Lions and antelopes

~~ Rays 5, Yankees 2 ~~

It’s been said, I don’t know who said it, that the antelope runs for its life, while the lion runs merely for his supper. What does this have to do with baseball? The Yankees are AL East champions, they have home field advantage, there is essentially, nothing left to clinch. Right now they are just playing to win games simply to win. The Rays are fighting for a playoff spot, their ‘life’. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. For the Rays tonight, they played hard and won. For the Boston Red Sox, well need I say more?

It’s never a good thing to lose, but its not always a bad thing. If this loss knocks the Red Sox out of the playoffs, in my opinion that makes this loss, not a bad thing.

Cano hit a home run, that’s always a good thing. He probably won’t get 30 home runs this season, but he has 28 and 118 RBI. MVP? I don’t know, I don’t think so.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ Monday, September 26, 2011 😛

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Dear Yankees,

~~ Angels 6, Yankees 0 ~~

When I said I didn’t want to lose another game by one run, this was not what I had in mind! I meant I didn’t want to lose, I didn’t mean I wanted you to throw the game away.

Love, ME

What can I say expect, the bullpen let us down. The bats let us down. All together, not a fun game. And who the heck is George Kontos?

Russell Martin split his thumbnail, and Cervelli had ‘concussion’ symptoms. So who do you think came into catch? The Yankees emergency catcher, Jorge Posada! And Mark was just grinning from ear to ear. He is one classy guy, actually they both are.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ Saturday, September 10, 2011 😛

Rain, Rain, GO AWAY!

~~ Yankees 5, Orioles 3 ~~

There was a four hour rain delay, can you believe it? All the Yankee fans (ok, me and one other, maybe two) are blaming Buck. When you think about it, if the Orioles had agreed to the double-header on that Friday, Yankees would still have a day to play a make-up game and wouldn’t have had to play yesterday. It is what is, can’t change it now. So the delay was longer then the game. I went to bed, couldn’t take it anymore.

Phil Hughes gave up 2 runs in six innings. Not great, not terrible and Logan gave up the other run. The rest of the bull pen kept the Orioles to three runs and Mo picked up save number 39.

Posada, Cervelli and Gardner each hit home runs. That Cervelli is proving all the haters wrong! What a little firebrand.

The rain helped and hindered both teams. In the end, Yankees win.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ Tuesday, September 6, 2011 😛

Record setting rookie

~~ Yankees 8, Orioles 3 ~~

It feels strange to be calling Nova a rookie, since he pitched last season, but that’s what he is, he made his major league debut on May 13, 2010. So he’s been in the big league for over a year, maybe you’re a rookie for two years? I don’t know, but he has now won 7 straight games and the one before was a no-decision and two wins before that.

Baltimore scored runs in the first two innings, but then Granderson hit a 2 run home run in the third to take the lead, only to see the Orioles tie it in the bottom of the third, then the game stayed tied until the 6th inning when Cano, Swisher, and Andruw hit home runs, consecutively. You could have stuck a fork in the Orioles then, but Granderson wasn’t done and hit another home run in the 7th inning.

Then in the 8th Nova let two men get on base. David Robertson was called in and because he really likes to work under pressure, he let another man get on base. So now it was bases loaded, no outs. Finally when and only when the conditions were as Dave likes them he struck out the next three batters. Noesi threw 11 pitches in the 9th to end the game. Nova gets win #14.

On Twitter, someone said Noesi was Nova’s twin, I don’t see it, do you?

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

The Yankees make history, again

~~ Yankees 22, Athletics 9 ~~

The score was 7-2 in favor of Oakland and I was disgusted, leaving work and muttering to myself, saying I wasn’t going to watch the game, wasn’t going to watch the Yankees get swept by the A’s, the Yankees paid me back for being a bad fan. I say I was a bad fan because even when I saw the score was 7-6 I thought, “So they’re going to lose by one run AGAIN!” I turned the game on anyway, so I guess I’m not a terrible fan, to see Russell Martin walking up to the plate with the bases loaded. I got that feeling I get, like the time I was sitting in the stands and Alex walked up to the plate, stuck at home run 599. Or when Teixeira was walked and Alex comes up with bases loaded. Martin hits a grand slam. Second of the game.

I’m not going to say Phil was terrible, or awful, or really really bad. I’ll just say the bullpen and the home runs saved his ass. You can infer what you want from that statement. The bullpen kept the A’s from scoring any more runs until the 8th inning, then it was a “Whee! We have twice as many runs as you!” pitch, because after the home run, Luis Ayala strikes out the next two batters. Then in the ninth the A’s got another run so that was 9 to the Yankees bajillion runs.

