Yankee Talk: Gut Wrench

Joe goes against instinct, costs Yankees


ANAHEIM – During a game in Anaheim last July, the Yankees were in the midst of losing the final three games before the All-Star break against an Angels team missing three of its best players.

The image of the series came when manager Joe Girardi continued to look down at a statistical book while each Yankee pitcher, one by one, continued to turn around and look up as each hit went past them, around them, and out of the ballpark.

This “book”, as seen on the bench, I began to refer to it as “Joe’s Computer”. When in doubt, Girardi would always go to it whenever things got tight.

So it came as no surprise on Sunday that Girardi would remind us all that his computer was in fact, still in existence and needed a little dusting off.

During the playoffs, Joe’s Computer failed him on several occasions, mainly Game 3 and 5 of the League Championship Series when the Yankees had the Angels by the throat, and continued to give them life, extending the series far beyond where it should before eventually winning in six games.

Winning a world championship last year did not eliminate “Joe’s Computer”. Rather, it gained legitimacy and was not going to leave us anytime soon, if ever.

The Yankees were trailing 5-4 in the bottom of the seventh inning with the Angels having runners on first and third and Kendry Morales at the plate.

Before the at-bat, Morales was 6-for-9 in the series, blasting the go-ahead two-run homer on Friday in a 6-4 Angels win. Even though there was not a base open, the first instinct in my mind was for the Yankees to walk him anyway.

Juan Rivera was in the on-deck circle and David Robertson was ready in the bullpen to face him assuming Damaso Marte walked him to load the bases.

Girardi initially signaled catcher Francisco Cervelli to have Marte walk Morales intentionally. However, with the count 1-0, Girardi decided to change his mind and elected to pitch to him.

The count ran to 3-0 and everyone with a brain assumed the Yankees would walk him now with no point in throwing him a strike and Marte looking as if he would rather face anyone else in the world than him.

Girardi and bench coach Tony Pena would signal to Cervelli that Morales would swing on a 3-0 count. Instructing Marte not lay one down the middle of the plate.

Simply enough, right?

Cervelli called for a fastball outside, instead it came right over the middle of the plate and Morales drove it to the trees, deep over the center field wall for a three-run homer.

Just like that, game over.

The whole scene during the at-bat was uncomfortable and you knew the ending was not going to be good.

It was almost as if the inevitable was coming after the first pitch.

The Yankees went on to lose the game (allowing Javier Vazquez to escape further scrutiny for another bum performance, blowing a 3-0 lead) 8-4, and if the question to the manager about that sequence wasn’t the first, second and third question in the press conference, the beat writers all should have been fired.

Girardi said he went against his gut, opting to go for what the computer was telling him and he paid for it by the team losing.

Sometimes your gut can override whatever the computer is telling you. One thing the computer does not have is emotion and feel. However, the one thing the manager does have is eyes, and the look in Marte’s face on the mound told you he did not want to be in there and should have been gone immediately.

Gut 1, Computer 0.

This will be the last adventure into Joe’s Computer for the season. Surely it will remerge numerous times before the end of the season, so I may as well prepare for more of these episodes before the end of the season.

What, you did not think we were going to go through a season without a Girardi controversy did you?
Yes, I may have been exceedingly hard on him last season, but that won’t mean he escapes my wrath when things go wrong made of his own doing.

Down goes Nick

If you had April 23 in the “When will Nick Johnson be out of the lineup due to injury” pool, you’re a winner!

Johnson missed the final two games of the series against the Angels with lower back stiffness.

The moment I heard he was going to miss time, the first thing I thought about was the line that Harry Doyle (Bob Uecker) used in the movie Major League II when describing the Indians left-fielder Hiroshi Kamikaze Tanaka:

“He knocks himself cold for the second time this week. Maybe in Japan that’s better than catching the ball. Personally, I just think he’s trying to get out of the lineup.”

Surely, that .135 average is enough to put anyone out of a lineup, but Johnson has been able to justify his existence by walking. However, it is clearly noticeable to anyone watching these games that he is swinging at air when the pitcher is throwing strikes.

12 of his 18 strikeouts have been looking, which tells you that he either has become so fine in looking for his pitch, or simply has no confidence to swing the bat.

You don’t think he would take a few more swings if he was “feeling it” at the plate?

It has become so bad that Johnson has changed his number from 26 to 36.

Perhaps no one will notice that is really him out there when he returns to the lineup, which at this point is anyone’s guess.

Surely if he cannot return and get his stroke back against the Orioles this week at Camden Yards, then we may be in for some problems.

Javy the “Run Fairy”

Here, we may have a problem.

Going from the National League to the American League and pitching for the Yankees does not take away nearly five miles an hour from one’s fastball does it?

Something has to explain Javier Vazquez’s mysterious loss of velocity from last season to this season. He has gone from throwing 94 last year to barely touching 90 MPH this year, with no explanation whatsoever.

Watching him pitch yesterday, he had the look of a pitcher that one person in the Yankees organization referred to as a “loser’s gene”.

Simply put, a “loser’s gene” is that of a guy without the mental toughness during a game to battle and simply succumbs to the pressure and accepts defeat rather than show a willingness to compete.

Looking at the body language on Vazquez on Sunday and you see a man lacking confidence and belief in anything he is trying to do out on the mound.

The biggest difference has come in his velocity. Right now, Vazquez’s 90 MPH fastball with little movement in the American League amounts to nothing more than batting practice. Curveballs and sliders have little bite and with his changeup variation not decipherable from his fastball, he has encountered tremendous problems.

Perhaps Vazquez is nursing an injury. Problem is that the Yankee right-hander claims there is nothing wrong with him, saying all of his problems are mechanical.

Back in 2004, things were going just fine until after August 6. At the time, he was 13-6 and went 1-4 the rest of the season with an ERA hovering over seven. It was only recently that he told the media he suffered an injured shoulder limiting his effectiveness, turning him into pitching equivalent of a piñata.

Maybe this is just Vazquez’s rough patch and he will turn it around. Or maybe this is going to be a situation where he will have maddening streaks of hot and coldness, channeling his inner Katy Perry.

“You’re hot and you’re cold…you’re yes than you’re no…you’re in and you’re out…you’re up and you’re down”

If that is so, I may have to turn off my TV on these nights just to avoid such nonsense.

He is the weak link of the squad. The other four starters are pitching great, making Vazquez’s ineptness stand out. Lucky for him the Yankees can work through these issues while they are still winning.

Time now for some Yankees Random Thoughts

I know Angel Stadium is still voodoo, but I still came away from that series thinking the Yankees were still the better team.

Something has to give with that place. A three-run lead is never safe there.

I call it “the curse of the three-run lead”.

In each of the last seven games the Yankees have played in that building, they have had a lead of at least two runs every single time.

