Heartland Pinstripes

For some reason the game was blacked out online, so I listened to Sterling and Waldman for a few innings before resuming the evening festivities with GLG while my wife and son are away for a couple days. We watched a movie, “National Treasure,” which wasn’t bad–far-fetched, plus Nicholas Cage’s lines are heavily affected. But both aspects provided levity for GLG and me. She’s got a quick wit and is very funny. In all, the movie wasn’t bad as long as it was with her.

Igawa, not so much. I got an earful of the first three innings and part of the fourth via WCBS, and his start was an unmitigated disaster in this 6-5 loss. I am now watching the game via digital archive to couple the visuals with the disaster I knew occurred, and the Tigers just teed off on him right from the beginning, hitting everything hard in the first and scoring a run though it could have been worse. He actually threw a quick 1-2-3 second before fully imploding in the third and fourth, getting ripped for five more runs before his ignominious exit without retiring any of the four batters he saw in the fourth. The final line tells a good part but not all of the tale–3+ IP, 11 hits, 6 runs earned, no walks and no K’s on 64 pitches/41 strikes. Igawa had just two pitches on which Tigers hitters swung and missed, one of which was a foul tip. He was kerosene personified. Horrible, sinking the Yankees in a hole from which they could not extricate themselves.

Pity, because the bullpen yet again held it together through the next five. Albaladejo, Hawkins, and Edwar allowed only two hits, no runs and one walk, fanning four combined. Yet there was bad news, with Albaladejo leaving the game after 2 1/3 reporting pain akin to a needle jabbing around his elbow. I’m no specialist, but that sounds bad, and probably is since the Yankees have already placed him on the 15-day DL with an MRI pending. That’s a shame, since the kid did pretty well in The Bronx. In 13 2/3 IP through 7 appearances, Albaladejo was 0-1 with an ERA of 3.95, allowing 15 hits (1 HR) and 6 walks while fanning 13. Hopefully this isn’t too serious, with the Yankees’s roster already vaguely resembling a M*A*S*H unit. Hawkins was very good, pitching 1 2/3 perfect innings, and Edwar pitched a hitless eighth.

The bats were productive, providing the chance if way too late to come back but leaving 9 on base, 4 in scoring position–again. Giambi tied the game at 1 with a big blast deep to right, his 7th of the year to take the team lead. He has 19 RBIs despite hitting a paltry .174, but was 2 for 4, adding a double. Cano the Tough Love Kid is warming up, going 2 for 4 with a double, a run, and an RBI, his 11th, upping his average to .182. Giambi and Cano looked about as good at the plate as they have all year, making good swings even on most of the outs they made. Giambi drilled one to deep left that Sheffield the Selfish snagged. Jeter was also 2 for 4 with a run, an RBI (his 17th), a walk, and is batting a solid .305. Melky the Clutch was 2 for 5 with a double from the lead-off spot to raise his average to .277. Though he had an atrocious day playing third [Please come back soon, A-Rod], Betemit was also 2 for 4 with a double and a run, batting .250. Abreu was 1 for 4 with his 22nd RBI but fanned twice. Duncan was 1 for 5, Moeller was 1 for 3 with an RBI, and JD was 1 for 1 with a run pinch-hitting for Moeller.

Yet the Yankees stranded too many. They had first and second with one out in the third after Melky’s double and Jeter’s walk, but Abreu fanned and Matsui grounded out weakly to The Pine Tar Gambler. In the fifth with Cano at second and Melky at first, Jeter grounded into a double play to end the inning. With two outs in the sixth, Duncan singled and Giambi doubled, but Betemit’s 5-3 ended that threat. The Yankees cut it to 6-2 in the seventh when Cano led off with a ground-rule double, moved to third on a wild pitch from Zach Miner, and scored on Moeller’s soft single. They made things interesting in the ninth, scoring three. Betemit led off with a double, moved to third on Todd Stinking Jones’s wild pitch, scored on Cano’s 6-3, JD got an infield single, moved to second on another wild pitch from so-called closer Jones, moved to third on Melky’s 1-3, Jeter singled JD in, 6-4, moved to second on defensive indifference, and scored on Abreu’s double, 6-5. But Leyland intentionally walked Matsui, ending his 17-game hitting streak, to face Duncan whose F8 ended the game.

I really don’t see how it is that Igawa can be allowed to pitch his next scheduled start on Wednesday against Tampa Bay. He was wretched, didn’t fool anyone, and got positively tagged. Eleven hits in 3+ innings is atrocious, and not the slightest improvement over Kennedy. In one game, it’s actually twice as bad as Kennedy’s ERA–six runs in three-plus innings. What a horrible signing Igawa has been, a reflexive signing by Cashman and the Yankees after the Red Sox far surpassed the Yanks’ bid for Matsuzaka. What a colossal waste Igawa has been, for a supposedly seasoned, experienced, and fairly accomplished pitcher in Japan. Bad break for Albaladejo and the bullpen, losing a fairly reliable young arm for the near future at least. Chris Britton was recalled in his place.

Darrell Rasner (1-0, 3.00 ERA) tries to get the Yankees back to .500 yet again against Bonderman (2-3, 4.17 ERA). More of the same for a team that, with all the injuries and inconsistencies, has been positively mediocre.

I just heard from Ty Hildenbrandt [sorry for initially misspelling it, Ty] of Yankee Fan Club Radio, and I will be appearing as a guest on this Sunday’s show. It starts at 6 p.m. EDT, and I should be on at about 6:30 p.m. EDT. To listen, fans can click the link under the heading “Radio” in the right-hand column here at The Heartland, or enter the following URL into the browser bar:

http://radio.lvyankeefanclub.com/

You can also leave messages for Ty, Uncle Joe, and Tony at (206) 984-0596, or e-mail them at radio@lvyankeefanclub.com. Tune in this and every Sunday. It’s a terrific, energetic, and well-informed show, and Mike Sommer of The Sommer Frieze is on most weeks as well.

