Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Kei Igawa looked like Steve Austin for four innings last night ("we can fix him, we have the technology"), but turned into Steve Blass in the fifth. Igawa held the Giants scoreless on two hits through four while walking just one and striking out five, including Barry Bonds on three pitches in the fourth. Kevin Frandsen then lead off the fifth by hitting a good pitch for a double, and Omar Vizquel hit a chopper to drive him in. Igawa got the next two batters to fly out, but Randy Winn doubled to push Vizquel to third and Igawa lost the strike zone pitching out of the stretch. Given the opportunity to strand Barry Bonds in the on-deck circle, Igawa walked Ray Durham to load the bases, then threw six pitches a good three feet from Jorge Posada's target (two of which Bonds fouled off) to walk Bonds and force in the second San Francisco run. Bengie Molina followed by cracking a screamer to the wall in left, but Hideki Matsui got on his horse and made a game-saving leaping catch, crashing into the wall with the final out.
The good news is the Yankees had a five-run lead heading into that inning and got one of those two runs back in the sixth. With two outs, Melky Cabrera, batting lefty against reliever Randy Messenger, fouled a pitch off his right shin. For a moment it looked like Cabrera might have broken something as he hopped around the plate then sat down as Gene Monahan checked him out. Melky stayed in the game, however, and cracked the next pitch past Dave Roberts in center for a stand-up triple. Once on third, he bent back over to rub his aching shin only to get a ribbing from Larry Bowa. The YES camera's caught Melky angrily pushing the wise-cracking Bowa away as Bowa erupted in laughter. A nice moment that was followed by a nicer one as Jeter singled Cabrera home to make it 6-2.
Bonds cracked his 749th career homer off Scot Proctor in the eighth and Alex Rodriguez singled home a Derek Jeter triple in the ninth to put the final score at 7-3 Yanks.
This afternoon Mikey Moose looks to give the Yanks a quick series win against Noah Lowry on FOX.
YANKEES
Cabrera CF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Posada C
Matsui LF
Cano 2B
Cairo 1B
Wang RHP (7-4, 3.33)
GIANTS
Roberts CF
Winn RF
Durham 2B
Bonds LF
Klesko 1B
Molina C
Feliz 3B
Vizquel SS
Morris RHP (7-4, 3.21)
I love watching Bonds in action. And I use the word "action" in the loosest possible sense.
"And he makes a very good play not letting this ball get by him." !?!?!
That sounds like a typical Matt Morris start. He has inherited Kirk Rueter's role on the Giants staff in that regard.
49 Yah, that's what I meant. Was Morgan serious? He doesn't usually say crazy things about actual plays, that kind of stuff.
And I'm pretty sure that Morgan was honestly praising that sprawling, near-face-plant of a dive by Bonds... but then again, it is Joe.
Winn is another big batter, if he gets a hit the situation becomes very tense.
Now let's pile up some more hits.
I guess that makes DougOut better then Mattingly. Maybe the dumbest, most unenlightening thing I've ever heard.
Oh, Melky, let's not make a habit of this!
But since you bring it up, bartap, (and I didn't hear Girardi) I'd venture to guess that "great job" carries an implicit qualification: "...for some scrub off the bench called upon to do more than he bargained for."
As to "gold glove defense" all I can say to that is that I've been quite impressed by his play with the glove. Perhaps "gold glove" is an exaggeration, but I don't think it's outlandish, as you suggest.
Isn't the game on YES?
You swing away and you roll the dice the ball will find a hole.
You bunt and you count more upon your skills as a batsman and your speed and try to force the opposing team to make an error, which may be more likely on a bunt than a standard-issue ground ball.
Girardi has now declared that there's "no question" that Vizquel is a Hall of Famer.
Again, I'm rooting for him to the next manager, but I'm a bit worried about the stuff he's saying.
As to Vizquel, I have no opinion other than to say that I've seen him do Hall of Fame things in the field, if that counts for anything.
When a C+ student gets a B, he gets more praise then when an A student get a B+.
Cairo is valuable for what he is, a D+ student playing C+ ball.
Did they just say that Soriano stole 80 bases last year? Was that in a parallel dimension?
Picked off?
Hung up on a ball hit to his right?
He's getting caught stealing?
Any theories?
My one theory as to the cs is that perhaps he's lost a step but hasn't adjusted yet.
"Proctor, Myers, Bruney, Vizcaino and Farnsworth all have the same affliction -- they don't throw enough strikes." hahaha thanks for that.
