Gameday Live 48: Mariners at Yankees
Hey everyone, Katie here for blogging tonight. Coming off a feel-good win that featured a fired-up Joe Girardi and walkoff hit from Robinson Cano to top the Orioles 2-1, The Yankees take on Seattle (18-30), who have suffered three straight losses. On the mound for the Mariners will be Lefty Erik Bedard (3-2, 3.24). He'll face off against Yankees' Andy Pettitte (3-5, 4.42), who has been struggleing recently; Pettitte is 0-4 with a 6.26 ERA in his last 5 appearances.
Alright everyone, feel free to comment on Girardi's suspension, Joba's transition to starter, Jeter's rumored hookup with actress Minka Kelly, whatever, just keep 'em clean and family-friendly.
See ya after top of the first!
Top 1st
Pettitte retires leadoff man Suzuki, who went down looking. Next batter, and he fans Lopez swinging. Although he gives up a double to Vidro for the first hit of the game, Pettitte has a strong start. The question recently, however, is how long he'll be able to sustain.
0-0
Bottom 1st
Jeter's batting leadoff tonight but he grounds out to third. Abreu goes down looking. Bedard gets ahead on A-rod but then falls to a full count. 1-2-3 inning for Bedard after A-Rod's foul tip.
0-0
Top 2nd
Beltre drops one in front of Abreu for a base hit before Pettitte earns his third strikeout on Sexson. Pettitte then gives up another hit, and rebounds by fanning another for his fourth of the night. With two on and two outs, Betancourt drives in an RBI single for Seattle. Pettitte's throwing consistent strikes on first pitch, but is falling behind batters here. It's early, but he's gonna have to watch his pitch count.
1-0 SEA
Bottom 2nd
Side note: after Suzuki's second strikeout tonight, John McLaren gets in the ump's face and receives an ejection. After Matsui and Giambi get on base, Shelley Duncan blasts a breaking ball for a three-run homer that puts the Yankees up 2. That's his first home run this year
3-1
Top 3rd
Seattle pulls within one after Vidro scores as Beltre drives one past Matsui for an RBI double.
3-2 NY
Bottom 3rd
Yankees go down in order, and quite easily. Only six pitches for Bedard.
3-2 NY
Top 4th
Pettitte with a 1-2-3 inning of his own.
3-2 NY
Bottom 4th
Matsui singles to center, and Giambi follows up to double to left. Two runners on, and no outs. Maybe last night's hit was a bit of a confidence-booster for Cano, 'cuz he comes up with a two-run RBI double.
5-2 NY
Top 5th
Lopez rips one past A-rod for a base hit, but Pettitte gets a strikeout on Vidro with a foul tip, and then his seventh of the night against Ibanez.
5-2 NY
Bottom 5th
Jeter takes first after getting hit with a pitch, and makes it to third on a hit-and-run after Abreu places one perfectly. With runners at the corners and no outs, Jeter gets hung up but allows runners to advance to second and third. Matsui drops one into center to score both Abreu and A-Rod. Yankees really opening things up now and Green comes in for Bedard. The damage doesn't stop there as Cano gets another RBI, scoring Matsui to take a 6-run lead. Then, Moeller adds two more with a 2-run RBI single to center. Seattle just cannot stop the bleeding. Abreu with a 2-run RBI single, and Green has left the game. Dickey in to face A-rod, who answers with an RBI single to score Jeter. Yankees put up an 8-spot in the fifth, their highest-scoring inning this season.
13-2 NY
Top 6th
Pettitte back in after a looooong rest. He's at 100 pitches now. Grabs his ninth strikeout in a hitless sixth. This has been a strong outing for Pettitte tonight. We'll see if he returns in the seventh or the Yankees reach into the 'pen.
13-2
Bottom 6th
Seattle knuckleballer Dickey gets outta that one without any additional damage. Not that it matters now.
13-2
Top 7th
LaTroy Hawkins in to pitch. Terrible night for Ichiro tonight. He's 0-for-4 so far.
