If you shave a tiger, you would see that the stripes go through all the way to the skin, not that I recommend shaving tigers. Detroit showed its stripes last night, waiting until the final out of the ninth to take the lead off of Scott Proctor on a three-run homer by Craig Monroe. New York had no answer in their half of the frame and lost the game. Joe Torre double-dipped Proctor, though to be fair he threw only one pitch in the first game of the double header.
Randy Johnson, who pitched a complete game loss to Seattle last Thursday, takes the mound for New York. I attended that game, and it was the second time I have had the opportunity to Johnson live. It’s amazing how short he makes everybody else look.
Jeremy Bonderman throws for Detroit today and is winless since July 24th, suffering two losses and four no-decisions since his last victory. The battle for a split starts at one o’clock. Line-ups are in the extended (thanks to Peter Abraham). Here’s your place to comment on today’s game.
Tigers
Ivan Rodriguez C .297
Craig Monroe DH .273
Marcus Thames LF .270
Magglio Ordonez RF .288
Carlos Guillen 1B .311
Neifi Perez SS .172
Brandon Inge 3B .248
Curtis Granderson CF .262
Omar Infante 2B .285
Yankees
Johnny Damon DH .297
Derek Jeter SS .339
Bobby Abreu RF .355
Jorge Posada C .271
Alex Rodriguez 3B .275
Robinson Cano 2B .332
Bernie Williams CF .283
Aaron Guiel 1B .233
Melky Cabrera LF .285
Good God, why is Bernie in CF? Again??!?!
Damon singles to lead things off. Hit-and-run single by Jeter advances Damon to third.
C’mon Cano
LOB-fest is off to a roaring start, I see?
Was Arod’s pop up on the first pitch again?
No. It was the second or third.
So is that 8 total LOB in the first inning?
Blech. Such a promising inning… and nada to show for it.
But nobody did anything. Abreu popped it to third base and Bernie struck out at a pitch on the floor. Magglio Ordonez just smashed a solo shot to lead off the 2nd.
Bad Randy.
At least it was a solo shot.
I think that was Cano who K’ed.
Bernie stuck out to end the inning? On gamecenter, it said Cano… which would make far more sense. #6 hitter should be Cano.
Bad Randy rears his ugly head..and boy, is it ugly….
So now Randy gets the next two outs no problem and then Brandon Inge works him until Randy loses control and hits him with a slider in the foot.
Can Randy pitch with a person on base?
Cano. Sorry. Was handling a phone solicitation. My apologies to the entire Classical Guitar community.
We’re about to find out….
OK, why is the man who leads the league in Ks having an 8-pitch AB? Isn’t that illegal or something?
Well, the difference between old Randy and new Randy remains:
Lefty, down 1-2, Granderson (who bats .212 against lefties) fouls 3 off and now works another ball for a 2-2.
Finally Randy gets him on the slider low and outside.
Huzzah. Granderson k’s, albeit after a tough AB.
Now why couldn’t Scotty do that to him last night? *weep*
“OK, why is the man who leads the league in Ks having an 8-pitch AB? Isn’t that illegal or something?”
This same man worked a walk from Proctor last night, and since I watched that plate appearance I can honestly say he worked that walk. Proctor may not be the crown prince of control, but Granderson fouled off several pitches and eyeballed at least one other close one.
Bernie Williams against Bonderman. This seems like a recipe for failure. Of course, Giambi is gimpy so this may be more necessity than choice.
Uggg. Mariano AND Giambi had MRIs.
I don’t like that, though early analysis of Mo’s is neg. for structural damage.
Giambi has a sore wrist. Mo, a sore elbow.
Me? A sore stomach.
Melky prolongs the inning!
single past the short stop.
Yay, Melky! Make him work.
“prolongs”? Hehehe…you make it sound like torture. Which hopefully it will be, for Bonderman.
