In the absence of a gamer I thought a recap would be in order given that the Yankees actually snapped their horrific 6-game losing streak tonight.
How did it happen? Well, their starter only gave up 1 run in 5.1 innings and their offense actually scored more runs than men left on base — only the third time in their last 14 games that they scored at least as many as they stranded. Incidentally, in those 14 games they've gone 4-10, including 2-9 in the games in which their LOB > R. Maybe there is something to that whole drive-them-in thing after all.
Last night the offensive production came from the most unlikely of sources: A-Rod smacked a game-tying homerun followed by a go-ahead homerun, Posada went 2 for 3, and Jeter hit an RBI single. Not bad for a bunch of has-beens. Though since RBIs are a poor judge of anything and homeruns are a team-character-flaw, the Yankees will just have to get out of their rocking chairs and try again tomorrow.
On the bright side: Detroit's game was rained out so no matter what Michael Saunders does with the rest of his ABs in Seattle (he's 1-for-2 at the time of this post), Jorge Posada (BA .179) will no longer own the worst BA among players with at least 100 PA. That honor – unless Saunders flails in his next ABs – goes to Magglio Ordonez and his .172 average. I knew that guy was done. He's 37 after all!!
17 replies on “A Good Day at the Retirement Home”
awesome f-ing post IH…looks like the old sharts can do more than just soil their britches after all…hahaha…my personal favorites: “…Maybe there is something to that whole drive-them-in thing after all….” and “…Though since RBIs are a poor judge of anything and homeruns are a team-character-flaw, the Yankees will just have to get out of their rocking chairs and try again tomorrow….” “…Posada went 2 for 3…”…guess he’s still pissed… like theo says, as long as we “score tons of runs” it’s all good…rbi’s and crap like that don’t matter…
Jason Varitek had two hits on Monday night. It must be the weather.
Well, poor Michael Saunders went 0-for-1 after this post went up, so his .171 BA keeps Magglio (.172) out of the cellar, for now.
Jorge is a heady 3rd from the bottom – tied with Reid Brignac at .179…hope he doesn’t get the bends from rising up this chart too fast…breathe Jorge, breathe…
Actually, the list of players with sub-.210 BAs right now is pretty staggering: Magglio, Jorge, Hanley Ramirez, Vernon Wells, Adam Dunn, Carl Crawford, Dan Uggla, Alex Rios, Miguel Tejada…maybe it’s like this every year. I don’t check the list of basement dwellers that often. And it is still relatively early in the season I guess. But I was just struck revisiting this list this morning to see that many good to great players lumped together.
Winning feels good. Losing feels bad.
Solid pitching. Check.
Solid hitting. Check.
Timely hitting. Check.
All keys I brought up yesterday that they were lacking and the reason why they were losing. In addition to bringing up a younger player (Dickerson) to infuse some energy. He had some really good at bats last night. I didn’t reinvent the wheel, I get it. It’s a pretty simple formula. I am just glad for one day we can stop talking about how “old” they are. When they bring up Banuelos, Betances, Hughes comes back, etc…and we lose Garcia and Colon we can then talk about how old the Sox are as they will be the oldest team on the block at that point and we all know how well the oldest team plays ;)
Small Sample Size: Check.
;-)
I am a winning addict SF, I will take winning in any dose small or otherwise. Haha! But you make a very valid point for sure.
This is the same site where some significane was drawn from a single swing of Jarrod Saltalamacchia during the depths of the Sox season-doldrums, right?
What, IH? You mean the post where I said that I saw why people could be seduced by him as a player based on the elegance of his swing? I think you misunderstood that post about Salty, entirely.
Just to be open, here is what I wrote:
“Another thought from last night: one can see why scouts and other baseball people are enamored with Jarrod Saltalamacchia. His swing is natural, elegant, a thing of some beauty. Last night he ripped an opposite field double deep to the monster, and that hit was pure seduction. That double could be a case of blind squirrels, nuts, and all that. He may have a swing with no adaptability. He may have a terrible eye and limited pitch recognition. He may simply make far too little contact to be effective at the major league level, in the long term. But watching that hit you realize why people might get fooled: he looked, for a brief moment, like a pure, world-class hitter.”
I don’t think that asserts anything about the significance of that swing, other than it was so nice people might be fooled by it. Quite the opposite of what your comment above implies I might have meant.
Yes SF, if the point of that comment was that there was nothing hopeful in Salty’s swing – and in fact, on the contrary, it was dangerously seductive and so one should not be fooled by it – then I did indeed misunderstand it.
As for this post, no one is arguing the SSS point. It’s obvious.
The post was a tongue-in-cheek reaction to the discussion yesterday with some good-natured digs included. All the players who produced last night could go 0-fer tonight or 10-for-16 with 8 RBIs. It won’t change my view that what the Yankees have been lacking (starting pitching talent first and foremost, competent defense, timely hitting) or that age has anything to do with why they haven’t been getting it. That’s all.
Yes, that was exactly my point.
And I did wink after the SSS line, so I understood the levity of the entire post. No harm on any front I think.
Or, rather it wasn’t that nobody should be fooled by it, but rather I understood WHY people are fooled by it. The fact is he hasn’t been good, but he has a good, actually beautiful swing. But that’s all, it doesn’t really mean anything if there are no results.
Anyhow, back to the ancient, Depends-wearing Yankees and the subject of the post.
> Depends-wearing Yankees
Arg.
I hate it when I can’t fault an opponent’s argument.
“back to the ancient, Depends-wearing Yankees and the subject of the post”
That’s the spirit :)
Indeed, on that score – and only that score – I believe there may indeed be real parallels between them and Jason Varitek.
Speaking of which, I caught my first site of Tim Wakefield during a game about a week ago. Is it just me or has he put on a lot of weight? Seriously? It was one of the first things I saw on the new TV we bought (to replace the lightning-destroyed one) so I literally wasn’t sure if it was a distorted image from a different aspect-ratio screen. But if not, he looked very much like he has one foot in the fishing boat already…
But if not, he looked very much like he has one foot in the fishing boat already…
That’s being generous. I was thinking that he has one foot in something else.
every game is a small sample size… ;)
“…I was thinking that he has one foot in something else….”
um, he’s your #4 starter…welcome to colon-land