The Captain's Blog

In the early going, it looked as if the Yankees were on their way to an easy victory, but as if often the case in this rivalry, nothing is ever that simple. After the Yankees jumped on Daisuke Matsuzaka for five runs in the first inning, the thought of Jonathan Papelbon toeing the rubber in the ninth probably seemed far fetched to even the most ardent Red Sox fan. However, there he was, warming up with a two run lead and the Red Sox on the verge of finishing off an incredible comeback. A pair of two run homeruns later, Papelbon had in deed thrown the last pitch in an amazing reversal of fortune, but it was the Yankees who were celebrating instead.

The Yankees celebrate their first walk off win of the season (Photo: AP).

Entering the game, the scouting reports suggested that Matsuzaka was throwing more fastballs, which would be a change from the breaking ball approach he has used in his major league career. And, in fact, that’s exactly what he did in the first inning. The only problem was the fastballs were flat and poorly located. By the time the first batter was retired, the Yankees had five runs and Matsuzaka was forced to revert back to his tentative approach of pitching around the strike zone.

Meanwhile, Phil Hughes seemed to possess the same dominant stuff as he has all season, but without pinpoint command. Even in innings when the side was retired in order, several long at bats by Red Sox hitters made Hughes work very hard. Eventually, his elevated pitch count came to a head in the fifth inning, when after retiring the first two batters on three pitches, Hughes couldn’t slam the door on the inning. Marco Scutaro extended the inning with a single on the seventh pitch of his at bat before Dustin Pedroia doubled down the leftfield line on the tenth offering he saw. Then, with runners at second and third, J.D. Drew drilled a 1-2 cutter into the right field stands to bring the Red Sox to within 6-5. Hughes wound up throwing 28 pitches to get out of the fifth inning. The protracted inning raised his pitch total to 104 and sent him to an early shower.

Matsuzaka wasn’t even able to make it through five innings. The enigmatic righty wound up departing the game after only 4 2/3 innings, setting up a battle of the bullpens in the second part of the game. Unfortunately for the Yankees, both Joba Chamberlain and David Robertson were unavailable, meaning Girardi had to rely on the backend of the staff to get the ball to Mariano. After Boone Logan surrendered a Victor Martinez home run in the sixth, Girardi called upon Chan Ho Park to not only get through the seventh, but the eighth as well. Park, who had been on the DL since April 13, seemed to run out of gas in his second inning of work, and wound up giving up back-to-back homeruns to Kevin Youkilis and Martinez before being relieved by Damaso Marte. Continue Reading »

The rivalry sets up tents in the Bronx for the first time this season, but injuries have taken center stage for the Yankees. Before the game, the Yankees confirmed that Nick Johnson would in deed have surgery on his injured left wrist, a decision that will cost the team their DH for at least the next two months. In addition, the Yankees will once again be without Nick Swisher, whose sore right biceps prevent him from swinging left handed, and Jorge Posada, who is battling a bruise on his right foot that resulted from a foul ball in yesterday’s game.

As a result of the barrage of bumps and bruises, the Yankees will once again feature an anemic bottom of the lineup.  Normally, the Yankees patient and power laden lineup would be bad news for the deliberate Daisuke Matsuzaka. Tonight, however, Dice-K could benefit from the abundance of free swinging right handed hitters.

The reason Yankees has been able to overcome their many injuries is because of excellent starting pitching, exemplified tonight by Phil Hughes, who enters the game with a 5-0 record and the lowest ERA in the American League. With runs likely to be hard to come by for the Yankees, and a defense not exactly tailored toward run prevention, Hughes will need to be in top form if the Yankees are to continue their early season success against Boston.

With the injuries mounting and the Tampa Bay Rays playing well, these next two games against Boston will be vital. Not only do the Yankees need to immediately wash away the sour taste from Sunday’s shocking defeat, but they also need to keep creating space between themselves and the Red Sox. The Yankees will have their two best pitchers on the mound in the short two game series, so failing to capitalize could send the Yankees reeling into the next matchup against the first place Rays.

It took the baseball equivalent of a Big Bang for the Twins to finally beat the Yankees in New York. Trailing 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth, the Twins rallied for five runs off Mariano Rivera, who gave up a bases loaded walk and a grand slam. It was only the fourth time in his long career that Rivera yielded each adverse event, and the first time he surrendered both in the same game.

