Matsui and Gardner) reached base only twice in ten plate appearances and Jeter went 0-4 in the leadoff spot. When a four person stretch in the order has a night that bad, it makes it tough to score runs without hitting long balls. 

On the bright side, Nick Swisher filled in admirably for Mark Teixeira, going 2-3 with a walk. Brett Tomko also pitched terrifically in relief of Pettitte, throwing three shutout innings and keeping the game well within reach. David Robertson added his own scoreless frame in the ninth. 

One difference between this and the games the Yankees were losing in April was the level of frustration. April started off bad, and never really got better. There was a sense of angst building, but the Yanks' success as of late makes routine losses like this one much easier to tolerate. The opposing pitcher had a good night and they didn't manage to score enough runs. It happens. Fortunately, the matinee on the schedule today means the loss won't linger too long, either.

Game 53: Badlands

Working in the fields, 'til you get your back burned
Working 'neath the wheel, 'til you get your facts learned
Baby I got my facts learned real good right now.
You better get it straight darling:
Poor man wanna be rich; Rich man wanna be king
And a king ain't satisfied 'til he rules everything.
I want to go out tonight, want to find out what I got.

I had been thinking about choosing "Born in the U.S.A." as tonight's song to commemorate my return to the States, but then I got to thinking that I didn't want to misinterpret the song's meaning as badly as Ronnie Reagan did during his 1984 re-election campaign. That, and I didn't want my preview tonight to be as self-indulgent as Jay's was last night.

So, with Springseen in mind, having had a Springsteen cover band play the wedding reception I attended Saturday, and with Andy Pettitte taking the mound for the first time since back pain forced him to a premature exit in his start last Friday, we turn to one of my favorite Springsteen songs: Badlands.

Now this is not yet another blog post bashing the new Stadium and its issues. In fact, it has nothing to do with the Stadium itself. Rather, it's a brief look at Andy Pettitte. Early in his career, a knock on Pettitte was that he was constantly battling arm problems and that he often had difficulty discerning the difference between pitching in pain and pitching injured.

Pettitte has long outgrown that reputation, twice (at least) with the aid of human growth hormone, but more due to better conditioning and the savvy that comes with being a 15 year veteran. He spent much of the second half last year pitching through shoulder pain knowing that the team was already decimated by injuries, thin on pitching, and in a (losing) fight for its post-season life. Pettitte pitched poorly during this stretch: after going 10-7 with a 4.03 ERA and a 1.34 WHIP in the first half, he struggled to the tune of 4-7, 5.35, 1.53 in the second half.

It was an unfortunate turn for Pettitte, finishing off his contract in such a poor fashion and raising questions again about his health and durability. After making $16M in both of the last two seasons, he held out for much of the off-season, hoping for a deal similar in value. Pettitte however overestimated both the market and his own worth at this advanced stage of his career, instead settling in late January for a $5.5M base salary with incentives for every ten innings pitched from 150 to 210 as well as roster bonuses for days on the active roster. The incentives can bring the contract value to a much more palatable $12M.

So, as Ben at RAB wisely pointed out Saturday, it comes as no surprise that Pettitte has been adamant since last Friday that he would be starting tonight. You can say that his back may be burned, but he's got his facts learned: he knows what his body can and can't do at this point in his career and he knows what's on the line financially. This rich man wants to be king, or at least richer, and tonight he'll go out to the mound and find out what he's got.

In other news, Chien-Ming Wang, who almost assuredly would have started tonight had Pettitte not been able to go, will now return to the starting rotation tomorrow. CC Sabathia will be pushed back to Friday, and it appears that Phil Hughes is now ticketed for the bullpen. Rest assured we'll be talking about this more over the next day or so.

Opposing Pettitte tonight will be Scott Bizarro Kramer. I have some misplaced hatred towards Bizarro Kramer. He baffled them in this game last year, spoiling Brett Gardner's Major League debut. I then proceeded to get tagged with a $397 speeding ticket driving home from the game. I blame Feldman. Go get him fellas.

The Supposed "Rookie Starter Difficulties"

Every time the Yankees face an unheralded starting pitcher who they have never seen before, a sentiment echoes throughout Yankeedom. There's a collective "here we go again", as it has become a popular notion that they Yankees can't handle these types of pitchers. Last night, during the top of the sixth inning of the YES broadcast, Ken Singleton dropped a stat that is undoubtedly going to surprise you if you subscribe to that idea:

• In the past two years (since 5/27/07) the Yankees have faced 31 rookie pitchers for the first time. In that span, those pitchers have a combined record 3-18 in those games (after the Yanks beat Derek Holland last night).  

Wins and losses are never going to tell the whole story, but 3-18 paints a pretty clear picture. Singleton was about to say who the three pitchers were, but Brett Gardner dropped a drag bunt, which Derek Holland proceeded to throw away, just before he was pulled from the game and tagged with the loss. Ken didn't continue the thought after the commerical break, so I went back and looked them up. 

Matt Harrison - August 5th, 2008 - Harrison didn't completely shut down the Yanks, but did hold them to two runs in 6 1/3 innings pitched while Andy Pettitte let up 5 runs in 5IP.

Koji Uehara - April 8th, 2009 - The 35 year old Japanese transplant is not your typical rookie, and he had the luxury of facing Chien Ming Wang in one of his first three starts of the season. 

Matt Palmer - May 2nd, 2009 - Palmer, a 30 year old journeyman, slayed CC Sabathia with 6 1/3 innings of one run ball for his second of five straight wins. Despite an ERA of 4.76 with the Angels this season, Palmer still has a 5-0 record. 

So, why the perception that the Yankees are doomed when they face a rookie they have never seen before, especially a lefty?

For one, the stat that YES came up with is heavily caveated. It only looked at the past two calendar years, so it didn't include John Danks' victory on May 16, 2007. It consisted of only guys who the Yankees hadn't faced before, so it didn't acknowledge games like Scott Feldman's win on June 30th, 2008 because they faced him in relief on May 16th, 2006. 

Also, and I think most importantly, it only accounted for actual rookies, not just "guys who we think should suck". Baseball is unique because guys can linger for years on the periphery of the game, ducking in and out of the minors and changing organizations only to emerge at 29 or 30 years old in a starting role for a team in need. So when the Yanks lose a game to a guy like Dustin Mosely, Ryan Feierabend, Paul Maholm, or Jorge de la Rosa, it might not factor into that stat, but it registers in our consciousness. 

The underlying reason that we percieve the Yankees to have problems with rookie starters is our expectations. We see that the opposing pitcher is some no name journeyman and assume the Yankees should pummel him. When they do, we think nothing of it. But when they don't it tends to stick in our craw. When something goes according to plan, it's easy to forget about. You can eat sushi 100 times from the same place and hardly be able to tell each one apart, but if you ever get sick from it, you will remember the exact order for years to come.

Although the Yanks have losses to Uehara and Palmer this year, they have also disposed of Horacio Ramirez, Anthony Reyes, Anthony Ortega, Brett Anderson, Scott Richmond, Brain Tallet, Dana Eveland, Rick Porcello, Brad Bergesen, and the aforementioned Derek Holland. How many of those games did you remember?