Jays go bombs away on Kuroda
The Blue Jays beat the Yankees at their own game Wednesday night, that is, with the long ball. The Jays cranked four home runs – three off Yankees starter Hiroki Kuroda – that accounted for all but one of Toronto’s runs in its 8-1 victory.
That is usually the way the Yankees win games, by going deep against opposing pitchers. They have not homered in eight games this year and have lost each of them. It is getting to the point that if the Yankees don’t homer they don’t score. Over the past four games, three of them losses, the Yankees have had only three hits in 33 at-bats with runners in scoring position. They are .240 hitters in clutch situations over the whole season.
With Derek Jeter out of a lineup that is already without disabled catalyst Brett Gardner, the Yankees are in a station-to-station rut. They are stranding runners at a regular rate. Wednesday night’s game might not have been the best example of what has affected them lately because the way Kuroda was giving up bombs there was very little chance of the Yankees coming back.
The Japanese righthander, who seems to follow good efforts with bad ones, gave up a two-run homer to J.P. Arencibia, a three-run shot to Edwin Encarnacion and a lazar of a solo shot to Jose Bautista in a five-plus inning stint in which Kuroda yielded seven earned runs and eight hits and watched his ERA bloat to 4.50.
Kelly Johnson added a fourth home run with a solo drive off reliever Clay Rapada in the seventh. The Blue Jays ended a three-game losing streak and at 20-18 are only a half-game behind the 20-17 Yankees. Jays starter Kyle Drabek also put an end to a personal four-game losing streak and beat the Yankees for the first time. The son of 1990 National League Cy Young Award winner Doug Drabek allowed more walks (4) than hits (3) in a strong seven innings.
Two of the Yankees’ hits were milestones. Robinson Cano got his 300th career double in the sixth and scored the Yankees’ lone run on a single by Mark Teixeira, which was his 1,500th career hit. Cano had an up-and-down game in the field. He turned a stylish double play in the eighth but botched a potential double play in the second and made an error in the seventh.
The American League East is bound to be a real dogfight this year. It is time for the Yankees to start growling.
Extended innings and extended rallies
It won’t show up as an error in the boxscore, but it was a misplay nevertheless for Robinson Cano that proved very costly for the Yankees in the second inning.
The Yankees appeared to have a sure double play when Brett Lawrie, batting with none out and a runner on first base, hit a bouncer to shortstop Jayson Nix, who flipped the ball to Cano at second base. As he came off the bag, however, Cano lost control of the ball and dropped it losing a shot at the DP.
Official scorers cannot charge a player with an error in that instance because a double play may not be assumed. Regardless of that dictum, it is missed out for a pitcher. Hiroki Kuroda got the second out with a strikeout of Colby Rasmus as Lawrie stole second base. If not for the Cano flub, the inning would have been over. Kuroda had to face another batter, J.P. Arencibia, who crushed a 3-2 slider to left field for a two-run home run.
Kuroda gave up an even longer home run the next inning, a three-run shot to straightaway center by Edwin Encarnacion, his 13th. Kuroda thought he was out of that inning also, but a 3-2 sinker to Jose Bautista, the hitter in front of Encarnacion, was ruled a ball for a walk that extended the inning.
How weird was it to see a Yankees lineup without Derek Jeter in it? The Captain got a night off as the Yankees are amid a stretch of games 16 days in a row. Nix, whose contract was purchased from Triple A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre May 3 to replace Eduardo Nunez as the Yanks’ utility man and who played for the Blue Jays last year, started at shortstop. Taking DJ’s place in the leadoff spot was Curtis Granderson. It is not too often that you see a team’s leading home run hitter at the very top of the batting order.
The starting shortstop for Toronto was 11-time Gold Glove winner Omar Vizquel, who is 45 years old. There’s a good example that Jeter can use against critics who believe he must switch positions some day. It was the first start this year for Vizquel, who has played in two games at shortstop, two at second base, one at first base and one in left field.
