MY BASEBALL BIAS

So Much for a Turn-Around

I know this is sounding more and more like a Yankee blog and I apologize.  However, when the Yankees and the Red Sox meet for a series, it becomes a huge deal in the baseball world whether you enjoy it or not.

The big story coming out of the game is whether Joe Torre will keep his job as Yankee manager.  No word from the “The Boss” yet, but I’m sure a statement from Rubenstein is being crafted as we speak.

The write-up will be short today so here we go -

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Boston Red Sox 7 @ New York Yankees 4

Red Sox hand the Yankees their 8th lose in 9 games behind three dingers

W: J. Tavarez (1-2) L: C. Wang (0-2) S: J. Papelbon (8)

BOX

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Texas Rangers 3 @ Toronto Blue Jays 7

Jays back on-track with 7-3 over Rangers

W: T. Ohka (2-2) L: B. McCarthy (1-4)

BOX

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Tampa Bay Devil Rays 5 @ Oakland Athletics 3

Upton’s big day leads the way for the Rays

W: S. Kazmir (2-1) L: D. Braden (1-1) S: A. Reyes (9)

BOX

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Baltimore Orioles 1 @ Cleveland Indians 6

Orioles stifled by Indian’s Carmona

W: F. Carmona (2-1) L: J. Wright (0-3)

BOX

A Very Unlikely Hero

Kei Igawa may have saved the Yankees season. I’ll give you a second to let that set in…

Are you still breathing? What happened on Saturday afternoon in the Bronx was something out of a movie. Here’s how it went down -

• Starting pitcher (Jeff Karstens) gets hit in leg with first pitch, goes down in agony
• He tries to tough it out, be a hero and continue…ultimately he can’t (finds out later he has a broken bone in leg)
• Relief pitcher (Kei Igawa), who has fallen out of favor with manager (Joe Torre), get’s the call
• He pitches superbly, allowing 2 hits over 7 innings and gets the win for himself and team
• He has saved the day, saved jobs, and saved the world!!! Okay, well, I went a little far on the last part but you get the picture.

Will this translate into more winning? God I hope so. The Yankees throw Wang out on the mound tomorrow so their chances are good.

Boston Red Sox 1 @ New York Yankees 3

Igawa saves the day and possibly Torre’s job as Yankees losing streak

W: K. Igawa (2-1) L: T. Wakefield (2-3) S: M. Rivera (1)

BOX

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Texas Rangers 9 @ Toronto Blue Jays 8

Jays loose 2nd straight to Rangers

W: A. Otsuka (1-0) L: B. Tallet (0-1) S: J. Benoit (1)

BOX

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Tampa Bay Devil Rays 5@ Oakland Athletics 12

A’s six-run 1st inning dooms the Rays

W: D. Haren (3-2) L: C. Fossum (2-2)

BOX

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Baltimore Orioles 7 @ Cleveland Indians 4

Orioles score four runs late in come back win.

W: J. Walker (1-0) L: F. Cabrera (1-1) S: C. Ray (7)

BOX

AP PHOTO

Now You Start to Panic

There is trouble brewing in the Big Apple folks. The Yankees, hoping to turn around their recent struggles, lost their seventh straight game last night to the Boston Red Sox 11-4, the first of three-game set at the Stadium. Andy Pettitte, who took the ball for the Bombers, said he was “embarrassed” by his performance. Manager Joe Torre stated the obvious, “We need to come out (Saturday) and win a ballgame,” adding, “You hope this was a bottoming out.” For the Yankees sake, and even more for Torre, I hope he’s right.

The local NY papers have taken their calls for a managerial shake-up from a whisper to full out roar. George King of the NY Post wrote today that owner George Steinbrenner “was very displeased” with the play of his team and told Torre as much after they were swept last weekend by the Red Sox in Boston. Tyler Kepner, Yankee beat writer for the New York Times, muses that if the Yankees are swept this weekend, Torre could be gone as soon as Monday.

Whatever happens, Torre has to feel absolutely helpless right now. He can’t get more than five of six innings out of any of his starters — Pettitte lasted just 4 and 2/3 last night — and there is no one he can trust in the bullpen. Even Mariano Rivera has shown his vulnerabilities early on, failing to record a single save this year and carrying a 12.15 ERA over 6.2 innings into today’s game. The answers seem so simple, but every game just brings more questions for a club in disarray.

Having said that, it’s still early and I refuse to believe the Yankees will continue their free-fall. It will get better, it just has to. A price may be payed however with the way they have played this month.

