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Things didn’t look good. Randy Johnson had given up back-to-back home runs and the Yankees were losing 5-0. They managed to score a run, but the Devil Rays added two more. By the middle of the fifth inning Tampa had a 10-2 lead and the Yankees were looking at a second straight loss to a team 22 games under .500.
Then things started to turn around. Gary Sheffield hit a three-run homer and the Yankees were down by only five runs. Derek Jeter added a solo shot to pull them within three runs. After Tampa got one last run, the stage was set for a Yankee eruption. Down 11-7 in the eighth, the Yankees scored 13 times hitting four home runs, three of them consecutively, and sending sixteen batters to the plate. By the time it was over the Yankees had a 20-11 win and their biggest victory of the year.
Cynics will say that beating the Devil Rays is no great accomplishment, but this victory showed a spirit that has been sorely lacking in the Yankees this year. They survived a terrible performance by their supposed ace and some shaky work by their bullpen. Through all their ups and downs this year they are still only five games out with more than half the schedule to be played. The question is, was this a sign of things to come or just a fluke occurrence?
Photo by Ed Betz/AP via ESPN
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while i agree that the yankees have lacked spirit this year, i don't think beating up the devil rays is anything to be proud of.
if the yankees make the playoffs (quite a change from thoughts a month ago), they aren't going to play sorry saps like tampa bay. like you said, their ace was questionable last night after some good starts. the team seems to have an identity crisis.
Pretty big talk from a Mets fan. They're no different then Art Howe's team last year...
does being a met fan make the statement inaccurate jeff? and if they're no different than howe's team, they're in trouble.
So pissed I left at the 8th..
I think it was the way they beat the Devil Rays. You are right that beating them is nothing to be proud of in itself. Long way to go before the playoffs and if they lose this afternoon they wipe out the goodwill from last night.
I just said to hell with the lot of 'em and went to see the cyclones season opener last night. A lot more fun.
Maybe Jeff's garbled statement was that as a Mets fan those are big words because in his opinion the Mets are no different than last year's?
I think last night's win was significant in the fact that when your supposed ace gets rocked in 3 innings by the bottom feeding D-Rays, that can take a lot of confidence out of the team. Especially this team, that seems to suffer from confidence and emotion issues. They could have just given up, but they got some big hits and built some momentum from it. Usually when a team is led by 8 runs early on, even if against a bad team, they just go through the motions. Lou Piniella didnt help his cause by leaving that reliever in there, he clearly should have gone to his closer but inexplicably fed this kid to the lions
As Peter said, what really matters is how the Yanks play today. If they can back this up with a crisp game, it will be big. On a side note, does anyone remember last season? The Orioles were terrible, but they consistently beat up on the Red Sox. The Red Sox were mediocre until the month of August, and the Orioles helped the Yankees keep hold of first place. I see a similar pattern here. Should be an interesting race down the stretch to say the least...
sp, I do agree that it can sap a teams confidence to see their ace shelled like that, but they were still in that game, especially after the first sheffield home run.
Tampa Bay has the worst bullpen in the majors by far, and once Nomo started to wobble, I felt that the pressure would still be on the D-Rays to hold out for 3 innings in Yankee Stadium with only a 4-run lead.
It was definitely a big win from the perspective of boosting confidence, but I do agree with Peter - if they lose tonight, last night's game will be forgotten again.
I think Pinella was trying to make an example of that poor kid Harper on the mound, forcing him to pitch out of his own mess. He couldn't do it, but I'm sure he'll be working a lot harder in practice to figure out just how he gave up Paul Wilson-like numbers of 9 runs in a single inning.
Maybe not the best way to do it, but then again, he's never been one to go with convention.
Two words: Can Johnson!
One word: Streaky!
The Yankees show flashes of brilliance, heart, and temerity but nothing adds up to reliability. I wouldn't be surprised if the Yankees run off and win the next 8 games. Likewise, I wouldn't be surprised if they lose the next 8 games.
Piniella wasn't trying to make an example out of Travis Harper, he was trying to throw the game, and in the process get the hell out of Tampa Bay. Getting fired means he can keep all of the enormous pile of loot he signed up for three years ago.
Also, that "poor kid" Harper was pitching on one day of rest, after pitching four innings on Saturday. Piniella left him out there to twist; Lou never even tried to protect his lead. If the Curious Case of Travis Harper's Eighth Inning is an example of anything, it's that Piniella is 1) an a-hole 2) given to lapses of extreme unprofessionalism when things don't break his way and 3) the worst manager in baseball.
As for the Yankees -- this was a pyrrhic victory at very best. They busted out against an inexperienced and overworked pitcher who would be playing in Double AA if he was in any other system. Meanwhile, look at the Yankee "ace." The FO gave up Brad Halsey and Javier Vazquez, two guys who are going to be good major league pitchers for the next ten years, for a 40+ sadsack with groin problems and an attitude problem to match? And I'm not even going to touch the fact that Spaghetti Arm Bernie is still in CF and Tony Womack is still on the team at all.
There's no playoffs for this team this year. The wild card is coming out of the Central, and the Yankees obviously are not winning their division. Boston is showing signs of getting better, will have Schilling back in a few weeks, and have plenty of prospect ammo to make a trade for another reliever and maybe another bat. Baltimore is showing more staying power than anyone expected, and that's with Erik Bedard on the DL. The Yankees meanwhile look like something out of "Cocoon," have only two prospects (Cano and Wang) that would yield an immediate improvement on the trade market and they are both already playing for the big club, and are streaky at best and downright inconsistent at worst in every facet of the game.
