Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
There are twenty games remaining on the Yankees regular season schedule, one more than the Red Sox and two more than the Indians. The Red Sox added a half-game to their division lead yesterday by defeating the Blue Jays in eleven innings thanks to yet another game-winning home run by guess who while the Yankees enjoyed their final off-day of the season. The Yankees will make up that game next Thursday when the Red Sox are idle, thus that frightening extra half-game that will stick to the Red Sox AL East lead over the next week and a half is illusory. The opportunity still exists for the Yankees to match the Sox win-for-win to keep the Boston lead at three games entering the final three games of the season in Boston. Should the Yankees then sweep that series, a single-game playoff between the two teams would be played at Yankee Stadium to decide the division.
The Indians, meanwhile, were shut out by Dan Haren and a quartet of relievers last night, thus dropping their half-game advantage in the Wild Card race. You see, while the Indians still lead the Yankees by a full game, that game is the result of the Indians having won two more games than the Yankees. The two teams are even in the loss column, which, by a certain strain of logic, means they are actually tied. Thus the opportunity still exists for the Yankees to match the Indians win-for-win over the remainder of the season, win the two extra games in their schedule, and finish the season tied with Cleveland. If that happens, a single-game playoff between the two teams would be played at Jacob's Field to decide the Wild Card.
So, technically, the Yankees are still in control of their own destiny, even if that destiny now includes a one-game playoff win. Merely forcing such a playoff game against either the Indians or Red Sox, however, will be a monumental task for the pinstripers. To begin with, needing to sweep the Red Sox at home over the final three days of the season is a frightening thought, even though the starters for that series currently project to be Aaron Small, Randy Johnson and Shawn Chacon (though Chacon's start could go to Mike Mussina as I'll explain in a moment).
What's more, the Indians have been the hottest team in the American League over the past week. Last night's loss broke a seven-game winning streak that saw them sweep the Tigers and Twins, including a 4-2 win over Johan Santana this past Friday.
Meanwhile, the Yankees find themselves in Tampa tonight to play their final three games of the season against the Devil Rays team that has, er, bedeviled them all season. At this point it should no longer be necessary for me to recap the Devil Rays' success against the Yankees this season. And any analysis of the overall success of the Devil Rays' pitchers against the Yankee hitters is statistically obscured by the two 13-run innings the Yankees have dropped on the D-Rays this season (yes those innings can be factored out, but I lack the time, the patience, and the stomach to do so right now). That said, it is informative to note that the Devil Rays have outscored and flat out-hit the Yankees head-to-head even with those 26 runs in two innings included on the Yankees' side:
D-Rays: .293/.367/.451 (.278 GPA), 102 R
Yanks: .280/.343/.474 (.273 GPA), 98 R
In addition, consider the fact that the Yankee starter and the two Yankee hitters who have performed best against the Devil Rays this season, Mike Mussina, Tino Martinez and Gary Sheffield, have all been sidelined with injuries of late. The good news is that Sheffield (.322/.349/.678, 6 HR, 22 RBI vs. TB this year) will start tonight at DH. Sheffield missed the entire Boston series with a mysterious muscle pull in his upper leg (it's been variously reported as a quad, a hamstring, and a groin). As Alex and I were discussing on the phone this afternoon, you know that had to eat Sheffield up inside. The guy played all of last year with a muscle separation in his shoulder and a torn ligament in his thumb and almost won the MVP award. Do you think he would have missed the entire Boston series if that leg injury wasn't something we should be concerned about? Hells no! Do you think he wasn't going absolutely crazy having to sit through those last two games in which the Yankee offense produced a total of three runs? You bet your sweet bippy he was!
