When the opposing outfielder forgets the count, hangs onto the ball in blissful ignorance for five seconds while his teammates scream at him and still ends up with a double play, you kinda get the feeling it just wasn't meant to be your day.
Hideki Matsui wasn't the only outfielder to forget how many fingers he was holding up a few seconds ago yesterday. Old friend Shannon Stewart caught an Alex Cora fly in the top of the first yesterday and had tossed the ball to a fan before realising it was only the second out, allowing Kevin Millar to score. The Larry Walker play as I'll always think of it happens a few times every year, but twice in a day, that's pretty rare.
This was a funny series the Jays one win was, on paper, what should have been the toughest game.
Al Leiter was the story of yesterday's game, I suppose. The Jays hitters couldn't get anything going against 'The Senator', and seemed too happy to whale away early in the count (especially in the early innings) rather than force Leiter to deal with his control problems.
That was Leiter's third decent start (from five) as a Yankee. Check out his starts since his move:
DATE OPP RESULT IP H R ER HR BB SO GB FB PIT Jul. 17 @BOS W 5-3 6.1 3 1 1 0 3 8 5 7 102 Jul. 22 @LAA L 6-3 6.0 10 6 6 0 2 2 11 9 104 Jul. 27 MIN L 7-3 5.0 7 1 1 0 5 2 12 6 115 Aug. 2 @CLE L 6-5 2.0 4 5 5 0 5 2 4 3 78 Aug 7 @TOR W 6-2 5.2 4 0 0 0 4 2 7 8 102 --- -- - - - - - -- -- 25 28 13 13 0 19 16 39 33
If he can continue to mix in one good start for every bad start, the Yankees are going to be pretty pleased with picking him up. The K/BB ratio, it has to be said, is hardly predictive of continued success, but if he can keep producing groundballs, and preventing homers, at the rate he is he should keep the Yankees in a lot of games for 5 or 6 innings, which is all the Yankees really need him to do.
The far more interesting story on the Yankees is the return of the imperfect Mr Giambi. There was a terrific piece in the New York Times yesterday examining Giambi's return to excellence and shedding some light on just how sick he was last year.
"...he could not keep down food. His vision was so blurry he often could not drive..."It got to the point where I wasn't able to function," Giambi said. "Sleep until game time, if I could sleep." He said he lost 10 to 15 pounds. He was able to drink protein shakes and maybe eat oatmeal, but nothing else. He sweated constantly..."
Fun, huh? When you consider how thin the line is between success and failure at the highest level, it's no surprise Giambi looked so bad last year. Now that he's back to being healthy, he's a monster again, and I'm glad to see it, I've always enjoyed watching Giambi play. Compare his numbers this year to his MVP season in 2000.
SEASON TEAM G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS 2000 Oak 152 510 108 170 29 1 43 137 137 96 .333 .476 .647 1.123 2005 NYY 92 273 46 80 12 0 21 51 65 74 .293 .453 .568 1.021
Not quite up to his former level, but then not too far way either. It's no surprise to see him back; he was never an invention of steroids, they did nothing to affect his freakish eyesight or hand to eye coordination. Magpie has, as always, had some astute words on the subject. Noting "The things that made Jason Giambi the player he had been in the past were for the most own part his own abilities and skills. And so it follows that even if you take the enhancements away, what remains is not exactly chopped liver."
Game Day
The struggling Tigers come to the T.dot to face the wrath of the fighting Jays, I'm hoping to make it down to the RC tonight to watch David Bush out-duel Mike Maroth. Who else is going ?
Links
Geoff Baker looks at yesterdays game, Gregg Zaun's feelings on the game, make quite a fitting reflection on the whole season "We played pretty well. Minus the timely hitting we played them pretty tough".
* The Star reports Doc is hoping to be back for the Angels series that starts on August 15th.
* Chris Stevenson reports on a 12-11 thriller in Ottawa, as the Lynx drop a tough one to Rochester.
* Ice . . . Coooold . . . Beeeeer! a profile of RC vendor Wayne McMahon and his signature call.
Daily Diversion
Another of those ridiculously addictive net games. I would really not advise clicking on that link if you have a deadline this morning.