Today's game features a match up of two pitchers who were excellent in the National League last year but are struggling to follow up on that campaign this season.
We've heard plenty about Javier Vazquez's 2009 but although Wandy Rodriguez's didn't make as many headlines, it was nearly as good. He pitched 205 innings to an ERA of 3.02 and won 14. Wandy's peripheral numbers didn't compare as Vazquez's (3.06 K/BB, 3.54 FIP vs. 5.41, 2.77) but they were still plenty solid. This year, those same numbers have dipped to 1.84 and 4.01 respectively for Rodirguez and thanks to an even more dismal offense behind him, has lost eight times in 12 starts.
I'm sorry Houston, but hopefully the ninth will come today.
You ain't givin' up on lookin' for your thing, even if you probably should. I'm sorry Huston. I ain't got what you need but I promise you I'd help you if I could.
[Song Notes: This is the Drive-By Truckers, from an in-store appearance in Greenville, SC just over two years ago. It features bassist Shonna Tucker on vocals.]
The Yanks got to Brett Myers for three runs in the first inning and that was nearly enough to carry them to the finish line.
Andy Pettitte ran into some trouble in the top of the second and allowed a two runs on a double to Tommy Manzella but both pitchers found their respective grooves over the middle innings and only four runners reached base on either team between the tops of the second and eighth.
Derek Jeter booted an easy double play ball in the bottom half of the eighth that would have put Andy Pettitte just one out away from handing the ball to Mariano Rivera, but instead put the tying runs on base with no one out. After a bunt by Micheal Bourne that moved both the runners into scoring position, Joe Girardi called on Joba Chamberlain to preserve the lead. Jeff Keppinger drove in a run on a sac fly but Joba struck out Lanke Berkman on a questionable check swing call to escape with a one run advantage.
Rivera nailed down a perfect ninth and Andy Pettitte secured his 200th win as a Yankee against the only other team he's recorded a victory for. The squads next square off in Saturday afternoon match up between Javier Vazquez and Wandy Rodriguez.
Since their inception as the Colt .45s in 1962, Houston and the Yankees have played just six meaningful games against each other. Yet, despite the scarcity of contests between the two the clubs there is a good amount of shared history between the Astros and Yankees.
When Houston opened the Astrodome - the Eighth Wonder of the World - in 1965, they chose the Yankees as their opponents for the first exhibition game to be played there. Mickey Mantle batted leadoff that day, giving him the honor of being the first batter in the first indoor baseball game. He singled in that at bat, and later hit the first home run in Astrodome history.
Thirty five years later, when the Astros opened Enron Field, it was once again the Yankees who served as their first opponent. Once again, a Yankee hit the first longball in the park's history. This time, it was the slightly-less-famous Ricky Ledee.
After Yogi Berra was fired just sixteen games into the 1985 season, he vowed never to return to Yankee Stadium so long as George Steinbrenner owned the team. In exile from the franchise with which he was most associated, Berra spent his final four seasons in a Major League uniform as a coach with the Astros.
When Andy Pettitte didn't feel the Yankees made enough of an effort to re-sign him following the 2003 season, Pettitte returned home to Texas, inking a three year deal with the Astros. That signing was enough to sway Roger Clemens, who had intended to retire, to sign with his hometown team as well. The two combined with Roy Oswalt to give the Astros a potent rotation, and led the team to their first World Series in 2005. Three years later, both Pettitte and Clemens would return to New York.
Between the lines, the two teams first met in an interleague series in 2003. Seven years ago tonight, six Astros pitchers combined to no-hit the Yankees. It was the first no hitter tossed against the Bombers since 1958*. More recently, the Yankees played an interleague series in Houston in 2008, where Chien-Ming Wang notoriously injured his foot rounding third base.
(*Hoyt Wilhelm tossed that 1958 no hitter against the Yankees. Wilhelm was also the surname of George Costanza's boss on Seinfeld, during George's time with the Yankees as assistant to the traveling secretary. One of Costanza's tasks during that time was to host a team of Astros executives exploring the possibility of interleague play. Hilarity ensued.)
Tonight New York and Houston will begin their third interleague series, with Andy Pettitte taking the ball for his first career start against his former team. He'll be opposed by former Phillie / wife-puncher extraordinaire Brett Myers.
Despite their 5-1 career mark against the Astros, the last two series between these clubs have brought some disastrous results for the Yankees: their only hitless game in the last 51 years and what looks to be the end of Chien-Ming Wang's career as an effective pitcher. As Houston brings the Majors' sixth worst record and an offense bordering on historically poor into the Bronx for this weekend series, the Yankees are hoping for something far less eventful, and that their dreams about Houston don't turn into nightmares this time.
