Results tagged ‘ Vlad Guerrero ’
Yanks finally get a lead
The Yankees caught a break in the first inning Thursday night in cutting down a runner at the plate despite some lack of hustle on the play. The Red Sox had runners on first and second with two out and Jonny Gomes at bat against Andy Pettitte. The lefthander threw a wild pitch past catcher Francisco Cervelli, who retrieved the ball near the stands behind the plate but was a bit lackadaisical in picking it up.
Pettitte walked toward the plate but did not rush in to cover. Shane Victorino, who had been on second base, advanced to third but seeing the Yankees’ battery moving in slow motion decided not to stop there and bolted for the plate. Fortunately, Cervelli saw this and got back in gear. The catcher ran toward the plate and flung his body forward like a linebacker to place the tag on Victorino, who did the Yankees a favor by sliding in hands first instead of feet first. It might have been a different outcome had Victorino utilized the traditional slide.
The Yankees got their first lead of the season in the second inning on a two-out, two-run single by Lyle Overbay. It followed a rulebook double by Eduardo Nunez to right-center. Nunez lost his helmet while running to second base. I wonder if we will see more of that this year now that players are wearing larger but lighter-weight helmets.
Pettitte atoned for his hesitant play earlier with snappy fielding in the third. He handled two pepper shots adroitly, converting one into a double play.
Fox’s Ken Rosenthal reported that former American League Most Valuable Player Vlad Guerrero had signed a contract with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League. Guerrero, 38, was the Orioles’ designated hitter in 2011, his last year in the majors, and hit .290 with 13 home runs and 63 RBI, but became a free agent and did not play in 2012. He won the MVP Award in 2004 with the Angels.
Could it be that Guerrero is trying to attract interest from the New York clubs? The Mets have need for outfielders, but Vlad has played only three games in the outfield since 2009. He might be hoping the Yankees might feel the need for a right-handed DH if Ben Francisco does not pan out.
Front-runners jump on Giants
What is it about Game 1 of a playoff series that makes everyone want to jump the gun? One victory by the Giants Wednesday night in the World Series, and gloom and doom is predicted for the Rangers.
Sure, Texas had a bad night. The Rangers lost to what is considered an offensively-challenged team that scored 11 runs, seven of which (six earned) came against their ace, Cliff Lee, who had previously been lights out in the post-season.
Beating the Rangers on a night Lee starts is certainly a coup for the Giants, but let’s not start the victory parade in the City by the Bay just yet, shall we. Remember, this Texas team suffered a debilitating defeat in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series to the Yankees, and at home yet, and still came back to win the series in six games with Lee starting only one of them.
As the Yankees learned, momentum can shift depending on the result of Game 2. If the Rangers win the second game, as they did in the ALCS, the World Series takes a different turn with the next three games in Texas.
The big change in Game 2 is that Rangers manager Ron Washington decided to keep Vlad Guerrero on the bench. Guerrero was Texas’ designated hitter most of the year but to stay in the lineup he needed to play the field at AT&T Park in San Francisco, a National League city where the DH is barred. Once a dependable right fielder with a strong arm, Guerrero had a brutal game defensively as he committed two errors, one for each run he drove in at the plate.
AT&T Park is almost the reverse of Yankee Stadium, so playing Guerrero in spacious right field was questionable at the outset. Considering Vlad’s offensive output (.300, 29 home runs, 115 RBI), it was too tempting for Washington not to give the former AL Most Valuable Player a glove. Sitting him in Game 2 must have been a difficult decision, but it will force Giants manager Bruce Bochy to make some tough ones of his own late in the game knowing who is in that opposing dugout and ready to grab a bat.
Another sub-par job by a Yanks starter
Thunderstorms threatened to hold up the start of Game 6 of the American League Championship Series Friday night at Rangers Ballpark In Arlington, but skies cleared to get the game under way. That was good news for the Yankees. A rainout would have allowed the Rangers to start Cliff Lee in Game 6 Saturday night.
Tired of hearing about Lee? So are the Yankees, especially Nick Swisher, whose profanity-laden response to queries about Lee from reporters was fodder for talk radio in Texas. It was kind of silly, really. Who can blame Swisher for getting hot when asked about Texas’ Game 7 starter when they hadn’t even played Game 6 yet.
