eval/2score_mlb_clips.jsonl

{"video": "Baidu_MLB/MLB_New York Yankees Tampa Bay Rays 05 09 15.mp4", "content": [[2493.78, 2494.18, "huge"], [2494.18, 2494.57, "at-bat,"], [2494.57, 2494.96, "Logan"], [2494.96, 2495.35, "Forsythe"], [2495.35, 2495.75, "red"], [2495.75, 2496.14, "hot,"], [2496.14, 2496.53, "bases"], [2496.53, 2496.92, "loaded,"], [2496.92, 2497.31, "just"], [2497.31, 2497.71, "one"], [2497.71, 2498.1, "out"], [2498.1, 2498.49, "here"], [2498.49, 2498.88, "in"], [2498.88, 2499.27, "the"], [2499.27, 2499.67, "inning"], [2499.67, 2500.06, "—"], [2500.06, 2500.45, "you"], [2500.45, 2500.84, "miss"], [2500.84, 2501.24, "away,"], [2501.24, 2501.63, "ball"], [2501.63, 2502.02, "one,"], [2502.02, 2502.41, "all"], [2502.41, 2502.8, "of"], [2502.8, 2503.2, "a"], [2503.2, 2503.59, "sudden"], [2503.59, 2503.98, "a"], [2503.98, 2504.37, "breaking"], [2504.37, 2504.76, "ball"], [2504.76, 2505.16, "into"], [2505.16, 2505.55, "the"], [2505.55, 2505.94, "zone"], [2505.94, 2506.33, "you"], [2506.33, 2506.73, "get"], [2506.73, 2507.12, "even,"], [2507.12, 2507.51, "you"], [2507.51, 2507.9, "jump"], [2507.9, 2508.29, "out"], [2508.29, 2508.69, "ahead,"], [2508.69, 2509.08, "foul"], [2509.08, 2509.47, "ball,"], [2509.47, 2509.86, "still"], [2509.86, 2510.25, "wanted"], [2510.25, 2510.65, "to,"], [2510.65, 2511.04, "just"], [2511.04, 2511.43, "off,"], [2511.43, 2511.82, "two"], [2511.82, 2512.22, "and"], [2512.22, 2512.61, "two;"], [2512.61, 2513.0, "how"], [2513.0, 2513.39, "do"], [2513.39, 2513.78, "you"], [2513.78, 2514.18, "not"], [2514.18, 2514.57, "hit"], [2514.57, 2514.96, "him"], [2514.96, 2515.35, "full"], [2515.35, 2515.74, "count"], [2515.74, 2516.14, "and"], [2516.14, 2516.53, "then"], [2516.53, 2516.92, "want"], [2516.92, 2517.31, "to"], [2517.31, 2517.71, "go"], [2517.71, 2518.1, "away"], [2518.1, 2518.49, "and"], [2518.49, 2518.88, "the"], [2518.88, 2519.27, "fastball"], [2519.27, 2519.67, "ends"], [2519.67, 2520.06, "up"], [2520.06, 2520.45, "on"], [2520.45, 2520.84, "the"], [2520.84, 2521.23, "inside"], [2521.23, 2521.63, "corner"], [2521.63, 2522.02, "to"], [2522.02, 2522.41, "pick"], [2522.41, 2522.8, "up"], [2522.8, 2523.2, "the"], [2523.2, 2523.59, "strikeout"], [2523.59, 2523.98, "looking."]], "preasr": "We'll face off against Nathan Eovaldi of the Tampa Bay Rays; last night he was strong for Tampa Bay and tonight he is leading off, with Daniel Nava — a familiar face here in the Bronx after many years with the Red Sox who was DFA'd and picked up by the Rays — Evan Longoria now over 200 career home runs, Grady Sizemore on his path back to the major leagues, and Logan Forsythe, Asdrubal Cabrera and James Loney, who's swinging a hot bat right now especially in this ballpark. It's over 400 in New Yankee Stadium. Kiermaier, who is on every highlight reel defensively. And then he made his first big league start. He has only one at bat in his major league career. He made his debut September 1st in Baltimore. Look at the Tampa Bay Rays' starting lineup for this one today. Nathan Eovaldi, we mentioned the power, but the splitter has been his biggest turnaround, isn't it? Well, Yeah, there's no question about it. He's got the fastball. It's going to average around 96.5 miles per hour, a slider, a curveball that he uses infrequently, a lot of times early in the count, but it has been the splitter. He has worked on that pitch, he worked with Larry Rothschild on it during spring training, and as the season has moved forward, the pitch has gotten better and better. Same with his confidence. And the numbers reflect that. Take a look at the defense behind him. One name you won't see in the outfield, Jacoby Ellsbury, had to exit the game last night because of flu-like symptoms and a very upset stomach. So Brett Gardner will be in center field. And an interesting look up the middle. Of course, you've got Didi Gregorius and Brendan Ryan getting the start today. One of the premier shortstops in the major leagues. And, well, if you ask the people here in New York, he's a pretty good pitcher as well. He spent two scoreless innings out of the bullpen not long ago. So there's a look. And the Yankees' defense. And it's a beautiful day — temperatures right now in the mid 70s here at Yankee Stadium. As we're all set for first pitch. The Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays. Game two of this three-game series. Okay, so to begin things for the Rays, and he starts them off, strike one. Well, there's that curveball. Anytime you can drop that in early in the count, you jump out ahead of the hitter — advantage pitcher, obviously. With the 0-2 count. And I think what you'll see from this Rays lineup is that offensive turnaround. They're averaging over four and a half runs a game since the beginning of August. And it has been a more aggressive lineup, with a guy like Eovaldi trying to establish that fastball. You would expect a lot Early swings. You see, they're 98 miles an hour. He averages just under 97 miles an hour with his fastball. Jaso over the shifts. And with two strikes against him, a leadoff single. He went with that to strike, elevate with the fastball, then tried to come back with the splitter, but that ball did not have good action and stayed up enough that Jaso was able to sweep it out into right field. It's an interesting thing: you'd think that with a pitcher who's consistently throwing 96-97, his fastball would be close to unhittable. Opponents are hitting over .350 against this fastball. Yeah. Opposing hitters get a good look at that fastball. The arm swing of Nathan Eovaldi. You're able to follow it right to the release point. And so it doesn't jump on you like some other fastballs do. First-pitch strike to Nava. Longtime Red Sox, designated for assignment by Boston. Picked up by the Rays. At one point recently he abandoned switch-hitting and was only going to be a left-handed hitter. But he's since returned. He picked things up once again from the right side of the plate. It was interesting to hear Kevin Cash talk about it. How quickly. His hitters were able to really adapt to this. A very new game plan: don't wait pitchers out, especially if you've got a guy with a plus arm, like we see here today with Eovaldi. Get on him and try to get on early. And I think that is a natural transition. I think hitters by nature want to be aggressive. They've got the bat, they're in the batter's box; they want to swing. And so when you turn them loose. You see guys really adapt to that quickly. Just like the Rays lineup has. And I'll tell you what. You look at some of the pitchers out there nowadays. You know, with two strikes the batting average against is so low and the number of strikeouts in the game right now makes it a disadvantage to hit with two strikes. So why even be tempted? Why try to get there? Attack early. Kevin Cash, in his first year, took over for Joe Maddon. He's had fantastic success with the Cubs this year. Nothing in two on Nava. And there's no doubt the story this year for the Tampa Bay Rays has been the injuries. They lead the majors in disabled list stints. Last year you think about the Rangers in the American League, the Rockies in the National League, and this year it has been the Rays that has been hung with that unfortunate stigma that they just cannot stay healthy. Well, And so they've had to ask a lot of guys to step in. you know, to their credit. You're in September. You're just four and a half games out of the second wild card. A lot of guys have stepped up. You think about a guy. We talked about him already. Logan Forsythe, when the season started or going into spring training. The idea was for him to be a platoon player out at second base with Nick Franklin. And Nick Franklin gets hurt late in spring. Logan is now forced into an everyday role. And like you said, maybe the team MVP, John Jaso, who began this ballgame with a single to right field. He was the first casualty for the Rays. And in his first at-bat, on a slide. And they had to miss a lot of time. I mean it began that early for Tampa Bay this year. It really did. And a guy that they brought in — strikeout there by Eovaldi. But a guy they brought in to hit at the top of the order. Good on-base percentage guy. Not your typical leadoff hitter. But you're right. He gets on base in his first at-bat — a ball in the dirt. He heads to second. Boom. Down with the wrist, he missed a ton of time. The splitter gets Nava there. One out, one on. It brings up Longoria. Longoria had a home run last night. A homer in back-to-back games. In fact, Three homers in those last two contests. Longoria now over 200 home runs in his career. He hit that mark on this road trip in Baltimore. And for the Rays, a very young franchise in the scheme of things, especially compared to their opponent today, Longoria has really been the face of Tampa Bay. And if they want to make a move, they're going to need Evan Longoria to play a big part of that. All right, Zobrist. That'll end the top of the first. They take their way to the home half. Nothing-nothing. It's a Yankee starting lineup that leaves off with center fielder Brett Gardner. Chris Young gets a start at left field. Alex Rodriguez Last night, career home run number 681. And you see John Ryan Murphy doing the catching today. Didi Gregorius swinging an awfully hot bat, and Ryan is at second base and rounds out the order today for the Yankees. Gardner in the leadoff spot. Ellsbury, feeling some flu-like symptoms, had to be removed from the game yesterday, and you can see the numbers here on Matt Moore. Well, these are the numbers that warranted the trip back down to Durham, where Matt Moore made the proper adjustments and then found himself back up here in a very meaningful game. Back to the line, then Loney keeps it in front of them. We're out, number one, in tumbling fashion. I'll tell you what, the Rays organization — they pride themselves on pitching and defense, and a heck of a play here by Loney: the backhand, he knocks it down, realizes he's got a little bit of time, then scrambles to the bag with the baseball in hand. Trying to beat Gardner — Gardner can fly. You can see the effort from the Yankees' leadoff man with the headlong slide. A good start for Moore: two pitches, one out. He faces Chris Young. You think back to Matt Moore, an All-Star back in 2013. Took Yu Darvish's spot. On the American League club. And really, his fastball velocity in his early days was higher. He was humming it in the upper 90s. Fastball velocity has come down, but he was still effective after Tommy John. Yeah, I mean, when he came up it was an easy 95-97 mph. Now, you've seen him here this afternoon. Early, going around 92 mph, and he'll stay right around there. Maybe get it up to 93-94. But with Matt Moore, it's the deception. The ball gets on you quick, so he can throw a 93-mph fastball and get swings that tell you it was harder than that because of the deception. Good life on his four-seam heater. Two quick outs, it brings in A-Rod. Now what a difference a productive season can make. Alex Rodriguez. He was all but banished here in the Bronx. You can see his numbers here. A phenomenal season. Last night he hit career home run number 681, and now he is beloved Here in New York, more than, well, anywhere else. But no bigger cheers for any Yankee than for this man when he comes up to the plate. It has been something of a year of redemption for Alex Rodriguez, saying all the right things, doing all the right things, being a good teammate and productive. That always helps. That's a big part of it, isn't it? Moore gets ahead, one and two. Well, that production has started to come down just a little bit, but you mentioned that home run last night. This is a team that, when the Yankees jump out early, they win at a higher clip than any other team in the American League, and that's what he did last night. That's why it's a big home run. Hit the opposite way, high, but near the line — foul ball. Take a look at what he did last night. Well, this is following a walk to Brian McCann. And a breaking ball that just hung out over the plate. And Alex Rodriguez made that kind of loud contact. That typically is the result. And the amazing part is... You mentioned the loud contact; that was about as free and easy a swing. As you'll see from any big leaguer. And he had no problem parking it over the fence. Not exactly what Matt Moore was hoping for. Ninety-four miles an hour that time. And a quick, tidy one-two-three bottom of the first. Through one. Leads things off for the Rays at the top of the second. His pitch. Soft roller to Brendan Ryan. A nice start for Nathan Eovaldi. If you think about Eovaldi and what he has done this year, there's no doubt the wins are the stat that stand out, probably more than anything, Brian. His first. 79th start of his career. He picked up 15 wins this year. He has 14 wins and you mentioned earlier the run support for Eovaldi has been off the charts. The run support has been tremendous but he's been throwing the ball great for the Yankees over his last 13 starts. We talked about that 9-and-0 record, the ERA 3.32. You'll take that all day long especially with this offense behind you. Learning how to win games in the big leagues. Forsythe, a fair ball tied to the line. And Forsythe is in with extra bases. Now the hits just keep on coming for this guy. Well, I'm going to tell you — we highlighted him in the open as the Rays' most consistent hitter and talked about his quick hands, and that's what he's showing here once again. I mean, Logan is just able to let that ball travel into the zone. He has such trust in his hands and in his pitch recognition. He lets it get deep and then, boom — fire. And there's not a lot of wasted movement there and he's able to sneak it down the line past Chase Headley. Rays' first scoring opportunity. Tampa Bay was sat down in order in the top of the first despite a leadoff single by John Jay, so a double play got things going quickly. One out, Forsythe at first, and it brings in the veteran Asdrubal Cabrera. A switch-hitter. How many times have we seen it already? Recognizing that this Rays lineup, especially the left-handed hitters, will adjust against a power righty. He's gone with a number of first-pitch breaking balls already here this afternoon. He had a front-row seat to everything he did in last night's Game One. Luis Severino, the 21-year-old rookie, was fantastic. He won his third straight game and the Rays were after him. It seemed like they attacked him on almost every pitch he threw last night. Eovaldi had an up-close and personal scouting report. Especially early on, Severino came out trying to establish that very good fastball he has. The Rays were able to get him into a little bit of trouble early in the game. They worked some walks. Some base hits. They had some base runners. But Severino was able to pitch out of those innings. And all of a sudden, he made the adjustment. Then he started to see the backdoor slider for strike one. You saw the changeup come into play. And at that point he really took over the game. Ball and two strikes to Cabrera, with Forsythe at second base; he doubled. You can see what the Rays did or did not do last night. And they have not been able to cash in in those situations. On the season that has been the Achilles' heel offensively — they've had opportunities. They're fourteenth out of 15 teams in the American League in RISP batting average, and if you're not hitting there you're not scoring runs. First year for Kevin Cash. He was the bullpen coach for a couple of years in Cleveland and is a former big league catcher. He was a Yankee for a brief period of time. Close pitch, but it's a full count. He's trying to get the chase here. 96, late movement to get Cabrera to go off the plate. He does not, so the double, and now the walk to Cabrera. First walk today for Revaldi. And I'll bring in James Loney. Loney has made a name for himself here in the Bronx at New Yankee Stadium. He's nearly a .410 hitter. He has the highest. Batting average of any visiting player in this ballpark's relatively young history. He hits the ball where it's pitched — up the middle. No shift for Loney as a result. You can see how he has done against the Yankees overall both home and away. Among all active hitters he's at the top. They haven't figured out the formula. Not yet. Every team's got that guy. They do. They really do. And every pitcher has that guy. Fourth, ninth, Second, Cabrera at first. Last night we saw Jake Odorizzi start game one for Tampa Bay, and McCann, the catcher for the Yankees, has just flat-out owned him, and that continued last night. For some reason some guys just see the ball better. You make more mistakes against them. They may. I mean, it was amazing last night because he was the guy that walked before the home run by Alex Rodriguez, and then they pitched to him full count with a fastball. He hit a home run his second time up, walked again his third time up in front of another home run. Here comes the 1-1. Jams him inside. He took that off the foot. Brian, we've talked about the Rays becoming more aggressive offensively. When you think about it. The teams in baseball that are really numbers-driven, really analytics-driven: the Rays, certainly, and Oakland as well. Kevin Cash made a pretty clear point today. Just because you don't swing early doesn't mean you're just up there to take pitches. It's about when you're aggressive and on what pitches you're aggressive. Yeah, I think that's absolutely the case, especially now — the way you see a lot of teams, the Rays being one of them, the way that they use their starting pitchers. The way that now, with maybe two, you get to that third time through the lineup, all of a sudden managers are looking to pull you even though the pitch count may be in order. So what's the point in trying to drive a pitch count up when the guy's not going to be there anyway? Go out there and look for pitches — mistakes out over the plate early — and go right after them. He gets rung up. See, Loney maybe not happy with that call. Second punch-out, 96 miles an hour. It was the late movement, and James Loney, when the ball came out of the hand, said this was off the plate — and look at it come back and catch the inside corner. That's where the beef lies. That's just a good front-door two-seamer. By Nathan Eovaldi. Two outs, two on, that brings in Kevin Kiermaier. And in Kiermaier's career he has gone from someone who first made his big league debut as a defensive replacement. He went from strictly a defensive replacement and part-time player to, now this year, someone you could be looking at as the American League Gold Glove winner in center field. Well, his defense has been otherworldly. Truly, I mean the jumps he gets on balls, the amount of ground he covers, his athleticism. It's a chopper; Brendan Ryan can't get there, it skips into right field, the runner steams into third and comes around to score — Kiermaier, for all the talk about his defense, drives him in. That makes it 1-0 Tampa Bay with two outs here in the second. Nathan Eovaldi is built to get ground balls. And he got one there. But Kevin Kiermaier finds a hole. This ball leaks back to the middle. It's just a chopper, but perfectly placed. See Brendan Ryan going after it as hard as he can, but once that skips into right field — with everyone running with two outs — the Rays would plate their first run. That makes it the Rays' first hit with a runner in scoring position early in this three-game series. He went seven innings last night, as we were talking about earlier. They bring in Maile, the catcher. Maile made his big league debut. Not long ago, at the start of the month in Baltimore. You can see he's from Kentucky; he played his college ball there and had a lot of family in Baltimore. He has some family here today as well. And it cooled off a little bit there; three-quarter swing to it. Let me talk to Kevin Cash about Luke Maile, and he talked about a catcher who is a very good receiver behind the plate, good at working with the pitching staff and calling pitches; offensively... Still, Working on that part of his game. And you can tell that a large part of the motivation to have Maile in the lineup today is because... Of how many times he caught Matt Moore in the minor leagues. During Moore's most recent stint down with Triple-A Durham, four or five times, so that's a big part of it. Yeah, and that is very important. I mean, you want to keep Matt more comfortable throwing to a guy that he's had success with. Off the plate, two and two. Time missing at 98. One thing when you watch Eovaldi and you look at his game-by-game, he is not routinely pitching deep into games to the pitch count. Gets a quick one-two-three top of the first. It's been a little bit more of a labor here in the second. Gives up two hits and a walk. And a strike three call. He gets him, able to work out with Cabrera and Kiermaier left stranded, but a run in as the Rays take an early lead. They put the shift on, and quickly Moore is ahead. And if you're Matt Moore, Brian, You could not have asked for a better first inning than what he spun. Nine pitches, Three outs. No. Very sharp with his stuff early. He gets an early run, An early lead to work with. And the fastball and the curveball. Except for that one, they've been very good. You try to bury a curveball and sometimes you take it a little bit too far. Missed the cutoff man. Spikes it to make it one-and-two. Lonnie is the only man on the right side of the infield, much closer to first base than to second. Beltran is looking to build on what was a fantastic month of August. He had over .350, with some serious pop as well. And he goes away from the shift. Nobody home to get that one, and it's a leadoff single. 