Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz tested dirty, and the entire Red Sox nation — including Bill Simmons — seems crushed. The fear is the two World Series titles are tainted. Naturally, Dan Shaughnessy has gone into damage control.
Mired in a six-game losing streak, the Kansas City Royals are once again calling on the “best pitcher in baseball” to pull their collective bacon out of the fire. The problem is, the Royals, while having a decent pitching staff, are rather inept on the offensive end — 21st out of 30, and because of that, losing streaks are bound to happen. That also explains why Zack Greinke is needed as a streak-stopper. Right now, Greinke is simply lights out. He has a 6-1 record, an 0.51 ERA — just ridiculous — and is absolutely destroying batters with an awesome array of pitches to choose from.
However, Greinke is being looked upon to provide even more: Restore the baseball identity for a city with a respectable history in the sport.
It’s a hard knock life being a New York Yankees fan right now, something A.J. Daulerio does a good job of documenting. Adding a flying-kick insult to the injuries of being dominated by Boston and all the other crap they’ve had to deal with — Joba Chamberlain’s surreal, 12-strikeout, 5-plus inning start, for instance — are Yankees fans attempting flying kicks on other Yankees fans. No wonder folks can’t stop talking about the new digs; although, the tune being currently sung is a lot different from the initial responses.
First, it was all about the opulence, with some smattering of ticket price complaints to boot. Fast forward to today, and all of the talk about the new baseball palace is, well, bad.
I’m not the biggest baseball person, but even I understand the significance of someone stealing home — especially when Mark Harmon, Jodie Foster, the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees and Jacoby Ellsbury are involved. It was also significant for the Red Sox, who, while sweeping the Yankees, stole home for the first time since 1994. Granted, it was Big Papi who knocked what wound up being the go-ahead runs in, but Ellsbury’s theft was the highlight of the game, if not the first series between these two stalwart teams this season.
For the Sawx, it was their 10th straight win after starting the season 2-6. Thanks to Ellsbury’s craftiness, they now have a pre-All Star Game highlight as well.
When the Yankees spent all that money to add CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett to the rotation, one that includes Chien-Ming Wang, for what looks like a respectable starting rotation, I don’t think they anticipated having to put Nick Swisher, another free agent acquisition, on the pitching mound — especially when you realize Swisher was signed to play for his bat and fielding abilities. Unfortunately for the underwhelming Yankees, during the process of getting their behinds tanned by the Tampa Bay Rays, their starting and relief pitching was so, well, hittable, Joe Girardi didn’t have much of a choice other than to use Swisher, making the beatdown a little more humorous for those involved.
Here’s another item the Yankees front office might find amusing: Swisher is the only “pitcher” who didn’t give up a run to the “apparently, not a fluke” Rays. Apparently, not all big money spending sprees is good money spent.
Now that the Yankees have “addressed” their starting pitching, perhaps their next $400 million spending spree should address bullpen pitchers not named Mariano Rivera.
Question: if you are celebrating a postseason berth with the usual zeal — read, alcoholic beverages like champagne — and you happen to spray someone in the crowd who isn’t 21, have you just contributed to the delinquency of a minor?
In other news, congratulations are in order for the Red Sox for making their fourth post season under Terry Francona.
This awesome get over at Yankees Fan Sox Fan captured the last pitch of the now-retired Yankee Stadium, which saw it’s final game last night. The Yankees closed the stadium out in style by beating the Baltimore Orioles, 7-3.
There are an absolute ton of eulogies and fond memory posts about the gem of the Bronx going around the web and print right now, so I won’t bore you with my pedestrian views, except this:
It is, perhaps, fitting that one of the best closers in MLB history — Mariano Rivera — and one of the key cogs to the Yankees impressive post season run with Joe Torre threw the pitch that closed such a historic home for good.
Mariano Rivera: So good, his pitches can close stadiums. Forever.
After last night’s 11-3 beatdown courtesy of all-time Yankee fan favorites, the Boston Red Sox. Because of the loss, the Yankees are now seven games behind the Red Sox for the AL Wild Card berth, and it looks like the Bronx Bombers will miss the postseason for the first time since 1993.
Is this why Joe Torre was removed parted with on mutually agreeable terms?
For the Red Sox, last night’s win gave them a 2.5 game lead over the Minnesota Twins, who are hot on the heels of the Chicago White Sox in the AL Central. Since the Yankees started their last Yankee Stadium series with the beloved Red Sox, they’ve been outscored 18-6. I doubt this is the way Hank Steinbrenner wanted Boston’s last visit to the historic stadium to go. His team is in danger of being swept today, which would add insult to the injury that is realizing the Yanks — barring a Major League-like miracle — are done when it comes to postseason play this year.
The majority of the Red Sox damage was provided by second baseman, Dustin Pedoria, who hit a game-sealing grand slam in the eighth. According to ESPN, Pedoria is the first Red Sox second baseman to hit a grand slam against the Yankees in 50 years.