P.S. As for any "cynicism" -- spirit, whatever that is, doesn't win championships. These are grown-up professionals, not the Bad News Bears. Pitching wins championships, and for all their wheeling and dealing in the offseason, the Yankees' pitching remains abysmal.
I disagree. Spirit is arguably what won the championship last year for the Red Sox, and lack thereof was the Yankees' downfall.
Regarding your previous post, I wouldnt be so dead set on the a) the strengths of the Red Sox rotation, b) the Orioles lasting power despite their remarkable performance thus far. I do think you are right about the wildcard though, thats why this race is going to be so much fun. (This is supposed to be fun remember? Why do you seem so bitter?)
Curt Schilling isnt guaranteed to do anything this year. He's coming off a nasty injury that could very well explode on him again, he's followed by David Wells and we all know about him and his back. Game 5 of the World Series anyone? Tim Wakefield and Bronson Arroyo are equally inconsistent. They dont even really have a 5th starter, throwing Wade Miller when they need to. Matt Clement has been their best starter. He has the most wins and the only pitcher on their staff with an era under 4. He's a career 500 pitcher and he walks A LOT of batters.
The Sox have only played 3 games better than the Yankees thus far, frankly I'm shocked they and the Orioles arent further ahead despite the Yankees losing 9 out of their 12 games on that last road trip and starting the season 11 and 19. I was one of the first to think that they werent going to make the playoffs, but now, it seems like they are still strong contenders.
The Red Sox have exactly the same record after 70 games that they had last year, despite losing both Schilling and Martinez. Baltimore projects to 95+ wins (and I fully believe they have staying power -- they've held their division lead despite injuries to key players like Bedard, Matos and Lopez). The Yankees are stumbling toward maybe 86 wins with their vaunted pitching upgrades. The Red Sox are a whole lot better than the Yankees, and they have Rivera's number, so the Yankees are unlikely to make up much ground in their head-to-head matchups, and indeed are fairly likely to LOSE ground when they play Boston and Baltimore head-to-head (the wonders of an unbalanced schedule).
Again, the Red Sox also have a lot more trade bait than the Yankees, so if Wells flames out or Arroyo continues to be wobbly they could spin Hanley Ramirez or Jon Lester out for some immediate pitching help. The Yankees have nothing to trade, unless they want to part with Wang or Cano -- and that would be even more foolish than the RJ trade at this point.
(P.S., Boston isn't using Wade Miller "when they need to," he's part of their rotation, and even at that, he's a darn sight better as a stopgap No. 5 than Sean Henn, I dare say.)
By the way, it should be no comfort to Yankee fans that Boston has pitched so poorly and Baltimore has played through so many injuries, and yet the Yankees are still trailing in the standings. The W column correction for all these teams is likely upward, which still leaves the Yankees in third.
I wouldn't punch the Red Sox's ticket just yet. Yes, Schilling is coming back, but as sp pointed out, what level is he coming back at? Foulke hasn't been very good this year either. The more I look at it, the more I think the Orioles are for real (considering the injuries they have overcome as you mentioned) but the Angels would be my pick for AL crown because of their bullpen which is vital in the playoffs.
no sooner than I hit the post button did Carl Pavano give up a 3 run shot, the lead, and ulimately the game. Sheeeesh.
I didn't understand the Pavano ardor in December, and I don't understand it now. The Pavano signing just reeked of wanting to keep a guy from signing with the Red Sox; keeping inferior players from signing with your rival just because you want to keep the Mets off the back page isn't a sound strategy for building a baseball team.
Peter, you're right -- we don't know that Schilling will come back at full strength, and Foulke has been really bad. All of which just goes to my argument: the Sox played like shit for the first two and half months of the season and they are ten games over .500 and two out of first. Beyond that, they have plenty of trade ammo and one of the smartest GMs in the league running things (and unlike Brian Cashman, he doesn't have some senile old jerk who thinks the AL East is his own personal roto league keeping his nuts in a sling).
I really don't know who is going to win the pennant right now, though. The ChiSox are sure to come down to earth a little -- Garland has looked a teeny bit more hittable in his recent starts -- while Anaheim isn't exactly lighting the league on fire. The Angels have a nice bullpen but their starters are pretty uninspiring (as usual).
Tim-
I certainly won't argue Theo's smarts or John Henry's senility. The best thing I can say about GS is that he puts his money back into the team instead of pocketing it like some people do. The Sox certainly have trade ammo, Lester looks like a gem, but look at the Angels. Top ranked prospect wise by BA.
As for the Yankees, they wiped out the goodwill from last night pretty quickly, but they are certainly capable of putting it all together. After all, I seem to remember the Red Sox playing .500 ball for three months last year and then finally putting it together in August. I am not ready to write them off just yet either.
Peter, I really don't see how the Yankees are capable of "putting it all together." Comparing them to last year's Red Sox team is a joke. For one thing, this FO doesn't have the stomach for a Nomar-style trade: Do you really think that the Yankees would part with a beloved player, like say Posada, even if they thought it would make their team better? For another, '05 vintage Johnson-Mussina-Pavano is a far cry from '04 Schilling-Martinez-Arroyo. The Red Sox last year had a potent offense from the top of the order to the bottom: they had the previous season's batting champion hitting EIGHTH, fer cryin out loud. This Yankee lineup has little consistent pop beyond Sheffield and Rodriguez (I'll put Jeter in their company this year when he stops striking out to end the ninth inning).
The spread between Boston and New York has widened to four games. Will it be closer to seven games to or to one game by the time this weekend is over? You probably already know which direction I'm hedging.