Melky! (though the real heroes are the relievers)

by Travis G on Apr 22, 2009 6:12 PM EDT in Game Recap

On a day when Girardi and the offense did everything they could to lose, the bullpen came through huge. All told, our relievers pitched 7.2 innings of scoreless baseball, holding Oakland down long enough for the Yanks to finally push across a run.

Girardi left Sabathia in way too long, allowing Oakland to score two in the 7th that tied the game. He should've been pulled after allowing the first two hitters to reach, but instead was left in and promptly served up a couple singles.

The hitters had multiple opportunities to win the game (including bases loaded with no outs), but couldn't quite get that eighth run until Melky stepped to the plate in the 14th, five hours after the first pitch.

Special praise should go to Jose Veras, who had pitched terribly before today; he shut out Oakland for 3.1 ip (striking out four with no hits), while the other relievers only went one or less.

- Nick Swisher, despite being in the midst of slight hitting slump (.160 BA in his last seven games), is still helping the team because of his patience: he's drawn six walks and has a .344 OBP in the very same seven game 'hitting slump.'

- An intriguing scenario would have occurred had the game continued a few more innings. The Yanks had one reliever left in the pen: recently promoted Steven Jackson. If they burned through him, would Girardi have gone to Chien Ming-Wang?

Wild f'in game

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Wow

Wish the stands weren’t f’ing empty to see this marathon of a game.

by HappyLuckyGoldenDragonNumber1! on Apr 22, 2009 6:22 PM EDT reply actions

yeah

it’s seemed pretty dead at the ball park, but part of that is the weather and part is the scarcity of fans in the ‘good seats.’

by Travis G on Apr 22, 2009 6:27 PM EDT up reply actions

I dunno Travis

I mean sure it wouldn’t be close to full because it is a weekday day game, and the weather looked crappy but I could count the people in the stands just from the videos. At this point start giving these seats away to kids in the neighborhood until they sell em.

by HappyLuckyGoldenDragonNumber1! on Apr 22, 2009 6:36 PM EDT reply actions

Or

put ’em on stubhub and see what they go for.

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

by jscape2000 on Apr 22, 2009 9:20 PM EDT up reply actions

Hats off to the bullpen

especially Veras.

Anyone really concerned about CC?

Empty seats = embarassing

by BadBoy on Apr 22, 2009 7:02 PM EDT reply actions

CC tends to be a slow starter

His career numbers for April are 12-11, 4.54. He’ll be fine.

The empty seats, on the other hand, are making us the laughing stock of baseball.

by DocBrown82 on Apr 22, 2009 10:51 PM EDT up reply actions

OK, can someone please explain the significance of the fan graphs?

I don’t quite understand it yet.

by .ryan on Apr 22, 2009 7:26 PM EDT reply actions

sure

every single play in a baseball game either increases or decreases a team’s chances to win. a 3-run HR increases your team’s chances a lot, a GDP decreases the chances a lot. fan graphs has measured every single event in MLB over the last 10+ years (iirc) and assigned a value to each one, depending on score, inning, outs, baserunners, etc.

you can see in this graph the ebb and flow of a particularly back-and-forth game. Suzuki’s 3-run shot increased the A’s chance of winning roughly 16%, from about 60% to 76%. iow, after that HR, the A’s had a 76% chance of winning the game.

Melky’s walk off HR increased the Yanks chances roughly 40%, from 60% to 100% (since the game was over).

does that help?

by Travis G on Apr 22, 2009 9:02 PM EDT up reply actions

That makes sense ...

so, when Swisher got on base in the 14th, it went from 50% to 60%, and Melky’s HR put it up to 100%.

Got it. Thanks.

by .ryan on Apr 22, 2009 9:24 PM EDT up reply actions

no problem

check out fan graphs, especially while the games are going on. it’s very cool to see the graph weave up and down during a live game.

it also tells which players were most and least helpful to their teams, using WPA (Win Probability Added), which is a fancy way of saying ‘how much did they add (or subtract) to their team’s probability of winning.’

by Travis G on Apr 22, 2009 11:18 PM EDT up reply actions