Tuesday night’s game:
·
Pettitte threw ok, but he made a few bad pitches
that the Angels didn’t let him get away with.
The curve to Trumbo that was crushed didn’t bother me, but the 2 run HR
he allowed to Pujols did. The Yanks just
got a break getting Trout out at the plate and then Martin called for a
fastball/cutter inside and Andy left it out over the plate a little and Pujols
turned on it. I didn’t like the pitch
selection at all because Andy jammed Pujols last time up and Pujols was not
going to let that happen on the next AB…and he didn’t
·
I don’t mean this to be knock on Jeter as it is
tough to play SS at the age of 38 in the majors and Jeter isn’t bad out there,
but the people who speak about how he has “enough range” and he is fine out
there only need to watch Aybar and the range he covers in comparison to
Jeter. Aybar ranged to his left and got
to a ball that stayed low (very hard) and then quickly threw to make an
out. Later he ranged to his right and
got to a ball that went under the glove of Iztarus yet Aybar backed him up and
made the throw to first, even if the Martin was clearly safe.
·
The defense continued for the Angels as Trout
made a Gardner like play (on Swisher) that might have saved a ball from hitting
the top of the fence and later Bourgeous made an outstanding catch on another
Swisher hit that showed off his blazing speed and he basically beat the line
drive to the wall…in the gap. He also
caught it right before the wall…it was a huge play and after the next two
Yankees got singles it could have been a game saver. Later on Trout made a nice play on a sinking
line drive that our LF’s not named Gardner
would not have caught. While it wasn’t
as nice as these other two plays, it underscored our defensive difference when
earlier Ibanez turned a double into a triple by taking forever to field a ball
out of the corner.
·
In a game where we had 13 guys reach base those
plays were huge as we had three 1, 2, 3 innings and the key plays were made where
we left 2 or 3 guys on base (we left 12
on base overall).
·
Haren throws a straight 90 MPH fastball and we didn’t
do a good enough job hitting the fastball when given the chance. ARod and Jeter had some good chances that
they didn’t take advantage of but each of them were not the issues as they got
on base 4 and 2 times respectively. It
was Granderson and Cano who were the goats in this game. We continually swung at balls and let the strikes
go. Part was the outstanding splitter
that Haren had as he mixed in his slider and spotted his fastball, but we also
allowed him to dictate too much and we were a step behind too often. Haren did a good job of throwing good strikes
when needed and we simply couldn’t hit the splitter whether it was a strike or
not. Getting back to the swinging at
balls and taking strikes…Cano had one of those days where you just want him to
have a new brain because his talent is elite.
He had that I am going to swing at the first pitch no matter what in his
first AB and swung at a fastball out of the zone for a popup to the OF. His approach the next AB was I must take a
pitch now so Haren figured this and threw a very hittable fastball to get him
on strike one. This AB had the bases
loaded. Cano then swung at a ball in the
dirt, then took a ball and fouled a few off before being frozen on a fastball
on the outside corner (close pitch).
Earlier in this bases loaded situation Granderson K’d (he k’d 3 times
and grounded out weekly the other 2 times up).
Cano lined out his next time up (nothing wrong with that). In the 8th Cano grounded out after
ARod had singled. In the 9th Cano
came up with the bases loaded and took strike one, then swung at 2 balls to end
the game. Frustrating!
·
In the 8th Girardi correctly went to
tie the game with Jones at the plate, but Downs
who is basically throws a sinking fastball in the 90 range and a curve tried to
keep the ball away form Jones. Jones did
not see a strike in the first 4 pitches and the count was 2-2. I said to my son, the pitcher should just
throw another pitch low and away for a ball and he will swing and miss…on queue…ball
away and Jones was heading back to the dugout.
5 straight balls!
·
Scoscia needs to shut up and stop complaining
about pitches. Overall the umps have not
made a difference…we got a few and so did they…it was equal. On the bases they have made calls against us
at 2nd twice so he is actually ahead of the game. But the umps were fine…in fact, I haven’t
complained about the umpiring in awhile so it has evened out where we get some
and some go against us.
·
Pettitte didn’t get the job done, but he showed
he can help us. He will need to cut down
on the long ball, but he will adjust. He
just needs to remember to cover first as he has failed to do that twice now.
·
Pujols was a great addition to a team that has
some weaker hitters who can play D, but adding Trout really makes a difference
as does Pujols. Their starting pitching
is solid and deep…they have a very good team if they can stay healthy…remember
we are without our two best relievers and a guy who was supposed to be a #2-3
starter and Gardner. Gardner and
Robertson will be back and possibly we can still get Joba for depth. I think everyone is realizing why I have been
pimping Gardner
for so long as his absence is showing how important he is to a team; his speed
and defense alone are worthy and his offense has been decent.
·
Both ARod and Cano are hitting .287 but Cano has
an OPS of .830 and ARod’s is .803…Tex’s
OPS is .814
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