Wake-Up Call: Yanks-Twins Gamer

Forgot it was an early game, and one that I would quite like to see if I weren't working. Aceves facing Liriano, Yanks up 3-2 in the bottom of the third.

Comment away.

Comments

[Atheose]

Robertson comes in with the bases loaded an walks 2 runs in. In his defense, in the Tolbert at-bat 3 of the 4 balls were CLEARLY strikes, at least according to Gameday.

[I'mBillMcNeal]

Apparently, a thunderstorm in Tampa-St. Pete has knocked out a bank of lights at the Trop, delaying the Rays' game against Toronto.

[sf rod]

the ump has been giving any low strikes today, for either side.

anyone see gardner get caught trying to steal home? would like to hear how it went down.

[I'mBillMcNeal]

Ath, from what I understand, the gameday strikezone is supposed to be very accurate.

[Lar]

I forgot too!

[Lar]

Teixiera finally hitting a HR in what's almost a month. Nice. 6-4 Yanks.

I just got in. Sucks for Gardner to get caught!

[Lar]

Ace's ERA gone up this outing. Wasn't amazing, but err, the Yanks are up for now, so we'll see.

[Atheose]

Gardner's steal attempt should be on the Gameday video highlights. Get on it, mlb!

[Lar]

Albaladejo (sp?) is in, with man on first, against Cuddyer, who seems to keep hitting HRs. It's go time.

[Lar]

Buscher fouls off a few pitches and takes a walk, and here's Redmond trying to get a few runs back..

[Lar]

And Redmond K's with two men left. End of 5, 6-4 Yanks.

[sf rod]

halladay pulled after 7 innings. 9 hits, 3 earned, and 8 k's.

[Lar]

Liriano now up to 100 pitches.

[Lar]

Cano swung at ball 4 to ground out to 3B.

[Lar]

Melky lines one down the line - it appears to actually landed on the line, the foulest fair ball it can be, and easily walks to second.

Liriano's night is done.

[sf rod]

this astros vs. nationals game is crazy. 10-10 going into the 12th.

[Lar]

Dickey comes in to face Ransom.

[Lar]

Ransom K's. Gardner will have a chance to add in another run, which would be nice.

[Atheose]

sf rod, what astros/nationals game?

[Lar]

Gardner K's as well. An opportunity wasted.

[Lar]

Ath - it's a suspended game that I guess will be played tonight before the actual game. An amusing thing is that the home teams are switched, heh.

[Lar]

I say one more inning at most for Alba, and then let Hughes start the 7th and the 8th. Mo will come in after.

That would be great.

[Lar]

Tampa Bay ready to sweep Toronto, all one run games..

[sf rod]

it's a continuation from a suspended game from may 5th. it starts at 7:05. then they start another game at 8:05. guess mlb feels like that game will be decided in about 15 minutes.

[Lar]

Actually, Tuesday game was a two run game. In either case, it's final and Tampa Bay swept as well, so they're right on the Yanks' ass.

[Lar]

Alba did do a good job this inning with a quick 1-2-3.

[Atheose]

Ahhhh gotcha. It would be hilarious if the tie-game goes on for a few hours.

[Lar]

Coke comes in for the juicy part of the lineup. Dangerous, but he does have a two run leeway..

[Lar]

Heh, Mauer bunting for a base hit. Anything to bat .400, I suppose!

Hughes comes in for the 1+ inning hold, for Cuddyer.

[Lar]

ARod with a lead off single. I would love to see an insurance run, of course.

[Lar]

Jorge and ARod tried hit and run, but Jorge fouls it off. Jorge finally struck out though. I thought ARod took off, but either he faked or something, but he's still at first, with one out.

[Lar]

Here's Cano.

[Lar]

He flies out and Melky's up.

[Lar]

Melky went the other way and deep, but was caught at the warning track. Let's go Hughes!

[Lar]

Hughes with two quick outs, then went 0-2 before going to 3-2 with a foul ball..

[Lar]

And Hughes struck out Morales finally with some high heat. On to the 9th!

[Lar]

Ransom, Gardner, Jeter all trying to make it an easier job for Mo.

[Lar]

Ransom and Gardner thus far made it an easy job for the pitcher, Mijares.

Anyhoo, Jeets is up with two outs.

[Lar]

Jeter gets on on a borderline 3-2 pitch, and Swisher is going to do his best to avoid going 0 for 5, I guess.

