Assorted baseball stuff

The Yankees threw a homerun party in the first game of three against the White Sox! Too bad A-Rod wasn't invited.

Final Score: Yankees 16, White Sox 3
WP: Mussina (6-7, 4.75 ERA)
LP: Contreras (5-14, 6.60 ERA)

The Yankees tied an all-time record for the franchise by hitting eight homeruns in one game. The last instance of this was all the way back in 1939. Only Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, and Andy Phillips were the starters left out of the homerun party (late replacement Shelley Duncan even belted a homerun!). Of those, only A-Rod and Phillips were without a hit, thus ending Phillips' career-high 11-game hit streak. And of the pair, at least Phillips had an RBI on a sac fly. Hideki Matsui capped off an unbelievable July with two homeruns, only the second multi-homer game in his major league career.

Seven Yankees hit homeruns in one game, and none of them was Alex Rodriguez. Hard to believe, but Rodriguez was gracious afterwards in his televised postgame on YES. He joked that the fans were taking pictures of the wrong guy that night.

No other way around it. Contreras was terrible. He allowed 7 earned runs, all by the long ball, in 2.2 innings. In fact, all of the Yankee runs sans Phillips' sac fly RBI were scored via the homerun. At least we know power is alive and well in the Bronx. The only White Sox highlight was Juan Uribe's 3-run homer off Mike Mussina in the second inning. That blast made the score 4-3, and after an easy bottom of the 2nd for Contreras it seemed that he had straightened things out and we were in for a nail-biter of a ballgame. That obviously didn't happen.

The other White Sox highlight, for those into that kind of thing, was Ozzie Guillen somehow managing to be ejected in the first inning. That takes determination.

Other than a rocky second inning, Mussina was solid through six. His curveball had some bite to it, and he was spotting the fastball better than he has in recent outings. And, from the realm of the incredible, Kyle Farnsworth pitched a 1-2-3 7th inning (he was booed coming into the game by the always kind-spirited Yankee faithful). Unfortunately, Farnsworth was shown afterwards bumping fists with Jorge Posada and laughing with Johnny Damon. I was hoping he would live up to his recent public image and kick small babies around. Maybe tomorrow.

Given the lack of run support Pettitte has received this season, I think he would settle for 1/4 of the total runs Mussina received on Tuesday night.

LHP Andy Pettitte (6-7, 4.11 ERA) vs. LHP John Danks (6-7, 4.83 ERA)

It's a battle of guys trying to return to .500. Something's gotta give! (Or both could get a no decision. It's fun to be dramatic)

Pettitte is coming off of a tough luck loss in Baltimore. He pitched seven innings of 3-run ball but was bested by O's rookie Jeremy Guthrie. Even with the loss, Pettitte is still moving in the right direction from where he was before the All-Star Break. Things haven't flowed as effortlessly as they seemed to at times in the beginning of the season, but Pettitte has made the pitches when he's had to and kept his team in the game.

Danks is coming off of an outing against Detroit that is eerily similar to Pettitte's last start. He went 6.2 innings, also allowing three earned runs. Danks has had one start this season against the Yankees, back on May 16th. He won that game, pitching 6.1 innings and allowing just two earned runs. The Yankees traditionally struggle against young pitchers, especially left-handers. After seeing him once, we'll have to wait to find out if the Yankee offense has made the appropriate adjustments. Given the careful treatment Bobby Abreu has been given this season, it will be interesting to see if he's scheduled to against Danks, with Damon penciled into Abreu's spot. Or maybe newcomer Wilson Betemit will be inserted right into the mix? He's expected to arrive in the Bronx tomorrow.

In other baseball news...

Tom Glavine has always seemed like a fairly rational, sane human being. But I can't help but wonder if he was tempted to throttle his bullpen after it blew what should have been his 300th career victory. Glavine pitched six innings, allowing just one run. Suppan nearly matched him, with 6.1 innings and two earned runs. It was a tight game, but Glavine was in line to get the victory. But Aaron Heilman allowed the baserunner that eventually scored off of Mota. Mota was given the blown save. Heilman earned a hold. I don't understand some things about baseball.

The game went into extras. In the bottom of the 13th inning, Sele allowed a walk-off, two run homer to Jenkins to seal a heartbreaker for the Mets and their pitching staff. Talk about something that can deflate a ballclub. First, the Braves land both Mark Teixeira and Octavio Dotel. Then, their bullpen can't hold on for Glavine's 300th win? Tough loss.

In happier news, Brian Roberts hit a homerun in the first pitch of the first inning off of Josh Beckett last night. The guy is small, but he has stroke, that's for sure. It's hard to call Beckett-Bedard the pitcher's duel it was hyped to be. Beckett wasn't sharp, lasting eight innings but giving up five runs. Bedard allowed two runs over six innings, eventually leaving the game because of dehydration. Jamie Walker picked up the save by recording two outs in the 9th. And Nick Markakis made a neat catch along the right field wall, surviving thre rows of Fenway fans as he leaned into the stands to record a fly ball out for Chad Bradford. Not enough people talk about Markakis, most likely because the Orioles have been pretty bad for the majority of the year. But just like people are catching on to Bedard this year, I think big things will come for Markakis if he can stay healthy.

Solid 6-3 victory for the Nationals over the Reds last night. Matt Chico recorded win number five this season, with five innings of two run ball. I'm not sure whether he was pulled for any reason other than that they're preserving the kid's arm while giving their bullpen some work. Not that the Nationals bullpen needs much more work. The big blow of the night was a three-run double off the bat of Ryan Zimmerman in the bottom of the 5th inning. Chad Cordero, who once again was all smoke and no fire by the trade deadline, worked an inning of hitless and scoreless relief to pick up his 22nd save of the season.

A loss for the Padres last night against the Diamondbacks. It's tough to get the Padres offense going to begin with. Put them against a quality pitcher like Brandon Webb and it's near impossible. Webb dominated, allowing just three hits and no runs in seven innings. Germano wasn't terrible. He made two mistake pitches in his five innings of work. Unfortunately, those two hits were homeruns with a man on base each time. In a bit of positive for the Padres, Clay Hensley made his third relief appearance since being recalled from AAA last night. He pitched three innings, allowing just one hit, no walks, and striking out four.