36. As we've talked about, he had a lot of problems, no command, and Brian, you can tell—talk about this as a former pitcher: it's just not always easy and it's not always the same. Well, I wouldn't know anything about it because I tried to come back from Tommy John surgery twice and was unsuccessful both times. It's a long process. It is a long process. It's a lot of work behind the scenes to build up the stamina to even get into a game. But the timing for everybody is different. There's no question about that. A flare. Foul ground. Almost finds the seats. Ken brings up a great point, Brian, because when you think about Tommy John, you really only think about the successful cases. Right. Right. And there are There are a lot of guys that either never make it back to the level they pitched at previously or never make it back at all; one ball, one strike to Headley. Beltran aboard at first. Pops him up out of play, one and two. You think about last year, though, in the major leagues, 31 big leaguers had Tommy John surgery. That's more than one entire team. One entire roster. You can talk about Jose Fernandez, Matt Harvey. It's easy to forget about Jarrod Parker of the A's. He had his second. And then had a setback this year. A pretty serious one. Grady Sizemore. He is able to make the running catch, number one. Well, think about this. Just think about it. The velocities. Nowadays guys are throwing harder than ever. And when you think about it, You can build up the muscles around that elbow, but it's held together by a ligament. You can't strengthen a ligament. It is what it is. And if the velocities continue to climb, that's just a problem. That's not going to go away. You can be preventative up to a point. But at some point that ligament takes over and it can be exposed. One out, one on for Greg Bird, Yankees first baseman. And there's no doubt the two main storylines in New York these days. It's when will the Yankees see Mark Teixeira again and when will the Yankees see C.C. Sabathia again. Well, we have gotten the answer to one of those: Sabathia had a simulated game yesterday, and he will, if all goes according to plan, rejoin what will be a six-man rotation for Joe Girardi on Wednesday, coming back from a knee injury. But Teixeira has now officially been put on the disabled list after severely fouling a ball off his shin. That is why we see Greg Bird getting some extended playing time. It's nice to see C.C. Sabathia on the verge of making that return on Wednesday if everything goes according to plan. But this is why you need depth. Mark Teixeira, the severe bone bruise, took a while to figure out exactly what the issue was and just how long he may be out. Kevin Kiermaier gets there easily. Out number two. I'll take you back to August 17th. This is exactly what happened to Teixeira. Brian, it goes to the old adage, you can never wear enough armor because he has the shin guard and the ball finds the space above the shin guard. It did, and I'm going to tell you something. Your shin has no meat. It is skin and it is bone. And you create enough bat speed, and as hard as Mark Teixeira can hit a baseball, if you hit it right off that shin bone, it's no wonder, when watching and hearing that, why that may be a problem. John Ryan Murphy, the catcher. He comes in and gets plunked on the first pitch. Beltran into first, or pardon me, into second base. This is going to be a breaking ball pulled in, foot up, foot down. Right off that toe. Dirt toe. That pushes a runner into scoring position for the Yankees with two outs. And gives them their first shot. And it brings in what has been truly one of the best turnarounds. Stories on the season for the Yankees. Didi Gregorius. Not easy shoes to fill at shortstop. No explanation needed there. And for Gregorius, it was a really tough first half or so of the season. His defense has really picked up, but what's easier to spot is how much his offense has improved. He has been absolutely scorching hot for the Yankees recently and over the long haul. Even in the last couple of months since the All-Star break, his game has really picked up. It's amazing the amount of progress. And the turnaround. You've seen from Didi. Gregorius during the course of the season. Not easy to do. Gregorius falls behind 0-2. He's hitting .345 over his last 40 games and has been a major run producer. He's driven in 25 runs in that span. This Yankees offense is second in the major leagues in runs scored, trailing only the Toronto Blue Jays. And a big reason why is that it's not just a couple of guys in the lineup chipping in; they're getting production one through nine. And when you're able to do that, you're going to put up some big numbers. And that did not take long; more followed. Three pitches gets Gregorius and the Yankees. They stranded two; a base hit from Kiermaier in the second. Here's John Jaso; with the shift on, Brendan Ryan makes the play — out number one. I'll bring in Nava. Now Brian Eovaldi is beginning his second time through the order. What'd you see the first time through? Well, what really stood out was a lot of off-speed pitches for first pitch early in the count. You know, this is a guy with a big fastball. You just saw right there — a first-pitch fastball to John Jaso. In this at-bat he went after it aggressively and grounded out to second base. But it was a lot of first-pitch off-speed pitches by Eovaldi. Trying to keep the Rays' lineup off balance. First-pitch ball to Nava; the first time he's missed. With his first pitches, he was 10-for-10 in first-pitch strikes. That's A stat or a topic of conversation. Brian, That first-pitch strike. You see some guys really get burned by throwing too many first-pitch strikes. And it seems some teams, like Tampa Bay, may be more concerned with what you do in your first three pitches. Can you get ahead as opposed to always being in there with a first-pitch strike? It really depends on what kind of pitcher you are, you know. The guys who have really good command. They can throw a lot of first-pitch strikes by design because they're quality strikes. There's a difference between just a strike and a quality strike that's going to find the edges. Those first-pitch strikes out over the heart of the plate. Those are the ones that guys ambush and jump on. And the Rays, You're right, Their idea is to get to one and two. The one-and-one is the break count. And one and two, The difference between one and two and two and one, When you look at the numbers, is night and day. So that is the big count for the Rays organization. Nava ahead, Three and one. And he draws the walk. Second walk from Vivaldi. He reaches for the first time. A name that really comes to mind is Philip Hughes of the Twins. He is a first-pitch-strike pitcher. Legitimately three-quarters of the time, and even his manager Paul Molitor has said that at times he can be just a little too predictable. Yeah, and there are times that you need to be—well, wild outside, wild by design. You know, like I said, you're trying to hit those corners and get ahead, no doubt, but expanding the zone can be just Just as effective, Especially with a guy who has that built-in reputation. Longoria bounced to an inning-ending double play back in the first. And he comes in, He gets hit. He was hit earlier this year on the wrist, which stunted his production a little bit. You can see Longoria really feeling that one. That ball was tracking in, and it got that right wrist. And you can see the ball, Not a glancing blow. It's going to come straight down. It got that elbow. Right elbow. And with more on Longoria, Check in with Ken. Well, It's interesting. Guys. And, Brian, You can speak to this. Evan Longoria has missed only two games in the last three seasons. But some with the Rays believe that he might actually be too tough at times for his own good. And that risk has been a question since he got hit on June 14th. Now, But his stats don't really reflect that. OPS has gone down every month from April to August. Although in September, so far, much better. Well, And I think that's what, You know, In his last five games, He's hit four home runs. He's looked more demonstrative in his swings, More conviction in his swings. More the Longoria of old. In other words. Well, There were times where, You know, He was getting his pitch out over the plate, A pitch that you normally see him really tee off on, And just not, Just a hair late, Just a little bit of loop in the swing, And instead of driving those pitches, He was fouling those pitches off, and so, you know, you're going to get a mistake. Maybe two in the course of an at-bat. And when he's fouling them off and not putting the ball into play with authority, the numbers will suffer. Two and one on Sizemore as Eovaldi got John Jay to ground out very routinely to Brendan Ryan on the first pitch, but then allowed the walk. Longoria was hit by the pitch. And now Brady Sizemore, making only his second-ever start in the cleanup spot. He comes in here with one out and two on. Once again, his second three-ball count in this inning. You mentioned it earlier. John Jay is hitting leadoff today. Cleanup spot yesterday. Sizemore. Cleanup today. Leadoff in last night's game. And he's ahead in the count here. Three and one. And the bases are loaded. Fastball missing. So, three baserunners without putting the ball in play in this inning. And here comes Larry Rothschild, the pitching coach. Now he's going to come out there and try to get his big right-handed starter back into the zone. Nathan Eovaldi has tremendous stuff. But when guys are pure-stuff pitchers, from time to time they're going to have those ballgames where the command goes awry. And that's what we're seeing here. And where that further hampers you is when you're not commanding your pitches; the borderline pitches you are not going to get, so you really have to pitch out over the plate. Girardi is looking on now in his eighth season at the helm of the Yankees. The Rays got a run in the second with two outs on the chopper into right field by Kevin Kiermaier. And now the hottest hitter for the Rays, Logan Forsythe, steps in — one out, bases packed. Nava reached on ball four. He's made it all the way to third base. Longoria was hit on the back of the elbow. And you just saw ball four to Sizemore. And missing with the first pitch to Forsythe. Now, to tell you how quickly command can vanish. And it happens to every pitcher at some point over the course of the season. Multiple times in fact. 10-for-10 first-pitch strikes for Eovaldi. After the first out of this inning it's been ball one, ball one, and then two more times after that. Four straight he's missed. Not exactly the breakout you'd like to see — hardly more strikes than balls. As it's one and one to Forsythe. Get him swinging. Now that was a split-finger thrown with conviction. You could see a good finish out in front. That's what's been lacking here with Eovaldi early in this ballgame. Had him swinging right over the top. You can see this road trip for Forsythe. Brian, it has been absolutely off the charts. Well the road trip started in Baltimore. Three-game series. He had three hits in each game. A hit last night. A hit already this afternoon. He's just able to stay quiet at the plate for so long and trust the quick hands. He lays off that pitch. Forsythe hardly made an out in Baltimore. Nine out of ten, and a couple of walks on top of it. I mean, this is a guy that. Just seeing the ball so well right there — that fastball, 98 miles an hour, just off the plate; he didn't flinch. Another off-speed, another split, he was not out in front with it, let that ball sail — how that didn't hit Logan Forsythe, not really sure, it almost just curled right around it. Forsythe has reached in 15 of his last 20 plate appearances and almost reached here by getting scraped, no place to put him, and the most timely punchout for Eovaldi so far today as we take a look pitch by pitch of that at-bat: a", "title": "MLB_New York Yankees Tampa Bay Rays 05 09 15", "category": null, "start_time": 2494.0, "end_time": 2524.0, "qa": []}
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It's over 400 in New Yankee Stadium. Kiermaier, who is on every highlight reel defensively. And then he made his first big league start. He has only one at bat in his major league career. He made his debut September 1st in Baltimore. Look at the Tampa Bay Rays' starting lineup for this one today. Nathan Eovaldi, we mentioned the power, but the splitter has been his biggest turnaround, isn't it? Well, Yeah, there's no question about it. He's got the fastball. It's going to average around 96.5 miles per hour, a slider, a curveball that he uses infrequently, a lot of times early in the count, but it has been the splitter. He has worked on that pitch, he worked with Larry Rothschild on it during spring training, and as the season has moved forward, the pitch has gotten better and better. Same with his confidence. And the numbers reflect that. Take a look at the defense behind him. One name you won't see in the outfield, Jacoby Ellsbury, had to exit the game last night because of flu-like symptoms and a very upset stomach. So Brett Gardner will be in center field. And an interesting look up the middle. Of course, you've got Didi Gregorius and Brendan Ryan getting the start today. One of the premier shortstops in the major leagues. And, well, if you ask the people here in New York, he's a pretty good pitcher as well. He spent two scoreless innings out of the bullpen not long ago. So there's a look. And the Yankees' defense. And it's a beautiful day — temperatures right now in the mid 70s here at Yankee Stadium. As we're all set for first pitch. The Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays. Game two of this three-game series. Okay, so to begin things for the Rays, and he starts them off, strike one. Well, there's that curveball. Anytime you can drop that in early in the count, you jump out ahead of the hitter — advantage pitcher, obviously. With the 0-2 count. And I think what you'll see from this Rays lineup is that offensive turnaround. They're averaging over four and a half runs a game since the beginning of August. And it has been a more aggressive lineup, with a guy like Eovaldi trying to establish that fastball. You would expect a lot Early swings. You see, they're 98 miles an hour. He averages just under 97 miles an hour with his fastball. Jaso over the shifts. And with two strikes against him, a leadoff single. He went with that to strike, elevate with the fastball, then tried to come back with the splitter, but that ball did not have good action and stayed up enough that Jaso was able to sweep it out into right field. It's an interesting thing: you'd think that with a pitcher who's consistently throwing 96-97, his fastball would be close to unhittable. Opponents are hitting over .350 against this fastball. Yeah. Opposing hitters get a good look at that fastball. The arm swing of Nathan Eovaldi. You're able to follow it right to the release point. And so it doesn't jump on you like some other fastballs do. First-pitch strike to Nava. Longtime Red Sox, designated for assignment by Boston. Picked up by the Rays. At one point recently he abandoned switch-hitting and was only going to be a left-handed hitter. But he's since returned. He picked things up once again from the right side of the plate. It was interesting to hear Kevin Cash talk about it. How quickly. His hitters were able to really adapt to this. A very new game plan: don't wait pitchers out, especially if you've got a guy with a plus arm, like we see here today with Eovaldi. Get on him and try to get on early. And I think that is a natural transition. I think hitters by nature want to be aggressive. They've got the bat, they're in the batter's box; they want to swing. And so when you turn them loose. You see guys really adapt to that quickly. Just like the Rays lineup has. And I'll tell you what. You look at some of the pitchers out there nowadays. You know, with two strikes the batting average against is so low and the number of strikeouts in the game right now makes it a disadvantage to hit with two strikes. So why even be tempted? Why try to get there? Attack early. Kevin Cash, in his first year, took over for Joe Maddon. He's had fantastic success with the Cubs this year. Nothing in two on Nava. And there's no doubt the story this year for the Tampa Bay Rays has been the injuries. They lead the majors in disabled list stints. Last year you think about the Rangers in the American League, the Rockies in the National League, and this year it has been the Rays that has been hung with that unfortunate stigma that they just cannot stay healthy. Well, And so they've had to ask a lot of guys to step in. you know, to their credit. You're in September. You're just four and a half games out of the second wild card. A lot of guys have stepped up. You think about a guy. We talked about him already. Logan Forsythe, when the season started or going into spring training. The idea was for him to be a platoon player out at second base with Nick Franklin. And Nick Franklin gets hurt late in spring. Logan is now forced into an everyday role. And like you said, maybe the team MVP, John Jaso, who began this ballgame with a single to right field. He was the first casualty for the Rays. And in his first at-bat, on a slide. And they had to miss a lot of time. I mean it began that early for Tampa Bay this year. It really did. And a guy that they brought in — strikeout there by Eovaldi. But a guy they brought in to hit at the top of the order. Good on-base percentage guy. Not your typical leadoff hitter. But you're right. He gets on base in his first at-bat — a ball in the dirt. He heads to second. Boom. Down with the wrist, he missed a ton of time. The splitter gets Nava there. One out, one on. It brings up Longoria. Longoria had a home run last night. A homer in back-to-back games. In fact, Three homers in those last two contests. Longoria now over 200 home runs in his career. He hit that mark on this road trip in Baltimore. And for the Rays, a very young franchise in the scheme of things, especially compared to their opponent today, Longoria has really been the face of Tampa Bay. And if they want to make a move, they're going to need Evan Longoria to play a big part of that. All right, Zobrist. That'll end the top of the first. They take their way to the home half. Nothing-nothing. It's a Yankee starting lineup that leaves off with center fielder Brett Gardner. Chris Young gets a start at left field. Alex Rodriguez Last night, career home run number 681. And you see John Ryan Murphy doing the catching today. Didi Gregorius swinging an awfully hot bat, and Ryan is at second base and rounds out the order today for the Yankees. Gardner in the leadoff spot. Ellsbury, feeling some flu-like symptoms, had to be removed from the game yesterday, and you can see the numbers here on Matt Moore. Well, these are the numbers that warranted the trip back down to Durham, where Matt Moore made the proper adjustments and then found himself back up here in a very meaningful game. Back to the line, then Loney keeps it in front of them. We're out, number one, in tumbling fashion. I'll tell you what, the Rays organization — they pride themselves on pitching and defense, and a heck of a play here by Loney: the backhand, he knocks it down, realizes he's got a little bit of time, then scrambles to the bag with the baseball in hand. Trying to beat Gardner — Gardner can fly. You can see the effort from the Yankees' leadoff man with the headlong slide. A good start for Moore: two pitches, one out. He faces Chris Young. You think back to Matt Moore, an All-Star back in 2013. Took Yu Darvish's spot. On the American League club. And really, his fastball velocity in his early days was higher. He was humming it in the upper 90s. Fastball velocity has come down, but he was still effective after Tommy John. Yeah, I mean, when he came up it was an easy 95-97 mph. Now, you've seen him here this afternoon. Early, going around 92 mph, and he'll stay right around there. Maybe get it up to 93-94. But with Matt Moore, it's the deception. The ball gets on you quick, so he can throw a 93-mph fastball and get swings that tell you it was harder than that because of the deception. Good life on his four-seam heater. Two quick outs, it brings in A-Rod. Now what a difference a productive season can make. Alex Rodriguez. He was all but banished here in the Bronx. You can see his numbers here. A phenomenal season. Last night he hit career home run number 681, and now he is beloved Here in New York, more than, well, anywhere else. But no bigger cheers for any Yankee than for this man when he comes up to the plate. It has been something of a year of redemption for Alex Rodriguez, saying all the right things, doing all the right things, being a good teammate and productive. That always helps. That's a big part of it, isn't it? Moore gets ahead, one and two. Well, that production has started to come down just a little bit, but you mentioned that home run last night. This is a team that, when the Yankees jump out early, they win at a higher clip than any other team in the American League, and that's what he did last night. That's why it's a big home run. Hit the opposite way, high, but near the line — foul ball. Take a look at what he did last night. Well, this is following a walk to Brian McCann. And a breaking ball that just hung out over the plate. And Alex Rodriguez made that kind of loud contact. That typically is the result. And the amazing part is... You mentioned the loud contact; that was about as free and easy a swing. As you'll see from any big leaguer. And he had no problem parking it over the fence. Not exactly what Matt Moore was hoping for. Ninety-four miles an hour that time. And a quick, tidy one-two-three bottom of the first. Through one. Leads things off for the Rays at the top of the second. His pitch. Soft roller to Brendan Ryan. A nice start for Nathan Eovaldi. If you think about Eovaldi and what he has done this year, there's no doubt the wins are the stat that stand out, probably more than anything, Brian. His first. 