04/28: Slow & Steady
Posted by: James
For the first 5 and a half innings of last night's game, I'd say that most Yankees fans probably had that feeling of impending doom. Each inning that went by without a run from the Yankees against Mark Hendrickson, he of the career 5.07 ERA, was probably promptly greeted with a swallow of the Pepto. Luckily, Shawn Chacon was up to the task of matching Hendrickson pitch for pitch until the fifth when Damon Hollins doubled and a single by Joey Gathright sent him home.
In the sixth, the Yankees were finally able to get on the board, using a walk from Jeter, an error by Russell Branyan on a Sheffield grounder and an A-Rod walk to to load the bases with one out. A Jason Giambi grounder got Jeter home and then Hideki Matsui (in a 6-for-43 slump) came through with a seeing-eye 2 RBI single right up the middle (in the highlight, the shortstop and second baseman both dive for the ball, just barely miss and slide pretty much into each other's gloves; hilarity ensued - okay, maybe not).
Mike Myers and Kyle Farnsworth provided 2 innings of relief and then Joe Torre tried to use a rock to put the nail in the coffin. It didn't work as Sturtze gave a hit so he brought in the hammer, which worked a lot better.
Derek Jeter was 3 for 3 with a walk and is now hitting at .408 for the month. His OBA sits at .511 and he's slugging .667 with a dozen extra-base hits and as David Pinto at Baseball Musings pointed out, it looks like Jeter will end up with the best April of his career. His previous high in BA was .378 (31/82) in 1999. On another positive in their last five games, Yankees starters have allowed five runs over 34 1/3 innings, a 1.31 ERA.
Oh, and before too many people start gloating about the Red Sox's new starter being lit up by the Indians, such a thing has happened before in NY. (Man, was that painful).
In the sixth, the Yankees were finally able to get on the board, using a walk from Jeter, an error by Russell Branyan on a Sheffield grounder and an A-Rod walk to to load the bases with one out. A Jason Giambi grounder got Jeter home and then Hideki Matsui (in a 6-for-43 slump) came through with a seeing-eye 2 RBI single right up the middle (in the highlight, the shortstop and second baseman both dive for the ball, just barely miss and slide pretty much into each other's gloves; hilarity ensued - okay, maybe not).
Mike Myers and Kyle Farnsworth provided 2 innings of relief and then Joe Torre tried to use a rock to put the nail in the coffin. It didn't work as Sturtze gave a hit so he brought in the hammer, which worked a lot better.
Derek Jeter was 3 for 3 with a walk and is now hitting at .408 for the month. His OBA sits at .511 and he's slugging .667 with a dozen extra-base hits and as David Pinto at Baseball Musings pointed out, it looks like Jeter will end up with the best April of his career. His previous high in BA was .378 (31/82) in 1999. On another positive in their last five games, Yankees starters have allowed five runs over 34 1/3 innings, a 1.31 ERA.
Oh, and before too many people start gloating about the Red Sox's new starter being lit up by the Indians, such a thing has happened before in NY. (Man, was that painful).
Patrick wrote: