The GeniusMaker #114

I am going to post this one as I watch them (but I am watching on tape)

1st inning - Glad to see ARod back and probably a good time to give Cano a rest as well. If needed we will see him later.

Horrible tag (or non tag) by Pena to allow the runner to be safe at 2nd base. You never reach for the leg (hand)you put the glove in front of the bag so if they are getting to the bag they will have to get near the glove. Great play by Gardner to get the throw there.

Hughes threw a great cutter to Bautista to strike him out. That is the pitch that has led to his success as I have said in the past - he needs to throw that more to the left side of the plate.

%$#@! 0-2 and instead of throwing the cutter or breaking ball he throws another fastball and grooves it for a 0-2 2 out 2 run homer! Horrible pitch and a terrible play by Pena and the Yanks are down 0-2. Cecil is a very good pitcher for them so we have our worked cut out for us now. Sometimes, the obvious thing to throw is the right thing to throw and on 0-2 it is OK to throw a breaking ball or slider.

Bottom of 1st

Gardner leads off with an infield hit. With Jeter being awful they need to either send Gardner right away or do a hit and run, but they need to move Gardner early. Jeter faked bunt (I actually would have been OK with a bunt as bad as Jeter is going). Gardner not moving and Jeter ruins the inning and hits into a DP. When the heck will he be dropped in the lineup? At least there is an argument to keep him there against lefties, but c'mon, this is ridiculous.

2nd inning

Nothing of interest except Toronto has made some nice plays in the field.

3rd inning.

Another 0-2 terrible pitch (going with the fastball instead of the breaking ball) and Hughes missed his spot by a mile and the Yanks are now down 4-0 against Cecil. It is early, but this is not looking good.

OK, we picked up a run. Golston ripped a double off the wall that was surprised he was safe at 2nd for a double. It lined hard off the wall directly to the LF'r who quickly got rid of it and while throw was not that strong it was very accurate and the tag was placed just late. Golston has a lot of speed. Jeter weakly popped out to the OF and I wanted to write this and I haven't, but he needs to stop that jerk in his pre swing as it is keeping him off balance. He needs to quite his swing similarly to what Swisher and Granderson did. Jeter has his bat almost pointing to the fielders a one point and he is behind the fastball and way out in front of the breaking stuff...way off balance.

4th inning

The announcers are saying how Hughes has excellent location and a good balls to strike ratio and only the two mistakes are costing him. I totally disagree. To say he only made 2 mistakes is silly; he only made two mistakes that cost him. He threw a 1-2 fastball right down the middle to John Buck, but Buck swung and missed it. The same thing happened earlier as well. So, you can make mistakes and they just sometimes don't cost you.

back many hours later...

I felt the odds of us coming back were pretty slim and had some family obligations so I just finished watching the rest of the game. Not much of note except it was good to see ARod get some good swings in and not get hurt. I also wanted to say that Albadejo seems like a guy who has trouble when at the majors after dominating the minors. Not sure what it is, but he has hit a few players and seems to miss by a lot at the major league level. Hopefully he can turn it around because his minor league numbers were stellar

Now we need to get Pettitte back and start to prepare for the playoffs. For me that means not being afraid to work on Jeter's swing and possibly dropping him in the order if his awful hitting continues, it means getting a 2nd lefty in the pen and it means keeping Golston on the roster as our 3rd best OF and pinch runner for the postseason. Think of the ground Granderson, Gardner (stay leadoff) and Golston would cover out there? We then figure on which 4 pitchers we go to battle with and it is possible Burnett could see some bullpen time if Nova can pitch well.

Edited to add that Berkman almost got thrown out at home with nobody out and if not for an awful throw from the infielder he could have been thrown out. he was clearly safe, but Robbie Thompson sucks as a 3rd base coach and he scares the heck out of me in a postseason game. Yeah, I know it probably won't matter, but as I always say, it might and I don't want to take that chance.