We beat Verlander, hitting two home runs and scoring five runs against him. This after Derek Jeter said the Yankees would never score again. Looks like Verlander took that one a little too literally and got lax, now he's paying for it with his ERA and significant emotional damage. Did you see the look on his face when he was sitting in the dugout in the seventh? He looked like the Yankees were eating his ice cream as they rode away on his new bike. Damn.
The Bad
The Yankees lost the middle game when some guy did something in the ninth. Blah, blah, blah.
The Ugly
After Sunday's game, Verlander refused to accept responsibility for his poor performance in his recent outings.
"It's not my fault," explained Verlander. "I've been afflicted with the Stuxnet virus and none of my centrifuges are working. How do you expect me to pitch like that?! Everybody knows I'm a flame-thrower, but I've got the Flame virus too. Every time I try to locate my fastball it's all zero, zero, one, zero, one, one, zero. I can't concentrate!"
Informed that he's neither a computer or living in the Matrix, Verlander retorted, "That's what they want you to think!"
One reporter then asked whether it was selfish of him, being aware of the Matrix, to use that knowledge to become a successful baseball player rather than, you know, trying to save humanity. That's when the interview abruptly ended with Verlander assuring us that, "You just don't get it."
The Power Stroke (Stop Laughing)
The Yankees hit no home runs in the middle game, but hit two yesterday (one each from Jeter and A-Rod). That's $4 more for the kids.
Raul Ibanez 9hr = $18
Nick Swisher 8hr = $64
Andruw Jones 5hr = $10
Derek Jeter 6hr = $12
Curtis Granderson 17hr = $34
Alex Rodriguez 9hr = $18
Robinson Cano 8hr = $16
Mark Teixeira 9hr = $18
Eric Chavez 3hr = $6
Russell Martin 4hr = $8
Jayson Nix 2hr = $4
Total 80hr = $160
6 comments:
Could you explain to me why the Yankees can not win a game unless they hit at least one home run? What's with that?
This team has always been built for power and they don't really have a lot run manufacturing capabilities. Pretty much no one bunts, rarely do they steal bases, and you have a line-up full of sluggers who have the sense that their job is to hit the ball hard, not move runners, and that is how they approach at-bats. The end-result is that you don't have a ton of situational hitting, and you have a nine-man line-up where 7-8 of your hitters are playing a zero sum game (to crush or not to crush). If they hit a ton of home runs, the offense does well. Otherwise, they get men on base and then everyone strikes out attempting to swing out of their socks. That's my take anyways.
Whatever the reason, the middle of the order guys (ARod, Teixeira and Cano) have been awful with RISP. Even Jeter and Granderson have been significantly worse with RISP than without. Then you get into guys who just aren't hitting much, period (Swisher, Martin, Jones), and you've got problems scoring runs without the HR.
I don't want to see more bunting. The Yankees are making too many outs with RISP already. I want to see more walks. The Yankees are best when they are patient and force pitchers to throw strikes. Many of the outs with RISP are due to hitters making outs on bad pitches. This is particularly frustrating with all the missed bases loaded opportunities.
Did you know the Yankees have 7 of the top 50 active HR hitters on their roster? And Cano is 56th?
Yeah, I think this is a power hitting line up. Not too many hit-and-runs or bunts coming out of these guys.
It's definitely a power-hitting lineup. That should be a good thing. Granderson, ARod, Teixeira, Cano and Swisher are all expected to hit for power. Ibanez and Jones don't have much to offer if they can't hit for power (Ibanez has been a nice surprise in that area).
Even Jeter is hitting with a surprising amount of power.
If you go on BRef and look up the lineup's numbers with RISP, you'll see a few sub-.200 averages. That will change for the better. These are all veterans and they haven't magically lost the ability to hit with RISP.
This is not a speedy lineup and won't be for the foreseeable future, although it will look much better when Gardner returns.
If the team is hitting and getting on base, it won't need speed. It's already demonstrated the ability to beat the best pitchers in baseball this year, repeatedly. The team's RISP numbers are due for a correction and when that happens we'll see a nice boost in runs scored.
True, but you always have to worry about what happens when they're facing someone who's not giving up home runs (think a tough playoff rotation). Will we just swing and miss and sit-down to our heart's delight? I don't mind a power-hitting line-up. You need one in this division. But I worry about a line-up that can make no adjustments when the HR is not forthcoming.
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