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Baseball Today: Tuesday, August 28

WHERE'S THE PARTY? A week ago, it seemed the next three nights at Yankee Stadium would be rollicking, indeed. Now, as Sean McAdam points out, the three-game Red Sox-Yankees series has lost much of its luster, with the Sox comfortably ahead and the Yankees needing a sweep to maintain as much as a sliver of hope in the A.L. East race. (Even one Boston victory in the next three days will send the Sox home for the weekend with a seven-game lead and 28 to play.) While making the playoffs, and not winning the division, is the paramount goal, the Sox admit breaking the Yankees' 10-year stranglehold on the A.L. East means something to them, especially since they've narrowed the gap between themselves and New York in so many ways since John Henry took over as owner. (Both stories Boston Herald)

ODDS IN THEIR FAVOR: Coolstandings.com reports the Red Sox have a 98.8 percent chance of winning the division and a 99.9 percent chance of making the playoffs. The numbers of Baseball Prospectus are almost identical. Both systems list the Yankees' chances of winning the division as virtually nil (obviously, if the Sox are at 98.8 percent) and their chances of making the playoffs at around 48 percent.

THE GREATEST GAME THERE IS: Baseball Musings' David Pinto marvels at how quickly things change in baseball -- the Yankees, after looking like an unbeatable monolith for weeks, have suddenly morphed back into the do-nothing-right crew that stumbled through much of April and May -- and concludes: ''As much as you watch it, as much as you think you know, teams keep coming up with surprises.'' Which probably heartens the Yankees and their followers, since things could turn again this week.

IT'S NOT ALL BLUE SKIES: The news isn't rosy everywhere in Red Sox Nation. If you read this game story close enough you'll find that Clay Buchholz was shaky for the second straight time as the PawSox lost at Rochester (projo.com), throwing into question the Sox' apparent plans to have him start against Baltimore Saturday night. (Pawsox.com's short game account focuses more on Buchholz' poor performance.) With Julian Tavarez pitching as well as he has his last two times out, it may be the Sox will start him against the Orioles Friday night.

GETTING HIS SEA LEGS: Jon Lester, on the other hand, allowed only four hits and one run over six innings in Portland (sunjournal.com) in a game televised by NESN and remains on track to start Sunday in Boston. Still, he said he wasn't quite satisfied with his performance: ''At times really good and at times back to the old deal with fastball command. I felt good at times mechanically. I felt like I'd figured a couple of things out out there and then a couple batters later I'd just go back to being all over the place.'' The Sun Journal's Kalle Oakes has more.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT . . . Over the weekend McAdam reported the Sox are haggling with MLB over the 2008 schedule. Specifically, most members of the organization -- though Larry Lucchino is for it -- are against the team opening the season in Japan, as MLB wants. Also, small-market teams are fighting a plan to have virtually every Red Sox-Yankee series played on a weekend, which would maximize exposure on FOX' Saturday Game of the Week and ESPN's Sunday night telecast. (The teams want the Sox and Yanks in their cities on weekends, to maximize attendance.) As it is, four of the six series the teams will play this year are on weekends, including all three in Boston.

THE OLD MAN OF BASEBALL: The Boston Globe's Gordon Edes has a nice feature on Mike Timlin, who's closing in on his 1,000th major-league appearance. His very first appearance? For Toronto against the Red Sox on Opening Day, 1991. (baseball-reference.com) He faced Tom Brunansky (walk), Carlos Quintana (groundout), Tony Pena (lineout), Tim Naehring (groundout), Wade Boggs (walk) and Jody Reed (groundout) in his 1 1/3-inning stint during the Sox' 6-2 win over the Blue Jays.

NO SUPRISES HERE: Considering they went 6-1 last week, it would have been a shocker if the Red Sox weren't still ranked No. 1 in SI.com's Power Rankings. The Yankees, however, slid to fifth.

AND WHY'S THAT? Because the Yankees' week from hell culminated in a 16-0 loss at Detroit last night, with Mike Mussina getting rocked for the third straight outing. (New York Daily News) The calls to remove Mussina from the rotation come from the Daily News' John Harper and the New York Post's Joel Sherman and George King. Sherman answers the obvious question -- who do they have that's better than Mussina? -- by asking who could do worse.