Lopez down swinging, and that's a 1-2-3 for Hawkins.
13-2
Bottom 7th
Another 1-2-3 for Dickey. Man, the shoulda thought of this guy earlier!
13-2
Top 8th
Vidro manages a double, but gets thrown out at the plate for a double play.....nothing seems to be going right for Seattle tonight.
13-2
Bottom 8th
Giambi and Duncan both get on base with walks, and Cano loads the bases with a single reached on a fielding error. With bases juiced though, Moeller goes down swinging. At least Dickey is a bright spot (albeit the lone one) for the Mariners tonight.
13-2
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Comments (6)
Thanks Katie!!!
That was fun.
Good job.
For those of you who haven't read it, Buster Olney had a great piece on Johan Santana in his blog yesterday.
Obviously, it's unfair to measure any trade just two months into the first season of his deal, but Olney highlights several reasons why I was against trading for Santana during the offseason.
If Santana has declining stuff now - what kind of stuff will he have in 4-5 years?
This is also why I'd be real careful about inking Sabathia to a $100M+ deal without hesitation during the offseason.
Check it out.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Santana showing signs of decline
After the item on Johan Santana's diminished velocity was posted here yesterday, some scouts from other teams chimed in, indicating through e-mails and phone calls that they were seeing the same thing. "The Mets were asking around about that in spring training, about what his true [velocity] baseline was," one talent evaluator said. "They were concerned."
Said an AL scout who has seen Santana this month: "His stuff isn't even close to what it was [with the Twins]."
How much has his diminished stuff affected him? We have less than two months' worth of starts to consider from 2008, a very small sample, and keep in mind that except for last season -- when Santana suffered a significant statistical decline in the last six weeks -- he has often done his best work in the second half.
With that said, here are the primary indicators:
• His ratio of strikeouts per nine innings over the past six seasons has been 11.38, 9.61, 10.46, 9.25, 9.44, 9.66. This year: 7.79.
• His strikeout-to-walk ratio over the past six seasons: 2.80, 3.60, 4.91, 5.29, 5.21, 4.52. This year: 3.87.
• Opponents' OPS over the past six seasons: .607, .642, .564, .594, .616, .678. This year: .723.
As I wrote a lot about during the winter of Santana trade talks, rival talent evaluators saw a noticeable -- not dramatic, but noticeable -- decline in his stuff after his 17-strikeout performance against Texas on Aug. 19. He's made 17 starts since then, and here are his primary numbers:
• Innings: 111
• Hits: 109
• Earned runs: 50
• Home runs: 20 (By comparison, Paul Byrd has allowed 21 during the same span)
• Walks: 28
• Strikeouts: 102
• ERA: 4.05
(Since the beginning of the 2007 season, Santana has allowed 44 home runs -- most in the majors.)
Look, Santana is still obviously among the better pitchers in the game, and his remarkable ability to change speeds means that he probably is going to age better than a lot of his peers. He is smart, dedicated and seriously competitive, so if there is something to figure out and there are adjustments that can be made, he'll get there.
This question remains: Will he be worth to the Mets what they will pay him over the duration of the contract? We'll see.
But it's probably not a good thing that rival scouts are seeing signs of diminishment fewer than two months into a seven-year deal.
Boring game. In a good way. Makes it easier to lighten up on the game-watching in a long weekend full of family events. Hope all you fellow bloggers, and Kat, have a good one!
Diane -
I was wrong - there are 3 meanings - And I feel that the Yankees resign themselves to resigning players for longer contracts than they really want to in order to hold on to them. E.G. Mo, Posada, and even ARod.
I think the Yankees are going on a little role now.
It helps they are playing the Mariners, a team that is REALLY screwed up.
In other news, after watching the new Indiana Jones last night, I wonder if there is any other part of my childhood that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg want to ruin
Perhaps they can burn my teddy bear
Would that be a thumbs down from Sully on Indiana Jones? I trust your opinion so I won't even bother seeing it. Then again, I've never seen any of the IJ movies, it's just not my type of movie.