Results tagged ‘ Jonathon Albaladejo ’
Nine Straight But Not All is Well in NY
Joba Chamberlain was set to start against the Orioles in the series finale against Adam Eaton. Joba’s outing was definitely shorter than he expected it to be.
Joba’s and Aubrey Huff’s fist pumping debate was the least of Joba’s problems. After striking out Brian Roberts, Adam Jones, who has been hot at the plate, came up to bat. He hit a sharp liner back to the mound. It hit off Joba’s leg right above his knee. He recovered and got the ball to first for the out. After the play, Joba bent over in pain as he tried to shake it off. He stayed in the game until a double by Aubrey Huff got him taken out of the game. Ironic, huh? When he was going to back up the play, he was in obvious pain as he ran with a limp. Girardi took him out of the game so that he wouldn’t be hurt anymore.
The x-rays on Joba’s knee came back negative, so that’s good news. The soreness in his knee isn’t anything too serious so there is nothing to worry about. He might be out of action until the soreness goes down, but he should be back soon.
On another note, the Yanks continued their winning streak and got their ninth win in a row. Robby Cano had a big game offensively. He went 3-4 with a two run homer, a double, and a single. He was a triple short of the cycle. He had three total RBI’s. He scored two runs. And he ultimately led this offense to the victory. But Cano wasn’t the only player to have a good game at the plate. Big Tex went 2-3 with an RBI, a run scored, and a walk. Melky went 1-4 with two RBI’s. The only players not to get a hit were A-Rod, who was extremely silent in the game, Francisco Cervelli, and Brett Gardner.
The bullpen had to come in very early to replace Joba. When I learned of this, I was hoping so much that they would be able to continue to play well and keep the O’s at bay. They did exactly that. Alfredo Aceves was the first to come in. He has been the most consistent and successful pitcher out of the ‘pen during this streak. Really all this season. He pitched great. 3.1 innings giving up three hits, a walk, and striking out one. He got the win in the game.
When Aceves came out, Jonathon Albaladejo came in. After a relatively good start to the season, Albaladejo has had some problems of late. Yesterday was a good example of this. He went 2.1 innings giving up five hits, two for homers (Roberts, Markakis), and gave up four runs. This is all the O’s would get but nontheless, it was a disappointing performance from Albaladejo. On the bright side of things, he did strike out two.
Jose Veras relieved Albaladejo and went 1.2 innings giving up only two hits. Nothing else. Veras is starting to come around in the bullpen and it has and will be huge if he can continue to pitch like this.
Rivera came in after Veras to close out the game. He did it in perfect fashion giving up nothing and taking down one guy by way of the K. Rivera’s ninth save of the season comes in the Yankees’ ninth win in a row. Interesting.
Joba’s injury is obvioulsy a concern but the good thing is that he won’t be out for too long. We have to keep an eye on it but there isn’t too much to worry about.
The Red Sox completed their sweep of the Jays which helped us immensely. We are now only 1.5 games back of first. We are 1 game behind the Sox. This winning streak has been huge for the team and has gotten us well into the race for the top of the AL East. Let’s keep it up.
Interleague play starts today. We are set to play the defending champs Phillies. The Philles have been playing some good ball of late so it should be a good matchup. The Yanks look to continue their streak and I look to continue enjoying Yankees baseball. It’s so much easier rooting for a team that wins a lot than doing so for a team that loses a lot (like the Nats). But just so you all know, the Nats did beat the Pirates yesterday.
It’s gonna be Burnett vs. Brett Myers in the interleague opener. Burnett has looked good and hopefully he can keep it up. We need a good performance from him against the powerful Phillis offense.
-Dillon
King of the Hill
Burnett vs Halladay was a great opening game matchup for the Yanks and Jays. Unfortunately, Halladay got the better of the Yanks and pitched a gem. Burnett pitched well too but gave up a few runs and ended up getting the loss. Of course, he didn’t get any run support from the offense but we know, you don’t really need any of that right…?!?!?
Yesterday’s game was a sight for sore eyes. We had Andy Pettitte go out against Scott Richmond who is another young guy that is having a surprisingly good season. He was 4-1 going into yesterday. Key word- WAS. Pettitte pitched pretty well. He only gave up four hits on the day giving up two runs (1 earned). He did give up four walks. My advice to MR. Pettitte… find the strikezone more often. Don’t give ‘em free bases. He was able to find the zone on a couple of at bats as he struck out two in the game.
The Yanks offense jumped on Richmond in the second and chased him from the game not letting him finish the second. Brett Gardner led the offense yesterday with two hits including a two run shot, his first of his career. Way to go Brett! He also walked once, had three RBI’s and two runs scored. Johnny Damon, Mark Teixeira, and Robby Cano also pitched in two hits each with four RBI’s and four runs among them. A-Rod got on three times, all by walks, but the Yanks couldn’t tdo anything with him on and he was stranded all three times.