Mariano Rivera bites his lip after blowing his first save of the season.

The reason the Yankees were leading up until the eighth inning was because Sergio Mitre pitched one of his finest games in a Yankee uniform. In his five shutout innings, Mitre surrendered only one run on a homer to Justin Morneau. His strong pitching allowed the Yankees to build a 3-1 lead off Nick Blackburn, who scattered nine hits over seven innings. The biggest hit in the game for the Yankees was a two-out, two-run triple by Randy Winn in the second inning. The only other run was plated on a bloop single by Mark Teixeira in the fifth. The Yankees had an opportunity to tack on even more runs in that frame, but stranded runners on second and third with only one out.

Because Mitre was only able to go five innings, the bullpen was pressed into duty. The first man out of the pen was Dave Robertson, who turned in two scoreless innings despite working into and out of trouble in both the sixth and seventh innings. With that tenuous part of the ballgame successfully navigated, Girardi then turned the game over to Joba Chamberlain. Early tentativeness in the inning created a first and second jam (single to Span on three consecutive sliders and then a walk to Mauer) with only one out, but Chamberlain rebounded to strike out the dangerous Morneau and induce a soft liner to first by Cuddyer. The only problem was Mark Teixeira didn’t catch the ball. Instead, the ball dropped to his feet and Cuddyer reached safely when Chamberlain failed to cover the bag. Although not ruled an error, the play was one Teixeira makes routinely.

With the bases loaded, Joe Girardi summoned Rivera in the eighth inning, leading to the dramatic events that brought an end to the Twins 10 game losing streak at Yankee Stadium. It should be noted, however, that Rivera did have some help with his bases loaded walk to Thome. According to PitchFX data (see below), every single pitch but the first was in the strike zone. Thome got the benefit of the calls, however, and the rest was history, not to mention historic.

Even with all the stars aligned for their first victory in New York, the Twins still had to survive another mini-scare in the ninth inning. Singles by Winn and Ramiro Pena off closer Jon Rauch brought the tying run to the plate with no outs, but an awful at bat by Jeter seemed to stem the tide. After Jeter swung and missed on a ball in the dirt, Rauch bounced back to strike out Gardner and Teixeira to close out an improbable victory.

• The last grand slam surrendered by Mariano Rivera was to Bill Selby in a game against the Cleveland Indians on July 14, 2002. His last bases loaded walk was to Keith Ginter of the Oakland A’s on May 6, 2005.
• Before blowing the save in today’s game, Rivera had converted 51 consecutive chances at home, a record held with former Dodger closer Eric Gagne.
• For the second game this week, an opposing closer recorded a save against the Yankees by striking out the side.
• The Twins victory was their first at Yankee Stadium since July 4, 2007.

Duck and Cover…those two thoughts come to mind when thinking about Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau hitting against Sergio Mitre. Truth be told, that’s pretty much been the way all Yankee pitchers have been treated by Minnesota’s version of the M&M boys. Since the start of last season, Mauer and Morneau both have an OPS of 1.2 against the Yankees, which makes the Twins recent lack of success against the Bronx Bombers all the more amazing.

Unfortunately for the Yankees, Mitre’s second start of the season was necessitated by the Tuesday night rainout in Detroit. Frequently labeled as unlucky because his FIP has historically been much lower than his ERA (which stands at 5.50 for his career), Mitre has never had anything close to resembling success. Yet, the Yankees have still seen fit to entrust him with the role of spot starter, leading to their predicament  this afternoon.

If Mitre’s presence on the mound isn’t enough to buoy the Twins spirits, then the Yankees depleted lineup might do the trick. With Jeter as DH and Nick Swisher unable to swing left handed, the bottom three in the lineup should provide a nice landing spot for Twins starter Nick Blackburn. In addition to a compromised offense, having Thames make his first start in RF also significantly downgrades the defense. In other words, if the Twins can’t beat the Yankees this afternoon, perhaps they never will.

Of course, it won’t really be that easy. The middle of the Yankees lineup has started to turn on the power and Blackburn has never had success against the Yankees (0-1 with a 5.89 ERA in four career starts). What’s more, Derek Jeter has enjoyed facing Blackburn in the past, so this might be the perfect day for him to break through one of the longest slumps of his career. If the big boppers come through and Mitre can somehow dance his way through 5 solid innings, the Yankees could still come away with the sweep.