79th start of his career. He picked up 15 wins this year. He has 14 wins and you mentioned earlier the run support for Eovaldi has been off the charts. The run support has been tremendous but he's been throwing the ball great for the Yankees over his last 13 starts. We talked about that 9-and-0 record, the ERA 3.32. You'll take that all day long especially with this offense behind you. Learning how to win games in the big leagues. Forsythe, a fair ball tied to the line. And Forsythe is in with extra bases. Now the hits just keep on coming for this guy. Well, I'm going to tell you — we highlighted him in the open as the Rays' most consistent hitter and talked about his quick hands, and that's what he's showing here once again. I mean, Logan is just able to let that ball travel into the zone. He has such trust in his hands and in his pitch recognition. He lets it get deep and then, boom — fire. And there's not a lot of wasted movement there and he's able to sneak it down the line past Chase Headley. Rays' first scoring opportunity. Tampa Bay was sat down in order in the top of the first despite a leadoff single by John Jay, so a double play got things going quickly. One out, Forsythe at first, and it brings in the veteran Asdrubal Cabrera. A switch-hitter. How many times have we seen it already? Recognizing that this Rays lineup, especially the left-handed hitters, will adjust against a power righty. He's gone with a number of first-pitch breaking balls already here this afternoon. He had a front-row seat to everything he did in last night's Game One. Luis Severino, the 21-year-old rookie, was fantastic. He won his third straight game and the Rays were after him. It seemed like they attacked him on almost every pitch he threw last night. Eovaldi had an up-close and personal scouting report. Especially early on, Severino came out trying to establish that very good fastball he has. The Rays were able to get him into a little bit of trouble early in the game. They worked some walks. Some base hits. They had some base runners. But Severino was able to pitch out of those innings. And all of a sudden, he made the adjustment. Then he started to see the backdoor slider for strike one. You saw the changeup come into play. And at that point he really took over the game. Ball and two strikes to Cabrera, with Forsythe at second base; he doubled. You can see what the Rays did or did not do last night. And they have not been able to cash in in those situations. On the season that has been the Achilles' heel offensively — they've had opportunities. They're fourteenth out of 15 teams in the American League in RISP batting average, and if you're not hitting there you're not scoring runs. First year for Kevin Cash. He was the bullpen coach for a couple of years in Cleveland and is a former big league catcher. He was a Yankee for a brief period of time. Close pitch, but it's a full count. He's trying to get the chase here. 96, late movement to get Cabrera to go off the plate. He does not, so the double, and now the walk to Cabrera. First walk today for Revaldi. And I'll bring in James Loney. Loney has made a name for himself here in the Bronx at New Yankee Stadium. He's nearly a .410 hitter. He has the highest. Batting average of any visiting player in this ballpark's relatively young history. He hits the ball where it's pitched — up the middle. No shift for Loney as a result. You can see how he has done against the Yankees overall both home and away. Among all active hitters he's at the top. They haven't figured out the formula. Not yet. Every team's got that guy. They do. They really do. And every pitcher has that guy. Fourth, ninth, Second, Cabrera at first. Last night we saw Jake Odorizzi start game one for Tampa Bay, and McCann, the catcher for the Yankees, has just flat-out owned him, and that continued last night. For some reason some guys just see the ball better. You make more mistakes against them. They may. I mean, it was amazing last night because he was the guy that walked before the home run by Alex Rodriguez, and then they pitched to him full count with a fastball. He hit a home run his second time up, walked again his third time up in front of another home run. Here comes the 1-1. Jams him inside. He took that off the foot. Brian, we've talked about the Rays becoming more aggressive offensively. When you think about it. The teams in baseball that are really numbers-driven, really analytics-driven: the Rays, certainly, and Oakland as well. Kevin Cash made a pretty clear point today. Just because you don't swing early doesn't mean you're just up there to take pitches. It's about when you're aggressive and on what pitches you're aggressive. Yeah, I think that's absolutely the case, especially now — the way you see a lot of teams, the Rays being one of them, the way that they use their starting pitchers. The way that now, with maybe two, you get to that third time through the lineup, all of a sudden managers are looking to pull you even though the pitch count may be in order. So what's the point in trying to drive a pitch count up when the guy's not going to be there anyway? Go out there and look for pitches — mistakes out over the plate early — and go right after them. He gets rung up. See, Loney maybe not happy with that call. Second punch-out, 96 miles an hour. It was the late movement, and James Loney, when the ball came out of the hand, said this was off the plate — and look at it come back and catch the inside corner. That's where the beef lies. That's just a good front-door two-seamer. By Nathan Eovaldi. Two outs, two on, that brings in Kevin Kiermaier. And in Kiermaier's career he has gone from someone who first made his big league debut as a defensive replacement. He went from strictly a defensive replacement and part-time player to, now this year, someone you could be looking at as the American League Gold Glove winner in center field. Well, his defense has been otherworldly. Truly, I mean the jumps he gets on balls, the amount of ground he covers, his athleticism. It's a chopper; Brendan Ryan can't get there, it skips into right field, the runner steams into third and comes around to score — Kiermaier, for all the talk about his defense, drives him in. That makes it 1-0 Tampa Bay with two outs here in the second. Nathan Eovaldi is built to get ground balls. And he got one there. But Kevin Kiermaier finds a hole. This ball leaks back to the middle. It's just a chopper, but perfectly placed. See Brendan Ryan going after it as hard as he can, but once that skips into right field — with everyone running with two outs — the Rays would plate their first run. That makes it the Rays' first hit with a runner in scoring position early in this three-game series. He went seven innings last night, as we were talking about earlier. They bring in Maile, the catcher. Maile made his big league debut. Not long ago, at the start of the month in Baltimore. You can see he's from Kentucky; he played his college ball there and had a lot of family in Baltimore. He has some family here today as well. And it cooled off a little bit there; three-quarter swing to it. Let me talk to Kevin Cash about Luke Maile, and he talked about a catcher who is a very good receiver behind the plate, good at working with the pitching staff and calling pitches; offensively... Still, Working on that part of his game. And you can tell that a large part of the motivation to have Maile in the lineup today is because... Of how many times he caught Matt Moore in the minor leagues. During Moore's most recent stint down with Triple-A Durham, four or five times, so that's a big part of it. Yeah, and that is very important. I mean, you want to keep Matt more comfortable throwing to a guy that he's had success with. Off the plate, two and two. Time missing at 98. One thing when you watch Eovaldi and you look at his game-by-game, he is not routinely pitching deep into games to the pitch count. Gets a quick one-two-three top of the first. It's been a little bit more of a labor here in the second. Gives up two hits and a walk. And a strike three call. He gets him, able to work out with Cabrera and Kiermaier left stranded, but a run in as the Rays take an early lead. They put the shift on, and quickly Moore is ahead. And if you're Matt Moore, Brian, You could not have asked for a better first inning than what he spun. Nine pitches, Three outs. No. Very sharp with his stuff early. He gets an early run, An early lead to work with. And the fastball and the curveball. Except for that one, they've been very good. You try to bury a curveball and sometimes you take it a little bit too far. Missed the cutoff man. Spikes it to make it one-and-two. Lonnie is the only man on the right side of the infield, much closer to first base than to second. Beltran is looking to build on what was a fantastic month of August. He had over .350, with some serious pop as well. And he goes away from the shift. Nobody home to get that one, and it's a leadoff single. 36. As we've talked about, he had a lot of problems, no command, and Brian, you can tell—talk about this as a former pitcher: it's just not always easy and it's not always the same. Well, I wouldn't know anything about it because I tried to come back from Tommy John surgery twice and was unsuccessful both times. It's a long process. It is a long process. It's a lot of work behind the scenes to build up the stamina to even get into a game. But the timing for everybody is different. There's no question about that. A flare. Foul ground. Almost finds the seats. Ken brings up a great point, Brian, because when you think about Tommy John, you really only think about the successful cases. Right. Right. And there are There are a lot of guys that either never make it back to the level they pitched at previously or never make it back at all; one ball, one strike to Headley. Beltran aboard at first. Pops him up out of play, one and two. You think about last year, though, in the major leagues, 31 big leaguers had Tommy John surgery. That's more than one entire team. One entire roster. You can talk about Jose Fernandez, Matt Harvey. It's easy to forget about Jarrod Parker of the A's. He had his second. And then had a setback this year. A pretty serious one. Grady Sizemore. He is able to make the running catch, number one. Well, think about this. Just think about it. The velocities. Nowadays guys are throwing harder than ever. And when you think about it, You can build up the muscles around that elbow, but it's held together by a ligament. You can't strengthen a ligament. It is what it is. And if the velocities continue to climb, that's just a problem. That's not going to go away. You can be preventative up to a point. But at some point that ligament takes over and it can be exposed. One out, one on for Greg Bird, Yankees first baseman. And there's no doubt the two main storylines in New York these days. It's when will the Yankees see Mark Teixeira again and when will the Yankees see C.C. Sabathia again. Well, we have gotten the answer to one of those: Sabathia had a simulated game yesterday, and he will, if all goes according to plan, rejoin what will be a six-man rotation for Joe Girardi on Wednesday, coming back from a knee injury. But Teixeira has now officially been put on the disabled list after severely fouling a ball off his shin. That is why we see Greg Bird getting some extended playing time. It's nice to see C.C. Sabathia on the verge of making that return on Wednesday if everything goes according to plan. But this is why you need depth. Mark Teixeira, the severe bone bruise, took a while to figure out exactly what the issue was and just how long he may be out. Kevin Kiermaier gets there easily. Out number two. I'll take you back to August 17th. This is exactly what happened to Teixeira. Brian, it goes to the old adage, you can never wear enough armor because he has the shin guard and the ball finds the space above the shin guard. It did, and I'm going to tell you something. Your shin has no meat. It is skin and it is bone. And you create enough bat speed, and as hard as Mark Teixeira can hit a baseball, if you hit it right off that shin bone, it's no wonder, when watching and hearing that, why that may be a problem. John Ryan Murphy, the catcher. He comes in and gets plunked on the first pitch. Beltran into first, or pardon me, into second base. This is going to be a breaking ball pulled in, foot up, foot down. Right off that toe. Dirt toe. That pushes a runner into scoring position for the Yankees with two outs. And gives them their first shot. And it brings in what has been truly one of the best turnarounds. Stories on the season for the Yankees. Didi Gregorius. Not easy shoes to fill at shortstop. No explanation needed there. And for Gregorius, it was a really tough first half or so of the season. His defense has really picked up, but what's easier to spot is how much his offense has improved. He has been absolutely scorching hot for the Yankees recently and over the long haul. Even in the last couple of months since the All-Star break, his game has really picked up. It's amazing the amount of progress. And the turnaround. You've seen from Didi. Gregorius during the course of the season. Not easy to do. Gregorius falls behind 0-2. He's hitting .345 over his last 40 games and has been a major run producer. He's driven in 25 runs in that span. This Yankees offense is second in the major leagues in runs scored, trailing only the Toronto Blue Jays. And a big reason why is that it's not just a couple of guys in the lineup chipping in; they're getting production one through nine. And when you're able to do that, you're going to put up some big numbers. And that did not take long; more followed. Three pitches gets Gregorius and the Yankees. They stranded two; a base hit from Kiermaier in the second. Here's John Jaso; with the shift on, Brendan Ryan makes the play — out number one. I'll bring in Nava. Now Brian Eovaldi is beginning his second time through the order. What'd you see the first time through? Well, what really stood out was a lot of off-speed pitches for first pitch early in the count. You know, this is a guy with a big fastball. You just saw right there — a first-pitch fastball to John Jaso. In this at-bat he went after it aggressively and grounded out to second base. But it was a lot of first-pitch off-speed pitches by Eovaldi. Trying to keep the Rays' lineup off balance. First-pitch ball to Nava; the first time he's missed. With his first pitches, he was 10-for-10 in first-pitch strikes. That's A stat or a topic of conversation. Brian, That first-pitch strike. You see some guys really get burned by throwing too many first-pitch strikes. And it seems some teams, like Tampa Bay, may be more concerned with what you do in your first three pitches. Can you get ahead as opposed to always being in there with a first-pitch strike? It really depends on what kind of pitcher you are, you know. The guys who have really good command. They can throw a lot of first-pitch strikes by design because they're quality strikes. There's a difference between just a strike and a quality strike that's going to find the edges. Those first-pitch strikes out over the heart of the plate. Those are the ones that guys ambush and jump on. And the Rays, You're right, Their idea is to get to one and two. The one-and-one is the break count. And one and two, The difference between one and two and two and one, When you look at the numbers, is night and day. So that is the big count for the Rays organization. Nava ahead, Three and one. And he draws the walk. Second walk from Vivaldi. He reaches for the first time. A name that really comes to mind is Philip Hughes of the Twins. He is a first-pitch-strike pitcher. Legitimately three-quarters of the time, and even his manager Paul Molitor has said that at times he can be just a little too predictable. Yeah, and there are times that you need to be—well, wild outside, wild by design. You know, like I said, you're trying to hit those corners and get ahead, no doubt, but expanding the zone can be just Just as effective, Especially with a guy who has that built-in reputation. Longoria bounced to an inning-ending double play back in the first. And he comes in, He gets hit. He was hit earlier this year on the wrist, which stunted his production a little bit. You can see Longoria really feeling that one. That ball was tracking in, and it got that right wrist. And you can see the ball, Not a glancing blow. It's going to come straight down. It got that elbow. Right elbow. And with more on Longoria, Check in with Ken. Well, It's interesting. Guys. And, Brian, You can speak to this. Evan Longoria has missed only two games in the last three seasons. But some with the Rays believe that he might actually be too tough at times for his own good. And that risk has been a question since he got hit on June 14th. Now, But his stats don't really reflect that. OPS has gone down every month from April to August. Although in September, so far, much better. Well, And I think that's what, You know, In his last five games, He's hit four home runs. He's looked more demonstrative in his swings, More conviction in his swings. More the Longoria of old. In other words. Well, There were times where, You know, He was getting his pitch out over the plate, A pitch that you normally see him really tee off on, And just not, Just a hair late, Just a little bit of loop in the swing, And instead of driving those pitches, He was fouling those pitches off, and so, you know, you're going to get a mistake. Maybe two in the course of an at-bat. And when he's fouling them off and not putting the ball into play with authority, the numbers will suffer. Two and one on Sizemore as Eovaldi got John Jay to ground out very routinely to Brendan Ryan on the first pitch, but then allowed the walk. Longoria was hit by the pitch. And now Brady Sizemore, making only his second-ever start in the cleanup spot. He comes in here with one out and two on. Once again, his second three-ball count in this inning. You mentioned it earlier. John Jay is hitting leadoff today. Cleanup spot yesterday. Sizemore. Cleanup today. Leadoff in last night's game. And he's ahead in the count here. Three and one. And the bases are loaded. Fastball missing. So, three baserunners without putting the ball in play in this inning. And here comes Larry Rothschild, the pitching coach. Now he's going to come out there and try to get his big right-handed starter back into the zone. Nathan Eovaldi has tremendous stuff. But when guys are pure-stuff pitchers, from time to time they're going to have those ballgames where the command goes awry. And that's what we're seeing here. And where that further hampers you is when you're not commanding your pitches; the borderline pitches you are not going to get, so you really have to pitch out over the plate. Girardi is looking on now in his eighth season at the helm of the Yankees. The Rays got a run in the second with two outs on the chopper into right field by Kevin Kiermaier. And now the hottest hitter for the Rays, Logan Forsythe, steps in — one out, bases packed. Nava reached on ball four. He's made it all the way to third base. Longoria was hit on the back of the elbow. And you just saw ball four to Sizemore. And missing with the first pitch to Forsythe. Now, to tell you how quickly command can vanish. And it happens to every pitcher at some point over the course of the season. Multiple times in fact. 10-for-10 first-pitch strikes for Eovaldi. After the first out of this inning it's been ball one, ball one, and then two more times after that. Four straight he's missed. Not exactly the breakout you'd like to see — hardly more strikes than balls. As it's one and one to Forsythe. Get him swinging. Now that was a split-finger thrown with conviction. You could see a good finish out in front. That's what's been lacking here with Eovaldi early in this ballgame. Had him swinging right over the top. You can see this road trip for Forsythe. Brian, it has been absolutely off the charts. Well the road trip started in Baltimore. Three-game series. He had three hits in each game. A hit last night. A hit already this afternoon. He's just able to stay quiet at the plate for so long and trust the quick hands. He lays off that pitch. Forsythe hardly made an out in Baltimore. Nine out of ten, and a couple of walks on top of it. I mean, this is a guy that. Just seeing the ball so well right there — that fastball, 98 miles an hour, just off the plate; he didn't flinch. Another off-speed, another split, he was not out in front with it, let that ball sail — how that didn't hit Logan Forsythe, not really sure, it almost just curled right around it. Forsythe has reached in 15 of his last 20 plate appearances and almost reached here by getting scraped, no place to put him, and the most timely punchout for Eovaldi so far today as we take a look pitch by pitch of that at-bat: a huge at-bat, Logan Forsythe red hot, bases loaded, just one out here in the inning — you miss away, ball one, all of a sudden a breaking ball into the zone you get even, you jump out ahead, foul ball, still wanted to, just off, two and two; how do you not hit him full count and then want to go away and the fastball ends up on the inside corner to pick up the strikeout looking. They're not quite out of the woods yet, though. He's got the bases full, still two outs for Cabrera. On the first pitch into right field. Nava comes in to score. Longoria, as it's bobbled in right, two runs come home. We talked about the aggressive hitting for the Rays since the start of August. Cabrera follows suit. It's three-nothing Tampa Bay. Cabrera is not one of those guys who needs to be talked into swinging early; he got a breaking ball that was a mistake — a pitch that stayed out over the plate into right field, and Carlos Beltran, looking to make a throw, bobbles it. The Rays have extended that lead now to three, and the pitch count is approaching 64 for Eovaldi. Chopper and an easy play Bird Levaldi needed to get out of the third. Unfortunately for his sake it was a pitch too late. It's now three nothing Tampa Bay. First pitch track to Ryan. Something that you're going to see all afternoon long. The Rays are aggressive with the shift. They've got the picket fence on the left side of the infield for Brendan Ryan. We've seen the Yankees beat it once already. Right there to the shift, and what a stab by Longoria. Long throw, and it is in time. Soft pop-up, Forsythe. 35. You bring up Marcus Stroman. This is a young man who we saw last year at the end of the season. And you talk to anybody with the Blue Jays, They'll tell you that he has an infectious personality that does even more than what he can do up on the mound. What is his timetable? We know that his rehab has begun. They're wondering if he's going to be ready after his next rehab start. And it's a question. He's coming back from this knee injury a lot faster than anyone anticipated. It's the kind of thing, Guys, You can't count on it. But, Man, If he comes back, It's an entirely different equation. There's absolutely no doubt if they get a healthy Marcus Stroman back with his kind of stuff and the way that he can command the ball around the zone and be a stuffed guy because you think of everybody else, R.A. Dickey, the knuckleballer, Mark Buehrle. You talk about getting by on guts and guile. A little flare right there to Forsythe for the shift. It's worked out pretty well so far early on defensively for the Rays. The Rays have an early three-nothing lead. Boy, just talking about that game coming up in the second part of this doubleheader. Brian, this is not the year, as you can say for the last couple of years, to be almost any other team in the Central other than St. Louis. That division — you want to be someplace else, don't you? Oh, I mean St. Louis, they just run away from you. They run away from you. You think about some of the other teams, The Pittsburgh Pirates, The Chicago Cubs are emerging as a real threat in that division. But absolutely, The St. Louis Cardinals are the benchmark. We talked so much about the injuries this year for the Rays, And they've had more than anybody. The injury bug has not gone easy on the Cardinals. They have somehow kept on going. As Kiermaier tries to climb the ladder, He comes up empty. And Eovaldi picks up his fifth punch out. The St. Louis Cardinals are One of those true baseball organizations. And there's that elevated fastball. That's what you can do when you're pitching ahead. Expand the zone. And get Kiermaier to chase. Quick out number one. It brings in Mailey. Good news for Yankees fans. That man CC Sabathia is scheduled to pitch on Wednesday. Interesting hearing Joe Girardi say what many thought he might say and that is that the Yankees will be moving to a six-man rotation. For how long, we'll find out, but it will freshen everybody up for the time being. Sabathia will be pitching with a pretty hefty knee brace, it sounds like. It's a chase there for Jaso. A couple of punch outs to begin the top of the fourth. And that'll be something to really keep an eye on. I mean, you go out there to pitch and you're used to feeling a certain way and all of a sudden you go with a bulky knee brace. It can be a completely different feel going out there and trying to compete at this level. You just wonder how that's going to go. Is that something you can put out of your mind? Does it feel free and easy? He will be the only left-handed starter for the Yankees. Right now they're running out five right-handed starters, which actually works out pretty well for an upcoming series against Toronto. A very right-handed-heavy lineup for the Blue Jays. 0-2 on Jaso. The shift on for Jaso. That series coming up for the Yankees against the Blue Jays will essentially be their version of the World Series early on. It will feel that big. But in the meantime you had better focus day to day, on the game that day, and not look down the road. They'll be here soon enough. The key for the Yankees is to keep their focus on the task at hand. You talked about how frustrating it was over the last couple of weeks to just not be able to gain ground on the Toronto Blue Jays. You'll realize that you've got seven games against them. You'll have enough to say about where you are in the standings. But you've got to take care of business today. Jaso the opposite way avoids the shift. And after a couple of strikeouts, Jaso was aboard. With the two-out single. He reaches for the second time. The split-finger for Nathan Eovaldi has been so inconsistent this afternoon. He comes with another one here. But that ball stays up and it allows John Jaso to just soft-serve it out into left field. He's got plenty of room to work with. There's the grip. Look at where it ends up. Easily recognizable By John Jaso, And he could just flip it the other way and take his two-out single. Well, Eovaldi had a chance for his first one, two, three innings since the first, but I'll have to wait till later. Here is Nava. Two outs, one man aboard. And off Murphy's glove. And Jaso can easily waltz to second. Command issues. That's what has plagued Eovaldi. Whether it's the off-speed or the fastball. A lot of life on that pitch. Supposed to be away, up and in, and right off the thumb of John Ryan Murphy's glove. Passed ball there. And a free base for Jaso. Nava walked and scored in the third. And he'll look back to that third inning. And they'll probably be saying there were plenty of self-inflicted wounds in that frame. You know it's tough when you go out there — you give up one single and end up giving up two runs and leaving two on. I mean, you've got a couple of walks and a hit batter. And then Cabrera with the two-run base hit to right. Coming after the full-count strikeout of Logan Forsythe, you make that strikeout and think, \"We're going to get out of this.