Jun 21
Man, is that Josh Johnson, a beast, or what?
Well, yeah, he’s no Brandon Weeden, but, he’s a beast, nonetheless.
Yanks have now lost 7 of their last 11…and it should be 9 of their last 11 (if not for Willy Aybar and Luis Castillo gifts).
Yes, that’s nine of their last eleven games where New York played bad enough to lose. Can you say “June Swoon”?
9 Responses to “June 20th @ The Marlins”
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June 21st, 2009 at 10:17 am
So Willy Aybar= gift, but Johnny Damon’s play last night doesn’t?
June 21st, 2009 at 10:22 am
Also, I understand that Castillo’s was pretty bad, but if that error had happened in the same spot in the third inning, I doubt you would have called it a gift, you would be counting that game as a regular win. The Yankees put runners on base and created the situation. It was certainly a lucky play, but no more so than any dropped flyball at any point in any game. It just came at a good time.
June 21st, 2009 at 10:24 am
What I thought interesting is that the Yankees collected only 5 hits but still managed to ground into 3 double plays (and it could have been four!). Which leads me to wonder if a team—and particularily, a Yankees team—has ever had a game where it had as many as 5 base hits and at least 5 GIDPs. It must have happened sometime, don’t you think?
June 21st, 2009 at 10:27 am
@ Tresh Fan:
It’s funny, you would think that it would have happened, but I bet it hasn’t. Every year some strange stuff happens, and Jayson Stark tells us that it was the first time in MLB history. Baseball is an awesome game.
June 21st, 2009 at 11:27 am
When Jeter squared to bunt in the 8th inning I was screaming at the TV. One of the most clutch hitters on the team is forced to give up an at bat. And I don’t count his eventual GIDP because the bunts cheated him of a true AB. The game was lost right there.
June 21st, 2009 at 11:36 am
@ ken:
I hate the bunt also (which Jeter almost certainly did on his own, as usual), but if there is ever a good spot to bunt with DJ, that is it- where you need one run late in a game and the bunt will put a runner at third with less than two outs. I dont like it, but it is not the worst move.
June 21st, 2009 at 11:40 am
Tresh Fan wrote:
Yanks have never done that, but other teams have.
A quick search using the Team Batting Game Finder on Baseball-Reference shows the following:
Yanks have had 3 games in the last 55 years in which they got 4 hits, and grounded into 5 DP; 5/8/74 vs the Red Sox in Fenway, 8/28/77 at home vs. the Rangers (and they won a title in 1977), and most recently, 8/18/91 at vs. the White Sox.
The Yanks have had two games in which they had 6 DP, but they 12 hits and 4 BB in the 1st, and 9 hits and 5 BB in the other. Oddly enough, the Yanks won BOTH games.
As for opponents, the Yanks have had 9 games where they held their opponents to 5 hits or less, and turned at least 4 GIDP. In 1964, they 2-hit the Senators (with 5 BB) and turned 4 DP. The big one was just 3 years ago, when Wang shutout the A’s 2-0 on May 12th, holding them to just 4 hits and 3 BB, while still inducing 5 GIDP.
The all-time champ for “GIDP efficiency” was the 1964 Mets who, on May 5 in Milwaukee, grounded into 5 DP on only 4 hits and 2 walks in a 6-0 shutout by Warren Spahn of the Braves. They had no HBP, and the Braves made no errors, so the Mets had a total of 6 baserunners and didn’t score, but only left one runner on base for the game. Two interesting additional facts on that game:
1) The Mets did all of their rally-killing work in the 1st 6 innings; Spahn retired them 1-2-3 in the 7th, 8th, and 9th.
2) The Braves 1st baseman that day, and therefore the only fielder to participate in all 5 GIDP, was a 24-year-old part-time catcher named Joe Torre.
June 21st, 2009 at 2:02 pm
@ Evan3457:
Awesome work, Evan! That’s why you make the big bucks
June 21st, 2009 at 2:30 pm
have to agree with yagotta here. part of baseball is getting gifts, because it evens out when you give gifts like damon last night.