Now, it runs four days, with the vibe of an awards show, featuring constant banter, as the peacocking millionaires celebrate one great truth: Regardless of the logos on their caps, they all work for the same machine.
For a month now, the Yankees have yearned for a four-day decampment. Nobody wanted to compete in the HR derby. (Which, by the way, should be called by John Sterling, with The Master unveiling homer-hollers for each batter. Come on, MLB, show a little spark.) Nobody wanted to pitch, as evidenced by their last few outings.
The unlikeliest Yankee all-star? Easy. The frazzled closer, Clay Holmes, who has blown enough saves to be the difference between 1st and 3rd in the AL East. Holmes says he was surprised at the all-star nod. All due respect: so was everybody in the Yankiverse.
And last night, Holmes might have pried open a box better left locked.
Last night, the O's seemed to have punched out on the season's first half, when Holmes drilled their left fielder, a guy with too many consonants to bother spelling. (Okay, Heston Kjerstad. There, are you happy? I looked it up.)
I doubt Holmes sought to drill Kjerstad. For one thing, he's have to figure how to spell the guy's name, in the "get well" card. Moreover, his last few outings have seen too many sudden spontaneous immolations to imagine Holmes purposely putting a runner on base. But that doesn't matter. There's bad juju between the teams, an eye for an eye, and tonight, some Yankee will have to pay. If it's someone whose name we can't spell - Jahmai Jones?- maybe tensions will cool. If it's Judge or Soto... thermonuclear war.
Frankly, that's not what the Yankees need. What they need is a series. They can't keep losing within their division. Next Friday, they'll emerge from this cigarette break at home, against the hateful Rays, perhaps with Giancarlo Stanton (though the YES hype machine is pushing his return far too lustily: The guy can barely score from third on a single, and if he's rusty... golden sombreros.)
Let's hope for the best. They plunk Jones, we win a series, and the teams hit the break tied in the loss column. The other side? It's not pretty. We lose the next two, get humiliated along with a broken knuckle, and enter the second half expecting to hate-watch the rest of the season.
It's still too early to be assigning this much pressure to single games. But that's the Curse of the Yankees. It's a pressure cooker. Let's hope for them, next week, restful nights and domestic sex?
I know. Though I did think that Manager Brandon Hyde's reaction to the beaning was as phony as Tony La Russo's, "I darest not speak the name Jackie Robinson!" bit a few years ago. Let's hope it's not as effective.
ReplyDeleteHitting anybody is just a terrible and dangerous thing to do. And make it worse by hitting a guy in the head? The ball just slipped? Seriously? Hyde had every right to be pissed with the Yankees dugout chirping the whole time Kjerstad was being examined for a concussion. Just STFU.
ReplyDeleteThe Yankees got lucky to have Cade Povich on the mound last night. By all rights he should be pitching in Sandusky, Ohio or someplace like that.
They won't be so lucky tonight. There will be blood.
PS: Cole got better as the game wore on - I didn't think he'd last four the way he started, but this is a very good sign for the second half.
Somebody in Yankee dugout was chirping at Hyde. Probably because Hyde prevented Holmes from coming near and checking in on Kjerstad.
ReplyDeleteAccording to reports coming out of Baltimore yesterday, post game chatter inside the subterranean Camden Yards Cryo Recovery Chambers (nicknamed Charm City Chill) was to employ the magic bullet-ball retaliation.
ReplyDeleteAlthough details remain sketchy, the word is that at some point during the game, a Baltimore pitcher would attempt to ricochet a high hard one off the helmeted head of a "Yankee batter" into the Yankee player in the on-deck circle.
If Grayson Rodriguez wasn't comfortable doing the deed - it would fall to the first arm in out of the pen.
Look out for fireworks this afternoon in "Harm City"
RIP - Dr Ruth :(
ReplyDeleteAnyone know who was chirping in the Yankee dugout to light the fuse? Was it Rodon?
