Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
It was close for awhile. A Dave Winfield-like line drive home run by Jorge Posada and a Dave Kingman-like dinger by Alex Rodriguez--both solo shots--combined with fine pitching from Chien-Ming Wang to keep the Yankees ahead of the Mariners. Lots of ground balls, plenty of handy double plays from Wang tonight. Then, the Bombers blew the doors down and when the smoke cleared it was Yankees 12, Mariners 3. 20 hits for the home team. A typical Yankee win. Close game then the fireworks. The best image of the night was the look on Jeter's face as Rodriguez returned to the dugout after his upper deck homer. Jeter squinted as if to say, "Are you kidding me?"
Onions.
The Tigers lost a close one to the White Sox, so the Yanks are two ahead of the M's, three-and-a-half ahead of the Tigers. A Nice Tuesday.
Here's a pitch-by-pitch of the game.
First.
Ichiro. Strike. Ball, high. Soft, 4-3.
Vidro. Strike one. 4-3, bounce out.
I like it, I like it. Roll them ground balls, Wangarulo.
Red Ass Guillen. Ball, outside. Slider, low and away, 2-0. Fastball, up in his kitchen, spaz swing and a miss, 2-1. Guillen almost lost his balance on the follow through. Fastball, 4-3 chopper.
Bottom One.
Melky. Strike. 6-3, bouncer. Didn't hit it hard.
D. Jeter. Foul. Fastball, up, fouled back. Just missed it, good swing. Fastball, away, 1-2. Fastball, low, 2-2. Fastball, fouled off to the right side. Spike Lee is sitting next to Brad Pitt and his son Maddox. Another fastball, fouled off, this one to the upper deck. Cutter or slider, in on the hands, emergency swing, fouled off. Fastball sliced to right, diving catch by the first baseman Broussard. Jeter robbed of a single. Nice play. Good at bat and good fielding.
Abreu. Ball. Double off the wall in left center field. Breaking ball up.
A Rod. Slider, strike, looking. Oh, man, that was sweet and meaty. Slider inside, 1-1. Another pitch inside, just inside, 2-1. 5-3, easy grounder.
Second.
Ibanez. Sinker, low, 1-0. Foul…Full count, foul. Solid single to center.
Turn two…
Beltre. Inside, ball one. Same pitch, this time a strike, 1-1. Runner going. 5-3, Ibanez to second. One out.
Broussard. Ball. 4-3, the softest dribbler yet. Runner to third.
Johjima, rips a fastball foul. Sinker outside, weak ground ball to Jeter. Throw pulls Betemit off the bag at first but he has plenty of time to make the tag. Side retired.
Bottom Two.
Posada. Curve ball bends in there for a strike. Ball, away. Fastball, got it by him, swing and a miss, 1-2. Slider, low and inside. Curve ball, off the plate, full count. Line drive home run to left. Got out in a hurry. Dave Winfield-brand dinger. 17th of the year for Jorge, 79 RBI.
Matsui. Fastball, strike one. Breaking ball, away, 0-2. Breaking ball, further outside, ball one. Another breaking ball outside, Matsui lunges and fouls it off. Fastball, inside, ties him up. Matsui half-swings, strike three.
Shelley, aka Lurch. The crowd gives him a nice hand. Ball one. Strike one, looking. Ball two. Ball three. Fastball, he's too quick. 5-3, Duncan thumping down the line. Two out.
Cano. Fastball, Strike. Fastball, strike two, both looking. Breaking ball. Little grounder of the end of his bat towards second. It gets passed Ramirez who makes a stab at it. Broussard is out of position at first. Cano beats the throw and the throw is wild, Cano holds first. Cano has a single.
Betemit. Ball. Foul. Lunges, foul. Weak hack. He looks overmatched right-handed. Courtesy throw to first. Fastball, emergency hack. He's got no balance to his swing. Fastball, up base hit to center. He got a favor there. The ball was waist high, right over the plate. He went with it.
