Robertson rejects qualifying offer; ROY voting

To no surprise, David Robertson has rejected the Yankees’ qualifying offer and is free to negotiate with any team, including the Yankees. The qualifying offer this year is $15.3MM.

To date, no player has ever accepted a qualifying offer. If Robertson signs elsewhere, the Yanks get a compensatory draft pick.

In Rookie of the Year voting, Dellin Betances finished third in the A.L., and Masahiro Tanaka fifth. Tanaka probably would have finished higher had he not lost 1/3 of the season to injury.

Manager of the Year gets announced today. Baseball is in their awards stage.

Michael Cuddyer signed a deal with the Mets. The Mets’ DeGrom won the N.L. ROY.

New names were added to the Rays’ search for a manager: Barry Larkin & Doug Glanville.

Game 157. Yanks fall, 5- 4. On brink of elimination.

Brandon McCarthy gave up three HR and the Yanks couldn’t climb out of an early 4-0 hole as they lost to the Orioles 5-4 Tuesday night.

The loss puts the Yanks “tragic number” of missing the playoffs at one. They are 81-76, one game ahead of Toronto for second in the AL East. With five games left, the best the Yanks can do is 86-76, and both KC and Oakland have 86 wins now. Any Yanks loss will eliminate them from the playoffs, and they would have to hope either KC or Oakland loses all their games from here on out. An impossible task. (Not to mention Seattle has 83 wins right now and that the Indians have 82). The Yanks are five out of the last wild card with five games to go.

McCarthy (L, 10-15, 4.05 overall, 7-5, 2.89 as NYY) went 5 1/3, giving up 5 R, 11 H, 0 walks and 8 K. He gave up two in the second, two in the fourth and one in the fifth.

Rich Hill 1/3 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 walks and 0 K. Overall ERA 3.38.

Esmiel Rogers 1 1/3 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 walks and 0 K. Overall ERA 4.96

Dellin Betances 1 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 0 walks and 2 K. 1.40.

David Robertson  1 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 0 walks and 1 K. 2.74.

The Yanks got one in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI groundout by Chris Young to cut the Orioles’ lead to 4-1.

Stephen Drew got a bases-loaded SF in the sixth to cut the Orioles’ lead to 5-2.

Brian McCann hit a 2-run HR (23) in the seventh to cut the lead to 5-4 but the Yanks couldn’t catch up.

Derek Jeter went 1 for 5, career hit #3461 but struck out to end the game. He is at .255.

 

 

 

 

Game 155. Gardner gets 15000th team HR in 5-2 win.

Brett Gardner hit the 15,000th HR in Yankees history, Brian McCann added two more, and Masahiro Tanaka got a win in his return from the DL (Chaz Roe was DFA’d) as the Yanks beat Toronto 5-2 on Sunday.

Mickey Mantle got HR #5000, Claudell Washington #10000 and now Brett Gardner #15000 in Yankees history.

For the fourth straight game, Derek Jeter got two hits. He came into the home stand on a bad slump, but in the last home stand of his career, has put together some nice games. He had two hits today, including an RBI double, raised his average to .255, and now has 3459 hits for his career. It was his fourth straight two-hit game, all on his final home stand.

Tanaka, limited in his # of pitches due to just coming off the DL, went 5 1/3 and looked, well, like TANAKA. 1 R, 5 H, 0 walks and 4 K. He improved to 13-4, 2.47. If only for those 10 weeks he missed.

He gave up his only run in the top of the first,  but McCann’s first HR of the game tied it in the bottom half of the inning.

Gardner’s 17th HR of the season (and who thought he’d hit THAT many this year?) made it 2-1 in the fifth, and the HR was the 15,000th in Yankees history. They are the first team to hit 15,000 HR in their history.

The Yankees got 3 in the 7th on doubles by Gardner and Jeter and McCann’s 2nd HR of the game. McCann’s 22nd HR gave him the team lead. With Ellsbury out, McCann’s 3 RBI gave him 71 for the season, and the team lead there as well.

Dellin Betances gave up a run in the 8th.

After Tanaka left,

Warren 1 2/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 walks and 3 K. 3.07

Betances 1 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 0 walks and 1 K. 1.42.

David Robertson picked up his 38th save. 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 walk and 1 K. 2.79.

The win put the Yanks 2 up on the Jays for 2nd place in the AL East at 80-75. Two more victories means a winning season. They haven’t had a non-winning season since 1992. They may still win less games than last year, when they won 85.

They are 4 1/2 out of the last wild card spot with just 7 games to go and must jump three teams. An almost impossible task to accomplish.

Game 152. Jeter HRs in Yanks 3-2 win.

Derek Jeter hit his first (and only?) Yankee Stadium HR of the year tonight in the Yankees 3-2 win over Toronto.

