It would be an understatement to say I'm nervous about this game. Going in, I think the Yanks need to put up double-digits to win this one, and that's going to be a 180 degree turnaround from yesterday's game. Kei Igawa is not a major league pitcher. I would've rather seen one of the young September call ups get the start tonight, Karstens or maybe even Chase Wright.
Alas, Igawa it is. I suppose the Yanks are going to take any available opportunity to see if they didn't flush $40M down the toilet when they signed him. Tonight's game could officially end the Yankee run at the A.L. East title, which may not be such a bad thing (depending on who the Yanks get in the first round, how many off days they get, etc.)
Sit back, relax, and leave your thoughts in the comments section.
- Here we go. Matsui is DH'ing tonight, with Damon in left. One pre-game notes: Joe Torre has said he will give A-Rod, Jeter and a couple of other guys some days off after the Yanks clinch the Wild Card, according to the LoHud Yankees Blog.
- F%cking technical difficulties. No wonder no one wants to buy YES.
- Damon: broken bat single to center (end technical difficulties). Damon steals second, easily. Jeter: RBI double off the top of the wall in right center. 1-0, Yanks. Abreu: Walk. First and second, no one out for... A-Rod: Fly out to center. He crushed it, but straight up. Matsui: Walk. Bases juiced for Jorge. This is a huge at bat, the Yanks need a several-run lead early tonight. Posada: 3-6-1 double play. Just an ugly end to the inning.
- Now for the fun, graphical portion of tonight's game. Kei Igawa's main problem (not that there weren't others) was his inability to keep his mediocre pitches down in the zone. We're going to keep track of where his pitches are tonight. There will be a graphic for every action pitch (that is, any pitch put in play, or a strikeout/walk). We'll see if his time in AAA, and the Yankees organizational "rebuilding" of his mechanics were able to address Igawa's biggest flaw.
- Igawa - Inning 1:
- Cano: K. Doug: K. Melky: Line out to right. He smoked the 3-2 pitch, but it was right at Young.
- Igawa - 2nd Inning
- Damon: Another broken bat single to center. Damon breaks more bats than anyone else in the majors. Next season I'm keeping a count of Damon's broken bats and sending the stats to Green Peace. Jeter: Single up the middle. Jeter's 200th hit of the year. First and second, no one out for ... Abreu: Walk. Bases juiced, no one out for... A-Rod: GRAND SALAMI!!!!! 5-0, Yanks. A-Mazing! (Thank You, Michael Kay). Still no one out. Matsui: F-8. Posada: F-8. Cano: Single to left. Doug: K.
- Igawa - 3rd Inning
- A couple quick notes. Iwamura's single is a perfect example of Jeter's diminished range. Also, Delmon Young JUST missed that ball. It was a hair away from being a grand slam.
- Melky: F-8. Damon: Single to left. Jeter: (SB for Damon) F-9, Damon moves to third, but it doesn't really matter with 2 outs. Abreu: (that screamer in the stands is cracking me up.) F-7.
- Score updates: Boston 1, Oakland 1 (Bot 5), Nationals 6, Mets 2 (Bot 5), Phillies 4, ATL 4 (Bot 5), Detroit 2, Minny 0 (Bot 6).
- Igawa - 4th Inning
- By far, Igawa's best inning. Look at the location of the pitches.
- A-Rod: 5-3. [Sox took a 3-1 lead over Oakland, Phillies 5-4 over ATL] Matsui: K. Posada: 3-U. This has to be Igawa's last inning, right?
- Mrs. Depressed Fan just asked me, "What does your analysis show?" My answer, "My analysis shows that Igawa is getting f&cking lucky. His pitches are still up."
- Igawa - 5th Inning
- Ball-Four is in for the D-Rays. A few more runs here would be much appreciated.
- Cano: Single to left center. [ATL just took an 8-5 lead over Philly] Edwar is up for the Bombers, please put him in. Doug: (Cano gets picked off) Walk. Melky: 4-6-3 DP.
- Igawa's night is done. Thank God. Edwar is in and we're going to get a chance to see if the mechanical flaw Guidry spotted has been addressed.
