Results tagged ‘ Subway Series ’
Sabathia gets Yankees back on track
Subway Series hangover over. A little dose of CC was a big help.
In this case, the CC wasn’t Canadian Club whiskey but a pitcher named Sabathia, who not only righted the Yankees Friday night but also himself. The lefthander found his rhythm early amid hot and humid conditions and rang bells on the velocity pole he had not reached previously.
“I hadn’t seen a lot of 94s until tonight,” manager Joe Girardi said after the Yankees’ 4-1 victory over Boston that ended their five-game losing streak and got Sabathia his first winning decision in six starts since April 27.
Sabathia hit 94 miles per hour on his fastball occasionally and was regularly between 91 and 93 mph with his heater. CC talked after the game more about location than velocity but admitted he felt more like himself than he has for a while.
“It just felt good to get us back on the right track,” Sabathia said. “I always feel like it’s my responsibility to go out and have a good game and give us a chance to win, especially after what happened to us against the Mets.”
Sabathia was not part of the Subway Series sweep, but the five-game losing streak began on his watch with a poor outing last Sunday at Tropicana Field in an 8-3 drubbing by the Rays. Friday night was a different story.
“This is the kind of game we’re used to seeing from CC,” Girardi said. “This is almost where he is every year since he has been with us. When the weather warms up, he gets on a roll.”
Sabathia not only registered a few more ticks on the radar gun but had the bite back on his slider, the pitch he used for six of his 10 strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings. The only run he allowed was in the seventh on doubles by Dustin Pedroia and Mike Napoli. CC did not walk a batter.
“Anytime he was in a fastball count, he’d go to his breaking ball or his changeup to keep us off stride,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said. “He didn’t compound an issue by issuing a base on balls.”
Speaking of walks, the Yankees drew four of them off Jon Lester, twice as many as they had in the four games total against the Mets. Mark Teixeira started the Yankees’ two-run second inning with a walk. After Vernon Wells doubled, the Yankees scored on a single by Jayson Nix and one out later on a single by Ichiro Suzuki.
That would be all the support Sabathia would need, but the Yankees pushed across two more runs against Lester, who had defeated them back on Opening Day, on RBI singles by Kevin Youkilis in the fifth and Brett Gardner in the seventh.
It was also important to see Mariano Rivera get back on the bike again. Three nights after his stunning loss at Citi Field, Mo withstood singles by Pedroia and David Ortiz in the ninth to nail down his 19th save in 20 tries and 36th in a row at Yankee Stadium.
Yanks suffer a sweep in the subway
Maybe it was a good thing that the Subway Series was reduced from six games to four this year. The Yankees could do without any more games against the Mets, thank you. The annual, cross-borough matchup was all blue and orange as anyone passing the Empire State Building this week knows.
The Yankees did not need to stare at the midtown landmark to know what the Mets did to them the past four nights. Thursday night’s 3-1 loss was another example of an offensive breakdown. After Robinson Cano accounted for the Yankees’ only run with one out in the third inning, the next 20 batters were retired.
Dillon Gee looked like Tom Seaver as the Mets righthander gave up only three singles other than Cano’s 14th home run with no walks and 12 strikeouts, including the last five batters he faced, in 7 1/3 innings. Relievers Scott Rice and Bobby Parnell (ninth save) handled matters from there.
The Yankees failed to draw a walk for the third consecutive game. They had only two walks in the four games and struck out 40 times. They scored seven runs overall and only one in three of the games as their losing streak expanded to five games, their longest in two years. They wasted a decent start from rookie lefthander Vidal Nuno (6 innings 3 hits, 2 runs, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts) and could not keep the taunts of “Let’s Go Mets” from being heard throughout the game among the Yankee Stadium crowd of 44,207.
This is definitely a low point for the Yankees, who were swept by the Mets in the Subway Series for the first time since inter-league play began in 1997. There are 11 players on the current roster that played in the Subway Series for the first time. They were looking forward to the experience going in but have little positive to say about it now.
“We have got to find a way to get out of it,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “Tomorrow is as good a day to get back to our winning ways as any.”
