Ten and Six: Ms-Yanks Gamer IV

"Ten and Six" is not my guess as to Rocket's line come October.  It is not the Atlantic City over/under on brush-backs and hit batsman between these two teams for the series.  It's not anywhere near the tab for the cost of beer and dogs to be paid by Nick, who will be at the Stadium tonight.  It is not the number of losses vs. wins by the Yanks in the last sixteen games; that would be nine vs. seven, but the trend is going in the right direction; by winning five of their last six the Yankees have scratched their way back to second place in the American League East, which is not as glamorous as it sounds considering they still have a sub-.500 record (14-15) on the season.

"Ten" is the number of different starting pitchers the Yankees will have sent to the mound on the season in only 30 games (a first in major-league history) when Matt DeSalvo throws his first pitch tonight; should the Yankees win, returning to five-hunnered will be an accomplishment made noteworthy by that "first" along with "Six", the number of those pitchers including DeSalvo who got their first major-league start in that stretch.  Five of the six have multiple starts, something that hasn't occurred with the Yankees since World War II, and the Yankees have not had six rookies get at least one start in a season since 1959.  DeSalvo has been spectacular in Scranton this season, starting three games and throwing 25 2/3 innings in which he allowed a total of three runs to go along with 15 hits, 13 walks and 23 strikeouts for a 1.09 WHIP on his way to his three AAA wins. The Yankees look to take three of four in the Bronx from the Mariners, a team with whom the Bombers may now have bad blood due to plunkings, warnings, ejections and dubious contact on the basepaths.  Miguel Batista (3-2), coming off of consecutive wins against the White Sox and Oakland allowing four runs over those appearances, gets the ball for Seattle.

I hope to watch the game on FSNW, but I probably will have to watch the game on ESPN or YES.  I am dreadfully curious about whether the announcers can limit the total time spent on pointless in-game speculation and pontification about Roger Clemens to a total five minutes or less (which is unfortunately highly unlikely).  He's not pitching for weeks; let's talk about the game at-hand.  Actually, this may be a perfect game to just turn the volume off.  I'm also curious to see if player's tempers are still up, which I hope to be unlikely.  No team can afford to lose players due to retaliation or fighting, least of all the Yankees, whom after a three-game stint starting tomorrow with the Rangers will face these same Mariners in Seattle for a series this weekend, the first game of which yours-truly will be in attendance.  Though there were a few interesting wrinkles in how the recent wins came about, the wins themselves are not surprising.  The Mariners are .500 and only one game back in the sparse AL West, but got there by beating the dregs of the game; they are winless against the Twins and Angels, and took one game from Boston solely because of a one-hit gem from King Felix.  The Yankees are expected to take the lion's share of the victories against these struggling opponents and they need to meet those expectations, as there be dragons just around the corner in upcoming series against the Mets, the Red Sox, and the Angels.

I have read that Kei Igawa has been optioned to either Scranton or Tampa; Darrell Rasner is rewarded for his fine showing yesterday (completely eclipsed by what I have been informed was an event of cosmic proportion) by staying with the Yankees.  About Igawa: I can't say I'm surprised, which also means I'm not disappointed.  Last November I asked, "Did New York just pay $25M to talk to the lefty version of Javier Vazquez?"  It turns out I was wrong; Vazquez is better.  The current situation of the rotation and needs of the pen really left the Yankees with no other choice than to move him out, at least temporarily.  Hopefully he will get the time and work he needs to find his place in the Yankee pitching roster.  More hopefully, the Yankees can trade him for a more pressing need.

Here's the list of Yankee starters for the season so far:

* = Rookie
+ = DL

Matt DeSalvo	*
Phil Hughes	*+
Kei Igawa	*
Jeff Karstens	*+
Mike Mussina
Carl Pavano	+
Andy Pettitte
Darrell Rasner	*
Chien-Ming Wang
Chase Wright	*

That's a remarkable list.

Here are tonight's lineups:

Seattle
I. Suzuki cf	.260
J. Vidro dh	.314
K. Johjima c	.296
R. Ibanez lf	.262
R. Sexson 1b	.154
J. Guillen rf	.259
A. Beltre 3b	.245
Y. Betancourt ss	.264
J. Lopez 2b	.288
New York Yankees
J. Damon cf	.238
D. Jeter ss	.353
B. Abreu rf	.258
A. Rodriguez 3b	.353
J. Giambi dh	.317
H. Matsui lf	.269
J. Posada c	.344
R. Cano 2b	.269
D. Mientkiewicz 1b	.194

Comments

[YF]

The Gerb is in full effect! Bravo.

