NEW YORK – When you play the worst teams in the league, not only is the disparity between the teams evident, but also the intelligence.
Therefore, it came as no surprise in the bottom of the seventh inning on Monday with the score at a then-manageable 2-1 that Cleveland Indians manager Manny Acta elected to enter “The World of the Stupid”.
Runners were on first and second and a wild pitch moved the runners over with Mark Teixeira at the plate. As the count stretched to 3-0, the decision Acta had was as a tough as it was simple. Walk the suddenly resurgent Teixeira with first base open, or pitch to Alex Rodriguez with the bases loaded in an effort to set up the double play and get out of the inning.
We saw this happen several weeks ago when the Minnesota Twins elected to do the same thing only to have Rodriguez deposit on into the seats.
Here we were again and the Indians were about to tempt fate and hope for the best. They brought in their best right-handed relief pitcher Chris Perez into the game to face Rodriguez. In a past life, the Yankee slugger would become overanxious at the plate. The enormity of the moment would be enough to make him press and get himself.
Oh, but these are not “those” days.
Rodriguez over the last year has become one of the league’s best hitters in these situations. The numbers go up substantially whenever Teixeira draws an intentional walk in front of him. This is not hyperbole and the numbers back it up.
Nine times teams have put the onus on Rodriguez to come through. Only once has he made on out. The other eight instances have seen him go 4-for-5, with a sacrifice fly, two walks and two grand slams.
Clearly, the Yankees had these numbers at their disposal and quietly smiled. Perhaps Acta did not have record of those numbers or the Indians do not have the resources to supply themselves with that information.
Nonetheless, Perez took his chances and saw the count run to 3-1. As Acta would say later, based on statistical analysis, a 3-1 count to a hitter in that situation made every player resemble Barry Bonds circa 2003.
Uh oh.
Rodriguez took his hack at Perez’s fastball next. Five seconds later, the ball landed near Monument Park for a grand slam to blow the game wide open.
It was the third straight time he had hit a grand slam after teams intentionally walked Teixeira to put him. Let the record show that despite his slow season to date, team still fear the Yankee first baseman as evidenced by his three-run homer the previous day that completed a three-run deficit.
The larger question still is, “Why would you intentionally pitch to Alex Rodriguez?”
In any world, it makes no sense.
I use to wonder why teams would do the same thing and pitch to Manny Ramirez whenever they would give David Ortiz a free pass to first when they were teammates with the Red Sox.
Ramirez would kill teams for doing this and now Rodriguez is doing the same to the rest of the league.
The numbers now stand after that blast that Rodriguez is 5-for-6 in nine plate appearances with 19 RBI’s.
Lethal.
Acta said if the same situation presented itself again, he would gladly take his chances and do it again despite what the number say.
I guess they will never learn.
Soft Patch
Just when the Yankees were playing perhaps their worst stretch of the season, the baseball gods were kind enough to present a healthy stretch of games to allow the team to fatten up.
Starting from this past Friday, the next 16 games are against several of the worst teams in the league.
They have taken three of four from the Indians (and it should have been all four), they play three games home and home with the Orioles, followed by three with the resurgent Blue Jays and concluding with three more at home against the Astros.
Seeing these woeful teams the last few days has been an insult to baseball. They are beyond terrible, and even I know it’s a matter of time before they eventually allow the Yanks to take control before eventually winning the game.
On Sunday, the Indians led 1-0 before two unearned runs allowed the margin to increase to three. In normal games, this would have been a time to concern. However, these were the Indians and their pitching staff after the sixth inning is woeful, so there was no need to worry.
The result? Seven runs over the final two innings to win comfortably.
If Cleveland is bad, then the Baltimore Orioles are worse.
They should not be this bad. Offensively, they have some very talented players in Matt Wieters, Nick Markakis, Adam Jones and Luke Scott. Pitching wise, they have a few young pitchers that have some talent.
After that? Ouch.
They lost several games early in the season out of the bullpen and that set the tone for losing 16 of their first 18 games. Now they seem to be already beginning that slow death march, anxiously awaiting the season to end while there is still four months left.
Nonetheless, the Yankees will take it, playing them six times in the span of nine days.
My minimum requirement for this stretch is 13-3 and anything else would be a disappointment. None of these teams have a representative pitcher good enough along with a bullpen to get this current team out if the Yankees simply don’t play badly.
Pen full of bull
I was one of those saying that the bullpen going into the season was a big strength.