\" He's the hottest hitter right now for the Rays as the count goes to two and one on Nava. And if you're Tampa Bay in this ballpark against the second-highest scoring team, you have to pile on, as the Rays have Jaso in scoring position. The Rays, as a team, will get more aggressive with the lead. Once you get the right guys on base, you start to put them in motion, but you're never content with the lead in this building. A lot of power in that Yankee lineup. Nava. Deep. Brendan Ryan. Covered some nice ground there. Jaso left stranded. Go to the bottom of the fourth. Nothing. A-Rod, a strikeout victim. That was more fastball in the first inning. As they shift for A-Rod. Now there's no doubt that the biggest question around the Yankees entering this year is what would be the production level of Alex Rodriguez. And it finally started to taper in what was a rough month of August. Now behind one and two, but a home run last night makes for 27 on the season for Aaron. Two balls and two strikes. And then you can see since August 1st he's been well beneath .200. But through July he was .282 with almost 25 homers. You saw that coming. Right out of the gate too after having a season off; I don't think anybody saw that coming. But adjustments have been made, as you can see by the numbers. A lot of it is the off-speed stuff; you try to go short with Alex Rodriguez and get him reaching and out in front. You've seen a lot of fastballs trying to tie him up. Up and in. Get it over the swing. That's the pitch that he has a chance on — the pitch that's down, 94; he can get down to it. That same pitch. Bring that up about a foot. It'll be real tough for him to catch up. Meanwhile, this is the first full count for Matt Moore as he works with May Lee, the rookie catcher he worked with a number of times in his most recent stint in the minors. This is his first start back. Brian, based on Moore's six starts after he came back up to the big leagues following Tommy John, his ERA was pushing nine. Kevin Cash has to be thrilled with what he's seen from Matt Moore over the first three frames. The first three frames. There is no doubt about it. This is a completely different pitcher. Before, with Matt Moore, you could set up fastball away. You don't know where it would end up. His command was off. He worked on that. He tightened up his delivery. He pared down his arsenal. He's been very good this afternoon. Pitch number eight. And he ties up A-Rod. He gets him. Carlos Beltran coming up then with more on Beltran. Myers full speed ahead. He covers into the gap and makes the catch. Two outs. Now, the point that Ken brings up about the Hall of Fame is a very valid conversation. What if he continues to be as productive as he's been since the first of May for a few more years? I think that becomes an easier and easier call on Carlos Beltran. But I agree with Chili Davis. I mean, you play this game as long as you can. There's a lot of time you'll be retired. There's a very short window for most guys and even 20 years in the grand scheme of things. In baseball years, that's forever. But 20 years is not that long of a time frame overall. So forget pride. If they're paying you to do this. Well, yeah, but I mean, you got to believe that they're going to be paying you to do this because you're still productive. Sure. Headley dumps it into center field with two outs. Carlos Beltran, you know, is a smart player. He knows how to make adjustments. We've seen him do that this season. But yeah, I say play as long as you can. Beltran had a little bit of time this year on the disabled list, but Brian's point is a good one. Over .300 with some good pop, too. Two outs, Headley at first for Bird. Joe Girardi has been very pleased with how Greg Bird has filled in. In for Teixeira, since Teixeira has been banged up and is finally going on the disabled list. Really, you think about Greg Bird, you think about Luis Severino showing maturity beyond their years, not only in Major League Baseball but in this market. I mean, playing in New York is not the easiest place. Sometimes it's tough to break in, but these guys just go out and play ball. They've been productive. He's unflappable so far. Two balls and a strike. To Shira was putting it together. Well, it was an All-Star year. His first was 2009. Last year, he was slowed so much by the wrist injury. In fact, a couple of seasons in a row were affected by injury. He finally got things going, and then... Fouling the pitch off the shin. About the middle of August. And we heard from Girardi. He says, with complete conviction, he believes that Deshera will be back again this year, even though he says that he doesn't necessarily have anything concrete to back that up. It's just his managerial feeling. He's very adamant about that. He pops it up, fighting the sunshine. Here's Cabrera. Putting Longoria in the shift. And it will be Longoria to lead things off when we go to the top of the fifth inning. Stadium. Game two of this three-game weekend series. The Rays. They lost last night, But Tampa Bay has a 3-0 lead as we start the top of the fifth. Longoria begins things. And as for his pitch count, Now just over 75. A long fourth in some respects, Too—really more the second and third, Though. He was able to work around a one-out single by Jaso. A two-out single by Jaso in the fourth. And Longoria has seen the Yankees plenty over the course of his career, All with Tampa Bay, you can see, since 2008. Tied for the most home runs against the Yankees. The most RBIs. Not a huge surprise. Jose Bautista, the man that he's tied with in terms of the home runs. Longoria has always had that ability to step up in the moment. So often when you're playing the New York Yankees the blood gets pumping. You're playing here at Yankee Stadium or elsewhere, it's always a big series, and he certainly has performed. Longoria drew a leadoff walk to start the top of the fifth. So Eovaldi now has four walks; he's also hit a batter. A leadoff man reaches; Sizemore. Well, these are the types of games which really limit Eovaldi's ability to get deep. You know, a lot of deep counts, the walks, base runners — he's been pitching out of the stretch all afternoon. A lot of traffic on the base paths. And this leads to a greater point for Joe Girardi, and that is the Yankees' bullpen. And what it looks like right now is how much he's had to use one of the most feared duos out of any bullpen. And that is Betances and Miller. Miller — he saved it last night. Betances had the night off, and what those two allow you to do is shorten the game. And shorten it significantly. You know, you can count on those guys for shutdown eighth and ninth innings. And so all of a sudden now with a couple other guys. Sprinkled in out there is Andrew Miller; he came in to pick up that save and got two outs last night. Quickly — just a few pitches. LaGuardia at first base. Yeah, the count goes to one and one. Well, Sizemore began the year with the Phillies, now a member of the Rays, and this was a player back then in the early days of his career. Early 2000s. Three-time All-Star with the Indians. Gold Glove winner, Silver Slugger. And then was riddled by injuries. And there was a day, though, where he was truly one of the game's elites. 32. Well-rounded player. Plus-plus defender, good speed. Talk about Kiermaier's jumps and the ground he can cover. Grady's size — more of the same; he can still swing the stick. But you're right. Injuries have robbed him of time and production, but he's been pretty good since coming back with the Rays. Looks at a strike to make it two and two. Last year spent some time with the Red Sox and the Phillies. Another example of a guy that still feels like there's something left to give. Yeah, he can still be productive. He's worked his way right into the cleanup spot here this afternoon. Sizemore lifts one to right field. Beltran is there for the catch, out number one, and brings in Logan Forsythe. It goes back to the message to Carlos Beltran. Play as long as you can. I feel like you're going to be talking with Carlos tomorrow about this. May do that. That is the first fly ball out today for the Rays. Six on the ground. Six punch outs. There's been strength from Forsythe. I've already tried to work around a leadoff walk to Longoria. That's our number two. That's the type of pitch we've seen from Eovaldi. We've seen some plus-plus off-speed pitches, but inconsistent overall on the day. And here is Cabrera. Cabrera has reached base twice — a two-run single to right field his last time up. This has been a rare start for Eovaldi so far where the run support has not been there. A strike to make it two-and-one. Drew Hutchison and Mark Buehrle. The only two pitchers in the game with greater run support than Eovaldi. No surprise. They both play for the Blue Jays. The team leading baseball in runs. All right. The talk about Matt Moore and Tommy John surgery. Ovalde had Tommy John surgery after his junior year in high school. Ovalde is now 25 years old, from Houston. He still lives in Houston during the offseason. And even at 96 pitches, he's still blowing gas — that 97 hasn't lost a thing. Impressive. You know, you think of a high school pitcher, especially in his junior year, coming down with that surgery. How much longer could you possibly last? Well, in his mid-20s, he's got the best fastball among starting pitchers in the game. John Ryan Murphy, off with the mask. Out number three. Longoria stranded at first base. That takes us to the bottom of the fifth. Rays have the lead. With the mustache, though. He needs the mustache. There's no doubt. It's a disappointment that it's gone. There is John Ryan Murphy, the catcher, leading things off. So far the Yankees have not been able to get much going against Moore — only two hits. And they've had a runner in scoring position only once. That was Beltran. And in the second. Well, the one thing Matt Moore has done very well this afternoon is establish command of his fastball. That is what plagued him in his first start with the Rays this year. But he's been moving the fastball around the zone. The curveball's been on point. Mainly it's been those two pitches leading the way. And a rare three-ball count here. Three and one to Murphy. And a full count. Gregorius on deck, swinging a hot bat today with a strikeout. Here comes Morris, 3-2 — and he walks him, a leadoff walk. First walk today issued by the lefty. All right. Now we'll check in with KB back inside our Los Angeles studio. All right. Kevin, Thank you. Brian, You mentioned his name. A few minutes ago, when we were talking about the Blue Jays, that's one guy who kind of gets lost in the trade shuffle — and he really shouldn't; he's not a big power guy. You know, He led the National League in hits last year and has had a ton this year; Gregorius goes the opposite way into the gap — Sizemore off the wall and to third, Murphy fields and throws for Gregorius; his hot hitting continues, how about the shot Gregorius shows going the other way with authority to left-center field here at Yankee Stadium, out to 399 and one-hopping the wall. And then here comes the relay trying to cut down the run, and that ball hits right off the helmet. On the dome. Of Murphy. It was on target. Can you call that an accurate throw? Very. Not sure that's the result that you want. If you're a quarterback, better if you're the relay guy. Backup catcher showing some speed here. Absolutely. Cutting the bases very well and then taking one right off the helmet. And suddenly the Yankees bring the tying run to the plate. That's Brendan Ryan. Didi Gregorius right now is about as hot as they come. You can see his last nine games. He's been a run-producing machine. And with more on Didi Gregorius. Ken, what do you got? Well, Yankees bench coach Rob Thompson told me yesterday that he has never seen a young guy improve this much in all phases in such a short period of time. That's a lot of words. But what we've seen from him... Didi is exactly that. He's a better baserunner than he was earlier. a better defender, and a better hitter. The Yankees always felt he could hit. The reason they felt that was because he hit in the minor leagues. a .277 batting average, a .721 OPS, covering about 2,200 minor league plate appearances. Over the last three months, He's been even better than that. He's been fantastic, and he really made a name for himself in the minor leagues coming up in the Reds organization. And then you talk about being put into one of the most difficult positions for any young player. Because as Joe Girardi said, he really kind of sees this as Didi's rookie season, even though on paper it isn't. There's that understanding now that you're the everyday shortstop for the New York Yankees. You don't have to look over your shoulder, wonder if you're going to play that day. You know you're going to be in the lineup. April and May, What he's done since then in all facets of the game has been remarkable to watch. Meanwhile, two-and-two on Ryan. Chopper back a couple of steps. Now, number one, he moves Gregorius to third. Yeah, productive out there by Brendan Ryan, looking to go the other way, pick up a base hit and drive the run in. Even so, you get the runner to third with less than two outs. Brandon Jones is getting ready in a hurry. Just what Kevin Cash said. This is the first sign of trouble here for Matt Moore. He's going to be managing these games a little differently. It's going to have more of a playoff-type feel because for the Rays that's really what they are. Tampa Bay is right now four and a half games outside of that second wild card held by the Rangers. First pitch to Gardner. Tough month of August for Gardner; he hit just above .200 and led the Yankees in strikeouts that month. 37. Overall this year, good numbers offensively — an All-Star this season for the first time. Drafted and developed by the Yankees. For Gardner, he does not need a hit here to bring in a run with Gregorius on third and one out; given the way the Rays are defending him — Logan Forsythe over, playing traditional second base and deeper — they're conceding this run, and Brett Gardner is a guy that puts the ball in play. He's got a short, quick stroke — good idea to put the ball in play. He can get an RBI if he wants it. Well outside, two and one. You mentioned managing these games as if they're must-wins, and really for the Rays. They have to leapfrog the Angels, the Twins, and then get past the Rangers as well. Ground ball — Cabrera, nifty snag for out number two — but Gregorius, who doubled a run home, scores; now the Yankees are within a run. Now Brett Gardner is using the middle of the field. That's going to guarantee the run. But how about the play by third baseman Cabrera, fielding that ball behind his body. The slide, the pop-up, and how about the throw — right on the money to get the speedy Gardner? Boy, Heck of a play. Two outs. Gregorius in from third. There was Chris Young. Now twice Young has been eaten up by the shift. Both times he's put a ball in play to Logan Forsythe. The second baseman who swings over. On the third-base side of second. As he gets tied up here by Matt Moore. It's not broken. He's hit it that way twice. 21. It's really becoming almost more newsworthy when defenses play a guy straight up than when they actually shift or shape. You say the comment, They don't shift for this guy. He must use the whole field. He must be well-rounded. Is that a new concept? Using the whole field? I think that is going to be the new thing.", "title": "MLB_New York Yankees Tampa Bay Rays 05 09 15", "category": null, "start_time": 4774.0, "end_time": 4804.0, "qa": []}
{"video": "Baidu_MLB/MLB_YANKEES HOME OPENER - April 07 2014.mp4", "content": [[1880.68, 1881.69, "Nor"], [1881.69, 1882.71, "do"], [1882.71, 1883.72, "they"], [1883.72, 1884.73, "take"], [1884.73, 1885.75, "into"], [1885.75, 1886.76, "account"], [1886.76, 1887.77, "how"], [1887.77, 1888.79, "hard"], [1888.79, 1889.8, "the"], [1889.8, 1890.81, "balls"], [1890.81, 1891.83, "are"], [1891.83, 1892.84, "hit."], [1897.1, 1897.13, "So,"], [1897.13, 1897.16, "in"], [1897.16, 1897.19, "terms"], [1897.19, 1897.22, "of"], [1897.22, 1897.25, "range"], [1897.25, 1897.28, "factor"], [1897.28, 1897.31, "and"], [1897.31, 1897.34, "range"], [1897.34, 1897.37, "finder,"], [1897.37, 1897.4, "trying"], [1897.4, 1897.43, "to"], [1897.43, 1897.46, "determine"], [1897.46, 1897.48, "the"], [1897.48, 1897.51, "range"], [1897.51, 1897.54, "of"], [1897.54, 1897.57, "a"], [1897.57, 1897.6, "defensive"], [1897.6, 1897.63, "player"], [1897.63, 1897.66, "and"], [1897.66, 1897.69, "how"], [1897.69, 1897.72, "many"], [1897.72, 1897.75, "balls"], [1897.75, 1897.78, "he"], [1897.78, 1897.81, "gets"], [1897.81, 1897.84, "to."], [1902.24, 1902.15, "There"], [1902.15, 1902.05, "are"], [1902.05, 1901.96, "going"], [1901.96, 1901.87, "to"], [1901.87, 1901.78, "have"], [1901.78, 1901.68, "to"], [1901.68, 1901.59, "be"], [1901.59, 1901.5, "some"], [1901.5, 1901.4, "adjustments"], [1901.4, 1901.31, "to"], [1901.31, 1901.22, "some"], [1901.22, 1901.13, "of"], [1901.13, 1901.03, "these"], [1901.03, 1900.94, "sabermetrics."], [1905.42, 1904.85, "With"], [1904.85, 1904.28, "regard"], [1904.28, 1903.7, "to"], [1903.7, 1903.13, "defensive"], [1903.13, 1902.56, "metrics."], [1906.82, 1906.37, "There's"], [1906.37, 1905.93, "going"], [1905.93, 1905.48, "to"], [1905.48, 1905.04, "be"], [1905.04, 1904.59, "a"], [1904.59, 1904.15, "new"], [1904.15, 1903.7, "normal."], [1909.12, 1908.23, "There's"], [1908.23, 1907.35, "Nelson"], [1907.35, 1906.46, "Cruz."], [1909.45, 1908.25, "strike."]], "preasr": "And shortly thereafter, he became the captain of the Yankees. Five championships later, hoping to go out with number six, Derek Jeter is in his final season of professional baseball. So that's the Jeter aspect of this. Now, Hiroki Kuroda is going to get the start. He's done this before. David Cone will detail that when we get back right here on YES. The start today, David, in the home opener as well. He's not a stranger to that. He's not. This was 2012 opening up for the Yankees, and he was dynamite that day. Six strikeouts. He was throwing the ball everywhere he wanted to. He ended up with eight innings of shutout baseball that particular day. He's had some big moments here at Yankee Stadium as well. He's not a road warrior, that's for sure. He loves home cooking. Check these numbers out in the Bronx. 18-9, 2.57 ERA in a hitter's ballpark. 