Thursday, May 28, 2009

Ladies and gentlemen, your first-place New York Yankees!

Our long national nightmare is over. The Yankees are finally back in first place, where they belong. Unfortunately, they have to share that spot - for this morning, at least - with the Boston Red Sox. Grrrrrr.

Meanwhile, the Mets also moved into first place last night, a spot they don't have to share with anyone. Squawker Jon rather gleefully pointed this out to me on the phone last night. My reaction? It was Zambranoesque!

As for the Yankee game itself, I didn't get to follow some of it - my radio's batteries ran out of juice when I was at the gym, so I missed the middle innings. After the game, I did get to see the clip of Kevin Cash going out to the mound to settle down A.J. Burnett - and not saying anything. The look on Burnett's face was classic!

Joe Girardi called Burnett's victory "gritty." When Kim Jones asked him about it, A.J. responded, "You'll have to explain that word to me first." I was hoping Kim was going to say that gritty was like Scottie Brosius or something!

And is it just me, or does Burnett look like Harrison Ford?

Besides Burnett's victory, other good signs included Hideki Matsui's two homers, Mark Teixeira's 12th homer this month, and Chien-Ming Wang's excellent two innings. Wang's ERA is down to 20.45. Hooray!

I've been avoiding talking about this, as I don't want to jinx it, but the Yanks have now had 14 consecutive games without an error. Of course, now that I've mentioned it, expect an error tomorrow night.

What do you think? Leave us a comment!

7 comments:

Uncle Mike said...

Lisa, you don't have to be afraid to mention an errorless streak. It's the Curse of Kay, not the Curse of Swan!

I only saw bits and pieces of the game, including one at-bat by Matsui. Not one of the good ones. I didn't find out until this morning he's jacked two out. This is a big relief for me, as I've liked him from day one.

Pitching, pitching, pitching. Having grown up as a kid who dug the long ball, whose favorite player was the era's premier slugger (no player born between 1935 and 1963 had more homers than Reggie Jackson, drug-aided or otherwise), I used to laugh at people who said, "Pitching is 75 percent of baseball." But it wasn't all that big an exaggeration, as the Torre years proved: Joe always said that "Momentum is tomorrow's starting pitcher."

Two out of three from a good (if young) Texas team on the road. That's more encouraging than being in first place on May 28. It shows that the Yankees are now taking everyone seriously, instead of laughing off teams like, you know, they (and I) did last year with Tampa Bay. (Hello? Geno? Anybody home? How's the Ray-volution going?)

Of course, being in first place on May 28 doesn't mean much if you're not a Playoff qualifier on October 4. But this is now a team in which we can have confidence -- if not, yet, arrogance. (Not that I'm taking a shot at anyone here... by name, anyway.)

NAM said...

Welcome to first place! I hate sharing it with you, but better the Yankees than the Rays. I hope we can pick up 1/2 game today while your team is resting.

Anonymous said...

Good for the yanks!good for the mets!go teams!

She-Fan said...

I loved how AJ didn't even bother to shake off Cash when there was a sign he didn't like. He just refused to look at him! I don't see the Harrison Ford resemblance, but I do think that Aceves looks like Leyritz. Very excited that we're tied for first, even if it's only May. Better than the cellar.

Traveling Baseball Babes said...

AJ a Harrison Ford look alike? Not so much. But was he a fighter last night? Absolutely! Love a player that plays tough, especially in this day and age of wussy professional athletes.

-Serena

Anonymous said...

In first place, where you belong? Where you belong? You must be talking about last place, because that is where you belong. First place is where you buy yourselves into. Go ahead, thump your chests and shoot your mouths off, the rest of the world knows that you suck. Spend a half-billion dollars and buy yourselves another trophy, how does it feel to be a hollow champion (or in your case, first-class chumps)?

louise said...

The Mets are playing like the Baltimore Orioles. Their lack of power may be their downfall yet this season, but right now and have the fifth-best record in the National League. Now the Mets just need to work on their squeeze plays and be more patient. They’ve always been my favourite teams in MLB. Just read about them here:
http://www.metsground.com

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