Looking At The Roster Expansion Call-Up Candidates

In less than 3 days the regular season will move into its final month, and with the calendar page flip will come the yearly expansion of the active rosters.  The Yankees, unsurprisingly still battling a ton of injuries and still looking to make any marginal upgrade they can to improve their playoff chances, figure to be one of the teams most likely to call up a lot of players.  At least on paper they do.  There are plenty of players who could help the Yankees in some capacity down the stretch, it's just that so many of them happen to be among the injured.  I know, ain't that a B?  There really isn't as much available on the current 40-man as you might think, so here's a quick preview of who will, may, and may not get called up to the show this Sunday.

A-Rod First To Home? Do It

(Courtesy of MLB.com)

Rob, what's the deal?  Did your forget who was rounding third base last night?  Do you see how far away he is from the plate when the ball is practically in the catcher's glove already?  Come on, guy.  Alex Rodriguez wasn't going 1st to home last night on a Vespa and you waved him home like he was Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez in his prime.

Not sending Ichiro when he more than likely would have scored; sending A-Rod when there wasn't a snowball's chance he was going to score.  Can we clean it up a little in that third base coach's box, Rob?  This team has a hard enough time scoring runs as it is without you mangling your send/hold decisions.

P.S.- Did I just nitpick a minor in-game, heat-of-the-moment coaching decision in what ended up being a 5-run loss?  You bet your ass I did.  Nobody escapes the watchful AB4AR eye.

Game 133 Wrap-Up: TOR 7 NYY 2

(Good send, Rob... Courtesy of the AP)

Well that was ugly.  With Robinson Cano out of the lineup for the first time since 2012 and a struggling Hiroki Kuroda on the mound, the Yankees needed to win last night to save this series and avoid heading home to face the O's with the lights dimming on their postseason hopes again.  They didn't do that.  They didn't even come close.  Whether it's regression or fatigue or injury, Kuroda has nothing right now and he had nothing last night.  The game was out of reach before it really got going and the Yanks head into today's off-day needing to regroup.

Game Notes:

- The early signs from Kuroda were not positive.  He was missing up in the zone with his sinker and out of the zone with his splitter and he needed 30 pitches to get out of the 1st inning with 4 runs on the board.  A cross-up between he and Chris Stewart and a subsequent Stewart throwing error on a strikeout led to 2 of the runs and one of the more Bennie Hill music-worthy moments of the season.

- Edwin Encarnacion took Kuroda deep for a 2-run shot in the 2nd, a pair of singles and a sac fly notched a run in the 3rd, and it was 7-0 Jays.  There was really no reason for Kuroda to be in the game anymore at that point.

- Yanks had their best chance to make a game out of it in the top of the 4th when a pair of walks and an Alex Rodriguez single put runners on the corners with no outs and a run in.  Mark Reynolds plated a second run with a double but a dumb call by Rob Thomson to send A-Rod home from first backfired and stalled the inning.

- There wasn't much else to talk about after that.  The Yankee lineup was overmatched by Toronto starter Todd Redmond and his bullpen buddies.  They didn't advance a runner to second base after the 4th.

- Joe elected to let Kuroda work his full pitch and he got 2 more scoreless innings out of him.  Joba, Shawn Kelley, and Boone Logan finished things up.