170 strikeouts, walked just 47 in 200 and one-third innings. So pretty good for Hiroki Kuroda here at Yankee Stadium. It's almost time for first pitch. Lineups. First pitch baseball. The Yankees opened the season on the road with six games. They lost two out of three to the Astros in the first series of the year. And then they took two out of three. From the Toronto Blue Jays this weekend. No off days. 13 straight days in a row coming out of the gate from spring training. This is the beginning of a three-series homestand. You've got three against the Orioles. Four against the Red Sox. And then two against the Chicago Cubs. An opening day at home is always special. There's something extra special this year because this is Jeter's final opening day. It is Jeter's final opening day. It's more about missing last year's opening day, and that's what he's talked about more. He's always going to deflect. As you know, with Derek. He's not going to like all the attention on himself. His comment was: I missed last opening day. That's what this one's about. This is the last time you're going to see that guy on an opening day at Yankee Stadium. Now it's going to be a very special first pitch ceremony because the Yankees have reunited the core four. You know who those four people are: Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte, and Derek Jeter. Before the game, Derek said: I can't remember the last time we were all together on a field at the same time. I've seen all of them recently, but we haven't been together. Let's go now to the public address announcer at Yankee Stadium. Paul. The Yankees are excited to have two very special ceremonial first pitches. Throwing out one pitch is the man who is the Yankees' all-time strikeout leader and ranks third on the Yankees' all-time wins list. Throwing out the other pitch is the man who pitched in more games in Yankees history than anyone else and is Major League Baseball's all-time saves leader. No two pitchers combined for a win and a save in the same game more than the 72 times these two Yankees did. And later tonight, They will be honored together at the New York Yankees homecoming dinner with the 2014 Pride of the Yankees Award. Ladies and gentlemen, Please welcome back number 46, Andy Pettitte. And number 42, Mariano Rivera. Championships they won together in pinstripes. Two of the core four have a little snow on the roof, And one of the core four doesn't have any snow on the roof, And then there's Derek Jeter, But it's good to see the four of them together. It was special, And that was a little dangerous because Pettitte cut it from the left side and Mariano cut it from the right, it could have gotten dangerous there for the catchers. That's the way to start breaking it down, David. It's so weird seeing them throw out the first pitch; both could clearly still pitch in the big leagues. Andy Pettitte's final game was last year in Houston. It was a complete game victory, And Mariano Rivera had one of his better seasons last year as well, But they decided that it was time to go. That's what Derek Jeter decided as well on February 12th, And one of the most asked questions is, Kenny, at least I've been asked this a lot, David Lough, the left fielder, will lead off, batting second and playing right field. Nick Markakis. Adam Jones in center field will bat third. Cleaning up, the first baseman, Chris Davis. Matt Wieters will catch. He'll bat fifth. Nelson Cruz, the DH, will hit sixth. Batting seventh, the second baseman, Steve Lombardozzi. The shortstop is Ryan Flaherty, hitting eighth. Jonathan Schoop is the third baseman, and he is going to bat ninth. And for the home opener, it's going to be Hiroki Kuroda getting the start for the New York Yankees. He's two and three in his career against the Baltimore Orioles. And he's made one start that came in Houston. He actually pitched very well against the Astros. Not much in the way of run support. And he came away with the loss. Opponents hitting just .143 against him. Let's check out our pitcher's scouting report. I mentioned run support. Hiroki Kuroda got tagged with a loss. He only allowed two runs in six innings at Houston. It was the 29th loss of his career in which he allowed three or fewer runs. It's the most since 2008 of any pitcher in the big leagues. The good old days. Last year he pitched very well in day games. He's done that. The Yankees. Here at Yankee Stadium 18 days starts. He is 10 and 3. And last year he had nine starts during the course of the season in which he did not give up a run. And that was the most in the American League. Let's check out the defense behind Kuroda. The Yankees have Brett Gardner in left. Jacoby Ellsbury is in center and Carlos Beltran in right. In the infield, It's Yangervis Solarte at third. Derek Jeter at short. Brian Roberts at second. Kelly Johnson, the first baseman. Brian McCann is behind the plate. Hiroki Kuroda is on the mound. In the middle of a tough stretch to start the season for the Yankees, As we mentioned. 13 straight games out of the gate. Usually you have an off day after every opener that you play in, but both of the first two series were played in dome stadiums. You didn't have to back up for a rainout. And the schedule makers didn't do that here at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees play again tomorrow afternoon against the Orioles. So their first day off will be Monday, a week from today. There's Carlos Beltran, his first game in pinstripes. Same thing with Jacoby Ellsbury and Brian Roberts as well. Kelly Johnson, Solarte, and behind the plate, Brian McCann. So a lot of new Yankees. Lowe is ready. Kuroda is ready. Let's do it here in the Bronx. The first pitch is low and we are underway. Jim Jimmins is the home plate umpire who called balls and strikes. This is one of the Orioles' new players, David Lowe. Prior to the trade with Kansas City. The Orioles said that Danny Valencia. The right-handed hitter to the Royals. But Buck Showalter said that they really like. They would like him to kind of establish himself as a permanent leadoff guy at the top of this Oriole lineup. The 1-1 pitch. Well, There were years when the Orioles didn't have to worry about that leadoff spot. But that premier leadoff man is now playing second base for the Yankees. Brian Roberts. Lowe, as you might expect, has pretty good speed. He's a good defender out in the outfield. He had a pretty good year for Kansas City. In 96 games, he had a .286 average. Derek Jeter gets The preacher chant. Signals to the crowd. And they cheer again. 1-2. Swung on and missed. Low, down on strikes. Obviously overcast. The lights are on. 51 degrees. 41% humidity. Not much wind. But there's a chance of late showers. Maybe about 4 o'clock. So hopefully the game will be over by then. We'll see if it holds up. The rest of the week is supposed to be beautiful. Here's Nick Markakis. Orioles coming at two and four. And yesterday. They won a game to snap a four game losing streak. It was their number one starter Chris Tillman who beat Justin Verlander in Detroit. Good matchup. Tillman's really establishing himself as the leader of that Oriole staff. Coming off a good year last year as well. Right in on the hands, down the right-field line. It's a base hit. It goes to the wall. Beltran fields it. And moving to second with a double is Nick Markakis. You might notice when I gave you the Oriole lineup. The absence of J.J. Hardy. Hardy is not on the DL. But he has been experiencing back spasms. in his lower back. The cold weather is not helping matters. So he is not playing today. And the Orioles move Ryan Flaherty over to the shortstop position, which has been well manned by Hardy over the last few years. And a strike. Adam Jones: last year, 33 home runs, 108 runs batted in. The premier center fielder, one of the key players in the Oriole lineup. Both of those totals that Michael mentioned are career highs for Davis. I should say Jones. Got one batter ahead of us. Michael mentioned that Adam Jones is one of the better outfielders in the league. In fact he had more home runs and more runs batted in. McCann and Kuroda are having trouble coming to an agreement. Remember, there's a man on second base and they changed the signs. You know, we saw this a little bit with Sabathia in his most recent start, and this is good. Kuroda, as a veteran, has a very clear idea of how he wants to go about it, and McCann is obviously a veteran catcher as well. McCann is really noted for his signal-calling in Atlanta, one of the best around. He really knows how to set up hitters and frames exceptionally well. Defensively, he's one of the better catchers around, but people more and more note him for his offense. One-one. Foul back. Well, since 2008, according to Baseball Prospectus, Brian McCann is the best pitch framer in baseball. Followed by Jose Molina, Jonathan Lucroy, Russell Martin and Ryan Hanigan. You should explain what a pitch framer is. It's a catcher who really receives the ball quietly. Not too much body movement. And it gives the umpire a really good look. And you can steal some strikes on close pitches. One-two. Fly ball to center field. Ellsbury will make the play. For the second half. That'll bring up Chris Davis. He had a club record 53 home runs. He broke Brady Anderson's record from 1996 — Brady had 50; Davis hit 53. He's got power to all fields. This is one of the strongest hitters in the league. And he finished third in the MVP balloting last year. Behind Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout. Now the power numbers went down in the second half of the year. Many theorized he was tired. The league started to pitch him tougher. We'll see if he picks it up. But Buck Showalter said you can't expect him to hit fifty-three again. So if he hits thirty-seven home runs this year, you're going to... Some say he had a bad year. He said that's not fair; thirty-seven is an outstanding year. Well, he led the league in runs batted in with one hundred thirty-eight. If he can lead the league in runs batted in, you can drive in runs with singles and doubles as well. That last pitch was a good splitter. Davis is a good low-fastball hitter; Corona went lower-than-low and got him to chase it. He'll want him more. Really, what it comes down to, Kenny, and you know he's a great hitter. From a pitcher's standpoint, you're trying to promote. Bad contact off the end of the bat, and from a hitter's standpoint... Especially with Davis, it's just getting good balls to hit and laying off those splitters down and out. You mentioned bad contact — that's what happened to Adam Jones on the previous out: a fly ball to center, but it was off the end of the bat; he couldn't drive it. You know, I mentioned run support. In my scouting report on Corona and Davis, I will tell you — I think you will agree — as a pitcher, sometimes it's not how you pitch. It's when you pitch. And Kuroda's pitched very well over the years for the Yankees. But there are days where the team just has to score that many runs. He's one of the pitchers in the league who gets the lowest amount of run support. 2-1. Rounded to first. Kelly Johnson is there. He beats Davis to the bag, and that'll do it here in the first. No runs, no hits, no errors. And one man left. Orioles, nothing. And the Yankees are coming to bat. Score on the top of the first. Now it's the Yankees' turn against Ubaldo Jimenez. Brett Gardner in left field will lead off, the captain, The shortstop, Derek Jeter, bats second. Batting third, Playing center is Jacoby Ellsbury. Carlos Beltran is in right field. He'll clean up, batting fifth. Catcher Brian McCann. Alfonso Soriano, the DH, will bat sixth. Batting seventh, playing second base, Brian Roberts. Kelly Johnson, the first baseman, hits eighth. Batting ninth, playing third base, Jan Hervis. On the mound for Baltimore. Former Cleveland Indian right-hander. He's 30 years old and took a loss against the Boston Red Sox in his opening start of the year. That was down at the Camden Yards in Baltimore. He's got pretty good stuff. You look at his numbers. A late addition. The Orioles signed him just before the beginning of spring training along with the DH and left fielder Nelson Cruz. He is a man of steel. S-T-E-A-L. The last four years, he's given up the third-most steals in baseball. A.J. Burnett is one of the two pitchers ahead of him, at 213, the strong second half, 13 straight starts to end the season of three runs or fewer, and that made him a very attractive free agent, and the Orioles signed him. Let's check out the defense behind Ubaldo Jimenez. We've got Moe in left, Jones in center. Marqueque is over right infield. It's Schoop. Flaherty, Lombardozzi and Davis, third to first. Leaders behind the plate and the men as is on the mound. All right. So here's Brett Gardner. Brett. The only home run for the Yankees on their six-game road trip. Shows but takes a strike. I mentioned the man of steel because the Yankees have been stealing bases. Maybe one home run but eight stolen bases without being caught in those six games. Ground ball to the first. Davis to the bag, one away, and that'll bring up Derek Jeter. Starting for the Yankees. Number two, Derek. Jeter. Home crowd. Rising to their feet for Jeter's initial bat of the season. Definitely could have had that go longer if he stepped out, but he could see he just wanted to start playing baseball. He got in the box with the crowd. He was standing and cheering. They wanted Jimenez to throw the pitch. The last time I heard a chant like that during a game was Paul O'Neill's big serenade back in the playoffs in his last game here. That was 2001. I was at Game 5 of the World Series against the Diamondbacks. Derek was asked about a comment Joe Torre once made — that Derek doesn't make the moment too big, that he doesn't get too excited. Derek said, Well, I'm like everybody else. He said, I get excited. He said, I just don't let you see. But inside I have butterflies in big moments. He gets Jeter down on strikes. One thing you'll notice about Jimenez is... From the windup, he's got a very funky delivery. His motion is all arms and legs. He's tall enough to begin with and has a good fastball to the outside corner there. Strikeout of Derek Jeter. Watch the motion. Arms, legs, everything moving. You've got to find a ball there somewhere. He kind of wraps that arm around the back of his backside there, you know, and really that's when he turned it around last year, Kenny. They were trying to change his mechanics, change his arm swing, and they said... They said, \"What the heck, go back to your old way?\" And that's when he started letting it go again and got some velocity back. This is what I got. This is my style and I'm going to go with it. He did help Cleveland get to the playoffs. He went 4-0 in September. With a 1.09 ERA, that made him American League Pitcher of the Month. That's strange. Ellsbury was one of the big free-agent signings by the Yankees. But he's been able to fly under the radar because it's all been about Derek Jeter's final season and the arrival of Tanaka. So he's getting... Almost an easy slide into the Yankee situation. Ellsbury kind of came alive in the series in Toronto; he had seven hits. Those were against the Blue Jays. Primarily a leadoff hitter, he led all leadoff hitters in hits last year. So, Brian McCann. Will be batting fifth today. It will be interesting to see how Ellsbury's power translates into Yankee Stadium as opposed to Fenway. Certainly, a few years ago he had 30-plus home runs in an MVP-caliber year, and then I think just 11 last year; somewhere in the middle you can expect a power boost from Ellsbury, especially at home. That one is a fly ball to left field, and that'll do it as the Yankees go down in order. One, two, three. We're going to the second here at the stadium. Yankees nothing, Orioles nothing. It will be difficult to keep four players on one team. Four great players on one team. Andy Pettitte did have three years when he went to the Astros. That was because he wanted to go home. But he did end up coming back. But the ability to keep stars on one team. four guys. I don't know if you can afford that anymore. David. It is rare. Even seeing one player like Jeter, a la George Brett, Cal Ripken, play his entire career. especially a career that spans 20 years in one spot. That's not going to be a rarity, much less four guys. Four guys. Now the leadoff hitter will lead off and the Yankees will go into their shift as Solarte. Solarte moves over to the right side. Derek Jeter. He moves about 25 feet. from third base. The Yankees did a lot of shifting in the first six games. Wieters has hit well here at Yankee Stadium over the years; he comes in pretty hard. He's got a six-game hitting streak and his batting average is .368. At least for the first week he's gotten off to a decent start. Well, one thing all of these dramatic shifts are going to do is give you a good look at fielders here. All the defensive metrics out there, Kenny, Sabermetrics are really going to be thrown off because many of these metrics do not take into account defensive placement. High fly ball to left field. Gardner. Makes the play.", "title": "MLB_YANKEES HOME OPENER - April 07 2014", "category": null, "start_time": 1879.15, "end_time": 1909.15, "qa": []}
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Five championships later, hoping to go out with number six, Derek Jeter is in his final season of professional baseball. So that's the Jeter aspect of this. Now, Hiroki Kuroda is going to get the start. He's done this before. David Cone will detail that when we get back right here on YES. The start today, David, in the home opener as well. He's not a stranger to that. He's not. This was 2012 opening up for the Yankees, and he was dynamite that day. Six strikeouts. He was throwing the ball everywhere he wanted to. He ended up with eight innings of shutout baseball that particular day. He's had some big moments here at Yankee Stadium as well. He's not a road warrior, that's for sure. He loves home cooking. Check these numbers out in the Bronx. 18-9, 2.57 ERA in a hitter's ballpark. 170 strikeouts, walked just 47 in 200 and one-third innings. So pretty good for Hiroki Kuroda here at Yankee Stadium. It's almost time for first pitch. Lineups. First pitch baseball. The Yankees opened the season on the road with six games. They lost two out of three to the Astros in the first series of the year. And then they took two out of three. From the Toronto Blue Jays this weekend. No off days. 13 straight days in a row coming out of the gate from spring training. This is the beginning of a three-series homestand. You've got three against the Orioles. Four against the Red Sox. And then two against the Chicago Cubs. An opening day at home is always special. There's something extra special this year because this is Jeter's final opening day. It is Jeter's final opening day. It's more about missing last year's opening day, and that's what he's talked about more. He's always going to deflect. As you know, with Derek. He's not going to like all the attention on himself. His comment was: I missed last opening day. That's what this one's about. This is the last time you're going to see that guy on an opening day at Yankee Stadium. Now it's going to be a very special first pitch ceremony because the Yankees have reunited the core four. You know who those four people are: Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte, and Derek Jeter. Before the game, Derek said: I can't remember the last time we were all together on a field at the same time. I've seen all of them recently, but we haven't been together. Let's go now to the public address announcer at Yankee Stadium. Paul. The Yankees are excited to have two very special ceremonial first pitches. Throwing out one pitch is the man who is the Yankees' all-time strikeout leader and ranks third on the Yankees' all-time wins list. Throwing out the other pitch is the man who pitched in more games in Yankees history than anyone else and is Major League Baseball's all-time saves leader. No two pitchers combined for a win and a save in the same game more than the 72 times these two Yankees did. And later tonight, They will be honored together at the New York Yankees homecoming dinner with the 2014 Pride of the Yankees Award. Ladies and gentlemen, Please welcome back number 46, Andy Pettitte. And number 42, Mariano Rivera. Championships they won together in pinstripes. Two of the core four have a little snow on the roof, And one of the core four doesn't have any snow on the roof, And then there's Derek Jeter, But it's good to see the four of them together. It was special, And that was a little dangerous because Pettitte cut it from the left side and Mariano cut it from the right, it could have gotten dangerous there for the catchers. That's the way to start breaking it down, David. It's so weird seeing them throw out the first pitch; both could clearly still pitch in the big leagues. Andy Pettitte's final game was last year in Houston. It was a complete game victory, And Mariano Rivera had one of his better seasons last year as well, But they decided that it was time to go. That's what Derek Jeter decided as well on February 12th, And one of the most asked questions is, Kenny, at least I've been asked this a lot, David Lough, the left fielder, will lead off, batting second and playing right field. Nick Markakis. Adam Jones in center field will bat third. Cleaning up, the first baseman, Chris Davis. Matt Wieters will catch. He'll bat fifth. Nelson Cruz, the DH, will hit sixth. Batting seventh, the second baseman, Steve Lombardozzi. The shortstop is Ryan Flaherty, hitting eighth. Jonathan Schoop is the third baseman, and he is going to bat ninth. And for the home opener, it's going to be Hiroki Kuroda getting the start for the New York Yankees. He's two and three in his career against the Baltimore Orioles. And he's made one start that came in Houston. He actually pitched very well against the Astros. Not much in the way of run support. And he came away with the loss. Opponents hitting just .143 against him. Let's check out our pitcher's scouting report. I mentioned run support. Hiroki Kuroda got tagged with a loss. He only allowed two runs in six innings at Houston. It was the 29th loss of his career in which he allowed three or fewer runs. It's the most since 2008 of any pitcher in the big leagues. The good old days. Last year he pitched very well in day games. He's done that. The Yankees. Here at Yankee Stadium 18 days starts. He is 10 and 3. And last year he had nine starts during the course of the season in which he did not give up a run. And that was the most in the American League. Let's check out the defense behind Kuroda. The Yankees have Brett Gardner in left. Jacoby Ellsbury is in center and Carlos Beltran in right. In the infield, It's Yangervis Solarte at third. Derek Jeter at short. Brian Roberts at second. Kelly Johnson, the first baseman. Brian McCann is behind the plate. Hiroki Kuroda is on the mound. In the middle of a tough stretch to start the season for the Yankees, As we mentioned. 13 straight games out of the gate. Usually you have an off day after every opener that you play in, but both of the first two series were played in dome stadiums. You didn't have to back up for a rainout. And the schedule makers didn't do that here at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees play again tomorrow afternoon against the Orioles. So their first day off will be Monday, a week from today. There's Carlos Beltran, his first game in pinstripes. Same thing with Jacoby Ellsbury and Brian Roberts as well. Kelly Johnson, Solarte, and behind the plate, Brian McCann. So a lot of new Yankees. Lowe is ready. Kuroda is ready. Let's do it here in the Bronx. The first pitch is low and we are underway. Jim Jimmins is the home plate umpire who called balls and strikes. This is one of the Orioles' new players, David Lowe. Prior to the trade with Kansas City. The Orioles said that Danny Valencia. The right-handed hitter to the Royals. But Buck Showalter said that they really like. They would like him to kind of establish himself as a permanent leadoff guy at the top of this Oriole lineup. The 1-1 pitch. Well, There were years when the Orioles didn't have to worry about that leadoff spot. But that premier leadoff man is now playing second base for the Yankees. Brian Roberts. Lowe, as you might expect, has pretty good speed. He's a good defender out in the outfield. He had a pretty good year for Kansas City. In 96 games, he had a .286 average. Derek Jeter gets The preacher chant. Signals to the crowd. And they cheer again. 1-2. Swung on and missed. Low, down on strikes. Obviously overcast. The lights are on. 51 degrees. 