MVN - Most Valuable Network

Game 72: Yankees at Giants (L)

New York Yankees (36-35) vs. San Francisco Giants (30-42)

Wang (7-4, 3.33) vs. Morris (7-4, 3.21)

Jun. 23, 2007 @ 3:55 p.m. @ AT&T Park

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13		R	H	E
New York Yankees	0	0	3	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0		5	17	0
San Francisco Giants	0	0	1	0	0	1	3	0	0	0	0	0	1		6	12	1
Chulk (W, 2-2) Proctor (L, 1-4)

Preview:

After taking the first game in the series, the Yankees throw their ace, Chien-Ming Wang against the Giants, who counter with their own ace in Matt Morris. Both sport 7-4 records and sub-3.50 ERAs. If the Yankees manage to win today’s game, they have a very good chance of sweeping the Giants, much to the chagrin of Chris “Mad Dog” Russo.

Key Matchups:

• Wang vs. Barry Bonds: Bonds represents, more or less, the only true threat in the Giants’ lineup. If Wang doesn’t allow Bonds to beat him, he stands a good chance at holding this lineup scoreless.
• Alex Rodriguez vs. Matt Morris: A-Rod absolutely went off on the Giants’ pitching last night, going 4 for 4. If Rodriguez stays hot, you can bet that there will be crooked numbers on the scoreboard every few innings.
• Yankee base runners vs. carelessness: The last few days haven’t been kind to the Yankees on the base paths. A few blunders by Jeter, a boneheaded play by Cairo, and a careless mistake by Abreu have all taken place recently. During yesterday’s interview, Torre seemed none too happy about what he’s seen on the base paths. Look for the Yankees to consciously improve their fundamentals and not make any careless mistakes out there today.

Prediction:

Unfortunately, Igawa was not the beneficiary of bonic implants and didn’t look all that “re-tooled” to me. In a shocking turn of events in tonight’s game, Jorge Posada hits a fly ball the opposite way into left field. Barry Bonds tracks the fly ball to the wall, but the ball is just out of his reach. In the confusion, the ball strikes a fan in the noggin, knocking him unconscious. The fan, who had been reaching over the wall for the ball, tumbles from his seat but his fall is luckily cushioned as he lands heavily on Bonds. Bonds is not so lucky. He retires tearfully after the game.

---

Recap:

The Yankees gave this game away, plain and simple. Wang pitched a below average game by his standards but kept them in the game. Unfortunately, the bullpen did not do him any favors, nor did the offense by leaving 16 men on base and blowing a bases-loaded chance in the 11th. Brian Bruney was Goat #1, allowing the tying and go-ahead runs to score. Hideki Matsui was Goat #2, striking out with the bases loaded and one out in the 11th.

Notable Performances:

• Alex Rodriguez had another huge night, going 4-6 and hitting a key tying home run in the 9th inning. This year, Alex is hitting .550 with 7 home runs and 18 RBI in the 9th inning.
• Brian Bruney was brought into the 7th inning in a 2-on 2-out situation. He allowed an RBI single to tie the game then promptly walked the next two batters, walking in the go-ahead run. He did not record an out.
• In the 11th inning, the bases were loaded with 1 out for Hideki Matsui. The one thing you don’t want to do in this situation is ground into a double play. The second is to strike out. Which is exactly what he did. Matsui’s job was to put the ball in the air and score the runner from third. The Giants escaped the inning without giving up a run.

Notes:

Chien-Ming Wang did not have a single strikeout in the game, after striking out a career-high 10 in his previous game. He still pitched 6 1/3 innings of 4-run ball. Not normal Wang numbers, but still fairly quality.

Derek Jeter left the game with a left hip strain. He is listed as day-to-day.

Melky Cabrera went 3 for 7 and his average is slowly climbing; he is up to .257 now. I would also imagine that he is going to start wearing a shin guard after painfully fouling a ball off of his leg for the second game in a row.

Luis Vizcaino pitched two innings and did not allow a base runner. In his last 12 innings of work, he has allowed 6 hits (good), 8 walks (bad), and 1 run (very good). He is quickly returning to being a strong member of the middle relief corps.

Johnny Damon is 3 for 25 in the last 9 games in which he has gone to the plate. His pinch-hit today (ground-out) means they will not be able to count the last two days as retroactive days if they do decide he needs to be DLed. And if they do DL him, who do they expect to DH?

In Other News:

Josh Phelps was claimed off waivers by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Hopefully he can find some success in the Steel City.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 23rd, 2007 at 1:02 pm and is filed under Miguel Cairo, Bobby Abreu, Josh Phelps, Brian Bruney, Mike Myers, Luis Vizcaino, Melky Cabrera, Chien-Ming Wang, Derek Jeter, Hideki Matsui, Jorge Posada, Johnny Damon, Game Thread / Recap, Alex Rodriguez. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.