07/21: July 20th At The Blue Jays
Posted by: James
Even before the game started, the Red Sox had already won and the White Sox had already lost so the Yanks needed to win to stay 1.5 games back of Boston and move to 1.5 games back of Chicago. For a wild-card spot that was more or less conceded to a team from the AL Central earlier on this season, it's looking more and more as if that race will also be very close.
As for the game itself, the marquee pitching match-up of Mussina vs. Doc Halladay was progressing exactly as the Yanks would have hoped as the Yanks scratched their way to a 3-0 lead through 5 innings and Mussina was cruising. It would have been nice if the game ended that way - no such luck. In the bottom of the sixth, with a man on third (Aaron Hill), Reed Johnson grounded to third. A-Rod fielded the ball and instead of taking the sure out at first, he went home to try to get the runner. His throw was wild and to their credit, the Blue Jays took advantage and ended up taking the lead in the inning.
The score remained 4-3 until the 8th when the Blue Jays brought in their closer B.J. Ryan to get a 2 inning save. Keep in mind that prior to this appearance, B.J. Ryan had a 0.96 ERA (that's not a typo) and was limiting hitters to a .154/.204/.186 line while giving up 4.63 H per 9 while striking out 11. Okay, enough numbers...he's good. However, with two outs, they were able to put together a nice little rally that consisted of a Giambi single (weak single to the left side - the shift was on so no one was there), an A-Rod walk (the first walk of the game!) and a bloop single by Jorge which tied the game up and tagged Ryan with his third blown save of the season. The bloop only scored the run because Joe Torre had subbed Bubba into the game to run for Giambi so props to Joe for that decision (yes, I know he usually does it but it worked so I'll give him credit for it).
Scott Proctor came on to pitch 2 solid innings of work and was followed by Rivera who got three quick outs in the 10th. Toronto countered with another inning from Ryan and scoreless innings from Justin Speier and Brian Tallet. Rivera came back out for the 11th and after getting one out (Frank Catalanotto singled but was erased on a CS at 2nd), he served up a home run to Vernon Wells, who is having a heck of a year and continues to kill the Yankees. It wasn't a good pitch by Rivera and Wells really got into it. Still, the NY Times headline pretty much summed it up: "Loss Goes to Rivera, Blame Goes to Rodriguez."
Certainly a disappointing loss for the Yanks and more ammo for those who are questioning A-Rod (both the extreme bashers as well as those who are genuinely curious as to what's going on with him). The road ahead isn't easy either as Toronto has their pitching set up well against the Yankees. The Jays start Burnett tonight and follow him up with former Yank Ted Lilly who has been pitching quite well this season. It'll be a tough task but the Yanks have to, at the very least, split this series.
As for the game itself, the marquee pitching match-up of Mussina vs. Doc Halladay was progressing exactly as the Yanks would have hoped as the Yanks scratched their way to a 3-0 lead through 5 innings and Mussina was cruising. It would have been nice if the game ended that way - no such luck. In the bottom of the sixth, with a man on third (Aaron Hill), Reed Johnson grounded to third. A-Rod fielded the ball and instead of taking the sure out at first, he went home to try to get the runner. His throw was wild and to their credit, the Blue Jays took advantage and ended up taking the lead in the inning.
The score remained 4-3 until the 8th when the Blue Jays brought in their closer B.J. Ryan to get a 2 inning save. Keep in mind that prior to this appearance, B.J. Ryan had a 0.96 ERA (that's not a typo) and was limiting hitters to a .154/.204/.186 line while giving up 4.63 H per 9 while striking out 11. Okay, enough numbers...he's good. However, with two outs, they were able to put together a nice little rally that consisted of a Giambi single (weak single to the left side - the shift was on so no one was there), an A-Rod walk (the first walk of the game!) and a bloop single by Jorge which tied the game up and tagged Ryan with his third blown save of the season. The bloop only scored the run because Joe Torre had subbed Bubba into the game to run for Giambi so props to Joe for that decision (yes, I know he usually does it but it worked so I'll give him credit for it).
Scott Proctor came on to pitch 2 solid innings of work and was followed by Rivera who got three quick outs in the 10th. Toronto countered with another inning from Ryan and scoreless innings from Justin Speier and Brian Tallet. Rivera came back out for the 11th and after getting one out (Frank Catalanotto singled but was erased on a CS at 2nd), he served up a home run to Vernon Wells, who is having a heck of a year and continues to kill the Yankees. It wasn't a good pitch by Rivera and Wells really got into it. Still, the NY Times headline pretty much summed it up: "Loss Goes to Rivera, Blame Goes to Rodriguez."
Certainly a disappointing loss for the Yanks and more ammo for those who are questioning A-Rod (both the extreme bashers as well as those who are genuinely curious as to what's going on with him). The road ahead isn't easy either as Toronto has their pitching set up well against the Yankees. The Jays start Burnett tonight and follow him up with former Yank Ted Lilly who has been pitching quite well this season. It'll be a tough task but the Yanks have to, at the very least, split this series.
Jason wrote:
How long do you think that "muscle soreness" will keep a man with Matsui's dedication and work ethic out of the cage?