Just trying to make high ground Has kept us on the run There's no crime in toeing the line Cause fortune is smiling on us baby And we're gonna walk in the sun
I might dream about Houston But Houston don't dream about me If I could keep this between the lines Who knows what will be
[Song Notes: I hate throwing up a video that has nothing but the album cover as its image, but I like this song and it works well for tonight. The Black Crowes have performed the tune in concert only fifteen times since debuting it last year, so live performances are a little scarce, just like Yankees-Astros games. I spent last Friday night catching the Crowes at the Cape Cod Melody Tent, I'll spend tomorrow morning scoring tickets to their local stop on their farewell tour this fall, so it only makes sense to use them for tonight's preview.]
Derek Jeter SS Curtis Granderson CF Mark Teixeira 1B Robinson Cano 2B Nick Swisher RF Jorge Posada DH Francisco Cervelli C Ramiro Pena 3B Kevin Russo LF
Astros: The lineup isn't yet posted, but I'm fairly certain that the lineup the Bad News Bears brought to the Astrodome during Bad News Bears in Breaking Training is more potent than whatever the Astros will trot out tonight. Sure Lance Berkman probably has a slight edge on Kelly Leak as a big bat in the middle of the lineup, but not by much, and certainly not by enough to make up for the rest of their punchless order.
Good morning Fackers. Things have been a bit slow here at Fack Youk this week, as other responsibilities have largely prevented us from living up to our usual mediocre standards. Similarly, things are slowing down in the sporting world at large. The Stanley Cup Finals wrapped on Wednesday night, with the Chicago Blackhawks lifting Lord Stanley's Cup for the first time in 49 years. Congratulations to Chicago head coach, and former longtime Hartford Whaler, Joel Quenneville and his outstanding 'stache. Meanwhile, over in the Association, there are at most three games left in the Finals, as both the Lakers and the Celtics are just two wins away from the title. Soon, Major League Baseball will have the entire professional sporting landscape to itself for the first time since early last September.
Of course, there is an international sporting event kicking off today that will spend the next month captivating the attention of most of the civilized world. The 2010 FIFA World Cup begins this morning, with host nation South Africa facing Mexico at 10 AM. Tomorrow afternoon, the U.S. Men's National Team begins group play with a much-anticipated match against England. The Brits are favored, but the U.S. scored a major upset over England in the 1950 World Cup, and if memory serves, the U.S. fared pretty well against them circa 1776 and 1812 as well.
While the U.S. team is often referred to as the "Yanks", there is another connection between the soccer team and the Yanks we usually follow here. Midfielder Michael Bradley and his father/head coach Bob Bradley have blood ties to a former Yankee.
Scott Bradley, Bob's brother and Michael's uncle, was selected by the Yankees in the third round of the 1981 draft. The New Jersey native made his professional debut at short-season Oneonta that summer and ascended through the Yankee system. In 1984 he arrived at AAA Columbus, where he batted .335, leading the International League. He also led the IL in games played and hits and finished second in doubles on his way to capturing IL MVP honors.
Bradley parlayed his strong season into a September call up to the Yankees, making his Major League debut on September 9th. He appeared in nine games down the stretch, going 6 for 21 (.286) and seeing time in left field in addition to his customary spot behind the plate. He broke camp with the Yankees in 1985, but was soon returned to Columbus, where he again batted better than .300. He received a pair of additional call ups over the course of the season, but didn't fare so well, posting a .163/.196/.245 batting line over 51 plate appearances in 19 games. He spent the majority of his time as a DH rather than catching.
Just prior to the start of Spring Training the following year, Bradley was sent to the White Sox as part of a seven player trade that saw catcher Ron Hassey*, who the Yankees had traded to the White Sox just two months before, come back to the Bronx.
(*Between December 4, 1984 and July 30, 1986, Hassey was traded four times. Each trade was between Chicago and New York, as he went from the Cubs to the Yankees to the White Sox back to the Yankees and back to the White Sox again. The three trades between the Yankees and White Sox occurred in less than eight months' time.)
Bradley spent only nine games with the White Sox, spent most of his time as their property in AA, and then was traded again in June, heading to Seattle in exchange for slugger Ivan Calderon. Upon his arrival Bradley became the Mariners' primary catcher and served as such through 1988 season, before spending three more years as Dave Valle's back up. In 1990, Bradley was behind the plate for Randy Johnson's first career no-hitter. Bradley finished his career seven games split between the M's and Reds in 1992.
