August 16th @ The Mariners
Joba Chamberlain has now made 23 starts this season, including this game, and has gone 5 innings or less in 8 of those contests. For those keeping score at home, that’s 35% of the time. So, basically, a little over a third of the time, Joba’s been “Jaret Wright” like this season. And, I mean the “Jaret Wright” who pitched for the Yankees in 2005 and 2006 – and not the one who pitched for the Indians in 1997.
And, then, in the seventh inning today, this game just got ugly for New York.
Oh, well, at least Derek Jeter set the all-time shortstop hits mark.
Other than the Chamberlain thing, not all that much to fret about here – the Yankees are still 7.5 games up on Boston even with this loss. (Thank you, Texas Rangers.)
Really, at this point, it’s almost just about playing .500 or better for the rest of the season, not having anyone get hurt, and working out some player kinks…like the Joba inconsistency matter. There’s little question that the Yanks are going to finish with 95-100 wins this season…and that should be more than enough to lock down an October berth. Yup, the dress is in the bag.
This seemed like the classic “lose the battle to win the war” game. Matsui out with knee being drained, Cano with the day off, Melky with the day off, Robertson and Rivera unavailable. I think we pretty much did what we could, threw a shit game out and got some guys a days rest.
It’s nice to have a 7.5 game lead in August and have the ability to rest players.
I missed the game. Did the M’s or their fans acknowledge Jeter’s record for hits by a SS?
I believe so. I know the M’s announcers acknowledged it.
@ Raf:
Cool, I’m glad to hear it.