First time commenter, love the blog. I do think you’re being a bit hard on AJ though, as many in the NY media (and many Yankee fans) are. AJ still has the highest QS percentage of any NYY starter, and outside of Fenway, his numbers are far better than even Sabathia. Lately, as another poster pointed out, he’s been a victim of non-existent run support. In his last five starts, the Yankees have scored 0, 3, 0, 0, and 2 runs while he’s been in the game. He’s earned a game 2 playoff start without question.

Also, regarding today’s game, I think we can all agree that the HP ump missed a called 3rd strike on Hamilton. That doesn’t excuse AJ walking Cruz, but even after that, he took what I’d call a reasonable gamble in grooving a first pitch fastball to Kinsler–he just got beat. To that point in the game, NO Ranger had swung at a first pitch, and logic would dictate that after two walks, that trend would continue. It didn’t, and it ended up costing the Yankees the game, but I think it’s a stretch to say that AJ didn’t pitch well based on that 2-batter sequence.

Have a good night y’all.

doreen-

didn’t the whole thing start because some females on the blog liked cervelli’s eyes?

how can anyone take it seriously as a baseball argument?

11-2 White Sox.

It sure looks like Tazawa has been figured out. Now we see whether he is poised enough to come back and shut things down or whether he gets pounded.

I vote the second.

Oh yeah, this is why Big Fat is doing well. Now that he’s off the hook for ‘roids and nobody is tracking him down like a dog, a la Arod, and now that it appears that the goverment is going to have to hand over the results and they will be destroyed, Big Fat is fat and happy.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Wonder if Wagner will stand near Papelcrap in the bullpen.

Those stats are a little misleading. AJ has had 4 quality starts in those 6 games and 2 dreadfully bad ones which were 2 of his 3 worst starts of the year. The fact that he hasn’t won any of those games is not all on him. One of them as you surely recall was a 7 2/3 inning one hit gem against the Redsox. I’d certainly like to see more consistency and control from Burnett but the implication that he’s been awful over his last six starts just isn’t true. Maybe this is unfair but I get the feeling that if it were Wang or Hughes, you’d spin it differently.

Can we please lay the Posada/Molina/Cervelli discussion to rest? It’s so contentious that I literally get agita as I’m skimming the game posts. It’s like a constant bickering. I don’t understand why it has to come up every time Molina (or anyone else) catches; yet, Posada catches most of the games, and nothing is said when he catches a great game. All of the catchers have been involved in some great games and some not-so-great games. I beg, beg, BEG, this this topic be avoided in the future. It really takes away from my enjoyment of this blog.

So, two days ago it was the pitching that failed; today is was mostly the offense. AJ was very, very good. Though, walks hurt him, as they usually do. The bullpen (well, Phil Coke) put the nail in the coffin, but the offense never really got it going. Perhaps if the score stayed at 3-2, something might have happened, but I just never got that vibe today. 7 walks and 1 run – how do you let a pitcher off that easy? And Phil Hughes needs to pitch more or he’s going to be extremely rusty, no?

I hope the White Sox have a good game in them tonight, because then, at least, no harm, no foul, and in fact, the Rangers gain back some ground in the WC. However, are people still sure they want to face them in the playoffs?

Frankly, I think the Yankees are capable of defeating ANYONE they come up against in the playoffs, but I believe there will be at least one game per round where they will look like a team that should be anywhere but in the playoffs. That’s how the season has gone, it seems.