Time to move on
By Jon Lane
Okay, the Yankees are 0-8 against the Red Sox and losers of nine straight to their rivals since last season, the longest such streak in nearly 100 years.
Terrible, no doubt. And no question the Red Sox hold a psychological edge over the Yankees; whatever could go wrong did during those three nights at Fenway Park. Blame A.J. Burnett, Chien-Ming Wang, the bullpen and Joe Girardi all you want, but 3-for-26 with runners in scoring position in the past two games is hideous.
But if you look at the big picture, the series means nothing.Consider.
- Today is June 12, 2009. The Yankees are two games out of first with 102 to play and 34-18 against the rest of the league.
- The teams do not meet again until August 6 at Yankee Stadium, the first of 10 remaining between the clubs. The last three are September 25-27 at the Bronx. Trust me, those games will be far more significant.
- For a historical precedent, I think back to 1988. Yeah, the Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers aren’t bitter division rivals, but the Mets took 10 of 11 games from them during the regular season. The Dodgers beat them four games to three in the National League Championship series en route to winning the World Series. In 1999, the Yankees went 4-8 against the Red Sox – and beat them 4-1 in the ALCS.
Moral of the story. Put this to bed. Tonight begins another Subway Series. It’s overhyped and six games are too many – it’d be better if the teams met three times once a year, but that makes less money – but it still generates a buzz amongst fans. I’ll be there later keeping a diary of pregame activity and the vibe around the Stadium. Being that we haven’t seen the sun all week, we’ll have to keep close eyes on the weather.
Back soon with more.
YES Blog 
Great post Jon. Don’t worry about the moron above me, obviously he’s a reactionary fan who makes insulting and degrading claims about your profession despite lack of proof to back it up.
I agree Jon. What the Yankees should focus on now is winning as many games as they can and during this time before they meet Boston again, to learn from what happened in the Boston series. But we need to move on and continue the winning season. I have faith in my Yankees (and my man A-Rod) to get past this and move on. They are professionals.
We roll over and die at the first sign of pressure. 20 comebacks later…
Dear David Cone and Michael Kay,
I love you guys, and I understand you are closer to the organization than us fans and are paid to defend management decisions. But please be more honest with us during the broadcasts. I wont debate the Wang vs Hughes argument even though I disagree and see more upside with Hughes, but you cant expect us to sit there and listen to you point out anything positive from his disgraceful performances this year. I would much prefer you just gave sympathy for him and say, “Boy, hes not going well, I hope he turns it around!”. You cannot justify improved velocity as improved performance. His ERA is only dropped because they yanked him earlier this time around.
As far as the Yankees “measuring” themselves this past series. Well, I hope that was not truly the case.
Anyhow, Lets please get back to winning, and quickly.
Bob Corcoran
Letsgoyankees is clearly on Yes Networks payroll. How you can justify a complete meltdown against our biggest rival is beyond my comprehension. How far do you think they’re going to go if they can’t beat the best team in the division you nimrod! What a first round exit like the last 5 years! The Red Sox play smart, relaxed baseball while the Yankees fall to pieces. Go ahead tell me I’m wrong! What was Jeter 2 for 15 in this series with 0 RBIs? Look at our $21 Million Captain. You people are brainwashed and it’s actually sad. You will never see me or anyone I know subsidize this over rated over paid rabble of mercenaries by paying even a sheckle to witness their fumbling and bumbling in person. Good Job building Coors Field East and getting anybody to pay top dollar to watch a 2nd tier team. PEACE
Hello
I agree to a certain extent.
The problem is that we don’t have a bullpen.
If Joba would have been in the pen last night, we would have won 3-1. And if Joba would be our 8 inn man,
we would be 4-4 on the year with boston. This is dis-hearting, because all we need to do is a little adjustment, and we would have the best bullpen in baseball! bar none.
Bruney-chamberlin-rivera. It would be a 5 inn game.\
And hughes and Wang can be in the rotation.
I would rather have chamberlin throwing 98-100 for an inn or two…than 92-93 as a starter.
We would just be the best team period…..instead of having trouble maintaing leads…which we do, especially against good teams…
Also, note Mariano is having a bit of a dead arm period due to surgery….in essence the best recourse for him would be 10 days on the dL….How many pitchers get stronger in this situation without the rest
Joba would allow this to happen, by being the closer till Rivera gets healthy…..+ We need to start grooming Joba for the ineviotable closers role in 1 or 2 years……
We will eventually wind up doing all this anyway! MArk my words….you will remember my comments…..
Let’s do it now….
And yes….We would be far better than the Red Sox if we would do this….
Right now our bullpen will continue to tease, but never
fully apire to greatness….nor even mediacraty…..
