Excitement

Wait a minute... isn't that a fist pump that Morgan Ensberg gave after tagging Cliff Floyd out at third to end the second inning? I thought that emotional reaction of excitement had been outlawed by the Yankees. I mean, after Goose Gossage denounced Joba Chamberlin a few days ago for fisting David Dellucci, I thought someone from the Yankees organization would have spoken to the team. Wasn't that the subject of the 45-minute, closed-door team meeting that occurred before last night's 2-to-1 Yankee win over the Rays? Seriously folks, if this cheerful display of confidence goes unchecked, we might soon see Melky Cabrera high-fiving fans over the wall just like Manny.

Well, I propose that it is this kind of excitement that will take the Yankees to where they need to be. All too often I think we tend to forget that this is a GAME. If we have to second guess what our opponent might be "feeling" before reacting to a good play, then we are thinking too much. I am not saying that we need to chant in the dugout like the Nationals, but a little excitement can go a long way.

Moose pitched an amazingly good game last night and since I am the kind of person who likes to say "I told you so," I hope all you radio talk show callers and bloggers who were calling for the Moose to be "put down" in early April are able to take notice that Mussina has won his last 5 starts and is now 6-and-3.

The Yankees bats aren't really where I would like them to be but it is nice to see some life in Cano who went 4-for-4 last night. More importantly though, it seems like Girardi has finally woken up to the fact that he needs to more aggressively manage this team. Perhaps it was the report from Hank demanding more fire from the team, but Joe is showing more signs of life too.

The Yanks will have a chance to even up the 4-game series against the Rays today at 4pm.

Yanks Fail... Rays Prevail

I think Matsui said it best:

"We shouldn't be depending on guys like Alex and Jorge to score. We should be able to score runs without their presence, as well,"

If you listen to some of the sports talk shows and read some of the press releases discussing last night's extra-innings, 2-to-1 Yankee loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, many will cite that New York is hurting without the strong slugging of Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada. Ok. Fine. But wouldn't you think that the 12 players currently on the active roster could do better than 2 runs in the last 24 innings?

You can't blame Wang because there was nothing wrong with the way he pitched. Going seven innings and only giving up one run is something that any MLB club would take. You can't blame Rivera (and shame on you to anyone out there who is) because even the sandman is human. Go and try to find another 0.56 ERA closer. Joba did his part. Even Fartsworth gave the lineup a chance.

So, let's look at the lineup from last night:

Damon, DH .271
Jeter, SS .305
Abreu, RF .287
Matsui, LF .319
Giambi, 1B .194
Cabrera, CF .269
Cano, 2B .183
Gonzalez, 3B .290
a-Duncan, S, PH .188
Ensberg, 3B .219
Molina, C .203

I will let you make your own determinations here. One thing I don't understand is why Girardi would have Duncan (who has been ice cold lately) pinch hit for Gonzalez (who has been promising at .290) in the seventh.

So now we have the Rays in first place on a six-game winning streak while New York is making sure that our Canadian friends aren't too lonely at the bottom of the AL-East.

"It is only May," I keep telling myself. "It is only May."

See-Saw Baseball

I don't know about you but I am getting a little tired of watching the Yankees teeter on the .500 mark of baseball. With last night's 7-to-1 loss to the Rays in Tampa, the Yankees fell once again to one game below .500. This is the 8th time this season that this has happened... trust me, I have been counting.

It is rather amusing to me (insert sarcasm here) that it is the Tampa Bay Rays who are partially responsible for holding them back. Last night's Yankee lost translated to a Ray's win that put Tampa Bay six games above .500, the first time ever that that has happened in their franchise history. Who would have thought that this team would still be sitting in 2nd place and now just 1/2 game behind Boston? The truth is, Tampa played last night's game exactly the way the Yankees should be playing. They hit the ball well, were aggressive on the bases, and came through when there were runners in scoring position.

Yes, I realize that this a Yankee blog and it is pathetic that I have to find my excitement by writing about an opposing team. So let's talk about Pettitte and the Yankees. The last time that Andy Pettitte lost a start against Tampa, gas prices were at $1.15 a gallon and Bill Clinton was denying sexual relations; Windows 98 was just released and Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a first-run series. Although Pettitte started out the night looking sharp, he crashed in the 4th inning giving up 7 hits that scored 4 runs. For the first time this season, Pettitte left the game pitching less than 5 innings and did so with 82 throws across the plate. He was clearly distracted and admitted in the post game interview that he let the runners on base get to him.

Offensively, we had nothing. Gonzalez was the only one that showed any life at all really with 2 hits. Molina crossed the plate for the Yanks' only run.

Sorry to be so depressing, but sometimes you just have to write about what there is. Wang, Mussina, and Kennedy will try to do something with the next three games in Florida before Rasner gets a shot against the Mets on Friday night.