Okay, enough of that…onto the AL East Roundup from Friday night -

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Boston Red Sox 11 @ New York Yankees 4

Yankees lose 7th straight game

W: D. Matsuzaka (3-2) L: A. Pettitte (1-1)

BOX

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Texas Rangers 5 @ Toronto Blue Jays 3

Blue Jays return home, lose to the Rangers.

W: R. Tejeda (3-1) L: J. Towers (1-3) S: A. Otsuka (3)

BOX

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Tampa Bay Devil Rays 4 @ Oakland Athletics 1

Devil Rays win behind strong outing from James Sheilds

W: J. Shields (2-0) L: C. Gaudin (1-1) S: A. Reyes (8)

BOX

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Baltimore Orioles 4 @ Cleveland Indians 5

Sizemore’s inside-the-park homer is the difference as Orioles lose in Cleveland

W: J. Westbrook (1-2) L: S. Trachsel (1-2) S: J. Borowski (9)

BOX

We have an exciting weekend ahead, starting with another Yankees/Sox match-up, this time in the BRONX. The Devil Rays continue their west coast swing with a three-game set in Oakland, the Orioles travel to Cleveland and the Blue Jays host Texas. Here’s a breakdown of the weekend ahead and some team notes -

Boston Red Sox (14-7) @ New York Yankees (8-12)

After being swept at Fenway last weekend, the Yankees look to right the ship against the Red Sox in a three-game set at Yankee Stadium. Friday night’s match-up is a great pitching showdown, Pettitte vs. Dice-K. This is Matsuzaka’s first start at the Stadium so keep a close eye on that. The Red Sox are currently tied with the White Sox for the best road record in the American League and the Yankees are 2-9 against AL East opponents.

Probable Pitching Matchups:

• Tonight, 7:05 PM EST: Andy Pettitte (1-0, 1.78) vs. Daisuke Matsuzaka (2-2, 4.00)

• Saturday, 3:55 PM EST: Jeff Karstens (0-1, 14.54) vs. Tim Wakefield (2-2, 2.08)

• Sunday, 1:05 PM EST: Chien-Ming Wang (0-1, 5.68) vs. Julian Tavarez (0-2, 8.36)

Yankees/Sox Notes -

• Yankee pitcher Colter Bean was optioned back to AAA-Scranton/WB when they brought up Phil Hughes to start yesterday so don’t expect to see him out of the pen this weekend.
• Mike Mussina threw a side session at the Stadium today and will not throw for AA-Trenton at Harrisburg as previously planned because of the weather.  When the Yankees visit Texas starting next Tuesday, they plan to throw Phil Hughes, Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina in that order.
• It looks like Coco Crisp will avoid a DL stint because of a sore oblique and is in the lineup tonight batting eighth.
• Curt Schilling was heard from today at his blog, the topic being the bloody sock. Click here if you’re interested. On a personal side note, I just don’t get it. The Red Sox won, we (the Yankees) lost. It should have never even gotten to a game six. It’s over, the sock is in the HOF and the Red Sox are the 2004 Champions. Move on, including you Curt. But, if you can’t get enough of this story, read David Steele’s thoughts over at the Baltimore Sun.
• The Yankees have allowed six or more runs in their last seven games, the last six of which were losses, but you know that already.
• Last year, the Red Sox were 6-4 against New York at Yankee Stadium and 2-7 against the Yankees at Fenway.

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Baltimore Orioles (11-11) @ Cleveland Indians (11-7)

The Orioles really need to go into Cleveland and win a few games. After an nice start, they got swept at home by the Red Sox in two games that they could have won. Cleveland has been playing very good baseball of late and and has a four game winning streak going. Oriole pitching will be the thing to watch with Steve Trachsel going tonight, Erik Bedard, who’s had a rough start to the season pitching on Saturday and Jaret Wright, who will come off the disabled list taking the mound on Sunday. Catcher Ramon Hernandez returned to the lineup last night so it will be interesting to see how he handles the workload this weekend.

Probable Pitching Matchups:

• Tonight, 7:05 PM EST: Steve Trachsel, RHP (1-1, 4.37) vs. Jake Westbrook, RHP (0-2, 9.15)

• Saturday, 7:05 PM EST: Erik Bedard, LHP (3-2, 6.11) vs. Jeremy Sowers, LHP (0-1, 4.76)

• Sunday, 1:05 PM EST: Jaret Wright, RHP (0-2, 6.14) vs. Fausto Carmona, RHP (1-1, 5.00)

Oriole Notes -

• The Orioles pitching staff has allowed only 13 home runs all year, but three of them have been grand slams.
• Roch Kubatko asks the question: Why was Adam Loewen’s fastball consistently around 89 MPH last night against the Red Sox? He thinks that seems low and so do I. He’s also walking way to many guys.
• Oriole Magic has a nice breakdown of each matchup this weekend so head on over there and check it out.