Give the Angels credit for coming back. However, much like last year’s playoffs, I still feel confident about stealing one game there as the Yankees did in Game 4 last year. It is on the Angels to figure out a way to win in The Bronx.

Mark Teixeira sent Angels catcher Bobby Wilson a big message when he drilled him at the plate while rounding third base on Friday night.

Bracing of a possible collision, Teixeira got into a crouch and lowered his head.

The result was Wilson ending up in a heap at the plate, taken out of the game by doctors and later diagnosed with a concussion.

Could Teixeira have slid, avoiding contact with Wilson?

Perhaps.

How is he supposed to see from 90 feet that the plate is not covered? Then, when Wilson turns to face him, not assume he has the ball?

It was an unfortunate, but tough.

Good, old-fashioned baseball there.

No more Marcus Thames in left Joe, I’m begging you.

Did you know the Yankees lead MLB in strikeouts looking?

Blame Nick Johnson.

Nick Swisher too.

Hell, add Teixeira’s name to that list.

The sound of a rocket you just heard came off the bat of Robinson Cano.

How about the start of the year for Andy Pettitte?

Saturday, the left-hander continued his great pitching with eight strong innings on Saturday giving up only one run.

Admittedly, I had concerns about Pettitte after not throwing much in the spring. Instead, it is probably the best thing that could have happened.

Without throwing his customary 20 spring training innings, that keeps more strength in that left arm to use in games that mean something.

I just wonder if he pitches to another strong season, will he choose to retire in the same manner as Mike Mussina? Or, will he pitch until he cannot do so anymore?

One would think that Pettitte has little concern for records and his ability to win 300 games will not entice him enough to stick around to pitch past the age of 40.

Just remember this: Every pitcher that is more than 100 games over .500 for his career has made the Hall.

Pettitte is 97 games over.

A solid season (think 16-8) will put him 105 games over. Add in his postseason, and a compelling case can be made for him.

We’ll see.

Yankee Talk: Off to the races

Yanks starting season strong despite issues

NEW YORK – Hangover? What World Series hangover?

Usually what will follow a championship is a sense of complacency and lost hunger, taking a talented team and making them play below their level of performance.

However, when you have the leadership the Yankees have, fans that always expecting the best, and a (drive by) media that cannot wait for the first crisis to write about, there is nothing to worry about.

As they came home for the first time to receive their championship rings to put closure on last season and channel their energy towards this year, the Yankee Express saw the Los Angeles Angels and Texas Rangers in their way and squashed them like mosquitoes.

One of these two teams will likely represent the American League West in the playoffs. Over six games against the Yankees, they both appeared overmatched, as if they were not even in the same league.

Even though the Angels salvaged one of the three games of the series, they had barely held on at the end to win.Leading 5-1 in the bottom of the eighth, the Yankees loaded the bases with no one out. In the mind, a comeback was inevitable. They would end up scoring two runs and had the go-ahead run at the plate with only one out.

The Angels may have been able to escape the inning without further trouble, but it was a red flag to the rest of the league that no matter how far down or how late in the game it is, the Yankees can always come back.

It never used to be this way for the last five years. I long held the belief that after the 2004 season, teams were able to hit them in the mouth and they would not respond. The lack of toughness and ability grind and gut out a victory was too difficult for some members, who simply would concede defeat and move on to the next day.

This team, starting from last year, is different. They have a unique ability, much like a high-powered football offense, to score from anywhere on the field at any moment.

No deficit appears too small.

It is an admirable trait, and something only the great teams have. That trait is something that is not available for purchase on the free agent market.

So while they are off to their best start since 2003, we can complain that Javier Vazquez is still not pitching well, and Mark Teixeira and Nick Johnson not hitting.

Besides that, there is nothing to complain about.

Out in Oakland, they have continued their splendid play, winning the first two before dropping the finale. The climax of it was the near no-hitter thrown by Phil Hughes on Wednesday night.

If the Yankees are going to get these outings from a man the team pegs as its fifth starter performing at the level of a second or third, then this puts them in another stratosphere.

One can only imagine what they would be if Javier Vazquez could right himself.

Scary.

The Yankees have taken all of their talent, mixed in good character, added in belief and chemistry, and this is the result: A powerful force that begs the following question:

“Who can stop them?”

The value of working the count

Starting pitchers on opposing teams have felt the wrath of this seemingly impregnable Yankee lineup. For a team that has yet to hit his stride on offense, the efficient way they are able to work a pitcher and wear him down completely, forcing managers to dip into the underbelly of their bullpens which has become the equivalent of sending them to the wolves.

With the exception of Joel Pineiro throwing seven great innings in the Angels win on Wednesday, each pitcher the Yankees have seen over the last seven games have not lasted long, with the pitch counts rising.

Tuesday vs. Ervin Santana – 5 2/3 innings, 113 pitches

Thursday vs. Scott Kazmir – 4 innings, 87 pitches

Friday vs. CJ Wilson – 6 innings, 112 pitches

Saturday vs. Scott Feldman – 2 1/3 innings, 73 pitches

Sunday vs. Rich Harden – 3 2/3 innings, 94 pitches

Tuesday vs. Gio Gonzalez – 4 1/3 innings, 97 pitches

Those numbers are ugly for opponents. Only 26 total innings hurled from those six starters (an average of just over 4 innings) and 576 pitches. That is slightly over 22 pitches per out.

The Yankees “Nick’s” (Johnson and Swisher) are the two people partially responsible for this with their unbelievable plate discipline and pitch recognition extends at-bats even if the result is an out.

While they may not have found their stroke at the plate (Johnson hitting .125, Swisher hitting .208), their trips to the plate set the table for others in the lineup to produce.

Walking is not sexy, but as the saying goes, “A walk is as good as a hit”

Case in point, on Tuesday night in Oakland, the Yankees led 3-0 against starter Gio Gonzalez. With one out, both Johnson and Mark Teixeira worked walks to bring up Alex Rodriguez. Athletics manager Bob Geren brought in reliever Craig Breslow to pitch and just like that, Rodriguez mashed a three-run homer to make it 6-0, blowing the game wide open.

This proved two things.

One, it shows their ability to work counts and draw walks, being able to pass the baton to other great hitters in the Yankee lineup.

Two, with Gonzalez out of the game in the fifth, Geren had no choice but to bring in one of his worst relievers to put out the fire.

The results spoke for themselves.

Hughes flirts with no-no

Making his second start of the season, the 23-year old right-hander pitched the best game of his career, completely dominating the

Athletics impotent lineup with overpowering stuff.

He set his career high for strikeouts (10), and took a no-hitter into the bottom of the eighth inning before losing it when he was unable to locate a ball that hit off his forearm to the ground off the bat of Eric Chavez. Hughes looked up assuming the ball was in the air, instead Jorge Posada attempted to signal the ball was on the ground.