ReplyDeleteTrevino to the IL; Narvaez called up
ReplyDelete'Twas most probably not intentional by Holmes, because this is a guy who sometimes can't hit the side of a barn. But whether intentional or not, it was necessary. I've got a newfound respect for Holmes. They can keep this guy until he needs a new set of dentures. As far as I'm concerned, he's earned it. Do NOT trade Holmes, ever.
ReplyDeleteWho was it that started playing hardball? Orioles. Who'd they nail? Aaron Judge. Was this a fair trade? Hell, no. So what the fuck are they complaining about? We're now even.
You should've seen some of the asinine comments on the NY Post after Judge got hit in the hand awhiles back. Somebody wrote that he should've got out of the way, that he was too slow to react. Well, why the hell didn't what's-his-face get out of the way of that Holmes pitch last night? Two can play at this game.
After Judge got hit in the hand, which seems like a million years ago, this current Yankee malaise started. Think that's just coincidence? Hardly.
If I was a Yankee batter, I feel better about everything, more confident. Because even though some Oriole a-hole might come up and in again tonight, I feel like the Judge incident was (somewhat) avenged. I feel like my pitchers have my back. That the next time an Oriole pitcher takes too much liberty with my head or my face or my hands, that my pitchers will enforce one of the old unwritten baseball rules.
Bravo, Clay Holmes!
So - I think Holmes, who doesn’t have the best command, did NOT hit Henderson intentionally. But given the recent history between the clubs, any hard play can escalate, and yes, Hyde’s reaction was more than a little performative. I think any further fireworks would occur tomorrow, last game before the break.
ReplyDeleteRE tomorrow’s AM game, even Kay and his two attendant imbeciles could not provide any details. To watch, you will need to download the Roku app on your TV or device. (You should already have it if you have Roku as your streaming service.) As far as I can discern it is free. It really says something about the state of baseball in general and YES in particular that they couldn’t even tell their viewers how to watch their raison d'être.
Regardless of what happened in that 9th inning, I fully expected the Orioles to take the remainder of the series. They've scored like one run in three games. Law of averages says they explode with offense these next two games. With the Yanks lousy pitching lately, why wouldn't they?
ReplyDeleteEven so, it's like in the movie "Hawk the Slayer". Hawk tells a sneaky would-be-cheater in a arrow shooting contest to "leave the odds where they are". At least the Yanks will play on an even field. Orioles didn't need to do that to Judge. They got what they deserved.
This is the way beanball wars start. Shit happens. But you can't let them throw up and in recklessly to Judge or Soto. If you let them get away with it, you've already lost. If they do it again, you have to answer it again. If they start a bench clearing brawl, you have to make sure you end it your way. You can't let 'em walk all over you.
ReplyDeleteHyde reacted that way because he was (probably) the one who advised his pitchers to throw up and in on Yankee hitters in that previous series. Therefore, the a-hole thinks that Holmes did it on purpose, because he thinks Holmes is thinking just like him. Just terrible sportsmanship by Hyde. Apparently, he's just as stoopid as Boone, because he doesn't even realize that his team is way better than the Yankees and should be able to whip the Yanks without all this bullshit. Let the a-hole tell his pitchers to hit more Yankee batters. Throwing more bullshit in the air, turning this into a battle royale free for all, can only help the overmatched Yankees.
BTW let's give some credit to Mr. Prima Donna. He actually came up big against a division rival. Earned his pay, for once, finally.
ReplyDeleteNow, if he can only earn the respect of his hitters by doing some payback against those teams that cheat against the Yankees.
"the a-hole thinks that Holmes did it on purpose, because he thinks Holmes is thinking just like him."
ReplyDeleteI had a boss like that. Just couldn't understand what his problem was, ascribing the strangest motives to me. It's weird to experience.
Holmes didn't do it on purpose. It was raining pretty hard, the ball probably got a little slippery, and, after all, we're talking about Holmes. If he could put his pitches where he wanted to, he wouldn't have so many blown saves.
The O's are going through the same thing we've been going through. Yeah, we've sucked for a month, but they haven't done much better. They caught us and passed us and have just sat there. Their doldrums will not be exorcised by a beaner. Hope the guy is okay.