Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Game 83: (Love Is Like A) Heatwave

It's far too hot to piece together anything resembling a cogent preview. It's the middle game of the series between the Yankees and A's, as hometown guy CC Sabathia faces off against Trevor Cahill. Both hurlers were named to the AL All-Star team on Saturday. However, with both starting tonight they're on pace to start again on Sunday, thereby making them ineligible for the mid-summer classic.

Forecasts call for a 62 degree game-time temperature in Oakland tonight. It's currently 97 in my neck of the woods and 102 in NYC. By the time Cahill delivers the game's first pitch, the sun will have been down for a good hour plus on the East Coast, yet it will still be a good fifteen or twenty degrees warmer here than at the Coliseum. And there isn't much relief in sight.



[Song Notes: If Martha and the Vandellas aren't exactly your thing, here's a version from Standing in the Shadows of Motown, featuring Joan Osborne backed by the Funk Brothers, the Motown house band. Also, apparently The Who covered this one too, which I never knew until seraching YouTube earlier.]

-Lineups-

Yankees:
Brett Gardner leads off for the second night in a row, Nick Swisher DH's for the second night in a row, and Colin Curtis starts in right field for the second night in a row. Jorge Posada is back behind the plate; he left Sunday's game after a foul ball sprained his ring finger.
Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter SS
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher DH
Jorge Posada C
Curtis Granderson CF
Colin Curtis RF

A's:
Coco Crisp CF
Daric Barton 1B
Kurt Suzuki C
Kevin Kouzmanoff 3B
Mark Ellis 2B
Jack Cust DH
Adam Rosales SS
Matt Carson RF
Rajai Davis LF

Game 82 Recap

[Data via FG]

Out of the 26 batters he faced last night, Javy Vazquez allowed 22 of them to put the ball in play. Luckily, he only walked two, didn't allow any homers and induced a lot of weak contact (10 grounders, 9 flyballs). Only three of those projectiles fell in for hits, phelped significantly by some excellent defensive plays by Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Colin Curtis and Curtis Granderson.

Ben Sheets threw the ball awfully well last night too, but gave up a two out double to Nick Swisher in the second inning, then fell behind Granderson 3-1 and left a fastball over the plate that was redirected into the right field corner for an RBI triple. Frankie Cervelli came up next and flipped a curveball back up the middle that scored Granderson and gave the Yanks a 2-0 lead.

Cliff Pennington tripled in the third and scored on a sac fly by Coco Crisp but that was all the scoring the A's would do on the night.

Mark Teixeira added a solo home run to straightaway center in the top of the sixth to give to Yanks a little more breathing room, but they really didn't need it. Vazquez pitched two more perfect innings after that and neither Joba Chamberlain nor Mariano Rivera allowed a batter to reach base in the eighth or ninth innings.

The Yanks' bats were still largely dormant last night, but they pitched and defended well enough for it not to matter. They've got another 10:00 start tonight as CC Sabathia takes on Trevor Cahill.