While he played his college ball at North Carolina, Bradley's post-playing career brought him back to the Garden State. He spent 1997 as an assistant coach at Rutgers. The following year, he accepted the head coach position at Princeton, where his older brother Bob went to school and had spent twelve years as the head coach of the men's soccer team. Scott still serves as the Princeton head coach today, and in his thirteen years there he has coached three eventual Big Leaguers: Will Venable, Chris Young (the pitcher, not the outfielder), and former Yankee Ross Ohlendorf. Fifteen other Tigers have been drafted under Bradley's watch, including former Yankee farmhand Spencer Lucian.
Nothing will ever replace the Yankees as the primary focus of my sporting attention, but I'll be watching the U.S. team closely for as long as they're alive in the World Cup. For some background on Bob Bradley, ESPN.com had a great piece earlier this week.
Like they did the night before, the Yankees fell behind the Orioles 2-0 early and fought their way back to take a 3-2 lead. However, the A.J. Burnett couldn't hold the O's there and the offense couldn't come up with a timely hit as the innings wore on.
It probably didn't help that Alex Rodriguez was pulled from the game before he even had a chance to come to the plate. Eariler, Alex felt a cramp and/or some stiffness in his groin - the same thing that sidelined him last weekend against Toronto - but thought he could work through it in warm ups. During the bottom of the first, Adam Jones hit a two out ground ball that A-Rod said he should have fielded "10 times out of 10", but his groin "locked up" on him and the ball rolled past and into left field, allowing Miguel Tejada to score the O's second run.
Alex had warned Ramiro Pena prior to the start of the game that he wasn't feeling 100% and told him to be ready to come in. Nino got his chance in the top of the second and led off the frame batting clean up.
The Yankees offensive problems extended well beyond Pena batting in the heart of the order, though. The line up already had Chad Moeller and Marcus Thames in it and they were facing a good, young pitcher with whom they were unfamiliar. As I mentioned in yesterday's preview, Jake Arrieta has been all but unhittable in the minors so far this year. He brought that ability with him in his Major League debut, holding the Yanks to just 4 hits over six innings. He did walk four but two of them were distributed intentionally in the crucial sixth inning.
During the bottom of the fifth, the Orioles tied the game on a homer by Scott Moore, but Mark Teixiera brought the Yanks right back by leading off the sixth with a double. Ramiro Pena came to the plate and executed what Ken Singleton (whose birthday it was) pointed out on the broadcast was probably the first sacrifice executed out of the clean up slot all year for the Yanks. Juan Samuel had Arrieta put Cano on base, creating the potential for a double play with Jorge Posada coming up. The O's didn't get the DP they wanted but Jorge flew out to shallow center, not deep enough to bring in the run.
Although he obviously wasn't going to go on the play, Mark Teixeira executed a good enough fake to draw the throw. When Adam Jones unloaded the ball, Robinson Cano took off for second. On his way there, Ty Wigginton made a great play to cut off the throw and fired to second base. It looked like Cano might have been out, but he was ruled safe, making an intentional walk of the lefty Curtis Granderson to bring up the righty Marcus Thames the obvious move. Arrieta struck him out on four pitches, three of which were breaking balls down and away.
In the bottom half of the six, Luke Scott "tripled" on high fly ball that brought Nick Swisher all the way back to the scoreboard in left. Swish tracked it, made a leaping effort and thought he made the catch but didn't and momentarily lost track of the ball when it landed. Adam Jones struck again in the next at bat, slashing a double to right center, adding his second RBI of the game and giving the Orioles the lead.
The Yanks worked three walks in the last three innings, but that was it. Their 10 game winning streak over the Orioles came to an end and A.J. Burnett took the first loss of his career at Camden Yards. The Yanks still won the series, however and head home to face Houston tonight as Andy Pettitte squares off against Brett Meyers.
Now that we've reached the stage of the season where clubs can promote minor leaguers without having to worry about them being eligible for Super Two status, this year has really begun tp produce a bumper crop of top prospect debuts in the MLB.
Tonight, a highly-regarded Baltimore prospect will make his debut, but given the performance that happened just two days ago and forty miles down I-95, this one will seem considerably more subdued.
