First off, a quick aside: Yeah, I didn't give you guys anything at all over the Angels series. And you got no series preview for the Yankees series. I had a busy, busy weekend. I went to the game on Friday, and was just running all over the place on Saturday and Sunday. I may not always do a great job of keeping this blog up and current, but damn it I try. ;)
But this is reader Drektunes' only place on the internet where he can cuss. And I'm not about to steal that ability from him. So I shall strive to keep this place updated more frequently. Except, possibly, the entire next week, where I may be posting elsewhere filling in. I'll let you all know.
Without further adieu, a big hearty "Fuck you" to the New York Yankees, Adam Jones style.
I mean, we knew we had a good match-up for this game, yes? Even though Jeremy Guthrie's struggled against the Yankees in the past, he's still been a fantastic pitcher this year. And Mussina's getting it done with smoke and mirrors at this point. He's lost velocity, he doesn't have an out pitch, he refuses to pitch righties on the inside half of the plate, mostly because he doesn't have the velocity to challenge them... say what you want, but Mussina's been fluky this year. He's not going to keep this shit up. If the Yankees do end up making the playoffs, I personally guarantee that Mike Mussina gets absolutely obliterated in a first round match-up. And hopefully, this happens in the clinching game of a series. It couldn't happen to a better mercenary. Anyway, how is Mussina 13-7 with a 3.56 ERA this year? He's walked 17 in 126.1 innings. That's a good start. Are you paying attention, Garrett Olson, Radhames Liz, Brian Burres, and Daniel Cabrera? Good things happen to you if you don't walk guys. Look at Mussina! He's 39 fucking years old, is striking out 6 per 9 innings, and has given up 139 hits already this year. His fastball tops out at 87, and the best thing he's got is that curve. How is he doing it? He doesn't fucking walk guys.
Anyhow, let's get into the game. Hell, you know what? Screw it. Let's just get to the part where the Orioles started beating the Yankees around and made the most obnoxious fans in professional sports (don't worry Red Sox fans... you're catching up and will have that title soon enough). It all started in the 2nd inning, after Mussina escaped a very rocky 1st due to a bad decision by either Juan Samuel or Brian Roberts to try to score at home. Melvin Mora, who has literally been on fire this entire month and is somehow suffering now symptoms common with being aflame, led the inning off with a single. Luke Scottwalker followed him with a single of his own, and Mora made a... sit down first, what I'm about to tell you is very strange and possibly shocking... Mora made an intelligent base-running decision by going for third the entire way. Are you okay? Good, I'll continue. That put runners on the corners for Millar, with a grounder or a fly ball scoring a run. Millar decided that driving in a run wasn't fucking good enough, though. So he jacked a homer out to left field to put the O's ahead 3-0.
Ramon wasn't to be outdone, even if his "I drive a run home everytime J.D. is at a baseball game I play in" streak is over. He followed Millar's homer with a homer of his own to center field, in the deepest part of the stadium. Orioles 4, Yankees 0. Mussina would retire the next three batters to get out of the inning, but the damage had certainly been done.
And then things would quiet down for a while. Guthrie was SO good that the Yankees didn't even reach base off of him until the 4th, when Damon led off with a single. Not that it mattered because Jeter's double play wiped it off the board. He walked Abreu in the inning as well, but got A-Rod to ground weakly out to the catcher.
The Orioles would add onto the lead in the 5th. Roberts started the inning off with a double down the right field line. Adam Jones then crushed a triple to right-center to plate Roberts to expand the lead to 5-0. And as a quick aside, just watching Adam Jones this season has been an absolute joy. He's 22-years old. He's one of the better defensive center fielders in baseball
already. The book on him earlier in the season was that you could fool him with a breaking pitch on the outside portion of the plate. He's stopped swinging at them. He waits for his pitch. Somehow in the time from April to July, Adam Jones has turned into a patient hitter that runs the count up and can be incredibly dangerous if you make a mistake. That's what I want out of my #2 hitter.
Kakes followed all this with a ground-out. Huffnpuff drove Jones in with a fly-out to center to put the score up to 6-0, and Mora grounded out to end the inning.
So, 6-0 in the 5th. Guthrie had allowed two base-runners all damn game. Mussina was certainly not coming out for the 6th. I mean, I've seen too many games fall apart this year to feel
great about a 6-run lead... but I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel at least good about things. Guthrie mowed through the 5th inning pretty routinely (aside from hitting new Yankee Xavier Nady with a pitch, which was fun. Remember Nady? We saw him as a Pirate not long ago), and that brought things to the 6th inning. The inning in which the Orioles made a statement.