We don't play that way.
Thats one of the few things I blame on Torre.
--my 4 1/2 year old.
Again... managers manage and players play. Players win or lose the game. Francoma put Roberts in to run. He called for the SB. But Roberts stole the base. If he was out instead of safe, would Francona's head be on a stick?
We don't play that kind of baseball.
C'mon, Yanks, time to break out the lumber.
Was bringing in Bruney right or wrong? He walked his man.
Was bringing in Villion right or wrong? He got the popup.
I can't say if Joe made no mistakes or 3 mistakes. But I can say for sure that Myers and Bruney made mistakes. (And Villion didn't look so hot).
Sign that man to an extension, now!
I just can't say a player on a team that did nothing is the most valuable in the league
I'd certainly hope so. If he's as great a guy as they say, I wouldn't even bring up the baseball skills.
Now two out, bases loaded for Robbie.
1-0 to Rob.
Jeter would have caught that.
I missed about 80 minutes of the game, though, and I can't get Gameday up to look at the innings I missed.
Oh, god. Did Melky lose it in the sun, or what?
Huh, I don't know exactly what's going on -- Matsui batted in the 11th but Thompson fielded. No idea why.
Andy walked to lead off the inning, Melky bunts foul (for those who can't see).
Great time for Fox to have technical difficulties, mutter, grumble.
KT flies out shallow center. Bottom of the 12th coming up.
And why exactly did Matsui come out, can anyone figure it out?
Proctor now has two ABs in this series, Basak zero ABs.
302 My thought too.
Oh well. Carp.
I doubt the positioning was his idea. It must have been called from the dugout.
Ugh.
Yeah, now I feel the Doom and Gloom washing over me.
Sure was good that we saved Mo in this game in case we got the lead...again...
Well, see youse. Let's at least win the series tomorrow with Mikey Moose and make Cliff's prediction come true.
318 not proctor's fault at all.
Reminds me of WS '01.
Proctor pitched his heart out, and Cairo should've had Vizquel on the play before as well. Not sure why the outfield was playing back either.
I really think that the team losing so many one-run games is not a statistical thing and something that will balance out, they simply fail to execute the plays necessary to win close games, time and time again.
bad BPp execution, bad BP management, bad hitting..blah blah blah, what a gross game
6/23 - 40 pitches, 1 AB
6/22 - 22 pitches, 1 AB
6/21 - 21 pitches, 0 AB
Can anyone tell me how squeezing a third inning out of Proctor was worth wasting an AB in the top of the 13th? With a man on base? A cue shot double by Basak or Wil Nieves could have put the Yanks ahead and had Rivera on the mound in the bottom of the 13th. At-bats are precious but apparently not so precious that you can't waste a few of them on your bullpen. You can joke about Basak all you want - he's got 2812 professional at-bats. Proctor has 38 career ABs (now 40). The last time Proctor had more than 3ABs IN A SEASON was 2002. Proctor struck out 19 times in his 38 career ABs - now 21 times in 40 ABs.
I agree. I am beginning to doubt that Joe ever managed in the NL. Wait, he did, with a below .500 WP.
I have no idea why Leche was playing so deep, but whatever.
This game ended when Matsui struck out.
That was our best opportunity to win with a blooper of our own. Or a sac fly or a groundball in the hole--something. Anything but striking out on 3 pitches.
Oh well, what are you gonna do?
Bottom line -- Torre is a great manager for keeping calm in the clubhouse (when he's not nodding off). A perfect manager for George. But, he is average at best when it comes to tactics during a game. He had a great run of making the right move during the WS runs, but it's been a while since you felt confident in decisions he has made.
And what's really nice is how it builds over time. Damon as PH, typically useless. But by using him at all he can't be retroacted on the DL (he was supposed to "shut down" until Tuesday, then re-evaluated). Torre's goofy tactics yesterday (using Meyers in the middle of the game instead of against Bonds in the eighth and batting two relief pitchers instead of PH/going for more runs contibuted to three run lead, which convinced Torre to use Mo for two innings yesterday, so he was only available for one inning today, so Torre would never use him w/o a lead) limited his late inning options today.
And finally, Jeter is a little dinged up and Posada is due for a day off tomorrow. That means the line-up for next game will include Cairo-Phillips-Nieves, unless Torre opts for Cairo-Basak-Nieves.
Brilliant.
And Mel Hall is a kiddie rapist. He's always been a winner.
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6954198?MSNHPHMA
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