Results tagged ‘ Clay Rapada ’
Early exit for Nova
In his second start back from the 15-day disabled list, Ivan Nova simply did not have it Saturday at Yankee Stadium. It was not a good day for a starting pitcher to bail early, considering the state of the Yankees’ bullpen with righthanders Rafael Soriano and David Robertson likely unavailable due to excessive use this week.
Nova started off shakily by giving up two runs on consecutive doubles by the first three batters in the game. His teammates came to his rescue and took a 4-2 lead off A’s starter Travis Blackley, who was equally ineffective (the Oakland lefthander didn’t last past the second inning).
Nova was in danger of giving all of the lead back in the third, which proved his last inning. The A’s got to 4-3 on a leadoff home run by Stephen Drew and loaded the bases with one out on two walks book-ending a single by Brandon Moss. Yanks manager Joe Girardi gave the quick hook by bringing in lefty Clay Rapada, who preserved the lead by getting Josh Reddick to ground into a 1-2-3 double play.
The Yankees benefit from sloppy play by the A’s. They made two errors in the infield behind Blackley, who didn’t help his cause much with three walks, a hit batter and a balk.
Oakland tied the score in the fourth against Rapada, who had pitched to more than two batters only once in the past month. He faced six this time and coughed up the lead on an RBI single by Cliff Pennington before coming back to strike out the lefty-swinging Drew and Seth Smith, which is Rapada’s specialty after all.
Tough to blame manager for poor execution
Yankees manager Joe Girardi took a lot of heat in the media for the way he managed the ninth inning Thursday night against the White Sox, who pulled out a 4-3 victory on Dayan Viciedo’s three-run home run off David Robertson. I do not think all the criticism is warranted.
One area in which Girardi has showed real expertise as a manager is handling the bullpen, which is a far easier job we all know when Mariano Rivera is around. Mo has been out of the picture since early May and yet the Yankees have thrived largely because of their relief work. Rafael Soriano, an experienced closer, has done a good job spelling Rivera and the other relievers have responded well to Girardi’s mix-and-match system.
Boone Logan and Cody Eppley did great work getting out of an eighth-inning jam Thursday night to bail out Ivan Nova. Had Soriano been available, he surely would have worked the ninth with the Yanks ahead, 3-1, and been in line for a save. The righthander had pitched four of the previous five days and was not sharp in his last outing, so Girardi decided to let Eppley start the ninth against a right-handed batter, Alex Rios, who singled, and bring in lefthander Clay Rapada to face the left-handed batting A.J. Pierzynski.
Girardi looked pretty smart when Pierzynski hit a dribbling roller back to the mound that had “double play” written all over it. Then Rapada threw the ball wide left of Derek Jeter covering second base and into center field, and suddenly Girardi got a whole lot dumber. That forced him to bring in Robertson, who gave up the Viciedo bomb on a 1-0 fastball.
Why didn’t Girardi simply let Robertson start the ninth inning? That is what a lot of reporters wanted to know after the game. Truth be told, so did Robertson, at least judging from his body language in the clubhouse after the game. Girardi explained that Robertson missed considerable time this year because of injury and he is being cautious with him.
To me, that is a reasonable explanation. Besides, if Rapada doesn’t throw away two outs, there is probably no need to have a conversation about all this. Managerial moves are judged positively or negatively based on execution. Rapada’s lack of it is what cost the Yankees in that inning, not the bullpen manipulation by the manager.
The home run allowed to Viciedo was the first go-ahead jack allowed by a Yankees pitcher in the ninth inning working with a lead since the Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki hit a walk-off, two-run homer off Rivera Sept. 9, 2009 at Seattle with the Yanks leading 2-1. It was the first such homer with the Yanks leading by at least two runs since Marco Scutaro’s three-run walk-off homer off Rivera April 15, 2007 at Oakland with the Yankees up, 4-2. The previous time an opponent hit a go-ahead homer when down by at least two runs in the ninth or later at Yankee Stadium was the Red Sox’ Bob Montgomery July 28, 1972 off Sparky Lyle in the first game of a doubleheader with the Yankees ahead, 5-3.
