This Week in Yankees History (9/11-9/17)

This Week in Yankees History

September 11th - September 17th

September 11th

1905 - The New York Highlanders sell workhorse P Jack Powell (8-13) to the St. Louis Browns. Powell won 23 games in 1904 for New York, while pitching 390 1/3 innings.

1912 - In St. Louis, Browns starter Jack Powell leaves after 7 innings, losing 3-0 to his former teammates, the Highlanders. Reliever George Baumgartner gives up 2 more runs in the 8th inning, but the Browns score 4 runs in the bottom of the 8th inning to cut the losing margin to 5-4. The New York Times reports the loss to Baumgartner, who pitched poorly.

1923 - After Yankees leadoff hitter Whitey Witt reaches 1st base on a controversial infield hit that is ruled a single. Boston Red Sox P Howard Ehmke retires the next 27 batters for a 3-0 win, his 20th of the 1923 AL season. The Yankees crowd exhorts the scorer Fred Lieb to reverse his call on the hard grounder that 3B Howard Shanks booted, but the 1 hit stood. Ehmke has now given up just 1 hit in his last 2 games.

1926 - New York Yankees OF Bob Meusel ties a MLB record for sacrifice flies in 1 game, when he hits 3 during a 6-4 win at Cleveland. In the same game, Yankees Shortstop Mark Koenig handles 16 chances without an error, 1 short of the record set by the Browns shortstop Bob Wallace in 1902.

1927 - After losing 21 straight games in a row to the New York Yankees, the St. Louis Browns win their last meeting of the 1927 AL season, winning the game by the score of 6-2 behind Milt Gaston's 5-hitter. No team has ever swept a 22-game season series. One NL team, the 1909 Chicago Cubs, went 21-1 against the Boston Braves.

1928 - In the Yankees 5-3 win at the Stadium, veteran Ty Cobb makes his last appearance as a MLB batter, popping out against New York P Hank Johnson to shortstop Mark Koenig as a pinch hitter in the 9th inning. Babe Ruth's 2 run HR clout, off of Philadelphia A’s starter Lefty Grove in the 8th inning, seals the victory for the Yankees. The Yankees seal the fate of the A's with their 4th straight win over the Quakers, leaving them in 2nd place in the AL, 2 1/2 games back.

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Pitching Match-Ups at Seattle

Game 1: Tonight @ 10:10 PM | TV: YES | Radio: WCBS
RHP Phil Hughes (4-5, 6.41) vs. RHP Felix Hernandez (14-11, 3.15)

Game 2: Tomorrow @ 10:10 PM | TV: YES | Radio: WCBS
RHP A.J. Burnett (9-11, 5.27) vs. LHP Charlie Furbush (3-8 4.84)

Game 3: Sunday @ 3:35 PM | TV: YES/ESPN | Radio: WCBS
RHP Ivan Nova (15-4, 3.94) vs. LHP Jason Vargas (8-13, 4.49)

Who to Watch:
Ichiro Suzuki, RF - .275/.313/.339, 86 wRC+

In addition to posting career-lows across the board, Ichiro's string of consecutive 200+ hit seasons is likely to come to an end - he'll need thirty-two hits in the next two weeks to reach that plateau.

Dustin Ackley, 2B - .290/.367/.453, 132 wRC+

One could make a fine argument for Ackley as the AL Rookie of the Year, despite his playing in a bit more than half of the season. The Yankees will miss another top contender for the award, Michael Pineda, this go-round.

Mike Carp, 1B/LF - .274/.333/.465, 121 wRC+

Carp is the most legitimate power threat on the Mariners, though Casper Wells has knocked out six home runs in only 97 AB since coming over from the Tigers.

Panic in Beantown?

From Peter Abraham:

If the Sox can't feel [the Rays on their heels] by now, they never will. The Rays have won four straight and seven of eight to climb within three games of the wild-card lead in the loss column. The Sox have dropped five straight and were 1-6 on their road trip to nowhere.

“Hell, yeah, you've got to panic,” David Ortiz said.

The Sox are a mess at the moment. They were outscored 22-8 by the Rays in the series and managed only 22 hits over 29 innings. Their starting pitchers — John Lackey, Kyle Weiland and Jon Lester — allowed 12 earned runs over 11 innings.

“We’re kind of in a fight right now and we know that. It’s not real pretty,” manager Terry Francona said.

The Red Sox played with little efficiency or emotion. They were 1 for 15 with runners in scoring position in the three games, overthrew cutoff men from the outfield and threw balls away in the infield. Their pitchers walked 16 and hit three.

