Yanks Chase Down the Rangers

Well  that  was easy, all it took  was 14 innings for the Yanks to  finally defeat  the woeful Texas Rangers 2-1.

The hard  part was listening to  fan  favorite Paul O’Neill color the game  for close to  5 hours, and of course  sitting through just  about 4 and a half hours of some of the worst offense this side of a  first  round World Cup Soccer match.

Even  after a dramatic ending that  featured newly acquired Bomber 3rd baseman Chase Headley blooping a walk off single, Hollywood style,  you had to  scratch  your head and wonder how in the hell can  two  offenses play 12 innings and not score a run, in a Band Box like Yankee Stadium, on a hot night in July?

Managers Joey Day Care and Superfly Washington didn’t exactly send Juan Marichal and Warren Spahn out to  the bump, and Willie Mays wasn’t walking through those clubhouse doors to  save anybody’s bacon, but that didn’t stop baseball’s version of a CSPAN filibuster from keeping you on the edge of falling asleep in front of the TV.

There were 17  pitchers involved, 9  for Texas, 8 for the Bombers, there were sightings of the occasional  brand names like Feliz, Soria, Betances and Robertson, but for the most part replacement #8 in the rotation Chase Whitley 6 innings,  and some kid from Fordham University Nick Martinez 5.1  locked horns as the starters followed by everybody available in the NY and Texas bull pens. Super Fly Washington had to  actually go  to  a starter that  pitched on Sunday before the resilient Bombers walked off for their 51st Win

Ranger starter Nick Martinez was on somewhat of a 60-ish type pitch count for the night, and he like crusty veteran of 4 starts and a 7.58 ERA, 25 yr old Miles Jolly Saint Mikolas  the night before, shut down  the Bronx Bombers  for 5.1 innings on 3 hits, no runs 1 BB, 3 K’s. It was brutal  to  watch this poor excuse for a MLB offense scratch out  3 singles and a base on balls off a kid who had given  up 82 hits in 67 innings, had a 5.99 FIP, a 1.687 WHIP, a .143 winning %, and a 5.10 ERA, yeah there is that  kind of Stink on this Bomber offense

We know the  challenged Rangers are this bad, they only have 2 or 3 regulars left on the 25 man roster after a ton  of debilitating injuries, but the Yanks are the Half Billion Dollar Men, the gaudy $200M payroll. The only problem, it’s 2014 not 2008, so most of the players on the Yanks get paid for what  they  used to be not what  they  are now, baseball has a very flawed dynamic to  their earning properties to say  the least.

That’s why you can’t blame the Red Sox for developing their farm  system 1st, and staying away from long term contracts, for which the Twitchy Midget is the only long tenured deal on their squad, and he’s already morphing what  was once labeled a hometown  discount into another contract that will most likely not pay dividends on the back  end.

Teams seriously need to  develop  young talent, then use the extra TV revenues to  buy out arbitration years and in some cases free agent years in an  effort to not  pay retail for aging one time stars, like McCann, Beltran, Teixeira, Arod, Sabathia, Jeter, Ichiro, Soriano, and  Roberts..

Jeter is an  exception, he’s an all time great playing out his final  season.  Neither the Yanks or their YES Network Monkey’s will admit it, but  they had to  think the Brand names they  brought in would carry the Captain this season, not look  to  ride his coattails into  October. The front office was counting on Jeter’s farewell  tour to stuff their cash register at  the gate, but on the field they  brought in what they  thought would be sufficient protection for the the Cap, boy did that game plan  back fire

Anyway, the game unveiled like a bad movie, unless your related to  the pitchers involved, with  both Martinez and Bomber starter Chase Whitley, 6 innings, 7 hits, no  runs, 6 K’s, looking more like Kershaw and King Felix then  4 A starters as the mowed down one batter  after another.

For Texas, they  were able to get shutout innings from Martinez, Feliz, Tolleson, Cotts, Mendez, Feierabend,  and Baker, before Closer Soria and starter Tepesch, coughed up  6 hits and 2 runs in 1.1 innings of relief at the end. The Yanks got goose eggs from Whitley, Thornton, Warren, Betances, Robertson and Kelley, before Huff  gave up  a solo HR to Arencibia in the 13th inning. Huff was in his 2nd inning of relief when  the .139 hitting 1st baseman / catcher who  was 1 for 6 on the night crushed a meatball change-up into  the left center field bull pen to  give the Rangers what looked like a 1-0  win after 13 grueling innings of no  run baseball

The Bomber offensive tone was set in the 1st inning after a lead off Gardner single was immediately erased by a Jeter DP. Ellsbury  per usual laced a single but Beltran rolled over yet  another ground ball  to  2nd base to  start  the anemic trek to  mediocrity. After the small uprising in the 1st inning, Martinez set down  10 in a row before Roberts lined a 2 out single in the 5th.

Gardner walked in the 6th  ending Marinez’s night but he was stranded on 1st base. SuperStar Brett made no  attempt to  get into  scoring position which  continues to  boggle the mind  how this guy doesn’t use his speed to steal bases and eliminate the propensity for Jeter to hit into  DP’s. If Jeter is gonna insist on batting 2nd, then Gardner needs to use his legs to  help  nullify the Caps 61% ground ball  rate

The Yanks went 7 up  and 7 down before the Cap put some life into  the offense with a one out double in the 9th inning. No problem, Ellsbury was intentionally walked and on  cue Beltran  smacked into  a DP. Gardner induced a 2 out walk in the 11th, this time he did swipe the  base, Cappy walked but Ellsbury rolled over a ground ball  to  end it

Yanks got close to  a walk off in the 12th  after lead off singles by Beltran  and McCann. Ichiro  bunted them  to  2nd and 3rd, but Cervelli lined a bullet to Beltre at  3rd, and Headley grounded out to  end that  threat

Arencibia took Huff deep in the 13th  and you thought this one was over, but Gardner led off the 13th  with a double, Jeter sac bunted him to  3rd, and Ellsbury tied it with a  clutch RBI single. Beltran moved the line with  a knock, but McCann put any thought of a walk off to bed  by bouncing into  a DP

Newly acquired Jeff Francis worked the top of the 14th giving up  a single but no  runs. The Yanks finally ended it in the 14th when Roberts poked a 1 out ground rule double. Cervelli  singled Roberts to  3rd, and on his 4th  try after a long whirlwind day and 3 failed attempts in this game, Chase Headley dunked a walk off single to left center for the dramatic win, just  how Brian Cashman  scripted it.

The Win was huge, with Darvish going for the Rangers tonight, and the Bomber bullpen completely used up, at least Robertson who pitched 2 scoreless is most likely unavailable tonight. My guess if it comes down to it, Betances, Kelley and Warren might have some gas in the tank. Girardi  will need a lengthy outing from Ace David Phelps tonight, win lose or draw

After watching how two  rooks have dominated the Bombers so  far in this series, one would   think Darvish piling on more zeros  is a chalk  take.

We did see the boys give Simon  and the Mighty Cueto a hard time so you never know, but at least they  avoided the potential 3 game losing streak  to  what has to be  one of the worst teams in the AL. The AL West is touted the best  division in the league, but while they  sport 3 teams that  are  currently in the playoffs, they  also  have the two bottom  feeders lodged  in their division in Houston  and Texas

the Whole 14

Blind on Blind, the Happy Recap