(This post was originally published on The Yankee Analysts)

Hideki Matsui announced his retirement yesterday after 10 seasons in the Majors – seven of them with our New York Yankees – and I thought it would be fun to take a look back at his time in Pinstripes.

For this post, I chose to focus on specific games I attended during Matsui’s Yankee tenure so I could tell some stories. Some are just random games, there’s a playoff game in there and a game in which he wasn’t even a Yankee.

I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane and please, feel free to leave your memories of Matsui in the comments section following this post.

» Continue reading “Hideki Matsui and Me: A Retrospective”

Maybe it’s because I truly do expect the Yankees to beat the Twins every time they face them, but this was a particularly tough one to swallow. Everything was just rolling along so smoothly until the 7th inning. Phil wasn’t great, but neither was the lineup he was facing. Nick Swisher and Russell Martin went deep against the impressive, young (and fantastically named) Esmerling Vazquez. Yup. This one had win written all over it. Alas, it was not written in the stars (Sidenote: I will not miss hearing Tiny Tempeh’s “Written in the Stars” this postseason. What an atrocious recording). Well, I’m not going to beat this one to death because it will hurt me to do so, but let’s have a look.

The only relief I enjoyed tonight came from the Tums I popped after dinner

I’m a fan and frequent apologist of Phil Hughes. It’s true. Tonight will be no different. Phil didn’t have his best fastball tonight (sitting at 91-92) but it was enough to keep the Twins at bay for 6.2 IP. Prior to the 7th inning, Phil was pitching like he should against this lineup at Target Field: lots of fastballs, lots of strikes.

The one run that scored while Phil was physically on the mound came in the Bottom of the 4th. Joe Mauer led off the inning with an opposite field 1B, one of his 3 hits on the night. Hughes looked to respond well initially, striking out Justin Morneau and getting that lumberjack Ryan Doumit to pop up. With 2 down, Chris Parmalee hit a seemingly harmless blooper down the line in shallow left that looked like it was going to dunk in for a 1B, which would have held Mauer at 3rd. Unfortunately, we were all treated to another installment of The Adventures of Raul, as the ball bounced away from Ibanez into foul territory and he failed to field it cleanly. Mauer scored from 1st to bring the Twins closer at 2-1.

Fast forward to the Bottom of the 7th. Hughes had been cruising, retiring 7 straight until Doumit singled to lead off the inning. Chris Parmalee (he of PH RBI 3B from last night fame) then grinded out a walk, fouling off several tough pitches from Hughes. Annoying, to say the least. After an at-bat like his, I generally start to shift in my seat, avert my gaze from whatever nonsense I’ve been getting into on the internet with the game on in the background, and prepare for Total Game Armageddon. With no one out and runners on 1st and 2nd, Phil Hughes got the streaky/occasionally dangerous Trevor Plouffe to pop up. Jamey Carroll followed with a grounder to SS that looked to be a run scoring 1B off the bat that Jeter was able to knock down, only allowing everyone to move up one base. Bases loaded, 1 out. At 93 pitches, Phil knew that the end was probably near. He bore down and threw 6 straight fastballs to Pedro Florimon, blowing him away for the 2nd on his 99th and final pitch of the game. Now, with the bases still loaded and 2 outs, it was time for some binder action. Final line for Phil: 6.2 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 99 pitches.

Girardi decided to turn to Boone Logan to face Denard Span with the game hanging in the balance, and the move left many a fan shaking their heads. Span has a career reverse split (.293 vs. LHP, .282 vs. RHP) and came in hitting over .300 against lefties on the year. To boot, Phil had retired him 3 times on weak ground outs. The manager, we are not, but this move was tough to comprehend. As expected, things really got off to an enchanting start. On his first pitch to Span, Logan yanked a slider that bounced off the plate and threw the legs of Russell Martin for a wild pitch, allowing Doumit to score and cut the lead to 3-2. Later in the at-bat, Boone would back off on a slider, spinning it right into Span’s wheelhouse. The result? A 2-run 2B into the gap in right-center to put the Twins up 4-3. After issuing a free pass to Ben Revere, Logan was left in to allow another RBI knock to a lefty – this time a RBI 1B by Joe Mauer to put it out of reach at 5-3. And there it was: Total Game Armageddon.

Simply put, Boone Logan has not been very good in the month of September. Over-use may play a part (this was his 77th appearance) but whatever the reason, he is seriously struggling with his location right now. He’s blown 2 leads in his last 3 appearances, and doesn’t inspire any confidence in me that he’ll be able to retire someone like a Prince Fielder come playoff time. Hopefully he figures it out or Joe gives him the rest he needs.

