August 24, 2010
WWJDDII
Last night the Yankees fielded six out of nine position players who were homegrown: Cano, Pena, Nunez, Cervelli, Gardner and Ivan Nova, making his first career start. And even if the Captain and Jorge were in the lineup it would have still been that many.
Singleton and Flaherty did a pretty great Michael Kay impersonation talking about all the possibilities Girardi would have if Nova pitched well. The bases were loaded before you knew it; took all of 7 freakin’ pitches. But, Fred Lewis must have checked last year’s scouting report and thought Damon was still in left. That’s the only reason I see him trying to score on a shallow fly to left. Gardner positioned himself perfectly and nailed Lewis at the plate, following a great block of the plate by the Cisco kid. Nova K’d the next guy to get out of his 1st inning bases-loaded, no-outs jam.
Morrow’s tough. The only runs the Yanks scored all night were from the 2 guys he walked. Both were knocked in by doubles by Cano and Posada.
Bautista doesn’t miss any these days. The only big mistake Nova made was a hanger to baseball’s leading home-run hitter. And I think Girardi was too quick with the hook. I don’t know, maybe it was the much ado-about-nothing escapade following Nova’s up, but not in, pitch to Bautista in the 6th that lead to a benches-clearing just-standing-around that had Joe pull the kid. For the record: Nova did not back down one iota when Bautista started wandering to the mound, bat in hand.
But you got to give it to Bautista and his way of getting payback. Even before his game-winning shot was in the seats, Bautista was glaring at Robertson, who gave it up. That was Bautista’s 40th long-ball this season; his previous season high was 16. He seems to have some anger issues, too. Hmm… How natural is that?
Cano walks to start the 9th, Posada gives one a ride that dies on the warning track, Gardner gets called looking at a pitch that was a foot outside (seriously) and Jeter, pinch-hitting, pops out to end it: Yanks lose 3-2.

Turned Rangers/Twins on in the 6th just because – and I don’t write the words “no hitter” in my notes and the Texas announcers don’t say the words until skipper Washington comes out to talk to Harden (just off the DL) with 2 outs in the 7th and 111 pitches. And after a really long discussion, Harden is yanked and it goes to the bullpen to try and complete MLB’s 10th staff no hitter.]
A few dumb, but loud Ranger fans, chant “O’Day” to the incessant tune of “Ole” when reliever Darren O’Day is on the mound. It sure ain’t “Hip, Hip, Jorge!” I’ll tell you that, but he did strike out the side in the 8th to keep it going despite the chant.
Funny thing is the Rangers announcers don’t say “no hitter” again and act like they never said it in the first place. In the dug-out, Harden’s teammate Tommy Hunter is now yap-yapping in his ear as he watches Perez try and nail it down. And then Mauer breaks it up with a clean hit with one out in the 9th.

Word is that the Red Sox made a waivers claim on Johnny Damon, mostly to keep him from the Rays and maybe even Yanks. Damon had put Boston on his no-trade list, so it will be interesting to watch and see if he waives that and goes back to that dread place…