My 2 cents…..
And the voice of reason
I like this way of looking at it. Really, we could’ve won the last two nights. We’ll look forward to putting them away in August! Let’s crush the Mets in the meantime!!! Go Yankees!
Michael Kay…I know you recieve a paycheck from YES, but when a team loses 8 games straight against Boston, and 2 out of 3 against Philly (our only real threat if we make the post season) you can’t sugar coat and fluff up the embarrasing play that they have recently played. Just listen to me for a moment if you can stand to. A couple weeks ago, I remember watching the announcers and some of the Yankees being interviewed, and being asked if they felt like this was a ?special? team this year. Everyone was agreeing ?yes?. Pies were being smeared into faces. Joking, *** grabbing etc. After the last two series?this is not a special team yet. But it is need of some special help. We are seeing this far too often for a Yankee team: 1. Jeter. The ?Captain? of the team. He is hitting ok. Every once in a while he is ok in the clutch. But more than not, when he gets up to the plate you are waiting for him to hit that pop-up or hit into the double play. I don?t get it. 2. Damon. He is hitting ?ok? but not clutch. He looks like a 9 year old boy in a little league game every time the ball is hit towards him in left field. No confidence. 3. Teixeira. Right now, bar none, the best player on the team. Enough said. 4. A-Rod. What in the mammoth is wrong with him?? He gets up to the plate and you just wait for him to get out. Get it over with. 5. Swisher. Like a wedding in Vegas. Started out awesome, and then it got bad fast. 50/50 hitting. Has looked like a ***-clown lately in the outfield. And screwing up on the bases the last couple games?? Those are small things that lose games. Pitchers: A.J. Burnett. He has pitched like Helen Keller 95% of the time he has taken the mound. What is his problem? He hasn?t been throwing pies lately has he. He?s thrown a 6-year-old temper tantrum in Boston when he sucked his way off the mound. Wang. Why he is still with the team and not down in AAA I don?t know. He sucks. How long is Girardi going to keep saying that he is making progress and coming along? Something in his head needs tweaking, and I am talking about Wang. Its not pitching in AAA getting better. It?s a mental thing. Throwing him in against Boston was retarted. Everyone knew he wasn?t going to pitch well. Did we want to win the game or not. Yes??? He shouldn?t have started. No?? Start Wang. We want to win right? That?s the intent of every game. Joba. Needs to be a reliever. Bottom line. Pull Wang, insert Hughes. Joba in the bullpen as a reliever. Girardi is acting too optimistic as a manager right now. Yes we are going to lose games. Yes we need to get over a loss and look to the next game. But when we lose to Boston 8 games to none, he just acts like it was a normal loss and ?we look forward to meeting them again?. Wrong answer! I was really hoping he would be alright as a manager. I am seeing now that this will probably be his last year if they don?t make it to the post season. He knows that. 13 years. We went 13 years in a row making the post season until?.2008. Common denominator?Girardi. He is too much like a buddy than a manager. Its obvious to me due to a lot of the decision making that is going on by him. Ok, I?ve vented. NOT!!!!!!!!!
Kevin ? Upstate NY
What is up with Nick Swisher? He spends more time showing off by jumping onto walls and into the stands for the camera than actually paying attention to the game. He’s playing for the cameras not the team.
eyeinthesun, I hope you are OK. Sounds like you are about to have a heart attack :).
The Yankees in these eight games against the Redsox has shown us that they are not an elite team. They are still chokers like they were in 2004. I mean, Alex Rodriguez got hit and they were not angry. Nick Swisher made boneheaded mistakes that cost the Yankees two games. AJ Burnett is a terrible pitcher with no control and what is worse is that they allowed a guy who had nothing on his fastball to shut them down when it mattered the most. This Yankee team might make it to the playoff but will lose miserably because they cannot play fundamentally sound baseball. Joe Girardi is a terrible manager because he allowed CHien Ming Wang and AJ Burnett to face the Redsox when they were not ready and the Yankees still believe that Joba can start when in reality he is an elite reliever.
The Yankees in these eight games against the Redsox has shown us that they are not an elite team. They are still chokers like they were in 2004. I mean, Alex Rodriguez got hit and they were not angry. Nick Swisher made boneheaded mistakes that cost the Yankees two games. AJ Burnett is a terrible pitcher with no control and what is worse is that they allowed a guy who had nothing on his fastball to shut them down when it mattered the most. This Yankee team might make it to the playoff but will lose miserably because they cannot play fundamentally sound baseball. Joe Girardi is a terrible manager because he allowed CHien Ming Wang and AJ Burnett to face the Redsox when they were not ready and the Yankees still believe that Joba can start when in reality he is an elite reliever.