[Josh SF (D1)]

I'm liking the HTML work here, but the lineup links are messed up. The extensions for each player look right, but the URL isn't Yahoo...it's YanksfanSoxfan.

[attackgerbil]

Thanks for the catch, d1.. lineup links are fixed.

[Michael]

My bold prediction:

- If Matt lasts 5 innings he will get the W.

- To last 5 innings, he needs to walk fewer than 4 guys, ergo

- If he has 3 or fewer walks he will win.

This kid has a nice variety of pitches, dominates righties, and benefits from overeagerness. The impatient Mariners are a good matchup with only Vidro, Ichiro and Ibanez from the left side. And none of those guys are all that patient or powerful.

[attackgerbil]

Looks like it's ESPN for me, with the lyrical tones of Dave O'Brien and Rick Sutcliffe.

[attackgerbil]

Ichiro gets ahead 2-0, then rips a double on the ground up first. Welcome, rook.

[Lar]

Proctor suspended for four games, Torre out for tonight.

In the spirit of "it's not so bad", at least Proctor will finally get the rest he deserves!

[attackgerbil]

Vidro grounds out to Mink, advancing Ichiro to third. one away to Johjima.

[Lar]

So the hit parade begins with Ichiro with a double. Good luck, DeSalvo!

[Devine]

Yeah, those were pretty much my thoughts, Lar. Somebody else in the organization told Proctor to throw at the guy to save himself from Joe Torre.

[Lar]

Of the first 7 pitches, 5 are balls. Will need to do better than that, but maybe the Mariners will help him out!

[attackgerbil]

Johjima pops to shallow right center; Ichiro holds. They've used the five minutes talking Rocket before the bottom of the first. Now Ibanez singles just past Jeter's right side to score Ichiro. Sexson up.

[attackgerbil]

Sexson flies to right to end the top of the first. Seattle 1, Yankees 0.

[Lar]

Ibanez welcomes the rookie with his first earned run. I got to stop ending posts with "!". Maybe I'm too excited.

Sexson a quick out - 12 pitches - these Mariners are hacking away, but then DeSalvo is actually throwing more strikes - 5 straight strikes since my last post. Hopefully the Yanks will hit Batista.

[Tyrel SF]

It just occurred to me just how bad a bench clearer would be for the Yanks, with psycho-in-chief Jose Guillen stalking the Stadium today.

[sf rod]

yeah, little was made of the proctor cheap shot after the roger drama. is suzyn still yelling?

[Lar]

Tyrel - I was chatting with a friend along those lines, and then he said "Google Farnsworth fight". Apparently Farns (if nothing else) gets into a lot of fights.

[attackgerbil]

Damon leads off the Yankee first with a single to right.

[attackgerbil]

Jeter shows bunt, then takes ball one. Then a single to right that pushes Johnny to third.

[attackgerbil]

Abreu hits a one-hop to the mound; Batista throws to second instead of pickling Damon; Betancourt gets Jeter but doesn't have time to get Abreu as Damon scored.

[attackgerbil]

ARod hits into the 543 to end the first inning, Mariners 1, Yankees 1.

[Lar]

My early worries aren't so bad - at least DeSalvo is making them swing at it. Guillen flies out weakly.

How does he look? Just chucking it down the middle? Or actually with some control?

[Lar]

1-2-3. Let's go get them Yanks!

[Josh SF (D1)]

Ugh. All this praise for Damon skipping the DL. He's only played 150 games twice since 2002, meaning he misses 12-15 games per year anyway. And he's constantly banged up one way or another. That he's never forced onto the disabled list is sort of impressive, but he'd also probably be better off taking a trip every now and then to let his wounds heal.

Just turned on the game, but 20 pitches in two innings is pathetic no matter who's throwing. I hate the Mariners' approach.

[attackgerbil]

Nice 1-2-3 for DeSalvo.

Lar: He's looking all right. A lot of his early pitches for balls were low; Beltre had to reach down to fly out deep; he pitched Betancourt very well. He's working the corners, changing heights. No major mistakes yet.