It was odd to view CC Sabathia sitting in the bullpen. Counting post-season play, Sabathia has pitched in 335 major-league games, all of them starts. Friday was CC’s throw day between starts, but he didn’t have his usual session and was available to Yankees manager Joe Girardi for around 50 pitches if needed.
Help was needed in the fifth inning as Girardi had to replace Phil Hughes after Vlad Guerrero’s two-run double unlocked a 1-1 score, but it was David Robertson, not Sabathia, who came into the game and was greeted by a two-run home run by Nelson Cruz.
Hughes seemed to have settled down after a shaky first inning when the Rangers broke through for the first run and did not allow another hit until Guerrero’s game breaker. The Texas designated hitter got his first RBI of the series in the first inning with an infield out, but the Yankees continued to challenge him.
They walked Josh Hamilton intentionally with two down in the third to face Guerrero, and it worked as he popped out. The purposeful walk had a glitch as Hughes threw a wild pitch on one of the throws. With two out in the fifth and a runner on second, the Yankees walked Hamilton again. This time it backfired as Guerrero crushed a hanging breaking ball for a double to left-center.
Hughes’ outing was the latest sub-par one in the series for a Yankees starter. The rotation has a 7.11 ERA in the series, having allowed 25 earned runs and 42 hits in 31 2/3 innings. Speaking of unsightly ERAs, there is the 20.25 belonging to Robertson.
The Yankees were lucky to have the run they did against Texas starter Colby Lewis. It came on a wild pitch that video replays revealed had actually hit Swisher in the shin at the plate and should have been a dead ball. Shortly after that, Swisher was probably hoping and praying that the Yankees would get one more shot at Cliff Lee.
Gallant effort from Andy
It was almost déjà vu all over again for Andy Pettitte in the sixth inning Monday night. Following the same pattern as the first inning, Elvis Andrus grounded out on a slow roller fielded by Pettitte and Michael Young singled. Josh Hamilton then hit a fly ball to deep right field.
Unlike the first inning when the ball landed in the stands for a two-run home run, Hamilton’s drive off a hanging slider didn’t have the same distance in the sixth, and Nick Swisher gloved it in front of the wall. Pettitte ended the inning by getting a third strike past Vlad Guerrero, who is having a brutal series.
The Yankee Stadium crowd got excited when Brett Gardner led off the bottom of the sixth by shooting a single through the middle. Fans may have visions of another big rally started by Gardner in the eighth inning of Game 1. With Derek Jeter up, Gardner stole second, thereby becoming the first runner in the game to move into scoring position (Young was on first base when Hamilton homered in the first).
Cliff Lee muscled up and struck out Jeter on a 2-2 fastball. It was the 10th strikeout of the game for Lee, who became the first pitcher to reach double figures in strikeouts in three consecutive post-season games in the same year. The only other pitcher to do that was Hall of Famer Bob Gibson in his last appearance in the 1967 World Series for the Cardinals against the Red Sox and his first two starts in the 1968 Series against the Tigers.
Gardner was able to advance to third base as Swisher grounded out to the right side, but Lee held tough and got Mark Teixeira on a grounder to short. The Yankees were raising Lee’s pitch count, but not in the best way with all those strikeouts. His 100th pitch retired Alex Rodriguez leading off the seventh.
As for Pettitte, he stayed toe to toe with Lee for seven innings in another sturdy post-season performance. But this was beginning to look like Game 6 of the 2003 World Series against the Marlins when Pettitte battled Josh Beckett, who held the Yankees in check as Florida triumphed.
Speaking of post-season heroes, the Stadium crowd got a look at three of them in attendance who were shown on the on the giant video screen in center field – El Duque Hernandez, Tino Martinez and Paul O’Neill. Tino also threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Maybe the Yankees’ best chances were to put them back in uniform.
Yanks and Mo fold in clutch
It is known among managers as the search for beneficial matchups. It is often known in the press box as the constant search for the guy who doesn’t have it. This almost never pertains to Mariano Rivera, who failed to protect the lead the Yankees had acquired when Texas manager Ron Washington, who must have two dozen pitchers in his bullpen these days, out-smarted himself.