Melky. 6-4. Nice play by Yuniesky Betancourt at short, ranging far to his left. Saved run and made it look easy.
Third.
Larry David is at the game. Michael Kay says he's a great guy.
Lopez. Ball. Line drive to Abreu. One out.
Yuniesky Betancourt. Strike. 5-3. Hit well, nice hop for A Rod.
Ichiro. Ball, low. Fastball lined to center. Melky charges and makes the catch. All three balls were hit well. The fastball was up.
Bottom Three.
Jeter pokes at it. 1-3, easy.
Abreu. Four or five pitches in, line drive base hit to left.
A Rod. 6-4-3 double play. First pitch. A Rod immediately sags after swinging. For crying out loud.
Fourth.
Vidro. 1-3. One pitch, one out.
Guillen. Several pitches in…6-3, charging play by Jeter.
Ibanez. Ball. Strike, fastball, tailing away, mid-90s. Slider, inside, fouled off. Nice bite. Slider, or some kind of breaking pitch. Got him looking. Tough pitch. Ibanez, flummoxed.
Bottom Four.
Posada. Ball, inside. Ground ball through the right side, base hit. Career year, what can you say?
Matsui. Breaking ball, fouled off, and thank god, he was way out in front. Another looping breaking all, this one is too far outside, 1-1. Line drive knocked through the box. Ramirez gets his glove up and the ball knocks the mitt off his hand. But the ball deflects to the second baseman. Posada is tagged out, Matsui beats the throw to first. Just beats it. One out one on.
Shelley. Ball one. Slider ripped into the upper deck. Way out in front. A legit, "Whoa" from the jumping ones in the crowd. Foul tip, strike two. Fastball, Duncan leaning in, now turning away, up and in. Low and away, ball three. Matsui runs, Duncan swings and misses, Johjima throws Matsui out. "A Strike 'em out, throw 'em out double play." God, I hate Michael Kay.
Five.
Beltre. Sinker, low and inside, ball. Another sinker, swing and miss, 1-1. Fastball, inside, 2-1. Another fastball, tailing inside, 3-1. Sinker, right after him, Beltre fouls it back. It was up there to hit. Full count. Sinker, tails inside, ball four.
A lead-off walk.
Broussard. Now, it's our turn to turn two…Ball one. Inside, ball two. Ball three, outside. Fat fastball, 3-1. Turn two…Nope, ball four.
This isn't good.
Johjima. Ball one, away. Gator jogs out to have a word. Johjima has not walked in his last 99 plate appearances. Slider, strike one on the outside corner. Another one, swing and a miss, he's way out in front. Pulling way off. Another one, Johjima sticks the bat out and lines a ball past Jeter. Matsui charges. Beltre runs. The throw reaches Jorge on a short hop. Posada reaches back with his glove and tags Beltre. But the replay showed the ball was in Posada's hand not the glove. Close.
Lopez. First pitch. 5-4-3 double play. Awww, Bacon.
Bottom Fifth.
Cano. Single to center. Hits the ball hard at least once a night it seems.
Betemit. Strike. Bunting. Decent bunt down the third base line. Johjima pounces on it and makes the play easily. Slick. Cano to second.
Melky. Strike one. 4-1. Two out. Sox up 4-0 against Doc Halladay at Fenway. Dag.
Jeter. Two out, runner at third. Inside out swing. Soft line drive to Guillen in right, first pitch.
Sixth.
Yuniesky Betancourt. Fly ball out to center.
Ichiro. Line drive, base hit to center.
Vidro. Strike one, looking. Sinker, outside, check swing, ball. Single slashed to left. It was another sinker. Good hitting.
First and second, one out.
Guillen. Low, ball one. Fastball, taken for a strike. Applause. Wang steps off, Posada runs through the signs again…sinker, in on the fists, humpback liner bounces in front of Cano. 4-6-3 double play. Thank you very much.
Bottom Six.
