The Last Bucs Stop Here: Yanks-Pirates Gamer III

Last night's impressive outing by Joba Chamberlain gave the Yankees a much-needed pick-me-up after the night before lasts' embarrassment. Despite the fact Joba wasn't in the pen to do the late work to set up for a Joba close in the non-save situation, relievers Russ Ohlendorf and Jose Veras were unfazed and held the Pirates scoreless to even the series at a game apiece.

Damon is back leading off, and Posada is spelled by Molina, meaning Moose must be on the mound for the rubber match, and likely hopes for better results than his eight-inning loss to the Reds. He faces Paul Maholm, the career Pirate who is one day removed from his 28th birthday and is coming off a win against the Jays; he hasn't lost in May 20th, with three wins and three no decisions spanning 42 1/3 innings in which he allowed 17 runs.

Lineup follows, comment away.

Game preview from baseball-reference.com

Yankees lineup courtesy PA

Damon LF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Giambi 1B
Cano 2B
Cabrera CF
Molina C
Mussina RHP

Comments

[Lar]

And the fact that the Yanks were up by a truckload.. haha.

C'mon Moose! Show me all my lauding has not been done in vain!

[Lar]

The Yanks stake Moose to an early 3-0 lead. Hold it for a few innings, and the 11th is in the bag!

By the way, I just noticed Gameday has a new interface thingie. It must be new from the last two days.. and it's mostly totally unnecessary.. haha..

The Yanks probably could've padded a few more runs, so let's hope Maholm gets bashed some more. We'll take that momentum into Yanks/Shea.

But ya, now you can see the pitch from many different angles or something..

[Lar]

Oh ya, JD with his 14th steal (at 3rd base!). At least he got his wheels back.

The Yanks, while having no HRs, did get 3 doubles (JD, Jeter, ARod) and a triple (Abreu). But a DP and a Cano K ends it..

[Lar]

I have to look at the ARod "ground rule double" again. Of course I'm not familiar with the park.

Moose, if nothing else, is throwing strikes with his really slow stuff. Even if Sanchez doubled.

[Lar]

Bay walks after down 0-2. Moose got a little bit squeezed there. Here's the dangerous Doumit with 2 on, 1 out.

[Lar]

On MLB gameday, they got him gunned at 90. That's a good separation from his curve. Let's go Yanks!

[Lar]

Doumit singles, so the Pirates gets a run back. Here's a Nady.

[Lar]

Nady strikes out, going back to 3-2 after down 0-2, but Molina lets it by him, so men on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs.

Moose is getting slightly squeezed, dancing on the corners but not getting calls. He is ahead on all the batters though.

Of course, as I said that, he's behind 3-1 on LaRoche.

[Lar]

LaRoche walks on full count.

Moose already at 27 pitches, only 14 for strikes. Maholm at 21, though aided by a DP.

Now the bases are juiced for the 3rd baseman, Bautista.

[Lar]

0-2 count on Bautista, on very hittable pitches. Let's see if he loses him.

[Lar]

Moose dances out of that one. Really harder than it should've been, if you ask me.

Yanks up 3-1, Moose already at 30 pitches. Get us through five, or hit us out of range!

[Lar]

Moose with 2 hits, 2 walks that inning, but escapes with 1 run. Ah, the luxury of a 3 run lead.

[Lar]

Melky should've done more with that one, but eh. Here's Molina.

[Lar]

Molina doubles, but Moose can't do anything. Ah well. Here's Damon trying to give Moose and the Yanks some breathing room.

[attackgerbil]

Quick break from work.. just in time to see Molina double. Nice.

[attackgerbil]

No surprises in the draft so far... Rose to the Bulls, Beasley to the Heat.

[Lar]

JD cannot get it done. Wasted a double with 1 out, but then Moose had to hit. Ah well.

That's 5 extra base hits for the Yanks already. Just wished we got some walks or something in between to score a few more.

Now let's see if Moose will settle down a bit.

[attackgerbil]

Mayo to the wolves.

[Lar]

Moose gets two easy outs from the 8 and 9 hitters, but McLouth will take a 7th pitch single.

[attackgerbil]

Sanchez didn't like that called strike three.. Moose strands a runner and ends the inning.

[Lar]

Sanchez strikes out. End of 2, 3-1 Yanks.

