Sunday, April 7, 2013
Yankees.com: CC restores order as Yanks blank Tigers
DETROIT—CC Sabathia allowed just four hits over seven scoreless innings in a strong performance, leading the Yankees to a 7-0 victory over the Tigers on Sunday at Comerica Park.
Jayson Nix slugged a two-run homer and Francisco Cervelli drove in two runs to support the ace’s effort as the Yankees salvaged the final game of a three-game series in Detroit with the victory, their second in six contests to open the season.
Sabathia is known for a history of slow starts in April and did not appear dominant on Opening Day, sparking concerns about his velocity. But he rebounded with a good showing to best Justin Verlander in an appealing matchup of former Cy Young Award winners.
The Tigers only moved one baserunner as far as second base against Sabathia, who threw 114 pitches while walking three and striking out four.
I feel this team will only go as far as CC and Nix take them. CC didn’t look great, but he looked better than he did in the opener and that’s good enough for me. Also of note was Francisco Cervelli getting two more hits, his ninth and tenth of the season. That gives him exactly 10 more hits than Russell Martin.
The Yankees should have gone around 3-3 over their first six games so 2-4 doesn’t put them too far behind where they ought to be at this moment. But it would be cool if they started winning more than 1/3 of their games.
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Yankees.com: Yankees can’t rally for Hughes, ineffective ‘pen
NEW YORK—The Tigers batted around in a four-run fifth inning and continued piling on with a 17-hit showing against the Yankees’ troubled pitching staff, sending New York to an 8-4 loss on Saturday at Comerica Park.
The Yanks’ fourth loss in five games to open the season saw Phil Hughes knocked out after four-plus innings, having been activated from the disabled list before the game with hopes of helping out the club’s taxed pitching staff.
Hughes held the Tigers to an unearned run until the fifth, when he allowed hits to the first three batters he faced, including Torii Hunter’s RBI double and Miguel Cabrera’s RBI single. He wrapped up scattering eight hits in his 87-pitch outing.
Boone Logan turned in an ineffective relief appearance, allowing two hits and a sacrifice fly. Jhonny Peralta greeted David Phelps—who had been New York’s scheduled starter for Saturday before Hughes was activated—with a run-scoring single.
I’m just happy I can clear 4 hours off my DVR by not bothering to watch this one.
Friday, April 5, 2013
Yankees.com: Youk hits first homer, but Yanks fall in Detroit
DETROIT—The first road game of the season provided both insult and injury for the Yankees, who fell, 8-3, to the Tigers on Friday.
In the fourth inning, shortstop Eduardo Nunez was hit by a pitch in the right arm. He was diagnosed with a bruised right bicep, but precautionary X-Rays were negative.
Ivan Nova got off to a rough start for New York, allowing singles to the first two batters he faced. One run came in on a fielder’s choice, but a strikeout and lineout got Nova out of the frame.
In the second, a leadoff walk came around to score on a two-out single. Nova struck out the side, but he had reached six three-ball counts his first time through the order.
This team stinks home and away.
I was not able to watch this game due to work, but it seems to me this loss can be pinned more on the players not executing than anything else.
I was hoping for a big year from Ivan Nova, but every crappy start is forcing me to admit that maybe it’s just not happening with him. Should David Phelps pitch well tomorrow, it seems the fair thing to do if Phil Hughes is ready to return to the rotation and everyone else is healthy (HAHAHA) is to send Nova down to work on his new mechanics and see if he can either fix his crappy command or start getting more ground balls again.
Win tomorrow or hope you can beat Justin Verlander with a diminished CC Sabathia. Yeah…
The news on Nunez makes his injury seem relatively minor and that’s good, because the Yankees essentially don’t have a third string shortstop on their 40 man roster right now.
I’d say fast forward to 2014, but that team is going to be worse than this one.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Yankees.com: Motown meltdown: Yanks eliminated in ALCS
DETROIT—The Yankees’ ice cold autumn will now give way to an uncertain winter, as their season concluded on Thursday with an 8-1 loss to the Tigers in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series at Comerica Park.
CC Sabathia was rocked for six runs in 3 2/3 innings and the Yankees were held hitless into the sixth inning by Max Scherzer, as Detroit locked up the AL pennant and will advance to the World Series against either the Cardinals or Giants.
New York was swept for the first time in 36 consecutive postseason appearances; the last one came in 1980, when the Royals wiped out the Yankees in a best-of-five ALCS that led to the dismissal of manager Dick Howser.
The positions of manager Joe Girardi and general manager Brian Cashman appear to be secure, but hitting coach Kevin Long will be asked to answer for an anemic offense that hung zeros on the scoreboard in 36 of 39 innings during the ALCS.
It’s hard to win a series when you don’t lead in a single inning in any of the games. Detroit was probably the better team heading into this series, and they sure looked like it.
It was a frustrating end to a frustrating series. It shouldn’t feel like a frustrating season because of that, although I’m sure we’ll be treated to some crap from Randy Levine about how the season was a failure.
We’ll have months to think about where they go from here. The Yankees have some decisions to make on some players, and some players have decisions to make on whether or not they want to return. I’m sure we won’t see Nick Swisher in pinstripes again. I was certain we’d see Curtis Granderson back with his option picked up next year but I’m now thinking there’s a chance we won’t. The whole Alex Rodriguez situation will dictate a lot of what the team decides to do. I’m guessing Rafael Soriano will opt out, but that’s less of a concern than getting the offense shored up and stabilizing the rotation based on what happens with Hiroki Kuroda and Andy Pettitte.
Anyway, we have months to think about that.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Yankees.com: Tigers 2, Yankees 1
DETROIT—Five days after Justin Verlander diverted the destiny of the upstart Oakland A’s, he all but sealed the fate of the top-seeded New York Yankees, one game away from an American League Championship Series sweep. In both cases, he didn’t give the hitters much of a chance.
With Tuesday’s 2-1 win over the Yankees in Game 3 of the ALCS, Verlander tossed eight shutout innings before finally giving the Yankees a breath with Eduardo Nunez’s homer leading off the ninth. The Tigers’ rotation had 37 2/3 innings without an earned run since Seth Smith’s home run off Anibal Sanchez in Game 3 of the AL Division Series in Oakland a week ago.
This series may not end tomorrow night, but for all intents and purposes it’s over. This team couldn’t win four straight games against Houston.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Yankees.com: Kuroda fans 11, but offense held in check
NEW YORK—Hiroki Kuroda came back on short rest for the first time in his career and found the energy to provide an 11-strikeout effort, but it was the Yankees’ hitters who once again appeared fatigued in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series.
Anibal Sanchez limited New York to just three hits over seven scoreless innings, taking advantage of widespread brownouts through the Yankees’ batting order as the Tigers posted a 3-0 victory on Sunday, claiming a 2-0 lead in the series.
With the ALCS moving on to Detroit, the Yankees are now challenged to win at least twice at Comerica Park to ensure that Sunday’s nine innings did not comprise the final game played this year at Yankee Stadium.
You couldn’t have asked for more from Kuroda than the Yankees got. He was perfect through five innings and pitched into the eighth despite being on short rest, but as soon as the Tigers scored you got the sense the game was over. The Yankee offense was abysmal today, not even going through the charade of threatening but not scoring.
And now they head to Detroit to face the best pitcher in baseball and hope for a miracle if they don’t want to be down 3-0 in this series by Tuesday night.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Spiders.com: Back-to-back blasts lift Yanks to split in Motown
DETROIT—Mark Teixeira and Eric Chavez hit back-to-back home runs on consecutive eighth-inning pitches from Joaquin Benoit, lifting the Yankees to a 4-3 victory over the Tigers on Thursday at Comerica Park.
Teixeira tied the game with his 21st home run, a blast to right field, and the red-hot Chavez instantly gave the Yankees the lead with an opposite-field shot into the Detroit bullpen, his 12th.