41% humidity. Not much wind. But there's a chance of late showers. Maybe about 4 o'clock. So hopefully the game will be over by then. We'll see if it holds up. The rest of the week is supposed to be beautiful. Here's Nick Markakis. Orioles coming at two and four. And yesterday. They won a game to snap a four game losing streak. It was their number one starter Chris Tillman who beat Justin Verlander in Detroit. Good matchup. Tillman's really establishing himself as the leader of that Oriole staff. Coming off a good year last year as well. Right in on the hands, down the right-field line. It's a base hit. It goes to the wall. Beltran fields it. And moving to second with a double is Nick Markakis. You might notice when I gave you the Oriole lineup. The absence of J.J. Hardy. Hardy is not on the DL. But he has been experiencing back spasms. in his lower back. The cold weather is not helping matters. So he is not playing today. And the Orioles move Ryan Flaherty over to the shortstop position, which has been well manned by Hardy over the last few years. And a strike. Adam Jones: last year, 33 home runs, 108 runs batted in. The premier center fielder, one of the key players in the Oriole lineup. Both of those totals that Michael mentioned are career highs for Davis. I should say Jones. Got one batter ahead of us. Michael mentioned that Adam Jones is one of the better outfielders in the league. In fact he had more home runs and more runs batted in. McCann and Kuroda are having trouble coming to an agreement. Remember, there's a man on second base and they changed the signs. You know, we saw this a little bit with Sabathia in his most recent start, and this is good. Kuroda, as a veteran, has a very clear idea of how he wants to go about it, and McCann is obviously a veteran catcher as well. McCann is really noted for his signal-calling in Atlanta, one of the best around. He really knows how to set up hitters and frames exceptionally well. Defensively, he's one of the better catchers around, but people more and more note him for his offense. One-one. Foul back. Well, since 2008, according to Baseball Prospectus, Brian McCann is the best pitch framer in baseball. Followed by Jose Molina, Jonathan Lucroy, Russell Martin and Ryan Hanigan. You should explain what a pitch framer is. It's a catcher who really receives the ball quietly. Not too much body movement. And it gives the umpire a really good look. And you can steal some strikes on close pitches. One-two. Fly ball to center field. Ellsbury will make the play. For the second half. That'll bring up Chris Davis. He had a club record 53 home runs. He broke Brady Anderson's record from 1996 — Brady had 50; Davis hit 53. He's got power to all fields. This is one of the strongest hitters in the league. And he finished third in the MVP balloting last year. Behind Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout. Now the power numbers went down in the second half of the year. Many theorized he was tired. The league started to pitch him tougher. We'll see if he picks it up. But Buck Showalter said you can't expect him to hit fifty-three again. So if he hits thirty-seven home runs this year, you're going to... Some say he had a bad year. He said that's not fair; thirty-seven is an outstanding year. Well, he led the league in runs batted in with one hundred thirty-eight. If he can lead the league in runs batted in, you can drive in runs with singles and doubles as well. That last pitch was a good splitter. Davis is a good low-fastball hitter; Corona went lower-than-low and got him to chase it. He'll want him more. Really, what it comes down to, Kenny, and you know he's a great hitter. From a pitcher's standpoint, you're trying to promote. Bad contact off the end of the bat, and from a hitter's standpoint... Especially with Davis, it's just getting good balls to hit and laying off those splitters down and out. You mentioned bad contact — that's what happened to Adam Jones on the previous out: a fly ball to center, but it was off the end of the bat; he couldn't drive it. You know, I mentioned run support. In my scouting report on Corona and Davis, I will tell you — I think you will agree — as a pitcher, sometimes it's not how you pitch. It's when you pitch. And Kuroda's pitched very well over the years for the Yankees. But there are days where the team just has to score that many runs. He's one of the pitchers in the league who gets the lowest amount of run support. 2-1. Rounded to first. Kelly Johnson is there. He beats Davis to the bag, and that'll do it here in the first. No runs, no hits, no errors. And one man left. Orioles, nothing. And the Yankees are coming to bat. Score on the top of the first. Now it's the Yankees' turn against Ubaldo Jimenez. Brett Gardner in left field will lead off, the captain, The shortstop, Derek Jeter, bats second. Batting third, Playing center is Jacoby Ellsbury. Carlos Beltran is in right field. He'll clean up, batting fifth. Catcher Brian McCann. Alfonso Soriano, the DH, will bat sixth. Batting seventh, playing second base, Brian Roberts. Kelly Johnson, the first baseman, hits eighth. Batting ninth, playing third base, Jan Hervis. On the mound for Baltimore. Former Cleveland Indian right-hander. He's 30 years old and took a loss against the Boston Red Sox in his opening start of the year. That was down at the Camden Yards in Baltimore. He's got pretty good stuff. You look at his numbers. A late addition. The Orioles signed him just before the beginning of spring training along with the DH and left fielder Nelson Cruz. He is a man of steel. S-T-E-A-L. The last four years, he's given up the third-most steals in baseball. A.J. Burnett is one of the two pitchers ahead of him, at 213, the strong second half, 13 straight starts to end the season of three runs or fewer, and that made him a very attractive free agent, and the Orioles signed him. Let's check out the defense behind Ubaldo Jimenez. We've got Moe in left, Jones in center. Marqueque is over right infield. It's Schoop. Flaherty, Lombardozzi and Davis, third to first. Leaders behind the plate and the men as is on the mound. All right. So here's Brett Gardner. Brett. The only home run for the Yankees on their six-game road trip. Shows but takes a strike. I mentioned the man of steel because the Yankees have been stealing bases. Maybe one home run but eight stolen bases without being caught in those six games. Ground ball to the first. Davis to the bag, one away, and that'll bring up Derek Jeter. Starting for the Yankees. Number two, Derek. Jeter. Home crowd. Rising to their feet for Jeter's initial bat of the season. Definitely could have had that go longer if he stepped out, but he could see he just wanted to start playing baseball. He got in the box with the crowd. He was standing and cheering. They wanted Jimenez to throw the pitch. The last time I heard a chant like that during a game was Paul O'Neill's big serenade back in the playoffs in his last game here. That was 2001. I was at Game 5 of the World Series against the Diamondbacks. Derek was asked about a comment Joe Torre once made — that Derek doesn't make the moment too big, that he doesn't get too excited. Derek said, Well, I'm like everybody else. He said, I get excited. He said, I just don't let you see. But inside I have butterflies in big moments. He gets Jeter down on strikes. One thing you'll notice about Jimenez is... From the windup, he's got a very funky delivery. His motion is all arms and legs. He's tall enough to begin with and has a good fastball to the outside corner there. Strikeout of Derek Jeter. Watch the motion. Arms, legs, everything moving. You've got to find a ball there somewhere. He kind of wraps that arm around the back of his backside there, you know, and really that's when he turned it around last year, Kenny. They were trying to change his mechanics, change his arm swing, and they said... They said, \"What the heck, go back to your old way?\" And that's when he started letting it go again and got some velocity back. This is what I got. This is my style and I'm going to go with it. He did help Cleveland get to the playoffs. He went 4-0 in September. With a 1.09 ERA, that made him American League Pitcher of the Month. That's strange. Ellsbury was one of the big free-agent signings by the Yankees. But he's been able to fly under the radar because it's all been about Derek Jeter's final season and the arrival of Tanaka. So he's getting... Almost an easy slide into the Yankee situation. Ellsbury kind of came alive in the series in Toronto; he had seven hits. Those were against the Blue Jays. Primarily a leadoff hitter, he led all leadoff hitters in hits last year. So, Brian McCann. Will be batting fifth today. It will be interesting to see how Ellsbury's power translates into Yankee Stadium as opposed to Fenway. Certainly, a few years ago he had 30-plus home runs in an MVP-caliber year, and then I think just 11 last year; somewhere in the middle you can expect a power boost from Ellsbury, especially at home. That one is a fly ball to left field, and that'll do it as the Yankees go down in order. One, two, three. We're going to the second here at the stadium. Yankees nothing, Orioles nothing. It will be difficult to keep four players on one team. Four great players on one team. Andy Pettitte did have three years when he went to the Astros. That was because he wanted to go home. But he did end up coming back. But the ability to keep stars on one team. four guys. I don't know if you can afford that anymore. David. It is rare. Even seeing one player like Jeter, a la George Brett, Cal Ripken, play his entire career. especially a career that spans 20 years in one spot. That's not going to be a rarity, much less four guys. Four guys. Now the leadoff hitter will lead off and the Yankees will go into their shift as Solarte. Solarte moves over to the right side. Derek Jeter. He moves about 25 feet. from third base. The Yankees did a lot of shifting in the first six games. Wieters has hit well here at Yankee Stadium over the years; he comes in pretty hard. He's got a six-game hitting streak and his batting average is .368. At least for the first week he's gotten off to a decent start. Well, one thing all of these dramatic shifts are going to do is give you a good look at fielders here. All the defensive metrics out there, Kenny, Sabermetrics are really going to be thrown off because many of these metrics do not take into account defensive placement. High fly ball to left field. Gardner. Makes the play. Nor do they take into account how hard the balls are hit. So, in terms of range factor and range finder, trying to determine the range of a defensive player and how many balls he gets to. There are going to have to be some adjustments to some of these sabermetrics. With regard to defensive metrics. There's going to be a new normal. There's Nelson Cruz. And a strike. Cruz, a free agent, signed a one-year deal with the O's, again late just like Jimenez. The Orioles just weren't getting any traction in Baltimore during the offseason. And they finished tied with the Yankees last year with 85 wins in the East. They didn't make any additions. They also traded away their closer Jim Johnson. It didn't seem like they wanted to improve. And then they went out and spent a great deal of money on Jimenez. And then Cruz signed. The city got excited again. So did the members of the team. They waited so late. Because the prices of these players came down. Cruz signed a one-year deal and I could see his thinking: he wants to have a good year. He'll hit in a friendly ballpark in Baltimore. He's already hit two home runs there. Maybe get back out on the market again. He was a real find and a perfect fit for the Orioles in the middle of this lineup in that ballpark. I think Jimenez was a little bit of a surprise, a $50 million four-year deal. That was when Ervin Santana was still sitting out there. Rounded up the middle for a base hit. Nelson Cruz with a single. Here's Lombardozzi. Lombardozzi came over to the Orioles just at the tail end of spring training. The deal with the Detroit Tigers addressed needs for both teams; the Orioles were struggling at second base. Alex Gonzalez, the veteran shortstop, was in the Orioles camp. Tigers' Jose Iglesias is injured, maybe out for the whole season. They made a deal. Gonzalez, now playing short for Detroit, has already paid off with a game-winning RBI. Cruz leads off first, held there by Kelly Johnson. And the 2-0 count. Fly ball to right-center. Ellsbury is on the run. He'll make the play. Nelson Cruz forgot how many outs there were. They're going to double him up. And they do. Cruz just took off. Buck Showalter cannot be too pleased. No runs scored. No errors on the play because of the double play. Nobody left on base. There he goes. We're at the bottom of the second. 12. Introduced to the crowd along with the extras today; did not run out to the line, walked out slowly. Brendan Ryan still in Tampa with a cervical spine nerve injury. Still not doing baseball activities. He's a ways away from coming back to the Yankees. Well, there's Buck Showalter; he's probably wondering what happened there. You know this. He's talking to Delmon Young; there was one out. Buck's really famous for that throughout the game. He'll storm up and down the dugout and he'll challenge guys to make sure they're into the game. He'll talk strategy, as he's doing right there with Delmon Young. He likes to keep everybody involved throughout the course of the game, including those on the bench. You've got to be ready. Count two and one on Beltran. I'm sure this is the day that Beltran's dreamed about for a while. He's wanted to be a Yankee for a long, long time. When he became a free agent that first time, he ended up signing with the Mets. The night before, his agent came to the Yankees and said, Carlos would go to the Yankees for less money than he was taking from the Mets. And the Yankees just didn't have a fit that year, So he ended up signing with the Mets and had a nice run there. And this time, the stars aligned, and the Yankees signed him to a free agent deal. And he ends up walking. He's been a good player for a very long time. I remember his rookie season in 1999 with the Kansas City Royals; he was the American League Rookie of the Year. Yeah, if you think about it, the Royals had a great outfield back then. Think about Beltran in center, Johnny Damon, and Jermaine Dye. All three outfielders were traded at some point. That was kind of the downfall of the Royals back then: when they traded each of those outfielders, look at who they got back in those trades. Kind of the difference between them and the Rays and what they've done. Brian McCann pops it up and Wieters makes the play. You see one thing about these shifts with the left-handed hitters at the plate. Now remember, either the third baseman or the shortstop is going to be playing at the shortstop position. It's going to place more pressure on the catchers on foul balls over toward the third-base dugout. Because it's a long run for either the shortstop or the third baseman to come this far to make the play. It's difficult for the catchers to make that play to begin with. And you might see that during the course of the year. A ball or two might fall in. It should have been caught with normal defense. Here's Alfonso Soriano, who has struggled. On the opening road trip. Just one hit. Just a bloop single. So he's still trying to find it up at the plate. He says he's not worried. Well, one thing Alfonso has been doing. He's been chasing pitches out of the zone. Especially with two strikes. He gets beat by two inches. Chasing that slider down and away. You have to lay off those pitches. Fight your way back into counts. Then you get better pitches to hit. Right now he's got a good hitter's count, two balls. No, it hasn't been that way for the first week. It's always been one-and-two, oh-and-two. Soriano is traditionally a slow starter, and especially this year he came into camp with the flu right out of the gate in spring training, which took him a long time. But he's the type of guy, as we saw last year. What do you do, driving 50 runs in 58 games with the Yankees? He was lightning in a bottle for the Yankees after the trade. Three infielders on the left side for Soriano. Count three and 0, taking. Count three and one. Combined with the Yankees and the Cubs last year, 34 home runs, 101 runs batted in. And he walks. So, first and second, One man up. And that's going to bring up Brian Roberts. This is probably a little odd and strange for Brian Roberts. who came up through the Oriole organization. Really well-liked Oriole player for the longest time, but left as a free agent. Yeah, it's interesting. I saw him before the game and he's standing in the Yankee dugout. Oh, a whole different perspective. On this side of the field. Note the high on-base percentage and the low average; Brian Roberts can really eyeball some walks as well. Very disciplined. Roberts' last four years with the Orioles were marred by injuries; he could not stay on the field. Sometimes he couldn't even get on the field. And when his four-year deal was up — a big-money deal, $10 million a year — the Orioles weren't going to offer him that kind of money. Neither did the Yankees. And he wasn't sure if the Orioles really wanted him back. They didn't make that big push when the Yankees came forward. When the Yankees came forward, he said, \"Let me sign there\" — he spent 13 years at Baltimore and was a two-time All-Star. He is one of just five players in Major League history with three seasons of 50 or more doubles. From my standpoint, from what I understand, they didn't even make him an offer during the winter, so they kind of told him that. You know, he considered taking his services somewhere else. Swings and misses — down on strikes. Well, Jimenez really reared back on that one — ninety-five miles an hour, right by Roberts. Here's a guy who, one year, won 19 games for the Colorado Rockies. That's not easy to do — pitching at altitude. You can see that pitch was almost right down the chute. But he had so much on it that Roberts couldn't catch up with it; this inning is kind of a microcosm of a little bit of everything. He's walked two guys and struck one out. He can be all over the place. Here's Kelly Johnson. Yankees think his swing translates to this ballpark. And they can see some power from him, as he takes a strike. He has transitioned over to first base. Coming into the season he had played four games there in his career, but the Yankees really don't have a backup first baseman to share, so Johnson is doing the honors. So far he's done a good job over there. He can move very well. He's a rangy player, so I think his skills will translate well over to first base. One and two. Sort of eerily similar to last year with Lyle Overbay at first base while injured players were out. No real right-handed bat complement yet. As the Yankees found out last year, that was probably a real weak spot for them, even though Lyle Overbay did a great job; he kind of got exposed against left-handed pitching. Overbay, a born and accomplished first baseman. That's been his position. Swing and a miss. The Yankees strand two. We're going to the third. On the Audi A3 scoreboard as we go to the top of the third inning at the stadium. It's nothing-nothing. The Yankees and the Orioles, first game of the three-game set. The first of 81 home games in the regular season for the New York Yankees here in the Bronx. Ubaldo Jimenez worked into and out of trouble with two walks and two strikeouts, and now Hiroki Kuroda is back on the mound to face eight, nine and one in the Oriole order, starting with Ryan Flaherty. The shift is on: three infielders on the right side. 1-1 count on Ryan Flaherty. And the pitch is fouled back. One-two. Swung on and missed. Flaherty down on strikes. Here's Jonathan Schoop. That one is fouled down the third-base line. 53. Here's David Lowe, as Corona struck out two. He got wood on the ball. A lot of general managers pay a lot of money for hitters who can stay up there a long time and run a pitcher's game. It was no joke. He's pitching for Pittsburgh. I think he's with the Dodgers now. Yeah. Ground ball to first. Billy it is 20. So Lourdes walks and here is Brett Gardner. He takes the ball high. Everything's high to this guy. Look at this thing about Gardner: his neck starts at the top of his head. His ears just interrupt his neck. My kind of player. Line drive base hit. There's Salati on his way to third. No throw. 62. Here's a guy who plays your position. Gary G. I'm not familiar with him. You see a new kid. First and third. Nobody out. Yankees threatening here in the bottom of the third inning. The whole gang along with Billy Crystal in the booth here on YES. A home opener in Yankee Stadium. Peter said what made this special, in addition to it being his final home opener, is that he didn't get to play in last year's home opener. Here he is with a chance of driving the first run at home this season. Did you see Yogi over in the owner's box; he's here today. Yogi's here today. That's fantastic. Back to Jimenez. There's one. There's two and a run scored. So Solarte crosses with the first run. No RBI for Jeter. And the Yankees lead 1-0. Ball stroked well, But right back at Jimenez, who gets the glove up in time. He took one brief look at Solarte. He didn't decide, I'll go for two. In a way he's trusting his teammates to score him some runs. He knew he was going to give up a run here. Watch the pressure that Gardner puts on Flaherty. At second base he goes in there very hard. Flaherty flipped. But he got the throw off in time. Because he watched that on YES. Clean play. Good. Hard slide. There's Ellsbury. Here's Carlos Beltran. 38. 14. Derek Jeter went one for three with a run scored in his first home opener in 1996. Who drove him in? You didn't start that game. David. That was Andy Pettitte in the snow. Never forget that opening day. The pictures of Pettitte with snowflakes almost in his eyes. Lincoln scoreboard one nothing Yankees over the O's. Nick Markakis takes outside. They called that a strike, 0-1. Kuroda pitched one of the best games of the year. Right here at Yankee Stadium, it was against the Orioles on April 14 of last year: nine innings, five hits. A complete-game shutout. He didn't walk anybody. The Yankees won 3-0; it was an excellent performance. Ground ball to Jeter. We're gonna spin the time machine, David, bring you back to 1996 — a snowy April day. Across the street, that scene right there, unbelievable. You huddled on the bench or did you go back to the clubhouse? He had the parka on, that's for sure. We didn't know what a \"polar vortex\" was back then. But it was certainly something like that going on back in '96. Now Adam Jones, against Hiroki Kuroda, with a 1-0 lead. The Yankees got their run because, right in the middle of it, starting the inning with a walk was Solarte, who is certainly not disappointed as he has moved into the starting lineup. He's done everything you could possibly want. 20. And later in the game we'll see the first fan photo. So Adam Jones held there by Kelly Johnson. Tomorrow is an afternoon game as well. Here at Yankee Stadium, a 1:05 start. And the Orioles right now are in the midst of five straight day games. And they have not done that since April of 1994. They get in more of a routine with the night schedule when that starts to break in, but in April. You'd rather be playing in the daytime. It's more what you're used to doing in spring training. Lindsey Barrow is Yogi Berra's granddaughter and she tweeted. This is a picture of Yogi on his way to the ballpark today. It's so great to see him here at the park. And she had told me that he really wanted to come. And if the weather cooperated, They were going to make sure he got here. And he is here enjoying the game. And we thank Lindsey Barrow for tweeting that out, the guy she calls 'Gramps'. Rumor has it he's still coming up with the Yogi-isms even as we speak. I'm sure he's probably got a line of the day. Kuroda gave up two runs in six innings. That was in his start on the road. I was in Houston for the game the Yankees lost. 23. 