Tomorrow (Friday) the first-place Red Sox roll into town for a three-game series. Boston has a two-game lead over the Yankees in the American League East, which means they have to sweep to get back into first place. There is a good chance that Mark Teixeira and Kevin Youkilis will be activated for the series. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Yankees sent a limousine to Trenton to get them to the Bronx.
“I hope they feel good and can be productive,” Girardi said.
Nuno was victimized by Marlon Byrd’s second home run of the series, a two-run shot to left in the second inning. Cano’s homer in the bottom half made the score 2-1, and it stayed that way until the eighth when Joba Chamberlain, in his first game back from the disabled list, was guilty of a costly wild pitch that set up a run when John Buck’s slow roller along the third base line hit the bag for an RBI single.
The Yankees have lost back-to-back series for the first time since going 1-2 in each of their first two series of the season, against the Red Sox April 1-4 and the Tigers April 5-7 and were swept in back-to-back series for the first time since 2009, 0-2 vs. the Red Sox May 4-5 and 0-2 vs. the Rays May 6-7.
The Yanks finished the Subway Series 0-4, which matches their most losses in a single season against the Mets (2-4 in both 2004 and ’08). The four-game losing streak against the Mets is the Yankees’ longest against them. According to the Elias Sport Bureau, the Yankees were swept in a season series of at least four games against a single team for only the second time in franchise history. They were 0-12 against the Athletics in 1990.
Subway Series subpar so far for Yankees
The Yankees have hit their first skid of the season since they began it by losing four of the first five games. They rectified that by going on a 22-9 run that shot them up the American League East standings. The Yankees need to get some of that juice back.
They have been derailed in this Subway Series. Manager Joe Girardi has said that he does not like the four-game format because he would prefer an odd number of games so that one club could be declared a winner and there can be no splits. Not a problem this year, Joe. The Mets have won the first three games, so the series is theirs for this season.
This is difficult for Yankees fans to swallow because they have to live with Mets fans the rest of the summer who will lord this over them. After all, what else do the Mets have to get their fan base excited beyond the rise of a very impressive young pitcher in Matt Harvey? Regardless of how dreadful the Mets season is likely to develop their fans will have the memory of holding the Yankees down for the better part of a week.
After winning two straight 2-1 decisions at Citi Field and beating bullpen stalwarts David Robertson and Mariano Rivera in the process, the Mets knocked Yankees starter David Phelps out of Wednesday night’s game in the first inning on a collection of well-struck hits and a very costly error by third baseman Jayson Nix to put up a five-spot. The Mets pushed their lead to 8-0 by the fourth inning on the way to a 9-4 verdict.
Phelps, who took a line drive off his pitching forearm in his previous start, was just not himself. He failed to survive the first inning for the first time in his whole career, including high school and college as well as pro ball.
“My pitches were up; everything was up,” said Phelps, who added that his forearm was not the problem. “I need to do a better job of not letting things snow-ball.”
“He just had a stinker,” Girardi said of Phelps, who was charged with five runs (four earned), four hits and two walks in one-third of an inning as his ERA bloated to 4.65. It was the second time this year that a Yankees starter failed to survive the first inning (also Phil Hughes May 15), which had happened only once prior to this season since the current Yankee Stadium opened in 2009. Phelps was the first Yankees starter to exit having recorded only one out in a non-injury situation since Alex Graman July 19, 2004 at St. Petersburg, Fla., and the first at home since Mike Witt allowed four earned runs in one-third of an inning June 1, 1993 against the Indians at the Stadium.
One night after the Yankees could not hang the first ‘L’ of the season on Harvey’s record, they let Jeremy Hefner get the first ‘W’ of his season after five losses. The Yankees did get 12 hits off three Mets pitchers but not enough were productive other than Brennan Boesch’s third home run plus a hustling, RBI single and run-scoring singles by Nix and Robinson Cano.
It was not that long ago – last Saturday, to be precise – that the Yankees were riding high. They had a come-from-behind, 11-inning victory that day at Tropicana Field in stunning fashion with game-tying and game-winning rallies that began with two outs and nobody on base. They looked invincible, but they have not won a game since as their season-high losing streak has stretched to four games.
In the meantime, the Mets have not lost since Saturday and are on a four-game winning streak. New York’s baseball clubs are traveling on subways headed in opposite directions.
