The decision to do another live blog was a pretty easy one to make once I knew tonight's pitching matchup was Carsten Charles and Robert Alan. I've listened to everybody on ESPN fall all over themselves praising R.A. Dickey for the past couple weeks and declaring him the no-doubt NL ASG starter over guys like Greinke, Strasburg, and Cain, who are having just as good if not better seasons, so I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hoping for CC and the Yankee offense knock Dickey down a peg tonight. CC is coming off a much more CC-like complete game win against Atlanta on Monday, and if he has that 4-seamer working again tonight he could really chew up this Mets lineup.
NYY Starting Lineup:
1) Derek Jeter- SS
2) Curtis Granderson- CF
3) Alex Rodriguez- 3B
4) Robinson Cano- 2B
5) Mark Teixeira- 1B
6) Nick Swisher- RF
7) Raul Ibanez- LF
8) Chris Stewart- C
9) CC Sabathia- P
First pitch should be about 8:07PM Eastern/7:07 Central, and I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that it's a knuckleball. Live blog kicks off about 30 minutes before that, so I should have plenty of time to get a few jabs in at John Kruk or whoever is in the BBTN studio tonight. Come join me, won't you?
(I wanted to go with the Ron Burgundy, "we're on the air? Right now? I don't believe you" line here, but I couldn't find it)
- 6:22PM: Can everybody chill with this "chicken" nonsense? The fact that it's still being talked about, and the fact that the Mets brought a live chicken into the clubhouse, showed no creativity in naming it after the chicken from an already funny episode of "Seinfeld," and then donated it to some orphanage for chickens is not cute, funny, or important. What is important is that Frank Francisco hit the DL today with a "side strain." Guess he didn't really want to strike out the side tonight after all. Karma's a bitch, bro.
- 6:45PM: Just read on RAB's MiL recap post that Ravel Santana left today's SS Staten Island game after getting hit on the wrist with a pitch. Hopefully it's nothing too serious. It would really be a shame if he missed a big chunk of time again after making it back from his ankle injury.
- 6:52PM: Definitely a bummer that Barry Larkin is the BBTN studio analyst tonight. He's not the best analyst by any means, but I can't really come up with anything disparaging to say about him. Tragic.
- 6:59PM: Orel Hershisher advised R.A. Dickey to start throwing the knuckleball? Well that just screams "favoritism" from the broadcast booth tonight. Not that ESPN ever needs help putting an anti-Yankee spin on things.
- 7:01PM: Teix just OOZING personality in his pregame interview with Buster Olney. God that guy is a tool. Just seems like the kinda dude who would show up to a party in college trying too hard to be "cool," then drink 4 beers and have a panic attack.
- 7:05PM: Does anybody else think it would be hilarious if R.A. Dickey got nabbed for PEDs and that was the reason his knuckleball was so much faster than everybody else's?
- 7:07PM: Bigger "Oofda!"- A-Rod coming into a game against a knuckler struggling at the plate or Cano hitting .141 with RISP?
- 7:08PM: That's a horrific promo photo of Lucas Duda that ESPN just used. He looks like the cross-eyed linebacker from "The Water Boy."
- 7:11PM: 9 pitches, 2 groundouts, and a looking K and Dickey is through the top of the 1st in order. I don't know why, but it bothers me that A-Rod was laughing and smiling after taking that brushback pitch.
- 7:15PM: Not the most encouraging first at-bat for CC. No reason to get cute and go to 3 balls on Andres Torres after getting ahead 0-2.
- 7:21PM: Went to a 3-ball count on Ruben Tejada after being ahead, and then throws an 0-2 fastball over the plate to David Wright that Wright hits for a single. Not liking what I'm seeing to start from CC.
- 7:24PM: Horseshit throw to 2nd by Stewart and this 1st inning is becoming way more stressful than it needed to be for CC.
- 7:35PM- But CC gets out of it with a strikeout of Scott Hairston to end the inning. Pretty clear what both teams' strategies are tonight; Yanks are going to swing early and often against Dickey, and the Mets are going to be patient and try to work the count on CC and drive up his pitch count.
- 7:29PM: Nice fundamentals on that dropped throw at first by Dickey and the Yankees get a break with 1 out in the top of the 2nd. Shit feed by Turner, but catch the ball, guy.
- 7:32PM: Dickey loses the zone a bit in that at-bat to Swish, and it's 1st and 2nd for the Yanks with the only guy in their lineup with good numbers against Dickey, Raul Ibanez, coming up.
- 7:33PM: Base hit for Ibanez, a little surprising to not see Teix get waved home there, but the replays showed it would have been a close play, and the bases are loaded.
- 7:35PM: Stewart and CC both swing early and make outs, and the Yankees leave 'em loaded in the 2nd. Hey, if the heart of the order is going to lead the RISP Fail action, the guys at the bottom of the order might as well get involved too, right?
- 7:41PM: CC induces a textbook DP ball to Cano, and Robbie and Jeter turn it routinely to empty the bases in the bottom of the 2nd.
- 7:43PM: 2nd hit CC has allowed already after being ahead 0-2 in the count.
#commandthedamnfastball
- 7:46PM: Inning over on a Dickey groundout, but it wasn't much more economic than the 1st, and the ace bullpen guys did have to work 3+ innings last night. CC needs to tighten it up.
