Heartland Pinstripes

Mike Mussina was yet again excellent, the bullpen was very good especially Joba and Mariano, and the bats still did little but enough to eke out a 2-1 win. Cano looked the best he has all year, the Yankees rightly had Molina bunt, Girardi at long last called a team meeting, both runs were scored via two-out RBIs, and the team got some clutch plays in the field to creep back to within one game of .500.

After Mussina and Shields worked 1-2-3 in the first, each faced down threats in the second. With two out, the Yankees threatened in the top of the second when Cano singled, Melky reached second on Pena’s error, but Ensberg’s ground out ended the rally. In the bottom of the inning, Pena led off with a single that was erased on Longoria’s grounding into a 6-4-3 DP. Floyd singled and Navarro’s single to center enticed Floyd to try Melky’s arm going to third, and Melky made him pay for two of the cardinal sins–don’t test Melky’s arm on a play to a base, and don’t make either the first or the third outs trying for third.

The Yankees worked a successful two-out rally in the fourth when Matsui doubled and Cano singled him home, 1-0 Yankees. Mussina worked around Pena’s two-out single in the bottom of the fourth to hold it. The Yanks added another in the fifth when Ensberg led off with a single, Molina bunted him over to second [it's about time!] and, with two down, Abreu hit a bloop double to make it 2-0. Mussina stranded Gross after his two-out double, then worked a ten-pitch 1-2-3 sixth, holding the lead very well. He went batter-to-batter in the seventh, getting Pena looking on a slow curve but walking Longoria, ending his night. Ohlendorf entered and surrendered consecutive singles to Floyd and Navarro to cut the lead in half 2-1, but got help from Jeter. Stationed perfectly closer than usual to second, Jeter snared a hot liner from Gross, then flipped it to Melky to double off Floyd, ending the threat and in effect the game tonight. Joba allowed a walk but fanned the side, and Mariano was The Man yet again, going 1-2-3 in the ninth on a mere nine pitches to cinch the one-run win.

Cano erupted today, going 4-4 to break through the Mendoza glass ceiling, hitting .205 and knocking in his 12th run. Abreu’s double produced his 24th RBI. Two sac bunts from the slumping Molina were a welcome sight given that he’s now 3 for his last 42. Lots of 0-for’s, but a win is a win is a win.

And it was a win thanks to Mussina, who earned his fifth straight win and is now 6-3, going 6 1/3 really strong scattering five hits, allowing the run earned, a walk, and fanning four on 87 pitches/52 strikes to lower his ERA to 3.99–clutch start yet again, Mussina. Who would have thought that he’d be out-performing Pettite, Hughes, and tomorrow’s starter Kennedy? Not I, but I’ll surely take it. Ohlendorf wasn’t at his best but got defensive help from Jeter. Joba was excellent, and I’m not surprised in the slightest that Mariano bounced back after last night’s setback, earning his 11th save this year and 454th of his illustrious career.

Kennedy (0-2, 8.37 ERA) faces tough lefty Scott Kazmir (1-1, 2.70 ERA) tomorrow afternoon at 4:10 EDT as the Yanks try for the series split. I’m far from panicked after one-fourth of the year. I was pissed yesterday to be sure, but this team will bounce upwards, I just know it. They need the bats and, while A-Rod and Posada are big losses, this team has enough talent and experience to get the job done. They’re no slouches. Today wasn’t a great offensive effort, especially when 4 of the 7 hits came from one, long-overdue hitter in Cano. But a win is a win, and it moves them to within two of Boston in the loss column. This team has not yet begun to hit; look out when it does.

