Tagged: Boone Logan
A collapse after a collapse
Excruciating. A word this writer has become familiar with over the last 24 hours or so.
The Yankees needed a win today in order to keep themselves in good position in the hunt for a Wild Card spot, and for the first six innings things were looking good; the Yanks up 3-0, a weekend sweep of Baltimore seemingly imminent.
Then cue the Yankee bullpen.
Shawn Kelley entered the game, relieving Andy Pettitte, who pitched superbly. Kelley however was anything but superb, letting up a home run to JJ Hardy, giving the Orioles a 4-3 lead after Baltimore scored one to cut the lead to 3-1.
Kelley turned it over to Boone Logan, who then passed the baton to (gulp) Joba Chamberlain.
Things only got worse when Chamberlain came on in relief. Adam Jones rocketed a home run over the centerfield fence, the Orioles taking a 7-3 lead the Yanks could not catch up to.
Final: Orioles 7, Yankees 3
While today was surely a collapse by the Yankees – and quite possibly the unofficial end of the so-called “Joba Chamberlain Era” in New York, it might pale in comparison to the unmitigated disaster that took place last night in the minor leagues.
Allow me to explain.
I spent most of my summer “down on the farm” covering the Hudson Valley Renegades, much like I did last summer. The Renegades were dominant in 2012, and even went on to win the New York-Penn League championship for only the second time in team history.
Although Hudson Valley boasted an incredibly talented group of future Tampa Bay Rays in 2013, this season they haven’t been as fortunate as they were last season. And after I tell you the story of last night’s game, you’ll understand why.
The Renegades hosted the Staten Island Yankees last night, the Yankees’ Single-A affiliate. Tied 2-2 in the top of the 12th, Staten Island loaded the bases with no one out. Up to the plate stepped the left fielder, Daniel Lopez.
This 21-year-old baby bomber cracked a liner up the middle that should have scored two runs and gone down as a single. It turned into a nightmare for the Renegades, as their center fielder James Harris made an offline throw to the plate.
The error allowed three runs to score and Lopez to go the third. And it wasn’t over.
Renegades’ catcher Ryan McChesney tried to catch Lopez at third base, throwing wildly down to the hot corner. The throw was errant and allowed Lopez to come home and make it a four-run play. The miserable 12th inning took all the air out of the Renegades.
Final/12: Yankees 6, Renegades 2
Believe it or not, I couldn’t help but think of Seinfeld after witnessing the mess.
If you recall, there was an episode that involved the character Kramer asking Paul O’Neill to hit two home runs for a sick boy in the hospital. Kramer and Bobby, the bedridden-yet-hasty little boy, watch on the hospital TV as “The Warrior” crushes a home run.
In his last at-bat of the game, O’Neill lines a ball into the outfield and digs for third base – all of this according to what we, the viewers, hear from the play-by-play man calling the game. A throwing error allows O’Neill to come in and score.
“Oh Yeah! Inside-the-park home run!” Kramer exclaims.
“They are ruling the hit a triple and an error on the throw,” says the play-by-play man.
Because it was ruled a triple, the hit wasn’t good enough for the young man. He wanted two home runs, not a home run and a triple. But Kramer makes the point:
“Bobby! Bobby! It’s just as good!”
And although Lopez’s hit was not ruled an inside-the-park grand slam by the minor league official scorer, it was indeed just as good.
Ironically Enough
O’Neill’s nephew, Mike O’Neill, is on the Staten Island Yankees. He was not involved in the scoring in the four-run 12th inning, but he did play in the game; Mike batted second and played centerfield.
The Seinfeld scenario and the Lopez hit in the 12th – talk about eerily similar. And the O’Neill name was the link to it all.
(On a side note, Mike O’Neill has not enjoyed a lot of success this season; going into last night’s game he was batting .230 and leading the New York-Penn League in strikeouts with 84 – and picked up his 85th, 86th, and 87th strikeouts in last night’s game to extend his lead)
As for the big Yankees, they’ll need to play awfully well in the month of September in order to gain a Wild Card spot. Fortunately they’ll be welcoming the all but extinct Chicago White Sox tomorrow for a three-game set, looking to avenge the sweep the White Sox handed them in the windy city at the beginning of August.
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Small Update
Most readers may have taken notice that the Yankee Yapping blogging this summer has been a little slow. I have been working a lot and have been very busy; obviously covering the Renegades (basically working as their beat writer for my newspaper) has taken a lot of time, as well as the other work I do for my newspaper/company.
There are only so many hours in a day, though.
Looking back, I think I only published two blogs this summer: one in July, one in August.