Jake Arietta was a fifth round pick in the 2007 draft but didn't begin his ascent through the minor leagues until the 2008 season. He debuted at High-A ball and struck out 120 batters in 113 1/3 innings while maintaining an ERA of 2.87. Last season, started with the AA Bowie Baysox, pitched 59 strong innings over 11 starts there and was promoted to AAA. While in Norfolk, Arrieta's strikeout rate dropped and his ERA rose, but was still respectable in his 92 innings there, tallying an ERA of 3.92 and a K/BB ratio comfortably over 2.
The twenty four year old right hander broke camp with the Triple-A squad this year and got off to a great start. Although his strikeout and walk rates aren't as strong as they were in the lower levels of the minors, they are better than they were at the same level last year and Arrieta has an ERA of just 1.85 through 11 starts. He has been more or less unhittable so far, surrendering fewer than six hits per nine innings and allowing only three homers in 73 IP.
When we talked to Orioles fan and blogger Daniel Moroz before the season began, he surmised that barring a number of injuries, Arrieta wouldn't see more than a cup of coffee this season. Koji Uehara, who began the rotation, is on the DL and Hernandez, who has been ineffective in his eight starts, has been relegated to the bullpen. Those two moves, along with Arrieta's dominance and the O's futility, created Jake's chance to be called up.
It might not be occurring under the greatest of circumstances and it might not pay dividends immediately, but tonight should be a bit of a silver lining for Orioles fans, if such a thing can be found in one of their worst stretches in one of their worst seasons in franchise history.
Get up Jake, it's late in the mornin', The rain is pourin' and we got work to do. Get up Jake, there's no need a-lyin', You tell me that you're dyin', but I know it's not true.
Now, me and Jake, we work down on the river, on the ferry "Baltimore". And when Jake don't rise up in the mornin',
People lined up along the shore.
[Song Notes: I've been a fan of this tune for a long time and it was the first thing I thought of when I heard Arrieta was going to be starting tonight. The lyrics don't line up perfectly, but the kid's name is Jake, "Baltimore" and "lined up" are in the song and that's good enough for our purposes. If only there was someone named Dan from Savannah on the Yankees, it would have really sealed the deal.
Brett Gardner is once again out of the lineup; Marcus Thames gets the start in left field tonight. Pray for lots of groundballs and strike outs. Francisco Cervelli gets the finale off, with Chad Moeller getting the start against his former team.
Derek Jeter SS Nick Swisher RF Mark Teixeira 1B Alex Rodriguez 3B Robinson Cano 2B Jorge Posada DH Curtis Granderson CF Marcus Thames LF Chad Moeller C
Unlike last night, when the Yankees got ahead early and stayed there, there were plenty of point when it looked like this one wasn't going to end up in the win column. Through the first three innings, CC Sabathia had allowed eight baserunners (two of whom came around to score) and thrown 63 pitches. Meanwhile, the Yanks had put five men on but stranded four of them, while the other, Derek Jeter, was caught stealing by Matt Wieters.
Although forecasts predicted the rain would hold out a bit longer, the skies opened up as Robinson Cano led off the top of the fourth. With only three half-innings still to be completed before it became an official and a deficit of two runs to make up, it appeared the clock was ticking on the Yankees. But Cano bought a little time with an opposite field base hit. Chris Tillman gave the Yankees a little more when he sailed a pickoff attempt wide of first, allowing Cano to advance to second. Jorge Posada moved Cano over to third on a grounder and Curtis Granderson scored him easily on a deep sac fly to left to bring the Yanks within one.
The bottom of the fourth and top of the fifth came and went with the minimum number of batters and the score stuck at 2-1. Mercifully, when the broadcast returned for the home half of the fifth, they showed the grounds crew retreat from the post behind the tarp back underneath the stands, their presence apparently no longer needed.
It was still raining, but not quite as hard, and the Weather Gods had apparently granted the Yankees a reprieve. Sabathia worked around a lead off single to Miguel Tejada and kept the Yankees one behind heading into the top of the sixth.
The tides were about to turn, but the Yankees needed some help from the O's defense and perhaps the sloppy conditions. Leading off the inning, Mark Teixeira bounced a ball in between first and second just out of the reach of Julio Lugo. Next up, A-Rod ripped a single to left-center that hopped over Luke Scott and allowed Teixeira to advance to third. Cano followed with a smooth game-tying base knock to right that moved A-Rod ninety feet away from putting the Yanks ahead, still with no one out. Posada tapped weak double play ball to first that would have got the run home either way, but Caesar Izturis couldn't deliver the throw back to first in time. Still, the damage was done and the Yanks were up 3-2.
