Games » New York Yankees
Aug17The bad calls even out
Lee Judge
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If you’re one of those people who thought that Royals pitchers were getting squeezed by the home-plate umpires in this series, quit complaining. The bad calls evened out. The ball that Billy Butler hit in the third inning on Wednesday night was not a home run, and the umpires blew the call, even with instant replay.
Here’s the deal: There’s a pad on top of the scoreboard in the outfield wall. That pad creates a ledge. Set back a bit is a short fence, which is topped by a padded railing. Behind that railing is another railing, which is designed to keep fans from leaning over the first railing. (And if you think this all sounds confusing, it is. There’s no clear home-run line, and you’re staring into the brightly lit scoreboards while trying to see where the ball hit.)
Confusing design aside, a ball has to clear the first padded railing to be a home run. Billy’s ball hit the pad on top of the scoreboard, bounced up and hit the padded railing and came back on the field. The ball was in play the entire time. An umpire signaled home run, Billy ran the bases. The Yankees went through the motions, tagged Billy between second base and third and then asked for a review.
The umpires went inside to look at the replay. Billy stood on the dugout steps, holding his helmet in case he had to come out and run the bases again. When the umpires came back on the field and signaled a home run, the Royals (at least the guys I talked to) were surprised. They said they thought the original call would be overturned. That’s why on TV you saw pitcher Danny Duffy burst out laughing at the call.
So if you’re going to get squeezed because you’re Danny Duffy and you’re throwing to Mr. Jeter, the least the umpires can do is even things out a bit.
Last night they did.
Details of the game
Alex Gordon hit a three-run bomb on a pitch he later said he was simply trying to get in play. Don’t overlook another big play that Alex made: not throwing home in the ninth inning on Robinson Cano’s sacrifice fly. Derek Jeter was on third base. Jeter tagged up and headed home to make the score 5-4.
Instead of letting his ego get the better of him, Alex made the smart throw and went to third base, which kept the Yankees’ Curtis Granderson from advancing from second. A passed ball later, and Gordo’s decision looks even better. Instead of being on third and scoring on the passed ball, Granderson advanced to third on the passed ball and was stranded there after Jorge Posada struck out to end the game.
After the game, Gordon said he had airmailed a throw home the night before and he didn’t want to make the same mistake twice. That’s a ballplayer getting better.
Which brings up an interesting note: Because the team is so young, I’ve asked around about clubhouse leaders. Who displays leadership? Who keeps the young guys in line and teaches them the game? Without prompting, several different people have named Gordon. Jeff Francoeur is vocal and gets a lot of attention. When Jason Kendall was there, he got lots of respect. But everybody says the same thing about Alex: He leads by example, he plays hard, he works hard and is extremely mentally tough.
People say the young players could not do better than to watch Alex and emulate his approach.
Bruce’s secret
After Royals starter Bruce Chen threw 33 pitches in the first inning, I thought he was a goner. I figured the Yankees were going to work their voodoo, take a zillion pitches and get Bruce out of the game before the fifth inning. Chen then came back with a nine-pitch second inning (if I counted right), stayed in the game for six innings, got a quality start and a win. We walked out of the clubhouse together, and I asked him what changed after the first inning.
Bruce started laughing and said, “I threw more strikes.”
Wow, the secrets you learn when you’re on the inside, huh?
Another inside tip
Second basemen Chris Getz and I shot a video up on the Little K and it was hot as … Well, I can’t tell you the word Chris used to describe the heat, but it was inventive. Anyway, I was wearing a black T-shirt and smoking. I was asked why I wore black and said, “I thought it would look good.”
Getzie said, “You can’t wear gray,” which made me think I should pass this fashion tip along: Do not wear the color of the other team to the stadium. Think about who the Royals are playing and make sure you wear blue or a neutral color. If you show up in the other team’s color, even unintentionally, the players, should you talk to any of them, will give you a hard time about it.
And you might not get that baseball signed.
Moose didn’t miss
Everyone agrees that the key to hitting is not missing mistakes. If you get a hittable fastball or a hung curve, smoke it. The Royals’ Mike Moustakas has been getting those pitches and missing them. Last night, he got them and didn’t. That’s the difference.
The shallowest outfield in baseball
Royals first-base coach Doug Sisson said Robinson Cano’s 12-pitch at-bat Tuesday night might have been the best at-bat he had ever seen, mainly because it ended with a three-run home run. Sisson also agreed that the key moment in that inning was the Brett Gardner bunt that I wrote about yesterday. “All the momentum in this dugout went over to that dugout,” Sisson said.
Then he pointed out something interesting: The Yankees play the shallowest outfield in baseball. That was why Escobar could hit a triple to left-center field. The Yankees’ outfielders had a long run to get there. That’s why Frenchy’s double could hang up so long and still not get caught.
It’s the Yankees’ philosophy: If our pitcher makes a good pitch and jams someone for a flare, we’re getting an out. If the hitter smokes one, tip your cap. Doug told me that the Seattle Mariners take the opposite philosophy. The Mariners play deep. They want to make you beat them with three singles, not extra-base hits.
So right now I’m thinking, “Why didn’t you ask Doug the Royals’ philosophy?” I’m guessing the Royals are somewhere in between the two extremes, but I’ll have to ask Doug tomorrow.
One more thing
Doug told me that the game plan on Jeter was to throw him inside fastballs and have him inside-out the ball to Francoeur. Any mistake with an off-speed pitch and Jeter could pull the ball to where the defense wasn’t. And that was what happened on the slider he hit for a double in the fourth inning.