Not enough home runs (a meager attempt at some positivity)

The Yankees’ offense was entirely one-dimensional tonight, after being nearly entirely one-dimensional last night. Nick Swisher continued his 2 week hot streak with a 2-run blast in the Top of the 4th to put the Yankees up 2-0. It was Swish’s second straight game with a HR, and his 3rd in the last week. For a guy who has suffered through serious late-season burnout in his career, it’s nice to see Nick heading into October on a high note this year. Let’s hope he keeps it up.

In the Top of the 7th, Russell Martin led off by ripping a line drive HR to left center that at the time felt like a glorious insurance run. It was Russell’s 19th HR of the season, exceeding his total of 18 from one year ago and matching his career high set with the Dodgers during his breakout campaign in 2007. As difficult as it was to watch Russell struggle through the first half, he’s actually rebounded well enough down the stretch that his year-end numbers will look okay when viewed through the lens of his plus-defense behind the plate. They will not, however, tell the whole tale. In addition to getting some big hits (Yanks’ only 2 walkoff HRs this year) Russell really impressed me by continuing to try to right the ship all season even though his season looked doomed after only 6 weeks.

I’m bummed, let’s wrap this up

• Derek Jeter’s 1B in the 1st inning extending his hit streak to 19 games. Shocking, but true, fact: Jeter is only 23 hits away from passing Paul Molitor on the all-time hits list. Significance? That would give Jeter the most hits of any player never to win a batting title. It’s sort of shocking to me that neither Molitor nor Jeter ever snagged one, and probably would be to others as well. Feel free to throw that trivia question around at happy hour this week.
• Derek Lowe pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 8th. Equally as shocking as the previous bullet point.
• Andruw Jones got the Yanks within 1 with a solo HR off of Glen Perkins in the 9th. It was only his 15th hit, and 3rd HR, of the 2nd half. Jones has looked very old for the last 2/3 of this season, so we may be witnessing the final few at-bats of what was a stellar career. I’m trying to look past how much he’s hurt the Yanks this year and enjoy it. You should too.

The Yanks will go for the series win tomorrow afternoon at 1:10pm EST, sending CC Sabathia (13-6, 3.47 ERA) against Samuel Deduno (6-5, 4.54 ERA). Hopefully CC can double up on his strong performance against the A’s last Friday night at the Stadium.

I saved this for the end because it makes me sick: The Orioles lost 4-0 to the Blue Jays tonight, so the Yankees missed an opportunity to go up 2 1/2 games in the AL East with 8 to play. The good news is that while no ground was gained, the magic number was reduced to 7. Final tidbit comes from the Department of OPTIMISM (YEAH!). With the Rangers extra inning loss to the A’s tonight, the Yankees remain only 2 off the pace for the best record in the AL. I’m trying not to focus on that, but it’s there folks. Now excuse me while I go console myself with Minnesota State Fair delicacies such as fried oreos and fried Twinkies. Enjoy.

Curtis was just one of a few heroes for the Yanks in this one, but I can never turn down an opportunity to make an allusion to Arrested Development. I love the Twin Cities, I do, but I just don’t get nervous when the Yankees play the Twins. I’m not being cavalier or overly confident. It’s just that the Yankees seem to have had the Twinkies’ number since the early aughts. The Yankees are Ron Gardenhire’s daddy, I guess.

The Yankees dominated this one from the outset, holding the Twins at bay until 3 “garbage time” runs in the 8th and 9th. Let’s have a look.

Watch out Orel Hershiser

All that Andy Pettitte has done since coming off the DL is toss 11 scoreless innings over 2 starts. NBD. The really wild part? He hasn’t even looked that good yet.

Andy got off to an inauspicious start against the Twins tonight, allowing back to back singles to Denard Span and Ben Revere after his teammates staked him to a 3-0 lead in the Top of the 1st. After getting Joe Mauer to line out, Pettitte walked the dangerous Josh Willingham to load the bases. “Oh boy,” I thought, “here we go. It’s cold and Andy is old and this is going to be a reality check.” Reality check indeed. Pettitte responded to the walk (and my lack of faith) by striking out Justin Morneau looking and getting Ryan Doumit to ground out to short to end the inning. It wasn’t pretty, but he found a way. That, to me, is some vintage Andy Pettitte.