Hot corner indeed
It could get interesting around third base tonight at Rogers Centre in Toronto where the Yankees open a two-game series Wednesday night. Blue Jays third baseman Brett Lawrie was suspended for four games by Major League Baseball for striking plate umpire Bill Miller with a batting helmet in Tuesday night’s loss to the Rays.
Lawrie objected to being called out on strikes by Miller in the ninth inning and slammed his helmet into the ground. It bounced up and struck the ump in the right hip. Lawrie is appealing the suspension and is allowed to continue to play until his appeal is heard. Lawrie, 22, who is batting .289 with three home runs and 17 RBI, was in the Toronto lineup Wednesday night and playing third base. The third base umpire is Bill Miller.
Hmmm.
“I didn’t mean to hit him,” Lawrie said before Wednesday night’s game. “Obviously, actions kind of took over last night, and it was just one of those things. The only thing I regret is the helmet hitting him. I never meant to do that, and it shows. I threw it off the ground, it took a bad hop and it hit him totally by accident. I never meant to throw it at him. As that’s coming across, it seems like a lot of people are saying that I threw it at him, I never threw it at him. I never had any intentions of hurting anybody. I was just frustrated at the play at the time. That’s baseball for you.”
Joe to pen: ‘Be ready when I call’
You hear a lot these days about players wanting to know their roles. To an old timer like Don Zimmer, the situation is amusing. Zim once told me a story about what he told a pitcher who asked him what his role was.
“I said to him, ‘Well, you go out to the bullpen. If the bullpen coach gets a call from me for you to warm up, you start warming up. When I signal for you, you leave the bullpen and come into the game. Once you get into the game, get some batters out. That is your role.’ ’’
I was thinking about that Tuesday when I heard Yankees manager Joe Girardi’s response about how he would use his bullpen now that David Robertson became the second Yankees closer to go on the disabled list. When Mariano Rivera went down with a knee injury that will require surgery, Robertson inherited the closer job, but he has been hurting since he last pitched Friday night. Tests Monday revealed a strained left oblique, which could shelve Robertson for a period longer than the minimum 15 days.
So Rafael Soriano will now handle the closing duties, which he did successfully Monday night with his second save of the season. Soriano is an old hand at this. In 2010, the year before he signed as a free agent with the Yankees, Soriano led the American League in saves with 45 (in 48 opportunities) for the Rays.
With Rivera and Robertson disabled, the Yankees’ ideal late bullpen situation of using Soriano in the seventh inning, Robertson in the eighth and Rivera in the ninth is out the window.
“I don’t have an eighth-inning guy anymore,” Girardi said. “I have a ninth-inning guy and then I’ve got a lot of innings.”
And how will the other relievers fall in line.
“Just pitch when I call you; that’s it,” Girardi said, sounding very much like his former mentor, Mr. Zimmer.
Girardi put down speculation that Phil Hughes, who has considerable experience as a reliever, might have to come out of the rotation to shore up the bullpen. Girardi likes the way Hughes has pitched lately with two straight victories and doesn’t want to mess with it. Besides, Ivan Nova may be unable to make his next start after sustaining a bruised right foot and sprained right ankle Monday night so Girardi doesn’t want to pull his rotation apart for the sake of the bullpen.
What this situation may result in is Girardi going a bit longer with his starters. He had the ideal starter for that Tuesday night in CC Sabathia, who pitched eight innings in each of his previous four starts.
Yanks top Orioles but are hurting
The Yankees slushed their way through the rain for an 8-5 victory Monday night in Baltimore that dropped the Orioles into a first-place tie with the Rays in the tightly-bunched American League East where the Bombers are only 1 ½ games out of first. It was a painful triumph, however.
Starting pitcher Ivan Nova, who had an uneven outing, took a hot shot off his right foot on a single by Nick Markakis in the third inning and had to come out of the game one out in the sixth after spraining his right ankle while fielding a chopper by Wilson Betemit. X-rays were negative, which is a positive sign but Nova was definitely in pain and is not definite to make his next start.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi told reporters after the game that David Robertson has been bothered by a sore left ribcage, which is why Rafael Soriano closed out the game and chalked up his second save. Robertson will undergo tests Tuesday.