Having Sheffield at DH could actually be a plus for the Yankees in this series as it opens up right field to the team's best defensive outfielder, Bubba Crosby, who, to Joe Torre's credit, will indeed start there tonight, his second consecutive start in right field. Playing on the slick Tropicana Dome turf over the next three games, the Yankees would be well advised to dispatch Bubba Crosby to the outfield in all three games, even against the left-handed Mark Hendrickson tomorrow. Now that we've all had a good look at Matt Lawton's defensive shortcomings, I can't imagine anyone would disagree that the Yankees cannot afford to run him and Bernie Williams out there on turf against this fast and aggressive Tampa Bay team, and Gary Sheffield, particularly Gary Sheffield with a bum leg, would only be a marginal improvement.
To that end, having Sheffield at DH also keeps Jason Giambi in the field, where his bat has heated back up, producing two of the three runs the Yankees scored in the final two games of their weekend series against the Red Sox. Giambi has spent all of September in the field thus far thanks to the rib cage injury which has kept Tino Martinez out of the line-up for the entire month. According to Torre's pre-game press conference, Tino could return to game action this week, which is actually an item of some concern as anything that pushes Jason Giambi to DH is a blow to the Yankee offense. Thankfully Sheffield will block him for the time being. I for one could deal with seeing the likes of Bubba Crosby, Matt Lawton or Ruben Sierra in the line-up in place of Tino as long as it kept Giambi in the field.
As for Mussina, the last of the Yankees' injury brigade, he threw 45 pitches in the bullpen today and, though he's still not 100 percent, will take another bullpen turn later in the week, and could eventually slot into Chacon's spot in the rotation if the latter continues to struggle. That would make Mussina, not Chacon, the starter for the final game of the season in Boston. Myself, I'm nervous about a potential Mussina return, as the Yankees can't afford to sacrifice a single game to get the rust off of him, even if it would make their rotation stronger over whatever portion of the season remained.
As for the Devil Rays themselves, their roster is unchanged from last week and they'll be sending Doug Waechter to the mound to face Jaret Wright tonight. Waechter has a 3.38 ERA in three starts against the Yankees (21 1/3 IP, 20 H, 3 HR, 3 BB, 11 K), while Wright, eliminating his April start against Tampa as I believe he was less than healthy during that part of the season, has posted the following line in two starts against the Rays since returning from the DL:
14 IP, 12 H, 6 R, 1 HR, 5 BB, 4 K, 1.21 WHIP, 3.86 ERA
That's good but not great. Still, it accounts for two of the Yankees five wins against the Rays this year.
Given some of their comments after Sunday's remarkable 1-0 win over the Red Sox, it seems the Yankees are finally ready to not only take this Devil Rays team seriously, but approach this series as if it were against the Red Sox themselves. It's about time, as there's no margin for error and no room for a let down follwing the Boston series.
Torre's new lineup is already paying off.
These guys mean business this time. No mercy.
I'll extend the movie metaphor made in the the title and suggest "JASON... Jason... jason... KILL... Kill... kill..." for the wrapup blog post after the (here's hoping) win.
But jeez, Sheff looks really gimpy.
Three pitch at bats aren't going to make that happen, Cano.
If history is a predictor, if we score 8 or 9 tonight, we'll score 2 tomorrow, lets go Jaret!
Why'd you walk him, Wright? The dude's obviously stoned out of his mind!
Five run lead and he still can't throw strikes, I can't imagine why.
Strikes, take that tough guy caw out of your mouth, stop worrying about how cool you look and throw a Goddam strike, Jesus!
How dare you! You left out telling Mel, "I am keeping the ball down, aint you watching!"
You see Giambi's numbers as DH vs. 1B? I could not agree with you more, although shot, hmm, how bout something a little slower than that?
The Irony Is, He's Not all that Much Slower Now than He is Normally.
Pickin up bones
I'm Gary
Just pickin up bones
Pickin up bones
Pickin up Bones
Hey there, I'm Gary
Just pickin up bones
Pickin up bones
You really want to see me loaf?
Just pickin up bones
And still no outs.
And the damn Bosox came back, I see.
I want Waechter and Brazelton to pitch during the entire series.
Its a hard hit ball to Center,
its back,
back,
back,
that ball is gone,
See Ya!
