Tagged: Nelson Cruz
Nooooooooooo!
The evening started off so promisingly. My dinner guests arrived, unsuspecting that I had ordered the special Yankees cap cake (see previous entry). Everybody was having fun, the Yankees were up 5-4, and the bullpen was pitching scoreless baseball. The only sour note was that Vasquez was given a quick hook again. (Would it have been so horrendous for Girardi to leave him in for another inning? I feel sorry for Javy at this point.) Oh, and there was that abysmal call at second base where replays showed that Jeter clearly tagged Kinsler. But OK, we could win this. I felt pretty good. And then Joba served up this.
And Nelson Cruz ate it up to tie the score. From then on it was the battle of the pens, and I started getting really tired and cranky. My guests had gone home. I had dishes to wash and leftovers to put away. I wanted to go to sleep – with the game firmly in the win column. Instead, I sat there like an idiot watching us strand runner after runner. It was sickening. It seemed inevitable that Gaudin would serve Cruz a meatball too, and all those wasted opportunities would end in disaster. I hated the game. I hated that I stayed up late to watch the game. I hated that my evening with friends – my end-of-vacation thank-you dinner to them – was tainted.
Or was it? There was still the Yankees cake, and we really enjoyed it. Not only did it look great but it tasted incredible. Underneath the cap was a moist chocolate dessert with creamy vanilla frosting – three layers worth!
So Let Me Get This Straight
AJ Burnett got a six-game suspension for not hitting Nelson Cruz in Wednesday night’s Yankees-Rangers game, and Vincente Padilla got a fine for hitting Mark Teixeira twice? Does that sound reasonable to anyone? Oh, the mysteries of baseball.
Here’s another one that made my brain explode.
It’s 2009. We can launch rockets into space, but we can’t figure out how to keep the YES Network on the air during Yankees games? I was watching Thursday’s series finale on YES. It was the top of the ninth with Mo on the mound to preserve the Yankees’ 8-6 lead. Young had doubled past Melky, who took an extremely odd route to the ball, and Blalock singled. So the Rangers had two men on with one out and the dangerous Nelson Cruz stepping up to the plate. I gripped the arms of my chair, fearing the worst, and then –
Right. My TV went blank at the crucial moment. I started screaming: “How could you do this to me?” Then I remembered that my Extra Innings package was also offering the Rangers feed. I changed channels just in time to see Cruz strike out – and to hear my favorite broadcaster, Josh Lewin, say about Murphy, the next batter: “Let’s see if he can hit one into the seats.” Murphy popped up to end the game.
Then there was this head scratcher.
Wang retired the first six batters and looked like his old sinker-ball-throwing self. Then, in the third inning, Davis – yes, the guy who strikes out in his sleep – smacked a ground-rule double. Next came a wild pitch, a walk, a few singles, a few more doubles, and Cruz’s homer. Suddenly, it was 5-1 Texas and the Wanger headed for the dugout.
After the game, Girardi announced that he would make his next start….on Tuesday at Fenway. Um, what? I’m all for letting CMW work out the kinks, but not when we’re trying to hang onto first place in the division. What will it do for his confidence if the Red Sox make this out of him?
Yet another puzzler occurred in the fifth: Aceves walked his leadoff batter. Why, Alfredo? Why? Do they not teach the Do-Not-Walk-The-Leadoff-Batter Rule at Yankees School?
But enough with the questions and complaints. It’s time to celebrate the Yankees’ latest stirring, come-from-behind victory. What a great fifth inning.
Cervelli: singled.
Pena: singled.
Damon: walked.
Swisher: walked (terrific at bat).
Tex: doubled home three runs.
A-Rod: went the other way for a change and singled in the go-ahead run.
Swisher was a happy boy crossing home plate in that inning and deservedly so.
Things got tense in the sixth after Kinsler’s foul-pole homer off Aceves. But Melky was a late-inning magician once again.
I used to think the word “clutch” meant a type of woman’s handbag.
Well, it still does. But it also means this.
And I was OK with trading the Melkman? My bad.
Vigilante Justice In The Bronx
No, I’m not talking about AJ Burnett versus Nelson Cruz. By the time AJ threw over Cruz’s head in the fifth, prompting the home plate umpire to warn both dugouts, the Yankees had a comfortable 9-3 lead over the Rangers.
I’m talking about Mark Teixeira versus this guy.
If Vincente Padilla is the Rangers’ idea of improved pitching, the Angels have nothing to worry about in the AL West.
When Padilla came in high and tight to Cano in the first inning, I figured it was just one of these.
But when he plunked Tex on the arm in the second, I started to pay attention – especially since he also pitched inside to Jeter and went up and in on A-Rod. I said to my husband, “This guy better not go all Daniel Cabrera on us,” referring to the former Orioles pitcher who made a career out of disabling various Yankees.
Then the fourth: Padilla hit Tex again, this time on the butt. Mark was not amused, and Girardi accompanied him to first base in an attempt to talk him down.
But Tex continued to seethe, his nostrils flaring.
When A-Rod grounded into a potential double play, Tex slid hard into second, lifting Andrus high into the air. (Elvis almost left the building.)
Jeter scored the go-ahead run, and it was his 1,500th, making him the fourth such active player and placing him in the company of Ruth, Gehrig and Mantle as the only Yankees to achieve the mark.
The rest was gravy.
Cano had a big RBI single. So did Posada. Matsui hit a three-run shot off Holland, Padilla’s replacement (the same guy he homered off in Texas last week). Posada added his own three-run dinger against Madrigal in the sixth, boosting the Yanks to 12-3.
AJ pitched well, even without his A-grade curve ball, and Bombko and Veras finished it up.
Did I cringe when Veras came in for the ninth? You bet, even with a nine-run lead. Michael Kay was yammering on yet again about what great stuff Jose has. “You don’t give up on a guy who throws 96 mph,” he said.
Um, did he forget about Kyle?
I digress. It was a very satisfying win for the Yanks, who now have the best record in the AL at 10 games over .500. The error-less streak is over, due to an errant throw by Posada, but I’ll take good pitching and timely hitting every time.
Confessions of a She-Fan 