Baltimore Orioles
The Good: David Hernandez. He battled early, but hung tough and pitched a simply outstanding ball game. Impressive start for the youngster. Nick Markakis is a terrific outfielder and an outstanding hitter. He’s going to be mashing home runs against New York for the next decade.
The Bad: The Orioles base-running. Robinson Cano faked out Luke Reimold and Cesar Izturis into thinking line drives off the right field wall were ground balls and forced them into sliding, which kept them from scoring. Then Brian Roberts gets thrown out at the plate on a ball that only got 3 feet away from Jose Molina with 2 outs, with their hottest hitter at the plate. That’s just poor baseball; you need to be more heads up than that guys.
New York Yankees
The Good: Eric Hinske hit his 4th home run in only 13 at bats as a Yankee. He needs more playing time. I know he isn’t this good, but Swisher is batting .203 in the last month. Give him a break and let Hinske take some hacks! Andy Pettitte was terrific tonight. 7.1 innings and 8 strikeouts. Season highs in both categories. Mark Teixeira is the best fielding first baseman the Yankees have had since Don Mattingly (no offense Tino). The Yankees flashed some serious leather tonight and made heads up plays all around. Oh yea, I called Hideki Matsui’s walk-off home run. I’m good.
The Bad: While David Hernandez pitched extremely well for the Orioles, the Yankees inability to hit with runners in scoring position and really put the screws to a young pitcher on the ropes, rears its ugly head again. That’s really going to affect them sooner or later.
Outcome: Yankees win 2 – 1 on a walk-off home run from Hideki Matsui. Your winning pitcher is Alfredo Aceves ( 6 – 1) and your losing pitcher Jim Johnson (3 – 4). The Yankees move to a season high 18 games over .500 at 55 – 37 and the Orioles fall to 41 – 51.
Random Thoughts
1. Charlie Weiss’ son threw out the first pitch before the game tonight. Don’t understand why he did and not Weiss himself. But, I did notice that Weiss is getting so fat that I think the Yankees need to re-sod the grass where he stood because he killed it.
2. The Mets rejected a proposal from J.P. Ricciardi that would have them send Jon Niese, Fernando Martinez, Bobby Parnell and Ruben Tejada for Roy Halladay.
3. No, really, they did. They were giving up crap, overrated-ness, lack of skill and nobody to get the best pitcher in the American League and Minaya says “nah.” Ladies and Gentleman, your 2009 New York Mets
4. Andy Pettitte should NEVER start games at Yankee Stadium. He’s just been brutal here. (tonight not included) He’s the anti-Wandy Rodriguez (who is phenomenal at home for the Astros)
5. Nick Markakis has an absolute rocket for an arm. He held at least 3 runners to singles tonight, just because he’s got a weapon of mass destruction attached to his right arm. (get it? It’s a rocket! Haha I’ll be here all week folks)
6. Spike Lee was at the Yankee game tonight. I think he should make a sequel to “He Got Game”, but have it starring Robinson Cano. He should call it “He Got Game: Unless There’s a RISP”
7. Prediction: Eric Hinske is going to be Shane Spencer circa 1998. He’ll hit a bunch of home runs, became an instant folk hero, then you’ll never hear from him again. (See also: Maas, Kevin and Duncan, Shelley)
8. Most pitching staffs have the motto “first pitch strike.” Do the Yankees use the motto “first batter walk?”
9. Is there anybody in baseball who can pull off that 360 throw that Derek Jeter does?
10. It’s an absolute breath of fresh air to see a Yankee first baseman who can make a throw to second base. (that’s painful for me to say, since I LOVE Jason Giambi)
11. Can’t wait for the Yankees to sign Nick Markakis in the winter of 2018 when he’s over the hill and on the downswing of his career, just because he spent the previous decade killing us. You know, like Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Jose Canseco, etc.
12. It’s nice to see umpires get close plays correctly! It seems so often lately that the umpires inconsistencies have been exploited to a greater degree. But, they were very good tonight.
13. Random NFL tidbit for you, Sinorice Moss spends far too much time twittering than he does learning how to be a football player
14. Random MLB news for you; Mets manager Jerry Manuel said that pitcher Livan Hernandez could start seeing some playing time at first base or right field. Ladies and Gentleman, once again, you’re New York Mets!
Until next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment