PeteAbe says the Yankees are watching 300 in the clubhouse. With your shield, or on it, fellas.

2 I'm looking forward to seeing some decapitations tonight.

UPDATE, 6:44 p.m., GIESE ON FRIDAY: Joe Girardi said Dan Giese will start Friday. Rasner is going to the bullben.

4 Well, we do have Ponson, who kind of looks like that guy with the crab hands. I can't find a picture of him, because I don't know what he's actually called. "Crab-hands man" didn't get me very far on google...

I'm just wondering whether the message is supposed to be, "It's a hopeless lost cause, boys, but let's really make them pay so when we lose they'll be too beat up to make the play-offs and everyone will remember us." That would be if we're the Spartans.

Or is it, "The Rangers are really valiant and their training makes them scary good, but eventually we'll just overwhelm them and someone will betray their asses and we'll win, although it's going to be kind of humiliating and so costly we won't make the play-offs." That's if we're the Persians.

http://tinyurl.com/6q8n5m

http://tinyurl.com/6aul7g

As for the message, the actual Battle of Thermopylae was a classic "lose the battle, win the war" story. The battle was a distraction, dreamed up by the Athenians, who drew the Persian boats out into dangerous straights more familiar to the smaller, swifter Greek boats. The Persians won on land, but were slaughtered at sea. Without sea support, the Persians retreated.

And isn't "lose the battle, win the war" basically the message of all wise baseball men?

The symbolism is very, very deep. We need Weeping asap. Or maybe Rilkefan, where has he been?

12 the persians made a habit out of "win the battle, lose the war" sorta encounters ...

thank mo - mo says he is ready to pitch tonight

(per petey)

anyone else who has ei - seen where they are offering a couple of games each night for the past few days where you get to choose the home or away broadcast?
i hope they expnad that so you can make that choice on all the games (or at least for me the yankees games)

21 thank you! bet that was a crazy game to attend.
you should write to bronx banter treasury c/o sidney ponson in aruba and use that money to get your season tickets.

Stacheless power?

Oh, X-man, come on. We're busy working the pitch count, get with the program.

Pitching coordinator Nardi Contreras is here with Hughes and watched both of his rehabs in Charleston. Contreras said Hughes looked about as good in his last start as he ever has with the Yankees. His fastball command and velocity were both very good -- 93 to 95 mph, not 101 like the stadium gun showed -- and Contreras said the curveball was as sharp as it's been since 2006 when Hughes was so good for Trenton.

"His last outing was great," Contreras said. "He threw the baseball that day like I saw him when he went up and tore up that Eastern League. He really threw the ball well. That was encouraging. The way he was throwing before he hurt his hamstring (with New York), remember? That's how he was throwing the baseball."

31 yes, really hard to tell what's going on.
the info on kennedy is so sparse - what does that mean - he's behind where he was last year, how so?
and it really seemed like the yanks didn't want to rush hughes again.

ugh - nice play to take a hit from robbie.

so far he seems to actually not shake pudge off that much.

Yeah, don't forget, the kid is from Oklahoma, so the temp and air must feel kind of like home.

Sox/Laptops UP 2-1 after 2
TB Tied 2-2 after 4
Oakland about to lose AGAIN, and is sinking fast.

Yeah, the A's collapsed fast, huh?

And ARod... pulls a Manny on strike 3.

And Manny is 8 for 13 with 2 HRs in LA. Wonder if he was doging it in Boston. Kaye is right. This guy is a true idiot savant.

Nice K.

"I talked to Chase Wright last week about Phil Coke, and Wright said Coke's slider had been unreal in Trenton. He wasn't lying. Coke just struck out Jonathan Van Every -- lefty with 24 homers -- then got Josh Wilson to groundout to strand runners at second and third here in the seventh. Coke was sitting at 92 with his fastball and showing a huge slider that I swear he didn't have for that spot start earlier this season. That was awfully impressive."

ah gotta luv the big lug

90 Not his scene, IIRC. Don't think he's been back since he was inducted.

Mr OK, Rob just hit one further than Jason's!

KC ahead of Boston?? nice...

108 Seems Beane feels that his $$ is better spent elsewhere. He's made some solid trades, AFAICT.

Joba has the Michael Ironside grin going on in his Gameday photo..."I am Daryl Revok.."

Okay, I can accept 1 BB per game.

Damn.

This is what McCarron wrote in the Daily News (in a piece on Rasner losing his position in the rotation):

"Ian Kennedy might be an option after allowing two runs in seven innings for Triple-A Scranton Sunday. Kennedy is 4-2 with a 2.14 ERA at Triple-A, but Yankee officials have said recently they consider him behind where he was when he reached the majors last year."