Left fielder Raul Ibanez also had to come out of the game in the ninth inning when he was hit on the right elbow by a pitch from Orioles lefthander Dana Eveland.
The obvious replacement if Nova needs to be skipped in the rotation would be David Phelps, who earned his first major-league victory as part of an ensemble bullpen effort from five relievers who combined for 3 2/3 scoreless innings with three hits but no walks and six strikeouts.
Another positive combination came from 3-4-5 hitters as Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira teamed up to go 7-for-14 with 2 doubles, 1 home run, 2 RBI and 7 runs. The doubles were by Cano and Teixeira, and the homer was by Teixeira, who really needed it. Girardi has been facing questions recently about whether Tex should be buried deeper down the lineup. There were no such questions Monday night.
For the second straight game, Derek Jeter passed a Hall of Famer on the career hit list and grounded into two double plays (although replays of the second twin killing indicated he was really safe). The Captain’s third-inning single was career hit No. 3,143, breaking a tie with Robin Yount to put him in 16th place alone, nine hits behind No. 15 Paul Waner and 11 back of No. 14 George Brett.
Curtis Granderson, who played in his 1,000th game Sunday, homered in his 1,001st game. The center fielder’s 12th home run of the season was his second this year at Camden Yards. The other 10 have all been at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees are 4-0 at Camden Yards this season.
The Yankees have 10 players on their roster, including the disabled list, who have played in more than 1,000 games. In addition to Granderson, the others are Jeter, Rodriguez, Ibanez, Teixeira, Cano, Andruw Jones, Eric Chavez, Nick Swisher and Mariano Rivera). That is the most since 2009 when the Dodgers had 11 players with 1,000 or more games.
Still no bunts from Teixeira to combat shift
Mark Teixeira led off the second inning Monday night at Baltimore with the Yankees trailing, 2-0. The Orioles were employing the over-shift against Teixeira, the switch hitter who was batting left-handed against Baltimore righthander Jason Hammel.
Remember how Teixeira said in the spring that he worked on bunting over the winter in order to keep defenses honest on occasion? More than six weeks into the season, and still Teixeira has not dropped down a bunt for a sure single. What better chance to do it than leading off an inning in a game in which your team is trailing? The idea in that situation is to get a runner on base.
It used to drive me crazy watching Jason Giambi failing to take advantage of the shift that has three players on the right side of the infield and a lone player on the left side playing a deep shortstop. I wouldn’t expect a slugger to bunt if there were runners on base, but leading off an inning, why not dump a ball to the left side and stride to an easy single? You’d be helping your team as well as your batting average.
Teixeira came up in the fourth inning with none out and runners on first and second, so I did not expect him to bunt in that instance. He ended up grounding out to first base where Chris Davis bobbled the ball and lost the chance for a double play. The runners advanced and were able to score on a double by Nick Swisher that tied the score.
Despite what he said this spring, Teixeira seems in the same mindset as Giambi. Tex entered the game batting .223. Granted, he is known to be slow starter, but Teixeira has more than 130 at-bats already. We are way out of the starter’s block by now.
Teixeira is still battling a bronchial condition that has lingered for more than a month with painful coughing fits. Yanks manager Joe Girardi has been hit recently with questions from reporters about whether to drop Teixeira lower in the batting order. Girardi, who kept Teixeira in the 3-hole until the last week of the 2011 season even though the first baseman was hitting around .250 (he finished at .248), is nothing if not patient and says he plans no changes at this point.
Teixeira rewarded Girardi for his patience by driving a two-run home run to right field off former teammate Luis Ayala that gave the Yankees a 7-5 lead in the seventh inning.
Nice start for Andy but not a nice finish
Now think for a moment if any pitcher other than Andy Pettitte came off the mound with one out in the seventh inning and the Yankees trailing, 4-1, would a standing ovation be warranted?
Of course not, but that was the kind of day Sunday was for Pettitte, who made his first start for the Bombers since Game 3 of the 2010 American League Championship Series against the Rangers and supplied a serviceable if less than spectacular 6 1/3-inning performance against a somewhat placid Seattle lineup.
