From home runs by Nunez and Pena to solid relief efforts by Wade and Marquez, I kept blinking my eyes and wondering what the hell was going on. If you told me these guys would figure into the Yankees’ thrashing of the Rangers tonight, I never would have believed it.
But then every infielder had a homer (and, of course, Tex had two – one from each side) in a game in which the offense overshadowed a shaky start by Nova, yet another error by Nunez and more ridiculous throws by Cervelli.
There’s no need for me to recap except to say I sure wish we’d beat up on the Rangers like this during the ALCS last year.
Timing is everything, right? And I realize they’re a different team without Cliff Lee. But still. I wonder if Andy Pettitte (Happy Birthday, Andy, btw) would have retired if we’d have won that series.
Moving on, I sure hope Brian Gordon is up to the challenge in tomorrow’s game. I bet he’s sitting in his hotel room right now biting his nails, spitting out sunflower seeds, gnawing on the arm of the couch. I’m saying he’s probably nervous, in other words. Maybe somebody could slip him one of these?
Wow, you described Brian Gordon almost as if he were a dog! lol…
Good to see Peña back, and with his second career home run as well! (That was a shot for that kid, huh?) While we should be familiar with how good Peña and Cervelli can be, we also know about their drawbacks. Peña can be great on defense, but we saw how his offense was lacking last year. And for all of Cervelli’s energy and game-calling (and decent clutch attributes), his defensive problems from last year haven’t been solved. And then there’s Nuñez, who’s got Cervelli’s issues. So we’ll get what we can from these guys while the regulars are on the mend.
But these bullpen guys are really brand spanking new. And it’s a little scary. Good thing our offense seems to have woken up recently so we can get some of these guys’ feet wet. But eventually some of kids are going to have to stick. And right now we’re seeing a game of freshman merry-go-round. I can’t even imagine the pressure these guys are facing. It’s one thing to get your MLB debut as a Yankee, or get your first solid number of innings, but having to show you can shut down opposing major league hitters and be depended on in late game situations for a title contender makes me queasy thinking about it…!
Like you said in a previous post, Jane, hopefully Gordon can become someone like an Aaron Small from 2005. Remember that year? How we started off so bad after the season which will not be named. And how we had such a mish-mash starting rotation. Randy Johnson and Mike Mussina were probably the only two consistent starters. It was the first ill-gotten year of the Pavano era. The albatross Kevin Brown (may the image of him wearing pinstripes forever be stricken from our memories!!). Jaret Wright! Shawn Henn! Al Lieter! (whose key spot start in Boston probably helped us win the division!) And then Chien-Ming Wang’s first season (still one of my most favorite Yankees ever). And Shawn Chacon who pitched like he never had before. And of course, Aaron Small who went 10-0. And the patch-work rotation helped us to win the division on the penultimate day of the season. In Boston, no less!! Brian Cashman certainly earned his money that year, and he’s shown he’s got a good eye for players who were on the scrap heap (ahem, Big Bart, Freddy Garcia, Eric Chavez, Russell Martin…).
Hopefully he proves it again with Brian Gordon.
But then if he gives up 9 runs in 2/3 innings pitched we might just run both of them out of town! Ha!
http://yankeecase.mlblogs.com/
Whoever these Yankees are, I’m loving them! Tex – what a monster! Nunez – Happy Birthday! And when Pena hit that homerun I laughed outloud. Then Robbie had to get in on the act. Unbelievable!
It seems like the kids are really stepping up their games and earning their pinstirpes. I do wish Cervelli would get his throwing issues under control and Nunez does tend to make at least an error a game but it’s hard to complain when the team is combining for the kinds of offensive efforts we’ve seen in the past two nights. It’s nice to take the pressure off the young pitchers and allow them to work things out – hope they do the same for Gordon this afternoon.
Whoever these Yankees are, I’m loving them! Tex – what a monster! Nunez – Happy Birthday! And when Pena hit that homerun I laughed outloud. Then Robbie had to get in on the act. Unbelievable!
It seems like the kids are really stepping up their games and earning their pinstirpes. I do wish Cervelli would get his throwing issues under control and Nunez does tend to make at least an error a game but it’s hard to complain when the team is combining for the kinds of offensive efforts we’ve seen in the past two nights. It’s nice to take the pressure off the young pitchers and allow them to work things out – hope they do the same for Gordon this afternoon. (I hope this doesn’t double-post. I thought it posted earlier but then it wasn’t there. If it does double-up, I apologize in advance for being annoying).
Yup, I see it did.
They are racking up big numbers because they are hitting home runs, but they are also scoring in other ways and I’m loving it. As I was watching last night, I got thinking how 2009 was the year of the walk off. This is the year of the homer. As long as they score runs in other ways as well, it is so fun to watch! (Well really, as long as they keep winning!!!)