Damon works a 3-0. Then took strike one, was completely fooled by strike 2, fouls off the next pitch and finally, breaks his bat on a soft blooping line drive to the SS.
Damn. Damon puts a good AB on him but lines out to SS.
Gah…at least Bonderman is up to 40 pitches after 2 IP. Hopefully the Yanks will start doing something with those pitches soon.
The thing that we haven’t seen this series yet is Zumaya. He was held out of yesterday’s games since they used their “losing situation” bullpen.
It isn’t enough to knock Bonderman out on pitches alone, we need runs!
Heh, Walein, who is actually *watching* the game, is probably the better guy to track the game. Gamecenter makes the AB look pretty good (7 pitch AB, ends in lineout). But it wasn’t really that good.
It’s true, I am watching the game…but Dad called, sort of took me away from the game. I missed Rnady’s last at bat. Abreu!!!!! Opposite field stand up double.
I like doubles.
Thames mis-played it because he was obviously not exactly sure where the wall out in left was.
Nice job by Jorge there….grrr.
Uh…Thames used to play FOR the Yanks, he *should* know where the wall is!
A Rod with the monster BLOOP single!!!! Abreu scored.
YM. I think they move the wall back and forth daily. ;)
HOORAY AROD!!!!
Hooray!!!! Arod says “clutch this!” :)
Rodriguez steals second.
A-ROD’S ON FIRE
Sadly Robi is not….
Why was he swinging 3-0 anyway? Meh.
Robi needs a situational hitting lesson. He’s got a little Soriano in him…
Not sure. I’m hoping that in the future, after 3-0, Don Mattingly will come out to the batter’s box and tell Cano to let the 3-0 pitch go.
I have a feeling that Robi was sooo lost in his previous at bat that he was hoping for a guarenteed strike pitch.
Can Randy do it 1-2-3?
Nice!!! Randy throws the high cheese (very high and on the outside of the plate) and gets Guillen to swing away and look foolish for his 4th K in as many innings.
Yes he can!
Walein, was Cano’s FC a baserunning mistake by Arod, or would they have gotten Robi at first anyway?
Williams swings at the first pitch, low/inside/dirt ball. Takes the second pitch, a two seamer on the outer half of the plate, for a double bounce ride to SS and is retired.
Robi would have been out by 10 steps.
It was a routine grounder to the short stop, A Rod just happened into Perez’ radius right when he was going to throw Cano out to first.
Another 2 out hit from Cabrera. I don’t imagine Guiel will be on base this game (he struck out).
Gotcha.
Bottom of the order today = black hole (except for the Melk).
The 0-2 pitch very close on the inside of the plate. Bonderman is pissed…but it wasn’t a strike.
2-out rally! Come on, Captain!
Jeter takes the first pitch low and inside, fastball for a ball.
Same pitch for ball 2. The catcher is now trying to frame things, and pause to make it seem like they’re being squeezed–which they aren’t. Pitching coach comes to the mound to give them warm milk and a massage so that their feelings don’t get too hurt.
3rd pitch, 2 seamer that rises inside on Jeter, he fouls it off an back. 2-1.
No cookies? Can’t do milk without cookies, that’s in the law somewhere.
next pitch tails way inside. 3-1.
Comes back with another inside pitch. But he isn’t getting that call–and he shouldn’t (it’s about 3 inches off the plate). Bases loaded for Bobby A.
1st pitch, High breaking thing that didn’t break much. 1-0.
I predict another ‘bases left loaded’…
Second pitch, breaking that does get the inside of plate. 1-1.
Next pitch, Bobby says HERE IS YOUR ROPE SINGLE!!!! Two runs score–2 Out Rally! Jeter takes third, safe on a slide in!!!
Man…I have a huge man-crush on Abreu.
Yeah!! WTG, Bobby!
….ask me for advice on the stock market!
Abreu roped a two seamer on the inner heart of the palte out to right field. Posada grounds the second pitch to the first baseman, inning over.