From the moment he went out to the bullpen to warm up for his Mother’s Day start to his name being announced in the lineup to his trot to the mound to begin the game, Pettitte was the recipient of loud cheers from the Yankee Stadium crowd of 41,631. Clearly, Yankees fans were delighted to see the lefthander back in pinstripes 19 months after his most recent major-league appearance.
“I appreciate the fans,” Pettitte said. “They have been great to me, but I just want to do my job. I was frustrated because I feel I let the game get out of hand.”
Andy was a big embarrassed by the reception as he departed the game. He waved to the crowd before he walked down the dugout steps, but in his mind he had been a disappointment in not helping the Yankees win.
Had the day continued its fairy-tale theme, Pettitte would have come away with a victory. But two-run home runs by Justin Smoak in the fourth inning and Casper Wells in the sixth would results in an ‘L’ behind Andy’s name in the boxscore as the Mariners avoided being swept with a 6-2 victory.
Pettitte did accomplish what manager Joe Girardi had hoped to see.
“I hope he doesn’t try to do too much,” Girardi had said before the game. “You worry about a guy in his situation overthrowing the ball and being up in the zone. I would like to get six innings out of him.”
Girardi got that and a bit more from Pettitte, whose final pitch was his 94th of the afternoon. He gave up seven hits and three walks, threw a wild pitch and had two strikeouts. Vintage Pettitte it was not, but considering his age (39) and the lengthy layoff the outing was encouraging.
“His pitches were sharp; he located well,” Girardi said. “It looked like he didn’t miss a beat.”
Pettitte was rougher on himself in assessing the outing, but that was also in character. Andy has not stopped wearing the hair shirt when it comes to accepting blame.
“The guys got me back in the game and I give up a two-run home run,” Pettitte said. “I got careless with a few pitches.”
He was referring to the sixth inning. The Yankees had closed to 5-1 in the fifth but blew a golden opportunity for a big inning (bases loaded, none out) when after Russell Martin walked with one out to force in a run Derek Jeter grounded into an inning-ending double play, one of three twin killings that came to the aid of Kevin Millwood, 37, something of an ancient Mariner himself who won for the first time this season in five decisions.
Seattle quickly pushed the score to 4-1 on a single by Dustin Ackley and the homer by Wells the very next inning.
“I wasn’t able to locate my four-seamer inside to right-handed hitters,” Pettitte said. “Because of that, my cutter wasn’t as effective. My command was off, and I made some mental mistakes.”
Andy did not get much support from his teammates. The Yankees were hitless in five at-bats with runners in scoring position. They stranded the bases loaded in the eighth when Seattle manager Eric Wedge used four relievers to get through the inning after foolishly (I thought) removing Millwood. Nick Swisher was thrown out trying to stretch a leadoff double in the ninth into a triple to wound a potential rally.
Now the question is how Pettitte will feel after this start. If he holds to form, there should be no setbacks that would prevent him from taking his regular turn Friday night when the Yankees come back to the Stadium after the four-game trip this week to Baltimore and Toronto.
“It was exactly what I thought it would be,” Pettitte said of his first game back from retirement. “I felt great. I felt like I never left. It was not as emotional as I thought it was going to be. I did get a little tired in the seventh, but I can’t believe how comfortable it was for me. I won’t be able to say if this [comeback] was a success or not until October.”
Sounds of approval reach Hughes
A sound Phil Hughes hasn’t heard much this year at Yankee Stadium welcomed him as he walked off the mound Saturday in the eighth inning. He had come within an infield hit and an outfield flare of making it through that frame for the first time all year. Yankees manager Joe Girardi figured at 112 pitches Hughes was spent, but his effort against the Mariners was well-spent, indeed.
The Stadium crowd of 43,954 certainly appreciated Hughes’ solid work, a sort of game he had so often in his 18-victory season of 2010 but so little last year. It was a matter of being aggressive in the strike zone, which Hughes needs to continue to maintain his position in the rotation.
