My jinx is gone or poor little dirty orange birds

~~ New York Yankees 7, Baltimore Orioles 3 ~~

Sunday, 9 April 2017

For quite awhile I have not been turning on a game to watch if it had already started. I’m not superstitious about baseball. Not at all. 

It started with the Os, Em sent me a text saying the Yankees were winning so I turned on the game. Almost immediately the pitcher, (I think it was Hughes) gave up about 5 runs and the Yankees. And I was wearing orange socks. Fast forward to this season when Em sent me a text “Ur pretty!” I was confused, it’s not like her to tell me I’m pretty. It was cleared up with a following text, she was talking about “My Pretty” who had just scored the go ahead run against (once again), the Os. I took a chance and turned on the game, the first thing I see is a player tripping over the grass and bobbling a play. It was Chris Davis I think, and the Yankees took advantage and won the game, handing Baltimore their first loss and coming home with a 2-4 record.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

Double header

Monday originally was a day off for the Yankees. The weather had other ideas and rained out two games in April, therefore on Monday the Yankees played a double-header to make up the games. It was a single admission double header which means the fans in Cleveland got to see two games for the price of one.

First game

~~ Indians 1, Yankees 0 ~~

Second game

~~ Yankees 7, Indians 0 ~~

It’s not unusual for teams to split a double header. What I’m going to talk about is the pitching. David Phelps came up to the big leagues April 2012 as a reliever, as the season wore on he showed he had durability, lasting 4 or 5 innings in long relief and made a few starts. This year, in April he was also pitching in relief until our pitchers started dropping like flies. Then he was put in the rotation, he had a rocky first start, his start on this Monday was not rocky at all. The only run was a home run and if the Yankees HAD GOTTEN THEIR STUFF TOGETHER and actually scored some runs, he would have gotten the win since the bullpen didn’t give up any runs either. Phelps line: 6.2IP, 4H, 1R, 5BB, 7SO, 4.33ERA

March 20 the Yankees played the Red Sox in Spring Training. I looked at the line-up and said, “Who the hell is Vidal Nuno?” He pitched 5 scoreless innings that game. But I didn’t really expect to see him in the regular season. Absolutely he would not be starting any REAL games. So far he’s pitched 8 scoreless innings in the regular season. Monday he was the starting pitcher in the second game, a game that counts. Now I know who Vidal Nuno is. Nuno’s line: 5.0IP, 3H, 0R, 3BB, 3SO, 0.00ERA.

Adam Warren came into finish the game, his line: 4.0IP, 2H, 0R, 4SO, 1.45ERA. Nuno got his first big league win, and Warren got his first save of the season.

Between the two games the Indians gave Mariano Rivera a framed gold record of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”.

~~ Yankees 4, Mariners 3 ~~

Today’s game I really thought the Mariners were going to win, they were ahead the whole game and Felix was pitching and he usually shuts down the bats. Which he did today until he left the game after 6 innings. CC also left after 6 but the Yankee bullpen is better than the Mariners. Also our pitchers know to NOT stand in front of first base when there is a base runner so your infield can get him out properly. In another example of a groan worthy headline, Robinson Cano tied the game and the MLB headline reads: “After aces exit, Yanks Rob a win.”

In other baseball news: Shane Victorino now knows where the visitors bullpen wall at Fenway is, and Bryce Harper knows where the right-field wall at Dodger stadium is. Guys, the outfield does not go on forever, the wall is hard and you may be super ball players but you are not superheroes.

And one last thing before I go, Yankees still in first place.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

Game 39
Yankees 25-14 (0.641)

Breaking the streak

Yankees have lost two in a row, the last game to the Blue Jays, Nova was pitching and the score was 4-8. Then the first game with the Rays, Sabathia was on the mound and the score was 1-5. Phil Hughes gets the ball tonight.