[Lar]

Okay, got to run. Go Yanks!

[attackgerbil]

Sonics take Westbrook.

Groundouts by Jeter (5-3) and Abreu (3-1). ARod doesn't even come to the plate as the tarp is coming out on the field and we go to a weather delay. Bummah.

[attackgerbil]

Grizz take Kevin Love.

[attackgerbil]

The Knicks pick Danilo Gallinari. Crowd _not_ happy.

[attackgerbil]

Eric Gordon goes to the Clips.

[attackgerbil]

Bucks take Joe Alexander.

[attackgerbil]

Bobcats grab D.J. Augustin. Crap. I was hoping he'd last for the Blazers.

[Lar]

Yuck, rain delay. I hope Moose stays in and get that win..

[Lar]

Tomorrow's going to be tough.. why didn't they schedule the game for Saturday anyhow? I mean, huge advantage to the Mets, doubly because they got the day off. Bah.

[SF]

Boohoo!!!

Bad luck is all it is, bad weather. Am I wrong in thinking that the doubleheader is the reschedule from earlier in the season? If so, nobody can blame the schedulemaker as the game could have been played as a doubleheader without this risk way back when the same weekend it was originally postponed, if I remember correctly.

[A YF]

Nah, that's not baiting.

Problem is, the Yankees don't get the afternoon game on the getaway day. Why? Cause the Pirates get the sell out. Now the Yanks either give up an offday or play a game after the season is over.

I'd be willing to bet the Yanks get the fewest weekday afternoon games in the sport. Anyone want to do the counting? But it's time this nonsense ends. PeteAbe has it right - the Bucs sell out the game even if it started at 1pm today.

[SF]

The Yankees could have played this as an afternoon game earlier this season, but they and the Mets voted to not play. The Yankees knew they had a game tonight when they voted that way and rescheduled. This is a non-issue, just bad luck for the Yankees, if my recollection of the prior delay is correct.

But of course, it's persecution, not a self-made bed.

[Lar]

Bad luck is all I'm saying.. though..

I still don't know why the doubleheader couldn't be on a Saturday anyhow.. I don't know how it gets worked out, but it'll probably be better for the Yanks and isn't too much worse for the Mets. Ah well.

And this game is cancelled with a 3-1 Yanks lead, and will be made up in two weeks. According to Fangraphs, we had about 67% chance of winning this thing. Ah well.

[Lar]

For the record, I rather they schedule it as a "if necessary" game at the end of the season instead, though I do not have the schedule in my head. Bah.

[A YF]

"Bad luck is all I'm saying.. though.."

It's not as simple as that though, Lar. They schedule the game in the afternoon, like almost all of baseball yesterday, and that game gets in one way or another.

"But of course, it's persecution, not a self-made bed."

From Kepner:

"After the Yankees learned they would play the Mets on Friday afternoon in the first game of a doubleheader, they asked the Pirates to start Thursday’s game earlier. The Pirates declined.

Such is life for the Yankees, who are almost never given a midweek day game. The other team tries to maximize ad revenue for its telecasts by showing the Yankees at night."

Hmmm, I wonder why the Sox have got all their games in though...

[SF]

Ok, so the team, at the last minute, is under some obligation to reschedule a sell-out for the afternoon, just because the Yankees opted out of a doubleheader earlier in the season? I am sure all of those fans who made plans for that evening would have been thrilled to cut out of work at the last second, lose wages or piss off their bosses, just to have the privilege of seeing God's gift to the sports world, the New York Yankees.

So, the situation is that 40K+ fans, who had plans to attend a night game in Pittsburgh, should now have to cut out of work to go to an afternoon game because the Yankees (and Mets, too) didn't want to play a weekend doubleheader earlier in the season. I realize the game was rained out, so those fans didn't get to see the game. But at least they didn't get screwed out of seeing the game because their team decided at the last minute to acquiesce to the selfish demands of their visitors, who were only in this predicament because of their own earlier decision. They got screwed by mother nature. That's far more tolerable than the alternative.

