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Not “How You Play The Game?” Yanks-Sox Gamer VII

Smart people have been telling me that the only thing that really matters is who is playing and winning in November. Whatever, geniuses. For any true Yankee fan, going win-less over each of the games against the Sox is a painful and humiliating thing to which few sufferings can remotely compare.

Well, could be worse. And it probably will be once the Beantown blows up Wang while Wakefield brings it against the Bombers. Lineups follow, comment away…

I realize this gamer is rather Yankee-centric. Sox fans, please accept my apologies and feel free to gleefully chuckle at me wallowing in misery.

NY Yankees
D. Jeter ss .302
J. Damon lf .294
M. Teixeira 1b .284
A. Rodriguez 3b .238
R. Cano 2b .300
J. Posada c .292
H. Matsui dh .246
N. Swisher rf .253
M. Cabrera cf .292
C. Wang 14.46
 
Boston
D. Pedroia 2b .312
J.D. Drew rf .259
K. Youkilis 1b .353
J. Bay lf .278
M. Lowell 3b .296
D. Ortiz dh .198
M. Kotsay cf .300
N. Green ss .279
G. Kottaras c .188
T. Wakefield 4.50

363 replies on “Not “How You Play The Game?” Yanks-Sox Gamer VII”

Apparently, Wang’s wife is due any minute — is anyone else hearing he may not pitch tonight?

Because watching Wake pitch against the Yanks is always highly entertaining (for YFs).

I’m not feeling very confident that we are ever going to beat you guys again at this point…
Wang is just god-awful. You guys might score 20 tonight!

Reverse jinx! Reverse jinx! Accuscore is predicting a Yankees win. The game is all but over.

I don’t care what the Yankee record against voodoo-man is – I hate when they have to face him. If they do get men on base I hope and suspect that Girardi will try to run like crazy on him compared to the sans-Zimmer Torre years of growing roots on whatever base you happen to be standing on.
As for Wang, I have to admit a fairly strong krueg-like queasiness about him facing this test while his recovery-psyche must still be seriously fragile. As much as I enjoy watching Hughes pitch, I hope not to see him any earlier than the the 7th tonight…

I keep remembering that game where Wang 1-hit or 2-hit the Sox at Fenway. Eurgh, watch Wang get going now. All he needs is a start against the Sox.

…in that vein, why is god-OUT-za playing when we would be better served with Gardner and his speed on the bases. that is considering we get any hits of course but still?

This is an excellent point about Gardner. I’ve never understood why teams don’t run wild on Wakefield when they reach.

Non-HD NESN feed or HD ESPN feed? The choices that Extra Innings puts on you.
F9 Jeter.
Damon–Youk to Wakefield.
Teixeira–single off the wall. Pretty predictable 3-1 pitch.

marky mark is awesome. where are the complaints about the green monster not only leading to doubles on fly balls, but also taking away hard hit balls that would normally be doubles??? just sayin…

Thanks for the 2004 ALCS Game 5 13th inning flashback…it still makes me physically ill. Runner planted on the basepads, 3 passed balls…ugh. Just downright painful.

I don’t mind Girardi. Torre would have been starting Berroa and Cash for weeks and Veras would be his Proctor. Girardi is so much better.

Walking ARod to get to Cano? I fully support this decision, since he’s OPS’ing .458 in June.

um…yeah. i don’t really have anything against girardi per se, he just SEEMS to totally suck. :)
this is going to be soooooooo bad…

Exactly. That’s Torre. Then he should have been bunting on Schilling. Just awful. The guy should have lost his job after that series. Instead they gave him an expensive three-year extension and he still trashed the organization on his way out the door.
Putz.

I don’t understand why Drew hasn’t been near the top of the order since, say, the middle of last year.

Wang with his best Burnett impression. Still, I think he’ll manage to throw more 48% strikes tonight.

That’s kind of a confusing sentence by me last post–I think Drew should have been at the top of the order since at least July last year (after Papi came back), and the move was only recently made.

Finds a hole. It works, not a great swing, but it works.
Closer than I would have expected at home.