It was a difficult way to lose a no-hit bid. The last time Hughes was in this position, it was May 2007 when he took a no-no into the bottom of the seventh against Texas before blowing out his right hamstring and missing the next three months.

Sure, it could have been easy for him to lose control of his emotions and his reaction to the Chavez hit showed that behind that poker face is a man who knew he had a chance to make history and was angry with himself. His parents, watching in the stands could not believe it, but were more concerned about the health of their son as the infield, manager and trainer all came to check on his health.

The best part was that after the cooling off period, he struck out Kevin Kouzmanoff. Hughes would walk Gabe Gross to signal the end of Hughes’ night.

As he walked off, he received loud cheers from the crowd in Oakland, many of them Yankee fans. With an acknowledgement tip of the cap, Hughes announced to the baseball world that he has arrived on the baseball scene.

After moving from a starter to reliever and now back to a starter, Hughes won the competition (that wasn’t) in spring training and everyone was curious to see what the man (nicknamed by me “The Phranchise”) would perform.

After giving up only three hits and two runs in six innings in his first start (a 6-2 win over the Angels) last Thursday, Hughes was even better the second time around.

It took 108 pitches to get 15 outs in his first start. Wednesday, his last pitch in the bottom of the eighth was 101. While high adrenaline may have led to an inordinate amount of deep counts after being ahead previously, Oakland’s aggressiveness played against them. 18 of their 25 hitters were behind in the count two strikes. Many of them eventually finding themselves on the bench, a streak reaching 20 in row after Daric Barton drew a walk in the first inning.

We are still waiting for the unveiling of Hughes’ change-up, a pitch that vowed to use more of this season as a starter. So far, we haven’t seen much of it.

Of course, when you’re pitching as well as Hughes was last night with his fastball, cutter and curveball, why mess with a good thing?

It seems like long ago when Hughes had control problems, lacked velocity, could not get a win and appeared to have his confidence broken.

That was just two years ago.

Two years later, Hughes is more mature, self-assured and ready to break out.

Age is just a number

Who says that just because a player gets older they are to decline?
Do not tell that to the Yankees, who continue to defy the baseball laws of age, and in fact produce as well now in their mid to late 30’s as they did in their mid to late 20’s.

The “Core Four” of Derek Jeter (36), Jorge Posada (38), Andy Pettitte (38) and Mariano Rivera (40) continue to produce at high quality levels, and do not appear to be falling off anytime soon.

Jeter (.323 AVG, 3 HR, .864 OPS) has picked exactly where he left off last season, spraying the ball to all parts of the field and using his legendary swing to still hit homeruns out to the opposite field.

Posada (.348 AVG, 3 HR, 1.054 OPS), for all of the games caught behind the plate over the years, still appears to be fresh. He should be even healthier throughout the season with productive backup Francisco Cervelli ready to play at a moment’s notice.

What else can you say about Andy Pettitte (2-0, 1.35 ERA)? Just when you think he’s done, he continues to show he has plenty of game in that left arm of his. On Sunday against Texas, he had a difficult time finding his command for the first three innings, allowing two runs.

Then, Pettitte found “it”. Usually with him, if you do not get him early when he is down, you will not get him. He would rally to pitch eight innings and get the ball to Rivera.

He is the epitome of gut and grit on this team. Just when you think you have him beat, he comes back and fights you all the end until the end.

Who knows when it will all end for him, but it just makes you wonder why the Yankees elected to part ways with him nearly seven years ago, allowing him to go to Houston.

Rivera (0.00 ERA, 6 saves, 3 hits) continues to be age-proof. He may not throw 95 MPH as he used to when he was under. However, his unbelievable control continues to miss bats and induce weak swings from hitters.

How can Alex Rodriguez just quietly remain under the radar? You hardly realize sometimes that he is on the team.

Amazing how things have changed for him?

With no burden and just playing loose and free, Rodriguez’s true talent is on display.

He has not been compelled to swing at anything out of the strike zone and doesn’t mind taking a walk (11 so far), thus leading the team in on-base percentage.

His defense has been superb, and it is only a matter of time before his offense begins to take off.

Time now for a few Yankee Random Thoughts

Is there something about the new Yankee Stadium that causes the Angels to forget how to play defense?

This happened during the postseason last year and showed up again last week. Normal, routine plays that they always make become adventures, eventually leading to Yankee runs.

If only this could happen at Angel Stadium.

Great to see AJ Burnett get off to a good start to the year.

The marriage with Posada seems to be working well, which is good because I sure as hell did not want to deal with drama every five days about they could not get along.

Let’s not put anything into the relationship between CC Sabathia and Francisco Cervelli. It has only come about due to a string of day games after night’s that has brought this marriage.

Ok, so Cervelli happened to be catching the game Sabathia nearly pitch a no-hitter and against Texas, and will again Thursday at Oakland.

Hold your pens and paper everyone, this is not a story. Blame the schedule.

Some of our fans clearly have lost their minds. Why else would they boo Nick Johnson for his current .136 average?

Boo-birds were out for Johnson on Sunday after he struck out three times against the Rangers at home lowering his batting that after Thursday stands at .125.

Yes, his average is paltry, but when you noticed his on-base percentage is nearly 38 percent, what is there to complain about?

Johnson is consistently drawing walks (18) to justify his low average. If he wasn’t walking, then we would have something to complain about and I could justify the booing.

Seriously, he is going to have to hit soon.

Put it this way, if he was on the championship team last year as Mark Teixeira was, he would have a high amount of credit that would allow him to struggle as he has so far.

Last year, I was so down early on Tex that I would place my own personal bets when he could come to the plate during the first six weeks as to whether he would strike out looking or swinging.

He would break out of it in a big way, but it is difficult to watch him go through his struggles because you know he is a much better hitter than what he is showing (7-for-56).

It is only a matter of time, but our happiness always requires immediacy and patience is never a virtue.

Think about it, the Yankees have their 2-3 hitters each hitting .125 and are still pounding the opposition.

What if they actually started to hit?

Girardi would not have taken Hughes out if his pitch count was up going into the ninth too, would he?

Great to see Ramiro “Nino” Pena get his first two RBI’s come with the bases loaded on Sunday. He has become one of my favorites on the team and at least Girardi can pencil him into the lineup on occasion and not feel as if he will be an automatic out.

Randy Winn might be on “pick on radar". Something about him that I do not like.

Joba Chamberlain officially earned the eighth inning role with his performance the first two weeks.

Girardi did not officially use those words, but he in essence said that on Wednesday before the game.


