Results tagged “mikestanton”

The morning started with rumors of names mentioned in Senator George Mitchell's report to Major League Baseball, but not until this afternoon were any rumors substantiated. Stating in his report that “there is much about the illegal use of performance enhancing substances in baseball that I did not learn,” Mitchell proceeded to lay waste to the careers of many notable players, perhaps none more so than Roger Clemens. In the report Brian McNamee, Roger Clemens’...

It was a season of lows and highs from an 11-19 start to 95 wins and a playoff spot the Yankees gave their fans a story with many twists and turns in 2005. There was the emergence of Robinson Cano and Chien-Ming Wang and the painful decline of Bernie Williams. In the end, the Yankees couldn’t keep the momentum they had built in September going and fell to the Angels in five games.

The Yankees got younger on Thursday, but did they get any better? After organizational meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Yankees made their first changes, cutting ties with relievers, Paul Quantrill and Mike Stanton. Both were designated for assignment meaning the Yankees have ten days to trade or release them. Jason Anderson, a former Yankee prospect who was traded to the Mets for Armando Benitez and Wayne Franklin, a 31-year-old lefty specialist, will take their place on the roster for now.

Everyone who follows the Yankees could see that a shakeup was coming. The team looked lifeless for most of the season and Bernie Williams could simply not throw the baseball anymore, but this is a bigger shakeup than anyone foresaw. Moving Womack to left is a huge gamble, as he has never played there. Matsui in center should be an improvement, but his arm is nothing to write home about. Getting rid of Karsay is a case of addition by subtraction, but the Yankees still have too many relievers. One can only assume that General Manager, Brian Cashman, surveyed the trade market and didn’t find anything to his liking, so he employed the Yankees’ greatest weapon, money.

In many ways, Sunday’s game was a microcosm of the season to date. When the Yankees get good pitching, they can’t seem to hit; when they get good pitching, their hitting deserts them. Sunday’s culprit was the pitching as the Yankees scored six runs and led by three runs at one point. That wasn’t enough for a shaky Carl Pavano who loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth and then watched as Paul Quantrill gave up the tying runs with two outs. Mike Stanton gave up the go-ahead runs in the seventh and the Yankee offense was stymied by four innings of spotless relief from the Blue Jays’ bullpen.

For Yankee fans, Opening Night 2005 could not have come soon enough. A brutal winter, the anticipation of seeing Randy Johnson in pinstripes and the disappointment left over from last year’s collapse, have created an urgency among the fans to see their team play ball.

Last night, Reyes injured his ankle in the 3rd when he attempted to turn a single into a double. He turned his ankle near second and then made an awkward slide into the bag. He got up and played on. Things would only get worse. The next inning, he played in the field and came to bat again in the 5th. During his at-bat in the 5th, he fouled a ball off his injured right ankle and then hit a shot off the wall but could only make it to first. Reyes was finally taken out of the game two innings after sustaining the initial injury.

After four innings, the Mets had a 4-0 run, and when Jae Seo exited the game in the top of the 7th inning, the Mets were ahead 4-1. Immediately after entering the game in relief, Mike Stanton gave up a 3 run homer to the light hitting Endy Chavez. Lucky for the Mets, the Expos played to their record of 33-61 and lost the game in the 8th inning. Wigginton walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Todd Ziele then hit a grounder to Tony Batista, who threw the ball to Nick Johnson. Johnson flat out dropped the ball, allowing Wigginton to score and the Mets eventually won, 5-4 (box score).

Last night, Steve Trachsel threw 6 2/3 shutout innings and Mike Stanton and John Franco finished the game, extending the Mets streak of shutout innings to 22. The Mets got started in the 3rd inning when Mike Piazza, the man the Mets can always turn to, hit a single to scoring Danny Garcia. Piazza also had a solo home run in the 6th inning. In the 7th inning, with two outs and the Mets up 3-0, Ty Wigginton dropped the ball (literally) to load the bases, extending the inning and ending the night for Trachsel. The error is the latest thing to make Flushing Local wonder if it's time for him to go. Lucky for the Mets, Stanton struck out Jimmy Rollins to end the inning.