I really thought Eric Chavez’s days of being useful were pretty much over. I’m happy to have been so wrong about him.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Yankees.com: Yankees’ loud ninth can’t erase poor start
Nobody would accuse the Yankees of not playing all 27 outs, but this outburst was just a tease. The Yankees ended one hit short; Valverde induced Curtis Granderson to pop up for the final out, securing a 6-5 Tigers victory on Tuesday at Comerica Park.
The losses are becoming tougher to swallow for the American League East-leading Yankees, who have now dropped 12 of their last 18 games, whittling what was once a double-digit division lead down to 4 1/2 games—New York’s thinnest margin since June 29.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
NY Times: Verlander Dominates the Yankees While Nova Proves Ineffective Again
Justin Verlander, the reigning Cy Young Award winner and most valuable player in the American League, outshined Nova in every way at Comerica Park, even on a night when he was not necessarily at his best. But he was awfully good.
Verlander matched his career high by striking out 14 in eight impressive innings, and he allowed only two unearned runs and eight hits as the Detroit Tigers beat the Yankees, 7-2. Verlander threw a season-high 132 pitches, and he looked in command right down to the final out, a nasty curveball that made Ichiro Suzuki look abnormally awkward.
Are the Yankees on the verge of collapse?
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Yankees.com: Hughes goes distance to upstage Verlander
DETROIT—Phil Hughes went the distance in his best outing of the season and the Yankees beat Justin Verlander for the second time this year, earning a 5-1 win over the Tigers on Sunday to take two of three at Comerica Park.
Hughes was the better of the two right-handers, who were each coming off discouraging starts. Verlander has lost three consecutive starts for the first time since 2008, while Hughes returned from allowing a career-high 11 hits in his last start to scatter just four against the Tigers.
He struck out eight and walked three.
Hughes was very good today. Prior to today his longest career outing was eight innings, which he accomplished twice. He did have a complete game last year, but it was six innings in a rain-shortened game. A start like this should probably help us put his last bad outing in perspective as a bad start rather than the return of the Phil Hughes who can’t pitch as a starter.
I’m relatively happy with a 6-3 road trip when I pretend that it shouldn’t have been an 8-1 road trip. So I’m going to pretend that it shouldn’t have been an 8-1 road trip.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Yankees.com: CC sharp as Yankees take series from Tigers
NEW YORK—CC Sabathia turned in his sharpest outing of the young season, Curtis Granderson homered and drove in a pair of runs and the Yankees defeated the Tigers, 6-2, on Sunday at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees scraped together just enough from their numerous opportunities to score against Tigers starter Max Scherzer, posting a victory even after stranding an eye-popping 15 men on base.
Hoping for a deep outing to assist a taxed bullpen, the Yankees got what they needed from Sabathia, as the ace left-hander pitched eight innings and limited the Tigers to two runs as he charged to his third consecutive victory.
I guess we can stop worrying about CC for now.
Nick Swisher left the game with a low-grade hamstring strain, which may not necessarily require a DL stint, but will probably keep him out of action for a few games. I guess this means more Raul Ibanez follies in the OF.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Yankees.com: Garcia ousted early as rallying Yanks fall
NEW YORK—Freddy Garcia is long removed from blowing fastballs by hitters, but he found a second life as a soft-tosser who hit the corners exceptionally. Those days, too, seem to be fading further and further into the rear-view mirror.
Loud boos showered the veteran as he was sent to a second-inning exit on Saturday, and Garcia may have pitched himself out of New York’s rotation with his latest clunker, hit hard for six runs as the Tigers defeated the Yankees, 7-5, at Yankee Stadium.
We can now complete SG’s trend line for Freddy:
April 10: 4.2 IP, 4 R
April 16: 5.2 IP, 5 R
April 21: 1.2 IP, 5 R
April 28: 1.2 IP, 6 R
Friday, April 27, 2012
Yankees.com: Yanks use passed ball to walk off vs. Tigers
NEW YORK—Derek Jeter raced home to score the winning run on a passed ball in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Yankees defeated the Tigers, 7-6, on Friday at Yankee Stadium.
