Last night, in ghastly cold Seattle, where hamstrings can snap like a babysitter's chewing gum, the Yankees continued their communal feast/revenge tour on human umpires, via ABS, the new Automatic Balls and Strikes reality.
They overturned five close calls on pitches, to be christened by The Athletic as the MLB team most likely to benefit from ABS.
And it led to... drum roll, please... a run.
Yep. One run. All night. Five overturned calls. Five second chances.
One stinking run.
Listen: Every season is full of games like last night, dive-bar cocktails of well shaken hope, mixed with bitters of dread. You coax a dutiful start from your fourth starter, a guy with microscopic expectations, and then, as the innings burn off, you forget your pregame vow of apathy, and you start to believe the Yankees might steal a game... which then slithers between your fingers, withAs always, it's the little things. Jose Caballero getting picked off first. The bottom of the lineup going 1-12. The bullpen, creaky from overuse in San Francisco.
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| Irritabelle, from another era |
Listen: There will always be games like last night. They're actually quite common, maybe 15 per season. As soon as you get hopeful - and they reel you in so delicately that you don't even know they're doing it - they slap a walk-off single and slam the door.
Five overturned calls. One run.
I wonder how long the Yankees will maintain an advantage with the ABS system? (If, in fact, they truly have one at all.) Yes, they have veteran hitters and, yes, they have two catchers skilled in the art of framing pitches. But they just pissed away a decent start from Ryan Weathers and five overturned calls. So much for that great, season-opening, self-congratulating win streak.
Two more games in Seattle, then a relatively easy schedule through April. Cupcakes and tomato cans. And perhaps an advantage to exploit. But they better not have more games like last night. And they better watch those hammies.
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13 comments:
Didn't even watch this sleepy affair. Was busy watching the PBS Ken Burns documentary "Walden". And the last two Sunday nights, "The Count of Monte Cristo", which will continue for another six episodes. By the way, the latter novel of the same name by Alexander Dumas is where I got my moniker from: "I am the hammer of God". It might very well be the greatest novel ever written. Very verbose, but a dissertation of the highest order on vengeance.
Weathers pitched very well, it seems. Only gave up one lousy run. Did a lot better than I thought he would. Too bad the lineup is so putrid.
They really could've used Dominguez and Jones, eh? The more I think about it, seems Dominguez should be the DH. No need to keep trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole. That would leave Stanton as the odd man out. If Stanton stays, then he's the pinch hitter, maybe even spells Judge in right field a few times a year. Anyway, that's the way I'd do it.
Obviously real early so far, but the offense has been as I predicted. Lots of automatic outs in this lineup. And Judge hitting #2 doesn't help. He comes up with bases empty most of the time. But that's the way Ba-Boone likes it, eh?
Dominguez hit .257 last year, or something like that. Cashman thinks he'll hit like that again this year, which is where he's likely wrong. Dominguez would probably develop this year into a .300 hitter. He certainly showed some improvement this spring from the right side, too. Kids can develop towards their potential. They don't stay the same on the progress chart for fifteen years. The converse is also true: veterans can disintegrate towards oblivion; they don't stay up there on the progress chart forever. Cashman doesn't see that. Too bad. His loss (and ours).
Yeah. What Hammer says.
U Can’t Touch This
la plus qui change...
I saw this ad on the Facebook Marketplace "Lost & Found" section:
"Looking for a lost magical hammer. Goes by the name Mjolinr. If found, please return to Mr. Thor in Valhalla, NY (914) 555-1212. A reward offered of dinner with Freyja at The Cheesecake Factory at the Galleria Mall in White Plains."
School's out sucker, ring the bell! Speaking of, it was MC's birthday, yesterday. And we missed it.
I swear I didn't write that ad! I deny and disavow any knowledge or information about that! Dinner with Freyja, however ... sounds really nice. Does she have big thighs?
My hammers arrive by Fed Ex from Heaven. They are pre-inscribed with the name of the intended victim and the punishment. I ring the doorbell (and if the sentence is death, my brethen, The Grim Reaper, comes with me). The hammer comes down on the target, and poof! The hammer disappears. (These hammers are disposable and only work on the target whose name is inscribed thereon. When the job is done, they return to Heaven.) The sentence is not usually death, believe it or not. Many times, the sentence is only some type of plague. Like one time, it was a delivery of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. Another time, it was a delusion of grandeur.
How many times has this happened. Greats like Chisolm Jr stink when needed. Why is Blacburn on the team? He has always sucked.
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