While Sabathia struggled mightily in the early going, he threw scoreless 10, 11 and 11 pitch innings in the 4th, 5th and 6th and was available to come back out for the seventh and was greeted by a bunt single by Izturis. Julio Lugo dropped another bunt to sacrifice him to second and the O's were threatening. After Miguel Tejada grounded out to third, Nick Markakis stepped to the plate with two outs. Instead of hitting it the opposite way like he so often does, he chopped one up the first baseline. Cano had a great read on it and made a ridiculous diving stop, popped to his feet and nearly threw Markakis out at first base to end the inning. He had preserved the Yanks' lead but they weren't out of the woods yet.
Ty Wigginton ran the count full before drawing a walk to load the bases and pass the baton to Luke Scott. Sabathia had allowed a single to Scott on the night but also struck him out twice on sliders. CC started him off with a curveball outside and then Scott fouled back a fastball to level the count. The count was 1-2 after Scott swung over a sinker and Sabathia went back to the well for one more slider and struck him out swinging to escape the inning.
Frankie Cervelli knocked in an insurance run a few batters later and Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera combined for a scoreless eighth and ninth as the Yankees locked up their tenth straight win against Baltimore. It was far from perfect as the Yanks had another rough night with runners in scoring position (2 for 13) and Jeter both grounded into a double play and got caught stealing but they got the job done and look to complete the sweep tonight behind A.J. Burnett.
The Yankees lost the first game they played against the Orioles this season by a score of 4-5. On that night in late April, the Yankees scored two in the top of the ninth and brought the winning run to the plate against Alfredo Simon, but came up just shy of a victory when A-Rod grounded out to shortstop to end the game, allowing the Birds to pick up just their fourth win in twenty tries.
The O's may have laughed first this season, but the Yanks have been laughing ever since. They Bombers have won all nine games the teams have played in the meantime by a combined score of 57-22.
In terms of pitching decisions, the biggest beneficiary of the Bombers beating on Baltimore has been CC Sabathia. The Big Fella has five victories on the season and three of them have come courtesy of the Birds. The decision in the game that followed the close loss detailed above went to Sabathia. CC's last two wins came exactly a month apart but they were both against the Orioles.
Since he became a Yankee Sabathia has started eight games against the O's and won seven of them, allowing well under a hit per inning, striking out more than twice as many as he's walked and pitching to an ERA of 2.88.
When the CC faced the O's a week ago he took the first step towards breaking out of a stretch of five starts during which the Yankees went 1-4 and he amassed an ERA of 6.28. CC wasn't spectacular, as he allowed homers to Adam Jones and Luke Scott, but he went seven innings and allowed three runs. Maybe one more go against the Orioles will be what it takes to leave his May struggles behind.
Tired of the basement placed in? Take responsibility for your action in the race, then. Instead of put cheer in our bone, paperhood promote, negativity, and fear in our own neighborhood, Since royalty breed to be (uh-huh), And I puts small seed where small seed need to be, I didn't make the laws, but they make sense to my ass, While waitin' for the world end, won this, Stunned his behind out the way of who reign, I run this...
[Song Notes: I don't want to tempt fate with the tone of the preview but I didn't have much else to run with, and nobody does braggadocious rap lyrics quite like Slick Rick.]
After leaving last night's game with soreness in his thumb, Brett Gardner will have the thumb x-rayed. He is replaced by Kevin Russo in left field tonight.
Derek Jeter SS Nick Swisher RF Mark Teixeira 1B Alex Rodriguez 3B Robinson Cano 2B Jorge Posada DH Curtis Granderson CF Francisco Cervelli C Kevin Russo LF
Good morning Fackers. It's been a while since I've pulled together one of these, so grab a seat in front of the Coleman Lifelike Scoreboard (via Neyer) and let's take a trip around the baseballing interwebz.
Some quick Yankee items first before we get to the big stuff.
Brian Costa of the WSJ took a look at some of the Yanks' late round picks of yesteryear.
Sean from Pending Pinstripes had a great post about giving more than lip service to the concept of "trusting the process" around draft time.
Brett Gardner was removed from last night's game with some discomfort in his thumb, likely stemming from the time that he broke it last year. As anyone who has fractured a digit can attest, pain can flare up at times for quite a while after the initial injury. Gardner said it's happened about 20 times since Spring Training, but it was a little worse tonight. Still, it's probably nothing to worry about.
This isn't exactly news, but Dave Eiland was granted personal leave for an undisclosed reason and is not with the team at present. Bullpen coach Mike Harkey is occupying his role as pitching coach and Josh Paul - the coach of the short-season Staten Island team - is holding things down out in the bullpen for the time being.