Only a solo home run by Seattle’s Mike Carp spoiled Hughes’ best outing of the season as he improved his record to 3-4 with a 5.50 ERA in the Yankees’ 6-2 victory over the Mariners. It was not that long ago that Hughes’ ERA was nestling near 8, but two straight winning decisions have silenced talk that he may be bumped out of the rotation now that Andy Pettitte is lined up to start Sunday in the series finale.
Yankees management has maintained faith in Hughes despite his tendency toward high pitch counts that has resulted in his reaching the seventh inning only twice in seven starts. He solved that issue Saturday by walking only one batter and getting ahead in the count on a regular basis. Granted, the Seattle lineup is not among the league’s fiercest, but the Mariners are no longer the pushovers they were a year ago.
The bottom third of the Yankees’ order provided much of the support for Hughes against former teammate Hector Noesi, the pitcher who accompanied catcher-designated hitter Jesus Montero to Seattle in the trade for pitchers Michael Pineda and Jose Campos, both currently on the disabled list. Noesi (2-4, 6.32 ERA) gave the Mariners innings at least – seven – although not enough were quality.
The game was essentially decided in the second inning when the Yankees scored four runs on doubles by Mark Teixeira, Raul Ibanez and Russell Martin and a two-run home run by Jayson Nix, who started at shortstop as Derek Jeter got a DH day. Ibanez, Martin and Nix in the 7-8-9 slots combined for four of the six runs, five of the eight hits and five of the six RBI.
Ibanez, who has been one of the Yankees’ most consistent offensive forces, slugged his seventh home run in the fourth inning, an impressive blast over the center field fence. He has driven in 21 runs with 23 hits, a terrific ratio. And just as Noesi and Montero were playing against their old team, so was Ibanez, who played in 10 seasons for the Mariners from 1996-2000 and again from 2004-08.
There was some offensive input from the front end of the order as well. Jeter helped build a run in the eighth when he singled, stole second and scored on a two-out single by Robinson Cano. Jeter’s two hits Saturday raised his career total to 3,141, tying Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn for 17th place on the all-time list. Can ran his hitting streak to 10 games during which he is batting .425 with 2 home runs and 9 RBI in 40 at-bats.
Boone Logan took over for Hughes in the eighth and earned his first save. He gave up a tainted run in the ninth, but it could have been worse. Carp came close to a second homer with a drive to right in the ninth, but umpires reviewed the play and overruled the original call. Video replays clearly showed that the ball hit the top of the fence and did not go over and come back onto the field.
Carp had to settle for a double, but the umps allowed Kyle Seager, who was on first base, to score. Girardi questioned that decision, but I think the umps got it right. Seager slowed down coming around third base when the original home run call was made. The ball banged away from Yanks right fielder Nick Swisher a significant enough distance that Seager deserved the benefit of the doubt that had he continued full speed he would have scored. There probably would not have been a throw to the plate anyway.
That was the least of the Yankees’ worries, thanks to Hughes.
Combat veterans to be honored Sunday
The Yankees will honor former Marine Cpl. Megan Leavey and Sgt. Rex, the bomb-sniffing German shepherd who was her combat partner during two tours of duty in Iraq, Sunday at Yankee Stadium in a Mother’s Day ceremony prior to the finale of the three-game Yankees-Mariners series.
In 2006, following more than 100 missions with each other, Leavey and Red were both injured by a roadside bomb in Ramadi, Iraq. They underwent a year of rehabilitation together at Camp Pendleton in California. Rex was eventually called back into active service. Leavey, a Purple Heart recipient, was honorably discharged because of her injuries. Leavey subsequently adopted Rex in April after he was retired from service.
A Marine Corps Honor Guard and the New York Police Department Pipes and Drums band will be on hand for the ceremony that is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Right fielder Nick Swisher will present the former Marine with a jersey signed by the entire Yankees team. Yankees president Randy Levine and third baseman Alex Rodriguez will participate in a series of presentations to celebrate Leavey’s dedicated service to her country and the love and loyalty she has shown to her combat partner, Rex.
Ticket holders are urged to arrive at the Stadium no later than 12:15 p.m. to be in position to view the ceremony prior to the 1:05 p.m. game.
Jack O'Connell
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