Enough of that saccharine. The Yankees are 5-5 on the season against the Tampa Bay Sunbeams of St. Petersburg, who happen to hold the best record in all of Major League ball. They’ve split the four games played at the Stadium as well as splitting the six at the Trop. Now it’s a two-game series at The Stadium that may serve as the “whether” gauge regarding the Yankees’ post-season aspirations, but I think it is still a bit early to call this anything like a “clinching moment”. However, two frames against the AL East leaders before a quick scoot through Pittsburgh for the make-up against the Pirates and a set against the Jays before the ASG could paint a pretty clear picture if the Yankee bats choose not to show: the Yankees could find themselves in a very deep pit prior to the break.
In case you haven’t heard, Scott Kazmir is still rilly rilly good even though he started the season on the DL, and the Yankees couldn’t muster much of a threat against the lefty when they faced him in mid-May. It’s a battle of southpaws as Andy Pettitte mans the mound for the Yankees. Both pitchers are coming off shaky outings against the Red Sox.
The incredibly anemic-looking Yankee lineup follows, comment away.
Lineups from PA
Rays
Iwamura 2B
Crawford LF
Upton CF
Pena 1B
Longoria 3B
Navarro C
Aybar DH
Gomez RF
Zobrist SS
Kazmir LHP
Yankees
Cabrera CF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Posada DH
Betemit 1B
Cano 2B
Molina C
Gardner LF
Pettitte LHP
ugh, I hate it when they face a lefty.
O.o cubs acquire rich harden and chad gaudin from A’s
A’s get:
P Sean Gallagher
OF Matt Murton, IF Eric Patterson
C Josh Donaldson
Cubs get:
P Rich Harden
P Chad Gaudin
interesting …
odd. I guess I’m not impressed by the A’s haul at first glance, but I don’t know much about Donaldson.
But looking at it, you have to wonder if the A’s just bailed on Harden fearing injury soon.
Kazmir is going to no-hit us…watch. 5 k’s through 2 innings. I can’t wait for next year.
as an honorary yf for the next couple of days…let’s get some runs here boys. 2nd and 3rd with no one out.
Rod. Punch yourself, man.
just did….now back to what i was doing before that…”yankee baseball”….”yankee baseball”
El captain picks up Gardner and Melky to drive in 2 runs, yanks up 2-0
Captain Money…just when it seemed Kazmir was going to K his way through 2nd and 3rd with no one out. Now Jeteer on 2nd with 2 outs and 2 RBIs. Love it.
SF Rod: welcome to the dark side. I am your father. You will never go back…
50+ pitches for Kazmir. EXACTLY what the Yanks need to do so far.
Jeter gunned out at home double-d*%n. Rays are a strong defensive club for sure.
cano lucky to still have a face after that. longoria doesn’t ever hit a ball soft. nice play by wilson.
My reverse psychology worked on the Yankee bats.
The kid gets on. Again. Yanks being a giant pain in the a*% to kazmir. Bunting isn’t the end all and be all, but Gardner sure can lay them down well. If Melky can get one down here we’ll have 2nd and 3rd with on out…
Jeter DPs. Man. That is – I think – 13 for him this year, leading the team. Then again, he did get us our two runs tonight. Still, DPs are so depressing.
Jeter’s play this season has been depressing.
Check that…the whole teams been depressing.
It’s up to Pettitte now.
Agreed Krueg. I don’t want to jinx Pettitte so am saying nothing about his performance tonight.
Another 1-2-3 inning. nice. sure could use another run or two. If we can hold these guys down and the Twins can keep their lead, this will be a great night for the Yankees and will make 3 great wins in a row. But we’ve still got plenty of ball to play…
hip hip…
see. i can do this.
Danger zone. Upton on second, one out, Longoria up.
Pettitte comes back from 3-0 to a full count…
and…
Strikes him out. Nice.
Then infield single – so 1st and 3rd with 2 out…Aybar up…
Pettite’s got Aybar in the 0-2 hole. This would be a great great outing for Pettitte if he can get this last Ray…1-2 now…
Jeter makes a great play in the hole to throw out the runner at second and the inning is over. Excellent.
Rich Harden to the Cubs – I’m not sure if it’s in the Sox thread, but putting it here.
Pettitte appears to be going out there for the 8th. Just get us to Mo…if this holds up and Mo saves for Andy, I think it puts then 1 behind the all-time win/save combination of any two players in history – too tired to look up who holds it though and if I am right, but I am pretty sure they came into this game 2 behind the all-time figure. Too early to discuss that though…
Yeah, they got it early in the thread lar but thanks. Interesting that Pettitte is still in. He’s done great but a 2-run lead can go fast and I hate bringing in Farns in anythingother than the start of an inning (and even then…). Of course, Andy gets 1 out already. Love it.
An 8-inning 4-hit shutout by Pettitte. Just great. Nice bounce back from the hairy Boston game he had. Mo-time.
And the Melkman delivers. Avoiding the golden sombrero with a HR. 3-run lead for Mo would be great. More is welcome also…
Ya, seriously. I guess Melky didn’t miss Kaz at all!
I would say, this is, knock on wood, a good game. Kaz has some problem with deep counts already, and the Yanks didn’t help him out. Got to keep grinding..
Jeets singles. Yay.
A side comment – I happen to have Gallagher in one of my leagues (it’s a very deep dynasty league) and now I guess I’ll keep him. That guy Beane isn’t wrong very often.
Abreu doubles and pads the run. Is Mo still coming out?
Manny ties it in the 8th with a 2-run dinger. So much for Mo saving Andy, but I’ll gladly take the insurance.
OK – am overseas and it is way too late to be up listening to a blow-out in the making so I am going to crash. Goodnight all (or Lar…since I think you are “all” here tonight!).
Abreu on second, still with nobody outs. I would love to get greedy and get that run in.
ARod hits it to the shortstop, keeping Abreu at 1st though.
Posada hit to set up the double play..
The Sox comes all the way back, I only spotted this on GameDay, but Paps got to be up next. Ah, the Twins’ bridge to Nathan did not do it today. 4 runs in the 8th, and it’s still going.
Betemit flies out, so man on second nobody out, and they might not score it.
Might complain about this more (as if that’s possible, it seems like it’s all YFs talk about recently) but we’re up 4.. so we’ll see.
Boston finally ends the inning. A well pitched game by Blackburn wasted, unless the bottom of the Twins can scrap together somehow..
Let’s see if Cano can stay hot and drive in another..
Cano drives in Abreu on a great at bat and pads it just a little more.