Nova’s good start foiled by bullpen failure
When a team loses two of its top pitchers to injury as the Yankees have with CC Sabathia (strained left groin) and Andy Pettitte (fractured left fibula), there is a danger that the other pitchers might put too much pressure on themselves in an attempt to fill the void. There is one thing to stepping up and another thing to going overboard and falling out of your own rhythm.
Some pitchers fall victim to muscling up and overthrowing. The point has been well made by Yankees manager Joe Girardi that the team’s other starters need not try to play the hero role to offset the losses of Sabathia and Pettitte. Just be yourself, Girardi cautioned. Take care of your day to start, he said, and he will figure out what to do on the days CC and Andy were supposed to go.
It looked as if Ivan Nova followed that advice to the letter Thursday night. A strong start was needed by the Yankees after the dark news of Wednesday. Nova provided it. He pitched his game and no one else’s. The result should have been what it normally is when Nova takes the mound – a victory.
Instead, a rare bullpen breakdown resulted in a 4-3 loss to the White Sox. Eighth-inning relief work by Boone Logan and Cody Eppley was followed by dismal efforts from Clay Rapada and David Robertson.
Alex Rodriguez, who has drawn some concern about how few doubles he has this season, lined two of them, which was as many as he had combined over his previous 31 games. The second one was a big, two-out hit in the fifth inning that scored Curtis Granderson, who had singled, and negated the home run in the top half by Alejandro De Aza, who gave Nova a hard time of it all game with four hits.
Robinson Cano followed A-Rod’s double with a two-bagger of his own that gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead. As well as Nova was pitching, he was in a close game because the Yankees were being tamed to a degree by White Sox starter Dylan Alexrod, their fifth starter. The Yankees wasted a leadoff double by Rodriguez in the fourth and were hitless in five at-bats with runners in scoring position before Cano’s double in the fifth.
Nova departed the game in the eighth to a standing ovation from the Yankee Stadium crowd of 44,041 after he caught Kevin Youkilis looking at a called third strike with De Aza on second. Youkilis, who was recently traded to Chicago from Boston, heard the usual onslaught of boos that used to ring his ears during his Red Sox days.
Logan came in to face left-handed swinging Adam Dunn and retired him on a fly to deep center that allowed De Aza to cross to third with two out. Girardi called on Eppley to face right-handed slugger Paul Konerko, who was frozen on a 1-2 slider. Mark Teixeira’s home run off lefthander Hector Santiago supplied an insurance run, but it guaranteed no dividend.
After Alex Rios led off the ninth with a single, Girardi went to the left-handed Rapada to pitch to left-handed batting A.J. Pierzynski. The White Sox catcher hit a dribbler right back to Rapada. It might have been a double play except Rapada threw wide to the left of second base and behind shortstop Derek Jeter covering. Instead of two outs and a runner on third base, the White Sox had none out and runners on first and third.
Not for long, though. Dayan Viciedo greeted Robertson with a three-run home run to left off a 1-0 fastball, which sunned the crowd not to mention the Yankees’ dugout.
Jeter singled in the seventh to catch another Hall of Famer on the all-time hits list. This time it was one of his idols, Cal Ripken Jr., for a 13th place tie at 3,184. Jeter’s next at-bat was in the ninth with two out and the potential tying run at first base. Passing Ripken was not on his mind as much as getting that runner home or at least keeping the rally going. Jeter’s inside-out swing produced a line drive that teasingly had the crowd on its feet only to watch Rios catch the ball in front of the wall.
Tough day for Yankees lefthanders
Wednesday was supposed to be a feel-good day for Andy Pettitte. The lefthander was to spend some time with 5-year-old Andy Fass, a legally blind fan whom Pettitte met at a Double A game in Trenton back in April, as part of the HOPE Week celebration.
Pettitte didn’t feel very well in the fifth inning of Wednesday’s game when Indians first baseman Casey Kotchman drilled a liner just above the pitcher’s left ankle. Pettitte tried to tough it out and stay in the game, but one pitch later Yankees manager Joe Girardi decided to take him out and Andy limped into the dugout.
