Game 61: Mets at Yankees

YANKEES (34-26, Second place AL East)
Jeter SS
Swisher RF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Cano 2B
Posada C
Matsui DH
Cabrera LF
Gardner C

Pitching: RHP Joba Chamberlain (3-1, 3.79).

METS (31-27. 2nd place NL East
Cora SS
Martinez LF
Beltran CF
Wright 3B
Church RF
Sheffield DH
Murphy 1B
Schneider C
Castillo 2B

Pitching: RHP Livan Hernandez (5-1, 3.88).

MANAGING FOR HIS JOB?: There's been a lot of talk about firing Joe Girardi. I don't think it's going to happen, but I'd expect a little fire from Girardi this series. I'm willing to bet he gets ejected at least once this weekend.

SKID ROW: The Yankees have lost 3 straight and 4 of their last 6. The Yankees have struggled against some of the better competition they have faced o far this season. A nice series win against the Mets would be nice.

DUCK HUNT: The Yankees have made a habit of leaving ducks on the pond the past couple of days. A-Rod's (yes, A-Rod) was the only one who was able to get a big hit against the Red Sox (that will be the last time I mention them again today).

LIGHT UP LIVAN: The Mets starter, Livan Hernandez, is 0-3 in his career against the Yankees.

JOHN HEALY, THE GREAT MOTIVATOR: I don't know about you, but after John's rousing motivational speech, (which you can read below) I am rearing and ready to go.

UPDATE 7:38: Maybe this will help break Cano out of this slump. You know the Yanks could get to Hernandez because of those two shots that just missed going out in the first from Jeter and Swisher.

UPDATE 7:43: Only Cano's went out so far, but the Yankees are all over Hernandez's pitches.

UPDATE 8:04: I don't know what happened to Joba this inning. He's now thrown over 35 pitches this inning alone. He and Posada just aren't in sync. What happened between this inning and last inning?

UPDATE 8:08: 43 pitches. 3 walks, 2 hit-by-pitches. Those numbers do not make for a good inning. If Joba is coming out for the next inning, he and Jorge need to get together and figure out what the hell just happened.

UPDATE 8:18: Who is the Yankees strength and conditioning coach? They need to hit the weight room some more I think, that's the third ball to the warning track that had the chance of going out.

UPDATE 8:19: Well, I guess Tex has been lifting.

UPDATE 8:23: It was good that the Yankees got Joba the lead right back there and some time to rest on the bench. It will give him some confidence as he heads back out there. And since Michael Kay doesn't have a blog, I guess they'll have to settle for us.

UPDATE 8:27: My stab at the trivia question. Rockin' Robin Ventura for David "I was married to Halle Berry" Justice.

UPDATE 8:27: Actually, it might be the Armando Benitez deal. The Yankees traded a prospect for him. I cannot remember his name but I do remember that it was three days after the SI Yankees retired his munber for being the first member of their team to make the majors for the Yankees.

UPDATE 8:30: They just said on TV that they might reactivate Bruney tomorrow instead of sending him on a rehab assignment. Didn't they learn their lesson with Wang? Make sure Bruney is 100% and ready to go and then bring him back.

UPDATE 8:33: I've been wondering lately, why do the bullpen phones look so old? With all the modernization of phone technology, why do the bullpen phones still look the same? And at Yankee Stadium, I figured they would have sold the "Wireless Bull Pen Phone" to Verizon and made the Babe Ruth bat a cell phone tower.

UPDATE 8:37: No wonder I didn't get that one right. I have done all I could to erase Felix Heredia from my memory. Thanks YES for making me remember those horrible times.

UPDATE 8:40: You know what I like? That when they showed that shot of the Yankee dugout, there were only 3 people on the bench. And it was the starting pitcher, the catcher, and the backup catcher having a pep talk session. For the short time I played baseball, I always loved when the bench was being loud and into the game.

UPDATE 8:44: While Joba is done. Let's hope that Tomko can shut them down through maybe the 6th or 7th.

UPDATE 8:53: *Shaking head and cursing loudly as he throws things around family room*

UPDATE 9:02: This is what Jorge needed to go out and say to Joba so that he didn't throw 100 pitches in four innings: "Relax, all right? Don't try to strike everybody out. Strikeouts are boring; besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls. It's more democratic." -that from Crash Davis from the movie, Bull Durham.

UPDATE 9:12: This place is built for Jeter to hit homeruns to right center. He now has 9 homers on the year after only having 11 last year. The last time he went over 20 on a season was in 2004 when he hit 23. His career high is 24 in 1999.

UPDATE 9:41: It's weird, as soon as Michael Kay said it was Matsui's birthday, I knew he was going to hit a home run.

UPDATE 10:00: I just got a text message from John. Apparently half of his section was too busy giving a Mets fan being headlocked by a police officer the Asshole Chant that they missed God Bless America. I can only wonder what people who didn't know what was going on thought when they heard people chanting "asshole" over and over again during God Bless America.

UPDATE 10:12: So Girardi goes for Mo with no one on, two outs, tie game in the eigth inning. So is this a more important situation than the 8th inning yesterday?

UPDATE 10:21: Well, that backfired big time.

UPDATE 10:23: There is some good news. Melky "Clutch Hit" Cabrera is due up third this inning.

UPDATE 10:38: The Kay Classic "Rally in their bones" to rally the troops. I hope their playing the 300 video at the Stadium, that usually worked better for me.

UPDATE 10:57: What?