Yardwork: Mo Blows It & Posada Benched Indefinitely, Cue Panic in New York
By Tim Ryan
We entered the weekend with a Red Sox-Yankees post so why not begin the week with these two lovable heavyweights? Unfortunately for Yankee fans, last night’s game proved to be a somewhat familiar scene in the form of another Mariano blown save at Fenway. It began with a leadoff double from Marco Scutaro, which led to an eventual game-tying sac fly. There would be no magical escape by Mo. And whether it was taken care of in the ninth or in extra innings, it didn’t matter. I think we all knew walkoff mayhem — as unfortunately captured above — was on the way for Boston once Scutaro kicked things off with a double. Before the game, Girardi basically said Jorge Posada would be on the bench more than he’d be on the field for the stretch run, so that one can only get worse as the week goes on. Posada, regardless of possibly realizing his skills have diminished greatly, simply does not have the personality to handle a humbling situation all that well. On top of that, the Sox owned CC once again on Saturday. Panic in the Bronx is here, people. Rejoice and be glad.
Braves 6, Mets 5 — This one had to hurt. The return of good old Larry Jones and his tiebreaking single in the ninth to go along with the return of Jose Reyes’ hamstring. Not fun. The Mets also lost Daniel Murphy. Dan Uggla increased his hitting streak to 28 games and Constanza hit his first major league homer.
Giants 3, Phils 1 — Timmy saved the day and prevented an embarrassing four game sweep at home, going 7 2-3 innings and allowing one run. He also got hit in the knee with Chase Utley’s bat. Utley, in a classy gesture, instantly went out to check on him. Or he just wanted his bat back:
Friday night, however, was a bit of a different scene. Eli Whiteside’s ridiculous hop routine was reason alone to give him an automatic bid into Ronnie’s shore posse. And Shane Victorino is an animal. An all around hilarious fight and a true pleasure to see this one turning into a heated rivalry:
Rangers 5, Indians 3 — Texas stole this one with five runs in the eighth. Sweet bullpen, Cleveland.
Angels 2, Mariners 1 — Poor King Felix. He pitched eight innings, gave up two runs, struck out 12 and, of course, lost. The guy needs to be airlifted out of Seattle immediately.
Brewers 7, Astros 3 — Zack Greinke came to play (7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER) but that’s easy to do when you’re opposing Bud Norris (5 IP, 8 H, 6 ER), who is guaranteed not to show up. I’m perfectly content with having Nyjer Morgan, Prince and the Hebrew Hammer taking part in the postseason, especially since St. Louis is the second place team.
White Sox 7, Twins 0 — The White Sox swept the Twins. Sad times indeed. Here’s Ron Gardenhire: “It has to get done on the field, and we did nothing. As a manager, yes, I’m sitting here wondering what the hell’s going on, to tell you the truth.”
Cards 8, Marlins 4 — Albert has three home runs in his last four games. He has 26 homers and 69 RBIs on the season. Can he notch his 11th straight season of 30 and 100? I hope not, because this is the year A-Rod’s miraculous streak will end as well.
Padres 7, Pirates 3 — The Buccos have lost 10 straight and are something like 0-96 since that awful call at home plate against the Braves.