Adrian Gonzalez mentioned the poor level of play on Saturday and Ortiz had his own comment today.

“If we keep on playing like that, we’ll be home in the tub,” he said, shaking his head as his teammates walked quietly through the clubhouse.

I don't know about you guys, but I didn't see this coming at all. To be honest, the fact that the Yankees have also built up a 3.5 game lead on Boston is also quite a surprise. A very pleasant surprise.

This Wild Card race will get even more interesting this week, as the two teams face each other again with four games in Boston starting on Thursday.

Game 145: Yankees at Angels (Jesus!)

Yankees (87-57)
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano DH
Jesus Montero C
Eric Chavez 3B
Andruw Jones RF
Eduardo Nunez 2B
Brett Gardner LF

Pitching: RHP Freddy Garcia (11-7, 3.50)

Angels (80-65)
TBA

Pitching: RHP Ervin Santana (11-10, 3.18)

Montero Likely to Catch, Romine to Back-Up

LoHud on Montero, Martin, and Cerveill:

X-rays are negative on Russell Martin’s thumb, but Joe Girardi said he’ll be out a day or two. Girardi also doesn’t want Jorge Posada to catch back to back games.

“Montero will probably catch (tomorrow),” Girardi said.

Francisco Cervelli is going back to New York for tests and Girardi indicated that a catcher will likely be called up. He hinted at Austin Romine.

LoHud confirming the Romine rumor:

Francisco Cervelli’s locker was just cleared, and his nameplate was replaced with a hand drawn tag for Austin Romine.

Looks like Romine will be here today, wearing No. 71.

No word on a move to make room on the 40-man.

While it is quite the shame to see Martin and Cervelli hurting, I can't help but be a bit excited to see Montero don the tools of ignorance ... though, I'm not quite sure if it's more morbid curiosity, given the almost universally poor reviews of his catching skills.

Update: Steve Garrison was DFA'd to make room for Romine.

Haren Throws CG Shutout, Yanks Drop 4th Straight

(Getty Images/Yahoo!)

Just this sight alone, though a somewhat happy one, represented that things were not going right for the Yankees tonight. Russell Martin left the game with an injury in the 3rd inning, and in to replace him at catcher went 40-year old Jorge Posada. Though he did a serviceable job, the Yankees bats did not, and the Bombers dropped their 4th straight game 6-0.

CC Sabathia had another very high pitch count, but another nice outing as well, throwing 6 innings of 1 run ball. CC managed to escape a few jams, and normally would have done enough to get a win. But not tonight. In fact he was tagged with the loss.

For the Halos, Dan Haren threw a complete-game 4-hit shutout, as the Yankees simply couldn't get anything started against him. Yes, Weaver has been great, but don't overlook Dan Haren. If the Angels make the playoffs, that 1-2 punch can seriously give them a chance to get to the Fall Classic.

Rough outings by Hector Noesi and George Kontos (his MLB debut) gave the Angels those 5 extra insurance runs.

Luckily, Boston lost to Tampa again, so the Yankees' lead in the AL East remains 2.5 games.

The Yankees will now try to regroup, and honor New York City with a win on the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. The game will be on YES.

Martin Leaves With Hand Contusion, Posada Catching

The Yankees stretch of seemingly injury after injury after injury continued tonight in Anaheim, when catcher Russell Martin left the game with a right hand contusion after taking a foul tip off his right thumb. He is currently listed as day-to-day.

And the guy who replaced Martin behind the plate is none other than Jorge Posada, catching for the first time since Game 6 of the ALCS last October. And the first batter who got on, Howie Kendrick - Posada got him out trying to steal.

Hip Hip, Jorge!

Game 144: Yankees at Angels (Cervelli, Swisher, Rodriguez Out)

Yankees (87-56)
Jeter SS
Granderson CF
Teixeira 1B
Cano 2B
Montero DH
Chavez 3B
Martin C
Nunez RF
Gardner LF

Pitching: LHP CC Sabathia (19-7, 2.97)

Angels (79-65)
Izturis 3B
Bourjos CF
Kendrick 2B
Hunter DH
Trumbo 1B
Wells LF
Trout RF
Aybar SS
Mathis C

Pitching: RHP Dan Haren (14-8, 3.20)

Cervelli was a late scratch, as he's still suffering from concussion-like symptoms. Rodriguez will likely miss three to four days in an effort to get his thumb back ... in shape, I suppose.