All Things Bubba

June 17, 2006: Washington 11, N.Y. Yankees 9

There's nothing better than coming from way behind to win. The flip side, of course, is there's nothing worse than blowing a big lead and losing. You'd almost rather it was a blowout from the beginning. :-P

Nine runs was not enough today. Chacon melted down on the mound in the 4th inning. The rest of the bullpen folded, too, including Mariano Rivera. It was pretty ugly.

I suspect the real problem is that Chacon and Wright both pitched only five innings (yesterday and today). Since they are back to back in the rotation, that's a lot of work on a bullpen that was already short Kyle Farnsworth (back spasms). This could be a problem down the stretch, unless they get sorted (or Torre resorts the rotation).

And I fear I was all too right about Bernie Williams. Hot as he was yesterday, he was stone-cold today. And Torre put him in the two-hole. It was a disaster. Bernie went 0-for-5, with 4 LOB and a GIDP.

His defense was poor as well. The Nats were running on his arm. If Bubba were in RF, maybe some of those runs don't score. (They were running on Damon's arm, too, but Damon more than made up for it with his bat today, going 4-for-6 with two doubles and a grand slam.)

Bubba did come in as a pinch runner for Giambi in the top of the 8th, then moved to RF in the bottom of the 8th. He didn't get to actually run. He did field a Jose Guillen triple that was smoked into the gap. If it were Bernie in RF, it would have been a inside-the-park homerun. (I now understand why there are so few triples in that stadium.)


Bubba grabs his batting helmet and comes in to pinch-run.

On first base while A-Rod bats.