There we saw Jeter’s no range. He’s cheating up the middle (for a righty I have no idea why) and he doesn’t even make an attempt.
Problem is, the ball was right where a SS should be able to get it.
And Eck repeats exactly what I just wrote.

Sterling: “That’s a good sign though. He got the ground ball. If it hadn’t been in the hole it would have been a double play ball instead of an RBI…When you hit a ground ball you’re not trying to hit the hole – no one is that good. It just happened to find the hole.”

It’s what he said man – I just typed it verbatim. Forget the fact that Wang has something like a 5-1 ball-strike ratio.

Wang pulls it out just in time.
(As the Yankee fortunes decline, I will simply post adolescent double-entendre’s all night long)

One run ain’t nothing when Wakefield is the pitcher, though admittedly Wang didn’t look great that inning.

Jorge!
OK, one more because I cant resist (sorry Rob): Sterling and Waldman just explained how the first inning is really going to help Wang’s confidence because he was able to get out of a jam. Just forget the fact that he got into it in the first place and allowed a run!!!!!!! The Bush administration should have employed these two to justfify the invasion of Iraq. They are ridiculous.
And Matsui rolls into second. Me-likey.

You know, speaking of which, did you know that there was just a study that showed that the pull out method is as effective as condoms in committed couples?
It’s true!
I want to know how they’re going to teach THAT in middle schools across the land.

I heard that too Rob; the swimmers have to be launched pretty far before they can do their thing. Doesn’t help with STD’s though.
Unless you do it in a hottub or something, right?

Well that’s understandable – Nick Green is tough to keep off the baspads…not.

Yeah but that wasn’t the ump’s call, right Krueg? He didn’t do the arm-swoopy thing to indicate that Youk was off the bag, he just called him safe, indicating that he beat the throw.
Not that it really matters I guess. And yeah, “arm-swoopy thing” is the technical term.

Actually the high pitch count is encouraging to me. If he can manage to only give up 1 run per 30 pitches, he’ll turn the ball over the Hughes in the 3rd inning with the Sox leading by 3-1, right? That would be fine with me.

top of the order…no outs. my prediction is coming along nicely. I have the movie Defiance, anyone see it??? Probably going to be throwing that in very soon…

I thought the reason they only pitched Hughes one inning on Monday was to have him ready to toss as many as 3 if necessary for Wang. Is that wrong?
And the merry-go-round continues. Swisher having some night here early on…

Swisher not helping Wang out with that play.. it’s almost like it’s Abreu out there..

The Yankees remind me of the pre-2004 Red Sox whenever they used to play the Yankees. What a juxtaposition this is.

And his control isn’t even there.. all over the place and walking guys, which he was at least good at not doing. Bah.

Wang walks towards the dugout on a sweeping slider that barely missed. Close call.

I do not like this “new” Wang of more K’s and Walks. Give me more groundballs!

COME ON WANG YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF MAGGOT INFESTED DOG SH-T!!!!
…AND DON”T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON YOU MOTHER-F-CKING SORRY SONS OF B-TCHES AT THE PLATE!!!! HAVE SOME F-CKING PRIDE!!! YOU ARE THE F-CKING YANKEES GOD D-AMMIT!!!!
;)

The number left of base so far gives me a sinking feeling. If they decide to give Hughes a few innings, with Wake on the mound, this could easily get ugly.

You just know Hughes is going to come in, pitch 5 perfect innings of relief, and get the win. Then the NY media is going to say “Why the hell did they have Wang starting instead of Hughes?”
One hard hit out there by Damon.

Damon with a pretty weak fly out.
Teixiera with a double, though if Damon was on base he might not have..

“COME ON WANG YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF MAGGOT INFESTED DOG SH-T!!!!
…AND DON”T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON YOU MOTHER-F-CKING SORRY SONS OF B-TCHES AT THE PLATE!!!! HAVE SOME F-CKING PRIDE!!! YOU ARE THE F-CKING YANKEES GOD D-AMMIT!!!!”
Basically that’s what my morning meeting sounds like with my class of 5th graders. They’re confused not so much by the cursing, but the whole Yankee pride thing.