Brayan Villarreal recorded the first out of the ninth inning, but Jeter walked and moved to third base on a wild pitch as Curtis Granderson walked.
The last pitch skipped away from catcher Alex Avila and rolled to the backstop as Alex Rodriguez waved home Jeter, who slid home and called himself safe as Villarreal couldn’t catch the throw to the plate.
The play of the game, of course, was this defensive gem. The hat flying off as he slides/falls-flat-on-his-face is what makes it for me.
Hurry back, Brett.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Yankees.com: With no late magic, Yanks’ season ends
NEW YORK—From the first morning the Yankees unzip their bags and begin preparing for the regular season, there is one common goal they can all agree upon. For the second time in as many years, they have fallen short of it.
The Yankees’ dreams of a 28th World Series championship were packed into winter hibernation on Thursday, as the Tigers defeated New York, 3-2, in Game 5 of the American League Division Series.
Detroit became the first visiting club to celebrate clinching a postseason series on the field at the new Yankee Stadium, moving on to face the Texas Rangers in the AL Championship Series opening on Saturday.
Congratulations to the Tigers. Have fun getting swept by the Rangers.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Yankees.com: With plenty of help, Burnett forces Game 5
DETROIT—The American League Division Series is going to be decided in New York. A.J. Burnett and the Yankees staved off elimination with a 10-1 victory over the Tigers in Game 4 on Tuesday at Comerica Park.
Originally slated to be in New York’s bullpen during this series, Burnett rose to the occasion, delivering 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball to prolong the Yankees’ season for at least another two days.
Two terrific catches by center fielder Curtis Granderson aided the effort, as the former Tigers star patrolled his old stomping grounds with aplomb.
Granderson backtracked and made a leaping grab of a Don Kelly line drive to leave the bases loaded in the first inning, then made a sensational diving grab of Jhonny Peralta’s drive toward left-center with a runner on to end the sixth.
If you were going to judge A.J. Burnett’s start by his BB/K ratio and his BABIP against and his HR/FB rate, you’d probably be correct in saying he didn’t pitch all that well tonight and was at least somewhat lucky.
But if you judge a start by the results and the importance of the situation, Burnett saved his team’s season tonight. After walking the bases loaded in the first inning (one intentional), Burnett appeared to be headed for disaster, but one of the two aforementioned great Granderson catches ended the inning, and Burnett was able to pitch into the sixth while walking just one other batter. Rafael Soriano, Phil Hughes and Boone Logan retired the final 10 Tigers to close things out.
The offense struggled a bit early but by the fifth the team had built up a 4-1 lead and eventually broke things open in the eighth. So now they’ll head home for a day off before a deciding Game 5 on Thursday.
At the very least, we won’t have a repeat of the 2006 ALDS.
NY Times: Season Starting to Slip Away
For Sabathia, it was a struggle all night, particularly with Gerry Davis’s small strike zone, as he never found a groove to carry him past the sixth inning. For Verlander, it was a night to demonstrate why he will almost certainly win the Cy Young Award.
Although he was not perfect, Verlander was dominant for a long stretch of the game and led the Tigers to a 5-4 victory that gave Detroit a two-games-to-one lead in the best-of-five series.
It’s tough to expect an offense to score four runs against Justin Verlander. That the Yankees were able to do that and still fall short tonight is tough to deal with. Granted, Rafael Soriano gave up the deciding run, but this game was lost because of Sabathia’s ineffectiveness. Yes, the strike zone he had to work with made it much harder to pitch well, but there’s not much you can do about that but deal with it. Unfortunately CC couldn’t.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see A.J. Burnett pitch well enough for the Yankees to beat Rick Porcello tomorrow. I don’t expect it, but it could happen.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
MLB.com: Max effort: Tigers tie up Division Series
Max Scherzer held the Yankees hitless until the sixth inning, and Joaquin Benoit escaped a seventh-inning jam as the Tigers evened the ALDS at one game apiece. Miguel Cabrera ripped a two-run homer, and he and Magglio Ordonez each pounded out three hits.