Good inning for the Yanks.
Got to make some food. Be back ina few.
Was that hit hard by Arod or was it a bloop?
Well, since it’s a double….probably not a bloop.
Heh, doubles can be bloops (Posada’s game typing “double” in the ’03 ALCS, anyone?).
But I’ll think of it as a line drive until someone who was watching the game on TV says otherwise :)
Can’t seem to post anymore.
The good folks at the Banter say it was a single and a hustle.
The Ghost of Bernie haunts Bonderman! RBI single, 4-1 Yanks!
Guiel GIDP to end the inning.
Infante hits an 0-2 homerun. Jesus!
A man with 2 (now 3) HRs on the year takes RJ deep. Sigh.
Jeter with a great play.
Did anyone else notice that the ESPN announcers were praising Bobby Abreu for his “good judgment” and “great jump” by scoring from second on A-Rod’s bloop single?
No mention at all that with two outs, Abreu was running on contact because if the bloop was caught the inning would have been over. In fact, one of the announcers actually said, “A great jump because the ball fell in. If it had been caught, it would have been a colossal baserunning error.”
Um, no, guys. It wouldn’t have. Do the ESPN announcers even pay attention to the game they’re calling?
Paul, who’s doing the ESPN game today? If it’s anyone other than Miller, the answer is no.
Strike Monroe out.
The same can be said of the YES crew at times. During last night’s game (8th inning), Kay mentioned the Yankee outfield was playing shallow and that the weak (singular) arm was in CF, Damon, with strong arms in LF and RF, Melky & Abreu.
Except Abreu wasn’t playing. Bernie was in RF.
Randy’s only given up 2 hits but both have been solo HRs. That bothers me for some reason…
I have to say YM. For me that’s a fine sign. He throws hard and he gets hit hard when the ball stays up and/or right over the heart of the plate. Everything else has been poorly hit.
Why can’t I put a little dialogue I put together on here? It keeps spam blocking me.
It was Buck Martinez and the guy who’s usually with him. Can’t remember the other guy’s name though…
Randy does seem to be pitching pretty well. He’s certainly throwing strikes, which pleases me.
Melkster pops out. Damon singles to CF. Man, he’s been good. Jeter walks.
11 hits so far off of Bonderman. Wow. Almost all singles, hence only 4 runs. But the way he’s going he won’t last much longer. And hopefully it’ll be more than 4 runs.
Bonderman is out. Walks Jeter, after Damon steals second on a hit and run. I love them stealing on I Rod because it will make him call more and more fastballs (the Ivan Heal I call it).
Now Bobby Abreu will face off against the lefty Walker.
Heh. Jamie Walker relieves Jeremy Bonderman…
There ya go. Damon stole second before the Jeter walk, apparently. Two steals off Pudge. I guess he’s finally slipping.
First pitch, Abreu pops out, Inge made a great catch over5 the camera box in foul territory. Damn.
The knock on I Rod over the years Rob is that he’s sacrificed smart pitches in order to get better pitches to throw out runners. Suppossedly Kenny Rogers or someone had it out with him about 2-3 years ago.
Abreu swinging at the first pitch… how odd is THAT? Oh well. Come on, Jorge!
Walein,
Well, I mean… Kenny Rogers?
74 pitches for RJ coming into the 7th. Ordonez and Guillen coming up. Dangerous hitters. Hopefully he gets through that.
The problem, of course, is no Mo. Proctor probably *should* be off-limits as well, but he’s EDSP, so he’ll probably pitch. Farnsworth is supposedly the closer, right?
I’d like to see (figuratively) Dotel in this game.
Yeah. But I think it was SI and ESPN mags who did do a whole piece about I Rod. It was a debunking of the myth of how good a catcher he was. They were saying his game calling and handling of young pitchers was really bad and that it seemed to be all about him keeping up this mystique of being unable to steal off of.
I’m not saying he isn’t one of the best catchers.
