This Week in Baseball 5/18 - 5/24

[CanadianChris]

The bats have come plummeting back to earth for the FIRST PLACE Blue Jays. 8 runs total in their last 5 games, and they're flirting dangerously with wasting another awesome start by Halladay.

 

[Precious Roy]

7 more home runs at Yankee Stadium tonight.....

Wang is back with the team, pitching out of the bullpen, and he didn't look particularly good tonight. At least they're sticking with Hughes through his struggles, because as bad as a couple of his starts were he has had some decent ones and he's really not going to get any better pitching in AAA

 

[naiwf]

How can the Mets play so poorly every 5 days? Ramon Martinez is the drizzling shits and needs to go away.

 

[jimmy no nose]

Stat of the day: AJ Pierzynski is throwing out 6.25% of base stealers this year. He's almost reached the point where you just get two bases out of a walk.

 

[Czech]

Be nice if the Pirates could exploit that, then!

 

[KingPK]

How can the Mets play so poorly every 5 days? Ramon Martinez is the drizzling shits and needs to go away.

I'll see your shitty shortstop and raise you Julio Lugo, a man with the range of a fat guy holding off an angry mob with a conductor's baton.

 

[alkeiper]

Always great to see the Phillies pick one up on the Yankees.

Derek Jeter's home run looked cheap. Jayson Werth's, Raul Ibanez's and Mark Teixeira's though were absolute bombs. I wonder how much is really the ballpark and how much of it is that the Yankees have powerful hitters but iffy pitchers. And that was the third time Myers gave up three home runs in a game.

Re: Pierzynski. Is it him or is it the pitching staff. The opposition has not stolen a base off Mark Buehrle, nor Bartolo Colon. They've stolen 8 off Gavin Floyd, who isn't terribly good at holding runners. None off Bartolo Colon, none off Clayton Richard.

 

[Dobbs3K]

I enjoy AJ's style of play. If he was a football player, he would have fit in with the 1970's Oakland Raiders, which is OK in my book.

 

[naiwf]

There are a LOT of Phillies fans in Coors East today.

 

[devo]

Oh man. I hope someone got a screengrab of "NOT JOHN MAYBERRY JR.'S DAD".

 

[zio]

Anyone else not getting the HD feed? It has the black bars on the sides and an SD feed. FOX seems to be the only network that always does this.

EDIT: the HD feed returns.

 

[zio]

Damn. A-Roid strikes.

 

[the pinjockey]

Time for Lidge to get a little break from save situations.

 

[zio]

Eh, good game. Still think we're better than them. Still worried about Lidge a bit, but the cheap homer always screws with a pitcher's head.

 

[treble]

Every time I try to listen or watch the end of a game the Yankees are losing, they end up winning. It's probably happened at least 5 times this year already.

 

[zio]

Definitely should have been a W, but as long as we win tomorrow, I'm fine with it. They can't roid themselves to wins all season.

 

[jimmy no nose]

I don't know if it's been this way the whole year, but I've just happened to see 3 games that Lidge blew at the end and it's looked to me each time like he's just lost his slider a little bit which dominated hitters last year. He did get Teixeira pretty good with it today, but it's looked really inconsistent and has allowed guys to sit on fastballs in certain counts.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

On the A-Rod home run, it seemed like Lidge was missing low with the slider, then went back to the fastball and just served up a meatball about chest high.

 

[alkeiper]

It's ridiculous. Lidge is clearly pitching awfully yet he still trots comes in the 9th inning because damn it, that's his role. I wouldn't say he's finished or anything, but he needs to pitch in low leverage situations until he can demonstrate that he has closer caliber stuff.

J.A. Happ's quality outing though is a HUGE positive to take out of this game. With the rotation faltering, he shows he can limit the Yankees' offense in that ballpark? I'll take it.

 

[the pinjockey]

I think Lidge's problem is actually his fastball. He only seems to have about a 1 in 4 chance of throwing it where he means to. So why chase the slider that dives out of the zone when he is going to have to give you a meatball at some point.

 

[Vitamin X]

Do Farmar or Vujacic EVER think they commit fouls? They bitch about EVERY SINGLE PF they commit.

 

[Smues]

Because they don't play baseball?

 

[Smues]

And incase VX deletes his posts he obviously made a post intended for the basketball thread, hence my lae attempt at humor. Damn mobile version of the site not having quote options.

 

[Vitamin X]

Ha! that's what happens when I have two different TSM threads open.

 

[devo]

Omir Santos of all people just hit a fly ball high off of the Green Monster that, although originally called a double, on instant replay clearly struck the wall above the home-run line. If the call is overturned it'll be 3-2 Mets and Papelbon's first blown save of the year.

Edit: It's a homer. Holy shit, yes.

Edit #2: And Putz closes it out. What a win.

 

[treble]

Five losses in a row, but the Blue Jays are still in FIRST PLACE (thanks Mets!). Don't like that the Rays are creeping back up now, too, though.

 

[devo]

Fransisco Rodriguez collapses from back spasms outside of clubhouse.

http://www.metsblog.com/2009/05/23/news-krod-collapses-in-clubhouse/

That puts a sour note on the evening to say the least. Damn.

 

[Vitamin X]

Matt Cain threw a complete game in Seattle tonight. SF blew open the game after being down 0-1, scored 5 runs and just demolished Seattle's bullpen. The Mariners really need Morrow back into his groove and in the closer role.

 

[jimmy no nose]

A little oddity coming out of the Pirates consecutive shutout losses. They had the rare set of back to back losses where the bullpen managed to throw a total of two pitches. In the first game Zach Duke threw an 8 inning complete game allowing two earned runs, the second game Ross Ohlendorf went 7 2/3 allowing 3 ER. A reliever came in and got 1 out on two pitches. Impressive.

 

[Dobbs3K]

Brewers couldn't do much against a debuting Twins pitcher Anthony Swarzak last night, now having lost two in a row. I hope they can get a win today against Baker, who has been terrible lately.