X-rays revealed a fractured fibula, which will sideline Pettitte for at least six weeks. He was on crutches and wearing a large boot after the game. Surgery will not be required, but the recovery period, especially for a 40-year-old, will not be brief.
The injury came on the same day that the Yankees placed their other left-handed starter, CC Sabathia on the disabled list due to a strained left adductor muscle near the groin. In less than 24 hours, 40 percent of the Yankees’ rotation was in sick bay.
“I know CC felt bad about going on the DL,” Pettitte said. “I think I made him feel better when I told him I’ll be on there a lot longer than he will.”
“A bad day for lefthanders,” Girardi called it. “It’s not what you’re looking for, but no one is going to feel sorry for us. We have been a resilient team. It’s what you have to do.”
General manager Brian Cashman said there is no need to go into panic mode. He does not expect Sabathia to be gone longer that two, perhaps three, starts, and there are some pitching resources within the organization to offset Pettitte’s loss before looking elsewhere. You can be sure that Cashman will get plenty of phone calls Thursday from general managers trying to stick him with overpriced and ineffective pitchers. Did someone say Carlos Zambrano? Yikes!
For the short term, the Yankees will cover the rotation holes with Triple A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre call-up Adam Warren, who will start Friday night against the White Sox, and Freddy Garcia, who was the winning pitcher in relief of the Yanks’ 5-4 victory Wednesday, Monday night at St. Petersburg, Fla.
Garcia was originally penciled by Girardi to start Friday night but after losing Pettitte and with Cody Eppley and Clay Rapada having control issues Garcia was summoned to keep the Yanks close, which he did with 2 1/3 hitless innings with two strikeouts. Girardi reasoned correctly that you can’t worry about Friday’s game when you trying to win Wednesday’s.
Don’t forget that Garcia began the season as the Yankees’ fifth starter and has considerable experience to help them whether this storm. Freddy has done a solid job in long relief (2-0, 1.56 ERA) in 10 relief appearances spanning 17 1/3 innings to lower his season ERA to 6.39.
The other important aspect for the Yankees is that remaining starters Hiroki Kuroda, Ivan Nova and Phil Hughes don’t go out of their way to “step it up” with Sabathia and Pettitte out. Girardi was asked about that and made it clear that none of those pitchers can replace a Sabathia or a Pettitte.
“I’m going to tell them to just be themselves and we’ll take care of the other two days,” Girardi said.
Pettitte had hoped he would be able to continue. He is used to balls being hit back to him and has the shin bruises to prove it.
“That’s what I thought it was at first,” he said. “I figured once I started throwing the pain would lessen the way it did with my shins. It was bothering me in my warm-ups, but when I threw that first pitch [after play resumed] there was an awful lot of pain. It’s frustrating because I had been feeling good. It’s time to put on the pom-poms and be a cheerleader.”
Garcia, Robinson Cano and Eric Chavez came to Pettitte’s rescue as the Yankees ran off their fifth straight victory. Cano put the Yanks ahead with a two-run home run in the sixth off Ubaldo Jimenez, one of the second baseman’s three hits in the game. Chavez drove in three runs with a two-run double in the fourth and an RBI single in the eighth for a crucial insurance run that loomed large when Rafael Soriano gave up a run.
It could have been worse, much worse, but Soriano got a huge strikeout of Johnny Damon with the bases loaded in a confrontation that pleased the Yankee Stadium crowd of 45,099. A walk pushed in the run, but Soriano got Asdrubal Cabrera on a fly ball for his 17th save.
HOPE Week: Andy & Andy
Jill and Marc Fass came to Yankee Stadium Wednesday with their 5-year-old son, Andy, to watch another Andy pitch. Andy Pettitte first met Andy Fass at a Double A game while the lefthander was pitching for the Trenton Thunder to prepare for a return to the Yankees.
When the Fasses entered Suite 4 at the Stadium, they were greeted by pitchers CC Sabathia, Phil Hughes and Clay Rapada as part of the HOPE Week celebration that was just the beginning of a fruitful afternoon for the family from Hamilton, N.J.