READY TO FIGHT: The Yankees say the three-game series with the Red Sox is still big for them (New York Post) because, even if they don't catch Boston,
there's still the wild card and they only trail Seattle by two games (three in the loss column) in that race. But one of the veterans of the 1978 comeback, Goose Gossage, isn't ready to run up the white flag just yet. (New York Post) The '78 Yanks, he said, ''are living proof that anything can happen.''

THANK YOU, ANGELS: Los Angeles of Anaheim -- yeccch, that name -- made sure the Yanks didn't lose ground in the wild card as John Lackey shut down the Mariners, 6-0. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) Seattle played most of the game without iits manager, as John McLaren was ejected by third-base umpire Jerry Meals for arguing a foul-tip call on Ichiro Suzuki in the first inning. (Post-Intelligencer) You'll be seeing the highlights all day today, as McLaren got his money's worth in his animated dressing-down of Meals, who tossed him after McLaren had already gotten back to the dugout. When reporters went to the umpires' room for an explanation, the door was closed in their face and voice from behind it said, ''Have a nice night.''

JUST SICK: Lackey pitched a complete-game shutout for his 16th win despite suffering from strep throat. (Los Angeles Daily News)

CHANGING HIS TUNE: In 2004 Mike Scioscia kicked Jose Guillen off the Angels prior to the playoffs because of his attitude, and Guillen swore eternal enmity toward his former skipper. Now, however, Guillen -- whose Mariners are fighting Scioscia's Angels for the A.L. West title -- is singing the praises of the L.A. of A. manager. (Riverside Press-Enterprise)

PAY ATTENTION, PLEASE: ESPN.com's Jim Caple thinks Angels-Mariners, and not Red Sox-Yankees, is the series to watch this week.

IT'S CATCHING: No, not Lackey's strep throat; rather, problems with umpires. The Mets' David Wright was tossed by C.B. Bucknor in New York's loss at Philadelphia. (New York Daily News)

IS IT JUST ME, OR IS IT C.B.? Pinto noted that almost every game he watches with Bucknor has an argument of some kind in it and wondered if others had noticed. Well, someone has started an online petition to fire Bucknor, calling him ''a disgrace to baseball . . . single handedly the worst umpire in Major League Baseball.'' (www.petitiononline.com/cbbuck/petition.html)

MAYBE, JUST MAYBE . . . The Philadelphia Daily News' Paul Hagen thinks the return of Chase Utley could spark a miracle finish by the Phillies.

PLEASE STAND UP: Are the Diamondbacks contenders or pretenders? The Arizona Republic's Dan Bickley says we're about to find out.

DIFFERING OPINIONS: The Astros fired their manager and general manager yesterday (Houston Chronicle), and SI.com's John Donovan wonders why it took so long. But FoxSports.com's Ken Rosenthal says the real problem is owner Drayton McLane (video).

NOTHING TO IT: White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski and hitting coach Greg Walker nearly came to blows in the dugout during Chicago's loss to the Red Sox Sunday, but Pierzynski says they argue all the time and it's no big deal. (Daily Southtown) Walker himself called it ''A.J. being A.J.'' -- where have we heard that before? -- and the White Sox seemed none the worse for wear as they beat the Devil Rays last night. (Chicago Sun-Times)

QUICKLY: Hideki Matsui has an achy knee (New York Post) . . . It certainly appears Scott Proctor, worked harder than a government mule by Joe Torre, is worn out (Los Angeles Times) . . . Terry Pendleton's name is popping up involving the soon-to-be-vacant Kansas City managerial job (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) . . . The Phillies are interested in Twins right-hander Carlos Silva (Minneapolis Star-Tribune) . . . The Cardinals won't say if they'll exercise their 2008 option on closer Jason Isringhausen (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) . . . To no one's surprise, Gary Sheffield was placed on the DL by the Tigers (Detroit News) . . . The Phillies' Freddy Garcia may need shoulder surgery (Philadelphia Inquirer).

OLD FRIENDS: David Wells says he doesn't look sexy, but he feels sexy. (New York Daily News) The Dodgers might agree after he won his debut with them.

-- ART MARTONE

Posted by Art Martone  at 6:43 AM | Permalink

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ED VITA | August 28, 2007 9:16 AM link