Sunday Night Yanks-O's "Might As Well Watch This Ship Go Down" Live Blog

(So appropriate)

The Yankees and the Orioles are the ESPN "Sunday Night Baseball" game tonight, and as much as it pains me to have to watch with the way they're playing right now, I can't not watch them when I have the chance.  So with the play on the field being of little entertainment, I figured I could try to make tonight's game a little more watchable with the first live blog since Opening Day.  The Yanks send Hiroki Kuroda to the hill tonight to try to salvage something from this series.  Here's the lineup that will attempt to support him:

1) Brett Gardner- CF
2) Ichiro Suzuki- RF
3) Robinson Cano- 2B
4) Travis Hafner- DH
5) Zoilo Almonte- LF
6) Lyle Overbay- 1B
7) Jayson Nix- SS
8) Chris Stewart- C
9) David Adams- 3B

First pitch is set for a little after 8 PM EST/7 PM Central.  Live blog will start sometime shortly before then.

Get Ready For More No-Name Roster Additions

Earlier today, Chad Jennings reported that both Josh Bell and Adonis Garcia were officially activated off the Triple-A disabled list.  Both players have spent the bulk of the MiL season out and just began their rehab work recently in the lower levels.  Even though neither are household names by any stretch of the imagination, they represent another opportunity for the Yankees to marginally upgrade their roster and add some desperately needed offensive options to their completely decimated and unproductive lineup.

Bell, 26, has played in the Majors before and offers a ton of flexibility, both at the plate as a switch hitter and in the field as a guy capable of playing both outfield and infield corners.  Garcia, also 26, was an unheralded international signing out of Cuba - one I've profiled before - and could stand to get his shot at reaching the show thanks to the Major League roster's offensive ineptitude and injuries to Ronnier Mustelier and Brennan Boesch.

It's highly unlikely that either of these guys will make much of an impact, but with their season and postseason hopes starting to crumble around them the Yankees need to do something.  The 3-man bench isn't working for them and there's little need for 8 guys in the bullpen.  I wouldn't be surprised to see another move or two made in next day or so.

Game 80 Wrap-Up: BAL 11 NYY 3

This is starting to get sad.  That's all that you can really say right now.  The Yankees just don't hit, at all.  Ever.  It doesn't matter if they get a great starting pitching performance, a good one, a decent one, or an absolute horseshit one like David Phelps gave them yesterday.  This team is folding its tent as we speak and there's a good chance they head into the All Star Break in 4th place or even 5th in this division.  It's hard to say they no-showed with 11 hits last night; that's better than nothing.  With what Phelps gave them in his start though, nothing would have been just as helpful.

Game Notes:

- It was ugly right from the start last night.  The Yanks strung together 3 straight hits in the top of the 1st only to come away with nothing, and Phelps responded by giving up 4 in the bottom half, the big blow a 3-run homer by Chris Davis.

- He managed to keep Baltimore off the board in the 2nd, then melted down big time in the 3rd.  After getting the first out of the inning, Phelps went walk, single, walk, single, HR to the next 5 batters and was lifted after giving up 5 more runs.  Less than a third of the way through the game and it was 9-0.

- Even when the Yankees did score in the top of the 6th it was pathetic.  With the bases loaded and 1 out, they got a run on a Zoilo Almonte sac fly and another on a fielding error.  The Bronx Bombers these guys are not.

- Davis hit his 2nd HR of the game - and 30th(!) of the year - in the bottom of the 6th.  Even as an opponent, you have to marvel at what he's doing this season.  That was the only stain on an otherwise solid relief outing by Ivan Nova.

- Brett Gardner doubled in a run in the 9th for the final Yankee run.  Not that it mattered.