After Wednesday’s Yankees-Indians game, those three pitchers, shortstop Derek Jeter, catchers Russell Martin and Chris Stewart and coaches Rob Thompson and Mick Kelleher joined Andy Fass for a private tee-ball lesson and other games with kids who also have Andy’s condition of albinism at the MLB Fan Cave in Chelsea.
A chance encounter gave Andy Fass a new goal and hope. As someone who has a condition called oculocutaneous albinism, which affects approximately 40,000 people around the world, Andy is legally blind and without pigment in his skin, forcing him to avoid long exposure to the sun. Though Andy has always gravitated to people and many individual activities, he was told baseball would never be an option due to the contact and the chance of injury due to moving objects.
All that changed, however, April 25, 2012, when Pettitte, who was making a start at Trenton, gave little Andy the baseball he was using to warm up. Encouraged by the gesture, little Andy – who was attending his first-ever professional baseball game – was immediately inspired to sign up for tee-ball and take on the challenge.
“Andy is legally blind, but he can make out some shapes and forms,” Jill Fass said. “He will be playing tee-ball with an orange ball to see it better. We didn’t find out about this until we got to the parking lot. What the players are doing is really fantastic.”
Starting pitchers normally do not communicate with anyone before the game the day they start, but Pettitte chatted briefly with young Andy next to the dugout before his new fan threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
“Andy Pettitte is my favorite player because he is the best player in the world,” Andy said.
Home runs + quality pitching = success
Yankees manager Joe Girardi has finally admitted publicly what we all pretty much new. The Yankees need to hit the ball out of the ballpark to win games. All there struggles hitting with runners in scoring position point to that. Despite batting .217 in clutch situations, the Yankees are in first place in the American League East largely because of two elements – quality pitching and power hitting, both of which were on display Saturday night.
The Yanks guaranteed their winning of this year’s the Subway Series with a stirring, come-from-behind, 4-3 victory over the Mets at Citi Field. It was all Mets for six innings until the Yankees began hitting the ball over the fence. They have taken four of five games from the Mets this year, which turns Sunday night’s series finale into merely a marquee match-up between CC Sabathia and R.A. Dickey.
Raul Ibanez’s three-run home run in the seventh inning off Chris Young was the Yankees’ only hit in eight at-bats with runners in scoring position in this series, but it was a big one. It tied the score after the Yankees had looked pretty lifeless for six innings. One out later, Eric Chavez got a pinch-hit homer, the first of his career, to put the Yankees ahead.
The Yanks’ bullpen handled the rest. Spelling Ivan Nova over the final 3 1/3 innings, winning pitcher Clay Rapada (2-0), Cody Eppley, Boone Logan, David Robertson and Rafael Soriano (14th save) combined to hold the Mets to two hits and two walks with eight strikeouts. From the third out of the sixth through the second out of the ninth, all eight of those outs by the Mets were on strikeouts. In all, the Mets struck out 15 times in the game.
Rapada came on for Nova and ended the sixth with a strikeout of Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who had homered three innings earlier, after the Mets had gone up, 3-0. Logan inherited a one-out, runner on third situation in the seventh and struck out two left-handed hitters, Lucas Duda and Daniel Murphy. Robertson had a no-contact eighth with two walks and three strikeouts.
Soriano had two strikeouts sandwiched around a single by David Wright before Murphy excited the record Citi Field crowd of 42,122 with a fly ball to the warning track in right where it nestled in the glove of Nick Swisher. No leap at the wall this time.
“We’re a home run-hitting club,” Girardi had said Friday night when three Yankees home runs were not enough to avoid a 6-4 loss. “We are who we are. There are basketball clubs that are built around 3-point shooting and when they don’t make their 3’s they don’t win. If we hit two- and three-run homers, we usually win games.”
Plainer truth could not be spoken about the 2012 Yankees. They lead the majors in homers with 110 in 70 games, including 32 over their past 18 games. The Yankees are 41-15 when they hit at least one home run and 30-7 when they hit more than one. In games when they fail to go yard, the Yankees are 1-13. They have out-homered the Mets this year, 13-4.
But let us not forget pitching. The Yankees made sure that fans remember that aspect in helping to end a three-game losing streak and ensuring bragging rights over the Mets for another year.