Through the first 33 percent of the season, I have been wrong.
There is an enormous hole in that part of the game and the supposed “Bridge to Rivera” currently needs repair.
Injuries and underperformance have depleted the relief corps, turning each nightly trip to the bullpen into a grueling session in need of having medicine handy just in case.
Thus far, the leaky pen sports an ERA of 4.98 over 137 1/3 innings as we stand on Memorial Day.
The worst case of this came on Saturday afternoon when after leading 10-5, the bullpen saw the lead dissipate and ending with an agonizing 13-11 loss to the Indians.
Cleveland scored seven runs in the seventh inning against four Yankee relievers. It started with David Robertson allowing two of the three batters he saw to reach base, ending in an RBI single by Austin Kearns before a back injury took him out of the game
Joe Girardi came to the mound to bring in Sergio Mitre, who would walk Jhonny Peralta to load the bases.
Girardi only needed four pitches to see enough and quickly called for Damaso Marte to face Russell Branyan and at least he did his job, inducing a fly out to center for the second out.
All it took was one more out and perhaps he could have stuck with Marte to get it. Instead, he opted for Joba Chamberlain, who has not been good in two of his last four appearances, notably giving up the 5-1 lead to the Red Sox nearly two weeks ago.
Chamberlain quickly got behind and gave up an RBI single to Mark Grudzielanek to trim the lead to now 10-7. He would then get behind Matt Laporta and walked him to load the bases. Lou Marson was down in the count 0-2, but then he drilled a double into the right-center gap to make it 10-9.
Panic time.
Girardi wasn’t going to use anyone else because he had no one else. Jason Donald would dunk in a single to shallow right to drove home two more runs to improbably give the Indians the lead as the Yankee Stadium crowd booed in disgust.
Another RBI single by Trevor Crowe to center finally concluded the damage as it was seventh heaven for Cleveland and seventh hell for the Yankees.
What has happened to Chamberlain? No one is sure. He will have his moments where his fastball and slider is crisp and is nearly unhittable. Then, there are these nights when he simply cannot locate the ball, has decreased velocity and just looks like a different person confidence wise.
Unfortunately, there is no one out on any other team that you can just bring in here and will produce under the pressure. The scrutiny is too great and as good as anyone in the league may be, putting them on the Yankees is a much different situation.
Alfredo Aceves is out indefinitely with back problems. Robertson may find his way to the DL soon, but was inconsistent before injury.
Chan Ho Park has effectively earned the verbiage “Chan Ho = No No” whenever I see him enter the game. Damaso Marte (like Chamberlain) comes and goes.
The Yankees are lucky their starting pitching has been dominant to where they can take games into and past the eighth inning with frequent regularity, minimizing the need for these guys to be in there.
Less I see of them the better.
Field right on Target
On Thursday, I took my World Series celebration road trip to Minneapolis to visit the new Target Field to see the Yankees attempt to sweep the Twins.
The place is beautiful from the outside and it makes you wonder why they did not have this sooner.
When I made the walk from my hotel to the game, you are right in the heart of downtown and the walk to the new stadium resembles that of going to Wrigley Field and Fenway Park.
You have many bars along the way that you stop at for a pregame drink before heading towards the area of the park. In addition, they have transit that if you are coming from outside the area, the train will drop you off literally five feet from the stadium.
I was going to get my ticket from the will call window until I saw a kiosk machine where you can pick them up instead. Rather than wait several minutes in line, I went up to the machine much like you would do at an airport and within 30 seconds, my game ticket was in hand.
After experiencing that, it is my contention that every team should have this at their stadium. It surely would not cost much to install one and it will save time.
All around the outside of the stadium you saw representation of the Twins past with blown up baseball cards serving as banners for many former players.
You would see Jim Kaat, Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Kent Hrbek, Jack Morris, Chuck Knoblauch and Kirby Puckett. They were great sights to see. Add to it the giant Golden Glove outside Gate 34 (aptly named for Kirby Puckett) that has become a sight for many fans to come and have their picture taken inside of it (see the picture to the right).
A statue of Kirby Puckett is several feet from the glove resembling his fist pump after hitting a game-winning homerun in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series that forced a seventh game the next night. Near that was a statue of Harmon Killebrew’s sweet swing.
