Here We Go Again

I was nursing a bad stomach yesterday, drinking only bloody mary's with beer chasers.

The tv at my end of the bar had the Yankee game on My 9, which I hate to watch because it is owned by the Fox Fascists. But I digress.

As soon as I heard that Kazmir had been scratched, and that some steroid sucking AAA prospect had been brought up to pitch for the Angels, I knew we had no shot.

I think we all knew it. The Yankees just cannot and will not hit a pitcher they haven't seen before. So this time it was some dude named O'Sullivan ( Sullivan isn't good enough to let us know his heritage? ) who buries ceramics to insure his outings, and who had pitched a no-hitter in Utah.

At first, it looked as if the Yankees might not perform to standard. Swish went deep and the Yanks loaded the bases. Some nagging fear caused me to think that the Yanks were going to fail in this situation, rather than blow the game open right there.

They did fail, They scored two runs on two hits. Seven innings later, they still had two runs and two hits. Here is what went wrong:

1. Hughes is supposed to have 4 pitches. He only used two. His fastball was up and meaty. After about five straight guys had whacked it, Posada kept calling for it until the game was tied. What's he thinking?

2. The ump squeezed Hughes from moment one. When he dared to throw a breaking ball, it had to be in the center of the plate to be called a strike. And you know what major league hitters can do with that. Posada, if he was calling the game, was awful.

3. Can we finally, for about the twentieth time, conclude that whatever Albaledejo does in the minors is only good for the minors? He is the Kei Igawa of relievers. All the Yankees were gushing about his numbers when he was activated. He struck out 61 and walked only 12. His ERA was below 1.0. Blah, blah, blah....

We saw the same old bum who can't throw a strike, whose pitches are all up in the zone, and who needs about 40 pitches to get out of an inning after giving up 3-4 runs.

If George were still alive, Alby would be back on the bus to Scranton today! Let's do him the honor. Let's show somebody that incompetence at the major league level won't cut it.

4. Clearly, Joe saw that this was going to be one of those games where we make the AAA starter for their side look like the second coming of Sandy Koufax, so he didn't use any real pitchers, after Hughes' imitation of Mike Pelfrey. This was the only good decision he made all night. But the players knew the towel had been thrown into the ring.

5. I have commented before about our "B" team. When we have Miranda, Russo, Curtis, or Pena in the lineup we cannot win. Our bench is amongst the worst in baseball, in case anyone is looking.

6. And what's with the coaches? After Hughes was nearly exhausted getting out of the second inning, our batters all hit the first pitch for outs and he was right back out there sweating, grunting and throwing fastballs up and in the middle.

The game was lost right there, as the Angels blew him up. Should the coaches see what I saw, or do they need 10 drinks, too?

Here's an idea for a situation like that, tell each hitter to wait until they have two strikes before swinging at anything. Tell them to step out and adjust their unit. Anything. Give Phil a breather. But they didn't, and this isn't the first time I have seen this team do that. It guaranteed that Phil would not have a chance to re-gather himself.

7. Can't wait until AJ pitches again. I hope he breaks his arm hitting himself. He is, too, Kevin Brown re-incarnate.

8. We better send Jesus to get Oswalt.