Abreu. The Yes cameras are showing a squirrel sitting on top of the foul pole in right field. He crawls down and gets cheered. Strike one. Breaking ball, away, 1-1. Strike two, looking. The fans are clapping and cheering, "Let's Go Squi-rrel." The squirrel climbs back to the top of the pole. Ball two. Fastball, way inside, ball three. Almost hit him. Abreu stares out. Breaking ball. High fly ball, just shy of the warning track in left center, deepest park of the park.
A Rod. Okay, asswipe, let's see a good ab here…Breaking ball, high and away, 1-0. Another one, even worse, 2-0. He's not going to throw him a strike now…Again with the breaking ball, A Rod nubs it off the end of his bat but it rolls foul. 2-1. Breaking ball inside, 3-1. Another breaking ball, inside, fouled off. A Rod steps out, steps in, twirls the bat. Ramirez steps off the mound. Another breaking ball hit, way, way WAY WAY UP in the UPPER DECK in LEFT. WHAT A MONSTER SHOT. That one sailed into the night. A Rod twirls the bat one time and lets it go, tries to keep composed, but breaks out into a huge grin as he rounds first. It is the smile of a man who is giddy with his own talent. Jeter just looking at A Rod as he comes back to the dugout like "Are you kidding me?" Classic. 510th dinger. MVP chants. Blue Jays pull to within 1, 4-3. Three-run bomb by my man Matt Stairs.
Posada. Full count. Fouling pitches off. Ball four. 10-pitch at bat. Now, that's the way to demoralize a starting pitcher.
Matsui. Posada runs, hit and run. Matsui slaps at pitch, but it hits Johjima's glove. Catcher interference is called and runners are on first and second, one out.
Shelley. Low, ball one. C'mon Lerch. Let er rip. Slider, taken for a strike. Oh dag, that looked smokeable, Meat. Slider, away, big swing and a foul tip. Another slider away, waved at, strike three. Terrible ab for Duncan.
Cano. Breaking ball, swing and a miss. Robbie way out in front of it. Single off the pitcher's mound into center. Posada rounds third, but Ichiro inexplicably chooses to go to third at the last moment. But since he made such a late decision, the ball slips out of Ichiro's hand and reaches the cut off man on a hop. Posada scores easily and Matsui reaches third. Ichiro would have had Jorge dead to rights at home. Jorge got away with one there. That's all for Ramirez.
Eric O'Flaherty, a lefty, pitching.
Betemit. First pitch fastball, lined up the middle, off Betancourt's glove. Matsui scores, 4-0.
Melky. …0-2. 1-2. 2-2. Ripped foul, Sheffield-style, but lighter. Another foul. Again a foul, this one Punched down the right field line. Ball three. Strike three, swinging.
Seventh.
Minky in at first for D. The Return of Minky.
Ibanez. Ball one. Foul. Ball, low and inside. Sinker, low, 3-1. Sinker, bounced up the middle. Wang hops up, snares it, throws to first for the out.
73 pitches for Wang…
Beltre. Ball, low and away. Fastball, outside corner, 1-1. Fastball walloped onto the screen over the fence in the left center field. That was a Bomb. He launched it. Not so much height. A line drive with some arc.
Broussard. Strike one. Ball. Fastball, swinging. He chased that one. Posada goes out to talk to Wang. Fastball, inside, 2-2. 95 mph…Sinker, check-swing, full count. Nobody is warming up in the Yankee bullpen. Crowd starts to cheer. Wang slowly winds, then delivers…foul ball. Just low, ball four. He's just missing. Gator walks slowly to the mound. Half-way out he begins to trot. Vizcaino gets up to throw. Joba, still wearing a blue pullover, yawns and does some stretches.
Johjima. First pitch, 6-4-3 double play. Hey now!
Bottom Seven
Brandon Morrow relieving.
Jeter. Flies out to right on the first pitch. After that tough first at bat, Jeter has been hacking.
Abreu…full count…Line drive home run ripped to right. The squirrel still squatting on top of the foul pole.