- 7:49PM: I'm amazed that it took until the 3rd inning for the ESPN guys to talk about the Kevin Youklis trade. With Terry Francona involved, I figured that would have been part of the lead-in to the game. If you're Youklis, how pissed would you be to know you got traded for 2 scrubs AND your team threw in cash? Tough break, asshole.
- 7:54PM: Boy The Horse really knocked the shit outta that one! I wouldn't even want that scored a hit if that were me, but whatever. 2 on and 1 out for the 2nd inning in a row. Gotta take advantage of these opportunities against Dickey.
- 7:57PM: Terry Francona doesn't understand Robbie's struggles with RISP. That's because it's mostly luck, you boner. Cano draws a walk and here we are again with the bases juiced and 1 out. If they don't scratch at least 1 run across here, the serious drinking is going to start.
- 7:58PM: Teix hits a first pitch-swinging flyball to right to score C-Grand and give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. I guess I'll take that.
- 7:59PM: SWISH-A-MOTHERFUCKING-LICIOUS!!!!! Dickey left one high in the zone and Swish yarded it into the right-centerfield bleachers. THAT'S what I was looking for! 4-0 Yanks.
- 8:02PM: Ibanez fouls out to end the inning, but not before the Yankees put an end to Dickey's scoreless innings streak and ensure that his ERA and FIP are going to go up tonight.
- 8:07PM: Leadoff walk to Torres, he goes 1st pitch to the next batter, and Stewart throws the ball short and into center field again. Jesus fucking Christ (sorry to the Christians out there)!!! Tejada scores Torres with a sac fly and the Mets are on the board. So much for the shutdown inning.
- 8:11PM: We're a third of the way through in just over an hour and it's 4-1 Yankees. That's a good thing, but CC still needs to find his command of pretty much everything for me to feel comfortable. The next 3 innings are when he usually does...
- 8:17PM: Stress-free 1-2-3 inning for Dickey in the top of the 4th, and CC is coming right back out.
- 8:22PM: I don't hand out compliments to anybody on the Mets or Fraud Sawx ever, but big ups to Justin Turner for rocking "Call Me Maybe" as his at-bat music.
- 8:24PM: Please tell me Orel didn't just imply that Bernie Williams was a big-money free agent signing by the Yankees. 1-2-3 inning for CC in the bottom of the 4th. That's more like it.
- 8:29PM: Heads up call by A-Rod to tell Curtis to go on that wild pitch, and heads up play by C-Grand to be paying attention and the Yankees get a RISP with nobody out in the 5th after a leadoff walk.
- 8:33PM: A bloop single to left by Cano and an RBI groundout by Teix and the Yankee lead is back to 4 runs at 5-1. Ugliest 2-RBI ever for Teix so far, but sometimes that gets it done.
- 8:37PM: Good at-bat for Swish but he grounds out to end the inning. Dickey looking a little tired, and he should because the Yankee hitters have made him work.
- 8:44PM: Hey guys. I know you're busy jerking off R.A. Dickey and discussing the mystery of the knuckleball, but there is a game going on out there and a disputed CC strikeout taking place. Call the fucking game!
- 8:48PM: CC gettting dinked and dunked and groundballed through the infield to death tonight, and he's got nobody to blame but himself. He isn't consistently making good pitches with 2 strikes and is catching way too much of the zone.
- 8:49PM: And David Wright keeps that trend going with an RBI single to left to score Dickey and make it a 5-2 game.
- 8:53PM: CC gets Scott Hairston (lefty killer) to pop out to center to end the inning, but at 93 pitches I'd be surprised if he makes it any more past 6. He just doesn't have any kind of good stuff or command tonight. Gonna need some solid work from Cory Wade tonight.
- 8:58PM: Dickey works through the top of the 6th with the quickness, and CC will head out for the bottom with little rest and after having to bat. We'll see how it affects him...
- 9:03PM: Come on, Robbie! What the fuck was that?? It's not like CC needs more guys on base tonight.
- 9:07PM: What is up with the Citi Field bullpens?? Wade looks like he's warming up out behind my old high school gym.
- 9:10PM: Just an awful sequence by CC to pinch hitter Vinny Rottino. Not one of those pitches was close, and 3 of them were 4-seamers. CC should be out of the game here...
- 9:11PM: ANOTHER FUCKING GROUNDER through the infield and it's a 5-4 ballgame. Shitty job by CC, shitty job by Joe, and some of the shittiest BABIP luck I have seen in ages.
- 9:16PM: In fairness to CC, I do have to remind myself of the Cano error and the fact that the groundball was a play that very easily could have been made by Teix.
- 9:17PM: Wade is in and promptly blows the win for CC and ties the game for the Mets on a meatball to Tejada. Wright is up and I'm POUNDING punch-top cans...
- 9:22PM: Wade walks Wright to load the bases back up, but gets pinch hitter Kirk Nieuwenhuis swinging to end the 6th. Everything about that inning was absolutely brutal. The pitching, the defense, the decision-making. Just fucking brutal.
- 9:30PM: 1-2-3 innings for the Yankee offense in the top of the 7th against the immortal Miguel Batista. I'm getting drunk and getting bitter.
- 9:37PM: Freddy Garcia is up in the bullpen? Fuck. Me.
- 9:43PM: DON'TCHA FUCKING KNOW!!!!!! Robbie Cano got the green light 2-0 against Bautista and he smacked it into center field, almost beyond the big apple, to give the Yankees a 6-5 lead.
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