~~ Yankees 4, Rays 3 ~~

Hughes did not give up any home runs tonight. That does not mean I have changed his nick name. He is still a fly ball pitcher, but he managed to keep the balls in the park this time. In fact the only home run in this game was hit off of Mariano Rivera.

Tampa scored first in the first inning, then in the fourth the Yankees tied the game. After a rather rough first inning Phil settled down, he even had a 4 pitch inning. That was pretty sweet. In the third inning, Jennings got caught stealing twice. Robot Umps anyone? The Rays scored again in the 7th making the score 2-1. Which was upsetting, then the Yankees tied it again in the 8th, in the ninth with the bases loaded Ichiro brought in 2 runs. Which was a good thing because that jerk Longorio hit a home run off Mariano. But that was all they got, Yankees win.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

Game 19
Yankees 11-8 (0.579)

My favorite game
Played by my favorite boys
Win or lose my team

Still don’t know why they call him Pronk

C.C. was back on the mound today, gave up two runs in the first inning and immediately everyone lost their minds! Except for me I was doing laundry.

~~ Yankees 4, D-backs 3 ~~

After seeing Sarah off on the train, I planned to come home and do laundry, then watch the game in the evening. Instead I took a nap, I felt really good after, but I still had laundry to do. I come home to the Diamondbacks with a lead. Then in the seventh inning the lead started to unravel, with the bases loaded, their pitcher, Wade Miley, walked Jayson Nix which brought in Ben Francisco. It was either his pitch count or the fact that he walked Nix on 5 pitches that prompted the manager to replace him. The next pitcher had to face Brett Gardner, who brought in the next two runners tying the game at 3.

Then in the bottom of the eighth inning Travis Hafner pitch hit for Francisco and he slammed it over the fence. This prompted the D-Backs announcer to say they got ‘pronked’, and I still don’t know what that means or why he’s called that.

That’s all except for, Kevin Youkilis got hit by pitch, go figure.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

Game 13
Yankees 8-5 (0.615)

Historic plays

After two rained out games, to be played at a date yet to be determined Yankees are playing baseball. This was a mad crazy game. First I was angry and freaking out, then I was freaking out happy, then I was freaking out, and I can’t really describe my emotions.

~~ Yankees 5, Orioles 2 ~~

With score 2-1 Yankees, in the seventh inning the first base umpire called a balk on C.C. This lead to my first freak out, which lead to online outrage which included me posting pictures of Stevie Wonder and stating he was the umpire in the game. This call, which was clearly WRONG, moved Matt Wieters into scoring position. Gameday says: On-field Delay, this was everyone going up to the umpire and telling him, you’re wrong man! C.C. did not move, so how could that be a balk? Now that Wieters was in scoring position, he scored. Now the score was tied and I was pissed.

The next inning with the bases loaded Vernon Wells hits a long fly ball and Adam Jones runs back to catch it, like he always does, he always catches the ball, it wasn’t going over the wall so no runs, except he dropped it Franky, Youkilis and Pronk (don’t ask me where Hafner got that nickname, I didn’t give it to him) score, as I’m yelling at my TV, “YEAH JONES! KARMA IS A BITCH!” No idea why I said that. And that is all she wrote.

Or is it? This is baseball, there is no fat lady but one team has to get 27 outs and the game doesn’t end till then. So in the top of the eighth when Manny Machado hits into a 4-6-5-6-5-3-4 triple play. That doesn’t quite describe it, the description in Gameday doesn’t describe it:

Manny Machado grounds into a triple play, second baseman Robinson Cano to shortstop Jayson Nix to third baseman Kevin Youkilis to first baseman Lyle Overbay to second baseman Robinson Cano. Alexi Casilla out at 3rd. Nick Markakis out at 2nd. Manny Machado out at 2nd.