Over his 6 innings of work, Andy struggled more often than not, only retiring the side in order in the 2nd and the 6th. You know what though? Didn’t matter all that much, because Pettitte made the exact pitch he needed to make every time he seemed to be on the brink of giving in. With 1st and 3rd and 1 out in the Bottom of the 3rd, Pettitte got Willingham to bounce into a 6-4-3 inning ending double play. Similarly, in the 5th inning, Pettitte was able to induce a grounder to double up the speedy duo of Denard Span and Ben Revere. Twin killings for everyone! (Sorry, sorry)

Andy Pettitte also got some help from his defense in the 4th inning, in the form of a great play by both Curtis Granderson and Russell Martin. With 1 out in the frame, Ryan Doumit doubled to deep right. After retiring Trevor Plouffe on a shallow fly ball to Ichiro in RF, Pettitte was unable to snag a grounder up the middle from Jamey Carroll. Granderson charged as Doumit came chugging around 3rd and threw a one-hop strike to Martin who deftly swung around to apply the tag and nail the runner to end the inning. I’m a sucker for plays at the plate, especially if we can avoid a collision. There’s no prettier play in baseball than the bang-bang sweep tag at home on a throw from the outfield. What a treat!

Final line for Immortal Andy: 6 IP, 7 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 88 pitches. If he’s going to keep getting sharper, fantastic. If not, then just more of this, please.

This park can’t hold me!

“Too many home runs! Yankee Stadium is a band box! Jet streams! It’ll never fly on the road!” And so on, and so on. Well, maybe the Yankees brought the jet streams out to the Midwest with them because man, were they mashing tonight. Isn’t Target Field supposed to play large? Isn’t the ball supposed to stop carrying in the Twin Cities once the temperature drops? Tell that to Nick Swisher, Curtis Granderson, Raul Ibanez, and Eric Chavez.

The Yankees wasted no time making themselves at home in this one. In the 1st inning after a walk to Jeter, newly minted AL Player of the (Last) Week Ichiro Suzuki got things going with a 2B that was smoked high off the wall in right field. A-Rod was retired on a fly ball to right field, but Robbie Cano was able to drive in the first run of the game on a grounder to SS. Enter Nick Swisher. Exit baseball. With two outs, Swisher crushed the Liam Hendriks offering off the facing of the upper deck in RF for a 2-run shot to put the Yankees up 3-0. Seemingly an effective way to get to the young Australian righty, the rest of the lineup got to work.

Hendriks actually flashed some pretty good stuff at times after the 1st inning, settling in nicely until the 4th. After striking out Swisher looking to begin the inning, Hendriks showed Granderson a pair of curveballs before trying to surprise him with a fastball on the inner half. Curtis Status: Not surprised. Granderson one-upped Swisher with his blast, a solo shot that traveled approximately 437ft. into the upper deck in right field. It was Curtis’ 40th HR of the year, and put the Yankees ahead 4-0.

Credit to Henriks again for settling down after giving up a mammoth blast, as he made it into the 7th inning without allowing any further damage. That is, however, where the run of success would end. Raul Ibanez led off the inning with the Yankees’ third monster home run of the game, a solo shot down the RF line to increase the lead to 5-0. Two batters later, Eric Chavez joined the party with an opposite field solo shot that barely cleared the fence and only cleared Willingham’s glove by a pork chop on a stick’s length. 6-0 Yankees, and the end of the night for Hendriks.

Other than the excitement of the long ball, it was good to see the offense roll along pretty effortlessly. Ibanez built on Saturday’s special day and turned in a 2-for-4, living up to his reputation as a feast or famine streak guy, and Eric Chavez went 3-for-4 in his attempt to get off the snide.

Tidbits and Other Fun

• Derek Jeter went 1-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to 18 games. He came into this game hitting .339 in the second half. Yeah.
• Curtis Granderson’s 40th HR put him in pretty elite company as a Yankee. With 41 dingers last year, Curtis joins Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, and, um, Jason Giambi as the only Yankees to hit 40+ HR in back-to-back seasons. If Curtis wear a lucky golden thong, let’s hope he sticks with it for the next month or so.
• The 2B that Andy Pettitte allowed to Ryan Doumit in the Bottom of the 4th was his first XBH allowed since coming off the DL. Doumit was the 36th batter he faced.
• Nick Swisher is playing an impressive 1B in Teixeira’s absence. Stretches, picks, you name it. What an asset to have that depth.
• Joba Chamberlain celebrated his 27th birthday yesterday and continued the party by pitching a 1-2-3 7th.
• Cory Wade may have thrown his last inning as a Yankee tonight and unsurprisingly allowed a home run. Wade may be a roster casualty when Gardner returns or David Aardsma is activated.
• Josh Willingham was removed from the game after his leaping attempt on Eric Chavez’s HR in the 7th inning and it was announced that he suffered a shoulder injury. Makes the Yanks’ lives a lot easier if he needs to sit out the rest of the series.