Okay, onto the biggest topics of the last two days:
But we live in a different time, our Christmas morning time, when expectation is more fun than realization, when potential costs as much or more than performance, when we happily get carried away, when it isn’t so much about that tired cliche of “what have you done for me lately?” but, instead, “what can you do for me tomorrow?”
If anything, Strasburg's jaw-dropping performance only served to increase the impossibly high expectations for him. Had he done something impressive but repeatable like striking out nine while walking two or three, that would have been one thing, but ripping of 14 Ks without issuing a single free pass? You have to go all the way back to 2007 to find any pitcher in the Majors that's done that, let along a rookie, let alone in his debut.
I'd obviously recommend reading through Poz's live blog of the game, but the most entertaining thing I found this morning about Strasmas was Dashiell Bennett's spot on vivisection of Bob Costas' call of the event over at Deadspin:
Bob Costas did more in just nine innings to craft the Legend of Stephen Strasburg then a lifetime supply of Baseball Almanacs ever could. Yet, he wants to use his same breaths to tsk-tsk the big bad media for losing their heads over the man. If you can't restrain yourself, Bob, why should anyone else?
If you think Dash is being harsh, click through for a mash-up of the historical name-dropping and "on the other hand" detachment Costas employs. I'm not saying there was a clear and easy path to walk for this kind of a game - something truly special was unfolding and it's tough to talk about that without going overboard - but it's the tone with which Costas speaks out both sides of his mouth, listing off legends of the game while saying that "others" might be going overboard with the hype, that neatly encompasses why so many people don't like him.
Deadspin was actually right in the middle of yesterday's second biggest baseball story as well - the one about Pete Rose's corked bat. Barry Petchesky did some real journalism and brought together the story of a PR4192 - a stick used in a game by Mr. Rose himself with an unbroken chain of custody - that X-rays show has a 6" piece of cork inserted right into the barrel.
Craig Calcaterra and Kevin Kaduk ask whether we should care about this and does it really matter, respectively. Beyond the story being a thoroughly enjoyable read, I do care and think it does matter.
It's not surprising by any stretch. We've long known that Rose has a shaky moral foundation (to put it kindly) and accusations of him corking date back to 2001. But his play on the field has always been unimpeachable. He was Charlie Hustle and any tarnish on his name had been confined to things he did without a batting helmet on. To my knowledge, no one ever questioned the veracity of his all-time hits record, save for the jab that he probably shouldn't have put himself in the lineup at the end of his career when he was a player-manager.
Even if MythBusters and other empirical research concluded that corking a bat doesn't really help. Fine, but it's still cheating, regardless of how much of an edge is provides. Again, not that this is shocking, but the one last leg that Rose had to stand on, now looks considerably more unstable.
This is a great example of when a Win Expectancy can put a final score into perspective. The ultimate tally of 12-7 doesn't necessarily represent a blow out, but the Yankees snuffed the Orioles' chances of winning into the single digits as early as the third inning and had them under 1% almost exclusively from the seventh inning on.
It started early. Almost as early as possible, in fact, as Derek Jeter worked a walk to leadoff the game - something that he's only done two other times in 56 plate appearances this season. Moments later, Nick Swisher pounded the first pitch he saw - an 88 mile per hour fastball - over the wall in straight away center field and the Yankees were up 2-0 before Kevin Millwood could record an out. Mark Teixiera and Robinson Cano would both reach base around a strikeout by A-Rod but the two run jack by Swisher was the only blood in the inning.
The hit that really broke the game open came off the bat of Curtis Granderson in the third inning. With two outs and the bases loaded, Granderson took a 2-2 slider deep onto the plaza/terrace/patio atop the wall in right field, extending the margin to 6-0.
By the end of the fifth, the O's had plated three runs off of Phil Hughes, but the Yankees blew the game open again in the top of the seventh on a bases-clearing double by Swisher which was promptly proceeded by a two run homer from Mark Teixeira. Fucking finally.
The slumping Teixeira really came to life in his hometown tonight. He went 3-4 (thanks mostly to two well-placed singles) with two walks and might have driven in more than two runs if that selfish bastard Nick Swisher didn't sweep up five for himself. This may or may not be a memorable turning point or a change in the winds of fortune for Teixeira, but it was certainly fun to watch.