The other three hits Jeter got because he’s just stinking good. (He had nine hits this series to add to the 3,000-plus he already had. And he’s overrated?)
Bogie’s back
Red Sox third-base coach and longtime friend Tim Bogar is back in town, so be patient. If the posting from the previous night’s game is not online when you check in the morning, you know Bogie and I went out the night before.
In fact, you probably can measure how good a time I had by how long it takes me to get the game posted. I’ll be shooting for noon.
Chen
Gordon
Butler
First: I read this every day (before the recap) but these are my first actual comments. I was on the Pepsi Party Porch tonight and got word from the cameraman out there that the ball would be ruled a double based on what he had seen. So we were all flabbergasted when the umps had the replay and still got the call wrong (based on a misunderstanding of ground rules apparently). I want them to get the call correct, but at the time admittedly wasn't terribly adamant about us losing a run. :)
I also was proud of Gordon's decision to throw to third. Many of the people around me were already planning for a blown save as Teixeira was coming to the plate...I tried reminding them that it wasn't a blown save UNTIL the runs actually scored, but they were sure the Yanks were about to put up an 8 spot. The first two batters vs Joakim had high quality at-bats, making him demonstrate the full arsenal and likely making him vulnerable to the middle of the order. Want to know why each and every one of those annoying Red Sox-Yankees nationally televised games take 4 plus hours? (And you thought you could blame the extra commercials). Both of those squads have deep lineups with high-end professional hitters who work pitchers relentlessly. Put them both together and you're asking for a full length feature.
Good 'w' for the boys in blue...bring on the BoSox!
Lot's of good baseball from last night. I sort-of predicted Alex Gordon's home run. I could tell he was seeing the ball well out of Colon's hand when he held up on that 2-2 slider in the dirt, the same one that had struck him out earlier. I felt if Colon left the next pitch up, that Gordo would belt it. In the 9th, when Gordon elected to soft-toss the ball to third base instead of trying to gun Jeter out at the plate, i'll admit that for a moment I was disappointed. I wanted to see another outfield assist to end the game! But just a few pitches later...Gordon's smart decision saved the game. Also want to talk about Soria. He simply did not have it last night. Couldn't hit his spots, his fastballs were up, his change ups were in the dirt, it was a mess. Jeter missed at least 2 mistakes that a younger version of himself probably would have planted into the bullpen. But Soria persevered and when it mattered, uncorked a couple of great pitches to retire the corpse that used to be Posada. One last comment, I think Robinson Cano might be the most complete, and completely excellent, player in the game. Is there anything he can't do? His at bats are like something out of an instructional video.
Once again, Coleman gets the job done in the 7th and hands the ball to Holland. After giving up a lead-off hit to Jeter and a walk to Granderson, he strikes out Texeira and Cano swinging and gets Swisher looking. That inning could have turned into a disaster, but Coleman made some great pitches and left Holland to face the six, seven, and eight hitters in the eighth. By the way, did you see Swisher flip his bat in the air after the called third strike. I guess you only get ejected for that if you're not a Yankee.
Hope the Royals' young pitchers learned something on the great stop by Giovatello. Chen got the out because he didn't give up on the play.
I really feel bad about the blown call on the Butler hit. I mean, the Yankees have never gotten a homer they didn't deserve cough Jeffrey Maier cough. I wonder if Sonic is refusing to give people their free slushes.
Stephen: There is a perception (accurate or not) that the Yankees get calls, so if the umpires are going to blow one, blowing one that wins a ball game for the Royals even things out a bit.
Everybody was surprised that the umpiring crew did not appear to know the ground rules of Kauffman Stadium.
Brian, after the game Ned said Soria was under the ball, which got his pitches up, but he still made at least one clutch pitch when he had to.
I thought Soria was all over the place, but when he did paint the bottom or corner of the zone, wasn't getting the call consistently and Chris Getz, watching from second, thought the same thing.
And, Blair, good call on Chen: he was where he was supposed to be. I told Giavotella he threw a perfect fade pass to Bruce and Johnny said that came from his days as a quarterback.
Ditto on the good play by Gordon. A real key to the win, and shows his maturity. Soria was definitely getting squeezed, but that is part of the game and he certainly did not have his usual command. Finally, kudos to Moose for hanging in. Hopefully we will see more of this the rest of the year.
Joel: The Mike Moustakas we saw last night is the Mike Moustakas everybody else has been seeing in the minors. You know it's in there, how often can he get it out?
And I agree about Alex: that was a smart play by a mature player. A play he might not have made a couple years ago.
It's not like these guys should have no limit on how much they can struggle, but when fans get ready to give up on somebody, they should remember Alex Gordon.
Perez needed that giant glove the guy in the stands behind home plate had last night to catch Soria~. I laughed out loud at the called strike on Posada, that's on Posada, with two strikes you have to swing at that.
Moose looked a lot better. He swung the bat with a little more snap last night. He has a pattern in the minors, he struggle a lot when he first moves up then he takes off. I can see him punching out .300, 5 doubles, 5 dingers in September, wouldn't surprise me at all.
Rick: Hope you're right about Moose, that kid needs some hits. Last night was a nice game, but he'd actually been hitting some balls hard and getting nothing before last night.
He just wasn't doing it consistently. Maybe Wednesday's game will mark a turning point.