* Carlos Gomez may "love to swing," as Chip Caray put it, but he certainly doesn't love to hit; 0-4 last night and 0-the series so far. His half-swing chopper to Teixeira with the bases loaded in the top of the 11th would have been an inning-ending double play with most other people running to first. I'm starting to see why the Mets traded him away.
*** Check back later today for another column dedicated to the insanity that was Caray and Darling's calling of the game last night***
* The Yankees made no secret about what their gameplan was against Blackburn last night. 8 of the first 9 batters took the first pitch and 5 more of them took until they saw a strike. They weren't going to swing freely against Blackburn, even though he had the 2nd-fewest swings and misses in the league coming into last night.
* That being said, the Yankees couldn't seem to put any good swings on Blackburn's pitches last night. The guy threw decent last night, but he wasn't overpowering and he didn't seem to be fooling anybody. It was almost as if the Yanks became rushed after being patient to get a strike and didn't focus on putting a good swing on the ball, just a swing. There were more than a few Blackburn pitches that should have ended up in the gaps or over the fence instead of popped up into Twins' gloves.
* While first glance at the numbers shows A.J. Burnett threw a great game last night, anybody who watched the game knew it was a typical A.J. performance: brilliant first few innings, great bite on the slider, but too picky with runners on, too many trips to the mound to talk things over when it should be clear what the gameplan is, and maddeningly inconsistent. He went from 2 strikeouts in a row to 2 hit batters in a row to 2 walks in a row without warning. While one run in 6 innings is the important thing and helped keep the Yankees in the game while their offense found itself, 10 baserunners in 6 innings is just plain not good.
It's an effective strikeout pitch, but Burnett's slider is a double-edged sword. It was so good early, that A.J. became too focused on using it to strike guys out with 2 strikes that he started overthrowing it, another A.J. Burnett staple (see the 3-2 pitch to Orlando Cabrera in the 5th inning). This led to more pitches being thrown, more walks, more baserunners, and more people at home like me chewing their fingernails down to nothing.
By the 6th inning, it was clear that all the effort he had put into all those sliders had taken it's toll on A.J.'s gas tank. He lost velocity on the fastball and movement on the slider and he was basically done. Looking at how the game played out, it would have been nice to get another inning out of him, but at least it made Joe's decision on when to take him out and when to pinch hit Jorge for Molina a no-brainer.
* Was I the only one having visions of Bobby Abreu running through my head when Johnny Damon jumped/spazzed into the left field wall in the 6th inning? For a guy who looked back twice as he was tracking the ball, Damon timed his jump so poorly that he made it look more like he was trying to avoid hitting the wall and less like he was trying to catch the ball. Terrible.
* A-Rod woke the crowd up again with his hit in the bottom of the 6th. It was another textbook "Locked In" swing by A-Rod, where he stayed back on the ball and shifted his weight forward perfectly in sync with his swing. I didn't think he would hit a home run in the 9th inning, but after watching his swing in the 6th, I knew he would at least get another hit off of Nathan.
* Who invited Xavier Nady and Chien-Ming Wang to hang out in the dugout with the team? Go away, fuckers! Nobody wants your walking-wounded bad vibes around the guys who actually earn their paycheck. Take some of that money and buy a ticket if you want to be a part of the playoffs.
* I don't know what's worse about President Obama doing a commercial with George Lopez for his new late-night talk show: the fact that he's promoting something done by George Lopez or the fact that he's on TV doing commercials for stuff completely unrelated to government. I will admit, though, this is a change from the past few Presidencies. You didn't see Bill Clinton doing guest spots on "Mad TV" did you?
I'm glad you're having fun yukking it up with George Lopez and traveling to Denmark to plug your home city for the Olympics, Barry, but now it's time to get back in the Oval Office and make a decision on something.
* Phil Hughes suffered from the same disease that has plagued A.J. and Joba all year for the second straight outing last night. He got too cute with batters that had 2 strikes and too careful with runners on base. It ended up getting him in trouble and giving up 2 runs and once again both he and Mo threw 20+ pitches in their appearances. When the best guys can do is foul your fastball off with 2 strikes, then stick with the fastball. It ain't rocket science.
* I could write an entire column about the A-Rod home run, but like I already said, I absolutely knew he was going to get a hit in that situation. His swing since the middle of game 1 has been on point, he was seeing the ball perfectly out of Nathan's hand, and after giving up a leadoff hit to Teixeira, Nathan was showing all the signs of blowing up already. Once he got to 3-1 on A-Rod, you could bet your life savings that he was going to groove one and you just aren't going to get away with that when A-Rod is on his game. Simply the biggest hit in his Yankee career so far, but hopefully not the last big one he has this postseason.
* Minnesota's 8-9 hitters were 4-9 last night with 2 RBIs, 2 walks, and 1 run scored. I wouldn't know Matt Tolbert, Nick Punto, or Brendan Harris if they walked into my apartment and punched me in the face, but those guys were a thorn in the Yankee staff's side all night last night.
* Damaso Marte is the Hispanic version of Ron Villone: a lefty reliever with a funky delivery who can't get lefty hitters out. If you're going to come out and pitch away to the lefty hitters instead of busting them inside, then why fucking bother pitching to them at all? Just come out, intentionally walk Mauer and Kubel and let Joe come get you next time. Don't leave something out over the plate where they can extend their arms and get a good swing on it.
* I'll admit it, Phil Cuzzi's call was one of, if not the worst call in playoff baseball history. The guy was in perfect position with an un-obstructed view and he flat out blew an obvious call.
Mauer obviously scores if he's awarded second base like he should have been, but that still doesn't mean the Twins win the game. That could have been the only run they scored and with Mijares out there starting the bottom of the 11th pitching to Teix and A-Rod, the Yankees could have gone back-to-back and still won it.
And the Twins didn't do themselves any favors by having Delmon Young and Carlos Gomez both swing at the first pitch with the bases loaded. Dave Robertson didn't have his A-level stuff and the few curveballs he did throw were right over the plate. Logic would dictate you take a few pitches, see if you can get ahead in the count and see if you can get to a count where he grooves one. Plus, with Jorge behind the plate every ball in the dirt is an adventure, so the Twins could have scored a cheap run without even taking the bat off their shoulders.
The blame for the Twins not scoring at least one run in the top of the 11th breaks down like this: 40% Phil Cuzzi for making the worst call in history, 50% Twins for swinging themselves out of a rally, and 10% Yankees for playing the infield in. If Teix is playing at regular depth, that chopper off of Gomez's bat is at least a bang-bang play at the plate so good call there by Joe.
* I know they didn't have a lot of arms left in their pen either, but leaving Mijares out there in the bottom of the 11th was a terrible decision by Ron Gardenhire. In 71 appearances this season the guy has only thrown 61.1 innings. He's a lefty specialist and was clearly out of his element pitching to righties. His long, looping delivery carried the ball right into Teix's wheelhouse and Teix did what any good hitter does against pitches down the middle of the plate. Even if Teix ended up with a double off of that swing, A-Rod batting next would have had equal success against Mijares. If I'm Gardenhire, I'm going Jesse Crain or Scott Baker or anybody who throws right-handed before I go Mijares in that situation. But Gardie didn't and this was the result:
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