You wonder, with only 10 games left in Jeter’s final season, if career HR #260 will be his last. He had two hits to move his career total up to 3453.

The Yanks won in the bottom of the 9th on an error.

The Yanks broke a scoreless tie in the fifth on a Drew double, and Jeter’s fourth HR of the year made it 2-0 in the sixth.

But Shawn Kelley gave up a two-run HR to Jose Bautista in the 8th to spoil Shane Greene’s bid for a win.

In the bottom of the 9th, Chris Young singled, Antoan Richardson PR and stole second and Brett Gardner bunted Richardson to third. Chase Headley hit a grounder through the legs of 1B Adam Lind and Richardson scored to win the game for the Yanks.

With the win, the Yanks improved to 78-74 and surpassed the Blue Jays for second place in the AL East. With ten games to go, they are five out of the final wild card spot.

Greene went 6 2/3, 0 r, 3 H, 2 walks and 6 K. ERA a superb 3.24. An excellent rookie campaign.

Betances 1/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 walks and 0 k. 1.33.

Kelley 1 IP, 2 R, 2 H, 0 walks and 1 K. 4.47. I’m not sold on him. An ERA of 4.47 is way too high for a late innings reliever.

David Robertson  (W, 3-5, 2.83) 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 walks and 2 K.

Game 151. Yanks edge Rays, 3-2.

The Yanks won 3-2 Wednesday night as Derek Jeter finally got hit #3451. Before the hit, Jeter was in an 0 for 28 skid.

Brandon McCarthy (W, 10-14, overall ERA 3.93; 7-4 as a Yankee, ERA 2.54 (great pickup) ) went 7, 2 R, 4 H, 1 walk and 4 K.

Dellin Betances set a new mark for strikeouts by a Yankees’ reliever, surpassing the 130 Mariano Rivera set in 1996 when Mo set up John Wetteland.

Betances, 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 walk and 2 K. 1.33.

David Robertson got his 37th save, 1 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 walks, 2 K. 2.88.

Chase Headley and Brendan Ryan both made excellent defensive plays and had RBI doubles in the game in the fifth inning. I can see the Yanks bringing back Headley (who is a free agent) to play 3B next year, with Prado at 2B. Refsnyder may begin the year at AAA. As for Pirela, he could become a free agent and the Yanks could lose him. If Headley is at 3B (and backing up at 1B) A-Rod (remember him?) mostly DHs. Remember A-Rod would be coming back after missing all of 2014, playing only 44 games in 2013 and off of two hip surgeries. The only thing is, if A-Rod DH’s, (he turns 40 in July 2015), then the 38 year old Beltran MUST be healthy enough to play RF and not have to DH.

Brett Gardner just missed a grand slam in the sixth, but did get as SF that proved to be the winning run.

The Rays got a run in the fourth on an Evan Longoria HR before the Yanks two runs in the fifth. They also got another run in the sixth after the Yanks had gone up 3-1.

McCarthy had an “immaculate inning” in the 7th. 3 up, 3 down, all by K and on 9 pitches. Other Yanks to do it were Al Downing in 1967, Ron Guidry in 1984, A.J. Burnett in 2009 and Ivan Nova last year.

The Yanks only had four hits in the game, but improved to 77-74. With the win they moved into a tie for 2nd in the AL East with Toronto. But as far as that final wild card spot goes, they are six back with 11 games to play and need to jump four teams.

Carlos Beltran left the team. Sympathies to him and his family for losing an unborn son.

Game 148. Robertson can’t hold lead, Yanks lose 3-2.

David Robertson threw 35 pitches on Friday in one of the doubleheader games. He threw 11 Saturday in saving that game. He was brought in yesterday to save a 2-1 Yankees lead in the 9th.

You just knew what was going to happen. Robertson had nothing, gave up two runs and the Yanks lost 3-2.

On the ESPN telecast, the announcers basically said that to them, it appeared that the Yanks were basically saying “you are a free agent, we aren’t going to re-sign you, so we’ll just run you into the ground.”

Seriously, there was no one else Girardi could have brought in to get three outs? Robertson for a third straight day?

Martin Prado homered in the second, his 12th overall HR of the year, to give the Yanks a 1-0 lead. Baltimore tied it in the sixth.

Brian McCann put the Yanks up 2-1 in the top of the 9th with his 20th HR of the year.

But then Robertson gave up doubles to Nelson Cruz, Steve Pearce to tie it (and see my recent post “You were saying” about Pearce, a one-time Yankee), and after a fly out, a double to Kelly Johnson (remember him? Yup, that Kelly Johnson from the Yanks earlier this year) to win it.

Kuroda went 7, 1 R, 6 H, 0 walks and 5 K. 3.81. Too bad the Yanks, like usual for this year, didn’t give any run support to a starter who pitched well.

Betances 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 walks and 2 K. 1.35. His 2 K tied Mariano Rivera’s record of 130 K in a season by a Yankees’ reliever. It looks more and more like he will be the closer next year and the Yanks will let Robertson leave via free agency and take the money saved to shore up other needs. This year’s first-round draft pick, Jacob Lindgren, may wind up being the set-up man. We’ll see what happens this winter.

Robertson 1/3 IP, 2 R, 3 H, 0 walks and 0 k. He falls to 2-5, 2.93.

The Yanks fall to 76-72. They remain in third place, 12 1/2 behind first-place Baltimore in the AL East with 14 to go. They are one game behind second-place Toronto. The Orioles’ magic # for eliminating the Yanks from the division title is down to two. As far as that final playoff spot is concerned, the Yanks are five out with 14 to go and would have to jump over four teams to get there.

The Yanks finished 85-77 last year. They would need to go 9-5 in their last 14 games just to meet that mark this year. That’s what has been disappointing. They had a lot of injuries last year (Jeter and Teix both missed most of the year), and with the free agent signings of Beltran, McCann, Ellsbury and Tanaka, you thought the record would be better, or at least the same—not worse. Yes, there have been injuries this year, but still, it’s been disappointing.

Derek Jeter went 0 for 4. He is now 0 for his last 24 and down to .250 (actually, .249534, which is rounded up to .250). He did hit a couple of balls well last night, but no luck. His OPS+ is down to 70 and he’s hitting .172 since August 2nd. It makes you wish the season, and his career, were over already.

It’s not like you want Jeter’s career to be over, and yes, you’d like for a miracle to happen and for the Yanks to make the playoffs (isn’t happening) but you just don’t want Jeter to go on to the end like this. Another point fell off the lifetime batting average. He started this year at .312, and it’s down to .309.

There are 14 games to go, and how many Jeter plays in we don’t know. You’d hate to see him below .250 or even .240. You’d hate to see another point drop off that lifetime batting average.

You hope he has one or two multi-hit games left in him.

But does he?

Games 145/146. Yanks get swept.

The Yanks’ very remote playoff chances were basically killed off on Friday when they scored only one run in 20 innings of a DH and lost both games to the Baltimore Orioles, 2-1 in 11 innings, and 5-0.

With the losses, the Yanks fell to 75-71, and are in 3rd place, 12 1/2 behind division leader Baltimore, and are five games out of the final wild card spot with just 16 to play.

In the first game, the game was scoreless until Thursday night’s hero, Chris Young homered in the top of the 11th. Unfortunately, the Yanks weren’t playing at home like they were on Thursday night, so the HR wasn’t a GW walk-off. Instead, Adam Warren came in, hit one batter, walked two, then gave up a two-out, two-run single to blow the game, 2-1.

Antoan Richardson went 3 for 4 in the DH. (I correct myself from a previous version of this post. I thought it was his first MLB hit, but he went 2-4 for Atlanta in 2011. )

The Game 1 pitching line:

McCarthy 7 Ip, 0 R, 4 H, 0 walks and 6 K. Overall ERA  3.98 (as NYY, 2.54)
Betances 1 1/3, 0 R, 0 H, 2 walks and 2 K. 1.37
Robertson 1 2/3, 0 R, 0 H, 2 walks and 2 K. 2.68.
Warren (L, 3-6, 3.30) 2/3 IP, 2 R, 1 H, 2 walks, 1 HBP, 1 K.

The Yanks’ offense continued to struggle in Game 2 of the DH, since they lost that one 5-0, getting just four hits.

Rookie Bryan Mitchell made his first MLB start (second MLB game), and did well the first time through the order before the Orioles caught up to him.

David Phelps struggled in his return from the DL (rusty).

Mitchell 5 IP, 2 R, 6 H, 2 walks and 2 K. (L, 0-1, 2.57).
Outman 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 walks and 1 K. Overall ERA 3.00
Phelps 2/3 IP, 2 R, 1 H, 3 walks and 1 K. 4.38.
Hill 1/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 walks and 0 K. 1.93.
Roe 1 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 0 walks and 2 K. 9.00.

Derek Jeter didn’t play in the first game of the DH and went 0 for 4 in the nightcap. He stays at 3450 career hits as his career is winding down (just over two weeks to go). He is down to .253, and is hitting .181 since August 2nd, when his average was .278. Jeter, of course, missed most of last year (hitting just .190 in 17 games) recovering from the breaks in his ankle, and at the age of 40, you wonder if it is age, fatigue (after all, he missed most of last year) or a combination of age, deterioration of skills, fatigue, all the ceremonies and the realization this is the end, etc.

Whatever, the last five weeks or so have been tough to watch. Seeing him lose 25 points off his batting average, and getting to the point where we really have to wonder if he’ll stay above .250 for this season has been difficult. It’s sad to watch lately.