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Tampa Bay Devil Rays (9-13) @ Oakland Athletics (11-11)

After getting blown out by a combined score of 20-4 in a two-games set with the LA Angels, the Rays look to rebound against the Oakland Athletics, a team that pitches really well — first in the AL with a 3.05 team ERA — and hits not so well — last in the AL with 3.59 runs per game. The Rays, on the other hand, have the worst team ERA in the AL (6.64) and are fourth in runs scored with 5.09 a game. Something’s gotta give and I’m just not sure what it will be.

Probable Pitching Matchups:

• Tonight, 10:05 PM EST: James Shields, RHP (1-0, 4.50) vs. Chad Gaudin, RHP (1-0, 1.85)

• Saturday, 4:05 PM EST: Casey Fossum, LHP (2-1, 6.94) vs. Dan Haren, RHP (2-2, 1.41)

• Sunday, 4:05 PM EST: Scott Kazmir, LHP (1-1, 4.40) vs. Dallas Braden, LHP (1-0, 1.50)

Rays Notes -

• Don’t expect to see Rocco Baldelli in the lineup this weekend. He’s still nursing a bruised left leg that he injured in the Angels series chasing done a fly ball.
• It also looks like Brendan Harris is the new Rays SS, taking over for Ben Zobrist who’s been benched.

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Texas Rangers (8-12) @ Toronto Blue Jays (11-10)

Even though the Blue Jays have had key members of their roster go down with injuries, they’ve fought back and carry a four game winning streak into a four-game home series against the Rangers.

Probable Pitching Matchups:

• Tonight, 7:07 PM EST: Robinson Tejeda, RHP (2-1, 3.55) vs. Josh Towers, RHP (1-2, 3.44)

• Saturday, 1:07 PM EST: Kevin Millwood, RHP (2-3, 5.46) vs. Gustavo Chacin, LHP (2-1, 5.32)

• Sunday, 1:07 PM EST: Brandon McCarthy, RHP (1-3, 9.00) vs. Tomo Ohka, RHP (1-2, 6.23)

• Monday, 7:07 PM EST: Vicente Padilla, RHP (0-3, 5.79) vs. Roy Halladay, RHP (3-0, 2.58)

Blue Jays Notes -

• Vernon Wells is on fire right now.  In his last seven games he’s batting .520 with one home run and seven RBI.  He also has four doubles and three stolen bases.
• Troy Glaus is still feeling discomfort in his heel.  He is eligible to come off the DL on Saturday, but you may not see him till next week.

(Newsday/Paul J. Bereswill)

Thursday’s AL East action brought us the debut of Phil Hughes, the Yankees 20 year-old pitching prospect who was trying to help end a losing streak that has now reached 6 games for the Bombers. Although he showed moments of great promise and poise, he couldn’t deliver the Yankees a much needed win (they lost to the Blue Jays 6-0) and pitched only 4 1/3 innings. It was clear after last night’s performance that Hughes is still an unpolished pitcher who will certainly benefit from more time spent at AAA.

However, there was a lot to like in watching “Phil Franchise” as Peter Abraham likes to call him, including his rather large frame and pitching mechanics. He’s a big kid at 6-5 and commands a nice presence on the mound. With his compact pitching motion, he threw mostly fastballs and curve balls mixed in with an occasional change-up. An in-game interview with Hughes revealed that although he has been working on a slider this year (the Yankees actually barred him from throwing one last year probably due to injury concerns), he wasn’t quite ready to throw the pitch in the big leagues yet. I’d like to see him learn a splitter, but again, he’s still very young and time is really on he and the Yankees side here.

Most who saw the outing will agree with what the scouts have said — he’s going to be a number one guy for the Yankees at some point, just not right now. At the moment, he’s simply filling in a gaping hole in a rotation that has been in tatters during the whole month of April. Expect Hughes to make one more start against Texas next week and then return to AAA-Scranton/WB to continue his development. The possibility of keeping him up in the major leagues right now — risking injury due to either overthrowing or workload — is a risk the Yankees need not take.

Given the state of the Yankees rotation however, I wouldn’t be surprised if he stays in the Bronx or is called up again rather soon.

Okay, onto the AL East Roundup for Thursday’s games -

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Boston Red Sox 5 @ Baltimore Orioles 2

Beckett gets fifth win of season, Red Sox sweep Orioles and head to NY

W: