Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Mike Mussina out-dueled Jon Garland in Chicago last night as the Yankees beat the White Sox, 3-1. The Yanks did not gain any ground as both Oakland and Boston won, and the White Sox lost their sixth in a row. Moose threw 115 pitches over seven innings and had his good stuff working last night: crisp fastball mixed with sharp breaking pitches. Garland threw 120 pitches over seven, but never dominated. If the Yanks did not score much, they at least put together stubborn at bats, making Garland work for his outs. Chicago is excellent in the field, no wonder their pitchers have done so well this year--Joe Crede made a couple of nifty plays at third last night.
Bernie Williams had two hits and an RBI batting in the two-hole, while Robinson Cano collected a couple of hits himself from the ninth slot. Gary Sheffield had an RBI single as well. Flash Gordon worked around a one-out hit in the eighth, and Mariano Rivera pitched a one-two-three ninth to earn save number 33.
Meanwhile, off the field, Joe Torre continues to be the center of attention. He was publicly criticized by George Steinbrenner recently, and after the loss to Tampa Bay on Wednesday he let his players have it. Tyler Kepner has a terrific article on the Yankee manager in the Times today:
Torre blistered the players for about five minutes after a 7-6 loss featuring a crucial throwing error by the rookie second baseman Robinson Cano and five walks by starter Al Leiter. Torre emphatically let the players know how displeased he was that they had given away the game."They knew I was upset," Torre said, while providing no specifics of the postgame meeting. "Just the carelessness, I think, more than anything else - that ball thrown away. It just didn't sit right with me. And the kid, you don't drop it on his shoulders. But you don't think in terms of rookie when you're in a pennant race. You think in terms of, you know better. Just the way that whole game started out with Leiter with all the walks. So a little frustration."
..."He hates mental mistakes," the third-base coach Luis Sojo said. "Errors, you're going to make those mistakes every day. But the fact that you make a mental one was really bad to him. In 10 years, I've never seen him that mad."
Bernie Williams explained:
"I think (the calm Torre) is just the image that he's been given over time here. There are times when he shows his emotions, sometimes very much. When it happens, it doesn't surprise me. When the cameras are on, he wants to put on a neutral face as much as he can. But that isn't how he is all the time."
As far as the Boss goes:
"I've never been concerned about managing to save my job, because I always manage to try to win," Torre said. "I'm happy to say that other than having to answer questions about it, it's never really affected the performance of my job. Here I've had more success than I've ever had anywhere, so certainly I know what we've managed to do here for nine-plus years has had some semblance of continuity."
Chisox skipper Jose Guillen appreciates the difficulty of Torre's situation:
"That's why Joe Torre gets paid a lot of money, not to manage the team (but) to deal with that stuff," Guillen said. "I think I'm overpaid. I don't have to deal with the problems he deals with. Unfortunately, Joe has so many managers around him, it's not easy. It's not an easy spot."
Chacon verus El Duque today on the Fox Game of the Week.
I still have a soft spot for El Duque, but I wouldn't mind at all if A-Rod sort of blasted his way out of his little funk with a couple big fly balls to lead the team to a stress free win. I think we've all bitten our nails to the flesh over the past week. C'mon A-Rod - show us whatchya got today. Vlad is making another late summer MVP run. Time to step up, ya big lug.
BTW - Love the new lineup. That feels like the right move.
I just got a new cable box that has a DVR so I managed to watch the game in about an hour, with all the stupid crap left out. Good times.
Remember what I said yesterday about the balance having been tipped in the Yankees' favor? That extra inning by Moose and one missing Chicago run is about the degree of it. Last week the Yankees lost the final two games of the series, each by a score of 2-1. Here's hoping the balance has been tipped far enough to flip the script.
If the Yankees are the wildcard, they'll probably be facing the White Sox first. Nice to know we can hang with and beat them.