A Rod. Breaking ball, called strike one. MVP chants. Change up, in, lined to left for a single. Another 2-4 night.
Posada. Strike, looking. The squirrel is down at the bottom of the pole now. Ball one. Ball two, outside. Low, outside, 3-1. Foul tip, 3-2…Alex Rod goes, time is called. A Rod, leaning, throw to first, but he gets back. Goes. Lined to left. A Rod goes into third head first. Slides in with his arm, safe. Beltre's weight rolls over A Rod's right ankle and A Rod rolls over in pain.
Gasp.
Gulp.
Yipe.
Torre and Monahan come rushing out. But it looks as if Rodriguez is okay. He stands up. Applies weight on his leg. Stays in the game. His detractors would be puking, thinking that he was just being overly dramatic. Chants of MVP and a pitching change.
Ryan Rowland-Smith, a lefty comes in.
Matsui looks at a breaking ball, 1-0. Another one, 73 mph, Matsui waves at it, 1-1. Fastball, in, 2-1. The Mariners have an army of call-ups. The kids are mostly on the top step of the dugout, watching. Funny to see so many players on the bench, especially when their team is also in the field…Fastball, way up and in, 3-1. Overthrew it. Breaking ball, away, ball four.
Bases loaded.
Shelley "Frankenstein" Duncan. Fastball, up and away, Duncan takes a Conan cut, all over it, and tomahawks it past Beltre down the third base line for a double. Two runs score. Out and out hilarious. He was sitting on a fastball and was intent on swinging at virtually anything. 7-1, Yanks.
First and second one out. Damon pinch-running for Matsui.
Cano. Fastball away. Line drive to the right center field gap. Two RBI double. 9-1.
Rowland-Smith is out, John Parrish is in.
Minky. Strikes out on a full count breaking ball.
Melky. Jeter gives a bat to Brad Pitt for his son. Spike also has his little boy with him. Melky singles to right, Cano scores, Melky advances to second on throw home.
10-1.
Jeter. Singles to center, Melky scores, 11-1. First hits for both Melky and Jeter tonight.
When they are good, they are good…
Abreu. Dunks the 2-2 pitch into center for a single.
Alberto Gonzalez pinch-hits for A Rod. #63. His first big league at bat. He was part of the Randy Johnson trade. A glove man. Strike one, looking. Fastball, outside, 1-1. 6-4, force.
That half-inning took a half-an-hour.
Eighth.
Wang gets an out and then Ron Guidry comes out to the mound. He saw something he didn't like. Wang leaves with an injury? But it doesn't appear serious. Probably just got a little tight sitting all the time...
Jeff Clement's first big league at bat. 2-0…2-2. Swing and a miss, strike three.
Adam Jones, pinch-hitting for Ichiro…I missed it. Jones reaches first.
Charlton Jimerson, another pinch hitter. What a great name. The Red Sox beat the Blue Jays, 5-3. Singles full count pitch off Vizcaino's glove. Viz botched the play.
Again with a big league debut pinch hitter. This time, it's, who else? None other than, Wladimir Balentin. Viz, wild, taking forever, down 2-1. Posada goes out to talk to him. 3-1. Double to left, 2 RBI. Welcome to the Majors, Wladi!
12-3.
Britton replaces Viz.
Nick Green pinch-hitting. Sixth pinch-hitter of the inning. 1-3 ground out.
Bottom Eight.
Posada. Line drive homer to right. Pouring it on.
19th Yankee hit. 12-3.
Damon. Bloop single to left.
Shelley. 5-4-3, double play.
Cano. 4-3.
Ninth.
Missed who was up but Johnny Damon makes a nice catch in foul territory, then gave a pound with his mitt to a fan.
Rob Johnson pinch hitting. His first big league at bat. Lines a 3-0 fastball to Melky. That'll learn him.
Jeremy Reed. Pop out to Minky.
Game.
There. I knew they'd win all along.
I like it.