I promise to get back to it this month a little bit more. Whether or not the Yankees make the playoffs, I’ll be customarily handing out the annual Yankee Yapping Awards, as well as counting down the best moments this season in the “Top 13 of 2013.” (I wrote the “Top 12 of 2012” last year and enjoyed it, therefore I will certainly pen one for this year).
In addition to that, I’d like to do a career retrospective on Mariano Rivera at some point. I’ve done similar blogs about Jorge Posada and others. With time, I will write one for Mo and it will be up before the end of the year. Obviously spanning Rivera’s entire career and picking out his best moments will take time!
Thank you all for reading and look out for more posts and more Yankee Yapping!
The Grand Tour
With the Texas Rangers’ win over the Los Angeles Angels tonight, the Yankees have officially clinched a spot in the postseason this year, but they will go in knowing full well it took almost all 162 games to get into the party.
This afternoon was an indication of that.
Tied with Baltimore for the AL East lead entering play today, the Bronx Bombers weren’t helping themselves when they trailed the Toronto Blue Jays 5-1 after five innings; Phil Hughes pitching about as poorly as it gets in a hugely important game.
Thankfully for him, the offense bailed him out.
The Yanks pieced together an epic rally, shredding away at the Jays’ four run lead, scoring one run in the sixth, three in the seventh, and two in the eighth and ninth innings for a necessary 9-6 victory.
Unfortunately for the Yanks, the Orioles also won their game this afternoon, beating the Red Sox 6-3 at home, and thus leaving the AL East in a stalemate going into the final three games of the 2012 regular season.
While the Yankees staged their comeback on the road, I spent the better part of my day at their home – Yankee Stadium. My friends and I were fortunate enough to take a tour of the ballpark, a trip I’ve wanted to go on for a long time.
We even took the tour with Ichiro’s brother!
Just kidding. But he looked almost exactly identical to him.
The first stop on the tour was the Yankee museum inside the Stadium. Our tour guide, a nice guy by the name of Tim, showed us the new Mickey Mantle exhibit. He then told some neat stories (most of which I already knew about) highlighting Mantle’s career.
For instance, during the 1951 World Series Mantle tore all the cartilage in his knee chasing down a fly ball struck by Willie Mays of the Giants – one of the multiple injuries Mantle suffered over the course of his legendary career.
I first learned of that story in the movie 61*
From the museum, we journeyed to Monument Park, behind the center field wall. I’ve been to Monument Park a number of times, and never knew the story behind the door.
According to Tim, there originally was no door linking the Yankee bullpen to Monument Park. Mariano Rivera made a special request for a door to be put in – all because of his pre-appearance ritual. Before every time Rivera runs in from the bullpen, he goes into Monument Park and rubs Babe Ruth’s monument.
Don’t ask me why. For luck, I suppose? Like he needs it…
At any rate, it was a nice little factoid; nothing I knew about before. I also bent over and picked up a rock from behind the Monument wall, and discreetly put it in my pocket for keeping. I’m not sure if was allowed to do that or not…
But I won’t tell if you don’t. I just wanted to keep a piece of the day – and Yankee Stadium – for myself.
After our tour of Monument Park concluded, we made our way to the Yankee dugout, which in my opinion was the best and most fun part of the tour. We were allowed to snap pictures and make all the funny poses we wanted. My friends and I actually came up with a small running joke for this picture:
I was told I could be “Ellen Page’s boyfriend.” Don’t ask.
We then decided to pretend we were in the middle of a heated game, and posed as if the Yankees crushed a walk-off home run. We made sure to take full advantage of the dugout photo-ops.
I’ve always dreamt what it was like to be in the Yankees’ dugout – and it was pretty cool knowing that, in only a matter of hours, the entire team would be back and buzzing; right in the same spot I was in, as the Yanks come home to host Boston tomorrow, Tuesday, and Wednesday to close out the year.
Before we left, I sat down and slid my rear end across the entire bench, then declared,
“Derek Jeter always sits on this bench. And now I did, too.”
The two security guards laughed hysterically at my shenanigan.
We were then taken into the clubhouse, but with one small caveat: no pictures allowed. The organization feels the clubhouse is the Yankee players’ personal space, and snapping photos inside that personal space isn’t right.
I have to agree – if I was in their shoes, I wouldn’t want people coming in and taking pictures of my locker and my personal belongings which it holds.
Some things I did take notice of, albeit I don’t have pictures – and some clubhouse facts from Tim:
- Boone Logan has a Yankee lawn gnome in his locker.
- Jayson Nix had a bottle of what looked like prescription pills in his locker. And an iPhone charger.
- For most of the season, Derek Jeter has two lockers: one for his baseball equipment and one for fan mail and gifts from his sponsors. In fact, Tim said, “If they could fit a Ford truck into this clubhouse, they would, and it would be right in that locker with the rest of Jeter’s stuff.”