3-0. See Corotta being very careful with Davis here. Even on the 3-0 pitch, making sure he's going for the corners. Yankees still employing that extreme shift even with Davis, even with Adam Jones on first. So ground ball to Solarte, the third baseman playing second base right there. It's going to be tough for Derek to get over and cover. Orioles are a very powerful team. They're the only team in the major leagues last year that hit over 200 home runs. They hit 212, to be exact. And Davis was their leader. 53 of them. Let's see if they send Adam Jones on a 3-2 pitch with one out. They do not. Fly ball to left field. Toward the line is Gardner. He leaps and he makes the play. Tagging Adam Jones. And he'll make it to second. That's some play by Brett Gardner. He actually caught it in foul territory. And there is not much room over there for an outfielder to make any sort of play. That's the leap. As Michael called it, up against the wall. Amazing things are happening here. And here's a throw to second. Adam Jones at first was kind of heads-up; he followed it all the way, tagged up and was able to go to second. But a great play by Gardner in the corner. Good concentration. The leap. Takes it away from that fan and gets it back in. Yeah, a little Steve Bartman-like action down the left field line there. As the fan tried to reach over, he probably would have been ejected had he touched that ball, because it was over the fence and in the field of play. There's Matt Wieters. That was subject to an interference call or maybe even a replay. For Steve Bartman, the Chicago Cubs fan that reached over in the playoffs. Everybody still kind of talks about it; it haunts the Cubs from moving further into the postseason. It's 1-0. Up the middle, base hit. Adam Jones will round third and he will score. It's an RBI single for Wieters. And the heads-up tag by Jones pays off as the Orioles have tied the game at one. We told you Wieters has been a hot hitter in the early going this year. His average was at .368 coming into the game. It jumps up a bit now that he's one for two. Now let's see where the pitch is. It's supposed to be away and it's sort of in the middle of the plate. He just drops the head on it. Line drive, center field, base hit. You don't have to miss by much when the hitter is really swinging the bat well. If you catch too much of the plate he usually gets good wood on it. As Michael said, Jones tagging up and moving to second on that catch by Brett Gardner pays off as the score is now tied on the Wieters base hit. Now, on an off-speed pitch, staying back, Wieters hits it back up the middle. Clearly locked in right now. Count 1-0. We told you Tim Timmons is behind the plate. The first base umpire is Todd Kitchener. Tim Welke is at second and Will Little is at third. Tim Timmons is calling strikes back there today, Kenny. So you better be ready to swing the bat on both sides. So you've seen anything close. Anything close. Certainly not afraid to raise that right hand. As you watch Corona work here. When he gets two strikes on the hitter he does have a good splitter. It's not as explosive as Masahiro Tanaka's but it's still a pretty good one. There it was right there. Didn't quite get it close enough to the strike zone to get Cruz to chase it. Good pick by McCann. Top of the fourth inning, 1-1. Corotta is pretty much a three-pitch pitcher. Fastball, slider. And a split. About 50% fastballs and equal splits between his slider and splitter. The count is full. Kelly Johnson will back up. Good take there. Cruz, As you see, This is a really good slider, just off. A lot of less disciplined hitters would have chased that. The runner goes. 3-2 is grounded to short. Jeter to first, And that'll do it. But the Orioles tie the score. One run on two hits with one left on base. We go to the bottom of the fourth inning. 1-1. Derek Jeter went one for three with a run scored in his first home opener in '96. Who drove him in? I'm going to say Mariano Duncan. On Lincoln's scoreboard, It's a 1-1 game. Look at him. He's calling it. Here's Flaherty in the background. The only other fielder who had a chance. And you're right, Kenny, with those shifts. You're going to see those plays a lot. 60. He avoided the shift, so that's his first solid hit of the season. The other hit, which was in Toronto, was a blooper to right field. That was well struck. Yeah, it's a confidence builder. When you haven't been hitting well and suddenly you can see it up there. Lombardozzi. His ball was hit so hard he didn't have a chance to come up with it. A little bit of an overshift on Baltimore's part. But either way, that's a knock. Hit well up the middle. That'll bring a smile to your face. Brian Roberts takes a strike. At one time, Soriano was a big stolen-base threat. He had a 40-40 season in Washington. Then three other 30-30 seasons. And now, while he doesn't steal as many bases, he's still capable. He's still capable of stealing with a pretty decent success rate in tight ballgames. As you mentioned in the pregame. Jimenez is fairly easy to steal off of as well. You can see the long, extended delivery even from the stretch. That's why he's the man of steel. A.J. Burnett and Tommy Hanson are the only two pitchers who allowed more steals since 2008. 51. He's got a great catcher behind the plate. Weeders who can't make up the time. But you see that in how he drops his hand way back. Once you see that first bit of movement. You have to take off. Kenny's talking about the arm swing; his arm action swings all the way behind him with a long stride. That's his style. He's always throwing the ball that way. A lot of old-time scouts thought that would lead to arm trouble or that it has led to arm trouble for him. But that's the way he learned how to throw the ball and that's the way he probably should stay. He has had success going back to his old way. I've read a lot of theories on that. David, Where, You know, A team wants to change the way you pitch in order to put you in a better position to stay healthy. But now there are some teams that go, Listen, If we get six or seven years of what this guy does, You just take that and if he gets hurt, He gets hurt. That's exactly right. You see the wrap behind his back. Most pitchers, You know, Have a circle and a reach, Sort of an arc to their arm swing, And that's kind of a wrap behind him and a stop. Brian Roberts hits one deep to right field. Marquette gets back. On the track he'll make the play for the second out. But you're right, Michael — just to finish that point, it is so hard when you get to the major-league level to change your style, your whole arm action. That's what was done to him after he hurt his arm. Finally, in the middle of last year he went back to his old way in Cleveland, and they sort of encouraged him to do it, and his fastball and velocity started to come back. We've seen him top out at 95 here today. So certainly it's the right way to go for him and us. Here's Kelly Johnson: three infielders on the right side. Only scope on the left side. Snap throw to first and Soriano gets back. Kenny, I'm amazed at the way he throws the ball — that Jimenez even got through the Orioles' vetting process, because they don't sign pitchers. Grant Balfour signed the contract. They looked at his arm; they said no, that's out, and they've done it before too. Yeah, that's. They're medical people who are really sticklers on pitchers' arms and shoulders and elbows when they go through that exam. It must have checked out okay for them to make that investment. What was it, 50 million, 48 million dollars. It's the most they've ever given to a free-agent pitcher. Kind of get the feeling that Baltimore sat around and watched all the moves in the division especially with the Yankees. And kind of felt like, you know, what we need is a pitcher. Especially after the Yankees signed Masahiro Tanaka. The choice for the Orioles was on the pitching side. It was either Ubaldo Jimenez or Ervin Santana. And Santana was the one who really suffered. Santana had a great year last year with Kansas City. But he ended up with a one-year deal down in Atlanta at the last minute. And Jimenez got the four-year $50 million deal. That will also cost Baltimore their first-round pick next year. That is the 17th pick. And that's why some teams have been hesitant to sign players. Or they have to lose that number one pick. I think you really have to know what's available in the draft. And if somebody you want is going to get down to your slot. Or might get down to your slot. Once they signed Jimenez, then they felt comfortable signing guys to just a one-year deal because they didn't have to give up the first-round pick. They gave up a second-round pick. They didn't want to give up the first-round pick to sign a guy to a one-year contract. Count is three-two and a bit high. So Kelly Johnson is up. And that's going to bring up Solarte. New pitching coach Dave Wallace. Looking on, Bendis has now walked more batters than he's given up hits today. And over the years it's been one of the bugaboos for him: the base on balls. He's certainly had strikeout stuff in his career. Jimenez averages about 8.27 strikeouts per nine. And about 4.04 walks per nine. So about two-to-one. Well, many times this year so far, Solarte's been the right man in the right place. And now he's got a situation right here with a couple on. Here comes the new pitching coach. We just talked about him. Dave Wallace has had a lot of success over the years. That was back in his days with the Dodgers. He worked with the likes of Pedro Martinez. But Pedro was in his formative years. Dave Wallace. That pitching coach we just saw. He also was with the Mets. He's got a little New York flavor. I had some experience with him with the Mets and in spring training. Very impressive. A very positive pitching coach. He's good with mechanics. Very similar to Mel Stottlemyre with the Yankees. Great pitching coach for years and also Matt pitching coach. Well, I think back once again to what Billy Eppler told me in Toronto — the Yankees' assistant general manager likes him largely because he puts the bat on the ball. That was a pretty good pitch. In and out of the glove. It would have been a great catch by Mark Hankins when the ball came out. That was a tough pitch. It was a changeup. Solarte stayed back just enough. The ball landed in right field and just enough that Mark Hankins couldn't hold on. You could see he was fooled but flicked the bat at the ball. The Yankees like the way he makes contact. It's a good pitch from Jimenez and excellent play coverage from Solarte. And unlike football, the ground can cause a fumble in baseball. It takes up in a way one at 0. Through 18 at bats. We're talking about making contact. Larkin struck out one time. In his major league career. It's certainly been the story of the early part of the season for the Yankees. The thing I like about him, Michael and Kenny, is that he's a nine-year minor league player. This is his first taste in the big leagues. You talk about paying your dues and earning your way up. Just look at his face. How hungry he is. How satisfied he is to finally make the big leagues. He's not going to walk very often either. I should point out he's only walked once too; today he's walked twice, which is a great story. You throw Dean Anna in that category as well: career minor league player, first taste of the big leagues. Very humble, too. I think these young kids can infuse some energy into a veteran clubhouse. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed; that look is on his face every day he comes to the ballpark — he's very thankful. Grounded. You know, people have a tendency to think of Gardner as sort of a slash-and-dash hitter. He is; he can hit the ball well to the opposite field and back to the middle. Every once in a while he'll catch with his speed, or if you hang something on the inner half, like they did in Toronto yesterday with the two-run homer. And he'll slash it down the right-field side. And he just missed what would have been for him an extra-base hit; yeah, he's really gotten better. That's a great point, Kenny, and Kevin Long, the hitting coach, works with the Yankee left-handed hitters, especially in this ballpark, with a little flip drill to help them pull their hands in and turn on those inside pitches. Gardner has progressively gotten better at that. It's 3-2 and two outs. Back, so Solarte will go again, staying put at third. Kelly Johnson. Talk about experience and hunger. Solarte: 672 minor league games. Dean Anna: 554 minor league games. So that is some stick-to-itiveness. A lot of guys would have given up on a 3-2 pitch. He swung and missed. And Jimenez gets out of further trouble. One run, two hits, no errors Two men left on base. We're going to the fifth. 2-1, Yanks. From around the majors right now, the Angels lead the Astros 3-0 in the bottom of the first; more games to come this afternoon. A's and Twins, 22. The pitch to Lombardozzi is a strike as we start the fifth inning here at the stadium. He's up 2-1, the count 1-1. Lights have been on all day. The sun is really a rumor today. Overcast. Cloudy. Got one and two. There is certainly a chill in the air, and rain in the forecast, and pitchers are throwing strikes at least. On the Yankee side so far, punched out the other way — it's a foul ball. Now, David obviously pitched in much colder temperatures in the World Series. But does cold weather like this take something away from you as a pitcher? It really can, Michael. You know, I used to look at about the 50-degree cutoff. Several degrees below 50, you know the ball got a little slicker. The circulation in your hands and fingers was a little more difficult. It's just hard to manufacture spin on a baseball. Corotas got good splitters and good action on his stuff today as well, so I don't think it's quite cold enough. To affect the pitchers. It can, really, you know, as I said before. You just can't get the perspiration going. You can't get the feel or the tackiness you need on the fingertips. To spin the ball, either on sliders or even splitters. It looked like it was a spillover fastball. This is one of those days they allow the pitchers to blow it to their hands. Just so they get a little bit better feel. Yeah, there it is. Look at that movement. You've been proud of that one. Strike three call — you save it for two strikes, the left-handed hitter thinks. But this is inside. No, it's not. You can see the two-seam rotation coming in. Excellent. I've been really impressed with McCann behind the plate. the plate. Not only receiving balls, but the way he calls a game, too. An attempt at a drag bunt by Flaherty, foul. Well, you know, Kenny, I talked about it, Michael, you've heard me talk a lot about catchers, how they set up and their framing ability. But you watch McCann move in and out behind the plate. And the target he gives. Just outstanding, textbook. If you're a young catcher trying to get the most out of your pitchers, watch this guy: how he sets up, how he receives the ball. Watch the target he gives to Kuroda once he sets up. The glove never moves. Give it to me right there. You can see some good catching. Maybe we saw one today where he was silent. Joe Girardi, of course. Very solid tandem here with the Yankees back in the glory days. McCann certainly is the total package. You know, all the emphasis has been on his left-handed swing and how many home runs he has hit at Yankee Stadium. I think the way he catches defensively. It's going to be a big difference for this Yankee pitching staff. Especially once they get to know each other a little better. But even catching Sabathia the other day. You know, when Sabathia got on a roll. I think it was 17 out of 18 he retired in a row in the middle of his last start. He and McCann really got on the same page. And McCann just called an excellent game for him. Grounded into the teeth of the shift. For the second out. He was getting on a roll. That means it's almost the same amount of time between pitches. You know the side. When the pitcher is ready to go at each pitch, the game starts to move along. Working both sides of the plate. The grass is getting a little greener across the street there. That's what David used to pitch. Right here's where I used to play. Right. Used to be a baseball field over here. Schoop rips one inside third and down the left-field line. That is going to go into the corner, dug out there by Gardner and Jonathan. Schoop with a two-out double. The Orioles expect big things out of this young man, one of the jewels of their farm system. Signed out of Curacao. And that ball was in the inner third. He just scoffed it down the third baseline. Not much of a chance for Sir Larte. That's Will Little. The third baseman. Getting big. Will getting big over third. He made the call before he hit the ground, It's impressive, too. We should mention Schoop is playing third because Manny Machado, the brilliant third baseman, underwent knee surgery. And they don't want to rush him. He's too valuable to the franchise. He's still down in Florida. They are not putting a timetable on him; they won't say he'll be back by a specific date because they think if they put that date there, that he'll push himself. They don't want to push him. They're hoping around May. He suffered a very serious knee injury, I think it was the next-to-last game of the season last year in Tampa Bay, and it looked innocently enough; he was just trying to round first base. His knee popped out and he had surgery; as Michael said, they're taking their time. Here's one out by David Lowe. In the minor leagues it was Schoop at second and Machado at short. That was the combination. Throughout the minor league system, those two worked their way up to the big leagues. So Schoop is spelled S-C-H-O-O-P, but it's pronounced Schoop. S. C. H. O. O. P. One-one. Two and one. Decent pitch count for Corona so far. This would be the 70th pitch coming here. With two outs in the fifth. Two and two. And Schoop was sleeping. That second-base play to end the inning. The tying run at second in the fifth inning. And the youngster. His mind was wandering. We almost watched McCann kind of deke him and set up, and then quickly, right at the last minute. He is out. We're halfway through. Most hits in American League history by a right-handed batter. Derek Jeter sits atop that list. 3,320, passing Paul Molitor, and he's fourth on the American League list. Behind three other left-handed batters. So he has the most hits of any right-handed batter in American League history. Yeah. We also have a note here, Michael, that once he passed Molitor, now he has more hits than anybody he's ever played with or against. I thought it was interesting the other day that Cal Ripken Jr. was quoted as saying he'd almost trade careers with Jeter. Cal Ripken said he'd almost rather have Derek Jeter's career. I saw that. He mentioned it's all about winning championships. That one is driven deep to left field; his family thought it was gone. I think he thought it was gone, and it just hit near the top of the wall. Buck Showalter's going to come out and talk things over. It was an exact pitch, but Derek had to hustle and got into second just ahead of the throw. How rare is it to see him break it down? Well, You know what? I think if you hit that ball in July, when the ball carries better, it is gone. Especially down the line. Yeah. Let's see, it didn't miss by all that much. Cool. One, Two more feet. It's out of here. Good play by David Lowe, too, on the carom. Boy, We get a good look at this, Man, we've got the best cameraman. Here he comes! Yeah, He's in there. Well, One thing, you know, that we... He really tested that ankle, at least between first and second. So he's feeling good because he ran well once he got to first. Well, they've been here from the start. They've seen so many of his games. Mom, Dad, Sister. Now his nephew as well. Luke's one to right field. That's going to dunk in for a base hit. Jeter rounds third. He's going to come home with a single for Ellsbury. And the Yankees lead 3-1. Just watching Derek Jeter run the bases in these two instances. He is so far ahead of what he was last year when he could hardly move around the bases. Now watch this. Here's the base hit. He recognizes it's going to fall in. Watch this burst right at the very end. He turned it into another gear. Run scored. Ellsbury continues his hot hitting. Two more hits today. In his first game. In pinstripes. In a regular season game. You certainly anticipate the aggressive Ellsbury. He's picking a pitch to run on in this sequence. He missed a changeup on the first pitch; that would have been a good one. Another changeup. 