Nova’s unbeaten road streak continues
Ivan Nova remained undefeated on the road in his past 16 starts away from Yankee Stadium, and he has Raul Ibanez to thank for it.
Nova was staring at the possibility that he might suffer his first road loss since June 3 last year at Anaheim when he left Saturday night’s Subway Series game at Citi Field trailing, 3-0. One of the runs against Nova was unearned because of an error by Alex Rodriguez, but the righthander was stung by a Kirk Nieuwenhuis home run in the third inning and a two-out, RBI single by opposing pitcher Chris Young in the sixth.
Ibanez changed all that for Nova in the seventh when he followed a walk to Mark Teixeira and a double by Nick Swisher (his 1,000th career hit) by leaning into a first-pitch fastball from Young and driving a tracer-bullet liner over the right field fence for his 11th home run that took Nova off the hook by tying the score.
Nova did not extend his 12-game winning streak on the road, but he didn’t lose the game, either. The pitcher of record became Clay Rapada, who took over from Nova after Young’s hit and got out of the inning by striking out Nieuwenhuis.
Rapada was in position for the winning decision when Eric Chavez batted for him in the seventh and homered to left off Jon Rauch on a 0-2 fastball. It was Chavez fifth home run of the season and 237th of his career but his first in a pinch-hitting role.
The assault came after Young had held the Yankees to two singles and two walks over six shutout innings. The Mets went a complete turn in the rotation with their starters not allowing a run over the first five innings of games.
Yanks outhomered as 4 solos not good enough
Wednesday seemed to be ideal for the Yankees. Everyone knows how hot it was. Temperatures soared in the 90s throughout the game, the kind of day when the ball carries very well, making the dimensions at Yankee Stadium even more comfortable than normal for power hitters. The Yankees lead the major leagues in home runs. What could have been better?
The Braves even did the Yankees a favor by giving Chipper Jones a day off. Chipper’s only time out of the dugout was in a pre-game ceremony when Derek Jeter and Andruw Jones on behalf of the Yankees presented him with a trophy case in which he could put third base from the game as a parting gift in his farewell season. Of course, the Yankees would like to see Chipper play more games at the Stadium because that would mean they would be in the World Series.
It was a nice gesture by the Yankees, but the Braves returned the favor by outslugging them in a 10-5 home run derby. It was the first losing series for the Yankees since May 28-30 when they dropped two of three to the Angels at Anaheim. The Braves also took two out of three from the Yankees and unlike the first two games beat the Bombers at their own game Wednesday.
Atlanta hit five home runs to the Yankees’ four. Each starting pitcher, the Yanks’ Phil Hughes and the Braves’ Tommy Hanson, was touched for four, which marked the first time in franchise history that two pitchers allowed four home runs apiece in the same game. The nine combined homers were the most in a game at the current Yankee Stadium and tied the franchise mark for any home game (the fifth time).
It was a distressing day for Hughes, who has allowed 19 home runs in 14 starts totaling 78 1/3 innings. His previous start June 15 at Washington was the only game in which Hughes did not give up a home run. The righthander had location issues, made little use of his changeup and relied on a fastball that he could not get down in the zone.
Freddie Freeman started the onslaught with a two-run shot in a three-run first inning. Martin Prado found the seats in the third. Jason Heyward hit the first of his two home runs in the fourth, and backup catcher David Ross whacked a 0-2 pitch for a homer in the fifth.
Despite all that, the Yankees kept themselves in position for a comeback by teeing off regularly against Hanson – by Derek Jeter in the first, Eric Chavez in the fifth and back-to-back jobs by Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano in the sixth that got them within 6-4 with plenty of sundry daylight left.
Curtis Granderson’s run-scoring single with one out in the seventh made it a one-run game and got the potential tying run to third base, but Rodriguez grounded into a double play to end the threat. It was the first of two double-play situations that hurt the Yankees. The other came in the eighth when their failure to turn two gave the Braves a huge opening.
Mark Teixeira was not in the starting lineup to rest his sore left heel, which he hurt Tuesday night by getting hit there with a hard ground ball. Eric Chavez started at first base in his place.