Overall, the game was a success. The pitching was good and was able to hold the Jays to two runs. The bullpen only sent Alfredo Aceves and Jonathon Albaladejo out to the mound to pitch three total innings. Aceves pitched two and gave up only one hit and had a K. Albaladejo pitched one inning allowing a hit and two walks but no runs. I didn’t go to be feeling extremely disappointed about the performance of the bullpen. Way to go guys. With the win, I think it’s safe to say we are close to being the King of the Hill.
The victory puts us just one game closer to the top of the AL East. The loss for the Jays puts them one game down in the standings. Its a typical in-division series. Win and you go up in the standings, lose you go down.
Yanks win wasn’t the only good news that found its way to my ears yesterday. The Angels pulled through for me and beat the Red Sox 8-4. Mike Napoli and Torii Hunter went yard in the cause and the result was the Red Sox went down a game in the standings. Overall it was a win-win day for the Yanks. We went up a game in the standings, and both the Jays and Sox went down. Just one more step up the ladder for the Yanks. Hopefully we can keep it going.
My final thoughts:
Tough luck Ryan Zimmerman on your hitting streak being over. It’s all right. You don’t need to feel bad. You’re on the Nationals. Any hit streak of over five games is something worth celebrating. Too bad the hitting streak really didn’t help you guys. The Nats were still down at the bottom of the NL East standings during the streak.
Congrats again to Brett Gardner who hit his first career shot yesterday.
The Roger Clemens story is starting to get old. Who’s telling the truth. Clemens, who insists he didn’t take steroids or human growth hormones and wasn’t given them by his trainer Brian McNamee. Or is it McNamee who is telling the truth. He insists he gave “the Rocket” steroids and HGH. Ugh would one of you just fess up already. It’s getting old.
The Dodgers are doing all right without Manny. I didn’t think they would go totally downhill withouth him but they aren’t doing that bad. They are definitely going to miss the long ball aspect of the game he excelled at but hey, what can you do about it now.
Go Yanks!
-Dillon
The ‘Pen Is Out of Ink
The Yanks finally ran out of steam today as they faced the Angels for the third game of this series at Yankee Stadium. C.C. Sabathia went for the Yanks against Matt Palmer. Both pitchers pitched well. Sabathia and the Yanks had the lead into the sixth when the Angels tied the score on a Kendry Morales groundout. It was tied until the top of the seventh when Sabathia let up three runs. After a Torii Hunter doubled to bring in two, Jonathon Albaladejo came in to try and get out of the inning. He pitched the rest of the inning giving up a hit but no runs.
Going into the eight, the Angels had the 5-1 lead. And then… Jose Veras came in. And you know what happens when Veras comes in. That’s right. He either blows it or makes things even worse. He gave up a homer to Kendry Morales to start off the inning which made the score 6-1 Angels. Finally, the ninth inning came around and you would’ve thought things were over by then. Yeah Right! Dave Robertson came in and gave up two more runs on a single from Torri Hunter. It didn’t help that Melky Cabrera made an error that let another run score.
The Yankees then came up to bat in the bottom of the ninth. At this point, I knew we were done. But then I had to think about what I said after Posada homered. That made the score 8-3. Jeter also drove in one on a fielding error from Matthews Jr. And that was all he wrote. Final score, 8-4.
Today’s game can’t be blamed on the bullpen totally. Sabathia gave up half the runs which gave him the loss. It didn’t help that the bullpen gave up four runs as well but it wasn’t totally their fault that we lost the game. Jose Veras continues to be probably the least reliable and worst pitcher the Yanks have in the ‘pen. So far this season, he has pitched 12.1 innings, has an ERA of 8.03, has given up 9 hits including two homers, and has given up 9 walks. He is having an absolutely terrible season. Sabathia definitely had a frustrating day.
Every time the Yanks bring him in to the game, my first thoughts are, “Here we go again.” Sometimes I know he is coming in because for some reason, the Yankees like him a lot. More than Phil Coke and Edwar Ramirez. And don’t even get me started about Damaso Marte. A 15.19 ERA is absolutely unacceptable. It’s getting to a point where if we are losing after the starter comes out, I almost give up. It’s a good thing the offense has proven they can make a comeback late in the game or I would be giving up totally.
When we get Brian Bruney back, he will be such a huge part of this team. Right now, the only guy out ofthe ‘pen that has proven, to me, that they can consistently get guys out. That has been Phil Coke. He has had some trouble this season but overall, he has been the best out of the bullpen. I know I wrote a post about how Phil Coke was involved in one of the bullpen’s blown games. That was earlier in the season when he had only appeared a couple times. Right now, he is clearly the best pitcher out of the ‘pen. When Brian Bruney comes back, he will make the bridge to Rivera easier. One thing that the starters will need to do is go deeper in games so that the bullpen will not have to appear as much. This will save us from having the bullpen blow more games.