52 stolen bases last year. Clearly one of the best base runners, if not the best, in the big leagues. Here he goes. Pitch is high. Throw to second. Beautiful throw. They got a perfect throw. He's one of the best in the game. He didn't win the Gold Glove last year. But the previous two years he did it primarily because he could do this. Really shut down the running; the throw is right on the bag. All Flaherty had to do was catch the ball and wait for Ellsbury to come in. Tell you what. He didn't get the glove out in front of the bag. Yeah, You laid the glove on top of the bag. He said he is safe. Too late to challenge now. A drive, a base hit to right field for Carlos Beltran. Readers got a good ball to throw there. Two changeups at 90, a mile-an-hour fastball up, almost like a pitch-out. He threw out 33 percent of the runners who attempted to steal last year. He'll be a free agent at the end of next year if the Orioles don't get him signed. And he is represented by Scott Boras, so he's probably not going to sign early. Boras doesn't do that with his clients that often. That's an out. Zach Britton, the lefty, up. Cano swings and misses. And see how shallow Adam Jones is in center field even against the power bat of Brian McCann here. Carlos Beltran at first base. Beltran used to be one of the preeminent base stealers in the game. And he had a high percentage of stolen bases, and when he left he was going to make it, but he's not that type of player anymore. High drive to right center. Jones back. The first. McCann's getting closer, isn't he. Yeah, he had a pretty good read on that one. You know he's hit 20 home runs for six or seven years in a row. And the thing about it, playing for the Atlanta Braves. Turner Field's one of the biggest ballparks. In baseball. It's more pitcher-friendly. He didn't quite drive that; he got underneath it just a little bit. He's already up to 95 pitches here. Two outs in the bottom of the fifth. Seven hits and four walks, so he's had to work. Only two. That's why the Orioles' bullpen is hot right now. This could be his last inning. Last hitter up. The switch-hitter Brian Roberts is on deck. So Showalter will have a choice. Depending on the outcome of this at bat. With a 0-2 count, Soriano did a good job of spoiling that. If the count had been anything but 0-2, I think he would have had a better swing. That was kind of a hanging slider. If he gets that pitch early in the count or when he's ahead, he's more aggressive. He's got a piece to stay alive. He has not found his stroke yet out of spring training. He hit some balls well. He's getting closer though. One thing we saw from Soriano last year in that big second half for the Yankees is he could hit the ball out to right here. He's sort of noted as more of a pull hitter. But here at Yankee Stadium he's got the pop to shoot it to right. Popped up shallow left-center. That's going to drop in for a base hit; Jones makes the throw. So a base hit for Soriano. Now two for two with a walk. This might be the breakout day when you start getting hits like this off the end of the bat. These are real confidence boosters. You see those outfielders who have to play back and respect his power. They come on and can't quite get to it. Those dropping in the outfield are the ones the infielders reach for and can't quite get. Those are the ones that really get you going and thinking things are going my way. The opposite feeling, if you're on the mound: Jimenez makes a good pitch. He induces weak contact and he's still out there. Tony, I think this is going to be his last batter. If he doesn't get Roberts out, I think you'll see Zach Britton come in to face Kelly Johnson. And even if he does get him out in the inning, I think you'll see Britton next to get out of the inning because the pitch counts are getting up there. Still good velocity from him, and as he's shown the ability to really reach back when he needs to — 94 on that last fastball. He's touched 95 today. So much more emphasis nowadays on efficiency from starting pitching across the board. Every manager, especially early in the year, seems to look around the 100-pitch mark. They're trying to squeeze in as many innings as they can. The goal nowadays is to try to get seven innings and around 100 pitches. The ball breaks off the glove there, but if you're Beltran at second you've got to make sure you get to third base standing up. And Wieters, as everybody knows, has a good, strong throwing arm, so he's capable of making the recovery on his own once he picks the ball up. Count's a solid three-and-two, so the runners Will go. A full count, two outs. And that's no small thing, Michael. The fact is now the Orioles' outfield is less likely to throw a runner out at the plate if there's a base hit, because they have a running start. Adam Jones is very shallow in center field for Brian Roberts. Three very strong arms out there in the outfield. Roberts has had some good swings today, but just hasn't connected. He lined out to right field his last time up. And in moments like this, it's put up or shut up; you've got to throw a strike here. He finds a gap here. Two runs will score. Let's go. Trying to stay loose. Showalter. He signals to the bullpen. He's going to call on the left-hander Zach Britton. Bases loaded. One run already in. Two outs. Kelly Johnson due up. Showalter goes to the pen. That's the ticket for opening day here at Yankee Stadium. And he brings in the left-hander. Zach Britton, one of two lefties in the Orioles bullpen. He will face Kelly Johnson. We've seen Britton in a starting role in the past. He's been in a couple of games this year. Picked up a win in relief. He's done a pretty good job. He's got a hard sinker. And a pretty decent breaking ball, but for some reason it didn't work out as a starter. Bases loaded for the Yankees as they try to break this open; they're up three to one here in the bottom of the fifth. Yankees 14 and two and home opener since 1998 since 1984. Twenty five and five at home. Pitch. Now, a stat that shocked me: Kelly Johnson is one of three left-handed batters in Major League history. With a hundred or more plate appearances. As a left-handed batter with a hundred or more plate appearances, he has a better OPS against left-handed pitchers. Number one is Enos Slaughter. Number three is Kelly Johnson. OPS is on-base percentage plus slugging. Who'd have thought that. Certainly career-wise, on a thousand plate appearances, yes; but those numbers the last couple of years haven't been anywhere near those career numbers. Kind of all relative, but nonetheless an interesting number. He should get a good pitch to hit here. The count was only two-all. Down the middle. Two and one. It's one of those situations where your starting pitchers are sitting on the bench. Three of your runs are out there. And on the other end, the relief pitcher, one of the most important stats is inherited runners and how well you do in this situation. Yeah, because if he gives up a triple here and then gets the next guy out, he has a zero ERA for his appearance. But he didn't do his job. That's why you have to look beyond ERA when you evaluate relievers and not pay too much mind to it. Yeah, There's so much more that goes into it, and I know a lot of relievers really take pride in this particular stat. Tough situation for Britton with the bases loaded. Forces in a run. That RBI goes up and the Yankees lead goes to 4-1. Six walks now for the Yankees. And that run is charged to Jimenez. There's no defense for the base on balls. The Yankees have scored in the last three innings and each inning they've had at least one walk included in the rally. Here's Solarte. And a strike. Solarte walked and scored in the third and had an RBI single in the fourth. Yankees lead 4-1. 0-2. It was a good second. It's part of the skill set that Solarte has that helped him make this team. The fact that he is a switch-hitter as well. He switches around. He's going to bat right-handed the first time today. Among other things as well. He could play the outfield as Kenny mentioned. Good glove. He can play anywhere in the infield. They'd probably put him at first base in an emergency. We saw him play left field in spring training and handle himself pretty well. The Yankees gave him a true test in spring training. He passed every one of them. Tapped right back to Britton. He goes to first. And that'll do it. The Yankees get two runs with Derek Jeter flirting with a dramatic opening day blast. But he got a double. And he was driven in by Ellsbury. One more run came in. Yankees up 4-1. Yankee Stadium this Saturday afternoon, April 12th, Sunday night, April 13th, the Yankees take on the Red Sox, All right, We go to the sixth inning. Yankees up 4-1, Their home opener. Four runs on eight hits. The Orioles, one run on five hits. It's going to be the top of the Oriole order against Hiroki Kuroda. David Lowe. Ground ball up the middle. Moving to his right is Roberts. One pitch. One out. I was going to ask you, And maybe that answered it, How tough is it — that's a long inning, A cold day for him to stay loose? Very tough. You know, Obviously Kuroda's a veteran now. It's hard to stay loose, especially in those long innings, and then you get a break and get a quick pitch out here in the sixth. I'd always try to sneak out there and get a few extra warm-up pitches, Michael. I would be the first one out of the dugout when the third out is made by the opposing team. I'd get out there quickly. And tell my catcher to be out there with me and get a few extra warm-ups. Now, in the old stadium, you didn't have that option. There are mounds right next to the dugout. Would you ever throw? I think I might. You know, certainly you couldn't do it at the old stadium. But as you said, with the configuration of the new ballpark and the batting cage right behind the dugout. It's much easier to go play catch. Kuroda has been very sharp today. Very efficient. All of his pitches have worked. I think any starting pitcher would take a delay of his team to score. Would have waited a little longer for a few more, certainly. Last year we saw Nick Markakis leading off quite often for Baltimore, but they've dropped him back a bit. You might see him a few times during the course; it all depends on how well David Lowe plays. 48. He played left field for them last year before leaving as a free agent. He was a good player for them. He went right down the road to the Washington Nationals. No winning did he top 19 pitches so he's got 75 so far in the game. Top of the third. Right there is Solardi. So, Kenny, you're familiar with that area. He doesn't have to move, right? Well, it depends on where he was living in the Maryland area. If he was north of Baltimore, he's going to have to move south. He would have to move south. You don't want to deal with two-city traffic just to get to work. So, two down, top of the sixth inning, and the Yankees lead the Orioles four to one. And here's Adam Jones. Adam with a fly ball to center and a single to center. He also scored the Orioles' only run; that was in the fourth inning. Good pitch. Just a nasty slider. You can see Kuroda, That pronounced hesitation in the middle of his windup. When he starts to get that going, He's starting to really feel it right about there. Grounded to third. Solardi backs up, gets a nice hop and the long throw. And a nice scoop by Kelly Johnson to end the inning. Johnson, a novice at first base, did the job on a tough throw. Hermes Solardi. Let's take a look at that one. It was one of those long hops, which is not easy. Johnson pulls it in. We go to the bottom of the sixth inning here at the stadium. Top of the order. Brett Gardner. The only Yankee who did not come to the plate in their two-run fifth inning. He'll lead it off. Gardner is one for three today. Out 1-0, Gardner. Jeter, and Ellsbury. Gardner's base hit in the third inning is stretching his early-season hitting streak to five consecutive games. Nice bunt. That's right. Mo's out there. That was retired while he was still playing last year. Mo threw one of the first two pitches today. Thrown by Mo and Andy Pettitte to Jorge Posada and Derek Jeter. Chopped toward first. That'll bring up Derek Jeter. Last time, Jeter doubled. Very close. I'd say less than a foot from a home run right down the line. Hit over the eight in a three. And boy, He would have been embarrassed if he got thrown out at second base. He thought that ball was gone. Still no excuse; you have to run until it clears the wall. But that would have been tough for him to take. Yes, it certainly would have. You know, with every hit, we talk about him passing Paul Molitor. With that double, he broke a tie with Ted Williams on the all-time list. He's now got, Derek now has 529 doubles. We used to say back in the '90s, the '98 World Series team, that was a part of that. It was a team. It was a true team. We had no Hall of Famers on that team. We were wrong. Mariano. Derek Jeter did not pass go. Go directly to Cooperstown. And I think Jorge Posada will get consideration, with his numbers as a catcher. So right now the '98 team actually had two surefire Hall of Famers; here's a look at the double again — the pitcher threw a splitter that hung up and they just missed a home run, a 318-foot shot down the left-field line; hustle on the play produced a two-base hit, and a well-played play by Low — that's one reason the Orioles like him; he's a good defender and a big prospect for the Royals. It's kind of a surprise trade by the Royals; they really like Valencia — the deal was right-handed-hitting Valencia for left-handed-hitting Low. You mentioned the doubles: he needs eight more doubles to tie Lou Gehrig for the most in franchise history; Garret with 534 is just a bit ahead. We're at the stadium. We had heard anywhere from 3 to 4 o'clock; hopefully it holds off. As we mentioned earlier, the weather the rest of the week is supposed to be just great. Especially for early April. We're lucking out in that sense. The home opener has been overcast and somewhat damp and chilly. A lot of people around here say it's about time After a long, cold winter. He could not hold up; he went down on strikes. He's one for four. 33. 0-1, 1-1. Stopped towards second. Lombardozzi. And a 1-2-3 inning by Zach Britton. We're going to the seventh here at the stadium. 4-1 Yanks. Photo of the game. Young man with the sign today, tomorrow, forever. A Jeter fan. And so Derek Jeter is going to be the subject of many of these sets. That's the little girl who got the baseball from Houston. When Derek took it away from the lady who kept trying to grab it and made sure the little girl got the baseball. He saw the sign and appreciated it. Their whole family was Really happy. The whole family was just astounding after Derek gave her the ball. Here's the moment. Derek saying, No, Not you. No. Not you. She was acting more like the 12-year-old. Chris Davis is somewhere on the grand concourse. Deeper than deep. 53 home runs will dictate that. It's like those little games when the big hitter comes back and he goes, Everybody back, Everybody back. The man-child drove it the other way. Gardner, on the run, can't get there and it bounces into the O's bullpen for a double to start the seventh. Davis had seven. Home runs against the Yankees last year. This is a powerful guy. We talked about power to all fields. Those look like they're going to center. There's one to right. There's one to left. There's one to Fort McHenry, back-leg style off the firm frontside — lean back. You see those big power hitters lean back and launch. Wieters chases an off-speed pitch. McCann makes these trips. He certainly talks to his pitchers a lot, usually with a man on second base as we saw with Sabathia. Multiple signals being given now. Corotta with a great day going here and a man on second now with nobody out. McCann wants to make sure it was Wieters who hit the off-speed pitch for the RBI single earlier in the game. Let's see if they try to pound him in here. That's the spillover pitch that Kenny likes to call. Maybe take a shot off-speed down. But at some point I'd say you've got to try to test him in, on the inside corner. Corotta's had excellent movement today as well on that particular pitch. Another thing to notice — one thing I saw from Jorge Posada over the years, and I just saw it from McCann. With a runner in scoring position at second, he doesn't set up until just at the very point where Corotta's about ready to deliver the ball. Now they know where they want it to go. They just don't want the runner On second base to know where it's going. McCann just didn't like how that was set up there. It looked like they were going to take a shot in; he set up, and then time was called. McCann did set up inside, maybe to tip off that they were trying to throw a fastball inside. So it's the cat-and-mouse game, especially with a catcher like Wieters and a veteran like Davis on second base. All it takes is a little head shake from Davis on second base to tip off Wieters where the location is. See the late set-up there just at the very end. He put the target up, took a shot in and up—just missed. Now do you go right back to the splitter? Off-speed, or do you try to double up and come right back in again? A one-two. Double it. You went with a splitter. Excellent location. Corotta has been spot on with his stuff. All of his repertoire has been effective. He's made very few mistakes all day long. Wherever McCann wants it, Corotta has almost put it exactly there. Especially down in the zone. All of his misses have been down. Good quality low strikes all day long. On a 1-2 count, he serves that one into left-center field. It's a base hit. Chris Davis advances to third. He'll stop right there. The throw is cut off by Johnson. So, first and third. Nobody out for the Orioles here in the seventh. That one kind of stayed up a bit; that's why Wieters is able, as Michael said before, to serve it into center field for a hit. He just went out and got it, went with it, and that's his second hit of the afternoon. Yeah, both of his hits came on off-speed pitches today. See the splitter. This is great plate coverage — as Kenny said, it's up just enough that he can serve it over the shortstop's head, but that was almost off the plate. That conference was broken up by Tim Timmons. And here's Nelson Cruz. And there's a strike. The Yankees certainly would take a ground-ball double play. That's the exchange for a run given up here. But one swing at the bat from Cruz is also a tie game. 0-1. Outside, 1-1. David Phelps is now in for Thornton. And the 1-1 pitch. Line drive. Left field. Coming on is Gardner. He's going to have to play it on a hop. Chris Davis will score. Moving to second is Wieters. It's an RBI single for Cruz. And the Yankee lead is now 4-2 here in the 7th. You see here, This is one of the few sliders that Kuroda left in the middle of the plate. It's been in the middle of the plate all day long. The best part about this one is that Cruz doesn't get enough lift to get it out of the ballpark. Just down enough. That it ends up in the ballpark, but certainly an RBI and a different look to this game now. It's four to two, first and second, nobody out. And that'll bring up Lombardozzi. Yankees are expecting the punt here. In on the corners. And the pitch Nice low block there by McCann. See Lombardozzi looking over toward third base down the third baseline. It's third base coach Bobby Dixon giving the signs. Leadoff at second, Cruz is at first. Nobody out, one run in, top of the seventh inning. Yankees lead the Orioles four to two. That one is to left field. And Gardner with the play for the first out; he had to play it beautifully. That's going to do it. That's going to be the last pitch. That's it today for Corotta. Joe Girardi makes his way out to the mound. And he is going to bring in a relief pitcher. To face Flaherty. Corotta will get a nice hand. He leaves with a 4-2 lead. Runners on first and second. One out. Big spot in this game. Come on back. they have runners on first and second, one out. So the Yankees bring in the left-hander, Matt Thornton. To try to get out of this jam. This will be the third game for Thornton — one inning, one hit, one walk, one strikeout. He showed good velocity in Toronto. He's always been an excellent fastball-type pitcher. Ninety-four to ninety-five miles an hour. And the pitch is low with J.J. Hardy being out with back spasms — not on the disabled list as of yet — so the Orioles can't call up an extra player. It kind of puts the Orioles at a disadvantage because they're playing shorthanded by one man. So ordinarily you might see Buck use a pinch-hitter with the lefty up there, Flaherty. Who, at this point in the season, had not been hitting well at all. He came in at .056 and he's 0 for 2 today. But he kind of has to leave him in there to face the lefty. One ball, one strike, one out, runners on first and second, one run already in. Yankees 4, Orioles 2. Slowly to second base. Roberts will flip to Thornton covering to get the out. Runners move up. Now runners on second and third. Probably one of the toughest plays for an inexperienced first baseman as Kelly Johnson is at first. He moves well. Probably a little too well. He's got to go to the back here. He gets caught in no-man's land. And a good play by Thornton to get over there. But to me, that's what I've always seen. You know, he's breaking when Roberts is right there. You know, and that's good hustle, but the wrong move. And watch Thornton on the back here. Right in the middle. Dangerous. As we saw last year, Hudson and Eric Young came up with a play like that, and Hudson ended up with a fractured ankle. So Thornton was very lucky right there. Well, that's going to do it for Thornton. They'll bring in the right-hander now, with Schoop due up. That's going to be David Phelps. against Jonathan Schoop. and his manager is going to bring in David Phelps. That's powerful. We'll go for the O's. Ivan Nova walked too many people his first time out, but pitched well, got the win. It's another day game. Mark that down, Runners on second and third, two men out. That's what Hiroki Kuroda did today. Six and a third, eight hits, two runs, didn't walk a batter. Four straight starts for Yankee starters without a walk and four strikeouts. But now, as I mentioned, David Phelps, who has struggled so far, comes in here to face Schoop. Those are the numbers. And three home runs in Those four hits. Let's go. Takes a strike. We've got Wieters at third and Cruz at second. Two men out, Yankees up by two so far. Adam Warren has really distinguished himself coming out of the pen. Phelps is a starter by trade. He has struggled just a bit, but Joe's showing a lot of faith in him. Bringing him in for a high-leverage situation. Phelps offers more breaking pitches — cutters and sliders — which may be a better matchup here, but we've seen Adam Warren gain velocity up to 95 miles an hour out of the pen, similar to what happened to Phil Hughes in 2009 when he went to the bullpen and gained a lot of velocity. Phelps is more of a breaking-ball artist. He relies on movement. He throws sinkers. He uses cutters. He throws curveballs. Tapped right back to Phelps. He comes on, gets a big out and gets out of a jam; the Orioles score one on three hits. No errors and two men left. At the end of six and a half innings of play, it's the Yankees four and the Orioles two. 24. The only other game in progress. The Angels lead the Astros 5-0. Kole Calhoun with his second homer of the season. And that's one for the Angels. C.J. Wilson in line to get the win. And later tonight, keep your eyes on what happens at Fenway Park. Texas comes in, sending Tanner Scheppers to the mound against John Lackey. Texas hoping to have the same kind of fortune that Milwaukee had over the weekend at Fenway when they swept the Boston Red Sox, guys. Thank you very much, Bob. And here we go to the bottom of the seventh inning. Yankees ahead of the Baltimore Orioles by a score of 4-2. That's a big out there for David Phelps, both for his confidence and obviously for the Yankee team. On the scoreboard, Yankees 4 and the Orioles 2. And Carlos Beltran will dig in. It'll be the middle of the Yankees' order. And there's a strike. With eight hits, the Yankees hold a 4-2 lead. Be interesting to see how Joe Girardi pieces together the latter part of these games when the Yankees have leads as we saw him go to Phelps. He had a nice at-bat there and made a good-quality cutter to get the ground ball. Now Adam Warren's warming up. So those high leverage situations are up for grabs. We saw Dellin Betances get one of those high-leverage situations the other day and kind of struggle. Warren actually pitched yesterday. He pitched the seventh inning. A one-two-three inning against the Toronto Blue Jays. We've seen Kelly in that situation as well. So, you know, it's going to be mix and match for Girardi. And certainly the high leverage situations late in games are up for grabs in that Yankee bullpen. And as", "title": "MLB_YANKEES HOME OPENER - April 07 2014", "category": null, "start_time": 10009.15, "end_time": 10039.15, "qa": []}