Back to Queens we go. This is Darren Sands, your live blogger for the evening. Today's game is the third in two days, and where I imagine a little fatigue begins to set in. It's quite the pitching match up for two lefties who haven't had anything to do but rest up and toss it around, and that's Andy Pettitte and Johan Santana.
Pettitte is 8-5 with a 4.04 ERA, and aside from Wang, has been the Yankees best pitcher this season. Left-handed batters are hitting .163 against him, and his ERA is 3.51 on the road. He'll have to cool down the white hot bat of Carlos Delgado.Meanwhile Santana, true to his reputation of being a second-half pitcher, has struggled at times. He's got a 7-6 record and has a 2.93 ERA.
Knicks draft pick Danilo Gallinari is throwing out the first pitch. Anyone know how to say "play ball" in Italian? In fact, how do you say, "Shouldn't have left Jerryd Bayless on the board" in Italian?
Only 43 more games left at Shea. Can you believe it? Here we go!
Top 1st -- Strong start for Santana.
Bottom 1st -- Pettitte got Delgado to fly out to right. Just missed a three-run home run. Great point made by. Giambi and Posada to follow in the top of the second.
Top 2nd -- Yankees bats can't do anything as Santana strikes out the side. Looks like he's feeling strong.
Bottom 2nd -- Vintage Jeter on that play to get Tatis for the first out. Perfect footwork. Watching him is a pleasure on plays like that. Pettitte gives up a solo bomb to slugger Ramon Castro. He strikes out Santana to end the inning.
Top 3rd -- Santana still rolling. He doesn't look like he's going to budge, though he is known to give up the long ball.
Bottom 3rd -- Pettitte fortunate to get out of that inning. He's had a couple of long ones here, whereas Santana has been efficient for the most part. Nice catch by Melky in center.
Top 4th -- There goes that efficiency. Santana walks Jeter and Abreu, A-Rod smokes a single to left. Giambi reaches on a grounder, Posada scores Abreu on a sac fly to center. Yankees lead 2-1.
Bottom 4th Jeter makes up for an error -- he'll be amazed to see it was called a hit -- with an unassisted double play to end the inning.
Top 5th -- Pettitte, Damon and Jeter go down in order.
Bottom 5th -- Andy Pettitte picked of Reyes at second. Reyes clearly left too early. Pettitte glad to get out of that inning with Wright up at bat and swinging for the fences. Nice break for the Yankees.
Top 6th -- Robbie Cano is swinging the bat well. His single to right scores A-Rod in from third. If Cano gets it together, the Yankees offense would be in a lot better shape. Yankees lead 3-1.
RAIN DELAY
Bottom 6th -- David Wright must have had a Power Bar during the 53-minute rain delay. He hits a shot to left field to bring the Mets to within one run. Yankees lead 3-2.
Top 7th -- Mets come back with Feliciano, who looks strong. Yankees have got to get to this guy. We've likely seen enough of Petitte...and as I'm writing, Jose Veras is on the mound.
Bottom 7th -- Veras does a nice job retiring Castillo, Castro and Marlon Anderson in order. This is quickly turning into a battle of the bullpens.
Top 8th -- A-Rod reaches on a bad throw by Wright, steals second, but Sanchez got out of the inning unscathed. Wright will be back up in the home half of the eighth inning. Kyle Farnsworth is in for the Yankees. Trouble.
Bottom 8th -- Terrific catch for Damon behind Farnsworth on a fly ball by Wright. Farnsworth holds it together for Mariano Rivera to come on in the bottom of the ninth.
Top 9th -- Cano just missed a pitch he usually drives. Clearly, Damian Easley still has ups, and his timing. Great catch for the second out. Sanchez got into a bit of trouble, but retires Jeter, whose 15-game hitting streak might have been snapped. Here's comes Rivera.
Bottom 9th -- Rivera gets his 22nd save. Rivera strikes out Delgado, gets Tatis to fly out to right, and strikes out Trot Nixon looking. Game over. Rivera looked great. Great movement on his fastball. Petitte improves to 9-5, Santana falls to 7-7.
Yankees win, 3-2.
Comments (9)
Pettitte has been their best pitcher after Wang? Mike Mussina might have something to say about that -- and no, I'm not basing it on wins.
Tomorrow should be interesting, one way or another its a blowout, the question is will it be Rasner or Perez.
Any news as to why they gave the new kid Christian - Duncan's #17? Any buzz in the club house about that?
Interesting. Kennedy pitched today at Tampa. Looks like a great line.
IP H R ER BB K
Kennedy 5.0 2 0 0 1 4 0
Hopefully, he can keep this up, get back in shape, and be back soon enough to help us out.
Maybe I missed it, but I'm pretty astonished that there was no discussion on these boards of Kat's article on Roberto Clemente and the push to retire #21 while the Yanks were in Pittsburgh.
Did I completely space the threads? It was a really interesting piece including interviews with at least 2 current Yanks about Clemente's influence on them. Yet there are no links on the Newsday Sports page for the articles, and I seem to have missed all discussion of the topic on these threads, somehow.
It's almost like the subject didn't exist. Someone please tell me I'm just looking in the wrong places.
Thanks, DC Yank. Glad you enjoyed the story. I linked to it on a previous blog entry, but here it is again:
http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/yankees/ny-spyinside0627,0,6056116.column
I'd like the Yankees to pick up Shawn Chacon. He produced the goods the last time he was in the Bronx. If he didn't cause any problems back then, then why not give him another go. He wouldn't cost any prospects and he had a record 9 straight no decisions earlier this year, which means he keeps his team in the game. Ponson repaid the Yankees for his opportunity yesterday. He really battled through those first 3 innings. And he cost us nothing in prospects. I'm against spending big in terms of giving up prospects for a quick fix.
Thanks, Kat!
Kat, I especially liked the quotes from Jorge and Hawkins. I wonder if Yankee fans would've given Hawk such a hard time about O'Neill's number if they'd known the reason he wore it.
I thought it was interesting that neither Jorgie nor Hawk matches the Clemente demographic completely, yet they both support him. Not that demographics need--or should--figure into a player's support for a great player and cultural icon, but too often it seems it's a major factor. In your article, neither player was a direct match. It served to show how special a player and person Roberto was and how far his legacy extends.
Don't know if that was intentional--but it doesn't really matter. Again, really nice job. I'm curious is there are there other Yanks on the bandwagon for retiring 21 and who the real proponents are of it in MLB.