In the eighth, the Braves had runners on first and third with two out when Freeman hit a hard grounder to Chavez, who made a back-handed stop but bobbled it momentarily losing the chance to go to second base for what might have been an inning-ending DP. Chavez was able to get only the out at first base as a run scored.
That gave Heyward an at-bat, which resulted in a two-run home run off Boone Logan, who had a 13-appearance streak of unscored upon relief ended. The Braves added a tack-on run in the ninth off Freddy Garcia. That 10th run allowed marked a season high for the Yankees, who became the last team in the majors to give up a double-figure run total in a game this year.
Hughes’ exit after 4 1/3 innings stopped a stretch of 19 consecutive games in which a Yankees starter pitched at least six innings. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the had been the longest such streak in the majors this season and the franchise’s longest since 1981 (also 19).
Jeter’s homer was his fourth of the season leading off a game and 28th of his career, extending his club record. It was also Jeet’s ninth career homer on a game’s first pitch and second this year (the other was June 3 at Detroit off Justin Verlander). The Captain is one shy of the most leadoff homers he has had in one season. He had five in 2005.
Rodriguez’s home run was career No. 640 and gave him his 1,925th career run batted in as he passed Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx into sixth place on the all-time list.
On the plus side for the Yankees was the relief outing of Clay Rapada, who struck out the four batters he faced. The lefthander has held opposing hitters hitless in the past 20 at-bats against him.
Girardi has many reasons to savor 500th victory
Joe Girardi’s 500th managerial victory will be easy for him to remember because so many things went well for the Yankees. When two teams with six-game winning streaks collide, something has got to give, but all the American League East leading Yanks gave the National League East leading Nationals Friday night was trouble.
In their 7-2 victory, the Yankees got another strong start from Phil Hughes, they got big hits with runners in scoring position, had a hit with the bases loaded and came within one out of winning a game without hitting a home run. Curtis Granderson ruined that possibility when he slammed his 20th homer with two down in the ninth, but that was fine for Girardi.
The manager was even able to work David Robertson into the mix by using him in a non-save situation in the ninth. Robbie showed some rust by allowing a run on a pair of doubles, but it was nice to see him back in a game for the first time in more than a month.
Hughes scattered six hits and two walks with nine strikeouts over six innings to win his third straight start. It was a one-run game while Hughes was on the mound in a duel with Nationals lefthander Gio Gonzalez, who is 8-3 this season but sustained his fourth straight loss to the Yankees as his career record against them fell to 1-5.
Actually, Gonzalez was out of the game by the time the Yankees broke it open. Manager Davey Johnson lifted Gonzalez, who seemed none too happy about it, after he gave up a leadoff single to Andruw Jones in the seventh. The Yanks then roughed up relievers Brad Lidge and Mike Gonzalez for four runs.
Derek Jeter got the bases-loaded hit, a single. Another run scored on a wild throw by shortstop Ian Desmond. Granderson doubled in two more runs. The Yankees had 4-for-8 (.500) with runners in scoring position. Cody Eppley and Clay Rapada provided a shutout inning of relief apiece before Robertson worked the ninth.
The 2-1 lead Hughes worked with was supplied by RBI singles from Alex Rodriguez and Nick Swisher. For A-Rod, the RBI was career No. 1,924, which tied him with Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx for sixth place on the all-time list. In the fifth spot is another Hall of Famer, Stan Musial, at 1,951. And just the other day, Rodriguez matched Lou Gehrig’s grand slam mark of 23. A-Rod is running elbows with an awful lot of Hall of Famers these days.
Hughes, whose record improved to 7-5, has pitched to a 1.29 ERA over his past three starts, all victories. Going back further, over his past eight starts since May 6, Hughes is 6-1 with a 3.27 ERA and 49 strikeouts in 52 1/3 innings. The righthander has lowered his ERA over that stretch from 7.48 to 4.50. Hughes also ran his career record in inter-league play to 4-1 with a 3.55 ERA.
It was the Yankees’ first game at Nationals Park. They are 19-18 in their debut games at new stadiums in the expansion era dating to 1961.
Jack O'Connell
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