137 I'm going to guess he won't make it through seven, no, but I bet he'll start the seventh.

IPK does not obviously have the stuff that Joba or Phil have. A little extra seasoning can't hurt.

I don't think the Yankees want to look silly if he comes up for another round and he stinks it up again. You know, Santana trade and all.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/shareit/Ttza

Anyway, do you figure that was Padilla's last pitch? Given the Texas middle relief, I might let him start the sixth.

So, Alex doesn't get an RBI for that balk? I thought he did.

Friday night lights in Anaheim would be something special for the SoCal kid, but maybe something he's not ready for.

Cool for Giese.

In KC, the Sox had 2 on with 2 out and Jason Bay grounded out to end the inning. I'm not saying that Manny would have hit a 2 run double into the gap (after all when did any of us ever see hiim do that?)....but I'm just saying....

(Please don't ban my account, TPTB)

Uh.
What happened? Did it hit Kinsler?

But we won't go there. :-)

I will say it doesn't get more damning regarding the organization's confidence in IPK, than to be giving Giese a spot start in the middle of a playoff push, despite IPK's near no-hitter (as tommyl reminded us).

Young is just good, but Dammit.

settle down joba.

That's very bad.

Okay, dude, get one more out for us and hit the showers.

The worst part is that...unless this really does turn out to be minor...we'll have to deal with the evasiveness of Girardi regarding any details for several days to a week, if past incidents are any indication.

Instead, we may lose the game AND lose Joba.
All because of a bad call.
It's WAY past time for instant replay.

ummm...

That might actually be worse than blaming Bobby Meacham for Wang's injury.

Okay, jk, jk, don't get worked up. You had to be here when Wang hurt his foot, I guess.

midol prescription rescinded.

;)

I thought the story of this game was going to be very poor pitch selection and another possible disconnect with Pudge. Now, I just hope it's not about a major dent to the Yankees future.

An injury to Joba would completely overshadow all the usual themes that pop with this team.

the question i'm not sure about is whether 1 foot fair is out of the box. to my eyes, he was 1/2 in 1/2 out, which i thought was still "in the box". but that's just gut, so i very well could be wrong ... anyone know for sure?

I don't really have a point here, except that I'm starting to dislike the Rangers pretty intensely.

I was trying to remember that too ...

I was trying to remember that too ...

252 If the runner is hit by the ball in fair territority, he is out. On the YES replay, it looked like it never touched him. If it was a missed call, it not only might cost the Yankees this game, but also Joba.

Girardi put his hand over Eiland's upper arm, and Cone surmised that the area Girardi was indicating could have been "cramp territory, nothing to worry about." But the body language of the three men suggested otherwise.

See 262 for all the other information anyone has at the time.

what a season.

The Texas announcers were complaining about the balks. Were they legit?

If it's even minor discomfort, I would shut Joba down for the year. This team hasn't earned the right to put the future of the franchise at risk.

Girardi and Donahue jog out to the mound. The initial camera shot didn't show much other than conversation. But then the replay showed Girardi saying something to Joba, who shook his head and pointed to his upper arm, just below the shoulder.

if he's really injured with something serious, i might not be able to watch the rest of the season, i'd be that disappointed. i'm just sick to my soul ...

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3326397

:-(

This is the second:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2007/news/story?id=2813179

Wood didn't pitch again until August...

Does anyone really expect the truth so soon after this all happened? I'm just as worried sick as anyone, but I don't expect anything that goes beyond the usual evasions from the Girardi regime on this one...we may as well be getting a Belichick-ian mumble on Joba's actual status.

I'm just going to focus on the game...though it does look like the players themselves may be worried, since they seem to have forgotten how to hit again...they couldn't take advantage of two on, none out, and laid an egg the last inning.

not safe for viewing by children!!!

"while on or over foul territory, touches the person of an umpire or player, or any object foreign to the natural ground."

In other words, what matters is the position of the ball, not the position of the rest of the fielder's body.

I'd prefer X-factor, myself. Or "X-Files one deep!" among the many suggestions from yesterday.

That should be Nady's HR call.

(I think the Mets are regretting letting Nady go .... and Keppinger .... and Wigginton ... and )

Right on, Nadie, right on.

We're probably SOL there -- but do you think there's daylight in the fact that the umps reversed the call? I doubt it, but it would be nice. (4.19, 9.02 for those interested.)