Hard to believe: A Subway Series without Jeter
It is fair to say that Monday was the first day this year when Derek Jeter was conspicuously absent. That is not to say that the Captain isn’t missed. No matter how well Jayson Nix and before he got hurt Eduardo Nunez have played shortstop in his absence, neither player has exactly made the Yankees’ fan base forget all about Jeter.
However, the Yankees have played such an invigorating brand of ball over the first 50 games of the season that Jeter’s loss while recovering from left ankle surgery has been muted to a degree.
Now comes the Subway Series and, oh boy, where is Derek?
Jeter has been every bit the face of this annual inter-league competition. He and Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte are the only players still active with the Yankees who were part of the first regular-season series between the New York clubs in 1997. Manager Joe Girardi also goes back to ’97 as the Yankees’ regular catcher. In fact, he got three of the Yankees’ nine hits in that first game when Mets righthander Dave Mlicki silenced a sellout crowd at Yankee Stadium by pitching a 6-0 shutout over the Yankees and Pettitte. Jeter struck out to end the game, which was really the last time the Mets had the upper hand in the series.
DJ and Mo are the only players who have been part of the Subway Series on a continuous basis since then. Pettitte spent three seasons in Houston, and Girardi went back to Chicago and later started his managerial career in Miami. Rivera missed last year’s annual grudge match because of right knee surgery, and Jeter will miss this week’s slate of games at Citi Field and Yankee Stadium.
It felt weird coming to Flushing and not chatting it up with Jeet about the series. He always tried to downplay it but then would take the field and play as if he wanted to knock the Mets’ block off. He often did, too.
In 84 games and 380 at-bats in his career against the Mets, Jeter has batted .368 with a .421 on-base average and a .548 slugging percentage for a .948 OBP with 66 runs, 19 doubles, 2 triples, 13 home runs and 43 RBI. He found Shea Stadium to his liking (.321, 6 doubles, 1 triple, 3 home runs, 18 RBI in 34 games and 137 at-bats) but not so much Citi Field (.233, 2 doubles, 2 RBI in seven games and 30 at-bats).
And, of course, Jeter was the Most Valuable Player of the real Subway Series, the 2000 World Series in which the Yankees beat the Mets in five games, by hitting .409 with 2 doubles, 1 triple, 2 home runs and 2 RBI. It is hard to imagine these two teams playing on the same field together without Jeter being a part of it, but that will be the case the next four nights.
Subway Series Week is here
With the shift to two 15-team leagues in Major League Baseball this year that has led to inter-league play on a daily basis, the Subway Series has gone from a six-game, separate-weekend series to a four-game, home-and-home set on consecutive dates Monday and Tuesday nights at Citi Field and Wednesday and Thursday nights at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees are 22-18 on Memorial Day since 1971 when the holiday began being celebrated on the last Monday in May following the National Holiday Act of 1971. They did not play on Memorial Day in 1973, 2004 or 2005. The Yankees are 7-4 on Memorial Day since 2000. This year marks the first time they will play an inter-league game on Memorial Day. The Yanks are playing on the road on Memorial Day for the third straight year and seventh time in the past eight seasons.
The Yankees lead the all-time series at 54-36, a .600 winning percentage, including a 25-20 (.556) mark in Queens. They are 8-4 at Citi Field after having gone 17-16 at Shea Stadium. The Yanks have won nine of the past 11 games between the clubs, 19 of 27 and 36 of 60 since the start of 2003. Last year the Yankees were 5-1 against the Mets with a three-game sweep at the Stadium and winning two of three at Citi Field. The Yanks are 8-2-6 in season series against the Mets, whose only season series victories were in 2004 and 2008.
Probable starting pitchers for the games in Queens are the Yankees’ Phil Hughes (2-3, 5.51 ERA) vs. the Mets’ Jonathon Niese (3-5, 4.80 ERA) at 7:10 p.m. Monday on YES and a marquee pairing of the Yankees’ Hiroki Kuroda (6-3, 2.67 ERA) and Mets heralded rookie Matt Harvey (5-0, 1.93 ERA) at 7:10 p.m. Tuesday on Channel 9.