With this win and Baltimore’s loss to Toronto in the nightcap of their double header, the Yankees now hold a 1 1/2 game lead in the AL East. This is the first time the Yankees have been separated from the Orioles by more than 1 game since September 2. For those who count the Sudden Death Golden Goal All the Beans Wild Card Duel as the playoffs, the Yankees magic number is 4. Still a long haul for the division crown though.

Tomorrow’s matchup pits Phil Hughes (16-12, 4.05 ERA) against Esmerling Vazquez (0-2, 6.75 ERA). It would be ideal to see Phil bounce back from a lackadaisical outing against the Blue Jays last time out, as we’re starting to run out of time for working out the kinks here. In other news, Esmerling is a phenomenal name, but I hope that the home run barrage carries over. Enjoy folks.

It was on this day way back in 2002 that Jason Giambi “earned his pinstripes”. After struggling for the first month of his Yankee tenure and being booed by the home crowd, Giambi had his crowning moment of Yankee glory on a rainy Friday night in the Bronx.

The game itself was really odd. Mike Mussina started and gave up seven earned runs in five innings. By the time the sixth inning was over the Twins were up 9-8.

The Yankees tied the game in the bottom of the ninth on a Bernie Williams home run. Giambi followed with a strikeout and Jorge Posada hit a pop up to end the inning.

After four scoreless innings by both bullpens, the Twins came to bat in the top of the 14th inning. Sterling Hitchcock came into the game in the top of the 13th, replacing Mariano Rivera who threw two innings of hitless ball with three strikeouts.

The Yankee relievers that night were Mike Stanton. Ramiro Mendoza, Steve Karsay, Rivera and Hitchcock.

Ahh 2002.

The 13th was fine for Hitchcock, it was the 14th when things got dicey.

» Continue reading “Happy Anniversary Jason Giambi!”

This is my cat Jack. I’ve had him and his brother Henry for nine years now – yesterday was actually the anniversary of their arrival into my life.

Anyway, Hiroki Kuroda was pretty bad. Justin Morneau is a pain in the ass again and the Yankees were a run short of a comeback. But hey, at least Derek Jeter has four home runs already this season! Robinson Cano also hit a home run. The first for the Yankees in the clean up spot all season. (Oh right it’s only 12 games – whatever.)

Tomorrow the Yankees look to salvage a split with Phil Hughes trying to rebound from his horrific start on Saturday.

 

I’m sure CC Sabathia is breathing a little easier this morning. Not only did his finally pick up his first win of the season but it was a quality start and he only gave up three earned runs.

Sabathia started with a 1-2-3 first inning and the CC we’ve come to know and love appeared to be back for the first time this season. Then he gave up a run in the second and another two in the third and was up near 60 pitches at the end of that third inning. The cries of, “What happened to CC Sabathia??” started and we were left to wonder if this would be a repeat of his first two starts.

Luckily for us, it wasn’t. Sabathia settled down, lasted until there was one out in the eighth inning and the Yankees were able to win the game.

From the Lohud Yankees blog:

“Larry came to me after the third and he just said, ‘Make sure you get on top of the fastball.’ That was all I needed to hear,” Sabathia said. “The command came. (Chris Stewart) called a good game. So I just kind of got in the flow.”

Oh and speaking of Chris Stewart, he helped his battery mate out by collecting three RBI. Sabathia is now 9-0 with a 1.93 ERA in his last 10 starts against the Twins – including the postseason.

Things were looking good for the Yankees last night. After Freddy Garcia gave up a couple of runs in the top of the first to the Minnesota Twins, the Yanks came back with three of their own against former Bomber Carl Pavano.

Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson hit back to back home runs and it looked like the Yankees were going to cruise to another win over the Twins.

And then it stopped. Three runs is all they managed to score. Pavano ended up settling down, Garcia imploded and the Yankees ended up losing to the Twins 7-3.

***

Carl Pavano elicits a lot of interesting responses from Yankee fans. Most of them can’t stand him because he was here for four seasons and barely played. He had a litany of maladies that caused him to spend more time on the disabled list than in the starting rotation. And magically, Pavano became healthier once he left New York $40M richer.