The season finale tomorrow will have a matchup of Phil Hughes, who dominated in his season debut, against Joe Saunders, who is probably the Halo’s best pitcher. It will be a good matchup. There really isn’t anything else I can say about keys to the game. Obviously the offense needs to put up runs to support the pitching. The pitching needs to not give up runs to the other team to make the runs the offense score worth their while. And of course, the bullpen needs to be good and be able to avoid putting guys on base and get guys out. It’s that simple. But it really is easier said than done. Hopefully the Yanks can figure all this out and finish the series with a win. Go Yanks!
-DillonMcT
More Late Inning Heroics Save Bullpen
A couple days ago, it was Melky Cabrera who got the hit to give the Yankees the lead. Yesterday it was Jorge Posada who, in front of the home crowd, hit the walk off two run double into left-center to win the game for the Yankees and save the bullpen from yet another disappointing performance.
Andy Pettitte got the call to start the game for the Yanks and to give his bid to keep this winning streak going. Unfortunately, he didn’t have his best stuff. Pettitte gave up five runs on nine hits and four walks. He did have two strikeouts but his performance was ultimately a failure. The bullpen wasn’t much better. Mark Melancom pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up one run with a hit and a walk. Jose Veras was even worse. He also pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up three runs on two hits and a walk. Edwar Ramirez and Jonathon Albaladejo were the only pitchers yesterday to not give up a run. Ramirez pitched an inning and 2/3 giving up a hit and a walk. Albaladejo pitched an inning with no hits and no walks.
The offense was what eventually saved the bullpen yesterday. Robinson Cano, Jorge Posada, and Ramiro Pena led the offense with eight hits among them. Cano had an RBI and scored two runs while Pena had two RBI’s. Jorge Posada, of course, had the walk off hit to bring in two of his four RBI’s. He also scored two runs, including one on his first inning jack off Weaver. The offense was huge yesterday as they were able to bail out the pitching which clearly didn’t have their stuff. Now that the offense has started to play extremely well, they have been able to put more runs on the board to help the pitching which has not been top notch. Hopefully the pitching will get better so they won’t have to continue relying on the offense to score late in the game to bail them out.
After a month of baseball, the Yankees are 13-10 and are only two games behind the first place Blue Jays. And even more good news is coming. The Rays, who are currently 10-14 in fourth place, continue to beat up on the Red Sox who are occupying second place. If this continues and the Yankees’ hot play does as well, we can assume the Yankees will easily take second place and maybe even make a run at the first place spot. It all depends on if the surprising Blue Jays will be the “Rays of 2008.”
The Yanks finish up their series with the Angels today at 1:05 ET. They have C.C. Sabathia going to the mound to face off against Matt Palmer. It’s going to be a good series finale and the Yankees look to continue their hot streak by sweeping the always tough Angels. Go Yanks!
-DillonMcT
A Kick In the Butt
Honestly, I expected better from the Yanks on opening day. All the energy and the hype was missing in the Yanks opening day loss to the Orioles. C.C. Sabathia definitely didn’t have his ‘A’ game as he walked five, gave up eight hits, let in six runs, and, get this… didn’t strikeout anyone. That is very rare. Sabathia just didn’t have his stuff and the result… he got rocked. But he wasn’t the only new star that struggled. Mark Teixeira came up to the plate four times to the boos of the Orioles crowd for not choosing to play for the Orioles but instead going to New York. My reaction to the boos- get over it. Next time, offer more money and you may just get the best player. As Teixeira received the boos, he got on base only once with a walk but didn’t have any hits. Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon had five hits combined to lead the offense. Matsui and Posada each homered to drive in three runs total but other than that, the offense was very quiet against the good pitching from Jeremy Guthrie. I tip my hat to Guthrie for pitching a good game. Unfortunately, he pitched a good game against the Yankees. When Sabathia left the game, the lead was only four. The Yankees brought Albaladejo in to try and stop the offense of the Orioles. He pitched well and kept the Yanks in the game as they closed in on the Orioles’ lead. Unfortunately, the rest of the Yankees bullpen stunk. They let up four runs after Albaladejo came out and the Yankees were down in the dumps again. Overall, the Yankees just didn’t have it. They got some unlucky breaks like when Xavier Nady was caught too far off the bag on a Derek Jeter single up the middle that was stopped by Izturis. Nady got thrown out at third. And don’t even get me started on that homer by Izturis that Damon should have caught. The fan clearly interfered when Damon had the shot to catch it and the umpires made the wrong call. That just killed me. I hope the Yankees can pull it together offensively on Wednesday when they have Wang take the mound. I think Wang is going to have a solid year sitting at the front end of this great rotation. As long as he stays healthy, which he is right now, he should be great. He is going to need the offensive run support to help him get through the game. If the offense and pitching picks up maybe I won’t be kicking myself in the butt for staying on the couch watching the Yankees lose. Every time they lose I feel like it was a waste of time. I understand that we’re not going to win every game, but I would sure like it if they didn’t lose every game either. Hopefully they’ll bring it Wednesday.
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