What's this, Gary Sheffield is asking the second base umpire if he can skip running the bases--
"Can you do that Kenny?"
"I've never seen that before Michael, it's a little befuddling, I guess he really doesn't want to run the bases."
The Umpire is irate, Gary Sheffield and the Umpire at posturing, it's ugly out there folks--
"I've never seen anything like it Michael."
"Me either Kenny."
"That's not going to make Yankeeography."
I don't believe it!
http://baseball-almanac.com/recbooks/rb_atba1.shtml
WIC Check! WIC Check! WIC Check!
Oy Oy Oy . . .
Pabst on tap!
Oy Oy Oy . . .
. . .
Or as Homer would say . . . "Dental Plan . . Dental Plan . . .Dental Plan . . ."
Please say yes.
Just get outs.
eats time.
have fun!
Go yankees.
But now we have Sheff batting first.
He keeps telling him after the game, "Hey, there is an extra 5 in it for ya if you get me my car back quick, ok Alfalfa."
"Oh your a ball player, who would a thought it."
Cleveland is losing, too, if their score is accurate.
Take Sheff out already. He can hardly walk.
"Delayed: Power" on Gameday.
But if the A's won, I'd be OK with it. They have had an insanely weird year.
Yeah, definitely take Sheff out. We've got an 8-run lead. Make him sit his butt down already.
But, that shouldn't stop us from beat the tar out of Tampa tonight. Come on, I want 20!
Hell, I don't know why Scott Downs did it. There's a reason you're Scott Downs and he's David Ortiz. Maybe you should consider it.
They are a bunch of guys that play hard and aggresive baseball vs. the Yankees.
My countryman Cantu is having an amazing season, I hope a good team picks him up.
He has an outside shot at 100, if that isn't Comeback Player of the Year, they will literaly have to dig up babe Ruth and send him out there to accept the award, now that would be a comeback!
And in what kind of bizarro world does Sierra pinch-run for anybody? I guess a world where the Rays beat the pants off of the Yankees all season.
Shut it!
The only worse than the inside of that place, is the outside, I get chills just thinking about it.
Are we sure they didn't bring that team in, in the dead of night, where was I?
Why is Wright still in, Joe can Juuuuuuuust about get there, but seems incapable of doing the obvious.
A Mike Vento Sighting!
http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/nyy/history/single_game_records.jsp
We should get 26 tonight, seriously, something else to make these guys feel like they did something together, as silly as that may sound.
April 19: Yanks 19, D-Rays 8
Response: Tampa wins 5 of next 6 games, and scores 11 runs two different times
June 21: Yanks 20, D-Rays 11
Response: Tampa wins 5 of next 6 games, with no less than FOUR Yankee bullpen meltdowns, including two from Mo.
Ok that makes more sense. I thought it was either 3 or 4, but knew we had played one less game.
This may sound odd, but I actually think we have a better chance of catching Boston than we do of winning the Wild Card, anyone agree?
With Cleveland at KC and a waining White Sox club, the loser (second place) of the East could miss the playoffs.
Ill make you a bet, I bet Stuart Scott from the Suburbs will make a reference intimating he hangs with Hip Hop Stars and they can actually stand him, my rattling off some lyrics from Jay Z about Bernie or Sheffield first, deal?
Am I the only one who grows tired of his entirely disingenuous routine.
I actually watched the other night, and he and what's his name, some white guy, actually went 1 for 1 for the length of two segments, neither of them calling a play from a player outside of their own race, well, Scott took the Latinos. I wonder if that is planned.
It went Rap reference-Rock reference-Rap reference-Rock reference-Rap reference-Counrty reference, it was rather disturbing.
This is actually a good time to use F-Rod. This guy needs work to be effective in my opinion. Although I was hoping he'd let Franklin spin the last 4 innings to effectively remove him as an option for Torre for a day or so.
I guess it's good that F-Rod gets some inings.