[Michael]

Gullen hit a screamer to CF that Damon ran down. He is just chucking it now, but better than getting behind hitters I guess. Seems to me he has enough stuff to miss the center of the bat when thy aren't sitting FB.

2nd and third time through could be dodgy unless he starts hitting corners.

[Michael]

Sorry that was Beltre hit the screamer.

[Lar]

I love the Yanks - totally in contrast to the Mariners (thus far). Giambi pops out on the 6th (?) pitches, Matsui singles also on the 6th pitch. Batista's control isn't particularly precise thus far, and the Yanks are not going to help him out.

[Lar]

Well, except for the double plays. Bah, 2nd DP in 2 innings.

[attackgerbil]

It was Beltre that almost took him deep, but Michael's right; it would help if he gets some calls on the corners.. Jorge grounds into a DP to end the inning.

[attackgerbil]

And DeSalvo starts Lopez off with a strike on the outside corner. The 0-1 is low. He misses low away on the 1-1 curve, then way outside for 3-1. Now he misses low for ball four.

[Lar]

Four straight balls to the #9 hitter. No good.

Ichiro now at bat.

[Josh SF (D1)]

Man, Adrian Gonzalez just smashed his ninth homer with the Padres. If Texas had stuck him in the OF or DH and kept Chris Young instead of dealing them both for a year of Adam Eaton, they'd have some real potential this year.

...Erin Andrews, really attractive. But do they really think anyone watching today hasn't heard all this Clemens stuff already?

[SF]

Igawa + Clemens for this year = $54M + luxury tax.

Yikes.

[SF]

(not trolling, either, I just read the post and saw Igawa got sent down - I'm just late!)

[attackgerbil]

Suzuki takes low. The 1-0 is away, and then DeSalvo misses again to make it 3-0. Ichiro slaps the 3-0 foul off first. The 3-1 is on the outside corner; Ichiro lifts it foul back off third. The full count is way out and high to walk Ichiro, bringing up Vidro with runners on first/second, no outs.

[Lar]

2 straight walks with no outs, visit to the mound. Needs to get ahead on counts.

Vidro helped him out with a DP. Lopez on 3rd, 2 outs.

[attackgerbil]

SF: "Yikes."

AG: "Yup."

Vidro grounds into the 643 to make it 2 down to Johjima, who flies to straightaway center. Nice.

[SF]

Did these same Mariners really score 15 runs against the Yankees?!

[Josh SF (D1)]

Been confirmed, BTW. Single-A Tampa. I'd imagine he comes back in a couple weeks if DeSalvo fails to impress.

Wow. DeSalvo walks two straight with nobody out, and the next two batters see three pitches between them, with the first grounding into a DP and the second popping up harmlessly. Why does their batting coach still have a job?

[Lar]

Johjima helps him out. He gets out quickly of a self-imposed jam. Only 34 pitches through 3 - much better than what you would expect.

Really feels like the Mariners are digging their own hole.

But the Yanks still got to hit!

[attackgerbil]

Cano takes ball one, than fouls the other way. The 1-1 is popped off the hands to short for one out.

[SF]

If you do "Dice Math" (which I oppose!), the Sox are paying Matsuzaka $60M this year. The Yanks are paying about the same for Clemens + Igawa, as the tax impacts Clemens' salary but not Matsuzaka's (only a $6M base).

Just some comparative math, no comment offered.

[SF]

Sorry, using Dice Math I think the Sox are paying Dice $57M, not $60M.

[attackgerbil]

Now Damon flies out to center as well.

[Lar]

Batista had some early troubles, but the Yanks don't take advantage of it. Now three quick outs from Cano, Miweeawnklawe, and Damon. Yuck!

[Tyrel SF]

Lar, I couldn't find any video of the Farnsworth-Wilson fight, but the "after" picture for Wilson is pretty bad -

http://tinyurl.com/38t5gv

[SF]

I was thinking about why, when a pitcher is struggling to find the strike zone, professional hitters still hack away at the first or second pitch. I know there's the "he's going to aim one in, groove one" theory, but why not work the count, let a guy dig a hole? Then I realized that when I play Playstation baseball, even if the opposing pitcher has just walked a couple of people (however rare an occurrence), I still jam the thumb on the swing button. I imagine this is the same mentality that these players have.

[attackgerbil]

I was on record prior to the season that money spent on Daisuke seemed brilliant, and money spent on Igawa was probably wasted.

[attackgerbil]

Ibanez flies out. Sexson lifts an oh-one to right for two down.