- That's all she wrote for the graphics. It's pretty clear that Igawa still can't get the ball down. He was lucky tonight, very lucky. The Yankees really have a lot of work to do with him, if he's even salvageable.
- Edwar walks Upton to lead off. Young popped out to first. Navarro with a double to left center, scoring Upton. 5-1, Yanks. Get Ohlendorf up. Gomes walks, and that's all she wrote for Edwar. Bruney is coming in, I'm not sure how happy I am about that. First and second, one out. [Boston just extended their lead to 4-1. Maybe Gagne's warming up] Norton pinch-hitting: Walk. Bases juiced for Josh Wilson. Wilson K's looking. Posada just walked out to the mound to threaten Gomes at second for stealing location. I've never seen that before. Bruney walks Imamura, forcing in a run. 5-2, Yanks. And there it goes, grand slam Velandia. 6-5, Rays. Unreal.
- If you need a pick-me-up, the Sox did, in fact, bring Gagne in. He gave up a lead off single to Shannon Stewart.
- Pena ground out to second, off Villone, to end the inning. Pitiful job by the Yankee pen.
- Damon: Another single, his fourth. None of them would've broken a pane of glass. Jeter: Lines one off the pitcher, thrown out at first. Abreu: Pop out. A-Rod: IBB. Matsui: Huge at bat here. K, looking. Boston went to Papelbon in the 8th, Francona smells blood.
- Boston 5, Oakland 1, bottom of the eighth.
- Villone worked an effective inning. Britton on to try to finish off the bottom of the seventh. [7-1 Boston, Francona should've waited for the 9th to bring Gagne in. This is his type of game now.] Britton K's Gomes to end the inning.
- The Yankee bats basically decided A-Rod's grand slam was going to be enough runs right when he hit it. They need something to wake them up. This Rays' pen is horrible. Guisseppe Franco could hit them. How about a couple runs right now.
- Posada: Double to left over Gomes' head. Gomes is no gazelle in the outfield. Cano has to get the ball to the right side here, move the runner over. Cano: (Sardinha pinch-running for Jorge). Lined single up the middle. Atta boy Robbie! Anything scores the run here, even a double play. Anything but a pop out or a strikeout. Just tie the game. Giambo pinch-hitting for Doug: K. Son of a... If there was ever a time for a suicide squeeze, I say this is it. Melky can handle the bat, Sardinha has speed. Melky: Sac fly to left. The throw beat Sardinha to the plate, but he kicked the ball out of the catcher's glove. He was out if Navarro held on to the ball. 6-6, Tie. Wow, they called the play an error, Melky still gets the RBI and Sac Fly. Cano moved to second on the error. Damon: Another bleeding single for Damon, 5 for 5. Cano holds at third. Jeter: K, looking. It was a strike, can't take that pitch, in that situation. Wondering if Joba will come in.
- Son of a bitch. Farnsworth's in. I guess Joba isn't available tonight, though he should be.
- Strike out, Pop out, Strike out. I stand corrected, Farnsworth looked untouchable.
- Meat of the order for the Bombers. Let's see if Al Reyes has any of that Red Sox magic left in him.
- Abreu: F-9. At least they'll pitch to A-Rod (maybe). A-Rod: Line out for A-Rod, too much topspin, I thought it had a shot off the bat. [The Mets have scored 6 in the bottom of the ninth to cut the lead to 10-9 against Washington] Matsui: Walk. Nice at bat for Matsui. Betemit: (Double switch, involving Posada, Giambi, Betemit and Molina) went from 0-2, to 3-2, then K's.
- Who will pitch the bottom of the ninth?
- Answer: Veras.
- Fly out. Please walk Pena. Don't let him beat you. Pena walks, I'm fine with that. Upton K's looking. Young pops out. Great job by Veras.
- I'm a little disappointed Michael Kay didn't say "Bonus Cantos."
- Cano: 6-3. This game is now 4 hours old. Jose Molina: 6-3. Melky: K.
- Who will pitch the 10th?
- Answer: Jeff Karstens. Ugh.
- How many pitches will it take Karstens to lose this game? My bet is 15.
