May 21st @ The Mets
Posted by Steve L. on May 21st, 2010 · Comments (9)
Close one. Too close, actually.
Some thoughts:
- Watching Hisanori Takahashi handle the Yankees for six innings…all I could think about was Kei Igawa. Man, how bad is Igawa if Takahashi can cut through the Yankees line-up like he did with slop? Ah, the secret of throwing strikes.
- Great night for Kevin Russo. (I’m a fan of his, in case you don’t know.) Bad job by the YES booth for giving him tardy props on getting his first big league knock.
- Related, that was the Yankees offense this evening – Kevin Russo and bad Mets fielding. Yikes. A really bad showing by the Yankees bats here.
- I thought the Yankees were going to lose the game in the seventh – first when Marte came in and then, again, when Chamberlain came in. Somehow, I thought one of them would blow it. Lucky pitch by Joba getting Wright looking in that frame. (I was a little nervous about Mo in the ninth after the Davis hit. But, not as much as I was in the seventh.)
- Javier Vazquez. Interesting. He allowed three baserunners and zero runs in six innings. That’s really good. But, then he bruised his index finger bunting in the seventh – and Javy is supposed to be the king of sac-bunts, right? You know, when he made his last start, and lost, allowing only two runs in seven innings, a friend of mine told me afterwards “Yeah, he gave up two because the Yankees were shutout. Somehow, I’m sure, if the Yankees had scored two runs in that game then Vazquez would have given up a third run. He’s just a guy with a knack for being good, but, not good enough to win.” Maybe there’s something to that? Maybe with Javy “it’s always sum-din”? Well, at least the x-rays were negative…
- I’ve mentioned this a lot at this blog, but, it’s worth repeating – one of my favorite baseball truisms is: Each season, every big league team is going to win 60 games, no matter what, and, every big league team is going lose 60 games, no matter what – and it’s what they do in the other 42 games that will define their overall record. And, tonight was one of those “other 42 games.” Take the win and be happy about it, Yankees fans. Maybe it was given more than taken, stolen more than earned, and more fortune than cultivation, etc. But, like they tell the kids in preschool: You get what you get and you don’t get upset.
Hopefully the Yankees will make a better showing tomorrow. And, if they don’t, hopefully the Mets will be just as bad as they were today and the Yankees will still get another win.
Not sure what you mean by:
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Lucky that Joba threw a perfect FB on the corner at the knees, or lucky he got the call on a pitch that both the Gameday and Brooks FX K zones showed as a clear strike?
Missed one bullet point: Red Sox and Rays both lost, so Yanks get back one of the games they lost to both this week.
@ Evan3457:
Pitch to Wright was on the black and only the top of the ball hit the bottom of the strike zone. Is that a strike? YES – no question. But, as close as close can be…and the luck is that the ump made the correct call when he easily could have blown it or given the “All-Star” the “home” break and called it a ball.
Brooks FX K zone disagrees (note the location of pitch #6):
http://tinyurl.com/27kee2d
And, in fact, rather than “framing it up”, as a catcher usually does when he can on the low pitch, Cervelli’s glove was moving down as he caught it, making it look lower in the zone than it was when it actually moved through the zone.
All I can say is thank God for Kevin “Mad Dog” Russo. It would have sucked to lose this one 1 – 0.
Evan3457 wrote:
Low outside strike, like I said. And, to the eye, it was placed just as I thought, and the logic still applies: Is that a strike? YES – no question. But, as close as close can be…and the luck is that the ump made the correct call when he easily could have blown it or given the “All-Star” the “home” break and called it a ball.
The YES booth was tardy with the Russo hit, because that idiot Lieter thought Vazquez was up not Russo. He is just awful.
Steve – Do you get great joy out of being so, how shall I call it, negatively fair?
When you get paid, do you say – Close one. Too close, actually….because if I were born in Mumbai, I would be making 75% less? Or when you are pumping gas, if I were in the Netherlands I’d be paying double what I’m paying? Does your analysis go THAT deep with everything you do?
Baseball is a macro sport, for the most part, every game doesn’t give you an answer about the overall pulse of the team or where it’s heading.
I can see your next post now, the Yanks sweep the Mets, they lose two against the Twins, win 2 against the Indians, then you say the following: “Take away the Mets series and the Yanks are only playing .500 ball. If we go a step further, leaving the Mets series out, since play started against the tougher opponents – teams not named the Indians or Mets, but named Tigers, Twins, Red Sox, Rays, and Twins – the Yankees are 5 – 9, that’s .357 baseball. This is the Yankees team Cashman has built.”
Can’t you wait till the end of the season and just say: “If you take away all of the Yankee wins, we’ll see they went 0 – 60, do you REALLY consider this current crop of Yankees a playoff team?”
The thing is, that flies directly in the face of this of your “favorite baseball truisms”.
This has nothing to do with Yankee blinders, it’s like you are only happy when the Yanks are sucking. If they do well, it’s like you lose a bit of your mojo. Your posts do go a bit deeper with the analytics, I love that shit, but there are a fair amount that have a negative spin. Though, I usually do agree with your A-Rod posts and comments – and nothing gets this site more pumped like one of your A-Rod posts.
@ Garcia:
I’ll answer your question with a question: When your car has a flat tire, and you call road-side assistance to come out, do you tell them that your tire is flat, or, do you say that it’s flat, but, only on the bottom part where the road is?