I wrote last week that Derek Jeter had shown remarkable impatience in the first month, seeing either one or two pitches in 47 of his 100 plate appearances. In his next 23 plate appearances, 9 have been 1 or 2 pitches, or 39%. In those 23 plate appearances, Jeter has 9 hits–4 on either the first or second pitch. On the one hand, it’s hard to argue with the results when he’s hitting well. He has raised his average to .298, and is batting a scorching .464 with RISP, actually raising that by going 4 for his last 7 with RISP.  On the other, patience in general helps subsequent batters see what pitches come and in what possible patterns, while also wearing down the hurler. To his credit, Jeter has done a fairly good job of showing patience in recent games, markedly improved from the previous period of time. I would argue further that his patient approach the last several games more than coincided with, but helped to produce, the recent surge in his average. In the last five games in which the 23 plate appearances have occurred, Jeter has seen 4 or more pitches 11 times in 23 plate appearances, going 3/10 with a walk. Yet he hit the ball hard on several outs, and advanced Damon (who eventually scored) to third in the first inning of Saturday’s 6-1 win. On the hits when he took 4 or more pitches, he saw a total of 17 pitches, with all 3 of those long at-bats coming in Sunday’s 8-2 win in which Jeter went 4 for 5. In 6 at-bats during this stretch, Jeter saw three pitches going 2 for 6, generally hitting the ball hard and, though grounding out to short today, worked the count 2-0 to get a Byrd “fastball.” In sum, not only has Jeter been somewhat more patient, he’s also been more productive in both short and long at-bats. My point is not to say that Jeter shouldn’t be aggressive, but rather to say that it was in no small part patience that helped him improve his average in the last week. He worked counts, in some cases got better pitches to hit, helped work over Hernandez and Silva for seven hits in two games, and worked Carmona for a walk. Patience, for Jeter and for the team, has paid off.

I’ve recently complained that the Yankees have too often failed to generate rallies until there were two outs. While two-out rallies are often crucial for teams, they can also hamstring teams by leaving them no opportunities for productive outs, to manufacture runs, and no wiggle room for mistakes at the plate. In the two losses to Cleveland Tuesday and Wednesday, the Yanks had five innings in which the first two batters were out, the third (and at times fourth) reached base, only to see the rally die out. Worse, these all occurred from the sixth inning onward, depriving the team chances to add on in the 5-3 loss (Dellucci’s homer off Joba) or simply to push across runs in the dreadful 3-0 loss yesterday. In the two losses, the Yankees stranded a total of 16 runners, 8 in scoring position. Six of those 16 stranded came in such two-out situations in the 6th inning or beyond, 3 of which were in scoring position. I contend that there is more than the clear need to cash in, but to get rallies going before two outs. Ground outs can certainy be productive, as Melky, Jeter, and others have shown lately. Betemit’s fly out to deep left-center moved Cano to third with one out. This was key today, but so was Cano’s leading off with the double–and of course just hitting at all. Particularly when the Yanks have struggled to score runs, they need to get them however they can. More than just whenever they can, they would be well served by not waiting until they’re nearly out of chances to score in order to push runners across.

How great has Mariano been? In 14 innings during 13 appearances this season, he has allowed five hits, no walks, and no runs, while fanning 12. Ridiculous, and he’s throwing very hard and easy right now. Girardi has done a good job with the pen in general, and Mariano has had a nice balance of work–not too much, but few extended periods of inactivity. Of course, this is in part a product of the team’s inconsistency. That is, the team’s losing streaks have if nothing else afforded Mariano some breaks, allowing him to be ready for when the offense reappears and starters carry the ball deeper into games. Even last season, the only season one could remotely characterize as an off-year, Mariano wasn’t that off, but struggled at times from a lack of regular work. While he had difficult moments in mid-August, Mariano was pretty good even in his so-called off-year. He was 3-4 with a 3.15 ERA, his highest ERA for any season strictly as a reliever. Yet his WHIP was fairly low at 1.121, his K/BB ratio was excellent 74K/12BB, and 17 of his 25 runs allowed came in 6 of his 67 appearances, and three of those were in April when he struggled badly. Otherwise, he was fairly close to his dominant self.

Yet there is no denying that Mariano is really sharp right now, popping the catcher’s glove and usually overwhelming batters. That he hasn’t walked a single batter is really astounding. In fact, in 43 plate appearances against him, Mariano has gotten to a three-ball count only three times. What has always impressed me, and I don’t think it gets nearly enough attention, is that for all his power and the justifiably famous dominance of his cutter, Mariano is as much a control pitcher as a power pitcher. In 4 completed seasons out of 12 as a reliever has Mariano averaged more than a K/IP, while most others are close but below. But equally importantly, he just doesn’t walk many guys. In 6 of his 12 seasons as a reliever, Mariano has a WHIP of 1.000 or lower; in 4 others his WHIP is under 1.1. Last year was only one of two years in his great career as a reliever in which he allowed what would average out to be 10 hits/walks per 9 innings. Even at that last year, his K/BB ratio was his third-best ever, behind 2001 and 2003. As if it weren’t evident enough, all this is why I’d still choose Mariano as my closer, right now at the age of 38. His is quite simply still as good at his job as anyone today, and is far and away the greatest closer ever. In Mariano I trust.