So, naturally, fans don’t really like him and usually root for the Yankees to pound him into submission. And it looked like it was going to happen then he settled down and the Yankees couldn’t get anything going against him.

I was one of those people who actually felt bad for Carl Pavano when he was a Yankee. He seemed to have the worst luck and was a ball magnet. I saw him get hit with a comebacker during a game in which he was returning from the disabled list in, I believe, 2005. We all just looked at each other like, “Wow, does this guy have the worst luck or what?”

In fact, considering how long he was on the disabled list while in pinstripes, I ended up seeing Pavano start a few games. Thinking back now, I may have seen almost all of his start and that’s kind of amazing.

Anyway, things didn’t go the Yankees’s way last night and tonight they look to rebound against Minnesota. It will be CC Sabathia (0-0, 6.75) facing off against Francisco Liriano (0-1, 10.00).

Oh and just in case you missed last night’s game recap, you can read it here.

This is Henry. He’s nine years old and I got him and his brother Jack nine years ago today. (They were six months old at the time.)

Freddy Garcia was bad again and the Yankees only managed to score three runs off Carl Pavano. Boooooooooo! Totally lame.

Bright spot: Derek Jeter hit another home run.

Lowlight: Losing to the Twins. The Yankees hardly ever lose to the Twins. Terrible*.

*because people are Twitter think I’m being serious I will state that I am being sarcastic.

After winning two of three against the Los Angeles Angels this weekend, the Yankees will be welcoming the Minnesota Twins to the Bronx for a four game series. Entering tonight, the Yankees have won 23 of their last 27 games against the Twins. This stat includes postseason play.

So far this season the Twins have continued where they left off in 2011. They finished last season with only 63 wins, their record coming into this series is 2-7. They were just swept by the Texas Rangers with yesterday’s loss being particularly rough. Reliver Glenn Perkins blew a three run lead.

From Yahoo! Sports:

LHP Glen Perkins faced three hitters in relief of Hendriks but failed to retire anybody in yielding three runs, including Josh Hamilton’s 449-foot moon shot into the right-field upper deck. Texas pounded Perkins for five earned runs in two-thirds of an inning Saturday and Sunday.

“It sucks. Liam did a good job, gave us more than enough to win the game. I didn’t do my job.”

The Yankees are riding high after a series win against the Los Angeles Angels which helped improve their record to 5-4 on the season. In last night’s win, Derek Jeter hit is second home run of the season. In 2011, he didn’t hit his second homer until May 8. Jeter now has five multi-hit games in the first nine.

After nearly being shutout by the Angels on Saturday the Yankees roared back with 11 runs last night and more importantly, they were able to hit with runners in scoring position.

Freddy Garcia is looking to rebound from his bad start in Baltimore last week.

Series pitching matchups:
Freddy Garcia (0-0, 5.79) vs. Carl Pavano (0-1, 5.93)
CC Sabathia (0-0, 6.75) vs. Francisco Liriano (0-1, 10.00)
Hiroki Kuroda (1-1, 2.63) vs. Jason Marquis (0-0, -)
Phil Hughes (0-2, 9.00) vs. Nick Blackburn (0-1, 5.56)

Tonight’s Lineups:

YANKEES
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Nick Swisher RF
Raul Ibanez DH
Russell Martin C
Brett Gardner LF

Freddy Garcia P

TWINS
Denard Span CF
Jamey Carroll SS
Joe Mauer DH
Josh Willingham LF
Justin Morneau 1B
Ryan Doumit C
Danny Valencia 3B
Clete Thomas RF
Alexi Casilla 2B

Carl Pavano P

Phil Hughes, CC Sabathia and Mariano Rivera all looked good on the mound today. Sabathia and Rivera pitched against the Phillies while Hughes started against the Twins.

Sabathia pitched three scoreless innings, gave up two hits, struck out two and walked one. Rivera followed Sabathia with a scoreless, hitless, seemingly effortless three up, three down inning.

Derek Jeter had two hits – I guess the rumors of his demise were premature. Robinson Cano had one hit and Russell Martin picked up a stolen base and scored a run.

Rivera actually picked up the win. The Yankees beat the Phillies 3-0 in Tampa.

Hughes pitched three scoreless innings against the Twins. He gave up one hit – to his first batter – then settled down and struck out one batter and gave up one walk.

Francisco Cervelli had three hits for the Yankees against the Twins. Curtis Granderson and Nick Swisher had one hit each.

The Yankees lost 5-1 with Graham Stoneburner getting the loss.