The Genius Maker 6-22

 The Mets have a very weak lineup and in the first inning the Yanks helped them a lot.  Pettitte walked 2 guys and then threw fastballs where breaking balls should have been thrown allowing a 2 out 2 run single.  Finally Swisher made a pretty weak play getting a late jump and then cruising toward the fence in order to time his jump which he still jumped too soon and then saw the ball go off his glove over the fence for a 3 run shot and a 5-0 deficit in the first.  I am in favor of going fast to the spot, but there are some times where timing your jump make sense, but if you are going to cruise you need to time your jump well and Swisher did nothing right and the result was 5-0 instead of 2-0.  Swisher later took the wrong angle on a ball that turned into a double.

After that, the Yankee bullpen shut down the weak lineup, but the Yankees missed a ton of very hittable pitches.  Granderson and Jeter were the main culprits as they got great pitches they just didn’t do anything with (Tex also in the final AB of the game against Francisco who was grooving fastballs).  In the 2^nd inning, Jeter had 2^nd and 3^rd with 2 outs and a 3-1 count to work with and Jeter got a fastball middle of the plate and down a little and he just beat it into the ground.  It was a big moment to try and cut the lead to 3 early on.  Later Jeter got jammed on a 91 MPH fastball that had a lot of the plate on a 2-0 count.  Granderson missed a fastball in the 9^th with 1^st and 2^nd and then took a fastball for strike 3.  Kay said basically, how can he be looking for a splitter with 2 strikes???  I don’t think he realizes that you should be much more wary of a splitter with 2 strikes as you surely don’t look for a fastball with a guy like Francisco; just an example of Kay not understanding the subtleties of the game.  That being said, as a batter you can’t watch strike 3 go by you and you could make sure you don’t get beat by the fastball and then adjust; either way bad hitting…and announcing.  Tex had a very hittable pitch and he just popped it up also in the 9^th.  6-4 after a big hole, but the Yanks were given chances that they didn’t take advantage of and they gave the Mets some runs; pretty poor game for the Yanks.

Tex made an excellent diving play toward the first base line; it was one of the times being a righty is an advantage because his glove side is on the line.

ARod took a fastball that was a little high in the middle of the game and he was looking at the pitcher talking to the ump and you could see him speak loudly, “high, that ball was high.”  He then shook his head and was not able to catch up to more fastballs on the higher side.  He screamed “f..k” when he struck out and the ump gave him a long look.  Alex was not happy, but while the ump didn’t cost the Yankees the game, I thought that AB and one earlier to Granderson were very tough calls.  ARod did hit one of his “old” types of homer, a straight away 420 foot blast; that was good to see.  He also lifted up his leg a little more; not sure if the mentioned that but they showed a replay (I watch on tape and don’t usually here the announcers).  I think that will help his power and also increase his misses; probably a good thing.