But in the bottom of the 9th, the A’s loaded the bases again, for the 37th time (I might be exaggerating), Brett singles bringing in a run (bases are still loaded), Derek Jeter strikes out (bases are still loaded), Curtis Granderson comes up to bat, hits Grand Slam #3 of the day. With one swing he makes history. Then Andruw Jones comes up to hit the last home run of the game.

There will still be people who tell you the Yankees leave a lot of men on base, I will repeat what I have said here before, they leave a lot of men on base because they get a lot of men on base. The A’s walking 13 batters certainly helped, but if the bases hadn’t been loaded up as many times as they were, the Yankees wouldn’t have had the opportunity to hit 3 grand slams.

Another thing that has never been seen before is Jorge Posada playing 2nd base in the big leagues. He got the last ground ball and bulleted it over to Swisher, who caught it and fell over, all the while keeping his foot on the bag.

In summary: Martin hit 2 HR (1 grand slam), Cano hit 1 (grand slam), Granderson hit 1 (grand slam), and Jones hit 1. 14 runs by way of evil home runs.

Granderson is now over 100 RBI.

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

Oakland Athletics at NYY ~ Tuesday, August 23, 2011

~~ Athletics 6, Yankees 5 ~~

It seems like forever since I went to a game, but it’s only been a month. I was sure with Bart pitching and the fact that I was there, we would have a win. It didn’t happen, even with Sarah doing her baseball player whisperer thing. But it was a good game even so, kind of exciting with the late game rally and the almost home run, but Swisher only hits walk off home runs on my birthday, and it wasn’t my birthday. On the subway, a dad said to his little boy, ‘That would have been special if that had been a home run.’ And the little boy agreed and I agree.

So I got to see Bart pitch, and Boone and Hector. Mark Teixeira did a double play all by himself (I’ve seen that before, but its thrilling, I can hear Michael Kay saying, “What a play by Teixeira!”). I got to see Swisher hit a 3 run home run, but no Mariano, and no win either. Here’s hoping next time I go, there is a happier outcome.

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

NYY at Minnesota ~ Saturday, August 20, 2011

~~ Twins 9, Yankees 4 ~~

What can I say about AJ Burnett except words that can’t be printed in a family newspaper, his line tonight was 1.2 innings pitched, 5H, 7R, 3BB, 1SO, to fully illustrate how poorly his night went, he threw 61 pitches in those 1 and 2/3 innings. Laffey pitched 3 innings and threw 50 pitches. Laffey also gave up the other two runs, so he didn’t pitch well, but this was his first time pitching for the Yankees and he’s not one of the Yankees starting pitchers. I’m starting to agree with the people who want to kidnap AJ and send him far away.

You could argue that he gets no run support, and in a sense that is true, but can you imagine how the batters feel when they watch their starting pitcher throwing batting practice? During the game and to the other team? Unfortunately, I think we are stuck with AJ for the time being. There is this little thing called a contract.

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

NYY at Kansas City ~ Wednesday, August 17, 2011

~~ Royals 5, Yankees 4 ~~

Colon pitched 5 innings and gave up 5 runs. Noesi finished the game, holding the Royals to the 5 runs, Curtis and Russell each hit home runs to help the Yankee offense but it wasn’t enough.

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

Tampa Bay Rays at NYY ~ Saturday, August 13, 2011

~~ Yankees 9, Rays 2 ~~

Only two home runs for the Yankees in this game. One by the non-home-run-hitter Granderson (#33) and Jorge Posada. I have a feeling the evil home runs have been replaced by evil grand slams. Jorge got 6 RBI this game. A little rest did the old man good. We were at our annual religious convention so we didn’t see the start of this game, but sitting in the living room with the bases loaded and Jorge up, Kasey and I were both thinking, Jorge could drive some runs in here. HOLY COW!! Alex complained that Kasey and I were screaming like teenage girls. Yes, yes we were.

Phil Hughes held the Rays to 2 runs and Wade and Noesi pitched scoreless innings.

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

Nova belongs in the majors, yes or no? {{YES}}

~~ Yankees 7, White Sox 2 ~~

Of course that is just my opinion, which doesn’t count for much, but he held the White Sox to 1 run over 7.2 innings, Robertson came in for the rest of the inning, I don’t remember why, maybe just for work, Noesi gave up a home run, then just turned around and got the last batter out. This was after Martin padded the Yankees lead with a 3 run home run.

It still remains to be determined what will happen to Nova, of course one wonders why they can’t just ship A.J. out and keep Phil and Nova, but I don’t think that will happen.

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