2004: 27 GS, 165.2 IP, 178 H, 22 HR, 40 BB, 132 K, 223 GB, 181 FB (full season)
2005: 26 GS, 165.2 IP, 176 H, 21 HR, 40 BB, 131 K, 223 GB, 188 FB
ERA:
2004: 4.59.
2005: 3.88.
Go figure.
I wish the Yankees played the White Sox more often - these have been the best four games of the year, IMO! Best pitching, best defense, most interesting at bats... I'm really looking forward to the rest of the weekends' games!
Love the Womack-less lineup! Keep it coming, Joe!
he certainly did not look that way earlier this week when he was getting roughed up by the tigers.............keith foulke got injured yesterday trying to rehab himself so who knows what the sux are gonna do
I don't think I read 'popped into a double play' very often.
In case anyone cares.
This game is getting heated...
I am in NH. Fox is broadcasting 3 games, but I am getting NONE of them. I;m getting an infomercial. I have spoken to ComCast but they say it's coming from Fox. Is anyone out there getting ZERO games on Fox now????
This happened last week also. Until then, everything was fine. Tried to get Fox on the phone, but not sure if I have their correct phone#. They go out of their way to hide it.
Paul in Boston: Are you getting (at least) A game? Anyone else on Comast?
WTF!!!!!!
Any insight out there into Giambi's August? Did he change his swing?
It's a little scary but here's a speculative post about it.
http://www.waswatching.com/archives/2005/08/sliced_giambi.html
Why can't guys run hard? When you lose the PS by a game or 2, you can probably find a game or 2 that was cost by non-hustle.
Why can't guys run hard?
Can you see any reason for Fox NOT to broadcast games? The pay a forture for the rights and are losing advertising $$. Is this a Cable Company screw up?
I'm pissed! I gotta get Fox on the phone.
No (800) number and not at their 'old' address in CA. Man, these guys are hiding.
Lots of other teams play many night games on Saturdays -- the Yankees almost never do.
Extra Innings also suffers on a lot of Fridays. The Yankees must broadcast on an alternate channel to YES on Fridays, and I guess Extra Innings doesn't carry it, so I end up missing out on Fridays and Saturdays, which is really awful.
I wish MLB would get around to offering single team packages for BBall. It's not like football where people can enjoy watching games with almost any team. I really have no interest in watching anything other than Yanks games & Sox games, except maybe during the playoffs, which are nationally televised anyway.
There's a rumor that YES may partner with NESN to show Yankees games in Mass. and Red Sox games in NY/NJ. Hopefully that happens. I don't understand why the Yanks don't make YES national anyway (like TBS for Braves). I'm sure there are plenty of Yanks fans around the country that would pay a few $$ a month for it.
Just venting.
On a baseball topic, why would we consider doing anything other than keeping Chacon for next year? The guy is pitching a 2 hitter? He seems to have more guts and talent than many of the hacks we've thrown out there over the past few years (Weaver, Brown, Vazquez, Loaiza, Contreras, Pavano)
Meanwhile, Chacon just passed 100 pitches and Sturtze was warming. With a 4-run lead I'd rather see Rodriguez. Actually, I'd rather see a combo of Small/Proctor and Rodriguez to try to get through the game without using any of the Big Three, perhaps use Embree in a match-up situation of necessary. And I'd I think I'd go straight to the pen in the 7th.
Bye Bye El Duque. (I still like him, but this is business).
And what happened between El Duque and A-Rod? Was the pitch that close? (I was out running errands, only heard about on the radio.)
I mean, we are talking about piling on Womack ABs here. How much worse could it possibly be to give some of those to Phillips? Plus, he will have some of his hits going for extra base. With Womack and Crosby, there is hardly a chance.
What's a Washington National doing running the White Sox? [wink]
btw, Sox lose. Three out.
I like that NESN-YES deal. Why not? I would happily switch back and forth between the two games and bag the MLB extra-innings package pronto.
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