The velocity in the mid the mid 90’s and not the high 90’s as it once was, but he is locating better and appears more composed on the mound, with the occasional fist pump not far away.

I’m keeping my eye on Tampa Bay in the AL East. They are off to a good start, have a good lineup, great defense, and five quality starters that give them a great chance to win every night.

This is no slight on the Sawx, who still have a good team. However, you notice that their lineup is not going to be able to consistently score runs as long as Ortiz is batting fifth every night.

This is fine by me as blowing them out of the water is fine by me.

I’m not saying it will happen, but there is a very high probability that this team will challenge the 1998 Yankees for wins in a season.

Tall order? Of course. 114 is a very high number.

However, this may be the team to do it.

On The Road – The Best Worst Game Ever Played

Mets and Cardinals play on…and on and on

ST. LOUIS – The beauty of baseball is that there is no time limit.

Sure, you may think the game will end at a certain time, but it is no definite.

You may budget three and maybe even four hours under the assumption that all nine innings, and maybe even a few extra frames will play out within that framework of time.

However, you just never know.

On Saturday, the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals treated baseball to a game that included history and at times, incompetence.

What began as a start in the middle of a sunny afternoon took us all the way into the night with most of us just asking for one of these teams to emerge victorious so we can all move on with our lives.

Thank goodness, because the ending prevented me from the thinking that perhaps slicing myself with a razor blade and bleeding to death was a better option than watching these two teams one-up each other in terms of ineptness that was on display.

If you had dinner plans for the evening, this was not the game for you.

I did. How do you think that worked out?

The end result of the Mets 2-1 victory in 20 innings that lasted nearly seven hours left those on the field and in the stands drained of energy, thankful that it was finally over.

At the start, the main attraction was to see Mets left-hander Johan Santana. His mound opponent for the Cardinals, Jaime Garcia, was making only his third ever major-league start. Originally, I thought Adam Wainwright was on the mound. Clearly, I did not read the MLB.com Gameday preview correctly.


Santana against Garcia on paper looked like a mismatch. However with the Mets offense resembling that of little leaguers swinging the equivalent of wiffle-bats, even today is not a guarantee.

While Santana struggled through the first few innings, Garcia looked like Sandy Koufax, fooling hitters with an assortment of breaking stuff and not throwing a fastball (according to the stadium radar gun above 90 MPH).

With no hits by a Mets player through the first three innings, each member of our four person traveling crew put one dollar into a pool and chose a player we thought would get a hit. David Wright (chosen by Eddie), Jeff Francoeur (chosen by me), Fernando Tatis (chosen by Dave), and Jason Bay (chosen by Will) were the candidates.

Surely, one of them would get a hit by the end of this game.

Right?

In a complete stunner to all of us (well, maybe not all), the Mets went hitless for the first five innings. Angel Pagan’s looping fly to center to lead off the sixth ended the no-hit bid, but did not win anyone money in the pool. Later, with first and third with two out, Garcia struck out Wright to end the inning, costing Eddie a chance at the money.

Santana rebounded from his early game struggles to pitch seven scoreless innings. In baseball, that’s called “gutting it out”.

The Cardinals great chance to score the game’s first run came in the bottom of the eighth with two out and Matt Holliday at plate after back-to-back two out walks. However, reliever Ryota Igarashi struck him out swinging to end the threat.

Mets lefty specialist Pedro Feliciano induced a double play from Lopez in the ninth to send the game into extra innings. In the tenth, he would pull a Houdini act by loading the bases after retiring the first two hitters. Holliday came up with a chance to win the game again and Mets Manager Jerry Manuel elected to replace Tatis with backup infielder Alex Cora (the man who Scott Boras somehow finagled the Wilpon’s to pay him $2 million to play the role of babysitter and occasional part-time player) at first base. This would prove prophetic, as he would make an incredible catch by diving into the stands to make a play for the final out of the inning, sending the game into the 11th.

If Cora does not get another hit or makes another play the rest of this season, he could say that he earned his pay right there.

Little did we know that this game would turn into an episode of The Twilight Zone.

Angel Pagan worked a one out walk, and as I saw him take four steps off first base, I openly stated he would be picked off soon. Two pitches later, he leaned too far and reliever Mitchell Boggs (as predicted) nailed him to retire the side.

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa then made an interesting move. He would double-switch Matt Holliday in the 12th for pitcher Jason Motte. Holliday’s spot in the lineup in the bottom half was sixth, so only a rally would bring the pitchers spot up batting behind Albert Pujols.

It’s not as if that would actually happen would it?

With Fernando Nieve in relief, he got the first two outs before surrendering a single and then having Ryan Ludwick reach on catcher’s interference. Pujols was now up, and with Motte on deck, La Russa worst nightmare became true. The Mets walked Pujols to face Motte, a pitcher who would strike out as the crowd at Busch Stadium booed lustily.

How dumb was that? And how surprised could La Russa be that this would happen? By the way, he is on his way to the mound again to make another pitching change, sending us to another two or three minute breaks in the action.

At least you can plan your bathroom breaks accordingly.

(A side note on Busch Stadium – Very older crowd that attends these games. Unlike the younger crowds that you see at other ballparks, this is normally a subdue crowd with the exception of a few idiots. They only make noise when they need to. Besides, if you were nearing AARP status, would you stand up on every two-strike pitch as we do at Yankee Stadium?)

In the 14th, everyone’s favorite new Met Jason Bay had his chance to plate the game’s first run, but he would ground into a force out to end the inning, continuing to advance the belief that he is simply stealing money and quietly wished he could return to the Red Sox.

For those keeping track, we still have yet to crown a winner in the hit pool. Our selected players are 0-for-15 since the start of the 4th inning. After four hours of game, the Mets have averaged one hit per hour.

Ineptness reaching incredible levels.

Beer sales were over after the seventh and the food selection was not doing much for me. I’m sorry, but buying the turkey leg was not going to solve my hunger issue. The plan was to get food and drinks after the game.

Problem was the game was still going.

Most of the crowd decided to get a head start on their evening while we decided to stay. Hell, where were we going? It’s not like there was much in terms of nightlife that we had not already been to the previous night. When people are giving you plenty of free admission tickets to strip clubs, you know that’s a problem.

From the upper deck, Eddie and I made our way down to behind the Mets dugout to sit.

Security did not mind. Other stadiums should take note rather than restrict access to lower levels (see: US Cellular Field). Problem is they worry about drunken unruly fans coming onto the field.

Dave and Will trooped it out in the upper deck, but soon found out they were the only ones (literally) up there and joined us.

St. Louis had another opportunity in their half of the 14th with runners on first and third with no outs. Dinner has my name on it and I’m ready to go. A Mets reliever named Hisanori Takahashi was on the ropes. He struck out Skip Schumaker (referred to us as “T-Pain” for his walkup music) and Ludwick for the second out.