[Josh SF (D1)]

I can't even imagine how pissed off Mariners fans must be getting right now at this coverage. There are two teams playing tonight, right?

7 pitches, 3 outs. Nobody ever accused Robinson Cano of patience, though I'm a little surprised with Damon.

Speaking of Cano...guys getting worried yet? I know it's early, but he's not getting unlucky; his BA/BIP is still .337, but he's striking out a ton and not hitting the ball very hard (Increased GB%, decreased LD%). Seems like his poor plate discipline might be catching up to him.

(And Farnsy also bodyslammed the Royals' Jeremy Affeldt in 2003)

[attackgerbil]

Guillen singles up the middle; DeSalvo tripped trying to get it, Jeter can't get it. Two away, man on first to Beltre.

[Michael]

Slow ground ball to the left of 2nd base, Jeter can't even get a glove on it. Cano, coming from the other side of the bag, is closer to it than DJ.

I wish I had a video ov every ground ball hit to Jeter's left that he doesn't get to. Probably 40-50 "hits" per year that this costs our pitchers relative to a good SS>

[attackgerbil]

Beltre flies out to center.

d1: A) Yes, I hate the coverage. B) no, not worried about Cano at all. C) Farnsworth is the badass of badasses out there. He's definitely the "enforcer" of the Yanks; NO ONE wants to see him coming at them.

[Lar]

d1 - hopefully it's only a transitional sophomore slump. I hear it's something like, Cano chases too many pitches in counts where he shouldn't. Some patience would obviously help.

[attackgerbil]

Jeter grounds out to Lopez.

[attackgerbil]

Abreu with a very nice single off the end of the bat to single to left just off the line.

[Josh SF (D1)]

There's a link to the Royals-Tigers fight here: http://tinyurl.com/2mn4fm

Scroll down a little bit, you can't miss the picture and accompanying links. Farnsworth comes in at around the 2:50 mark. But the whole thing is fairly entertaining...

[Lar]

Pitch counts - DeSalvo at 43 efficiently (and probably somewhat lucky) through 4, Batista at 41 through 3.1, and helped out by 2 DP's. Would be nice if the Yanks can get a good inning or two.

Abreu got a single, wild pitch moves Abreu to 2nd. ARod strikes out.

[attackgerbil]

ARod is behind 0-2: Batista throws wildly away and Kenji can't keep it from rolling to the backstop. Jeter advances to second. The 1-2 is a strike on the inside corner; looked further inside but he's sat down. Two away to Giambi.

[attackgerbil]

Ichiro fields a high fly to end the inning. Heading to the top of five. This game is _flying_ by, which is so rare for an ESPN game. Sutcliffe barely has a chance to say anything stupidly obvious.

[attackgerbil]

Betancourt hits a line drive at Abreu.

Best AL leadoff hitters? ESPN sez: Damon, Sizemore, Suzuki

[attackgerbil]

National league: Furcal, Reyes, Rollins, Soriano.

[Lar]

Walks the #9 batter again. Grumbles.

[Josh SF (D1)]

Hahaha, Soriano. That's funny. Would be a great No. 3 or 4, though.

[attackgerbil]

Lopez walks. DeSalvo throws a sweet change that makes Ichiro look bad. Lopez swipes second. Ichiro pops out to third.

[Lar]

Lopez steals second, but DeSal got Ichiro to pop out. Two outs.

[attackgerbil]

Between Sutcliffe, O'Brien, and Steve Phillips they have now name-dropped 80% of the leadoff hitters in the game.

[Michael]

Meahwhile, Joba Chamberlain dealing for Tampa tonight. 3.0 IP, 1 hit, no BB and 4 Ks.

[Lar]

Vidro made that a very difficult out. Wow.

[Lar]

ESPN now earning that degree from the school of the effing obvious.

[attackgerbil]

Sutcliffe and O'Brien say that Rickey Henderson=best leadoff hitter all time. Sutcliffe says Henderson gave pitchers nightmares. Without prompting, Phillips reminds us that he was a GM and that managing Henderson was a nightmare.

[Michael]

I like DeSalvo's approach, which is probably well-suited to hackers like the Ms. He goes after guys and his walks and getting behind in the count are a function of wildness, not El Duquesque nibbling. He even challenges when he is ahead in the count.

