Hey! The rivals are at it tonight! This year’s series kicks off with Glass Carl Pavano throwing against Tim Wakefield. You can watch live on MLB.com, or, if you’re like us—cheap—wait until 11 o’clock for the game to start on YES, because that beknighted network is pre-empting the game in order to show the Nets. Like anybody in New York gives a crap about the Nets. GRRRRRRRR! Anyway, feel free to comment here whenever you please.
Category: Yanks Gamers/Postmortems
Pitching lines from Sunday’s games:
Hughes: 1.1 ip, 3 er, 4 h, 3 bb, 0 k
Dice-K: 4 ip, 3 er, 6 h, 2 hr, 1 e
There will be better days for both.
It’s a pretty day, the clocks are ahead, and the ballgame is on the tube. Grab, a cold one, sit back, and enjoy a taste of things to come. Wang, Rivera, Hughes, and Proctor are scheduled to pitch for the Yanks. Bronson Sardinha, who appears to be a new favorite of the powers-that-be—and why not? He’s been terrific thus far, and closed 06 strong in Triple-A—gets a shot in the three hole. Josh Barfield will lead off for the Tribe. His cannon-armed papa should be familiar to Bomber fans. Rest of the lineups after the jump.
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And So It Ends
The Yankee Quest For Perfection In 2007™ is over. Sigh. The 6-5 loss came against Cleveland. Chien-Ming Wang gave up a couple of runs. (We’re not worried.) Ross Ohlendorf took the L, though he K’ed 3 and was victimized by an error. Phi Hughes pitched 2 scoreless. Kevin Reese and Josh Phelps, both hoping for a job, homered in the effort. ‘Nuff said.
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Mini-Melky!
In the batters box, Bronson Sardinha looks a lot like Melky Cabrera: hunched at the shoulders, front foot out in the bucket, patient enough to work the count to his favor. It would also seem he has Leche’s flair for the dramatic, or at least he did this afternoon, when, with the Yanks down a run and a man on base, he ripped a walk-off, two-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to keep the Yankee ST record perfect at 5-0. It was a line shot over the rightfield fence, and the victim was former Yank Felix Heredia, now trying out for a spot on the Tigers. Said Torre of Sardinia, after the game: “He’s a good hitter this kid.” The bad news: Kei Igawa was roughed up for 2 hits and 3 walks in one inning. “He looked like he rushed himself a bit,” said the Skipper. “He didn’t look like he was finishing his pitches up….First time out, I think he was a little over anxious.” Mariano faced three batters and shut them down in order. Expect stories in all the papers tomorrow about new Tiger Gary Sheffield, who came in early to talk with reporters, and said nice things about A-Rod—”Alex is going to have the best year he’s had since he’s been here”—about his time in NY, and about the Bronx faithful: “I had a great experience. You can’t erase the great years I had. I feel proud of what I did here. I did what I was supposed to do on the baseball field. That’s what they asked me to do, perform, and that’s what I did….I know a lot of New Yorkers love me. Hopefully that never changes.” Aw, shucks, Gary. You had us at Good Bye.
The Yanks look for what revenge they can find in an ST game against the Tigers this afternoon (they’ll face Verlander and top prospect Andrew Miller). Igawa on the hill for the Yanks in his debut against an MLB opponent. The Sox face the Dodgers. Comment here on all the action. Don’t forge to enter our little brainteaser competition.
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LL Cool JD
The Yanks roughed up the Twins to open the ST schedule today, 6-1. Wang looked like Wang. Everyone—seriously, everyone—hit. Damon and Giambi homered. Matsui and Melky made excellent defensive plays. Princeton’s own Ross Ohlendorf impressed Joe. The only weak link was Phil of the Future. Uberprospect Hughes had control problems—he walked 2, hit 1, and gave up a double in 1 and a third innings—and blamed the troubles on “overstriding” and suggested that, in a longer outing (he only went 33 pitches) he would have corrected. Anyway, no reason to panic. Also, in response to comments on his slick new physique, Damon told reporters: “you have to have your sexiness at all times.” We couldn’t agree more. Quotes courtesy PA.
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Grapefruit!
The Yankee exhibition season begins today at 1:15 against the Twins. Chieng-Ming Wang is slated to kick things off with 2 innings, followed by Hughes, Ohlendorf, Vizcaino, and Myers. Tune into MLB.com for a first look at the 2007 Bombers. Feel free to comment here.
UPDATE: The YES network is covering the game beginning at 1:00, and replaying it at 7:00.