The game was played at a glacially slow pace and I can't help but think that it affected Phil Hughes. Even in the innings the Yankees weren't scoring, they were putting runners on base - they had 15 hits and 6 walks while Hughes was the pitcher of record. Still, he made the obligatory quality start of six innings and three earned runs and picked up an easy win.
Chad Gaudin was the main reason the game looked closer than it was. He was asked to pitch the eighth and ninth innings and during the course of his sloppy mop-up work, he allowed four runs, not to mention stranding three more runners in the process. If there was one blemish, this was probably it, but no one is going to remember it in the morning anyway.
It's been only five days and three games since the Yankees and O's last met but, for the Orioles at least, much has changed in that time. After getting swept by the Yankees last Thursday night, Baltimore returned home and fired manager Dave Trembley Friday morning. It was hardly a surprise; rumors of Trembley's impending termination had circulated for weeks. In fact, in many ways, it was probably a relief to Trembley, who by all accounts is a good baseball man, but also clearly wasn't getting it done and seemed to have run out of answers.
Juan Samuel took over for Trembley on an interim basis, becoming the third consecutive Orioles manager to take the helm mid-season. He lost his first two games to run the O's losing streak to ten in row, 12 of 13, 14 of 16, and 17 of 20, before recording his first managerial victory with an extra inning decision over Boston on Sunday. He had yesterday's off day to bask in the glow of his win, but things won't be getting any easier for him with the Yankees in town for three before kicking off two weeks of interleague play.
Not only is Samuel the third consecutive mid-season hire for Baltimore, following Trembley and Sam Perlozzo, but he's also the fourth consecutive Oriole hire with no prior Big League managerial experience, a trend that started when the O's hired then-Yankee coach Lee Mazzilli following the 2003 season.
Going with a rookie manager four times in a row hasn't brought much success for the Orioles, but it's not as if they were tremendously successful under previous retreads Mike Hargrove and Ray Miller. The truth of the matter is, the Orioles haven't been worth a damn since 1997, when they went 98-64, won the AL East, and advanced to the ALCS. After that season manager Davey Johnson resigned, and the O's haven't had a winning season since.
Johnson made a cameo at the draft last night, serving as one of the Washington Nationals representatives as the Orioles' Beltway rivals selected super-hyped phenom Bryce Harper with the top pick in the draft. Tonight, just down I-295, those same Nationals will host the Pirates in the most anticipated game of the season, in front of a sold out house, as last year's top overall super-hyped pick Stephen Strasburg makes his Major League debut. Meanwhile, even with the Yankees in town, Baltimore will fail to fill their park, which was once one of the hottest tickets in the Majors.
While Washington had to suffer through two consecutive seasons of having the Major's worst record in order to secure those coveted young talents, it is now the Orioles who occupy the MLB basement. Typical of their recent luck, they're on pace to have the top pick in next year's draft - the first draft in three years that doesn't figure to have a once-in-a-generation type talent sitting at the top of the heap.
In the history of mid-Atlantic baseball, tonight could mark a turning point. After arriving in Baltimore from St. Louis in 1954, the Orioles quickly established themselves as a model franchise. "The Oriole Way" became a shining example of how to run an organization, leading to World Series titles in 1966, 1970, and 1983, AL Pennants in 1969, 1971, and 1979, and ALCS losses in four other years. It generated Hall of Famers in Earl Weaver, Jim Palmer, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Eddie Murray, and Cal Ripken Jr.
The strength and proximity of the O's made it was easier for the region to stomach the original Senators leaving Washington after the 1960 season, and then the expansion franchise leaving after the 1971 season. The Orioles extended run of quality play softened the blow of the Nation's Capital being without a Big League team for the next thirty three seasons.
But tonight, with Strasburg debuting, with Harper soon to be in tow, with another mid-season interim rookie manager in the Baltimore dugout, and with Baltimore staring down their thirteenth consecutive losing season, we might just be witnessing a changing of the guards in metro-D.C. baseball.
Gentlemen, he said, I don't need your organization, I've shined your shoes, I've moved your mountains and marked your cards But Eden is burning, either brace yourself for elimination Or else your hearts must have the courage for the changing of the guards.
Yankees: Not much to say here. This is what passes for the regular lineup right now. Perhaps the comforts of home can help Mark Teixeira snap out of his season-long funk. Phil Hughes faces Baltimore for his second consecutive start and third time this year.