For the games in the Bronx, it will be the Yankees’ David Phelps (3-2, 3.96 ERA) vs. the Mets’ Jeremy Hefner (0-5, 4.76 ERA) at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday on YES and the Yankees’ Vidal Nuno (1-1, 1.93 ERA) vs. the Mets’ Dillon Gee (2-6, 6.34 ERA) at 7:05 p.m. Thursday on YES. All games will be carried on WCBS-880AM Radio and WADO-1280AM Radio in Spanish.
Other inter-league items about the Yankees:
Derek Jeter is the all-time leader in hits (345) and runs (195) and ranks fourth in doubles (55).
Alex Rodriguez is the all-time leader in RBI (198) and ranks second in hits (307), third in runs (183) and fourth in home runs (51).
Mariano Rivera is first in saves (72) and has converted each of his past 28 save opportunities in home inter-league play games dating to June 14, 2001. Mo has not allowed a run in home save chances over that span covering 28 innings in which he has allowed six hits, two walks and a hit batter with 34 strikeouts.
CC Sabathia is tied for third in victories (23).
Andy Pettitte has made the most starts (53).
Sabathia and Pettitte are tied with each other for the second-most strikeouts (266).
Yankees pitchers have batted a combined .097 (32-for-330) with eight doubles, 11 RBI and 40
sacrifices in 330 inter-league at-bats. They have only two hits (singles by Pettitte and Ivan Nova) in their past 49 at-bats dating to June 23, 2010 at Arizona.
Yankees pitchers have never homered in inter-league play. The last Yankees pitcher to hit a home run in a regular-season game was Lindy McDaniel Sept. 28, 1972 off Tigers lefthander Mickey Lolich in the top of the ninth in a 3-2, 12-inning victory at Detroit’s Tiger Stadium.
2013 schedule out; Yanks-Mets down to 4 games
Major League Baseball released its preliminary schedule for the 2013 season Wednesday. It reveals the change in inter-league play based on the Astros’ move from the National League Central to the American League West that will create two 15-team leagues and require inter-league play on a daily basis.
What that means to the Subway Series is that instead of two three-game series, the Yankees and the Mets will play consecutive two-game sets May 27-28 at Citi Field and May 29-30 at Yankee Stadium. This is a good idea. Six games each year was at least two too many. Remember, in the first two years of inter-league play the New York clubs played one three-game series, in 1997 at Yankee Stadium and 1998 at Shea Stadium. The downside is that there can be a series split, which would take away the reward of bragging rights.
The Yankees will open the season with at home against the Red Sox for the first time since 2005. The Yanks are 18-11-1 in 30 previous Opening Day games against Boston, including a 4-4 game due to darkness in 1910 at old Hilltop Park. The Yankees will play 19 of their first 32 games at home.
The other inter-league matchups for the Yankees will be against the NL West with home games against the Diamondbacks April 16-18, Dodgers June 18-19 and the Giants Sept. 20-22 and road games at Denver May 7-9, Los Angeles July 30-31 and San Francisco Aug. 2-4. The Dodgers’ visit will mark their first regular-season games at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees will have inter-league games in every month of the season.
The Astros will come to the Stadium as an AL team for the first time April 29-May 1. The Yanks will end their season with a three-game series Sept. 27-29 at Houston’s Minute Maid Park.
CC vs. R.A. not so OK after all
Sunday night’s finale of the Subway Series at Citi Field was another case of a dream match-up not living up to its marquee value. The anticipated pairing of the Yankees’ CC Sabathia and the Mets’ R.A. Dickey was something of a letdown as neither pitcher was at his best. Neither was involved in the outcome, either.
The Yankees got to Dickey for five runs and five hits in his six innings during which his pitching line had some elements of a knuckleball pitcher (one hit batter, one wild pitch, one error) that he had been avoiding in his magical, 11-1 season. Perhaps the best thing Dickey did was to single in the fifth inning and eventually come around to score.
Sabathia had leads of 4-0 and 5-1 but failed to get through the sixth inning for the first time this season. His defense failed him as well as only one of the five runs he yielded was earned. CC’s catcher, Chris Stewart, made two throwing errors, one of which led directly to a run. An error by second baseman Robinson Cano helped fuel the Mets’ sixth when they tied the score with three more unearned runs.
