The Genius Maker 5-22

Good to see we can play a game down to the last out against the juggernaut like KC at home and come out ahead…

The big play in the game was we finally got a hit with RISP and it came on, wait for the drum roll, a bunt!  Girardi correctly asked Dwayne Wise to bunt with 1^st and 2^nd nobody out (we should be doing this most of the time) and he placed a perfect bunt down the 3^rd base line to load the bases with nobody out.  While this situation has not led to runs recently, we caught a break as Jeter blooped one into the RF and Wise (going half way) barely beat the throw to 2^nd base.  Interestingly if the SS was playing like a 1^st baseman and stretch he might have been out OR if canon armed Franceour threw directly home I think he would have gotten Teixeira who for some reason was tagging up?  He should have gone “half” way because there was little chance he would beat the throw home if Franceour had seen him tagging up.

Hughes was nailing the outside corner with his fastball but as usual let a few trail back over the plate and also hung a curve on an 0-2 pitch, but overall did a good job

The Good:

·        Hughes has pitched a few good games in a row now

·        The bullpen shut down KC for the final 3 innings allowing only 2 hits (no walks) with one being a failed cover play by Logan on a grounder to 1^st base

·        I liked the way Girardi handled the bullpen.  He still had Phelps and Garcia (although he is a last resort) if the game went into extra innings.  I also liked that Girardi put Tex batting 7^th the last few games; it makes sense for now.

·        Soriano was able to keep the tying run on 3^rd base as ARod made a strong throw to 1^st base (flat footed) after taking the ball deep and straight rather than back handing it.  The play was extremely close, especially because the throw was up the line and Tex had to stretch toward RC and not toward 3^rd base.

·        Cano hit a bunch of balls on the screws yesterday, including a missile HR to RC

The Bad:

·        Swisher is swinging and missing breaking ball after breaking ball and now has an OBP below .300 as he keeps swinging at balls.

·        ARod had bases loaded and one out and struck out and Ibanez followed with a K and then later Ibanez was up again in a big spot and didn’t come through

·        Baltimore won again (although they did beat Boston).

·        The offense in general is lifeless and under performing; 3 runs off of a pitcher that had an ERA of over 7 coming into the game and we scored 7 runs off of him in 2+ innings 2 weeks ago shows we didn’t do our job and they made the adjustments.