Now Pujols was up again. Problem was that the pitchers spot was behind him still. The four fingers put the Cardinals slugger on first base, forcing reliever Blake Hawksworth to hit, promptly striking out to continue this charade.

Ugh.

Jenrry Mejia, the Mets highly touted pitcher (who by last count, is not able to pitch back-to-back days) came into the game because the team began to run out of pitchers. Brian Anderson, the Cardinals last available position player, came to the plate with two outs and runners on first and second in the 16th inning.

Obviously La Russa’s intelligence backfired twice and couldn’t take seeing it happen a third time, perhaps Anderson would get a hit, end this madness and look like less of a dope.

Instead, Anderson hit into double play to end the frame and kept my hunger at an all-time level and anger with this game at an all-time high. I highly doubt this will make “All Time Games” on MLB Network anytime soon.

An update on the hit pool – We still do not have a winner. All of our players have now hit 0-for-18 and Tatis, after Cora came in on a double switch, eliminated Dave from the money.

However, by reaching on an infield single in the top of the 17th, Wright is on safely. Eddie is the winner of a total of $4.00, surely to be used to buy two of the $2 O-Bomb shots at Fusion later on tonight whenever this game is over, which at this rate appears to be never as the bars would close first.

With no pitchers left, La Russa now had no choice but to have one of his position players start the top of the 18th inning. Felipe Lopez, a starter at third base when the sun was up, was now on the mound and pitcher Kyle Lohse now in left field to play defense as this game reached epic proportions of absolute ineptitude that you could only laugh at now.

This was the ultimate white flag move. When you get to this point, you are conceding defeat. If the other team cannot win now, they may as well banish themselves to Siberia.

In case you didn’t know, beer sales ended now nearly four hours ago. If you were not sober by now, call a doctor.

The recent Mets joke was that their offense couldn’t hit batting practice. Well, with Lopez pitching (with the help of a fan, we found that he had never pitched in high school or the minors) he held them scoreless.

Unreal.

Joe Mather, the Cardinals center fielder when the game began, now was in to pitch. He would load the bases on two walks and a hit by pitch (quite the rally). Francoeur hit a sac fly to deep left, Jose Reyes tagged from third and scored the game’s first run.

1-0 Mets in the 19th.

Finally!

All they had to do now was get three more outs from closer Francisco Rodriguez. He has been one of the best closers in the league, so one would think this should not be a problem.

Hmmm…

Rodriguez walked Ludwick to begin the bottom half to bring up Pujols. They had to pitch to him now unless the Cardinals did anything stupid.

On cue, Ludwick broke for second and was caught stealing.

No!

How stupid was that? What is he doing? Does he not know who is at the plate?

Pujols promptly doubled off the left center field wall two pitches later to make the move to steal even more ridiculous. Lohse grounded out and it was up to Yadier Molina (known Mets killer – see: 2006 NLCS Game 7) to keep the game going.

On 1-1, Molina lined a single to right, scoring Pujols to tie the game. It just had to be this way I guess. The looks on my fellow Mets fan faces told the story. It was a look of anger and disgust.

Eddie provided a smirk that told you “Hey, that’s the Mets for you”.

This game played the role of the song from the children’s show Lamb Chops t

hat goes as follows:

“This is the song that doesn’t end...yes it goes on and on my friend.”

Mather stayed in to pitch the 20th (who else did you think would come in, Pujols?) and after two singles moved runners to first and third. Reyes hit a sac fly to give the Mets a 2-1 lead, still needing three more outs to win.

Ironically, even having two position players throwing three innings, the Mets managed two runs that scored without the benefit of a hit against guys throwing the equivalent of BP.

Incredible.

Mike Pelfrey, the Mets starter from this past Thursday came into get the final outs and put me and everyone else out of our misery. The game was nationally televised on FOX throughout the country.

Surely, they did not expect to stay on this long and those watching on TV saw a good portion of

their evening ruined.

Pelfrey got Lopez on a ground out and Mather on a fly out. Two outs and no one on, one more out and we can all go home.

Brendan Ryan singled and then Schumaker worked a walk to move the tying run to second.

Oh no. Please not again.

It was up to Ludwick, the same man who could have sent us home earlier had he not foolishly attempted to steal second. A base hit here and a razor blade might come in play.

Ludwick took a 1-2 pitch and grounded it to second, Luis Castillo fired to first in time and the ballgame was over.

As Howie Rose would say, “Put it in the books!”

I was glad it was over. My fellow Mets fans, drained of energy, celebrated in victory. They didn’t win as much as simply survived.

Mets 2, Cardinals 1 in 20 innings. Time of the game a slightly unmanageable 6 hours and 53 minutes.

No food. No beer.

The four of us somehow pulled it off, staying from the first pitch until the end. At 10:06 PM, perhaps only 3,000 or so fans along with us remained in the park.

We were the survivors. Somehow getting through this day where we saw two teams play over two full games and try to upstage the other with utter ridiculousness as they proceeded to set baseball back about 50 years.

At least I could say I was there.

Yankee Talk: Rough start to reunion

Yankee fans not quick to forgive or forget Vazquez for past

NEW YORK – While players may have very short memories, the fans do not.

We hold back stuff we do and don’t like for an infinite period. Those memories erased only by something better or worse that comes along.

The test case for this has become Javier Vazquez.

It was the second start of the season for old-new Yankee, six years removed from his last appearance in pinstripes. Angels first baseman Kendry Morales drove a changeup up the alley for a run scoring double to up their lead to 3-1 as the right-hander put his head down in disappointment.

As Manager Joe Girardi made the slow walk to the mound, he and everyone else know what to expect.

Vazquez gave his skipper the ball and began his walk back to the dugout. Along way, Yankee fans would serenade him with boos to end his afternoon.

You may wonder why this would be.

The Yankees, coming off a world championship, seem to have re-ushered in a new beginning, with a clean slate for players. Everyone associated with that 2009 team earns a special place in everyone’s heart at least until they fail in October.

For Vazquez, everything is a little different.

When last we saw him, he was the face of the worst moment in the history of the franchise. Simply throw out the year “2004” and the words “Game 7”, and it is enough to conjure up the horrific events of that historic and infamous night.

There was the dead corpse of Kevin Brown, the starter for the Yankees in that Game 7 started burning the coals in that game, departing in the second inning with Boston leading 2-0.

In came Vazquez out of the bullpen. Joe Torre chose him as an All-Star just three months prior, but pitched terribly in the second half to a 6.92 ERA in addition to two terrible starts in the postseason.

In he came, with the bases loaded and (now former Yankee) Johnny Damon at the plate. I remember saying at the time that if he grooved a fastball on the first pitch that the ball would leave the park.