Wow, these guys are really going quickly.. I turned around and ARod flies out..
WTF, Cano just flied out before I could finish saying that. What a way to strand the guy at second..

What are they doing???? Is this a f-cking softball game at the townpark??? Do they even care if they lose???? Did anyone else get that feeling from those last two at bats???
Mrs. krueg is SCREAMING at the TV right now…

You mean there’s someone in this world angrier than Mr. Krueg right now? You married the right woman, dude.

um…why is he still out there. this is seriously getting ridiculous. even the sox don’t seem to care, it’s too easy…
F-CKING DIE WANG!!!! I HATE YOU!!!

Come on Papi, Wang is the slumpbuster tonight and he’s in bed and ready to go.

I envy you your empathetic wife, krueg. Mine just kinda sad-smiles and gives me a non-understanding hug when the Sox hurt my soul.

Hey Sox fans, quick question. I saw a woman with a shirt that said “Some woman loves shoes, and others love SOX” and the Sox was red with the Red Sox font. Has anyone seen this before? I want to get it for my girlfriend but can’t find it anywhere online.

There must be a “hit first pitch” strategy by the Yanks against Wakefield. But like, you should at least make sure you can hit that first or something!
Another hit yield by Wang..
He is throwing mid 90s, so I really don’t know what’s wrong with him, other than that the sinker isn’t sinking. Bah.
Let’s get a Wang double play..
Hughes is now up in the pen.

Also, I just pulled up mlb.com – Wakefield’s knuckleball is at 66? I thought it was higher for some reason.. or is it just this year?

Swisher tries to make up for his other play by diving quite unnecessarily into the stands. Good effort, I guess.

Back in 2003/2004 it was consistently at 68, almost every time. Since then it’s gone down to 60-66, depending on his accuracy that night.
Great effort from Swisher there, goes well into the stands.

That sounds about right there, low-to-high 60s knuckleball, depending, with a 75-76 MPH fastball.

Looks like Wang is done. At least he ended the night on a strike out. Unfortunately, he also gave up 4 runs on 6 hits, and too many fly balls/line drives and not enough grounders..

It’s Hughes time. Second straight day the Yankee starter didn’t make it past the 3rd inning.
Keep it up tomorrow, will ya CC?

Is that too low? Haha, I mean, I can’t hit it, but that sounds like it really should be eaten up for breakfast.. the Yanks do have 5 hits, but leaving too many guys on and not getting timely productive outs..

So Wang can’t get through 3 innings ever and has shown ZERO improvement…
Burnett just sucks…
Joba can’t get through 5…
Pettitte is old and sucks huge monkey balls…
CC is ok. Not great but pretty average, which is good for us…
Our bullpen is horrendous….
What does that add up to??? A horrible pitching staff, again, that will lead to either a first round flop or no postseason at all.
This is horrible.
GO BACK TO TAIWAN AND FEEL SHAME WANG YOU NEO-MAXI-ZOOMED-WEEBIE!!!!

Big spot for Hughes here, without too much pressure, because the Yanks have this one 90% lost. Let’s see his stuff.. like his 95 heater the other day!

Look on the bright side, YF’s: if you average the ERA’s of Hughes and Wang, it’s only about twice as high as Pavano’s right now.

My wife is right next to me watching every Yankee and Sabres game…she is a huge fan. It makes it cool. No nagging or BS!!! She doesn’t care about football though…just wants the Fins to win so I’m not miserable. Although I usually am because all my teams suck.

The #9 hitter giving Hughes trouble. I was going to say Hughes should dominate this guy to set a pace, at least..

He started to straighten up Lar, then changed his mind and stayed leaned over staring in for the pitch. It was only a minor twitch, but clear enough that I caught it before the ump called it.

“GO BACK TO TAIWAN AND FEEL SHAME WANG YOU NEO-MAXI-ZOOMED-WEEBIE!!!!”
You are awesome, Krueg.

Why not play some more musical pitchers Joe, you nimrod. Hell, bring Igawa back up!!! He’s about as good as the rest of these sorry sacks of feces.