- With all the September call-ups, Francisco Cervelli is using Jeter’s second locker, for now.
- David Aardsma, who was just activated, didn’t have a name/number plate above his locker. That was to be expected, however. He hasn’t pitched at Yankee Stadium yet.
- Ichiro’s locker is the same locker Hideki Matsui used.
- The visiting clubhouse is “big and nice, but not as big and nice as the Yankees’ clubhouse.”
- When leaving the new Stadium, the players don’t have to leave from the outside of the building – unlike the old Stadium.
The elevator from the clubhouse took us right up into the Great Hall where the tour started, and Tim gave everyone a little souvenir: a Yankee Stadium tour keychain. My friends and I then took a walk over to the Hard Rock Café for some lunch, which surprisingly was very affordable and not overly pricey. (My friend Alicia over at Ballparks on a Budget would appreciate it!)
We watched the Yanks take the win over the Jays as we ate, and before we left, we basically got a little bonus. It turns out part of the frieze from the old Stadium is now sitting outside Heritage Field. We went over and took some photos with it, and I placed my hand on it; kind of touched it with my heart, in a way.
As much as I like the new Stadium, I truly enjoyed the original House that Ruth built. And it felt only right to pay homage to a relic.
Overall, it was one of the best and most fun days of my life.
Was I the happiest kid in New York today?
Yes. But then again, I was probably the happiest kid alive.
Aw-Phil Day: Yanks Give Boston First Win
The Boston Red Sox were 0-6 coming into their home opener against the Yankees. Behind some weak pitching on the Yankees’ part, the Red Sox changed that. Boston captured its first win of the year, beating the Yanks 9-6 this afternoon. It was almost as if the simple baseball game turned into a fierce tennis match, both sides going back-and-forth with the scoring.
Tied 6-6 in the bottom of the fifth inning, a double by Jarrod Saltalamacchia brought home Kevin Youkilis; making the game 7-6 in favor of Boston. Bartolo Colon, who put up such a valiant effort in relief, gave up the go-ahead run but it could have been prevented. An error by Mark Teixeira allowed David Ortiz to reach base, and the inning continued.
Boone Logan came on in relief in the seventh and gave up two more runs on a single by J.D. Drew. Ortiz and Adrian Gonzalez came to the plate, Boston went up 9-6, and eventually they finished off the game.
There were plenty of things that went wrong for the Yankees today. Obviously the biggest story…
Phil Hughes
Two games for Phil Hughes this year, and both times he has gotten shelled. Today the 24 year-old righty was tagged for six earned runs on seven hits in just two innings. He didn’t strike anyone out and walked two batters. He threw 47 pitches, all of which lacked command, movement, and velocity. He did not trust his fastball, which topped out in the high-80s, low-90s, and tossed a lot of cutters.
Hughes’s day could probably be summed up with one pitch: the hanger he threw to Dustin Pedroia in the first inning. He hung a breaking ball a little too high and Pedroia pulled it over the Green Monster for a solo home run.
From there, he never recovered.
In his previous start, Hughes lost to the Detroit Tigers, pitching only four innings and giving up five earned runs on five hits. He walked two batters and struck out one, as many analysts noticed location and velocity were nowhere to be found in that start.
His season ERA after his first two starts: 16.50.
I got the feeling Hughes was going to struggle this season for a few reasons. First of all, go back and look at how he finished last year. He registered the loss in the 2010 All-Star Game for the American League and from there it all seemed to go downhill for him.
He lost two important games in the American League Championship Series to the Texas Rangers – and both losses were all on him. He pitched very poorly in both starts and it cost the Yankees in a major way.
In fact, Hughes gave up 11 earned runs on 14 hits in those final two games last year.
Now fast forward and look at how he performed in Spring Training this year. His record wasn’t indicative of any failure (he was 1-0) but he gave up 10 earned runs in just five games. He also gave up four homers, his ERA was 4.09, and he pitched 22 innings giving up 24 hits.
It may not look like it in the box score, but he got knocked around all spring.
I had said on a few occasions that Hughes might have a year this year like A.J. Burnett had last year – not pitching effectively and thus ending the season with a lopsided win-loss record and a sky-high ERA. While it is early – extremely early – in the season, it looks as though my thought could be well-founded. Hughes is already 0-1 and pitched as if he should be 0-2 – the offense scored for him and got him out of a loss today.
Last year Hughes had the best run support of any pitcher in the American League, the Yankees averaging almost eight runs per game on days he took the mound.
But he can’t live off that forever; eventually it will come back to bite him, like it did today. Hughes was lucky that John Lackey pitched just as poorly as he did, throwing five innings and giving up six earned runs on seven hits.