So now the Yankees have to beat Justin Verlander in Detroit to avoid facing two consecutive elimination games with A.J. Burnett pitching the first one.
At least they won the division.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Yankees.com: Suspension of disbelief: Cano puts on show
Robinson Cano missed a homer by a matter of inches on his go-ahead double, and his grand slam put the game away one night after it began as the Yankees won Game 1 of the ALDS. Ivan Nova picked up the win in relief of CC Sabathia by stifling the Tigers for 6 1/3 innings.
Nova pitched well enough in relief that I think he deserves a start.
Although Doug Fister was charged with six runs, he was pitching pretty well until the sixth. Obviously Cano had a monster day, but there were a few other key plays that I though were worth mentioning.
1) Curtis Granderson, Derek Jeter and Russell Martin combining on a relay throw and tag to nail Alex Avila at home after a Jhonny Peralta single that would have given Detroit a 2-1 lead in the fifth.
2) Nova retiring Wilson Betemit on the very next play with runners on second and third. As I mentioned in the last thread, Betemit hit .307/.374/.557 vs. RHP in 2011.
3) Brett Gardner’s two-out, two-run single to push the Yankees lead to 4-1 and help set the stage for Cano’s grand slam that basically won the game.
I had no problem with how Joe Girardi handled the ninth. Nova was only around 80 pitches and he got the first out. And I was fine with using Ayala to try to close it out since the team had an eight run lead. I was also fine with using Mo to throw three pitches to close it out.
Now we just have to hope that Freddy Garcia’s smoke and mirrors act last for a few more weeks, beginning with tomorrow’s game.
With every series underway, here are my updated odds for each team’s advancing out of their respective series through tonight.
| Team | DS |
| Phillies | 77.4% |
| Brewers | 74.5% |
| Yankees | 67.6% |
| Rangers | 57.2% |
| Rays | 42.8% |
| Tigers | 32.4% |
| Diamondbacks | 25.5% |
| Cardinals | 22.6% |
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Yankees.com: Costly errors hand Yanks third straight loss
New York stepped into Detroit for a four-game series against a Tigers club that was reeling after dropping six straight and came out with three consecutive losses.
The Yankees’ latest defeat, 6-3 on Thursday, led to their first three-game losing streak of the season and came about after A.J. Burnett ran into trouble late, Eduardo Nunez committed a critical throwing error and Tigers starter Rick Porcello continued to mow down a struggling offense.
Despite entering the sixth inning with a no-hitter, Burnett gave up his first run in the first inning and, then control in the seventh.
In addition to playing like complete crap for three straight games, the Yankees have lost Eric Chavez to a foot fracture. Even if by some miracle he comes back this season, he’ll get hurt again anyway so consider him done for the year.
The Yankees really should have split this series at the very least. Losing the Sabathia/Penny matchup in particular really looks like a wasted opportunity.
I’m sure they’ll do fine in Texas against a better team.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Yankees.com: Yankees’ bats dormant in defeat
DETROIT—The Yankees were annoyed after missing several run-scoring opportunities in Tuesday’s loss to the Tigers. But there would be no such feelings after Wednesday’s game.
Max Scherzer didn’t give them many to begin with.
The Tigers right-hander hurled eight dominant innings, limiting the Yankees to just four hits while handing them a 4-0 loss at Comerica Park.
With that, New York dropped back-to-back games for just the second time this season and moved to 5-5 on the road.
Since May 15:
Derek Jeter: .262/.310/.277
Alex Rodriguez: .142/.232/245
Is there a better way to get out of a bad stretch of games than playing the Yankees? The Red Sox, the White Sox and the Tigers would probably say no.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Yankees.com: Yanks outlast Tigers after Colon’s fine start
DETROIT—Bartolo Colon delivered yet another solid start, Nick Swisher broke a tie with an RBI single in the ninth inning and Mariano Rivera closed the door, giving the Yankees a 5-3 win over the Tigers at Comerica Park on Monday night.
