Results tagged “johnolerud”

It's not enough that David Wright is the new sex symbol for New York's baseball teams, now four other Mets get in on the action. Well, sort of. The July 17th issue of Sports Illustrated (on newsstands now) has the five members of the New York Metropolitans on the cover with the title, "Welcome To Rip City, The Adventures of Captain Red Ass And the Intrepid Mets." Of course, with that whole Sports Illustrated curse thing, this can't be good for Mets fans. Left to right, the cover is Carlos Beltran, David Wright, Paul Lo Duca, Carlos Delgado, and Jose Reyes - four of the six Mets All Stars.

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.

Clearly, we were looking to work in some homonyms today. Too bad they aren't playing the Twins anymore. Anyway, last night, the Yankees defeated the Red Sox, 31 (box score). The Yankees now lead the best of seven series two games to none. While Pedro Martinez has proclaimed the Yankees are his daddies, his performance last night wasn't all that bad. He threw for six innings, giving up four hits and three runs. His counterpart on the Yankees pitched superbly.

It was the worst loss in the history of Baseball. Let that sink in. In over 100 years of baseball there has never been a loss as bad as the one the Yankees suffered from the hands of the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday night. 22-0. It was the low point of the Yankee season. But, it only counted as one game in the standings. The next day the Yankees put it behind them and came out with a 5-4 win and then clinched the series with a 9-1 win last night.

Javier Vasquez had another disappointing outing. His first two innings were sharp, he retired the first six batters he faced. Vasquez ran into trouble in the bottom of the third. He walked Jody Gerut, then balked allowing Gerut to get to second. He seemed to recover, by getting two consecutive outs, but then gave up a home run to Coco Crisp. Vasquez then gave up a single to Omar Visquel, Walked Tarvis Hafner, threw a wild pitch and then gave up a deep double to Victor Martinez. it seems like Vasquez has too many innings like this. 4-1 Indians after three innings.

On Friday night the Yankees bats exploded for eleven runs. Bernie Williams continued his hot hitting, launching his 15th homerun of the year. Ruben Sierra hit a grand slam and Jorge Posada added a solo shot. The game was 10-0 going into the bottom of the fourth inning. Jon Lieber was able to hold on to the ten run cushion and go eight innings for his ninth win of the year. Lieber allowed seven hits, 3 earned runs and zero walks while striking out 4 in the 11-3 win.

The story of the night was the bullpen. If the Yankees can find a way to get into the sixth or seventh inning with the lead it is going to be very tough to beat them. Quantrill thrives on work, after working two games in five days early in the season, Quantrill walked into Joe Torre's office and asked the manager if he had to go to the other clubhouse to get some work. Quantrill wants to work 4 out of five games. Right now, there is no concern that he is working too much. Gordon and Rivera on the other hand, may need to rest a little bit more in the next 8 weeks.

Kevin Brown returned to the place where he broke in to the major leagues, but he was not welcomed back kindly. The Texas Rangers tagged him for five runs (four earned) in only five innings. Hopefully it was just a poor outing and not a step back for Kevin Brown. Brown's counterpart, Ryan Drese, managed to hold the Yankees to five hits over seven innings and zero runs. The Rangers held on for a 7-1 victory.

Kevin Brown struck out seven and allowed only four hits over the 8 innings. Barry Zito got into trouble in the second inning and that lead to 3 runs. It wasn't entirely Zito's fault as Alex Rodriguez reached base on left fielder Eric Byrnes error. Jorge Posada flied out to center for the first out of the inning. Then Hideki Matsui singled to right, A-rod to second. Ruben Sierra then doubled to left field and A-rod scored moving Matsui to third. Newly acquired John Olerud then doubled to deep left scoring Matsui and Sierra.

Getting four runs off Mulder is like getting a date with Carmen Electra, it just doesn't happen that often. The Yankees pitching continues to be a problem. The offense has been consistent all year, but the pitching is another story. The Yankees are not worried about losing a few games in the regular season to the Oakland A's, but the signs are there for a mediocre off-season, due to the poor pitching. In the playoffs you win games 3-2 or 2-1, not 10-9. That is what concerns the Yankee fan, what is going to happen in October when we match up aagainst three top notch pitchers.

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.

The Mets offense had a banner day yesterday. Mike Cameron hit two home runs and Eric Valent hit for the cycle in the 10-1 victory for the Mets (box score). With the victory, the Mets "earned" a split with the last place Montreal Expos.