David Robertson, of the sub-2.00 ERA, came in to relieve Mussina, who clearly just wasn't doing his job well last night. Robertson's a young pitcher. Definitely has some upside. But... dude had a bad inning. Luke Scottwalker started off with a single that was just crushed down the right field line. Unfortunately, Bobby Abreu's got a really good arm and Scottwalker doesn't run fast... otherwise it would've been a double. Fortunately, Robertson felt badly that Scottwalker didn't get the double that he deserved, so he uncorked a wild pitch to advance him. Millar followed by slapping a ball to short that Mr. Perennial Gold Glove Derek Jeter could only dive and stop, so Millar reached on an infield single (Jeter barely stopped that ball, by the way, because he's actually a shitty defender with one of the worst ranges in the American League, but whatever... keep giving him awards he doesn't fucking deserve). With runners on first and second and no out, Ramon Hernandez did his duty of flying out to center to allow Scott to tag and move up, because Cabrera has nothing for an arm. Juan Castro followed and... well shit, he did the same fucking thing that Millar did. Sharply hit ball to short, Jeter dived for it, gloved it, couldn't transfer the ball from his glove to his hand, everyone safe. Scottwalker scored, Millar was safe at 2nd, Castro was safe at first. 7-0 Orioles. When Juan Castro's getting into the act... you're in trouble. Robertson had to regain his composure, or he was looking at a really, really long inning.
He didn't. He walked Roberts to load up the bases for... (I'm now switching to wrestling play-by-play voice, because the situation warrants it)
OH MY GOD!!! THAT'S ADAM JONES' MUSIC!!! HE'S GOT A BAT!!!!!! OH GOD!!! HE'S COMING FOR THE YANKEES!!! HE'S GOT NO BUSINESS HERE, GET HIM OUT OF HERE!!! (Adam Jones hits a grand slam off of David Robertson) HE JUST DEVISTATED ROBERTSON!!! HE'S STOMPING A MUD HOLE IN HIM AND WALKING IT DRY!!! HE'S CLEARED THE BASES, AND THE YANKEES ARE GETTING THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!! ADAM JONES IS A PURE PSYCOPATH, WITH NO FEELING AND NO SOUL!!! DAMN YOU, ADAM JONES!!!!
And we're back. 11-0 Orioles off of the first career grand slam by Jones, and just the second one hit by an Oriole all year. Oh, and I'd like to point out that the Orioles to this point, to borrow from Gary Thorne, had a 1-RBI homer, a 3-RBI homer, and a 4-RBI homer. So they were a 2-RBI homer from the elusive (I think) home run cycle. And Jones? He had the hardest two parts of his own personal cycle already taken care of. So yeah. Craziness. Edwar Ramirez would come on and get out of it, but I have no problem stating for the record that at 11-0, I felt damn good about the outcome of this game.
Guthrie finally allowed his first base-runner to reach 2nd base in the 6th inning, but worked out of a bases loaded, 2-out jam unscathed. The Yankees would finally reach the O's starter in the 7th, though. Xavier Nady followed a Robinson Cano strike out with a solo homer to deep center field to make it 11-1. That ended Guthrie's outstanding night with a line of 6.1 IP, 3 hits, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 Ks. Lance Cormier (pronounced "Corm-wahh" from now on) came on in relief and... well shit, he let up more runs. Melky Cabrera reached on a Roberts error to put a man on and one out. Jose Molina doubled out to right to put runners on second and third, setting the stage for Johnny Damon to continue to try to kill the Orioles one game at a time. And he delievered by crushing a homer out to right field to make the game 11-4. Yeah, still a 7-run lead. I'm not worried. Cormier was pulled for the AMAZING RANDOR (just imagine it with an echo... it sounds awesome), who despite looking incredibly shaky, worked his way out of the inning. The highlight? Striking out Madonna Rodriguez to end the inning.
Unaware of the slaughter rule being in effect, the Orioles piled on a few more runs off of Kyle Farnsworth in the 8th. Roberts struck out, but Jonesy hit a single (leaving him a double shy of the cycle) to get a runner on. Markakis struck out, but Huffnpuff made up for that by hitting a homer down the right field line (literally... it hit the foul pole) to drive in two more runs, complete the home-run cycle, and give the O's a 13-4 lead.
That would do it. Jones would get another at-bat and hit a ball that looked like it was going to drop in for the double, but whatever scrub the Yankees threw into center field to give Melky Cabrera a break managed to track it down. Otherwise, the 9th was relatively uneventful. The Orioles walked out of Yankee Stadium last night with an impressive 13-4 victory. Now, honestly, is there anything as sweet as laying a 9-run beat down on the Yankees?