Lackey walked two batters and struck out two, but notched the win because the Red Sox were able to scrape across that run in the fifth while he was still the pitcher of record. All in all Lackey was lack-luster, but the Boston offense got it done for him – which was the story of Hughes’s 2010 season. He would give up runs, but the Yankees would score for him to get him off the hook and most times, get him a win.
And like Hughes, Lackey might not be so lucky his next time out.
After Hughes’s departure, ESPN insider Buster Olney tweeted: “You’d have to think that the Yankees will talk about replacing Phil Hughes in the rotation. For whatever reason, he has no weapons.”
All true. None of Hughes’s pitches are working for him.
Right now, replacing Hughes in the rotation seems like a novel idea, especially since he admitted after the game that his arm strength is not where it should be.
And with the way Bartolo Colon pitched in relief (4 1/3 innings, two hits, two runs, one earned run, one walk, five Ks) he would be the obvious choice, although there are other options. Mark Prior is a pitcher they could call up, and Kevin Millwood isn’t far behind.
Heck, if the Yankees think about it, they still have Dellin Betances waiting in the wings.
What Hughes is showing right now reminds me of how Chien-Ming Wang pitched to start 2009. Wang struggled in the worst way and lost the faith of the Yankees. There’s only one thing that Hughes and Wang don’t have in common about their poor pitching in the early-going:
When Wang struggled, it was because he was hurt. There isn’t anything wrong with Hughes.
Yankee manager Joe Girardi confirmed after the game that there is nothing physically wrong with Hughes and that he just needs to command his pitches better. Wang was injured and eventually landed himself on the disabled list following his subpar start in ’09.
At least Wang had a reason for his struggle. Hughes just hasn’t been pitching well.
Hughes’s next start is supposed to be on Wednesday at home against Baltimore – a team atop the AL East right now, playing exceptional baseball. However, the Yankees have an off-day on Monday and could work around Hughes, pushing him back.
The likelihood of Hughes being skipped (I would say) is pretty high right now. So far he is only proving that he has a dead arm, he has nothing behind any of his pitches, and he isn’t doing his job as the Yankees’ number three starter.
I still have faith in Hughes. I think if he physically gets himself back to where he was during the first half of last year, he can be as dominant as any ace in the league. But he needs to get there.
He needs to get his fastball back up to the mid-90s, blowing hitters away and not letting them catch up to it. He needs to get his breaking ball working again, fooling hitters with its movement. He needs to locate his pitches, and get them down in the strike zone – not leaving them up for hitters to feast upon.
If he does that, he will be fine. If not, it will be a long season for Hughes.
Another Guilty Party
Boone Logan.
What is this guy doing on the team? Does he even have any business here in New York?
He is in the bullpen to be the Yanks’ lefty specialist, and so far he is not proving he is a lefty specialist because he isn’t getting any left-handed hitters out. Logan is only proving he doesn’t belong here, as he gave up a two-run single to Drew in the seventh. At that point the Yanks were only down by one run and still had two innings to scrape a run across and tie it up.
I think once Logan gave up those runs, the Yanks’ bats just gave up and never recovered.
Logan was part of the Yanks’ meltdown on Tuesday to the Twins, and was even tagged with the loss in that game. Right now the reliever is 0-1 with an ERA of 13.50.
I know he is only filling in for Pedro Feliciano, who is on the DL with shoulder soreness. I hope Feliciano comes back soon, because the Yankee bullpen could sure use a lift.
And we could all use a break from Logan.
Bright Spots of the Day
Although it was a bad day for Hughes, Logan, and the Yankee team, there is some good to take away from it. Here are some things the Yankees did right today and some things we learned:
· We now know Bartolo Colon can thrive in a long relief role. Despite the two runs (only one was earned) he cleaned up Hughes’s mess quite nicely.
· Alex Rodriguez homered today, his fifth career round-tripper off John Lackey. He now has three homers on the year and he is hitting .304.
· Curtis Granderson went the other way, slapping a double into left field. It’s good to see Granderson, a traditional pull-hitter, go oppo and hit to left field instead of right.
· Derek Jeter had a hit and an RBI. He’s now 68 hits away from 3,000.
· Brett Gardner had a triple, his first of 2011. He also stole a base, once again showcasing his Sonic the Hedgehog-like speed. A walk is as good as a double when it comes to Gardner. He can fly on the bases.
· Robinson Cano, a lifetime slugger at Fenway Park, was 2-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs. Cano seems to be heating up. Look out opposing pitchers…
Today is done and there is tomorrow afternoon to look forward to. Ivan Nova (1-0, 4.50 ERA) will look to get the Yankees back in the win column. He is facing Clay Buchholz (0-1, 5.68 ERA).
Yankee Yapping 