A lot.
:)
And my God, that's quite a commentary, Alex. Impressive.
Wang looked great, does anyone know why he left? pitch count? something else?
One last note: A-Rod, please, please, please stop sliding headfirst. I don't think I've seen Gene Monahan run faster in my life.
I'm sure this is not news for the faithful, but does everyone else realize there hasn't been a 50-HR hitter on this team since the M&M Boys?
Boggles the mind considering all the great teams & players since then.
A-Rod went for x-rays (said Joe -- presumably an MRI). Ankle. They aren't too worried.
He's one intense dude.
A little weird, too. In a compelling way.
Well-spoken, though, and thoughtful.
Just a quick Q to everyone out there...but surely I was dreaming when I saw Minkeiqwerticz at first base???
Hughes was optimistic yesterday because the Class AAA pitching coach Dave Eiland, who tutored him in the minor leagues, supervised his last two bullpen sessions. Hughes said they had worked on smoothing his mechanics by not rushing his delivery.
Coaches have encouraged Hughes to use all his pitches and attack the strike zone. Hughes has been too predictable for hitters because he has not thrown enough changeups, a pitch that helped him no-hit the Texas Rangers into the seventh inning on May 1.
"It's not my second-best pitch or even my third-best, but it's a pitch I definitely need to show," Hughes said. "It's not a swing-and-miss pitch, but it's a pitch to get them off my fastball. In Texas, I threw three in the first inning, and that set the tempo. They weren't really able to sit on one pitch.
"It's something I'll concentrate on, but the number one thing is strike one. After that, I can kind of play around a little bit."
I'd settle for him keeping his fastball in the low 90's past 80 pitches tomorrow, and driving the ball low in the zone. The mid-90's may have to wait till next year.
Whatever happens in the off season, I just hope Mattingly and Guidry do not wind up with a Berra-like grudge.
Yeah, what the hell was that pitch Wang froze Ibanez with to end the fourth. I thought it might be a change, but another Banterer (I think it was Weeping) thought it mighta been a slider.
Maybe Wang has devised some sorta nasty hybrid. Whatever it was, it was soft and pretty, just like I like 'em.
Feel good win all around, 'cept for A-Rod's ankle scare. Him and those damn belly slides. Knock it off, MVP-Rod, we need ya upright and outta sight.
Feels like the Ice Age finally ended this morning, and we're back on the beach. Jump in, the water's fine!
Nothing to say about his bat other than "damn." But anybody who doubts his worth as a catcher, check out the final two graphs of Feinsand's wrapup in the NY Deli News:
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Guidry headed back to the dugout, but Posada stayed on the mound, pointing to the dugout.
"I wasn't going to let him pitch," Posada said. "The two pitches he threw, something about them didn't look right. I wanted to make sure he was all right."
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So, looks like it was Posada who took Wang out of the game. Looked like Wang convinced Guidry that he could keep going, but Posada wouldn't have it.
Po protects his guys. Way to go Po!
Joe has really lost his touch with the pitching. But I give him props for starting Shelley and Betemit. Those moves worked out fine.
By the way, it's time to start worrying about the Viz again. Edwar is lookin' shaky, too. Britton looked good, but the Mariners had already checked out, so I still don't know if he can be relied upon.
Sorry, no need for him to go more. Not with a huge lead, and relievers who need work.
In fact, despite his low pitch count, I was agitating for the Yanks to pull him for Joba to start the 7th, before the Yanks blew it open.
Thankfully, we still have Joba and Mo for tonight's crucial game. Hopefully, they're not rusty.
Perfect world: Hughes goes 6, Joba 2, Mo 1.
If it's close after 5, and Hughes is struggling, I'd plan on Bruney for the 6th.
Farnswacker needs work, but not if it's close tonight. This game is too important. Shame that they need to plan around him like that.
http://tinyurl.com/3bg6y9
That's the most impressive thing about A-Rod's run at the AL home run record, he's hitting looong ones, lotta old school bombs, that would have been outta the old parks.
