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They Got Five On It
2008-07-22 18:48
by Alex Belth

Yanks roll over Twins 8-2, win fifth straight. 

Rays lose.  New York just three-and-a-half games out of first place.

Say word.

Darrell Rasner pitched well on Tuesday night at the Stadium and Bobby Abreu got the big hit, a two-run homer in the sixth that put the Yanks ahead for good.  It was close early but the Bombers scored three in the sixth and four in the seventh to put it away.  Contributions from many but man, is Robinson Cano ever back or what?  The dude is in a flat-groove right now.  Speaking of which, let's all feel good: 

 Gotta love the grooves...

Right, Ike?

Comments
2008-07-22 19:44:03
1.   Jeb
2 sweeps in a row sure would be nice. Then we got up to Beantown and take 2 of 3.
2008-07-22 19:48:00
2.   monkeypants
This team keeps sucking me back in every time I'm about ready to write them off. Girardi has been awfully good with the BP, but in the long haul can they overcome all of these injuries?
2008-07-22 19:49:20
3.   monkeypants
BTW, I'm watching the Boston-Seattle game. The Ms right now are the most hopeless team I could ever imagine.
2008-07-22 19:54:09
4.   Jeb
3 they should be contracted.
2008-07-22 19:55:17
5.   Mr OK Jazz TOKYO
0 Alex, thank you for the grooves..fantastic.
2008-07-22 20:02:20
6.   Jeb
OT: I am so glad that this is the place that I do my posting and Yankee discussing. Generally speaking we all get along. People disagree but things tend to work out eventually and we even joke about disagreements later, which keeps it all light.

I've been reading the "Mediots" thread at the Nomaas discussion board and DAMN..those people are mean as hell and say terrible things about Pete Abraham. As much as they comment about his weight, I sure hope they're all olympic athletes.

2008-07-22 20:05:27
7.   Eirias
4 Although, with the number of teams that we, as Yankees fans, have said deserve to be contracted, we'd have only half a league left.
2008-07-22 20:06:38
8.   monkeypants
4 I will admitm, however, that I really, really like watching games played in their big ball park. It's fun watching the OFers run down balls in the spacious gaps. Then again, I'm a big fan of watching defense and triples more than Ks and HRs.
2008-07-22 20:11:42
9.   Eirias
8 Funny, I like K's and triples.
2008-07-22 20:19:04
10.   tommyl
3 Well, that's what you get when you have a GM who looks at a team that drastically outperformed its Pythagorean record the year before, decides they are on the brink and trades the farm for a fragile lefty #2 starter to "put you over the top." At least they fired him. Yeesh, how do these guys get these jobs?
2008-07-22 20:19:34
11.   monkeypants
9 I find that when the ballpark has a spacious OF, like Safeco or Comerica (especially before they brought the LF fences in), the outfielders seem to play with a much greater sense of urgency.

In hitters parks, a ball to the wall is essentially an automatic double, with no real need to make an extra effort to cut the ball off in the gap or make a quick throw back in. The game just appears so much more static.

But I admit that this is my own biased and impressionistic view.

Meanwhile, the Sox go up by two, which is an insurmountable lead. Then again, one was probably insurmountable.

2008-07-22 20:24:05
12.   tommyl
Oh man, the Mets just choked in the ninth. It was like a mini-replay of their collapse last year! Yikes, that has to hurt, and once again Santana goes 8 innings, gives up 2 runs and fails to get the win.
2008-07-22 20:27:09
13.   monkeypants
10 Hows this for sad: yesterday they started Miguel Cairo at DH.

Even sadder? Cairo (61 OPS+) is not really a worse choice than their starting DH Jose Vidro (60 G at DH, 60 OPS+) OR his primary backup Jeff Clement (14 G at DH, 64 OPS+).

That's bad. Real, real bad.

2008-07-22 20:28:11
14.   Just fair
11 Did you catch Ichiro scaling the wall to try and catch Drew's homer? Man, that guy is some kind of athlete.
Very Un-Abreu like. : )
2008-07-22 20:31:13
15.   monkeypants
Does Adrian Beltre have one of the strangest career trajectories ever by a player not named Brett Boone?
2008-07-22 20:35:20
16.   monkeypants
14 No. As I mentioned on the last thread, I'm watching the game on goofy Rogers Sports Net (Canadian regional sports channels, like Fox Sports Net). Anyway, RSN Pacific carries west coast games, but only starting at 10:30 EST, so you cut in while the game is already in progress!

By the time the game came on Drew's homer was already in the books and Seattle's losing fate sealed.

2008-07-22 20:55:09
17.   Max
Safeco is probably my favorite place to watch a game outside of YS.
2008-07-22 21:00:10
18.   Gagne55
15 In 2004, Beltre had bone spurs in his ankle that forced him to stay back on the ball. He had always been a sucker for the curveball in the dirt but the spurs made it impossible to chase those- or else suffer severe pain. After getting the spurs removed in the offseason he went back to being fairly average, though a bit better than his 2001-03 numbers. Or if you're referring to the fact that he was an above average player at 19 and didn't become a star (outside of the bone spur season) then well sometimes the uber prospects don't become uber players; it happens.
2008-07-22 21:09:45
19.   monkeypants
I'm not much surprised that he never became the next Mike Schmidt or whatever. But if what you write is true, that only reinforces my view that he has had a weird career.

He came up young and looked to improve steadily for his first few years (73, 101, 114 OPS+), then he regressed badly (91, 97, 88 OPS+). Then he had a freakishly good season at age 25 (163 OPS+)... because he had an injury, according to your information.

Then he had a bad season (93 OPS+) before settling into three seasons of somewhat above average during his peak athletic years (105, 112, 111 OPS+).

No steady improvement, no steady decline, no typical statistical arc, no rapid decline or fluke bad season linked to injury (but instead a fluke good season because of injury)

It's like he's had four careers all by the age of 29.

2008-07-22 21:59:21
20.   Mattpat11
With Mike Mussina going tomorrow, especially Mike Mussina against this particular team, at home, I'd say missing out on the sweep would have to be a letdown. Not disastrous or anything, but it really is a game they should win.
2008-07-22 22:09:30
21.   51cq24
8 9 11 you don't have to choose between watching good defense and strikeouts. i like both and big stadiums.
2008-07-22 22:12:24
22.   monkeypants
21 In practice no, but in the theoretical extreme yes. More Ks means fewer balls in play and fewer opportunities to watch good defense.
2008-07-22 22:15:39
23.   Schteeve
You know, I'm not a big sentimentalist, but if the last game ever played at the only Yankee Stadium I have ever known, is some meaningless regular season game, I think I'm going to lose my mind for a few days.
2008-07-22 22:16:33
24.   Schteeve
22 I like watching old sore armed righties pull rabbits out of their hats. Cone was the blueprint, and I'm taking a lot of pleasure in watching Moose this season.

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