Derek Jeter SS Nick Swisher RF Mark Teixeira 1B Alex Rodriguez 3B Robinson Cano 2B Jorge Posada DH Curtis Granderson CF Francisco Cervelli C Brett Gardner LF
Some leftover opinions on the draft that I didn't want to bury at the bottom of the Culver post:
Wow, those five minute intervals were way, way too long. I understand that the whole reason for putting this thing in prime time was to make money off of it and the longer you stretch it out, the more commercials you can sell. But if you pace it too slow, no one is going to be around to watch those ads. I DVR'd this joint and I tried to watch it at regular speed at first, but ended up fast-forwarding between the breaks and ultimately just turning it off until the Yankees were up.
Mysteriously, every fucking team took their allotted five minutes, right down to the second. Yes, that probably made the broadcast flow much smoother since the hosts knew right when to kick it back to Bud Selig. However, in other sports, they might need to use that time since they can trade away their pick, and if the team is ready with the selection, they just go sooner and save everyone the time.
After the first round was said and done, I somehow despised Bud Selig even more than I did at the beginning. I hated the fact that he had to go through the same protracted spiel before every pick:
With the seventeenth pick in the Two Thousand and Ten (that's M-M-X in Roman numerals) Major League Baseball First Year Players Draft, the Tampa Bay Rays of Tampa, Florida select Josh Sale, and outfielder from Seattle High School In Seattle, Washington, down the street from the Mobil station on the right, about a block and a half west of the hospital.
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have the next pick in the 2010 Major League Baseball First Year Players Draft and will have five minutes, which translates to 300 seconds, and are on the clock - metaphorically speaking, not literally on top of a clock - starting now.
AAAAAAAHHHHHH! We know what draft we are watching and don't care what town the college or high school the kid goes to is in. I hate hearing you speak. Less is more. Shut the fuck up.
Judging by his suit, if Selig wasn't announcing the picks last night, he might have been trying to sell you a 2002 Nissan Maxima with 140,000 miles on it. "All highway. You can drive one of these to 250,000, easy!"
By the time they got to the supplemental round, the pacing was much better and it was far more interesting, even though the players were ostensibly less heralded. Even the guys at the desk thought it was better and said so on air (oops!). This thing didn't need to be drawn out for three and a half hours and by pick number #35 or so, it was painfully obvious.
It was also pretty cool to see the team's representative announce the pick (and mispronounce the name) during the supplemental round. Jeff Bagwell got stuck with "Mike Kvasnicka" and Roberto Alomar had to try to say "Noah Syndergaard" and "Asher Wojciechowski". As someone with a last name that everyone butchers, I found that amusing.
That's all I got. If they don't ditch the contrived intervals and cut this thing down to about an hour and a half next year, I promise I won't turn it on until the Yanks are on the clock.
With the last pick in the first round this year, just like they said they would, the Yankees went with a high school position player. However, it wasn't any of the multitude of prospects that they had been connected to via mock drafts and countless other forms of internet speculation.
Cito Culver is a switch-hitting high school shortstop out of Irondequoit, New York, which is close to Rochester. On the broadcast last night, they said that he was ranked 168th in Baseball America's Top 200 (which I can't verify since I don't have a subscription) and most of the mock drafts had him being drafted somewhere between the fourth and six round. For a frame of reference, FanGraphs was dropping in descriptions of players to this post after the picks were made, and they had nothing prepared for Culver.
Little CC had committed to play for the University of Maryland but after getting drafted in the first round by the Yankees, you can pretty much throw that out the window. If the Yankees make that kind of reach in the first round, they are going to sign him.
Naturally, Mike from River Ave. Blues has a more complete profile of Culver, but the gist of it is that he's an excellent athlete with a great throwing arm but not a great baseball player just yet. Essentially, he's got the tools that you can't teach and the Yankees are hoping that they can mold him into a solid all-around player. There are also concerns about a troubled family life (his father is in prison), but we learned our lesson with Slade Heathcott last year, and are not going to touch that at all.
Clearly, the Yankees know way more than we do about this kid. All I've seen are second and third hand scouting reports and a very short video clip of him swinging away in batting practice and declining to offer at two pitches in a live game. But from a purely logical perspective, I really hope that the Yankees were sure that he'd get snatched up before they got a chance to pick again at #82, otherwise this doesn't make much sense.
As fans we didn't get the tantalizing talent that we were hoping for and on a certain level that's disappointing. No high end arm that scouts were projecting towards the front of the rotation and no high school slugger with preposterous power potential. Instead the Yanks did what many small market teams do, which was take a player from their own state who was clearly higher on their list than anyone else's.
Regardless, Culver is a shortstop and that means he's going to have some big shoes to fill if and when he makes it to the big leagues.
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