[Josh SF (D1)]

Huh. I will say that that stuff about Batista's pretty interesting. Don't hear about too many baseball players reading poetry or writing books without a ghostwriter.

[Lar]

Michael - ya, I like that he only has 65 pitches through 5 - so with some luck, he'll get through 7. The Yanks aren't helping him out much on offense though.

[Lar]

Just as I said that, reverse jinks Mienaerksaerl doubles to score Posada. 2-1 Yanks!

[Josh SF (D1)]

There's Minky's hit. Now his bat will go back into hibernation until Friday or so.

Oh, and Jim's writing to himself on another thread. I wonder how many consecutive posts he'll put up...

[Doug]

Erin Andrews: "Batista the first Latin American player to *public* a book of poetry..."

We still love you, Erin.

[attackgerbil]

Sutcliffe goes on (and on) about how Minky is struggling, forgetting to mention he's 4 for his last 10 in the last five games. Doug responds to the criticism by doubling to right center scoring Posada.

[attackgerbil]

Damon draws the walk to make it first and second, 2 away to Jeter.

[Michael]

Minky makes up for Cano's continued horrible approach. Robby is more annoying than Soriano was. When there are ducks on the pond, he is locked, loaded and looking to fire even before the ball leaves the pitcher's hand.

[Lar]

Damon drew a great 9 pitch walk. You know I love this stuff!

[Lar]

Give Batista credit - he's actually throwing a lot of strikes. The Yanks are fouling off a lot of pitches though. Let's go Jeter!

[attackgerbil]

Jeter takes a low strike one. The 0-1 is low again but called a strike, and Jeter is behind 0-2. Then ball one down. The 1-2 is fouled back right. Another 1-2 way inside, missing Jeter's waist by a couple inches. The 2-2 a jammer grounded foul. Another 2-2: fastball fouled back and right. Now inside to make it full. The payoff pitch: inside to load the bases for Abreu. Nice at-bat from Jeter.

[Lar]

Jeter also having a great at bat - a 9 pitch walk again. It's almost unfair to see Batista throw 18 pitches to walk two batters..

Just to see Bobby Abreu, the guy who sees the most pitches in the game coming up.

[Josh SF (D1)]

The fact that neither Johjima nor the pitching coach have come to the mound to give Batista a breather is just ridiculous. This whole f*cking organization, top to bottom, is just miserably incompetent.

[Michael]

Bautista is the Renaissance Man of baseball. If he were on 90210 Brenda would date him.

Speaking of which, I saw Steve/Ian Ziering throw out the first pitch at the Oakland/Yanks game. He was awarming up right in front of me in the As bullpen and had a pretty nice arm for such a tool.

[Lar]

My bads for the bad grammar - was in the middle of hearing Jeter get the walk.

Let's go Bobby!

[attackgerbil]

Sutcliffe said that the Red Sox finally discovered the secret that the Yankees already knew (his words) about winning championships; I tried to follow it, it was muddy, something about missing links, long at bats, working pitchers, but eventually said that that you have to win games.

[attackgerbil]

Abreu grounds out to first to end the inning.

[Lar]

Too bad Bobby couldn't carry on the momentum - give Batista credit for working through it.

Wow, 9+9+7=25 pitches. Bobby could've probably blew the game wide open right there, but still, it might win them the game down the line..

[Doug]

Joel Zumaya has ruptured tendon in his finger? OUCH.

[attackgerbil]

Johjima grounds out to short, then Ibanez grounds to first. DeSalvo rolling after the long layoff of the top of the sixth.

[attackgerbil]

Yes, it was announced earlier today. He's gone until July at the earliest.

Sexson flies out to straightaway center. Nice inning.

[SF]

d1:

Mike Hargrove is their manager. And that is all ye need to know.

[attackgerbil]

ARod hits an infield single at Beltre.

[Michael]

I really thought Giambi was going to smoke one.

[attackgerbil]

Giambi pops out straight up for the first out.

[attackgerbil]

Matsui flies away to center to make it two away, runner on first to Posada.

Erin says that Phil Hughes, a huge Red Sox fan growing up, idolized Pedro Martinez, Tim Wakefield, and Roger Clemens.

Posada singles to left to advance ARod to second.

[attackgerbil]

Cano quickly falls behind 0-2 then finally sees a pitch he doesn't like that almost flies over Kenji to the backstop. The 1-2 is fouled back. Cano then chases way in and low to go down swinging.