On cue, Vazquez served up a grand slam to Damon, making the score 6-0, essentially cementing the Red Sox comeback from 0-3 down to win the pennant, starting the genesis for their mini-dynasty in Boston. Two innings later, Damon greeted him again with another homerun and the collateral damage from that series was that Vazquez needed to send into exile.

Six years later, he is no longer a wide-eyed pitcher brought with the expectations of being the staff ace. Instead, Brian Cashman brought him here to bring stability of innings and good production that he has performed to throughout his career, all while pitching as the team’s fourth starter, a (as they say) non-pressurized situation.

When the Yankees announced the trade, it was met with a quizzical and puzzling thought. Why would the Yankees bring back a man who lasting image in people minds is Game 7?

Last Friday against the Rays, things were going just fine for three scoreless innings, and then “boom”. By the bottom of the sixth, Girardi needed to pull Vazquez before the stat-line got worse. Eight runs in 5 2/3 innings was not the best way to reintroduce one’s self.

Yesterday, he had a chance to make amends for his poor first start. Instead, it started to look like more of the same. He was in trouble early but escaped. In the third inning, he was not so lucky. The amazing part of it was he was always ahead of the hitter 0-2 or 1-2.

It wasn’t this being a case of shaky nerves. He was throwing strikes. Yet, went it came to putting a hitter away (opposing batters hit .091 against him down 0-2 last season), he could not summon the ability in his four pitch arsenal to do so.

As the hits came and the runs scored, the boo-birds came out. For the fans, this wasn’t a new beginning, but rather a continuation of an old, checkered past.

The boos were indicative that 2004 was a scar that has yet to completely heal despite last season’s championship.

Did Vazquez deserve it? No. But as Derek Jeter eloquently put it, “They’re Yankee fans, they want to cheer for you. They come here to cheer for you.”

We want to cheer for him, but he has to give us a reason to cheer. Mediocre to ugly performances as we have seen the last two games are not going to have anyone break out pom-poms.

That is not how it goes.

Adulation is brought about by production. Anywhere else, less is deemed acceptable.

Here it is not.

No matter how well he does during the regular season, like Alex Rodriguez before him, his final exam will come when he makes, at maximum, three postseason starts.

In New York, the boos can turn to cheers as quickly as the cheers can turn to boos.
The years may have moved on, but the fans have not. All they see in Vazquez right now is the worst and it is up to his performance to change that.

This will not happen overnight.

Hopefully he knows that.

Yankee Talk: One final sendoff

As banner raises, a last chance to look back before moving ahead

NEW YORK – Today will be the final day to remember all of the great times from the 2009 season.

As Yankee Stadium opens for business for the first time this year, all we can remember was what took place that last time the building was open.

Game 6 of the 2009 World Series.

It was there that nearly nine seasons of frustration, near misses and heartbreak of not winning the ultimate prize became a distant memory.

This team, comprised of young and old, homegrown and imports, business and casual, all came together as a family as opposed to individuals for a common goal.

As a goal, they accomplished their mission.

27th heaven.

The funny part about the ending of the season was the way it began.

Early on, one of the major complaints was about expensive seats that went unsold around the bases, giving the impression no one was at the new palace.

If I told you the Yankees were under .500 five weeks into the season, would you believe it?

Remarkably, it was true. On May 8, the record was 13-15. Alex Rodriguez was not in the lineup, recovering from hip surgery, and forced to endure Cody Ransom (remember him?) for those many games.

Relievers Edwar Ramirez and Jose Veras graced us with their presence, gave all of us enough agita watching their appearances in these games.

Then, Rodriguez returned.

It would be in Baltimore where the genesis of the season would begin. He swung at the first pitch he saw and hit it into the first few rows of the left field seats at Camden Yards for a three-run homer.

You couldn’t make this stuff up even in the movies.

There was that string of three straight walk-off victories against the Twins that help provide the new Yankee Stadium with a few memories, and AJ Burnett introducing everyone to the world of pie.

They had lost their first eight games of the season to the Red Sox, one loss worst than the other. It looked as if they would never beat them anymore.

Losing two of three at home to the woeful Nationals sent out an alarm, and things weren’t getting any better in Atlanta the following week until Joe Girardi finally saw enough after Brett Gardner was falsely called out on a pickoff throw.

From that moment, something happened.

The Yankees went on a roll, winning 31 of their next 40 games, including a momentum turning four-game sweep of the Red Sox at home to control first place in the AL East.

Boston beat them down early, but now they had finally responded. It was a trait on display all season. The toughness showed this resilient group all year, not caring about previous Yankee teams of the past. Instead, this group dismissed of that talk, seeking to write their own story that Yankee fans would remember forever.

From 0-8 down to a 9-9 finish against the Red Sox was a testament to their character.
They went from winning 13 of their first 28 games, to winning 103 games in all. An incredible 90-44 mark. It was a remarkable turnaround.

Final judgment though would not come in until October began.

The Yankees achieved those elusive 11 playoff victories when previous teams could not. For as much talent as those previous rosters had, something was always missing in the years where they did not get the job done.

Some years, the offense did not deliver. Who doesn’t remember Aaron Boone not being able to hit a fly ball with the bases loaded in the tenth inning of Game 4 of the 2003 World Series with the Yankees leading 2-1, having rallied from two runs down in the previous frame? A victory in that game would mean a 3-1 series lead and almost certain 27th championship seven years ago.

Other years, the pitching staff would break down. Who doesn’t remember David Wells lower back

going out in Game 5 of that World Series? I was there in the crowd that night and watched in horror as the championship slowly began to slip away. Or how about seeing Kevin Brown’s dead corpse in Game 7 the following year?

Who can’t forget Jaret Wright’s badness in Detroit in 2006 with the season on the line? All of this topped off by seeing Roger Clemens lose his battle with old age and watching Chien-Ming Wang implode twice against the Indians in 2007.

Perhaps other times, different forces seemingly were at work, whether they be a curse or midges coming from the lake.

It was always something.

Last year, everything came together.

It had come to the point where I waited for them to screw it all up, but it did not happen.

The starting pitching was exceptional. CC Sabathia was the horse. AJ Burnett pitched several key games. And when needed most, Andy Pettitte still prove to have enough arm left to throw big ballgames.

While the bullpen had its struggles, Rivera was the constant. The offense, much maligned for never getting “the big hit”, finally came through. Notably Alex Rodriguez, and in situational spots, they never showed cracks. They wore down opposing teams pitchers into submission.

The Yankees were the best team in baseball during the season, during the playoffs, and eventually became world champions.

They were finally able to scratch their eight-year itch.

Now this is a new year. As the banner raises and the players receive their rings, all of what happened in 2009 goes away. It is forgotten.