With a runner on first base and one out in the eighth inning and his team ahead, 5-3, Washington made the move to lefthander Matt Harrison, the fifth of seven Rangers pitchers in the game, to turn switch hitters Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira to the right side. Harrison gave up a single to Swisher on a first-pitch fastball and walked Teixeira on four pitches as the Yankees loaded the bases.
Plenty of heads in the Yankees’ dugout must have been scratching when Washington left Harrison in the game to face Alex Rodriguez when there were right-handed relievers in the Texas pen. Rodriguez smoked a 1-0 down the left field line for a double that cleared the bases and gave the Yankees a 6-5 lead.
So it was all set up for Rivera in the ninth, but it turned into a nightmare inning for the game’s most reliable closer of all time. An early sign that Mo was not himself was a leadoff walk to Vlad Guerrero, which is not easy to do. It was only the 32nd walk drawn by the free-swinging designated hitter this year in 570 plate appearances. Esteban German, who stole a base Friday night, ran for Guerrero, and Mo admitted he rushed his pitches to Nelson Cruz because of the speed at first.
Cruz, who beat the Yankees Friday night with two home runs, muscled a single to right that put runners on first and third with none out. Yankees manager Joe Girardi brought the infield in, which didn’t matter much because Ian Kinsler hit a hard grounder directly over third base and down the left field line for a double that scored the tying run.
That forced Girardi to order an intentional walk to load the bases to create a force everywhere. Pinch hitter Andres Blanco had the Yankees breathing easier by swinging at the first pitch and popping out to Teixeira. The next batter, Jeff Francoeur, didn’t get the chance to swing at the first pitch because it hit him, forcing home the winning run.
Rivera had thrown 23 pitches in a two-inning stint in Friday night’s 13-inning loss, but it would be unfair to drop the dime solely on Mo for Saturday night’s defeat. Except for A-Rod’s three-run double and an earlier, two-out single by Francisco Cervelli, the Yankees had another poor game hitting in the clutch. They were 3-for-13 (.231) with runners in scoring position and left 14 runners on base. That’s 32 runners stranded in two games and 5-for-30 (.167) in clutch at-bats.
Mo was not the only guy who didn’t have it.
Shutdown problems for A.J.
In his previous start, A.J. Burnett was upset with himself for failing to produce shutdown innings after the Yankees had given him leads. He was victimized by a pair of two-out, RBI hits by the Orioles’ Brian Roberts. That scenario continued Saturday night at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.
In front of a crowd that included former President Bush and his wife, plus Hall of Famers Nolan Ryan and Reggie Jackson, Burnett had another so-so outing for the Yankees, a stint shorted to four innings because of a 59-minute rain delay.
Both runs scored off Burnett were by players who walked and came after two were out. The righthander had six strikeouts, but he also gave up four hits and three walks and threw a wild pitch.
After the Rangers jumped to a 1-0 lead in the first on a two-out double by Vlad Guerrero, the Yankees struck for two runs in the second to put Burnett ahead. They caught a break when second baseman Ian Kinsler booted a ground ball by Ramiro Pena that might have been an inning-ending double play. The Rangers got only one out, giving an at-bat to Francisco Cervelli, who singled in the go-ahead run.
Burnett got the first two outs of the third, which looked like a shutdown at that point. Then he walked David Murphy and yielded a double to left center by Guerrero that tied the score again. Burnett recovered to strike out Nelson Cruz, who hit two home runs Friday night. In the fourth, Burnett’s ended a threat with his best pitch of the night, a 95-mph fastball on the outside corner to Elvis Andrus on a 3-2 count with runners on second and third.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi was forced by the rain to replace Burnett, who threw 84 pitches but not many with the authority of the one to Andrus. Burnett was hung with a no-decision but is 1-5 with a 6.70 ERA over his past eight starts and is 3-13 with a 6.15 ERA since May 4. The Yankees continue to wait for him to step forward.
More rotation woes
No matter how you look at it, Andy Pettitte is not close to returning to the Yankees’ rotation, which has unraveled without him. Javier Vazquez has already pitched himself into the bullpen. Can A.J. Burnett be far behind?
Pettitte threw a 25-pitch bullpen session before Friday night’s game in Chicago and estimated his effort was 75 percent and that he did not push off his left leg very hard so as not to aggravate his left groin strain. What all that means is that Pettitte, who was shut down completely a week ago, is still a ways from returning to the mound.