When Ortiz hit what was it? 54? I wondered how many of them were merely Fenway shots, but I never looked it up. I'm sure he had his share of old skoolers though.
I agree, 408 doesn't sound right at all. That's 9 feet past the gate in left-center, and I really think it was going further than that.
That's amazing.
A-Rod's homers to Center and Right-Center are the longest, but his dead-pull homers are also impressive because he maintains a high speed off the bat (over 113 mph) while achieving a high angle of elevation.
Discuss.
http://www.hittrackeronline.com/hrdetail.php?id=2007_20547
My dad saw plenty of DiMaggio, and played quite a bit of ball himself. My dad was a southpaw junkballer who earned a try out with the Yanks before he reported for duty with the Navy. Not sure why I mention that but he still says the hardest hit ball he ever saw was a DiMaggio line drive, that he swears the 3rd baseman, or shortstop (I can't remember) jumped up for... that carried and carried for a left field home run. Amazing when you remember how far he had to have driven it.
Think about how even more absurd that ratio would be if he'd played in a different park.
As for the distance, 408 sounds right to me. Keep in mind, that ball was pulled straight down the line. Usually, when you pull the ball for a home run, the trajectory is higher (which this one was), meaning more of the force goes into lifting the ball and less into propelling it.
On the other side of the old bullpen was a different story. Not only was it shallower then, the fence was lower.
62 408' down the line deserves WTF a lot more than 460' to straight away CF.
And every year it gets worse.
Actually, except for extreme pull hitters, Old Yankee Stadium was NOT particularly easy for LHs, at least not statistically. It almost always played as a pitcher's park (park factor); Babe Ruth hit more homers on the road than Yankee Stadium; etc.
By the way, the contour of the current fence from RF to CF, then the outer blue fence from CF to LCF follows the contour of the original bleachers/OF wall, more or less. They didn't really bring the fences in when they remodelled in 1976, so much as they removed a whole bunch of bleachers, added seats behind home and down the lines, and moved home plate forward about 20 or 30 feet (the orientation of home plate was adjusted slightly to). Remodelled YS in 1976 looked a good bit like the old park in terms of field play, but they ruined it (in my opinion) in the 1980s when the brought the fences in AGAIN (LCF 430--> 399, CF 417 --> 408).
In any case, I want the mechanics that allows Hughes to regain his pinpoint control and nasty breaking pitches, no matter the velocity, b/c that is what will make him an ace, not throwing 95. And the Times article also mentions that he will be trying some more variety of pitches, which I think is key
He might move on voluntarily, at which point it makes perfect sense to have someone from the farm system in the bullpen, considering all the young arms forthcoming.
Nearly a textbook definition of an orgasm.
The rest of the old Stadium was deeper, most of it considerably deeper, some of it insanely deep. The flagpole and those monuments were on the field.
67 I completely agree. The later remodelings took away almost all of the distinctiveness from the Stadium dimensions; "399" in left-center is a damn shame. That's why "preserving the same dimensions" in the new Stadium doesn't mean much to me.
74 Yep. I am in many ways ambivalent about the new stadium--I've made my peace with it. But I do think that they missed a real opportunity to recapture some of the old play of the former ballpark. 460 to CF? Obviously not. But what a bout 415 to CF and 405 to LCF, just to invoke a little more of the distinct OYS asymmetry.
BTW, anyone else catch Al Leiter's comment about wanting to look at the back of his pitching coach's baseball card before deciding whether to listen to the guy or not? I thought that was kinda strange -- those who can, do; those who can't, teach.
77 I imagine Leiter likes to look at his own baseball cards, and would trade a mint Koufax rookie card for any version of his own.
I took the Stadium tour last year, and learned that Josh Gibson actually came closest to hitting a ball out. He hit it to the right of the left-field stands - where the ambulances are now. It happened that they were doing some construction and had put some netting up in that gap, and Gibson hit it right into the netting.
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