Sunday, August 30, 2009

Bullpen Leads Yanks To Sweep

(REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine)


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
R H E
CWS 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
3 9 0
NYY 1 0 2 0 0 0 5 0 X
8 9 0

WP
- Alfredo Aceves (9-1)
LP - Freddy Garcia (0-2)

With their 8-3 victory over the White Sox in the Bronx today the Yankees completed their weekend sweep over the pathetic White Sox. I say pathetic based on their performance this past week against the Yankees and Red Sox. In a week where they needed to play well to keep themselves in the AL Central race, all they did was show that they don't deserve to be in the conversation. Oh well, sucks for them.

Joba Chamberlain started today and also started his newest incarnation of his rules, and to be honest I don't like them. He was only allowed to pitch three innings and 35 pitches. I don't really understand that motives behind these new rules, but to me they seem like they'll do more harm than good, but I guess that remains to be seen.

On the day he allowed two runs on four hits, did not walk a batter and struck out one. Of his 35 pitches, 23 found the strike zone. While he was out there he didn't pitch great, but he wasn't awful either, but what can you really tell from 35 pitches?

Based on these new rules it was going to be a busy day for the bullpen, and for the most part they stepped up and did a great job. Alfredo Aceves allowed just two hits over three scoreless innings on his way to his ninth win of the year. Damaso Marte came in to get one lefty and did the job. He's been surprisingly good since rejoining the team after his long DL stint. If he can be an effective loogy it will be a big boost for this team, especially in October. David Robertson retired the first two batters he faced before allowing back-to-back singles. Phil Hughes replaced him and pitched a perfect 1.1 innings. Phil Coke was next out of the pen and once again gave up a long ball, but it was 8-2 at the time and the run was meaningless. Still, his recent struggles are starting to concern me.

The Yankees offense came back from two one-run deficits, tying the game at one with a run in the bottom of the first on Mark Teixeira's sac-fly. Then, trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the third they took the lead for good on a Johnny Damon two-run homer, his 24th of the season, tying a career-high.

They would then brake the game open with five runs in the bottom of the seventh. Jorge Posada led off with a single. Then, following a Robinson Cano force out, Eric Hinske walked and Melky Cabrera doubled to give the Yanks a 4-2 lead with runners on 2nd and 3rd and one out. Derek Jeter, who picked up another two hits today, was then intentionally walked to load the bases. Jerry Hairston Jr. made it 5-2 with a sac-fly and then Teixeira capped off the rally with a three-run homer. It was his 32nd homer of the year and 99th, 100th and 101st RBI of the year.

It was another solid outing for our Bombers, who are now a season-high 34 games over .500. They will now head out on a seven-game road trip and take on the Orioles and Blue Jays. Andy Pettitte will start the opener for the Yanks tomorrow night, with Jeremy Guthrie starting for the O's.

Boston just wrapped up a three-game sweep over the Jays who really looked like they had no interest in even trying. With their win today they extended their lead in the wild card to 3.5 games.


AB R H RBI BB SO LOB AVG
Jeter, SS 3 3 2 0 1 0 0 .335
Damon, LF 3 1 1 2 0 0 1 .289
a-Hairston, J, PH-LF 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .261
Teixeira, 1B 3 1 1 4 0 1 0 .284
Rodriguez, A, 3B 2 0 1 0 2 1 0 .270
Matsui, H, DH 4 0 0 0 0 1 2 .268
Posada, C 3 0 2 0 1 1 1 .281
Cano, 2B 4 1 1 0 0 1 3 .315
Hinske, RF 3 1 0 0 1 0 2 .250
Cabrera, Me, CF 4 1 1 1 0 1 2 .268
Totals 29 8 9 8 5 6 11

a-Hit a sacrifice fly for Damon in the 7th.