He would have to make at least two starts on injury rehabilitation, but with the minor league season nearing a close Andy might be able to make only one rehab start and perhaps a simulated game or two. Any kind of setback would jeopardize his chances to get back in shape before the end of the regular season.
And do the Yankees ever need help in the rotation? Burnett’s miserable August continued Friday night in a 9-4 loss to the White Sox. He quickly lost a 1-0 lead in a 33-pitch first inning in which Chicago scored four runs. Burnett failed to get through the fourth inning and was charged with nine runs (eight earned). He yielded nine hits, walked three batters and unleashed two wild pitches.
In his five starts this month, Burnett is 0-4 with a 7.80 ERA. He has given up 38 hits and 13 walks in 30 innings and has watched his ERA rise from 4.52 to 5.17. The Yankees have a .609 winning percentage, yet Burnett’s record is 9-12 (.429).
The righthander’s 3 1/3 messy innings were part of an usually sloppy game overall for the Yankees. One of his wild pitches scored a run. Sergio Mitre also wild-pitched a runner home in an otherwise strong relief effort (no runs, one hit in 4 2/3 innings). Burnett failed to back up the plate when Nick Swisher airmailed a throw home from right field. Francisco Cervelli committed his 10th error on a wild throw of his own. The Yankees were 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and grounded into two double plays.
The Yankees remained tied for first place in the American League East with Tampa Bay, which lost at home to the Red Sox. Boston has moved to 4 ½ games of the Yankees and Rays. Despite all their injuries, the Sox simply will not go away.
The Yankees will not have to contend with Manny Ramirez this weekend. The White Sox were awarded the claim on Ramirez from the Dodgers, who have until Tuesday to work out a deal with Chicago or pull Ramirez back. Los Angeles began play Friday 11 games behind in the National League West and five games out of the wild-card race.
As expected, the Rays also put in a claim for Ramirez. So did the Rangers, which was somewhat surprising because Texas has a full-time designated hitter in Vlad Guerrero. Waiver claims are based on the reverse order of standings, so the White Sox, with the poorest record of the three, got the shot at Ramirez, who would fit in nicely as their DH.
With the AL wild card likely be the second-place finisher in the East, the White Sox’ chance for the playoffs will be to win the Central Division. They were three games behind the Twins, who made a major pickup by obtaining relief pitcher Brian Fuentes from the Angels.
What statement?
Had the Rangers pulled off a two-game sweep of the Yankees in the intense heat of Texas, we would have been inundated with reports about how the American League West leaders were making a “statement” about their status as a threat to the Yankees in the post-season. Well, the Yankees made a statement of their own Wednesday night. It was along the lines of “You stole Cliff Lee from us, and now we’ll make you pay for it.”
The Yankees really had no business winning this game. They were down 6-1 through five innings with Lee dealing in his usual fashion showing off the ability that prompted the Yankees to trade for Lee only to be trumped by Texas in getting him from Seattle.
Lee’s superb walk-to-strikeout ratio improved even more on a night when he didn’t walk anyone and struck out 11. The Yankees had 17 strikeouts for the game, including Nick Swisher four times (the platinum sombrero) and Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada three times apiece.
For all that lack of contact, the Yankees came back slowly but surely. They finally got to Lee for a run in the sixth and two in the seventh as the lefthander failed to pitch at least eight innings for the first time in 11 starts. But when relievers Darren O’Day and Darren Oliver struck out Derek Jeter and Swisher respectively to leave two runners on base in the seventh, it appeared that getting to 6-4 would be the best they could do.
For the second night in a row, however, Frank Francisco gave up a home run to the leadoff batter in the eighth. Tuesday night it was A-Rod. Wednesday night it was Marcus Thames, who turned out to be a pretty effective 3-hole hitter for two days in the absence of new daddy Mark Teixeira. In a one-run game, anything can happen and in this one it did.
One night after the Rangers got to Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, the Yankees did the same to Texas closer Neftali Feliz, who opened the door with a leadoff walk in the ninth to Lance Berkman. Brett Gardner fought off some tough pitches and battled for a single. A wild pitch by Feliz put two runners in scoring position. That brought the infield in, and Jeter exploited it with a single under second baseman Cristian Guzman’s glove to tie the score.
