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.
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