Well, the Birds turned out to be not as scary as they first seemed. The Yanks weren't that sharp, but they didn't need to be. They took the last two, winning the series 3-1.
September 10, 2006: N.Y. Yankees 9, Baltimore 4
Johnny Damon was DHing for the second night in a row. Lower back pain, apparently. Which means Bernie was in CF for the second night in a row. Not a good idea. He doesn't have the stamina for that any more. Not surprisingly, he ended up going 0 for 5. I guess Joe really doesn't trust Kevin Thompson in CF.
Luckily, the rest of the lineup got plenty of hits. As well they should have. Baltimore's rookie pitcher, Hayden Penn, had an ERA of 108.0 coming into the game. Okay, he's not as bad as that number. But he's not good, either. (He'd lowered his ERA to 36.82 by the time he was yanked.)
September 11, 2006: N.Y. Yankees 9, Baltimore 6
Gotta feel sorry for Lopez. He pitched well enough to win, only to see Hoey come in and give up six earned runs. It was still a pretty close game.
Randy Johnson continues to be worryingly inconsistent. He looked great the first few innings, but then visibly flagged. His slider got a lot less sharp, and he started to give up hits.
The Yanks are cruising now, but it's more because the Red Sox have collapsed than because they're that dominating. The pitching is particularly worrisome. Moose is not pitching as well as he was. Seems like this happens every year; he tires toward the end of the season. You never know which Randy will show up. Wang is probably our ace, but he doesn't pitch as well away as he does at home, and doesn't strike batters out, and he's pitched a lot more innings than he ever has before this year. And Wright and Lidle...oy.
We've got a ton of pitchers now, but Torre's old standbys aren't doing so well. Mo is out for at least another week. (Luckily, we don't need him until the postseason.) EDSP (Every Day Scott Proctor) once again gave up a homer to the first batter he faced. Villone has been terrible lately. And I don't think it's just because he's being overused. Look at his career stats, and he looks like a pretty mediocre pitcher. There's a reason why Torre was so reluctant to use him for so long. He went a hot streak when we needed him, and I'll always be grateful for that...but he's not going be able to put up numbers like that regularly.
Some of the young arms called up from Columbus are looking very good. Karstens and Bruney, notably. But would Joe actually use them over the likes of Lidle or Villone? My guess is no. The post-season roster is going to be interesting.
And now for a brief football rant.... Arrghh!!! Dallas jumped out to an early lead, making me think it would be a nice, relaxing game. Hah! They ended up snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Bench Bledsoe! Put in Tony Romo! Drew Henson, come back, all is forgiven!