Next came a classic case of a reliever outsmarting himself. Alexi Oganda, throwing top-shelf gas, blew two fastballs past Thames, then decided to get cute and go breaking ball. All that did was speed up Thames’ bat. He singled for the go-ahead run. No decision for Lee. No save for Perez. No “statement” from the Rangers.
What are the odds of Rivera losing two games in a row? It might have happened. Elvis Andrus led off the bottom of the ninth with a triple. Other closers may think, “OK, let’s keep it to one run and take our chances in extra innings.”
Not Mo. He continued to pitch aggressively in the strike zone and worked out of trouble without Andrus advancing.
Rivera got a huge out with thanks to Austin Kearns, who had just shifted from left field to right field and made a snow-cone grab of a diving liner by Michael Young. Mo kept the ball in the infield after that on grounders by Josh Hamilton and Vlad Guerrero.
The game featured major contributions from the three players the Yankees picked up at the trade deadline. Berkman doubled in a run and got that big walk to start the ninth-inning rally. Kearns singled and scored in the seventh and made that lead-saving grab. Kerry Wood pitched a scoreless seventh and eighth innings and earned his first winning decision for the Yankees.
Not like post-season for Mo
Tuesday night’s game in Arlington, Texas, lived up to its billing as a showdown between division leaders and possible playoff foes. The Rangers showed why they are running away with the American League West with an extra-inning victory over the Yankees, whose lead in the AL East shrunk to half a game.
The Yankees’ scoreless string of 16 innings by their bullpen over the past week was ended surprisingly by Mariano Rivera, who thrives in the post-season atmosphere but gave up the winning run in the 10th. Texas loaded the bases on two singles and a one-out intentional walk. Rivera fell behind 3-0 in the count to David Murphy, who singled off a 3-2 cutter for the walk-off hit.
Rangers manager Ron Washington emptied his bullpen, using five relievers, all but one getting the job done. Alex Rodriguez nailed Frank Francisco for his 601st home run in the eighth to tie the score. The difference in the game may have been the way the teams ran the bases. The Yankees were somewhat tentative on one play. The Rangers’ aggressiveness on another play had dire consequences for the Yankees.
Rodriguez, who had a really nice game, pulled off the Yankees’ best move on the bases in the fourth when on the front end of a double-steal attempt threw his body into the left arm of Texas third baseman Michael Young and dislodged the ball from his glove. Young was charged with an error, and the Yankees had runners on second and third with one out, but they failed to capitalize as Lance Berkman struck out and Francisco Cervelli flied out. The Berkman at-bat was a killer because the Rangers were conceding a run by playing the infield back, but Berkman failed to make contact.
A.J. Burnett showed no ill effects of back spasms that pushed back his start and pitched seven serviceable innings. He gave up a run in the fourth on a two-out double by Nelson Cruz, but the Yankees came back with a two-out double of their own off C.J. Wilson in the fifth by Nick Swisher. Marcus Thames followed with a single to left, but Swisher was thrown out at the plate on a strong throw by Murphy, who was all over this game. Benjie Molina made a fine scoop of the short-hop throw and tagged out Swisher, who chose not to slam into the catcher but tried to vault over him, which didn’t work.
The Yankees regained the lead in the sixth but failed to pad it by stranding two runners. In the bottom half, Burnett made his only real mistake in the game, a first-pitch fastball to Murphy, who crushed it for a two-run home run. The Yankees’ failure to turn a double play on a ground ball by Vlad Guerrero gave Murphy the opportunity to bat with two outs. Credit Josh Hamilton with a hard, professional slide into second base that caused Derek Jeter to throw wildly past first base losing the DP.
Robinson Cano, who did not start because of a cold but stayed in the game after pinch hitting in the sixth, led off the ninth with a single. Jeter showed bunt on the first pitch from Neftali Feliz that caught the outside corner for a strike. He took another fastball for a ball. Then the Yankees took off the bunt. Swinging away, Jeter grounded into a double play.
After Rivera gave up singles to Young and Hamilton at the start of the 10th, Rodriguez made a dazzling play in snuffing a hard grounder by Guerrero and firing to first for the out. It appeared to be a game saver, but Mo could match the histrionics of his teammate.
Jack O'Connell
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