Bottom Bleeding

            The dings were still coming on my phone, every few seconds.  "I think this is good," I said to the missus nervously as she held the just-asleep boy in her arms, just as nervously, as every sound I was making was like a pin sticking in her.  I knew I was about five minutes behind the action, so I figured if things warranting dings were still happening five minutes hence, that was a good thing.  I couldn't check any of them, of course, because I was behind.  As it were I was watching Wilson Betemit hitting with the tying run on second with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.  So as the air was filling with dings, I was thinking something good was about to happen.  And then Betemit struck out to end the game.

            I think the Acc texts were taking a few minutes to go through.  I was getting Giambi texts as Betemit was hitting.  And then Petey Goods was lamenting the weak bottom of the order.  All of it conspired to fake me out.  And not in a good way.

            I hate the bottom of the Yankee batting order.  What can I say.  I'm going to be honest.  I hate it.  I said it yesterday and I'll say it today.  I am completely fed up with these lightning fast at-bats.  I really don't know what to say anymore.  Sometimes you hear this ridiculous wisdom that sounds like this; "You have to swing early in the count against this guy tonight, because he's throwing strikes up there and you're not going to get another good pitch to hit."  And it is sound wisdom.  If you are looking to lose.  This is not how the Yankees won four championships.  It's not how any good team wins.  Daniel Cabrera owns the Yankees this season, and that's sad.  Daniel Cabrera is the quintessential Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  "Sometimes he walks people all over the park, and sometimes he's lights out," said Paul O'Neill on the broadcast tonight.  So let's assume, for a second, that it's true.  He's either awesome or terrible.  Just like it's okay to wait for your pitch, it's okay to wait for your pitcher.  So he comes out on fire.  You have to bleed him.  Make him work, get his pitch count up, and get him out of the game.  The Yankees used to do this stuff in their sleep.  If your guy can keep it close, you're in business.  Especially if you clearly have the better team, as was the case tonight.  And you know what you don't do when you're trying to get a guy out of the game?  You don't swing early in the count because you're "not going to get another good pitch to hit."  If you make out, you make out.  But try and take your five or so pitches up there.  You and the rest of your team will see that many more pitches from the guy, and you'll make him work a little bit.  And you'll get him out of there so you can light up the bullpen.  Exactly what the Yankees did tonight, with a little help from the home plate ump doing what the Yankees couldn't do - get Cabrera out of the game.

            What I'm saying is that one begets the other.  Cabrera is Dr. Jekyll because the Yankees allow him to be Dr. Jekyll.  Cabrera gets himself into trouble by walking people.  The Yankees never let him get there, because they constantly swing at the first and second pitch.  Particularly the bottom of the order.  I can't take Melky anymore.  I can't take him.  I've said this a thousand times.  It's not so much that he's hitting .247 that bothers me.  It's that every out the guy makes is on the first or second pitch.  So over 75% of the time he's the ultimate rally killer.  And Betemit is just as bad, he just plays less.  And when it comes to making quick outs, Cano is right there with them.  He's a better hitter, and he's got a higher average, but he's not a particularly tough out.  And when he makes out, it's a lightning fast out.  Tonight was a great example.  The Yanks are down 2-0, Allie belts a bomb, and Giambi follows it with a base hit with nobody out.  Cabrera was at 83 pitches in the sixth inning and starting to get wild.  Up comes Cano.  One pitch, double play.  Dude.  You need to know the situation.  Cabrera is about to unravel.  Make him work.  You can't let him off the hook like that.  You can't.  And then Betemit comes up next and really mans up.  Two pitches.  So after putting Cabrera on the ropes, it takes them three pitches to send him right back to the dugout.  And after a quick seventh, there he was, on the mound starting the eighth.  Bottom line.  I hate the bottom of this lineup.

            So Nady.  Big spot again there in the eighth.  Two on and two outs.  Damon and the real hitters on deck.  Whiff.  And swinging at bad balls again.  Nice, dude.  Nice.  Especially considering Damon, Jeter, and Abreu led off the following inning with a single, walk, and double.  Dude, all I can do at this point is hope that you aren't Ed Whitson. 

            I'm leaving Molina out of this discussion because of his defense.  But he's also a lightning-fast out.  Add them all together and you've got every also-ran starting pitcher and then some standing on the mound to start the eighth inning.  What do you do?  Fire the hitting coach?  Get new players?  I don't know.  But this was such an eminently winnable game.  And this would have been such a nice game to win, with Boston laying down against the Angels.  Not likely they're going to get swept, so you're either staying where you were or losing a game if you go out and get swept tomorrow afternoon.  And all of it totally unnecessary, as far as I'm concerned.

            Joseph, thanks for the comment, dude.  The one and only one today.

            I hate the bottom of this lineup.

Joba?