Frank The Sage’s phone call during extra innings spared me the need–and quite frankly I had little desire–to write yet another wrap-up about how the Yankees are in a futile and fairly brainless slump right now. An object lesson in that is the eleventh inning of last night’s 2-1 loss. After mustering nearly nothing all night, especially off starter Edwin Jackson, save Matsui’s game-tying homer in the ninth off closer Troy Percival, Abreu worked a one-out walk. While I was talking with The Sage about the upcoming vacation we have, for which I cannot wait, I was thinking, steal a base here Abreu. For goodness sake, can we manufacture a run, please? What happened next? Matsui swung at the first pitch and grounded into a 4-6-3 DP to end it just like that. Yet right away in the bottom of the 11th, the Rays inflicted upon Mariano his first run and loss of 2008, with Cliff Floyd singling–on the first pitch up–past a seemingly immobile Giambi. Gomes entered as a pinch-runner and promptly stole second off a terrible throw by Molina, then came home on Gabe Gross’s single to center. 2-1 Rays, the direct result of the willingness to manufacture opportunities, the ability to cash them in–both of which the Yankees woefully lack.

You want more lessons in futility? Chien-Ming Wang struggled a bit early but really buckled down to keep the dormant Yankee offense in the game, going seven strong and allowing only one run earned on seven hits, three walks, two K’s, and a remarkable 16 groundouts on 101 pitches/67 strikes. Yet his excellent start went to waste, since the offense couldn’t score. For example, in the top of the sixth, the Yankees had a golden opportunity to at least tie the game when Jeter’s hard but diving liner skidded past the diving Eric Hinske in right, going to the wall and giving The Captain a stand-up triple with one out. Yet Abreu grounded to short–horrible–and Matsui popped to short, ending the threat. The same result occurred in the second, when Giambi and Melky singled back-to-back to start the inning, but Cano’s force and disgraced former attorney general Alberto Gonzales grounded into a double play. Disgraceful situational hitting yet again. While they had few such chances, the Yankees had no hits or productive outs with runners in scoring position. None.

There were some moments when the Yankees hit the ball hard but right at people–Jeter for example lining a hard shot to Pena at first–for some bad luck. However, this slump is largely of their own doing, I’d contend. The Yankees are neither good nor smart right now. Yes, Matsui hit the game-tying homer in the ninth. But that’s no excuse for his impatience in the eleventh, none whatsoever. This team cannot get out of its own way right now. The 1-0 lead that the Rays held from the bottom of the fourth to the top of the ninth felt like an anvil on the chest, like a hundred-run deficit simply because the offense is doing nothing good or right. It should never have come down to Mariano pitching a second inning, much less suffering his first loss. The Yankees aren’t hitting in key situations. Nor are they manufacturing runs through a stolen base, advancing runners via grounding out or a deep fly ball, or [GASP!] a bunt. It doesn’t help that in five innings last night–the third, fourth, fifth, eighth, and tenth–the first two Yankee batters made outs, drastically reducing their margin for error and opportunities for various means of productivity. They can’t have a productive out in those situations when the next one always seems to end the inning.

Giambi appears to be coming out of his month-long malaise, going 2-2 with 2 walks to raise his average to .194, still sad but better. Matsui’s homer gave him five on the year with eighteen RBIs. Jeter’s triple went unrequited, as did JD’s and Melky’s singles. They left six on, two in scoring position, and grounded into two double-plays. Frank The Sage made a good point–several really–in our confab that the Yankees lack a good bat off the bench in addition to lacking many in the regular lineup. That is, they lack the grab-the-bat-cold guy like Fielder and Sierra who can come in and stand a good chance to rip an RBI single or double (or dare I say homer). I’ll add that the Yankees’ continuing to play Giambi and Cano through horrific and prolonged slumps (out of which they might be finally emerging) deprived us the chance to see if Shelley could be that on a semi-regular basis.

Vacation looms in two days, and it couldn’t come at a better time. Usually I watch very little live baseball or even catch many highlights while on vacation for the week, whether or not the Yankees are playing well, because I treat the time and space as a real time and space away. Although I’ll have a couple HDLR sessions next week, I’ll otherwise very likely be absent from the blog. Frank The Sage will be in the HDLR with me, so feel free to drop in as I type his typically witty and salient observations. However, given the team’s poor play, I wouldn’t be surprised if I were the only one not around much after Friday.