[Lar]

Swisher flies out on 2-0 pitch. Here's Mo and bottom of the 9th.

[Lar]

Punto and Span had easy ground outs and here's Harris with their last hopes.

[Lar]

Harris singles, and your AL Batting Leader will come to the plate as the tying run.

[Lar]

Harris takes second on indifference.

[Lar]

Mauer hits one down the line but Teixiera is there to end the game. Go Yanks!

[Mark-YF]

Ath - regarding your first comment of the thread, Fitch FX also agrees that those 3 Robertson pitches to Tolbert were strikes (albeit very close, but it has them all in the zone). On total, Robertson had seven (and a borderline eighth) pitches in the zone that were called balls. And the dude only threw 28 total pitches. Most of those were in the lower third of the zone - Tim Timmons obviously was not seeing that part of the strike very well (that's backed up by the strike zone graph here: http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfx/szone.php?xml=http://gd2.mlb.com/components/game/mlb/year_2009/month_07/day_09/gid_2009_07_09_nyamlb_minmlb_1//pbp/pitchers/121250.xml&innings=yyyyyyyyy&s_type=1&sp_type=1&h_size=700&v_size=500&extraStr=|7/9/2009|New%20York%20Yankees%20@%20Minnesota%20Twins).">http://gd2.mlb.com/components/game/mlb/year_2009/month_07/day_09/gid_2009_07_09_nyamlb_minmlb_1//pbp/pitchers/121250.xml&innings=yyyyyyyyy&s_type=1&sp_type=1&h_size=700&v_size=500&extraStr=|7/9/2009|New%20York%20Yankees%20@%20Minnesota%20Twins).">http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfx/szone.php?xml=http://gd2.mlb.com/components/game/mlb/year_2009/month_07/day_09/gid_2009_07_09_nyamlb_minmlb_1//pbp/pitchers/121250.xml&innings=yyyyyyyyy&s_type=1&sp_type=1&h_size=700&v_size=500&extraStr=|7/9/2009|New%20York%20Yankees%20@%20Minnesota%20Twins).

He clearly just had absolutely no read on the bottom 25% of the zone. Well, more ammunition for "machines should be calling balls and strikes crowd...

Still - a win and a sweep!

[Mark-YF]

Whoah, don't know what I did to screw up that address. here it is again:

http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfx/szone.php?xml=http://gd2.mlb.com/components/game/mlb/year_2009/month_07/day_09/gid_2009_07_09_nyamlb_minmlb_1//pbp/pitchers/121250.xml&innings=yyyyyyyyy&s_type=1&sp_type=1&h_size=700&v_size=500&extraStr=|7/9/2009|New">http://gd2.mlb.com/components/game/mlb/year_2009/month_07/day_09/gid_2009_07_09_nyamlb_minmlb_1//pbp/pitchers/121250.xml&innings=yyyyyyyyy&s_type=1&sp_type=1&h_size=700&v_size=500&extraStr=|7/9/2009|New">http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfx/szone.php?xml=http://gd2.mlb.com/components/game/mlb/year_2009/month_07/day_09/gid_2009_07_09_nyamlb_minmlb_1//pbp/pitchers/121250.xml&innings=yyyyyyyyy&s_type=1&sp_type=1&h_size=700&v_size=500&extraStr=|7/9/2009|New York Yankees @ Minnesota Twins

[Mark-YF]

Well it happened again...you have to copy that whole string into the address bar to see what i was linking to

[Lar]

Mark - try http://bit.ly/ =P

[Atheose]

Yeah, at least there were just as many low strikes called balls for the Twins as the Yankees.

[Lar]

Ya, I mean, the first time (or two) you don't get the call, you should stop throwing it there though..

[Lar]

The Gardner stealing home video is on MLB.com

It's not that exciting, basically Jeter was "picked off", and as soon as that happened, Gardner went home, but was thrown out at home with a heads up play by the 1B. Any other way and Jeter would've made sure Gardner score for sure.

[Mark - YF]

"Ya, I mean, the first time (or two) you don't get the call, you should stop throwing it there though.."

Yeah, but what if you're a sinkerbaler or heavy 4-seam guy? Or if you're strength as a pitcher is working up and down in the zone? Call me a hopeless optimist but I think the umpires should get the zone right. When you're missing the entire bottom quarter of it, you're absolutely butchering the game.

[IronHorse]

According to Marty Foster, a pitch doesn't actually hvae to be "in the strike zone" to be called a strike - it just needs to arrive before the batter swings.