BATTING
2B: Jeter (24, Garcia, F), Cabrera, Me (22, Williams, R), Posada (22, Linebrink).
HR: Damon (24, 3rd inning off Garcia, F, 1 on, 2 out), Teixeira (32, 7th inning off Linebrink, 2 on, 2 out).
TB: Jeter 3; Damon 4; Teixeira 4; Rodriguez, A; Posada 3; Cano; Cabrera, Me 2.
RBI: Teixeira 4 (101), Damon 2 (73), Cabrera, Me (49), Hairston, J (37).
2-out RBI: Damon 2; Teixeira 3.
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Cabrera, Me.
SF: Teixeira; Hairston, J.
GIDP: Cano.
Team RISP: 3-for-6.
Team LOB: 4.

BASERUNNING
PO: Rodriguez, A (1st base by Pierzynski).

FIELDING
DP: (Rodriguez, A-Cano-Teixeira)


IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Chamberlain 3.0 4 2 2 0 1 0 4.38
Aceves, A (W, 9-1) 3.0 2 0 0 0 1 0 3.88
Marte, D (H, 2) 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 0 10.57
Robertson, D (H, 2) 0.1 2 0 0 0 1 0 3.55
Hughes, P (H, 15) 1.1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3.22
Coke 1.0 1 1 1 0 0 1 5.13

Pitches-strikes: Chamberlain 35-23, Aceves, A 32-22, Marte, D 4-3, Robertson, D 12-9, Hughes, P 12-8, Coke 12-7.

WHITE SOX STATS

PLAYER OF THE GAME: The pen minus Phil Coke. Sorry Phil. (5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 K)

HONORABLE MENTION: Derek Jeter (2-for-3, 2B, BB, 3 R)

Tomorrow's Game

Yankees @ Orioles
Game Time: 7:05 p.m. TV/Radio: YES, WCBS
LHP Andy Pettitte (11-6, 4.18) vs. RHP Jeremy Guthrie (9-12, 5.26)

6 comments:

  1. Nice to see Aceves have a great outing he has been struggling for a while. Marte looks good as a lefty specialist. I think this is the role Girardi should continue to use him in. He has a nice curveball it will be hard for leftys to hit him. Bruney has 0.90 era in august. The yankees bullpen is getting deeper.

    But whats up with Kay's constant whinning. Yesterday about Jeter's bunt today he was complaining about Aceves being used for multiple innings. Has he not been paying attention? Most of Aceves relief apperances have been multiple innings. He has only pitched back to back days a couple of times this year and most of those were because Bruney was on the dl and before Hughes established himself in the bullpen.
    What makes Ace so valuable is he gives quality multiple innings. He is not being used in Brett Tomko's role as a mop up man. He is pitching in close ballgames. So what if he doesn't pitch for the next couple of days the yanks have a deep enough bullpen they can survive.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Honestly, I think he's spent too much time on talk radio. He thinks that he needs to critique everything now, and usually he's way off.

    ReplyDelete
  3. About Joba start he only threw 3 innings so there is nothing much to say. But he's been getting some bad luck lately he has been giving up a lot of cheap little singles the last two games. Even Posadenick triple was just a ground ball that bounced past Teixeira.

    He threw some really nice changeups in the third inning. That is a pitch he should be using more. Especially with 2 strikes instead of always trying to go with a slider or fastball. Dont know why him and Posada dont use that pitch a little more often even Leiter was saying how good his changeup was.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Greg Cohen said...
    "Honestly, I think he's spent too much time on talk radio. He thinks that he needs to critique everything now, and usually he's way off."

    Yep maybe because its the end of the season and I've listened to 100plus games by Kay but he is getting on my nerves. He should leave that to the analysts. Your right he is trying to do too much talk radio in the booth. He needs to stick to doing play by play. I find his much easier on the ears to listen to Singleton doing the play by play when Kay is off. Bring back Kitty!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Greg as always appreciate your work on this blog. I agree that Coke is a big question mark when playoff baseball arrives. Any idaes or rumblings as to who gets called up when rosters expand? Cervelli, Pena, Gardner any other ideas? Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  6. Gardner is on the DL so he'll come off sometime in September. He hasn't been able to swing yet as far as what Kay said so they might just use him as a runner, which with his speed isn't a bad thing. It's a shame though if he can't hit or play center because Melky was better when he was platooning with Gardner.

    ReplyDelete