CC and Price combined to throw 16 innings of five-hit, 13-strikeout, four-walk, shutout ball. CC, who is still searching for his 20th win, moved into 90th place on the all-time strikeout list with his 1,767th punchout. He passed John Burkett and now trails Ron Guidry (1,778).

I’m not one for second guessing (editor’s note: that’s a bald faced lie) but what the hell was with Girardi’s bullpen management on Monday? He said that D-Rob and Joba were not available, and that he was saving Mo for a save situation. D-Rob I can see because he had a long outing on Saturday, but Joba has thrown four innings in September and hasn’t pitched since Friday. Does he really need more rest? Plus, why would you not use The Greatest Ever if you can pitch Him? This further fuels my hatred of the almighty save.

What’s more baffling is that if you know there’s a limited amount of arms in the ‘pen why would you use Kerry Wood (who is awesome BTW) for only 11 pitches and pull Boone Logan after one batter? It just doesn’t add up.

In other gaffes from this setback, Gardner pinch-ran for Lance Berkman in the 10th inning and stole second before getting caught stealing third base. He apparently apologized to his teammates for what he called an “unnecessary steal.” It was indeed unnecessary because it might have just cost the team the game, I mean he was already in scoring position. WTF?

Fun Facts: (more…)

Romero retired 15 Yanks in a row at one point and 25 of the final 26 batters he saw. Toronto’s third baseman (Encarnacion), left fielder (Snider) and right fielder (Bautista) didn’t field a ball all night as the Yanks made all of their outs up the middle.

The Bombers tied a season high with their third straight loss and are 1-4 over their last five with a .169 average (27-for-160), .105 (2-for-19) with RISP and 15 runs.

In other words: it’s been a shitty past few games.

On the bright side, Dustin Moseley pitched very well. He gave up five runs on nine hits in 7 1/3 innings but was much better than his line indicates. He kept the team in it for a while but the offense couldn’t muster shit of Romero.

Fun fact: all five of Kerry Wood’s outs recorded with the Yanks have been of the strikeout variety.

Things look pretty bleak for the Yanks right now but just remember this: last August 3rd the team was a half-game up with a .600 winning percentage and +71 run differential, whereas this year on August 3rd they are a game back with a .623 winning percentage and +130 run differential. So it’s not the end of the world.

Post game quotes: (more…)

To me, it seems like quite a steal to get those household names (and Kearns) for so cheap. But the total age of the three new Yankees is 97 while the two players lost were a 25-year-old RHP and a 22-year-old middle infielder. So, was this another one of Cashman’s heists or is it a case of the Yankees reverting to their old ways and trading future talent for aging superstars?

“Fat Elvis” is hitting .242/.366/.428/.794 this year, which is a far cry from his career line of .296/.409/.548/.958. Plus his OPS+ of 114 in 2010 is a ways from his career 145 mark. By his standards, his numbers have been lacking for the past few seasons (with the exception of 2008) and, as stated above, he’s not getting any younger. However, I’ll give Cashmoney the benefit of the doubt on this one because Lance is coming off knee surgery and has improved his numbers every month this year. Furthermore, Pettitte gets to have one of his best friends in MLB join him on the team.

Austin Kearns has put up a line of .271/.352/.416/.768 this year, which is right around his career .257/.353/.426/.779 avg. His 104 OPS+ leaves a lot to be desired but he does get on base a lot. It sucks he is replacing New CC (optioned to Triple-A) for many reasons: first, he was a great story and fun to root for with the whole beating-cancer-at-age-15 thing; second, he put up OK numbers for a first-year guy; third, I was at the game where he homered in a mid-at-bat pinch hit; and finally, every time I hear his name it reminds me of Chad Curtis. But Colin is still with the organization and will no doubt get another shot with the Yanks (he’s only 25). Getting back to my original point, I’m not sold on Kearns just yet but I think he can be a valuable guy off the bench.

And finally we come to Kerry Wood. After a shitbox 2009 (10.3 K/9; 4.6 BB/9; 2.25 K/BB; 1.1 HR/9; 4.25 ERA; 99 ERA+) the Yanks are hoping he can return to 2008 form (11.4 K/9; 2.4 BB/9; 4.67 K/BB; .4 HR/9; 3.26 ERA; 142 ERA+) and be the pitcher we hoped CHoP was going to be heading into 2010. The reasons I like this move already go two fold: A) he looked solid in his debut on Sunday B) his presence alone called for CHoP to be DFA’d. Kerry could be a total cocksucker and fail in every way on the mound…and I’ll still like him better than CHoP.

Melancon’s numbers over his 20 1/3 innings in the Bronx aren’t eye-popping and Jimmy Paredes hasn’t been setting the world on fire in Single-A.

Final verdict: heist.

Loyal reader(s), let me know what you think:

The Yanks, who were shut out for the fifth time this season, mustered just five hits and struck out 11 times against “Panty Shields” (my new nickname for him). In the team’s brief history, only three Rays have fanned 10 Yankees in a game: Scott Kazmir 9/27/2007, Joe Kennedy 5/9/2002 and Shields on Sunday.

Girardi:

He got us to chase a lot of changeups today. He threw a lot of them the first two times through the order. He kept us off the base and didn’t give us many chances.

Swish Dog:

I think the biggest thing about it is that they weren’t really for strikes, we were chasing them. Next time we get him in a situation like that we’ll make sure they’re strikes.

CC was denied his bid for win #150 and was 11-0 with a 1.92 ERA over his previous 13 August starts coming in. In fact, he lost his first game in the month of August since 2007.

CC: (more…)