Colon had given up just three runs in his previous two starts combined—a span of 14 2/3 innings—and limited the Tigers to three runs over seven innings in start No. 3.
The Yankees wore out Justin Verlander, who needed 127 pitches to get through six innings, but going 1 for 11 with RISP prior to the ninth inning meant they needed Swisher’s late heroics to pull this one out. Colon looked good again, with two solo opposite field HRs by Alex Avila the only real ding on his performance. He struck out seven and walked none, continuing his very encouraging strike throwing ways. Joba looked very good in pitching the eighth, and Mo pitched a perfect ninth, hopefully burying the 2011 edition of WWWMW™.
Brett Gardner continued his better play of late, getting on base three times in four PA, and Jorge Posada and Derek Jeter also added two hits apiece. Hopefully that’s a sign of things to come.
In other news, Phil Hughes’s circulatory tests came back negative. This is good news and I’m happy for Hughes, although it means that the cause for his problems so far this year are still a question mark.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Yankees.com: Hughes can’t capitalize on Yanks’ homers
NEW YORK—Phil Hughes was hit for five runs in four innings, including a pair of Miguel Cabrera homers, as the Yankees fell to the Tigers on Sunday, 10-7, at Yankee Stadium.
Jorge Posada homered twice and drove in four runs for the Yankees, leading a charge that also included round-trippers from Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano, but it was not enough to outslug Detroit’s attack.
Having tied a franchise record by surrendering 20 homers in the Bronx last season, Hughes saw his struggles within the cozy confines continue, as he was charged with five runs on five hits in a 90-pitch outing.
Cabrera slugged a two-run homer off Hughes in the first inning, teeing off on a flat slider, and the slugging first baseman struck again for another two-run shot in the third on a cutter over the heart of the plate.
...
The Yankees had eyed Hughes’ velocity closely this spring, with manager Joe Girardi stating that he would be curious to see when Hughes begins to sit comfortably at 93-94 mph, where he pitched at times last season.Against Detroit on Sunday, however, Hughes was more in the area of 88-89 mph, maxing out at 91.
It was a frustrating game to watch, as the Yankee offense kept trying to get the team back into the game only to see the pitchers continue to give it back. I’m not going to get that concerned about the results of this game, but I didn’t like what I saw out of Hughes. As the excerpt says, his velocity was crappy and he couldn’t compensate for it with his secondary pitches. On the other hand, although Bartolo Colon’s final line looks pretty bad, I thought he was throwing well. He got up to 95 a few times, and struck out five in four innings while walking only one. He gave up four runs, but FIP says he only should have given up two.
On the plus side, with another homer today it’s starting to look like Mark Texeira may be able to avoid his typical early season woes, and Jorge Posada showed that his bat still has some life in it. Posada’s offense has always been superlative for a catcher, but as a DH now the bar is higher. Also, by losing the Yankees were able to rest Mariano Rivera, so that’s good.
I’m a bit concerned about Hughes’s velocity, but it is just one start. Hopefully he’s got a bit more juice in his next one.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Yankees.com: Yanks’ bats relentless in rout of Tigers
NEW YORK—A.J. Burnett fought a head cold for five good innings and Mark Teixeira continued to win his battle with April’s chills as the Yankees defeated the Tigers, 10-6, on Saturday at Yankee Stadium.
Congested and weakened by illness this week, Burnett limited the Tigers to three runs and was cushioned by Teixeira’s second three-run homer of the young campaign, a blast off Detroit starter Brad Penny.
Russell Martin also slugged a three-run homer, connecting in the fifth off Brad Thomas, and Alex Rodriguez took rookie Brayan Villarreal deep for a solo shot in the sixth, the 614th homer of Rodriguez’s career.
