9-7-12

Good to see the bats staying alive after the 8^th inning last game.  ARod was taking a lot of very aggressive swings and missing a lot but he connected on a big shot.  Pearce even got into the action.  Cano did a good job with the glove.  In fact, he made a nice running catch over the shoulder style that the announcer said he was the only one who had a chance on it even though it was hit into short CF toward the SS side.  The reason was a great way of gauging guys range.  I slowed up the point of contact with the bat and watch Jeter and Cano move toward the ball, they each “cross-overed” their feet and Cano put down his 3^rd step before Jeter got his 2^nd step down.  This is why Cano was there.  People don’t see when a guy has bad range very often because he just doesn’t get there…queue OF’rs compared to Gardner.  Today, McClouth robbed Swisher of a HR on a similar play that we could have made on Wieters in the 1^st inning but Ibanez was out there instead of someone better.  While on Ibanez (nice segue eh?) why did Girardi make a defensive substitution by putting Ibanez in LF and moving Swisher to 1^st base?  Is Swisher really a better defensive 1^st baseman than Pearce or Chavez?  And I know without question Dickerson is a better OF than Ibanez, so why not make the move when the score is 7-0?  Ibanez didn’t have any plays luckily but Swisher booted a grounder.  Speaking of booting a grounder (yes, this is a run on paragraph), Jeter hit a grounder that was hit hard, but it was terribly played by Baltimore and they GAVE Jeter a hit.  First, it should have been an error, but 2^nd with a guy on 2^nd and one out you must knock the ball down and make sure the run doesn’t score…really weak play.

The ump was not calling some strikes that I thought were definitely strikes.  One was right before a HR so it did impact the play and one of the others gave them a 3-0 count with 1^st and 2^nd.  Fortunately, on the -30 green light they popped it up (much like Jones did on his 3-0 swing).

Hughes just throws too many fat pitches.  Yanks up 7-0, he just allowed a double with a guy on and I was wondering what type of pitch he would make…he grooved a long HR pitch.

So Robertson comes in and gets his two guys.  Of course, he must have read this blog as he faced Adam Jones and threw him 3 straight curve balls and struck him out…Man, why did it take them losing a game to figure out the obvious?

Games are exciting and important…glad we got this one