In any case, the protest has to be indicated before the next play, so the ship has sailed.

The machines are very expensive and require at least an associate's degree to operate. I would hope that baseball teams would not have them in their clubhouses....

It'll be interesting to see whether they let Chamberlain speak to the media.

We have a guy gets out lefties!

Plus, there's a medical reason why an immediate MRI is worthless... for most of the relevant injuries, there is so much swelling that an accurate image cannot be obtained until a few days later.

I concur .... and Will would too ....

There probably isn't a medical reason for having an immediate MRI, but I'd think comfort and ease of access would be a bigger issue.

The warlike Mars.

So... I think it's 4 to 1...

Bay hits a dribbler, the SS and 3B collide and the runs scores everyone safe.

They would be spending their money better if they hired a team psychic to touch Joba's shoulder to see how long he'd be out.

I could've sworn he retired after 2006... instead I see he just went to Cincinnati. Easy to confuse the two.

Joba was a prospect
But now he pitch no more
For what he thought was H20
Was H2S04....

Come on, Derek, be a hero!

The Rangers seem to be collecting a lot of Reds rejects.

Running shoestring catch followed by a little tumble.

Very, very nice play.

I take it you were a pre-med at Duke...I never did anything past Bonk's intro class (and it's certainly been long enough since then), so I'll take your word for it regarding the formula.

Just wondering...

not to sound snarky--I was hoping for the same thing....

Pitch to somebody...

FUCKFUCKJFUCKUFUCKFKCIUUCKK!!!!
\
GODDDNAMFUCJING DHADMMITT!!!@zxc

I don't kddklfjdslj

I don't even know what to say.

Am I tripping or did I just witness what I think I did?

ah 'nother horseshit loss.

That was worse than anything Torre did with the pen.

I think that's the season, kids.

Wow.

I admit I didn't see the Rays juggernaut coming, though.

I give up.

I can't take it anymore.

I don't even know what I'm going to do

I'm just sitting here in something like utter disbelief.

Did that all really just happen?

That's something.

saving the pen is managing for tomorrow; this team can't afford that luxury.

(Ok, in an honest effort to gain a little perspective, I was calling for us to just forfeit the California series and miraculously we managed a split, so credit where it's due.)

So yes, take away a bunch of wins and the Yankees are basically a team with fewer wins.

"The Yankees announced that Chamberlain has a stiff right shoulder. That could mean just about anything, none of it good. We'll talk to Girardi later, but don't expect much in the way of information.

It'll be interesting to see whether they let Chamberlain speak to the media."

545 What I meant is that two long winning streaks masked the general inconsistency of this team. After seeing them play over the past week, it's hard to not expect them to lose again.

My point in 516 is that until Girardi uses Jeff Weaver (or his equivalent) out of the BP, ahead of Rivera, in a World Series, for two innings, he will never, ever, ever make a BP move as bad as Joe Torre.

548 isn't that what god was invented for?

"Hm, where are they? I don't see any holes."

"Huh?? I swear I loaded up an entire boatload of them! What the hell could have happened???"

Interesting. Maybe you're right, but it looked to me like he went after him to the bitter end and just failed to throw a strike.

557 In Yankee/Girardi speak, this is sounding worse and worse.

So boys and girls, waiver claim? Or IPK? Or Kei Igawa? Or...Phil Hughes?

I'm just playing with possibilities.

He says it wasn't the throw from Pudge that he had to duck. He felt it in the fifth inning. No pain, just stiffness.

Girardi saw him shaking his arm, and that's why he went out and got him.

Joba and Joe both said his velocity is still good, so they don't think it's serious.

While I like a lot of the things Girardi has done with the pitchers this season, he has definitely made some peculiar moves.

However, Kennedy has been groomed as a starter, not a jack of all trades, and (just my opinion) Girardi was overthinking the rain situation when he started Bruney. Roles do exist for a reason, and routines are created around those roles. I thought Girardi should have not tried to outsmart the weather and jerk around a rookie pitcher. But that's just me.

582 Christian may be optioned, though Sexson certainly seems to be the most expendable (that's the way I would go).

Even in a tight playoff race, the Yankees are likely to be cautious with the hard-throwing Chamberlain, who said he's never had a similar problem in his shoulder.

"It's a little stiff now," he said. "It's in the Deltoid below my shoulder. Strength is fine, velocity is fine."

After the game, Girardi also revealed that star closer Mariano Rivera was unavailable for the second consecutive game because of back spasms.

"We were a little short-handed," the manager said. "He said he felt OK, but I've got to hear that he feels great."