Even the recap which goes into detail doesn’t truly describe it. It doesn’t catch the “Why” from the fans watching, the “Huh” as Youkilis throws across the diamond to Overbay and it certainly doesn’t convey the wonder and excitement of the moment. There was no mention of me jumping up and down and punching my pillow. Oh and the screaming and laughing. There was a bunch of that. And no this could not happen with any other team because no other team has Robinson Cano. Cano told Nix to throw to third and when Overbay threw to Cano he thought he had screwed up, that there was no way Robbie could catch it. But Robbie is the best second baseman in the MLB, maybe in the history of the game! Ahem. He caught it in time to tag out the runner. The Yankees ran off the field jumping and laughing like little boys.

Mariano comes in to end the game. Shuts the door they say, what door? What do they mean by that? And now this is all she wrote.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

Game 9
Yankees 5-4 (0.556)

Yankees win, Adam Jones learns Karma is a bitch, first base umpire needs a seeing-eye-dog and Mariano is still the G.O.A.T.

— ♦B Foxx ❤⚾❤ (@UES_Bella) April 13, 2013

Some people call him Big Stoppa

And that’s what he did, stopped the Tigers, kept them from scoring. Of course that led me to post on a social network, CC Sabathia > J Verlander. Not saying that Verlander isn’t an ace, just that today, CC was better.

~~ Yankees 7, Tigers 0 ~~

Today I had tickets to a hockey game so I couldn’t watch the baseball game. As I was getting reading to leave for the game, I kept checking twitter and all I saw was, “Sabathia throw strikes.” Yet when I went to MLB at Bat, it was showing 3 runs for the Yankees and 0 runs for the Tigers. From my twitter feed I expected it to be the other way. I really don’t understand people. CC’s line for today was 7IP, 4H, 0R, 0ER, 3BB, 4K, 0HR and his ER is 3.00, he threw 114 pitches 68 were strikes, making 59% of his pitches were strikes. Well now I understand my twitter feed, that’s not a great ball to strike ratio. But if you remember, CC always is a little rough in the spring. Kasey says it looks like the team has growing pains, we have so many new players. Which is what I was thinking.

As I look at the scores of the other games, I see things that make me happy and sad, Toronto lost, that makes me happy but the Red Sox won, that makes me sad. Yes I know one team has to win. Minnesota won, Cleveland won and Oakland won, those things all make me happy. Texas Rangers won, that makes me sad. Seattle and Chicago White Sox, I’m indifferent.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

Game 6
Yankees 2-4 (0.333)</span)

Opening day, the reality

~~ Red Sox 8, Yankees 2 ~~

The reality is I didn’t get tickets. I kept looking, up until yesterday and the lowest they got was $75 and I just couldn’t swing it. So I made plans to meet with a couple friends to eat and drink and watch the game. So we had fun, the place was a sports bar/restaurant on the Westside called “Blondies”, which actually had a pretty good set up for watching games, a divided room, one side a bar with TV’s and the other side tables and chairs, also with TV’s on every wall. The food was pretty good too.

The game was pretty horrible, and I then had to read all the “Yankee fans are terrible! They leave before the end of the game, that never happens anywhere else!” The game and the downpour at the end of the game made me glad I wasn’t there to get cold and soaked. Next game is Wednedsay, I believe in Hiroki.

Game 1
Yankees 0-1

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

ALDS GAME 1

~~ Yankees 7, Orioles 2 ~~

Up until the ninth inning the 9th inning this game was a pitcher’s duel, CC Sabathia pitched 8.2 innings and gave up 2 runs, David Robertson got the final out with 4 pitches. Jason Hammel also gave up two runs but he only pitched 5.2 innings. Considering he had knee surgery, was on the D.L. and hasn’t pitched in a month, that was rather impressive. The game was tied in the top of the 4th and the O’s kept the Yankees to the 2 runs they had already scored. Jim Johnson, the Orioles closer came in for the ninth, his numbers for 2012 are steller, 51 saves out of 54 save opportunities. He didn’t so good this game, Russell Martin hit a home run, then the Yankees started playing, “And you get a hit and you get a hit …. “, Ibanez, Jeter, Ichiro, he strikes out Alex, then Robbie gets a hit. Jim Johnson got one strike out, the Yankees got 4 runs, 5 if you count the unearned one.

