Yankees v. Blue Jays

Alright, so I've been watching the whole game but as I start this, we're tied 1-1 in the bottom of the fifth. On back to back plays, Bernie screwed up. First, he missed a ball bouncing off the wall and allowed Alex Rios to score. But really, Rios might've scored anyway. But still, you can't play a ball of the wall if you let it bounce past you. This resulted in a Frank Catalanotto RBI double. Next pitch is out to right field, (where Bernie is in for Sheffield,) and Bernie throws it to third in an attempt to hold Frank at 2nd. But Frank knows what he's doing and makes a run for 3rd, and Bernie's throw is seriously about 10 feet off. Again, even if it was perfectly on, it might not have made a difference. Bernie's a great Yankee. I'm just saying, he's getting old and it isn't pretty. But would you rather have Bernie's throw miss the bag by 10 feet, or Bubba Crosby overshoot the bag by 10 feet? Tough call. Recall when Bernie played a 20-second game the other night.

Ok. Bases juiced, 2 outs, A-Rod up. Now, some background information on the strike zone today - it's pretty much non-existent. As I've said before, I'm a baseball fan before I'm a Yankee fan, (but not by much.) So I've got to be fair here. The truth is that this strike zone has been all over the place, even the broadcasters are admitting as much. Now, this isn't a case of a couple bad calls. This has turned into the kind of game where you can't really tell if a pitch is gonna be a ball or a strike until the ump calls it. Anyway, Chacin ends up walking A-Rod, which forces Damon home. And Jays manager John Gibbons just goes nuts. Not fair, he says. And of course, he gets thrown out, which followed Torre's ejection just a couple innings earlier. In any case, it's 2-1 Yankees.

Update: Bottom of the 6th, 2-1.
Well Moose has been lighting it up lately. Over 6 innings, he's allowed 7 hits and struck out 7 while only walking 1. His seasons ERA is now sitting at a solid 2.31. Doin good, Moose. So good that I just picked him up in my 5x5, 7-team Roto league in exchange for the struggling Jake Westbrook. I've always thought Westbrook was just lucky to get the wins he got. I'm last place in ERA and WHIP, and Westbrook is doing all he can to keep me there. Another thing, this game has been exceptionally hard to follow without being totally focused. This is because MLB.TV is broadcasting the YES feed, but without the graphics, and using the radiomen as the audio feed. So there's no scoreboard, nothing. What would I do without Gameday?

Update: Top of the 7th, 2-1.
Mussina just got pulled for my man Kyle Farnsworth. You can read that post right there for more info. And by the way, the 2nd most popular search that leads people to this site, (behind the "Manny cutoff throw" of course,) is "Kyle Farnsworth fight." Now, Posada just gunned down Alex Rios. And then we're waiting for about 5 seconds before we get a call. And of course, by 'call' I mean Rios just leaves the field. Apparently the ump said something, like, "you're out." And then Blue Jays replacement manager comes out to make a scene but thought better of it. And Farnsworth just struck out Frank The Cat. Vernon Wells up, 2 outs, bases empty. And Wells is down on 3 straight strikes. Yikes.

Some quick notes during the commercial break: the Tigers just beat the Twins, 6-0. Kenny Rogers, first-half star, pitched 8 innings, giving up 2 hits and 1 walk. How nuts would that be if Rogers threw another Perfect Game, and for the Tigers? Anyone who has seen "For the Love of the Game" knows what I'm talking about. But in any case, can you imagine throwing two Perfect Games in one career? Nuts. Of course, the best part is that we just swept the Twins, and outscored them 33-1. That's really, really bad if you're the Twins. We all know that their pitching is struggling, and we all know that they've never been famous for their offense. But 33-1? No way.

Update: Bottom of the 7th, 4-1.
Jeter doubles, and while the broadcasters are talking about Giambi being 0-12 against Jay's reliever Pete Walker, Giambi takes him deep for a huge 2-run shot. And I mean deep. Walker left a pitch way over and Jason deposited it in the right field bleachers. Good job.

Update: Top of the 8th, 4-1.
Farnsworth just struck Troy Glaus again. Now he's got 3 K's in 1.2IP. And now they're bring in Mo. Mo's doing the old 1.1IP thing again, which reminds me that I forgot to ask you guys about why B.J. Ryan has been pitching 2IP every game. Why? Anyone have an answer for me? Thanks. And Greg just told me that, "Guess how long a pencil can draw, one line. Guess. 35 miles. One pencil, 400,000-some thousand. Think about how many miles you've written in your lifetime." I don't use pencils though, I hate them. And Rivera just got Zaun to fly out to Phillips at first. Here comes the bottom of the 8th.

Update: Bottom of the 8th, 4-1.
So Matsui just got caught in a rundown, out between 3rd and 2nd. But he got Posada to 2nd, so it was ok. In any case, we're still up by 3.

Update: Top of the 9th, 4-1.
So Rivera is doing his thing. And the Yankees win, thhaaaaaaa Yankees win! Alright, I hate hearing that. And the Red Sox just lost to - who else - the Devil Rays. Which means that we're even on the standings now, finally. It wasn't enough to better in nearly ever statistical category, we had to have to be better in W-L too, because, of course, that's all that really matters.

PS:
Thanks for the comments Mike. Everyone should check out Mike's Tiger's podcast at www.dailyfungo.com. Again, this is similar to what Kevin and I hope to have up in a couple weeks. I know it seems like it's always been a "couple weeks," but it's always been "sometime after May 10th," because that's when I'm done with school.
Anyway, as you all know, yesterday (April 29th,) was BHGM's birthday. I plan on making a post sometime in the future that will be a little smattering of all the good posts we've seen. And I want your suggestions. So, if you had a favorite post or topic, email me or leave a comment at this post and I'll try to include it. You can ask for Manny's Greatest Play of All Time, but I'm already including it. You can jog your memory by clicking on the Classic Posts link on the left sidebar. Anyway, you don't need to give me a post, just give me a topic.