- I win. It only took 3. Walk-off bomb for Navarro. F&cking pitiful.
Player of The Game: Who cares. Give it to A-Rod.
Like I said earlier, the Wild Card, it is. It didn't happen exactly the way I thought it would, but it happened nonetheless. Apparently, Joe really didn't want to use Mo or Joba tonight. Clinching will have to wait until tomorrow night, Wang vs. Howell. Good night everybody, thanks for taking part in the live blog.
Yeah, while winning the division would be sweet, a favorable matchup (i.e. the Tribe in the first round) would be sweeter to me at this point. Don't want anything to do with the Halos, hopefully they get kicked out by the Sox.
I don't care if we face them, I just don't want to face them in a short series without home field advantage.
Igawa is one lucky guy. Doubt he'll be as lucky in subsequent innings.
He's just horrible. Only scoring 1 in the first is going to bit the Yanks in the ass.
Wow, a no-doubter. How many runs needed to be Igawa-proof? A couple more salamis?
Double digits, minimum. He does have a no-hitter through 2 innings, though. :)
I am a huge yankees eagles and sixers fan and you write the best blog i have ever seen in my life, i read it every single night and you always say the same exact thing that i think after i finish watching these games.
There goes the no-no. Disappointing.
Thanks for the kind words R, and welcome.
Amazing graphics. I'm jealous once again, Brian...
And there's the walk to Upton... bases loaded, 2 outs, and Delmon Young is up. My bet is Young strikes out on a ball outside the strike zone....
I thought Young's shot was gone when it left the bat. Thanks SML, it's tough to keep up with them, thank God for TiVo.
That heckler in the seats gets the award for Best Thing About Tampa That Isn't The Weather. He's... unreal.
Hey, did some people actually try to do the roll-call sometime during 1st/2nd? I thought it sounded like that, at least on the mlb.tv feed. Probably wouldn't be too surprising if there were more Yankees fans down there at the stadium than the Rays fans.
Wow, Igawa's luck isn't running out just yet, amazingly.
I assume it's the same heckler who is at every Tampa game. The guy is crazy, and I don't know how his throat takes it. He must go through a lot of lozenges.
I think they might've booted the heckler, I can't hear him anymore.
I don't get it - is it the Rays' lineup sucking or Igawa's pitching not so bad? Hard to say, with all these walks but getting the balls hit right at people.
He's apparently a regular. I doubt they'll kick him out. He's probably taking a break to get more beer.
This is the crappiest shutout I've ever seen someone pitch. It's an affront to every other shutout ever.
It's luck. They need to get him out of there before it's too late.
stat of the day courtesy of pete abraham:
Igawa is on pace to throw 176 pitches and walk 11. But he is throwing a shutout.
Hey its gotta count for something...does anyone else think they want to get igawa just good enough to trade him for prospects or something...
The only problem with trading him is that they eat the posting fee $26M. Any team that picks him up only has to pay the salary, which is actually pretty cheap ($14M/4 years). Financially, it doesn't really help them that much.
I think they try to turn him into a lefty specialist this off season. If that doesn't work, then they bite the bullet and move him.
Sorry, it's $16M/4 years.
please oh please let ross ohlendorf be on the playoff roster over these 2 failures
I have a feeling he will be.
That's one of the few times this year I've seen Jeter make the play going 2 his right...
That was a big play by Jeter. Love to see it.
Just got up a little while ago from an all nite Halo 3 binge to see that you had a great live blog going Brian.
Looks like some good comments were said. I swear the Yanks have the best fans in the world.
Tough loss last night, not much more to say about it except today is another day.
Brian- did you see that Clemens has been shut down for the regular season?!?!?!?
What's up w/ that? If you have any more info can you pass it along to the rest of us?
Welcome to all the new readers, it's good to see a great blog gain some momentum!
Aaron,
He's breaking down, and I think he realizes he has a limited number of outings left in his arm. My guess is that he makes another trip to Houston for "cortisone" shots, and he comes back really strong for his first start in the playoffs. How he bounces back from that start is another question. I think the Yanks just don't want to use up any of what he has left until the games really count.