I called it two innings ago: Hughes is going to throw 4-5 perfect innings.
Hey, there’s a good question: does a balk count against a perfect game?

mlb.com said Hughes dialed it up to 95. Though it isn’t too good if the #9 hitter fouled off a few of your “good” fastball..
That 75 mph curveball was pretty sick though.

Ath – in a perfect game, there wouldn’t be any runners, then there’ll be no balks.. =) Though it depends on your definition of “perfect”, haha..

Posada, the guy that actually hit it out there, strike out on an outrageously high knuckle/fast (hard to tell)..

Oh, I thought they could still call a balk if there were no runners, it just wouldn’t affect anything.

Ath – I’m pretty sure (though you should double check!) that it’s only a balk if there are runners – it is to prevent fooling the runners..

Seriously Lar? Geez, I bet they show that every time Wake pitches. Even NESN rarely shows 2004 and 2007 footage.

did i tell you guys i used to watch wakefield when he was on the buffalo bisons back in the day??? little did i know at the time that his weak, pathetic, embarrasingly slow knuckle-nuts would come back to destroy my mental state time and time again…I should have knee-capped the bastard when i had the chance…

Matsui does work out a walk.. yay for being on base!
Here’s Swisher, who was caught napping off first, turned an out into a double, and ran into the stands for fun..

From wikipedia: “If no runners are on base and the pitcher commits an otherwise balkable action, there generally is no penalty.”
So does that mean it’s still a balk, but there is just no penalty?

Ath – ya, I’m sick of it right now. Maybe if 2004 didn’t happen (or if we actually won the damn thing in 2003) it would’ve been cooler. Or the fact that we’re down during the game where we lost the last 6.
Something.

so glad god-OUT-za is in the game so he can steal…he can really motor. WAY faster than gardner…nice call joe. i’m really starting to hate you joe. you don’t want that kind of attention jackoff.

Ath – ya, I have no idea then, hahah.. I thought it was the case.. it might be in that umpire/baseball tricks book, but my copy’s at home, so if it’s in there I’ll look it up when I get home.. I thought it was “ignored”, but you’re right – not sure if that still counts.. I just assumed it’s like a wild pitch – if there’s no one on base, you can throw it anywhere and it would be a ball..
Melky drives in Matsui! For a second I thought it would be another double play..

Jeter pops out.. and here’s Damon trying to scratch out another run.. which would be nice and delicious and err.. “swisherlicious?”

Should’ve swung at that 3-0, it was right down the middle..
Though of course, if he failed, krueg wouldn’t have been happy.
That 3-1 pitch was pretty close..

MLB.com calls it a 73 mph knuckle. I’m really not sure.. haha..
But apparently Damon isn’t either..

Nope, Wakefield is going to implode and Hughes has his perfect game still intact.

what a F-CKING HORRIBLE TAG BY CHOKE-ROD!!!! CHRIST, COULD YOU BE MORE OF A F-CKING DRAIN ON MY LIFE YOU OVERPAID, PED USING, CHOKE JOB PIECE OF F-CKING SHIT!!!!! I HATE YOU SO MUCH I CAN’T EVEN STAND IT!!!

I love the Trials and Tribulations of Krueg.
You see that, children watching at home? Drew immediately put his head down and sprinted after hitting that, and he got an extra base because of it. Now he’ll score on a pop fly, or a–
HOMERUN MOTHERF*CKERS

see…p-ew sucks just like the rest of this team. except teixiera. bet he is SO pissed he didn’t sign with the sox. i can’t even imagine if he played for boston. they wouldn’t lose a game. alright, i’m REALLY out now…this team is a pathetic joke.
Yes fenway faithful…the yankees do suck. in fact, suck isn’t even a strong enough word. f-ck them i hope they all get herpes and their little cocks fall off…f-cking losers. (except teixiera)

If it makes you YF’s feel better, Pavano gave up 9 ER against Kansas City, though his ERA still isn’t as high as Hughes.

Wakefield continues to mediocritize his way through. Probably will end up giving up at least one here.

A run scores on a grounder, but then Posada grounds out on one pitch. 7 pitches overall that inning.