Outside was a very great experience, inside you first notice the large scoreboard in left field above the Home Run Porch seats in left, along with shape of the state of Minnesota wrapped around caricatures representing the combination of the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
If I had known about the Minnesota food, I would have given their main meals a chance. After being there, I found out that walleye and pork chop was the food of choice. Instead, I settled for what they call a “Dinger Dog”, a ten-inch long hot dog to go with my hamburger, French fries and beer.
As it turned out, I saved $5 because the cashier did not listen clearly to my order that was not my fault. He brought a cheeseburger when I asked for a hamburger and fries and by the time they got it right, I didn’t get charged anything extra.
Carl 1, Target Field 0.
The seating was nice as I was behind the first base side in the upper deck and that provided a great view of the field. I could have sat in the lower area for a small increase in price, but those areas blocked the view partially of the scoreboard, centerfield and the overall skyline of the city.
However, around the sixth inning, a smattering of bugs made its appearance and their presence felt.
Soon after, they were all over the place with the bright spotlights inviting all of them as if it were a family meeting.
By coincidence, the Twins lead, initially 4-2 in the sixth when the bugs hit, went to 8-2 in a matter of two innings.
The Twins finally got a clean victory over the Yankees 8-2, making my trip unsuccessful, but it was a fun trip overall even if I was not able to get Javier Vazquez through six innings.
I will definitely make another trip to that ballpark in the near future.
Time for another edition of Yankee Random Thoughts
One of the better moments of the season came on Wednesday night when the Yankees were in Minnesota for the completion of the suspended game and then the normal game itself.
Derek Jeter’s homerun in the sixth inning gave AJ Burnett a win on a day he did not pitch in a 1-0 Yankees win.
But perhaps the best part came later that night in the bottom of the eighth inning.
With the scored tied at two, the Twins had runners on first and third with no one out against Andy Pettitte.
Girardi was not going to pitch anyone else because he used up most of his reliever in the first game to get the win.
Pettitte had a low pitch count, but this would be the most stressful part of his night. With Orlando Hudson up, he got him to chase a breaking ball for the first out and that brought up MVP Joe Mauer.
I was almost certain that even as great as Pettitte, even this situation might see Mauer win the battle and give the Twins the lead.
Instead, Pettitte delivered again, jamming Mauer with a cutter and getting him to sharply ground to Jeter, who turned double play as the left-hander pumped his fist in excitement as the score would remain tied before Nick Swisher hit a dramatic ninth-inning homerun that eventually gave the Yankees a 3-2 win.
Keeping in tune with a stat I began to track at the beginning of the season, the Yankees have only six “clean losses” this season, with the last one coming this past Thursday in the 8-2 loss to the Twins.
Even the disgusting 13-11 loss was not a clean defeat as the offense managed to get the tying run to the plate.
The number stands at five for the year.
Think about that. Only five times out of the 20 games they have lost have been of the “no-doubt” variety.
Could it be possible that the Yankees will bring three starting pitchers to the All Star Game?
It could happen if AJ Burnett, Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes continue at the pace they are at right now. All three men have a chance to have ten wins and ERA’s in the two’s or three’s if they continue to perform at the level they are at right now.
If only CC Sabathia could join the party.
The number two slot in the lineup did not seem to fit Brett Gardner well when Mr. DL left the team, compounded by Curtis Granderson being out for a month put him in that spot.
His average suffered and it sure did look as if he was trying to do too much instead of doing what he does best.
Since moving back to the bottom of the order, he has been hitting well again.
Coincidence?
The teams best lineup, it’s “playoff lineup” has Gardner in the ninth spot in the order in a double leadoff spot with Jeter.
Stats showed Teixeira hit .281 in the month of May, but you could have fooled me.
He started hot and finished the month strong, but in between was woeful. It is the equivalent of a boxer flurrying early and late in a round in order to steal a round without doing anything in the middle.
At least he is drawing walks.
Do not worry about the slight power outage this season for A-Rod. He will come around.
No more Juan Miranda. He has a few holes in his swing and while he had a few hits and made a few nice plays at first, he resembles Shelley Duncan.
Marcus Thames injury is probably the best thing that could happen to me. At least I don’t have to see him play the outfield for the foreseeable future.
Last week the team released Randy Winn. Outside of a three-run homer he hit against the Orioles, he was never able to catch up to a plus-fastball and looked done.
Sorry Randy. However, I ask Brian Cashman the following question:
“What the hell did you see that led you to believe you could spend $1.2 million on him?”
Just needed something to get angry about.
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