Meanwhile, Pittsburgh is what, a puddle-jumper flight from NYC? The Sox caught (unfairly exaggerated) flak for barely buzzing about the Japan trip, now a mere late-evening shuttle flight from Pennsylvania to New York is justification for tears of inconvenience? The double standard is so predictable. The Yankees made a decision earlier in the season and need to confront the consequences, not blame anyone else. They themselves could have made this a non-issue, weeks ago, by playing the makeup game that weekend. They had two days to do so, but passed on that totally viable option. The Yankees put their foot down in May, refused to play a doubleheader. That's the end of the story. They caught some bad luck and weather, that's it.

http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/16/mets-yankees-rained-out/

[Lar]

By the way, I did not suggest moving the Pittsburgh game up - though I don't know the weather forecasts, and haven't been following, so maybe it would've been reasonable if they assumed that.

Now, that said, my point is just that I don't get why the doubleheader couldn't be on Saturday instead of Friday - there might be some geniune reason for this.. I literally do not know or understand.

I mean, I don't think the Yanks had any (reasonable) chance to say that they didn't think the game will be an afternoon game.. I mean, it's a home-to-home or whatever, so it's not like it can just start at 355 or whenever these could've. Though I guess it could've been feasible, but wasn't very likely.

[Lar]

And personally, I'm more peeved that we didn't get the win in more than the scheduling, though I'm just pointing out that the Yanks might not perform optimally..

[Lar]

Funny/bad luck note:

(From LoHud)

Then we have Dan Giese. He was sent ahead to get some rest for his Game 1 start today against the Mets. His flight was delayed so he went to get something to eat. The schedule changed and the flight left without him.

The Yankees booked him on another flight, which was canceled by the storm. So Giese returned to the park and flew home with the team. Had the game last night started up, he likely would have pitched.

[SF]

Now, that said, my point is just that I don't get why the doubleheader couldn't be on Saturday instead of Friday

That's a reasonable question, nobody has answered this. The Sunday game is an afternoon affair, obviously they wouldn't want to add a Sunday night game, but why couldn't the play Saturday, as you ask? They still get a day game after a night game, no matter what. Maybe the Mets wanted the game Friday and objected, so as to not have to move back equipment back to YS Saturday after the Friday night game at Shea and then back to Shea again.

[SF]

I think Giese said he was unfazed, that it was like the minor leagues every day. Good sense of humor.

I think Varitek went through something like this a couple of weeks back before the Cincy series - he got stuck on a layover coming to the game solo (he had strep throat or something), never made it to Cincy for the opener, spent like 9 hours on a seat at the Cleveland airport and finally made it in for the Saturday game.

[A YF]

Saturday is the Fox game. There was no moving that even if the teams wanted. The Mets leave for St. Louis on Sunday night. Friday was the day.

"at the last minute"

There was a month and it happens all the time in baseball. Seeing the winningest organization in baseball history on your home turf once a decade allows for some flexibility. The point is: other teams use the Yankees how it's convenient to them.

Love how you mention the Japan trip though. Yeah, the Sox didn't bitch at all. Right. Sure. There's a reason the Sox have gotten in all of their games this year - they do a lot of bitching behind the scenes (witness your GM bitching about the not bitching for the Japan trip). That's exactly why the Yankees aren't finishing this season at home.

[SF]

Again, you are completely skirting the issue, which is that the Yankees initiated this whole "ordeal" by electing not to play the Mets earlier in the season. Had they played the game in May, there wouldn't be an issue, and the Yankees would have their normal schedule at this point.

And your conspiracy theory about the Sox is really funny. Have you seen the Sox' crazy schedule this season? Wait, don't answer that - facts just get in the way for you.

[A YF]

Actually, the Bucs had multiple opportunities to change the game time, including as late as Wed when they saw the front moving in. That's what makes your "what about the fans" argument so lame. Their fans came out for no reason last night and now they have to make plans to attend on a completely different date.

Almost all of baseball had getaway games during the day yesterday. The Bucs chose not to and screwed their (few) fans in the process.

See, it's convenient for you to lump yesterday with today. They're completely separate issues to any rational person.

Meanwhile, explain to me how the Sox have played all of their games this year? I suppose it's just "luck"...

[Atheose]

(witness your GM bitching about the not bitching for the Japan trip).

We're all lucky enough that AYF graces us with this insider information that he's able to get since he's a public figure and all. I wish I was a "public figure" so I could make up random crap all the time too!