I liked what I saw out of Burnett, especially factoring in the fact that he was fighting an illness. The Yankees will go for the sweep tomorrow afternoon with Phil Hughes on the hill.
Friday, April 1, 2011
CC’s Slider (3/31/11)
Sabathia didn't have his best slider in the Yankees' opener yesterday. His location was off as it hung up in the zone quite a bit. Over the last three seasons, batters have made contact on his slider 56.1 percent of the time. On 24 sliders yesterday afternoon, the Tigers made contact on 77.8 percent of their swings (of a whopping total of 9), primarily on pitches in the strike zone. Obviously, it's only one game's worth of data, but it was clear he wasn't able to keep the pitch down like he normally does.
BrkX and BrkZ values provided by PitchFX measure the number of inches the ball moves horizontally and vertically as a result of the spin on the ball read from when it is 40 ft from home plate. Sabathia traditionally gets about 5.1 inches of BrkX (horizontal) movement on his slider. Yesterday it averaged 2.8 inches. From 2008-2010, PitchFX data has Sabathia throwing 2060 sliders in regular and postseason games combined. Only 450 of those sliders have had a BrkX reading less than 3.0.
Again, one game's worth of data is not enough to draw any significant conclusions on one pitch. Besides, it was cold, and the man is still in Captain Crunch withdrawal. If he's still hanging his slider up in the zone in a couple weeks, then I'd be worried.
All heatmaps and data courtesy of the In Depth Baseball analytics platform
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Yankees.com: Granderson’s homer gives Yanks opener
Homers by Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson carried the Yanks’ offense, and the bullpen finished the Tigers with spotless work on Opening Day in the Bronx.
Granderson’s homer came off Phil Coke, which means the Yankees have officially won the trade that sent Austin Jackson and Coke to Detroit and Ian Kennedy to Arizona in return for Granderson. Yay trade win! Granderson also made a couple of nice defensive plays, one in the first and one in the ninth.
CC Sabathia didn’t pitch great, allowing three runs over six innings, but he was good enough to keep the Yankees in the game against Justin Verlander on a cold day.
Joba Chamberlain, Rafael Soriano and Mariano Rivera each pitched a perfect inning to close it out, and the Yankees staved off division elimination for one more day.
It’s always nice to start the year off with a win, isn’t it?
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Yankees.com: WOE Takes Day Game after Night Game Off
NEW YORK—The Yankees exploded for nine runs in the sixth inning on Thursday to clinch their first series victory in the month of August with an 11-5 rout of the Tigers at Yankee Stadium.
The game was tied, 2-2, entering the eventful bottom of the sixth, in which the Yankees sent 13 men to the plate and scored off four different Detroit pitchers.
Starter Rick Porcello lost his command in the inning, walking Mark Teixeira after getting ahead, 0-2. After an RBI double by Robinson Cano, Porcello walked Nick Swisher and allowed an RBI single to Jorge Posada on a 3-0 pitch. Swisher had also driven in a run with a single on a 3-0 pitch earlier in the contest.
Just like you can get heads three times in a row once in a while if you a flip coin three times, WOE can score runs in three straight games.
Don’t be fooled by three games. That’s the very definition of small sample size.
Aside from a HR to Miguel Cabrera. which is hardly something to be ashamed about, I thought Hughes was very good today. He was pulled after six because of the long sixth inning, but he could have probably gone seven if needed.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Yankees.com: WOE Takes Another Night Off
NEW YORK—The Yankees slugged a trio of home runs off Jeremy Bonderman en route to their second consecutive victory over the Tigers, 9-5, on Wednesday night.
The Yankees rapped only six hits against Bonderman, but all six went for extra bases. Mark Teixeira opened the scoring for the Yankees in the first with his 27th homer of the year—a two-run blast five rows deep into the second deck in right field.
Robinson Cano followed with his own drive into the seats in right for a 3-0 lead. It marked the fifth time this season the Yanks have hit back-to-back homers.