Eck: “Hughes not proud of his cheese right now. When someone takes your cheese deep, you don’t like your cheese anymore.”
I love Eck so much.

Okay Wake, this is the inning. We just need you to get through here so we can turn it over to our superhero crime-fighting bullpen to drive us home like a pack of sled dogs. Just this one inning please.

Ummm, is someone warming? Oh yes, Ramsquared is warming. It might have to happen very soon. I can easily see this lead going up in smoke in two batters with Wake behind in the count and a runner already on.

Needs to go after Swisher on 3-2. Can’t afford to walk him…
…got him on a…curve?!

I guess he has already thrown like 4 or 5 of them. I just can’t believe he went to it on 3-2 and threw it right on the inside corner.

And hey, Melky out on one pitch. This is a very unYankee-like lineup tonight, swinging on the first pitch a lot.

Wake gets a ground ball on a fastball, bobbled by Pedroia but no damage.
At 88 pitches so far. I say send him out for the 7th with a one-runner leash.

By the way, on June 18 Jacoby Ellsbury will be making a cameo on Days of our Lives. TiVo set!

Hey look, apparently Damon can hit homeruns outside of YS2.5.
6-4. I do not like this one bit.

Teixeira. What the f*ck.
Boy they’re going nuts now that they don’t have to hit the knuckleball. Teixeira is a triple away from the cycle.

Hey, remember one inning ago when he had the best bullpen in baseball? Those were good times.
At least he K’s Cano. Crazy strikezone tonight.

Just had to pop back in to say we are still going to lose so don’t sweat it…our bullpen is more leaky then a truck stop bathroom maxi pad.

Okajima is the greater Hideki. Inning over. Now what, Saito then Papelbon? Or send Oki out for all of the 8th?

they’re just trying to get us to think they can do it…only to choke and fail in the end per usual. don’t give in to the dark side.

Apparently Papelbon had a stomach virus yesterday, so we’re not sure how healthy he is tonight. Both he and Saito are up in the bullpen; don’t be surprised if he warms up, feels like he doesn’t have it and then Saito comes in for the save.

Yeah, he’s been horrible for everyone Krueg. Though against the Yankees were some of those calls for strike three.
Brett Gardner pinch-running. Crap.

Jeter K’s, and Kottaras takes the opportunity to grab the Captain’s ass. Nice move there.

“choke’s rod is rubbing off on the rest of the team.”
Dude, you’re being extra dirty tonight Krueg!

YES YES YES A THOUSAND TIMES YES!
Okajima with two amazing strikeouts. Now, will Paps come out for the save or will Saito have to do it? Teix-ARod-Cano is scary.

you must be joking…dick cheney is scary. that weird scottish singer lady is scary. scottie pippens head is scary. the yankees sorry-ass lineup is not at all scary to the sox.

I take back what i said before…Ace is pretty sweet too. No matter how many runs he gives up this inning. he has been solid.
that’s right fenway folks…the yankees do indeed suck. like britney spears at a blowjob party.

Wow, I couldn’t tell who it was in the dugout, but the guy behind Jeter was already packing his stuff away. Talk about confidence.
One down.

That was our only chance…choke-rod blows everything in sight and cano is about as clutch as…hmmm, what’s the most un-clutch thing in the world…oh yeah, choke rod.
0-7
misery
pain
darkness
dispair
embarrassement

ARod almost has as many homers as singles. That scares me, even if he’s only hitting .231.
Papelbon struggling to find the strikezone.

Holy crap, Papelbon reaches back and hits 98 on the gun. But he also misses the strike zone by two feet.
Tying run now on base.

Pena stole a base and almost would’ve gotten third if Ped didn’t back him up..
2-2 on Cano..

Yes Jackie: 1.400 entering tonight. That’s .448 HIGHER than last season, though the ERA is down 0.18 points.
Cano completely overmatched.

2nd pitch is a strike right down the middle, though Kottaras was set up outside so it makes it look bad.
2-1 now, Posada crying about it.

He should throw nothing but high and away strikes that this ump has been calling all night to lefties.

