Brian Bruney Is A Renegade

No, I'm talking talking about the tattoo.

Brian Bruney is back from the DL, he's got a bad ass motherfuckin' mustache and he doesn't give a shit about that damn patch commemorating the first season at the New Stadium the fuckin' MAN is tryin' to get him to wear.

Brian Bruney does what Brain Bruney wants, thank you very much.

(Below: Where the patch should be, as displayed

by upright citizen Joba Chamberlain)

(And by the way, yes, we would have nabbed a shot of Mo batting if Jason didn't beat us to it.)

A Shift In The Winds Of Fortune

The Yankee blogosphere and sports talk radio were abuzz prior to tonight's game. Brian Cashman joined the team mid road trip, a rare occurence. A line-up was posted that had Melky Cabrera in RF and Nick Swisher on the bench. Then the lineup was, as Walter Sobchak would say, unposted. Then Swisher went into a closed door meeting with Cashman and Joe Girardi. Then the lineup was reposted, with Swish and Melky switching spots. Speculation abound: was a trade in the works?

It was much ado about nothing. The only roster move was the merciful and long overdue DFA'ing of Angel Berroa to make room for Cody Ransom (more on that tomorrow). In typical fashion, everyone was left in suspense on that one until minutes before first pitch.

As for the game itself, it was much the same for the Yankees early on. The Braves were tossing a perfect game through five innings with the Yankees' best chance at a hit coming on a line drive off the bat of Joba Chamberlain. The comebacker grazed the neck of pitcher Kenshin Kawakami, knocking him out of the game, but Kris Medlin picked up where he left off, sending the Yankees down one by one.

The sixth inning started with the Yankees trailing 1-0 on a home run by human out machine Jeff Francoeur. Brett Gardner drew a leadoff walk, ending the perfecto but keeping the no hitter in tact. With the offense scuttling, the team down a run, Gardner being virtually unstoppable on the bases, and the eight and nine spots due, everyone in the ballpark knew Gardner was going to be running. Medlin knew as well, and before he threw a single pitch to Francisco Cervelli, he threw to first three times. On the third attempt firstbase umpire Bill Welke called Gardner out, though replays showed him to be undoubtedly safe. Girardi came charging out of the dugout, and I'm sure he was fixed on getting tossed. Welke obliged, and as has seemingly been the case with his past ejections, the Yankees responded after the skipper had been thrown out.

Cervelli pulled a 2-2 curveball over the left-centerfield fence for his first Major League home run. It ended the no-no, tied the score, and gave the Yankees their first run since Sunday's ninth inning. After Joba lined to second for the first out of the inning, Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon knocked consecutive singles to put runners on the corners.

When Medlin issued an unintentional intentional walk to Mark Teixeira, Michael Kay likely soiled himself in the YES booth. Boldly on his afternoon radio show and more tactfully on the YES pregame, Kay made it known that he strongly feels A-Rod needs to be dropped in the order while he struggles. Electing to load the bases to pitch to the slumping slugger must have been extremely gratifying to the play-by-play man.

Bobby Cox summoned flamethrower Jeff Bennett from the pen to face Rodriguez, and he quickly got ahead 0-2 as A-Rod struggled to keep up with his 94 MPH fastball. But when Bennett let one get too much of the plate, A-Rod lined a base hit to center, giving the Yankees a 3-1 lead, their first since the fifth inning Sunday. I know it's not the best metric, but A-Rod does have 4 BRI over his last 3 games. Baby steps. Nick Swisher hit a solo shot in the seventh to make it 4-1.

Aside from the Francoeur home run, Chamberlain had a very good start. Entering the bottom of the seventh he had thrown 85 pitches and allowed just five hits and no walks while whiffing five. A single and an error by Chamberlain put two on with one out. Joba then allowed an RBI single to bring the go-ahead run to the plate.

Tony Pena, managing for Girardi, called for Phil Coke. Coke retired both batters he faced on flyouts, the first being a sacrifice fly that featured a circus catch from Swish on the RF warning track. Joba's book closed at 6.1 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K. He was in line for the win with the Yankees leading 4-3.

The Yanks added some valuable insurance runs in the eighth. Johnny Damon led off with what should have been a groundout, but miscommunication between Casey Kotchman and Eric O'Flaherty left him with an infield single. Teixeira singled, then he and Damon moved to second and third on a wild pitch. This time, it was A-Rod who was intentionally walked. Take that Michael Kay.