...Curtis Granderson added a solo shot in the fifth—his second home run in as many nights.
Kevin Long is a genius.
| PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | BB/PA | K/AB |
| 336 | .239 | .304 | .415 | .311 | 8.6% | 24.6% |
| 29 | .346 | .414 | .769 | .486 | 10.3% | 15.4% |
Aside from Chad Gaudin, the bullpen once again managed to put up zeroes, something they’ve gotten better at as the season’s moved along.
| Split | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | RA | ERA | FIP | CERA |
| Apr | 50.0 | 46 | 24 | 22 | 17 | 38 | 6 | 4.32 | 3.96 | 4.50 | 3.87 |
| May | 78.3 | 80 | 47 | 43 | 31 | 64 | 11 | 5.40 | 4.94 | 4.69 | 4.77 |
| Jun | 75.0 | 59 | 27 | 27 | 33 | 70 | 4 | 3.24 | 3.24 | 3.43 | 3.38 |
| Jul | 75.7 | 63 | 32 | 30 | 26 | 68 | 7 | 3.81 | 3.57 | 3.68 | 3.03 |
| August | 46.3 | 29 | 6 | 6 | 19 | 41 | 3 | 1.17 | 1.17 | 3.76 | 2.29 |
| Apr/May | 128.3 | 126 | 71 | 65 | 48 | 102 | 17 | 4.98 | 4.56 | 4.62 | 4.42 |
| Jun/July/Aug | 194.0 | 149 | 64 | 62 | 77 | 174 | 14 | 2.97 | 2.88 | 3.64 | 3.02 |
FIP: Fielding independent pitching
CERA: Component ERA
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Yankees.com: WOE Takes the Night Off
NEW YORK—CC Sabathia was supported by home runs from Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano in coasting to his American League-leading 16th victory as the Yankees defeated the Tigers, 6-2, on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium.
Nick Swisher also had a two-run double to back Sabathia, who limited Detroit to two runs in seven innings and nudged past the Twins’ Carl Pavano and the Rays’ David Price to claim sole possession of the Junior Circuit wins lead.
Don’t get used to this whole winning thing.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Captain DP Complaint Thread
Was there really any doubt that Jeter would hit into a GDP there?
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Yankees.com: Hughes Yankees’ stopper in nightcap
DETROIT—Phil Hughes won his third straight start and remained unbeaten this season as the Yankees defeated the Tigers, 8-0, on Wednesday night at Comerica Park, salvaging a split of their day-night doubleheader.
The 23-year-old right-hander held Detroit to five hits through seven innings and threw 101 pitches, walking one and striking out eight.
How good has Hughes been? The last Yankee pitcher who allowed two or fewer runs in six consecutive starts was Mike Mussina in 2003. Yeah, Hughes is probably not quite this good, but he’s pretty damn good. By the end of the year, he may be the Yankees’ clear #2 starter, if he’s not already. I think he’d have the second-best projected RA going forward right now, at least in CAIRO.
And even though they lost the first game of today’s double-header, I was encouraged by the pitching line of the unnamed starter, although I didn’t see the game so I don’t know if he actually pitched as well as the box score makes it look like he did.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Yankees.com: Mitre unable to fill Pettitte’s shoes
DETROIT—Johnny Damon offered a familiar sight for his former Yankees teammates in their first meeting since the 2009 World Series, cracking one out of Comerica Park as the Tigers withstood a late rally and posted a 5-4 victory on Monday.
Playing his first game against the Bronx Bombers since departing as a free agent, Damon rocketed a fifth-inning solo homer into the right-field seats to chase spot starter Sergio Mitre from his five-hit outing.
I’m in the middle of moving so I didn’t get to see this game, but I don’t think that was a bad thing.
The Yankees are not at full strength right now, and they’re not the team that projected to win something like 96-97 games entering the season. How much worse are they? I’ll try and answer that tomorrow, but until they get back to full strength (if they even can), they’re probably going to lose some games we thought would be wins.
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