Eesh. Those baserunners are going to have to come back and bite him at some point. Hopefully not today…

Why??? Because your team is dominant??? Don’t be. Congrats. Enjoy crushing our sorry, overpaid, pretty-boy, p-ssy team all f-cking season long.

It’s been a pleasure gentlemen. Don’t worry, Sabathia vs Penny tomorrow–you’re bound to win that one.

I’m going to f-cking kill myself. Nice knowing you guys.
Gotta burn the choke-rod jersey just on principle first…then straight to the warm bath. I hate my f-cking life.

before I end it all…the YES network is extolling there “comeback” ability…..THEY F-CKING LOST AGAIN YOU DOUCHEBAGS!!!! HELLO???? 0-7
ok…bath time.

Watching BT for gits and shiggles. “It’s probably not mental for the Yankees, it’s more mental for the Red Sox. They know that what happens… no matter what a Yankee starter does they know they can beat ’em!” — John Kruk
Mentals. The Krukmaker.

funny contradiction… McCarver was lauding the Red Sox pen by way of record at the end of the game, completely ignoring the fact that the pen let the Yanks back in… BT (was it Ravich?) said that the Sox pen almost let the sox down tonight.

So the Red Sox added 27 new players yesterday:
Reymond Fuentes, OF
Alex Wilson, RHP
David Renfroe, SS
Jeremy Hazelbaker, OF
Seth Schwindenhammer, OF
Branden Kline, RHP
John Youginer, RHP
Shannon Wilkerson, OF
Kendal Volz, RHP
Brandon Jacobs, OF
Jason Thompson, SS
Michael Thomas, LHP
Chris McGuiness, 1B
Willie Holmes, OF
Michael Bugary, LHP
Luke Bard, RHP
Kraig Sitton, LHP
Reynolds Parthemore, RHP
Tom Ebert, RHP
Alex Hassan, RHP
Randall Fant, LHP
Jordan Flasher, RHP
Chris Court, RHP
Dan Kemp, SS
Austin House, RHP
Miles Head, 3B
Reed Gragnani, SS
Eric Curtis, RHP
Cody Stubbs, 1B
Jeremiah Bayer, RHP
No catchers, but a dude named Shannon? For shame, Theo. For shame.

If you combined the psyches of David Ortiz and Chien-Ming Wang right now you’d have a sleepless bowl of jelly quivering on the floor in the corner of his bedroom on 24-hour suicide-watch. But at least Ortiz has a long and deep history of clutchness to recall. Notwithstanding his impressive season win-totals, Wang has really blown in several key spots – not least of which in two of the worst Yankee post-season starts ever in the ’07 ALDS (which gave him a glorious 19.00+ ERA for that series) and now in every game he has started this year.
I liked what I saw from Hughes last night notwithstanding the fact that the 2 hits he gave up were huge. But what the hell to do with Wang is a real question. His velocity is back but his command is so gone and Eiland clearly doesn’t know what to do about it since it is apparently there in bullpen sessions and then gone in the games. It would make sense to give Wang one more shot against the Nationals (working his way back in against the line-ups of the Rangers and Sox is – unsurprisingly – not going all that well) and if he shows more of the same, swap the roles that he and Hughes are currently playing.
Losing to the Sox always hurts, but if they lose tonight with their ace on the mound and (arguably) the Sox’ worst starter, to go 2 down in the standings and 0-8 on the season series, it will be especially painful. We really need a big fat in your face CC start.

It seemed like the Sox just sat back and waiting on Wang’s sinker to be thrown up in the zone, and then crushed it. Back when Wang had those two horrible 07 playoff starts a lot of people talked about how in big game situations sinker-ballers tend to overthrow, which makes the ball sink less. Not sure if this is true, just an observation.
And there’s no doubt about it IH: Penny is our worst starter. He’s probably our #7 starter, if you include Buchholz and Smoltz. Though with the way the Yankees have been playing he’ll probably throw a no-hitter tonight, which would win the game, help us trade him, get some good tools in return, and move Buchholz into the rotation. So a good start tonight would kill like four birds with one stone.

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