Robinson Cano followed with a potential doubleplay ball to first. Kotchman came home, forcing Damon out. Brian McCann then tried to double Cano at first. McCann made his throw from foul territory along the first base line. His throw tailed back towards fair territory, on a collision course with Cano's back. Replays showed that Cano's left foot may have been slightly inside the foul line. Burned by a bad call in the sixth, a non call in the eighth went in the Yankees' favor on a play reminiscient of the 1978 World Series and 1998 ALCS. As Kotchman simultaneously chased the ball down and pled his case, Teixeira scored and A-Rod moved to third. Bobby Cox came out to argue. After Girardi had been tossed the all time ejection leader somehow managed to stay in the game. A Swisher groundout plated A-Rod and made it 6-3. The Yankees would need the extra runs.

In the eighth, Brian Bruney struggled, in spite of his sweet 'stache and unique hat. He walked Chipper Jones leading off the inning. McCann struck out, and Garret Anderson grounded to first, moving Jones to second. Kotchman walked and Francoeur drove Jones home with an RBI single to make it 6-4, and that was it for Bruney. Mariano Rivera, who hadn't pitched since last Tuesday, was summoned in a relatively high leverage 8th inning situation. Mo fanned Kelly Johnson to end the threat.

The Yankees batted around in the ninth, scoring two more runs to make it 8-4. The ninth batter of the inning was Mariano Rivera, he of four career plate appearances between the regular and postseasons and none since striking out on June 20, 2006. One could question the relative wisdom of allowing Mo to bat in a four run game with three outs to go. But the Yankees needed a win and Mo needed some work. The whole team had a good laugh when he lined a shot to center that was caught for the final out of the inning.

Rivera struck out the side in the ninth to end it. For those of you scoring at home, that's a pitching line of eight days rest, four batters faced, four strikeouts and a batting line of 1,100 days rest, 1 AB, and one line drive that's probably amongst the top ten best batted balls by a Yankee over the past four games. Such is the wonder of Mo.

At long last the Yankees caught a few breaks tonight, and they capitalized on them to end a three game losing steak. Here's hoping the breaks and the wins keep coming their way.

Game 71: Hot 'Lanta

Daytime highs in Atlanta today were in the low 90's and by the time game time rolls around this evening, it should still be in the upper 80's. During the hottest stretch of the season thus far for the Yanks, a road trip through Miami and Atlanta, their bats have gone cold. Averaging fewer than 3 runs per game, they were held to one run by Josh Johnson on Saturday and the Marlins and shut out by Tommy Hanson and the Braves last night. Before that, they managed only 7 runs in three games against the Nationals.

It certainly hasn't been the pitching. Aside from CC Sabathia's early exit from Land Shark Stadium, the Yanks haven't allowed more than four runs in any game. Out of the past six contests, the Yanks have lost three of them while holding their opponents to three runs or fewer, something they hadn't done all season until that point. When pitchers struggle, it's easy to point the finger at one guy. When it's the offense that is faltering, the failure is more often projected on the team as a whole.

Over the last 13 games, the Yankees OPS leaders are Hideki Matsui (okay) and Brett Gardner (yikes) and they've combined for only 48 at bats. The least productive hitter with significant playing time? A-Rod at .486. That's an OPS that even David Ortiz can scoff at. If we gave A-Rod credit for energizing the team upon his return, he certainly deserves some blame for this recent slump. Unfortunately, as Tyler Kepner points out, there's no guarantee that he'll return to form.

The slumping bats have in turn put Joe Girardi back onto the hot seat. Local scribes have speculated that is Girardi fails to make the playoffs with a $200M payroll once again, it could be the very last time he gets the chance to manage in the Majors. There have been conflicting reports, but some have said that the decision to bench A-Rod came from the front office. The fact that Angel Berroa was on the roster that entire time, presumably ready to play in place of A-Rod, but was never used would seem to back that up.

Girardi getting overruled when it comes to the handling of the team's most valuable asset seems a bit like the Joba Rules being imposed on Joe Torre. If the front office needs to step in and make decisions because they don't trust the manager to, it probably doesn't bode well for Girardi's future as Yankee skipper.

Of course, with a dominant performance by the offense or Joba Chamberlain tonight, these issues could be temporarily swept aside. Joba had a respectable start last time out against the Nationals, going 6 innings and allowing three runs, but was still tagged with the loss. Given the way the offense has (not) produced recently, they might need to do better than that.

Tonight will be yet another chance for the Yankees to shake the notion that they can't hit pitchers they haven't seen before, as the Braves send Kenshin Kawakami to the mound. The Japanese rookie turned 29 on Monday and aside from Hideki Matsui who can't play the field and probably won't face him, he is completley new to the Yanks.

If you look at the MLB odds page on Bodog, the over/under for the game sits at 9 runs. Neither Kawakami or Chamberlain have allowed more than three earned runs in a start since the beginning of May, they are playing in a National League park and neither of the line ups have been able to manage much offensively as of late. All of these things would seem to portend another low scoring game. But baseball in funny like that... perhaps things are about to heat up.