Tomorrow, (actually in a few minutes, I tend to travel back in time when I’m blogging about games) Andy Pettitte takes the mound for the Yankees, we are confident, we trust Andy, if you wonder why:

Tonight marks Andy Pettitte’s 43rd #postseason start, which is nearly 5 times as many appearances as entire O’s staff entering ALDS (9).

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) October 8, 2012

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

One of my problems with writing posts

Is deciding on a title, first I was going to use HIROK HIROK HIROK, then I thought, well it was Hiroki and Ichiro, so maybe IT WAS A NIGHT FOR THE JAPS …. but then I thought either of those titles could be considered offensive, and I don’t want to offend anyone, so I didn’t use either. Obviously.

~~ Yankees 4, Red Sox 1 ~~

So what can I say about Kuroda and Ichiro that hasn’t already been said? I was thinking this game would be a win for the Yankees, mainly because Kuroda was pitching. It’s kind of the thing I say about C.C., if he’s pitching you have a better than even chance it’ll be a win. Of course C.C. is on the D.L. along with Andy so we are now relying on Kuroda, Phelps and Garcia. Hughes is rather hit or miss right now, but I have faith, he will come through for us. Nova is also a pitcher that needs seasoning and experience. I also think he will go on to great things for us.

Yankees just need to keep moving forward, keep winning games and go all the way.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

They got the split

It wasn’t pretty, not like an Olympic gymnast’s split, and speaking of gymnastics, (it took me all day to figure out how to get gymnastics into a baseball blog, give me points for effort) I got slammed for posting a gif of McKayla Maroney flubbing up her vault. She was the favorite for Gold, she just had to make her vault, she didn’t, she landed on her butt. And I put it on Google+, so what? What impressed me was she jumped up, took her bow before the crowd and left the mat. No drama, no crying her little eyes out and getting tear stains on her pretty pink leotard. She got up and moved on. She is a champion. Much like the Yankees.

The Yankees were up 9 games in the AL East, then they hit a slump, ‘fell on their butts’ so to speak, they had a 4 game losing streak and saw their lead began to shrink down to 4.5 games. What were they going to do? They got up, dusted themselves off and moved on. The Tigers had an 8 game win streak at home when the Yankees came to town, it stretched to 10 and then the Yankees broke it, Yankees 12, Tigers 8. The Yankees called on their ace, and CC delivered. I watched this game, on and off, went in the bathroom when Dave got in trouble and then, boom he was out of it. When the Tigers got within one run I ran down to get a Perrier, because, “THE YANKEES DON’T WIN ONE RUN GAMES!” In the end, it was a win.

~~ Yankees 4, Tigers 3 ~~

Today I was at work, to be honest I didn’t even know the game was on until I saw a tweet about Stewart throwing the ball quick, (oh he threw out Omar Infante at 2nd, and turned a double play so of course that makes him a better catcher than Russell Martin [I’m practicing my sarcasm]). Kuroda was the starting pitcher and gave up 3 runs in the 5th but since he had such terrific run support, (how am I doing?) he didn’t get the win, Clay Rapada gets the win and the Yankees actually won a game by one run.

It’s wasn’t without its nail-biting moments. When I turned on MLB at bat Game Day on my phone and saw Yankees 4, Tigers 3, OK good then, it’s the ninth and Soriano is pitching and men on the corners and no outs. I got that little strangled feeling in my throat and yes, I closed the app. Waited for the text message the one that says:

V.MLB FINAL
Yankees 4, Tigers 3,
WP: C.Rapada (3,0)
LP: J.Benoit (1,3)
HR: M.Teixeira 21,
A.Avila 7. (AP)

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