Just saying–I think he’s a good catcher to take chances on.
Excellent. Ordonez and Guillen both fly out to CF. That leaves Neifi Perez.
By the way, NEIFI PEREZ IS HITTING SIXTH?!?!
I’m sure Leyland is a solid manager overall, but WTF?
If Randy can keep this up…I’ll let him go to 115 pitches.
Leyland loves to flip the lineup around on the daily.
He’s into that.
Well, he’s only thrown 82. If he gets through the 8th looking good and still under 100… I’d probably run him back out there.
Leyland doesn’t want to be here anymore. Ihave to say that’s hilarious. They just showed him going crazy on them, then Kate Smith starts singing GodBless America, Leyland takes his hat off, they stop, the moment the song ends, he puts his hat back on and starts going crazy on the Umps again.
Paul O’Neill was talking about how well he hit when Rod was catching, especially if there was a runner on first who could possibly steal. He said Rod was so hung up and getting guys to steal so he could throw them out that he always knew he could look for fastballs in those situations,
A Rod with INSURANCE!!!!!! Awesome shot. Mile high, over theh left field wall.
IT BEGINS.
Thames having issues, loses a pop up down the line, in the sun, and cano takes it to second base with his bad self.
A-ROD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not a good day at the plate for Robbie, but he gets a double anyway. Love it.
By the way. If you haven’t read the article about A Rod in the village voice you should.
I think you can get the link on deadspin…or at the village voice.com
Bernie with a RBI single. 6-2. Maybe we can get one more and let Randy give the bullpen the night off.
Read it. It glosses over some negatives, but overall I agree with it.
Nice. Way to go, Bernie (he’s now Bernie instead of the Ghost of Bernie because Walker was pitching)!!!
JT
Randy’s got some fire in him today.
Gator
The tall guy?
JT
Yeah. He must be pretty angry to be throwing like that.
Gator
Yeah, I kicked that Giraffe in the stomach earlier.
JT
Why’d you do that?
Gator
Thought he was a giraffe.
Guiel does what he does best…Hit into a DP. Cabrera follows that up with a ground out to Nefi.
Good inning for the Yankees though. A Rod finnaly gets a curtain call at a time when it seems like the Yankee fans are going to let up on him (until the post season).
So I wonder ewhat caused the mass change of heart among the Stadium faithful? Did A-Rod become so pitiful that fans felt guilty, fearing they had done it? Did they get tired of booing him? Had they mistaken him for someone else?
In fairness to Guiel, his use is to hit RHP. He was left in to face LHP because the Yanks already have a good lead. Otherwise Wilson would’ve PH.
I admit his struggles got to the point where I felt pity.
I’ve never really liked ARod all that much, honestly, but I have to admit that I respect the way he’s handled the crap he’s taken.
Well, this past slump has been so bad that it isn’t fun anymore, also, the Yankees seem to be in a good place right now (in terms of security), so fans are letting off.
Also, the Sox friendly NY media has taken a break, beating the dead horse, and the backlash to that has begun. The Voice article gives a very interesting background and analysis of it all.
No, I don’t work for the voice. I just really like the article.
RJ through 8 on 92 pitches. CG, baby.
In the article he draws parallels to how viciously unfair the new york fans were to Mantle for his first three seasons–when he had won MVPs, etc…
This, btw, is why I fear Detroit less than any other playoff contender (White Sox, Twins, even Oakland).
I have to tell you Rob. If Detroit gets a lead on us…they have the bext bullpen (minus the closer). Their starting pitching is alot more consistent than our own. I’m still pretty fearful (except the Angels that just seem to have our #)
I’m soooooo happy the Angels look out of it. Sure, it’s *possible* they could catch the As, but highly unlikely.
The Tigers are a good team, don’t get me wrong, but I just like the way the Yanks match up.