Mother's Day Rainout

The rubber game of the three game set between the Yankees and the Tigers was rained out on Mother's Day. A make-up date has not yet been announced by July 24th and September 1st seem to be the two possibilities.

The Yankees have arrived in Florida and will begin a four game series against the Rays beginning tonight at 7:10pm.

Standings

I wasn't able to watch yesterday afternoon's 5-to-2 Yankee win over the Tiger's, so I had to resort to the box score to write this entry. It seems as though Rasner might be sticking around for a while if he can continue to perform like he has been. Giving the Yanks six solid innings and only letting 2 runs score on his watch... yeah, we'll take that.

Today it will be important for Pettitte to secure the win so that New York can leave Detroit with the series. The standings have them 4.5 games back at this point and, although it is still early, this is a good time to start narrowing the gap. Four games against Tampa Bay this week give the Yankees some real opportunity for movement in the standing before taking on the Mets at home.

Kei Igawa got his shot last night to show that he has made some improvement since last season. I didn’t see any improvement.

His inability to pitch low is still the main concern and the Tigers took advantage of this weakness, taking 11 hits over 3 innings (though really only in the 1st and 3rd innings). Igawa, who struggled all last season for the Yankees, had been showing better stuff in Triple-A this spring. But as we all know, Triple-A is not the majors. The current plan, according to Girardi during the post-game interview, is to give Igawa another chance. Whether or not the Yankees follow through with this plan is, well, up to the Yankees. More than likely Ian Kennedy, another "star"of the minors, will wind up replacing him.

I personally do not think that the solution to New York’s pitching woes lies in their Triple-A teams. We need to be looking further and outside of the organization. If Boomer is serious about coming back then let’s get working on the paperwork. Igawa, and Kennedy for that matter, are nothing more than band-aids for the moment. Unless the team is in a position to lose a minimum of 2 of every 5 games for the rest of the season, some more permanent plans need to be formed.

And what the hell was the deal with Betemit? Third base is clearly not the best of his utility positions and Ensberg should have been at that bag. There is no doubt that much of last night’s loss rested on Wilson’s shoulders. I haven’t quite figured out what some of Girardi’s logic is when he creates these lineups.

So the Yankees offense did what they could to save the game but a pop out from Duncan sent the team to the clubhouse with a loss of 6-to-5.

Four errors in total for the evening. 14 hits that couldn’t allow us to take the lead. And Albaladejo is going to the DL with an elbow injury to be replaced by Chris Britton. Tonight is another game.

Confidence

I always wonder why some people don't consider certain wins to be more important than others. I was having a conversation with a buddy of mine who said "a win is a win and a loss is a loss". His point was that at the end of the season, it is the number of games won as compared to the number of games lost that determine whether a team advances to the post season. No one will likely remember in October, an outfield catch in April that allowed a team to win a game against an seemingly insignificant opponent. Ultimately, this may be true except for the overwhelming effect of confidence.

Most will agree that a victory over an arch rival or a win that breaks a runaway losing streak can boost a team's confidence. And so much of sports (and life, for that matter) is about confidence. Those who have it will always have an edge over those who do not. Yesterday afternoon's 6-to-3 Yankee win against Cleveland may make only a small difference in September but, for at least some Yankees, it may help to turn things around.

The players who really performed yesterday were the very players that needed to perform. Giambi and Cano especially but it was nice to see something from Betemit too. Sometimes a home run or a key hit is all that is needed to bring a player around. I heard a statistic during the broadcast yesterday indicating that only one other Yankee in the last 80 years had performed as poorly at the plate as Cano and Giambi have at this point in the season. That one other player, whose name I can't remember (I wonder why?), played in the '60s.

My point is this... Cano is not a .172 hitter and Giambi can do better than .163. In the same way that a team's average in September has a way of "correcting" itself, so does a player's batting average. If you believe this, and there is no reason why someone shouldn't, then there are some Yankee hitters that are going to have to make a turn around real soon. And this will happen... it is inevitable. All that is necessary is a turning point. Hopefully yesterday's game was just that. Confidence. It is a powerful thing.

Now, on the same topic, I wanted to address the Joba fist pump that seems to be resurfacing to the headlines. Nothing more than confidence. For the very best players, a sport can be such an emotional thing. The pressures, the anxiety, the unpredictability. One pitch can mean a win or a loss... it is as simple as that. Greg Cohen did an great job in his blog yesterday analyzing the incident. I agree completely with his post, so I won't bother re-hashing it but you can find it here. While you are at it, check out another take on the issue here.

So the Yankees face Detroit tonight to see if they can give some payback for last week's licking that they took when they faced the Tiger's in the Bronx. Wouldn't it be nice to build a little more confidence?