Nice weekend for both the Dbacks and the As.
Dbacks woke up against Atlanta and the A’s swept Boston.
I can’t understand how it is Memorial game and ESPN isn’t covering any baseball games today.
WGN has the Cubs and Dodgers, though.
The Tigers make me sad. I planned on a more fun baseball season.
A few of my friends that are (supposedly) die-hard Yankee fans are jumping ship, declaring the season over and wondering when the Giants start.
I keep trying to explain that the Yanks and fans need to be patient, wait for Jorge to return and don’t get down on Cashman as he is trying to return the Yanks to a sensible system where the farm is deep and strong and the team is younger. We probably won’t win it all this year and maybe we won’t even make the playoffs, but damn, don’t give up yet.
All that said, I still really hate the acquisition of Latroy Hawkins.
Jim
I’ve had the chance to watch two Tampa Bay Rays games on tv over the past two days.
That team has some talent. Last night’s game, even down by 7 runs, they fought back to 7-5 before getting blown out 12-6.
Still, I’d support a team which didn’t quit. However, that team can’t draw anyone to the ball park. The real attendance at that game last night can’t be more than a few thousand. For a first place team with lots of young talent? Even Texas Rangers game in the Texas heat draw better than that when the Rangers are in last place.
Jesus, those guys are pretty fickle.
The Yankees recently won five in a row, and last night they lost a wild, one-run game that could have gone either way. Not exactly cause for despair, especially since the Yankees’ bats are still on fire. The teams biggest problem is that they are going to have to score lots of runs on any night that Wang, Mussina or Pettite is not on the mound, and Wang is the only starter who almost guarantees a win. Although Rasner has been good in his four starts since entering the rotation.
Last night’s game was amazing, with four 4-run half-innings (two by the Yankees, two by the Orioles), and a total of nine home runs. The Orioles came back from 4-run deficits twice, and never led in the game until the walk-off hit in the bottom of the 11th. I thought the Birds were doomed when the Yankees took the lead in the top of the 11th, but my spirits lifted a bit when i saw that Rivera had been replaced by Hawkins.
I think this is precisely a situation where they could have left Rivera in, even if it meant he couldn’t pitch tonight. The Yankees had a one-run lead in extra innings—a very high leverage situation where it’s good to have your best available pitcher on the mound. If they left him in, they probably would have won the game. Sure, tonight’s game might be close, but it might also be a 7-1 blowout (for either team) in which Rivera wouldn’t be used anyway. Better to get the win that’s sitting right there ready to be taken. I know that last night was his longest outing of the season, but i reckon he could have gotten through another inning.
Oh, and on the subject of Rivera…
I very rarely complain about umpiring, especially the issue of balls and strikes, but Rivera got two or three strike calls on pitches that were a good 6 inches off the plate last night. Even the commentators were aghast at how bad the calls were. I’m not talking a cutter that moves just off the plate; i’m talking about a good couple of ball-widths outside.
Rivera is one of the greatest closers in the history of the game, and he’s been almost unhittable again this year. The last thing you need when you’re facing him is umpires who hand him even more strikes than he already gets.
Yes, my friends are fickle. They had also written off the **Giants ** last year and then in almost every round of the playoffs. (Except Tampa, they both thought the **Giants ** should beat Tampa)
Rasner has been very good, better than I hoped and I had faith in him. Moose has been better than I expected and Pettitte has been worse. The real shock has been Kennedy, who got hurt and Hughes who is already on the DL.
They are already talking about speeding up Joba’s move to the rotation.
As to Rivera, the box score shows that he was already at 31 pitches, so he was done for the night. I can’t blame Joe and in the long run it was the right decision.
I already mentioned I don’t like Hawkins.
I never saw the extra innings, so no comment of the Umpire calls. I would hazard a guess that you were correct and the Umpire gave Mo the calls as he is Mo and the night was late.
Attendance bumps from winning don’t come after a third of a season. Tampa has sucked for a long time; they have never even been close to being a good team, and promises of young talent blossoming have always turned out to be disappointing. The fans can be forgiven for being a little skeptical of a winning record before June 1.
Meanwhile, in Blue Jays news, they’re still a horrible offensive team, and it’s going to result in one of the best pitching staffs in baseball heading to the golf course on September 29.
Yeah, I’d still think that a team playing that well might generate a bit of excitement. I’m sure a weekday series against Texas right after Memorial Day weekend may not be the right time to judge. But, if I was a long suffering fan in that area, I’d be checking out some games.
Ugh, that dome!
He’ll be competing with this guy that nobody outside the Reds organization has ever heard of: Edinson Volquez, 7-2 in 11 games, 1.31 ERA, 76 Strikeouts, only 9 Earned Runs…the kid is a stud.
Good guys? GOOD GUYS?!?!?!?
:mad:
shakes fist
Oh, and speaking of up and coming hitting prospects, look out for a kid named Jay Bruce on the Reds. Made his debut last night (admittedly against our roomate in the NL Central cellar Pittsburgh) and went for 3 hits, 2 RBI, 2 BB and scored a couple runs. Showed great patience at the plate for a 21 year old.
Even the bloggers are abandoning ship.
http://www.metsgeek.com/articles/2008/05/27/welcome-to-raysgeek/
As I recall, he pretty thoroughly stomped on the Cubbies when we saw him. Weird looking geeky kid, but nasty stuff.
Another impressive win for Tampa yesterday afternoon in front of about 12 fans. With all the retirees in that area, you’d think a day gay with cheap tickets would have some appeal.
There is some talent on their pitching staff and from what I saw of Garza yesterday, he was very impressive.
Guess the D-backs want to make the NL West competitive. Thankfully, the Pades and Rockies are out of it and I think the Giants will be who we thought they were.
Guess Rickjay will be happy today as well. A’s wasted a good job by Harden to choke away the game.
Even being a Twins fan I still had to feel sorry for the struggling Royals.
It looked like they were going to break their 9 game skid going into the 9th with an 8-3 lead. They get 2 outs fairly quickly and need just one more to seal the game. What happens? A barrage of singles capped off with a 3 run homer ties the game at 8-8. Then the Twins pop a homer over the fence in the 10th to seal the win 9-8.
Watching in Hi-Def I could see the fans behind home plate go from estatic on their feet when needing one more out to sitting down slumped over as the Twins tied it up.
Painful to watch even though my team won.
The Mariners just won two games in a row!
WOO HOO! GOING ALL THE WAY! THIS IS THE YEAR, BABY!
At least, that’s according to our clinically bipolar local sports bloggers, who flip from gruesome to gleeful and back again with no intervening stages.
If you’re interested, here’s a screen grab of a Rivera pitch that was called a strike.
Brian Roberts would have needed arms like an orangutan to even get near it.
Wow.
Even by Yankee-call standards, that’s… amazing.
The Brewers looked pathetic today in their day game. Why is it that teams who win the first two games in a series often get blown out in a day game after a night game?
Now, it is time for the A’s to revenge that choke last night and pile up the damage on Toronto. (Sorry, Rickjay)
Hell’s bells, you ain’t kidding. Let’s sum up the lessons we Royals fans have learned the past two days, shall we?
Royals come from behind to tie in the 9th. Result = Royals lose in extras.
Royals lead most of game and opponents come from behind to tie in the 9th. Result = Royals lose in extras.
This is a very depressing pattern.