Jeter walks. 2-0 on *the eye*
I think you’re right Rob. However, having seen a bit of Rodney and Zumaya out of their bullpen…those guys are so good. Abreu steps out of the box, before the pitch comes in, and Jeter takes 2nd on I Rod easily.
Yet another steal off of Pudge. I LOVE it. 3-1 now.
Walein, that latest Gator conversation is really funny. Do you keep an archive of those?
I don’t. But I should.
Abreu has a ground single taken away by a good play by guillen and good coverage by Miner at first. Shoot!
I need this game to get going now so that I can get something a little more “productive” done today.
So far my list of productivity today 8/31/06:
1) Shaved and showered.
2) Dressed.
3) Took some garbage out.
4) Typed quite a bit on the internets.
Just heard on the radio that Boston is dealing Wells to San Diego. Don’t know the details yet.
Yeah. They’re getting some young third baseman it looks like.
Apparently they’re trying to get a catching prospect (to make up for panicking and giving away Bard).
On to the 9th. Close it out, RJ!
Yeah, that’s the way to start it off, RJ. A four pitch walk, with Thames coming up next.
The ump will not give that outside strike call. But it isn’t a strike Randy!!!! Pitch the ball over…7 straight balls. Finally. 3-1. Let’s go Rnady.
Full count. Cmon, Randy. Rear back and blow this guy away.
fouls off the next 3-2 to Thames.
I’ll take a DP or a k right now.
Breaking pitch fouled up third. Reset the payoff: popped back.
Rnady slowing it down. thames slowing it down. Home run. Fuck!
Ugh. 2 run homer for Thames.
See, now, that’s what I was worried about.
Lucky for us, ARod was “padding his stats” earlier.
Get Farns up.
I’m out. That made me angry.
JT a little slow with the hook. Mo to put it away.
WTF? Mariano?!?!
I guess Mo’s arm isn’t bothering him that much. If he was available, I wonder why he wasn’t in after the first batter?
Have a good one.
I’m so confuzzled. I thought Mo was unavailable due to his elbow.
Well, good… Mo will get this done. I just hope he’s really healthy. We must have him healthy for Oct.
Non-save situation I guess?
By Walein. You should stay and watch Mo. Forget productivity.
Bye rather.
Productivity is a highly subjective statistic.
Ordonez doubles off the wall. What is it with the Tigers and their ninth inning hijinks?
He left b/c he was mad. Don’t go away mad, Walein!
In Mo we trust.
Oh shit. Double.
damn it.
Guillen with a roller to third; out 6-3. Ordonez has to hold.
And Mo gets an out (best hitter in the Tigers lineup, too). Now there is a HUGE dropoff.
ok, guillen grounds out to ARod. one away.
Casey PH for Perez. Ok, not as huge a dropoff now, but still…
Comebacker for two outs. Inge up.
two down.
Casey grounds back to Mo. Ordonez to 3rd, 2 outs.
Casey got all of that 0-1. Lucky he pulled it. It was belt high in.
That 1-2 looked mighty good. about 3 inches in from the overhead shot.
Based on gamecenter’s pitch location thingy (which I doubt is all that reliable), it looks like Mo is leave pitches out over…
Posada grabs the ball in front of the plate, throws to first and ends the game. Randy wins game number 15.
Ballgame. Annoying that it required Mo, but it’s a win. Yay.
As if we didn’t already know it, RJ really is a 90-100 pitch pitcher at this point…
The pitch to Casey was a mistake that he got away with. Other than that, he looked pretty good. I didn’t see the location on the Ordonez double.
hey, 2 of 3 from the tigers – not a bad series.
Nope, solid stuff. Hopefully 2 of 3 from Minny… and so on and so forth.
And 5-2 on the season. I like.
Once again, thank jebus for Mr. Rivera! Guess that elbow was OK after all…..rather not see him in there but oh well,
Also thank jebus for Arod’s “stat padding”!
I hope he continues padding his stats against the Twins. They are the team that I am worried about most in a short series come October.