Results tagged “dougmientkiewicz”

Well, it didn't take long for Joe Torre to find a new job (not that it should have). He's trading The Bronx for Chavez Ravine and "fans" like Rudy Giuliani for Posh Spice. The Post is reporting that the former Yankees manager has agreed in principle to a three-year $14.5 million deal (hopefully there are no performance incentives) to be the next manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He would be replacing Grady Little, who...

• IIndians 12, Yankees 3: Well, that didn't go as planned. Chien-Ming Wang didn't have his sinker, gave up a ton of two-out and two-strike hits, and the Yankees got buried. Their patient bats wore out C.C. Sabathia, but they only got three runs for their efforts against him, and that wasn't nearly enough given the way Wang pitched. Then they stunk up the joint against the Indians bullpen, but by them the game was over. It's only one in a five-game series, but the Yankees have an uphill battle. Remember who's likely pitching in Games 3 and 4: Roger Clemens and Mike Mussina. Andy Pettitte will face Fausto Carmona in Game 2 on Friday. Want a positive spin? The Yankees have never lost a division series in which they have lost the first game. That includes 1996, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2004. Those teams were better than this one though.
• Rangers 5, Panthers 2: A sluggish second period couldn't slow down the Rangers, who lit the lamp four times in the final session to pick up a win in their season opener. Who knows what Tom Renney said in the dressing room during the intermission, but it worked. The Rangers got three goals in two minutes and two in 12 seconds. Chris Drury, one of the big offseason signings, got a goal in a five-point performance.
• Lightning 3, Devils 1: Things didn't come up roses for the Devils, who started a season-opening nine-game road trip with a loss in Tampa Bay. Why the long trip? They're waiting for their new arena.
• FC Toronto 2, Red Bulls 1: Ah, the own goal. Soccer players' way of giving back -- to their opponents. Blame this one on Chris Leitch, who kicked the ball into his own net for the deciding score. New York will have to wait for a playoff berth.
Continue reading "Last Night's Action: An Early Hole"

• Boston 11 Yankees 6: It was a bunch of little things that proved the Yankees undoing in a disastrous seventh inning. Bobby Abreu showed once again that he is afraid of walls by completely botching a flyball to start the inning. After an intentional walk to Manny Ramirez, Scott Proctor, not wanting to come anywhere near Kevin Youkilis after last night, walked him to load the bases. Then Robinson Cano half-assed a throw to Jeter on what should have been a double play and Jeter’s relay throw caused Doug Mientkiewicz to collide with Mike Lowell’s hip. Mientkiewicz left the game on a cart and the Red Sox had a 7-6 lead. Jeter then botched what should have been the inning-ending double play and A-Rod forgot that a thirdbaseman’s job is to cover third base. When the inning finally ended, the Red Sox had a 10-6 lead and the Yankees were back to 13.5 games out in the standings.
Continue reading "Last Night's Action: A Sloppy Seventh"

• Yankees 8 Rangers 2: It’s amazing what some pitching can do for you. For the second night in a row and for only the 5th time in 31 games, the Yankee starter pitched seven innings. Tuesday night Andy Pettitte scattered seven hits while striking out four.
  Continue reading "Last Night's Action: Another Quality Start"

The Yankees begin their quest for the elusive 27th championship today when Carl Pavano takes the hill against the Devil Rays.

So, A-Rod worked up a very creative denial to that rumor by telling the Daily News, "Besides loving the Yankees, I love the American League. It's where I've played my whole career. So whoever writes that couldn't be more wrong."

Another game in Atlanta equaled another loss for the Mets. Monday it was at the hands of a familiar nemesis, Chipper Jones. Jones hit a two-run homer over the centerfield wall in the eighth inning to give the Braves a 4-2 victory. Since Turner Field opened, the Mets have gone 20-49 there and are 1-5 this year.

Martinez is not the only Met pitcher throwing well. Prior to taking the loss on Friday, Victor Zambrano had been suprisingly effective, with an ERA in the mid-3s. Tom Glavine has pitched his best since the first half of 2004, and even Kaz Ishii threw six shutout innings on Thursday. With Steve Trachsel expected back in early August, the Mets should have few complaints about their pitching staff.

The Mets' disappointing losses have suddenly become much more. After a sloppy series against the Yankees, the Mets played even worse in a three-game sweep against Atlanta, capped by 3-0 loss against the Braves Wednesday. They didn’t even score a run in the last two games, though they faced two starters who were working on only three days’ rest. They even lost to Kyle Davies, who was making his second major league start. Woe is the Mets’ lineup, and woe will be their summer if they can’t at least compete with their National League East foes.

David Wright, who had an error in Sunday's game against the Yankees, potentially cost the Mets with an errant take-out slide in the 8th inning last night. With the bases loaded and Wright at first, Doug Mientkiewicz hit a potential double play ball to first. When the ball was thrown to Furcal, Wright slid wide of the base in an attempt to disrupt the throw back to first base. He succeeded and two runs crossed the plate but the 2nd base umpire ruled that Wright interfered with the throw and ruled it a double play. Potential rally over.