The Mets lead the majors in two-out runs, and the four they got to square things by the sixth were all of that variety. Dickey scored in the fifth on a two-out single by Ruben Tejada. The last pitch Sabathia threw was hit for a two-out, two-run single by Andres Torres. Tejada followed that with another two-out, RBI single off reliever Cory Wade, who walked David Wright to load the bases but came back to strike out pinch hitter Kirk Neuwenhuis.
Cano atoned for his muff the next inning when he powered a 2-0 changeup from Miguel Batista over the center field wall for his 16th home run. That would prove the deciding run in the Yanks’ 6-5 victory that gave them a 5-1 record in this year’s Subway Series.
Mets manager Terry Collins had hoped Citi Field would play larger than Yankee Stadium and the long ball would not be as much a factor as it was two weekends ago when the Yankees swept the three-game set. They out-homered the Mets, 8-2, at the Stadium in that series and nearly did the same, 7-2, at Citi Field.
Winning pitcher Boone Logan (2-0), David Robertson and Rafael Soriano (15th save) combined for three shutout innings as the Yankees’ bullpen again dominated the Mets. In the six Subway Series games this year, Yankees relievers combined to go 3-0 with three saves and a 1.65 ERA in 16 1/3 innings. So it was not just home runs the Yankees used to handle the Mets.
You keep hearing about how the Subway Series has lost much of its appeal and lacks the intensity of past years. Don’t believe it. This year’s home-and-home series drew a total of 270,828 persons to Yankee Stadium and Citi Field. They averaged 45,138 per game and drew the two largest gates in Citi Field’s four-season history.
With the Major League Baseball schedule changing next season due to realignment with the Astros moving from the National League Central to the American League West, the Subway Series is likely to be reduced from six games to four or perhaps even three. Many of the players on both teams and both managers seem to believe that is a good idea, a view that might not be shared in the front office when they consider that two or three capacity crowds will probably be sacrificed.
A-OK match-up: CC vs. R.A.
The Yankees and Mets finish off this year’s Subway Series with one of the best marquee match-ups in the history of this New York-New York rivalry with CC Sabathia opposing R.A. Dickey on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball at Citi Field.
Dickey with his 11-1 record, 2.00 ERA and consecutive one-hitters with double-digit strikeouts has been the talk of baseball lately. It is a feel-good story about a 37-year-old veteran who has risen to the heights on the command of the pitch most difficult to control.
Switch hitters like Mark Teixeira and Nick Swisher batted right-handed against right-handed knuckleball pitcher Tim Wakefield, especially at Fenway Park because of the Green Monster. Bernie Williams also used to bat right-handed against Wakefield. Tex and Swish say they will not do that against Dickey and will hit from the usual left side against a righty pitcher.
Neither switch hitter has had a great deal of success against Dickey. Swisher is only 1-for-10 (.100) and Teixeira is 2-for-11 (.182), although one of the hits was a home run. Of the Yanks in Sunday night’s lineup, Alex Rodriguez and Raul Ibanez have had the most career success against Dickey. A-Rod is 6-for-13 (.462) with two doubles and Ibanez is 8-for-25 (.320) with three home runs. Eric Chavez, who is not in the starting lineup, has 4-for-12 (.333) with a homer off Dickey.
Mets hitters who have given Sabathia the most trouble over the years are Andres Torres at 5-for-11 (.455) with two doubles and a triple, Ike Davis at 3-for-6 (.500) and Scott Hairston at 3-for-10 (.300). Jason Bay is 3-for-12 (.250) with two home runs off CC but is on the disabled list due to a concussion.
Sabathia and Dickey both pitched complete-game victories with 10 or more strikeouts in their past starts June 18. Sabathia struck out 10 batters in a 6-2 victory over the Braves at Yankee Stadium. Dickey tossed a one-hitter with 13 strikeouts in a 5-0 victory over the Orioles at Citi Field.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first time the Yankees and the Mets each had complete-game victories with double-digit strikeout totals on the same date. It was also the first time since 1900 that pitchers from two different New York teams (including the Giants and the Dodgers before they went to California in 1958) accomplished the feat on the same day.
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.
Jack O'Connell
Recent Comments