Can I really get my hopes up again? 2.5 back. Eeeks, only from the mind, of Mylanta!
Cleveland is absolutely En Fuego!
Pettitte, Pettitte, Et Tu Andy, Et TU! I would trade my girlfriend for Andy in that rotation right now!
You seem like a nice guy. I don't feel there is any reason to bad mouth Andy, he'll always be a Yankee in my mind, we raised him, and he moved on, well unless the Astos are in the Series against us, what, whoa, Astros in the Series, did I actually say that? I must be smoking what Vento is?
You know what, that's a pretty good point, I mean not about the money--well not that I wouldn't like it--but on principle, I am interested to find out if he kept it.
Now Clemens, I never really liked. He was always my least favorite Yankee. Though if he was on the team this year, Womack would have had that honor. Now not liking somebody and realizing how incredibly good somebody is are two entirely different things(see also Bonds, Barry).
I'm merely pointing out the following facts:
His last offer to the Yankees was for four years at $52 million, but then he offered to sign with the Astros for three years at $30 million.
Does that sound like someone who wanted to stay with the team that drafted him, developed him, surrounded him with enough talent to win four rings, and made him a multi-millionaire?
Unlike Bernie, he did ask George to make him a comparable offer to the one he was about to sign so that he could remain a Yankee.
I really respect Rocket's pitching but he should not have kept it, it's just wrong!
rilkefan
Actually, cashman offered him more than he is currently being paid by the Astros, and a longer term deal, as well! He wanted to go play with Roger, and the reality is, if they are really as close as they say, can we really hold that against him, no matter how many games he won for us. I just wanted to see him get to 300, a number he has absolutely no shot at, pitching in Houston. Bible thumping aside. Further, his wife is fugly, gotta respect a ball player who doesn't trade his wife in for the hottest thing available.
I guess Longhorn orange Hummers aren't exactly inconspicuous.
I wonder how they got the money to buy him a Hummer. Did George foot the bill, or did they do what they usually do for retirement parties, hit up the employees? "Buck a man, to buy Roger a goodbye gift. Come on, don't be cheap..."
I can understand your feeling. I never thought for one second he was going to stay, that was his Agent blathering about offers to try to get a little more outta Houson, but it wasn't about money to Andy at all, and I have a hard time holding it agaist him, not after all he did for the New York Yankees. He did about as much for us, as we did for him.
Reportedly, the Sox offereed Pettitte $52 mil and he wanted the Yankees to match.
Pettitte's legitimate complaint is that the Yankees made no attempt to sign him before his final season with the Yankees began.
There have also been rumors that Pettitte's wife wanted him out of NY because he may have had um, a wandering eye.
You have a valid point, but rightly or wrongly, I resent players who don't want to be a Yankee for life.
Agree to disagree. But not everyone is Derek Jeter, or Bernie, or MO, some guys just can't do it for life.
I agree, and I still wear mine, without a single reservation.
Good night guys.
As far as the kid losing the hummer, this sounds like something AJ from the Sopranos would do. Just shows you how a life of entitlement can turn your brain into mush. OK, I'll probably regret writing that later!
Roger having retired.
Google gives a variety of NY sportswriters saying at the time that the Boss was indifferent to Andy and that the FO hadn't done much to try to retain him until it was too late.
Don't get me wrong, I thought he was a great Yankee, and he won a lot of important games, and he was the guy in '97, but I also seem to remember a fair number of 4+ ERA seasons from him (not that these days that wouldn't seem ok) and some playoff games where he got bombed, and I can see the FO wondering about his elbow, and I can see him getting the hint that he wasn't going to get asked back.
But I don't think it matters what Pettitte looks like. If you're a pitcher with a major league team, you're a stud. Even if you haven't won any World Series rings and look like Randy Johnson, the women will be all over you. I suspect it's pretty hard for anyone to be a good Christian in that situation. Like trying to stick to your diet while all around you is a free all-you-can-eat buffet. ;-)
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