Today in The Journal News
-
- August
- 4
The Yankees took advantage of some mistakes to beat the Angels 14-9 in a wild game. Brian Heyman has the story.
Mariano Rivera missed the game with back spasms. This notebook also has updates on Darrell Rasner, Phil Hughes, Hideki Matsui and Robinson Cano.
Sam Borden came away from a trip to Cooperstown with great memories.
This entry was posted
on Monday, August 4th, 2008 at 6:18 am by Peter Abraham.
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Peter Abraham
I don’t know why I’m awake and I’m also not completely sure why I’m in a hotel half an hour away from the Denver airport, but I still feel great about that win today, and especially about the contribution of that great Cal Bear Xavier Nady. I hope he has a lot to give Moose heck about when the college football season kicks off.
I try to sleep now. Go Yankees.
The game was fun to watch, but there were some sore points. One was another poor showing for Melky – 0 for 5. If I recall he’s now down to .243 or so. Gardner didn’t work out as a replacement – maybe it’s time to try Christian as the everyday CF?
Another issue is A-Rod – if not for the error, he would have been the goat, with an inning-ending DP with the bases loaded in a tie game. He’s back to his failing-in-the-clutch ways.
And then there’s Edwar, but that’s a separate story. He’s pitched so well you have to give him a pass if he messes up once in a while.
If the offense can stay hot, and against this Texas pitching, it should NOT be any trouble at all….we EASILY can sweep these bums. What a surprise ( NOT ! ) that Pavano is already sounding like a man that is setting all of us up for a letdown , if we think that he may come back to pitch this year.
Don’t get too caught up in how the match-ups look on paper. This season has so far shown that nothing has come easily to these Yankees. Not only that, but think about the Angels series that just happened. We had a total reverse on pitching – Pettitte getting bombed and Ponson shutting the Angels out; Pettitte getting no defense and Ponson getting a great defense. Who can bet on what Yankee team is going to show up on a given day? Plus that Texas offense is pretty potent. I’m cautiously optimistic for this series, though.
forgetting the specific matchups, like Doreen said, the yankees stand 2.5 games back of the wild card with 51 games left to play.
in order to get to 92 wins, which seems to be a fair assumption of what it will take to be in WC contention, they need to win 31 of their next 51 games, or win 6 out of every 10 games they play from here on out.
obviously, the better the saux and rays play, the better the yankees will have to play.
but their odds increase the better they play against Boston and TB, who they have a number of head to head games left against down the stretch.
if this team is going to make the playoffs this season, they have no choice but to come home at least 6-4 on this road trip, which from what i figure will probably include Francisco Liriano the final game before they come home (unless the Twins dont skip the rotation spot with the extra day off they have this week).
The Ranger series needs to be played with a strong sense of urgency.
Boston and it’s iffy road record is at K.C. and Chicago through Sunday.
The Rays play a 3 game set at home vs. Cleveland then a 3-city road trip to Seattle, Oakland, and Texas.
The Yankees can make a statement with this road trip but the Nos. 4 & 5 starters need plus outings to do it and of course timely hitting for a change.
Pay attention to winning series, not pitching matchups.
Its very tough to sweep 4 game road series. Especially against a team that can hit like Texas.
The Yankees have to win series from hereon out. Despite all the euphoria and talk about yesterday, the fact is, they didn’t win the two home series they played last week. That’s not good.
Couple that with home series losses this year to Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Baltimore and a 4 game home series split against an awful Royals team, the Yankees have put themselves behind the 8 ball.
Both Tampa and Boston have 10 fewer home losses than the Yankees this season. Meaning, if they are going to make the playoffs, winning road series will be the only way to get there.
If they can go 6-4 on this trip, that would be a big step in the right direction.