Time to write a new chapter.

Yankee Talk: Home Opener Edition – Banner victory

Yanks ring in home season with win over Halos

NEW YORK – The last time the Yankees played a game at Yankee Stadium, they won their 27th world championship.

Over four months later, they were back playing baseball again and the winning results remained the same.

Raising their 2009 banner and collecting their championship ring to celebrate their accomplishments of last season, the Yankees officially can put store away the memories of last years and focus on becoming the first team to repeat since the 2000 Yankees won three in a row.

After appearing to cruise to victory, entering the ninth inning with a 7-1 lead, the Yankees had to survive a one out, ninth inning grand slam from Bobby Abreu to hold on for a 7-5 victory to christen the 2010 home portion of the season in front of 49,293 at Yankee Stadium.

It was a game right out of the world champions playbook. Build an early lead, continue their prowess of working a pitcher to the point of exhaustion, hit homeruns, get tremendous pitching from their starter and beat up opposing teams bullpens later in a game.

World Series MVP Hideki Matsui, now in an Angels uniform, received the loudest cheers from the crowd in his return to The Bronx. His first inning at-bat included a standing ovation from not only the fans, but also his former Yankee teammates in the opposing dugout.

The Yankees kicked off the scoring in the bottom of the first when Nick Johnson turned on a 1-1 fastball from Angels starter Ervin Santana and drove it into the right field bleachers for his first homerun of the season to take a 1-0 lead.

Derek Jeter would increase the lead to 2-0 in the third when he also took 2-0 Santana fastball and hit it over the wall in right center for his first homerun of the season. He would drive in another run in the bottom of the fourth when his hard hit ball ricocheted off the leg of Santana for an infield hit to increase the lead to three.

This margin was more than enough for Andy Pettitte, who in his second start of the season was as good as he was at Fenway Park last Wednesday.

Pettitte logged very few innings during the spring because of unlucky weather conditions that postponed several of his starts. He gave up only one run in six innings against the Red Sox and pitching the home opener, was just as impressive.

He held the Angels scoreless through the first four innings, and worked out of trouble in both the fifth and sixth, getting a key double play from Howie Kendrick.
Pettitte threw six shutout innings, giving up five hits, walking two and striking out six.

The offense would break the game open in the bottom half as the Yankees loaded the bases on walks. Santana’s day would end, replaced by reliever Jason Bulger, who would yield a two-run single to Alex Rodriguez to increase margin to 5-0.

Despite having an exceptional breaking stuff, it was not enough for Santana on this afternoon. The Yankees had him in trouble throughout his 5 2/3 innings of work, throwing 113 pitches, giving up five runs, eight hits and five walks, while striking out seven.

Chan Ho Park pitched the next two innings, but gave up a solo homerun to Kendry Morales to break up the shutout in the eighth. The Yankees responded with two in the bottom half when Jorge Posada ripped an RBI double and Curtis Granderson continued his hot hitting with an RBI single to create a six-run cushion.

Things were very comfortable going in with David Robertson looking to nail down the final three outs. Instead, three successive singles loaded the bases before Abreu went deep, summoning Mariano Rivera from the bullpen to get the final two outs of the game. The final out came when Matsui popped out Robinson Cano to end the game.

At 5-2, the Yankees will look to win their third straight series tomorrow afternoon. Scott Kazmir starts for the Angels and Javier Vazquez will look to rebound after a shaky first outing last Friday against Tampa Bay.

Yankee Talk: Message sent

Champs let Sawx, Rays know who’s still in charge


ST. PETERSBURG – When you are on top, every one attempts to chase and bring you down from behind.

The Yankees are the defending world champions. Looking down, they see the Red Sox and Rays as worthy competitors, rounding out three of the best four teams in baseball.

Many members of the (drive by) media have selected either one of these teams to unseat the Yankees atop the American League East. Early in the season, these first six games were to be a proving ground that these two would be worthy competitors.

Final votes will not be in until later this season, but this much we can judge after one week in this season…

Beating the Yankees is going to be tall order.

Andy Pettitte showed there plenty of good innings remaining in that left arm of his, slowing the Red Sox down for six innings.

After an average outing for AJ Burnett on Tuesday, he responded with a great effort for seven innings to help the Yankees win the rubber match of the three game series.

CC Sabathia shrugged off a rough end to his last start on Opening Night and came within four outs of a no-hitter on Saturday against Tampa Bay.

Having these three pitchers as your frontline puts you one-step ahead of most teams going into battle. That is before you account for the imposing offense and stellar defense that the team has displayed early on.

Two series and six games totaled four wins for the world champions, despite losing the first game of each series. It was a great way to begin the year.

Some of the good things from the early part of the year:

1. Curtis Granderson has fit in tremendously with new club.

Talk about not needing an adjustment period. In his first at-bat as a Yankee, he took a Josh Beckett fastball into the right field bleachers for a home run.

Wednesday in extra innings, he turned around a Jonathan Papelbon fastball and hit a game winning homerun to beat the Red Sox and win two of three at Fenway Park.

At 8-for-26 (.348), he continued to hit against the Rays this past weekend. Also, his defense in centerfield has been very good even with an occasional misread.

His best performance came on Sunday when he showed off his prowess in centerfield making a great catch on a line drive by Dioner Navarro in the fifth inning and was able to show his arm strength doubling up Pat Burrell at first.

Prior to that, he worked a lengthy at-bat against Rays starter James Shields before lining an RBI double into the right field corner to tie the game at two. In the sixth inning, he displayed even more of his talent after stroking a single to center. Granderson stole second, moved to third on a ground out and scored on a wild pitch.

While some will look at him to hit 30 homeruns with the dimensions of Yankee Stadium, it is his all-around game that on this team that will finally receive notoriety.

2. The defense does not rest

While the Red Sox openly promote “run prevention”, the Yankees went about it a different way.

Many clamored for them to sign a left fielder that would be more productive than Brett Gardner would offensively. However, on a team projected to score over 900 runs, why add additional offense when you can prevent the other team from scoring on defense?

The combination of Gardner in left and Granderson in center has allowed the Yankees to cover more ground in the outfield, allowing their fly ball pitchers to make hitters put the ball in play.

You can make the case the Yankees possess a Gold Glove player at every position on the infield. Balls in play are sucked up like a vacuum. It gives the pitcher more confidence to throw whatever they want, knowing the defense will be there to protect them.

3. Burnett-Posada marriage counseling

AJ Burnett made a point to a reporter in the postgame last Wednesday when asked about his relationship with Jorge Posada by saying that it would be the last time he would ever talk about it.

Good for him.

The never-ending soap opera between the two was annoying at worst and pointless at best. All one had to do was watch the playoff games to figure this out. Even without Posada, Burnett still struggled through two of the games. Having Jose Molina out there was not a full proof plan to avoid “Bad AJ” from making an appearance.

Against the Red Sox on Wednesday, his pitch count rose and trailed 3-1 after Victor Martinez took him deep. Last year in this same situation, the percentages are high that he mentally would break. However, with Posada behind the plate, the duo battled and Burnett was able to get through five innings with no further damage.

On Sunday, Tampa Bay scored the first two runs of the game and had Burnett on the ropes, but could not push across any more runs.

In the sixth, the Yankees rallied to take a 4-2 lead and the game was in his hands to carry it the rest of the way. With two outs, Ben Zobrist singled and then Evan Longoria hit a high pop fly that hit the catwalk and the umpires ruled it a hit. Carlos Pena walked to load the bases and the Rays had their chance to strike and get back into the game.

Last season, Burnett with Posada catching him would not have been able to coexist and battle their way through adversity. Instead, making good on their promise to change, he induced B.J Upton into a pop out to Mark Teixeira to end the inning.

After giving up two runs to start, Burnett slammed the door, holding Tampa Bay scoreless through his remaining six innings.

After all that made between him and Posada last year, it is good to see them working together and getting positive results early on.

4. Robinson Cano is a beast

Who knows how long this will last, but if Cano can keep his head on straight for the entire season as he has pledged to do, there should be no reason why is isn’t a candidate for the MVP award at the end.

With the departure of Hideki Matsui, the responsibility fell on Cano moving up to the fifth spot in the lineup to protect Alex Rodriguez.

However, the thought has always been that Cano was too liberal of hitter and did not have the approach that would serve him well in situations where he would come out with runners in scoring position.

Last year he hit .207 in those spots. It was astounding for a player of his caliber to hit so poorly. Cano’s tendency to expand his hitting zone and being too overly aggressive played against him as pitchers knew he would go up to the plate hacking.

This spring, Cano took the approach to swinging at strikes and being aggressive, while allowing the game to come to him. With the help of Rodriguez to change his approach in run-scoring situations, telling him to attack and not be “content”, a different Cano has emerged so far.

The ball has jumped off his bat over the first games and the results have been positive (9-for-25, 2 HR). Yet the question still lingers whether he will be patient enough to wait for his pitch over a significant length of time? Or, is he simply going through one of his hot streaks?

As I said before the season, if he could draw 50 walks this season to go along with his above .300 prowess at the plate, he would be an MVP candidate. Just the ability to work the count and eventually draw a base-on-balls is enough to propel him into a different level of player.

Let’s see if it continues.

Now, time for the first Random Yankee Thoughts of the season…

At least Brett Gardner has shown the ability not to be a hole in the ninth spot in the lineup can only be a positive development.

I know it’s only two games, but I would prefer Marcus Thames never to play left field again.

Something I noticed about Nick Swisher at the plate…

He rarely is beat by a fastball from a pitcher. When he swings through, usually an off-speed pitch fools him. Andy Sonnanstine tried to sneak a fastball by in the eighth inning on Sunday and Swisher responded by depositing it deep into the right field seats.

The more you watch Teixeira on defense, the more you marvel at his incredible ability.

In the seventh inning with CC Sabathia pitching a no-hitter, he made a great diving stab on a line drive to take away a would-be single that would have broken up the bid.
There are very few two-way players like him. Tino Martinez was a great defender, but Teixeira is very close to making me draw the conclusion that he is the best Yankee defensive first baseman since Don Mattingly.

Now, if he could at least hit In April (3-for-29), everything would be fine.

After starting out 0-for-19 to begin the year, Teixeira got two hits on Saturday to welcome himself to the season.

No one really knows the cause for the first baseman’s early year struggles, but if he could ever figure it out, he would be an even greater monster when you consider he led the AL in homeruns and RBI despite hitting under .200 for the first six weeks of the season.

Speaking of Sabathia and his no-hitter…

Rarely will you ever see a “clean no hitter”. The meaning behind that is you never see just routine plays. During these types of games, you get a lucky bounce on a ball or your defenders make outstanding plays.

On Saturday, there were three tremendous plays that gave me the impression Sabathia would actually do it.

First, the Teixeira play. Second, Rodriguez made a great diving play and used his strong arm to gun down BJ Upton at first to finish the seventh inning. Third, in the eighth, Sabathia nearly snared a ball with his bare hands, but it bounced off him. Cano charged, fielded and fired to first in time to nail Willy Aybar for the out.

Unfortunately, Kelly Shoppach broke up the bid on a solid single to left.

Let’s be clear about this, no matter what Joe Girardi says, there is no way in the world he was going to take out Sabathia with a no-hitter in tact going into the ninth inning.

Yes, his pitch count was nearing the point where a legitimate discussion was in play. In only the second start of the season, where do you draw the line? Arms are not built up yet, and many starters are on pitch counts. Why would you stress him, throwing 130 plus pitches when you are trying to preserve him for the long haul?

That would have been an interesting conversation between the two of them.

I know that it is only one start, but you could not help to be somewhat puzzled by return debut of Javier Vazquez in road gray.

Many watching upon first glance could only think of 2004, and changing his number to “31” was not going to make that go away.

For three innings, he was fabulous. Suddenly, with a 2-0 lead, everything fell apart.

Vazquez hung a fastball that Carlos Pena belted for a home run. Marcus Thames misplayed a ball into a two-run triple, and then Willie Aybar drilled a homerun in the sixth inning to extend the Rays lead.

The final stats were ugly: 5 2/3 innings, eight runs, eight hits.

Welcome back to the American League. No longer are the Nationals, Mets and the 7-8-9 hitters in a lineup available to kick around.

Now, while I feel this is nothing more than a simple blip and still win at least 15 games, it was not a good second impression on a fan base whose lasting memory of you is seeing Johnny Damon crush a grand slam in Game 7.

Please get better soon.

The fickle nature of baseball is to beat down players who do not perform, and praise them when they do well.

This brings us to Chan Ho Park.

Before the season, I lauded that Park would be the best $1.2 millionthe Yankees will have spent this season. In his first game against the Red Sox nursing a two-run lead, he promptly gave up three runs as Boston rallied to win.

This led to me undergoing a minor anger management scenario saying “Chan Ho = no, no, no”.

Two days later, Girardi elected to bring Park back into a game with the score tied in the seventh inning.

Park rewarded him by hurling three scoreless innings, saving the bullpen as the Yankees came back to win 3-1 in 10 innings.

On this night, Park was a hero and re-earned my good graces.

I keep reminding myself of an old quote Super Bowl champion Head Coach Jimmy Johnson once said:

“I love you when you are making plays. The moment you stop making plays, I don’t love you anymore.”

It’s become my new baseball adage.

For better or worse.