The Meaningful Collateral

First of all, this is April baseball. It doesn’t mean much. Christ, the Orioles started the year at 6-1 and they were still leading the AL East last I checked …does anyone think they’re going to finish higher than
4th? Of course not. In fact, this should be the year that the Devil Rays overtake them and get out of the cellar.

I had to suffer through a “Oh my god, David Ortiz is hitting .077″ column by Bob Ryan yesterday, with Terry Francona explaining why he gave Ortiz the day off on Sunday. If this was early June and David Ortiz was not
hitting, maybe it would be a story. It would be like the horrid 2003 that Paul Konerko suffered through…at some point, it becomes a story when a really good hitter is having an awful year. But on April 13th?! Is David Ortiz a real concern on April 13?! Bob, baby…find some new material. Red Sox nation isn’t ready to hit the panic button yet.

Then there was an accompanying piece about the deficiencies of the Yankees, how fans will be second guessing Joe Girardi this season (based on ONE decision made by Girardi … allowing Mike Mussina to pitch to Manny Ramirez with first base open on Saturday and then watching Ramirez pound a double).

The piece mainly focused on the Yankees’ starting pitching. Frankly, the Yankees will not be winning games because of starting pitching this season. They’ll win because they produce a lot of runs…same as last year. And as of Monday, the Yankees hadn’t scored more than 6 runs in a game yet…their longest stretch without doing so since 1991, I believe. You have to believe that a lineup with A-Rod, Bobby Abreu, Matsui, Posada, Cano, and Giambi will start to score runs.

More after the jump.

If you consider the recent history of the Yankees, they’ve won a shitload of games despite shabby starting pitching. Maybe it catches up to you in the playoffs (their bats have fallen quiet there), but it hasn’t prevented them from either winning the division or getting the wildcard.

In 2004 (after losing Clemens and Petitte to the Astros), the big imports were Kevin Brown and Javier Vasquez … who couldn’t have won more than 25 games between them. Their ERAs were both over 4.00 and I believe Brown was out for a month after punching a wall that year. Mussina went 12-9 with a 4.59 ERA. Jose Contreras imploded and was eventually traded. The big hit of the year? A 38 year old El Duque went 8-2 in 15 starts. They also got a lift from Jon Lieber, who went 14-8 (coming off major surgery). That team
won 101 games!!!! And none of the starters were that impressive. Why did they win? Hitting, hitting, hitting … and Mariano Rivera was there to close out those 7-5 and 8-6 wins, collecting 53 saves. They also had a fairly reliable setup guy in Tom Gordon.

Same story in 2005 — starting pitching which was underwhelming. Their big move was bringing in Randy Johnson, and he went 17-8 … but he had a 3.79 ERA, was fairly shaky his entire time as a Yankee. Mussina was 13-8 with a 4.41 ERA. The rest of their moves completely backfired. Carl Pavano? Jarret Wright? Positively awful. But Aaron Small and Shawn Chacon went a combined 17-3 for this team. It helps when you can hit — 175 HRs from the group of Posada, Giambi, Jeter,  A-Rod, Sheffield and Matsui.

The 2006 team had Wang (19-6, 3.63 ERA) and Mussina (15-7, 3.51 ERA … in a free agent year) both pitch well, but the starting pitching was shitty past those two. Doesn’t matter that much during the regular season when you score 930 runs.

So can the Yankees get to the playoffs if Hughes, Kennedy and Mussina stink up the joint as a collective? Recent history suggests that the team will find a way.

Anyway, on to my impressions of the games …

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Friday night — Wang pitched a 2 two hitter. He let up a home run to J.D. Drew (right near our seats … we were in the right field bleachers, right by the Yankee bullpen) in the 5th, a long fly ball to the warning track followed … and then he settled down and completely shut down the Sox. Too bad he sucked against the Indians in the playoffs last year.

Clay pitched a good game for the Sox, but he wasn’t very efficient … he was at 96 pitches near the start of the 5th inning. A lot of the hitters on these teams are patient … they wear you out. Clay only got through 6 innings as a result … Jeff Torborg would’ve left him in till the 9th.

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Saturday … 3:55 start — Went solo to this game, had a seat on the right field roof deck … nice view of the whole field. This was the two hour rain delay game where Fox cut away from the final hitter to show a NASCAR race. Yes, I was at home by the time this one ended … didn’t wait out the rain delay.

Mussina was so-so … Ramirez really took him to town. First a home run off the Volvo sign (above the Green Monster), which was a rocket. And then Ramirez broke the game open with a 2 RBI double in the 5th or 6th. The Sox were up 4-2, Yankees scored a run to pull within 4-3, and then it got dramatic in the top of the 8th. The Yankees had the tying run on base, the go ahead run at the plate … and the Sox only had one out. They decided to not risk anything and brought Papelbon in early to face A-Rod. Just as he got to the mound, the rain (which started in maybe the 6th inning) intensified and there was lightning … and the grounds crew ran on the field. Goddammit. The best moment of the whole game and we had a rain delay on our hands.

The weather sucked the entire weekend.

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Sunday — 8:05 start time to accommodate national tv … this one didn’t end until after midnight. Even though it was a good game, the upper deck started emptying out past 11 o’clock … guess people couldn’t hang around much later on a school night.

My date was a cute blonde school teacher and we were seated on the main level, about 20 rows back from the right field foul pole (in the shadow of the balcony … so we’d be shielded from the rain, if it decided to arrive). I had two single seats on the main level, but I knew a no-show would allow us to sit together in one of the sections. That’s the thing about Sox games: you can never buy pairs of tickets. When they release
small quantities of tickets online (right before a series starts), they’re always single seats.

This game lasted forever. It had lasted 2:20 by the time the 5th inning started …yes, it was almost 10:30 at night and we were starting the 5th.

Phil Hughes got smoked. 6 hits and 3 walks over 2 innings. The Yankees battled back and it was only a two run deficit late in the game (7-5) … by the time that happened, a third of the seats in the park were empty.

This game should’ve started at 7:05. Hell, Red Sox-Yankee games are always marathons, even if they’re normal 9 inning games … they should’ve started at 6 o’clock taking that into account.
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A big pet peeve of mine at baseball games: what’s with the homophobic taunts? Why do I have to listen to people who shout “Gay-Rod”? Can’t they come up with something better to say? When you go to a game, it seems like you’re always surrounded by a pack of morons. After going to about 15 Yankee-Red Sox games in my lifetime, I have to say that I’m sick of the
crowds.