Opne Thread: Game 32-Yanks vs A's

by John Amato on May 8, 2005 3:54 AM EDT in New York Yankees News

Can Kevin Brown give us six good innings?

The crystal ball says: YES

Rich Harden has been pithing excellent for Oakland, but I forsee a 4-3 win, with Mariano picking up the save.
We need to win a series and if for nothing else, the Yanks are due.

UPDATE

The Crystal Ball was correct. Brown did his job, A-Rod, Tino, and Posada hit bombs, and Gordon actually looked like a pitcher.
The Yanks get their second straight shutout and a 6-0 win. The thing about Brown is that his velocity is fine, which is a good sign, but he hasn't been able to keep the ball down.The A's are not the O's, but maybe he can build on this performance.
Randy Johnson takes the hill tomorrow. Can we say three in a row?

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Crystal Ball

My bet is Brown goes 5 1/3. 6 earned runs. But the Yanks put up an 8 in the second inning before the bats go dead. Buddy Groom pitches the 6th and the 7th, Gordon the 8th (giving up a run), and Mo picks up the save 8-7.

Have faith in the Yankees my son. Think of the great DiMaggio.

by jscape2000 on May 8, 2005 4:19 AM EDT reply actions

My fortune cookies says....

Brown goes four, gets shelled, and storms into the dugout and punches the wall with his pitching hand this time. The Yankees nullify his contract, and he goes back to Georgia where he sits in his mansion staring out the window wondering how it all went so wrong. His wife, duly concerned about his mental health, suggests he see a shrink. Of course he doesn't believe in shrinks, being the macho guy he is, but he agrees just to keep Mrs. Brown from divorcing him and getting custody of the kiddies. The shrink tell him he's depressed and puts him on meds. After six weeks, the drugs kick in, and he's singing in the shower. He starts throwing again. He thinks about resuming his pitching career and he's willing to do it for free, just to prove to everybody that he's changed. His agent contacts teams to see if anybody's interested. The White Sox grab him. He joins their rotation, along with Contreras and El Duque, and ends up winning game seven of the world series. But then it turns out that the drugs he claimed were antidepressants were really steroids, and he's banned from baseball forever.

by Yankee Fanne on May 8, 2005 1:08 PM EDT up reply actions

ChrisS

Brown struggles through 3, gives up 5.

Sheffield will steal his fifth base of the season... the guy's been running like Ichiro lately, what gives?

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by ChrisS on May 8, 2005 10:04 AM EDT reply actions

His shoulder

has healed so he's willing to slide into second base. He talked about that being the reason he wasn't stealing last season. He's not Vlad, but he's a great player.

Have faith in the Yankees my son. Think of the great DiMaggio.

by jscape2000 on May 8, 2005 12:38 PM EDT reply actions

A little perspective, please

Before anybody gets too excited about Mussina and Brown's performance over the weekend, have a look at the A's. They've lost five (including today) of their last six, scoring a combined 13 runs in those games, 7 of them in a 16-7 loss against Texas. The back to back shutouts are not so much a reflection of great Yankee pitching (Kevin Brown still sucks in my opinion) as an anemic A's offense. Go to Athleticsnation.com and you'll see endless frustration with their team's inability to score runs

The Yankees are lucky to hit a team playing even worse than they are at exactly the right time. That happened in 2004 and turned the season around. Maybe this will be the charm again in 2005, and save Mel's job. Last time I checked, Mel wasn't responsible for Kevin Brown punching a wall or Jaret Wright being a fat load or Randy Johnson being over 40. You can pin those on Cashman (or George, most likely).

by Nettles Fan on May 8, 2005 3:56 PM EDT reply actions

Anemic A's

I totally agree that we should keep things in perspective. Throughout today's game I kept thinking that the A's are the new Devil Rays . We should absolutely be beating them, not to mention shutting them out, and Kevin Brown is still and forevermore a head case. BUT I'll take the wins gladly. Maybe they'll give the team confidence. Matsui looked much better on that one at-bat so hopefully he'll catch fire. Jeter came back to life at the plate. Hope Sheffield's ankle isn't anything to worry about, because we can't afford to lose him. So maybe the pitching is back on track.....But there's still the issue of GIAMBI. Can somebody figure out what to do with this guy? He cannot make contact with the baseball!!!!!

by Yankee Fanne on May 8, 2005 4:26 PM EDT up reply actions

At least...

we've got two in a row. And a two shutouts aren't half bad.

by UncleBuck on May 8, 2005 4:06 PM EDT reply actions

Wow! Kevin Brown wins a game!

First of all, if A-Rod does not nab that liner in the 2nd by Ginter with the bases loaded, we are not having this conversation, but since we have trashed Kevin Brown so much of late (and deservedly so) let's give him credit for pitching a good game (even if the A's are a bunch of lame hitters.) Let him relax and celebrate for four days and then see if he can do it again. Considering that this is his first win since August of last season, we need a lot more of this for him to make up. To be honest, I'm not sure how many good pitching performances it would take for me to feel comfortable with him out there (but it would be quite a few.)

Secondly, all I can say about Giambi is WTF? Has he ever played baseball before? He is clueless out there and needs to be put down. Honestly, it is depressing to watch him.

Finally, the Cano experiment will hopefully be over soon. He really is not ready and that bottom of the order is just an embarrassment.

by garp on May 9, 2005 1:00 AM EDT reply actions

Confidence in Brown

It doesn't take shutouts for him to earn my trust. He needs to make quality starts, the way he did the first half of last year. 6 innings, 3 runs or less. Let's see what happens.

Have faith in the Yankees my son. Think of the great DiMaggio.

by jscape2000 on May 9, 2005 1:39 AM EDT reply actions