Doug Mientkiewicz’s sixth home run broke a 4-4 tie in the 8th. Mike DeJean, just one day removed from allowing the winning run in Sunday's 5-4 loss in Milwaukee, won in relief of Aaron Heilman. Mike Piazza had a three-run home run and Kaz Matsui a solo shot for the Mets, who have won four of five on this road trip and six of seven overall. Heilman survived two rain delays totaling an hour and 35 minutes to last five and a third innings. Dae-Sung Koo relieved him and promptly blew the 4-0 lead, allowing two inherited runners to score along with two of his own.

The anti-walk machine that is Jose Reyes picked up his first walk of the season! It only took him 118 at bats to get it. Before Saturday, when he was hit by a pitch, his on base percentage and batting average were equal. Now he's got a whole .012 points difference between the two. Not too good for a lead-off man considering Reyes is hitting .280 on the season. With the walk in the 9th inning, Reyes also picked up an RBI> See, Jose, walks be helpful.

Cliff Floyd, the new cleanup hitter for the Mets, extended his hit streak to 17 games, the longest in the majors this season. Floyd was 2-5 with 1 RBI and is batting .368 on the season. Mike Piazza, the former cleanup hitter, has moved to 5th in the lineup and is sandwiched between the left handed bats of Floyd and Doug Mientkiewicz.

The game started off with a lead-off homer by Jose Reyes. In the 2nd inning, Victor Diaz had a two run home run. The 3rd inning had three Met homers by Mike Piazza, Doug Mientkiewicz and a second by Victor Diaz. Piazza's blast travelled 471 feet and was the 2nd longest home run in Citizens Bank Park's two year history. In the 4th, Reyes hit another home run. The 6th inning finally brought an end to the home runs when David Wright hit his first grand slam of his career. The seven home runs is the franchise high for the Mets.

In yesterday afternoon's 6-1 loss, Kaz Ishii issued four walks and allowed five earned runs in 6.2 innings. The first two walks were to the first batters he faced in the game. Those, combined with Kaz Matsui's error, helped put the Mets in an early two run hole. With some offense, they might have been able to come close, but there was none to be had. The Mets didn't score or get their 2nd hit until the 8th inning. Given a chance to rally in the 9th, Mike Piazza pinch hit to end the game on a pop-up.

During the offseason, the Mets made many changes, as they should have. Three losing seasons in a row and a new general manager will do that. With Omar Minyana aboard, the Mets have been busy, adding players, payroll, and a manager. All the changes led Carlos Beltran to dub the team "The New Mets" when he joined. The question is, can these "new Mets" do any better than the old Mets?

The NY Times has several interesting facts about the history of the Mets and the Expos/Nationals. Besides the franchise playing their last game as the Expos against the Mets, they also played their first game against the Mets in 1969. The Nationals play their first game in the regular season against the Mets as well. Man, schedule makers really have a sense of history, don't they. Oh yeah, and in '69, the Mets went on to win the World Series.

Mientkiewicz has a career .272 batting average, hit .238 in 2004, and a Mendoza-threatening .215 in with the Red Sox. Clearly, his bat isn't the reason the Mets signed him. His defense, however, will certainly help the Mets, who committed 137 errors in 2004, enough for the 3rd most in baseball. Mientkiewicz has 21 career errors and a .996 career fielding percentage (the Mets had a .978 team percentage last year). This is even more useful, considering the infield of Kaz Matsui (2nd base, .956), Jose Reyes (SS, .980), and David Wright (3rd base, .942) isn't exactly error free. We'll see how the position swap between Matsui and Reyes works out and we're totally ignoring the fact that Delgado had a better fielding percentage last year.

The Mets finished 12 games behind the Marlins last year, has made several off season moves, and is still considered less of a contender than the Marlins? Ouch. The Mets also were reported to have offered usage of a luxury box, a hotel suite on the road, and a better bonus package. But looking at money alone, Delgado stands to take home much more in Florida since there is no state income tax. Then again, the Marlins win the World Series in 2003, so maybe Delgado has a valid reason.

Not everything went so smoothly though. As is becoming the norm in this series, tempers rose during the game, resulting in ejections and bench clearing. First came Kenny Lofton and Doug Mientkiewicz in the third inning. The two had some issues as Lofton grounded out and Mientkiewicz supposedly didn't get out of Lofton's way quickly enough. Then, in the 8th, Pedro Astacio threw the ball behind Lofton, which got him ejected. In retaliation, Brad Halsey threw a ball high and tight to Dave Roberts, which got him and Joe Torre ejected. The benches cleared and words were exchanged, but there were no fisticuffs.

It was a good and busy weekend at the Stadium for the Yankees. the Yankees managed to take three out of four games from Baltimore and increase their lead over the Red Sox to 9.5 games. The big trade that everyone wanted to see (Randy Johnson coming to the big Apple) did not happen, but Cashman was able to unload the inconsistent Jose Contreras for the steady Esteban Loaiza.