Pena’s shot was a nice long one. Did anyone hear John Sterling’s call? Wonder what he said for him and Nunez.
My youngest son is going to the game today, I hope he brings us luck.
I drive a Prius. Whenever I get less than 45 miles to a gallon of gas, I get upset. With the Yankees winning two in a row by 12-4 scores, I think I might get upset if we win by a mere 11-5. Oh how spoiled we can become, and I’m loving it!
I like Tex’s quote after the game, “I went Eddie Murray”. Nice!
I described Gordon as if he were a dog, YankeeCase? Do dogs spit sunflower seeds? LOL. I’m shuddering that you mentioned Kevin Brown. Somehow that era will always haunt me. But yes, it would be nice if Brian Gordon became the second coming of Aaron Brown. Let’s just start with a win for him today, which I’m sure would be a thrill for him. I assume Noesi will end up in the rotation at some point, so Gordon may only be a stop-gap measure, who knows. Our scrap heap just keeps getting higher.
Not to worry about the double post, Audrey. It happens. I get so much spam on this blog and have to go through it and delete it every few hours that sometimes people’s comments may get caught in that folder. I do love watching the kids step up and show what they can do. They have such energy and they know this is their moment to shine. Pena was passed over for Nunez in spring training, so he must have a real hunger to stay in the bigs.
I didn’t hear Sterling’s calls, Melissa. I was watching YES. But he must have had one for Pena back in the vault! If I had a choice, I’d take walkoffs versus homers. Don’t get me wrong. I love the homers. I just worry about the postseason when they’ll be facing the best pitchers and homers are harder to hit.
HAHA, yankeefansince1941. I know what you mean. The Yankees are spoiling us with these back to back multi-run games. Can we score at least 10 runs every game? We may need to with our makeshift pitching staff.
I loved his comparison to Eddie Murray too, Jeff. I didn’t realize he idolized him growing up. I thought Mattingly was his idol, but I guess a kid can have more than one.
Okey-dokey. Another unexpected many-tatered, big-run win! Thanx, boyz…
The recounting of ’05 by YankeeCase was rather painful, but don’t we all tend to forget that even in a season that ends badly, there were a lot of GOOD moments too. Some of my more favorite Yanks teams down the years were ones that DIDN’T win it all. Thanx to you, Jane, 2007 will always be on that list. And others too numerous to mention (like 2003, ’01, all the way back to ’76 and even ’64). I betcha “yankeefan since’41” could add many many more (like 1960…still love Casey’s last team…).
With the fun’n’funky patchwork-quilt of a team we have this year…and given the L-O-N-G odds of spoiling The Inevitable Philly-Bahston World Series…anything positive should be good. So I’ll enjoy 2011 one day at a time. Best o’luck today, Mister Gordon. Just eat some innings, oh pleez. With half the team on the DL, and the other half as likely as not to join ’em, I’ll be happy with winning this little series and going from there. As Son #2 (the optimist) quickly reminded me, hey, they’re 5-1 since the Boston series…
Pretty cool, if I read it right, that Tex has 22 taters, 11 lefty and 11 righty. Sure, we’d love to hear him say he was “Mickey” tonight, but Tex is a Maryland boy, and Eddie was a well-qualified legend in these here parts. Best thing about Eddie was, he was QUIET, just like his mentor, Lee May. See what you learn when you live in the shadow of the enemy campsite for a decade or three??
Who cares who they are, as long as they keep doing stuff like this. And you can add the bullpen to that list as well, 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Nova? He did juuuust enough.
Eddie Murray? Teix, I know you’re from Maryland, but this is New York. You went Mickey Mantle.
You’re so right, Dave and Uncle Mike. We need some Mickey Mantle love. I want to start hearing his name from these guys!!!!!
I hope Gordon does well for your guys! Must be pretty exciting for him, going from the Phils’ AAA team to the Yankees rotation. Apparently he had some sort of clause in his minor-league contract that he would be released if a big-league club picked him up within a certain window of time. He was doing great with the IronPigs; it’ll be nice to see him get a shot with the Yanks.
Actually Uncle Mike, Tex went Murray and Chilli Davis, who both did it 11 times also. The Mick only did it 10. (Which I heard on the TV broadcast, then listening to the radio John Sterling asked how many times Mickey did it and I said “10, John!”)
Jane, I also prefer the walk off wins, but I’ve decided to relax and enjoy the homers this season.
Gordon did pretty well today, Sue. You could tell he was a little nervous in the beginning, but he threw a ton of strikes. Wow.
We got a walkoff today, Melissa, and it was fantastic!!!!