ghost of miles

Somebody at Over The Monster made a similar observation recently about the Red Sox having significantly more away games than the Yankees in the first fourth of the season. At least NY got through that recent Angels/Astros road trip in good fashion. Last year they were motoring away until they went on a West Coast tour that sent them into a tailspin which lasted most of the summer. Iirc correctly they ended up almost exactly .500 on the road for the 2017 regular season, which is generally not the sign of a strong division winner--and they certainly folded at Houston in the ALCS. What concerns me even more is the inconsistency of the starting pitching. In between Severino's two last starts, the rotation performed terribly. In four games against Boston and the A's it totaled 19.3 IP, 32 H, 8 BB, and 19 ER (for an 8.84 ERA). That will continue to be NY's biggest vulnerability (and will take a toll on the bullpen as well, even after Warren and Kahnle come back from the DL). Yeah, it's great if you can generally count on scoring 5-7 runs a game, but not so great if your opponent's scoring 6-8.

The first book of Alan M. Wald's historical trilogy about the literary left:

Looks like publication is imminent--Mosaic mentioned it in their newsletter today: Sophisticated Giant

There was speculation after Corey Seager went down that L.A. might try to trade for Manny Machado as a rental, but at what point do the Dodgers write off this season? I guess we’ll have a much better idea by the trade deadline... also, I’ll be very surprised if Clayton Kershaw opts out after this season, given that he’s set to make $65 million over the next two years and is now 30–I think a contract extension with the Dodgers is more likely.

Aren’t you a Dodgers fan as well? So good to see you here again, Matthew!

Currently inhaling the 1993 Benny Goodman Capitol Small Groups booklet.

Other Boston-NY parallels: rookie managers (Cora and Boone) and new marquee hitters (Martinez and Stanton). So far Martinez is outperforming Stanton, as he has over the past several seasons in general (there’s a commenter at Over the Monster who has posted a Martinez-vs-Stanton stats chart several times that makes a convincing case for Martinez being the better overall hitter. And sure, Stanton’s a better fielding outfielder, but he’s playing the OF only sporadically for NY.). All this simply by way of saying that it’s crazy how much these two teams match up against each other.

... and there you have it. Boston went 17-2 to open the season and since then has gone 9-9. New York opened 9-9 and since then has gone 17-2. Boston took two of three from the Yankees at Fenway, the Yankees took two of three from Boston in the Bronx. Both teams have one sterling ace (Sale and Severino) and a remaining rotation that tends to perform all over the place, though generally well overall. As of this moment they’re tied for the best record in baseball, and I suspect it’s far from the last time we’ll see that standing this season.

For all of the hype about the Yankees’ offense, they’ve scored only 9 more runs than Boston (going into tonight’s game, which Boston is absolutely dominating) and hit two more HRs. Boston as a team is hitting .270 to NY’s .252; the Yankees’ tendency to earn a lot of walks is what keeps them par with Boston’s OBP: MLB team hitting stats Much the same story with pitching. AL East will go down to the wire with these two. (Boston’s also got Tyler Thornburg on the way to bulk up the bullpen.)

Two new Smoke Sessions releases: Eddie Henderson's Be Cool and Renee Rosnes' Beloved Of The Sky, purchased at Landlocked Music here in Bloomington.

Probably referring to the "Art Blakey's Messengers" session that was collected along with two James Moody's Modernist dates on this CD: Art Blakey and James Moody New Sounds

I was at a concert last night and didn't get to watch the Yankees-Red Sox game--just checked the score several times on my phone. I'd say the odds favor Boston in tonight's match-up, especially now that David Price has been scratched as Boston's starter; the Yankees have done very well against him in recent years. They've been extremely mediocre against Porcello, with the exception of Gardner (.325 in 40 AB), and Stanton, but in the case of Stanton, the sample size is so small as to be nearly meaningless (two hits in three AB). J.D. Martinez, on the other hand, owns Tanaka, hitting .583 with 7 RBI off him in 12 AB. Plus Porcello is pitching lights-out right now. As with the Houston series, these games already seem to approach the intensity of a playoff series, even though it's only early May.

Yeah, this can't go on forever, but it's sure fun while it lasts! The Boston series will be a real clash of the titans (and Dan, Severino's only loss this year, FWIW, is to the Red Sox, so... I'm not putting game 1 in the bag for NY yet by any means). Also sounds that more likely than not Mookie Betts will be in the lineup come Tuesday. He's hitting like the second coming of Babe Ruth or some such.

Excellent album, mostly Barron's originals.

The new one from Eddie Henderson, with Kenny Barron on piano:

Sure looks like we're heading for a Cavaliers-Celtics rematch in the Eastern Conference finals, which I doubt too many would have predicted when the playoffs began.

From Stats by Stats' Twitter feed: At 21 years and 144 days old, Gleyber Torres in the youngest player in @Yankees history to hit a walk-off HR. Gleyber Torres 21-144 Mickey Mantle 21-185 Melky Cabrera 21-341 Joe DiMaggio 22-266 Mickey Mantle 22-275 And one for Dan: Chris Sale has 371 Ks in his 40 games with the @RedSox, the second most by any player through 40 games with a single club in the last 100 years. Randy Johnson, Ari - 417 Chris Sale, Bos - 371 Nolan Ryan, Tex - 355 Dwight Gooden, NYM - 342 Nolan Ryan, Cal - 341

That game got even crazier—and ended in the best possible way! The fourth time so far this year that NY’s won after trailing at the end of 8 innings—they did it five times for all of 2017. (Of course that lovely-looking stat also reflects the bullpen’s propensity, yet again, to fail in the late innings.) Torres made his first MLB start two weeks ago. Since then the Yankees are 14-1. Not a bad coincidence!

Yankees-Indians this afternoon is crazy--a combined total of one hit so far for both teams, a single by Aaron Hicks. Domingo German struck out 9 and gave up no hits through six innings in his first start as a Yankee, but he's not stretched out enough to go much past 80 pitches yet. Betances just set down Cleveland 1-2-3 in the top of the 7th, and NY cannot solve Clevinger.

He’s got a great throwing arm but sure continues to struggle with balls getting past him. Isn’t Gardner in the last year of his contract? If so, I could see the Yankees letting him go after this season and installing Stanton permanently in leftfield, which would create a lot more DH opportunities for Sanchez going forward.

Interesting: The AL East’s five best pitches Also wondering what Berigan’s take on this year’s Braves would be.

Yes! A post on this board inspired my interest, and NYC’s Jazz Record Center had both this and the prior volume in stock when i visited last weekend, so I bit. I can’t stop listening to them!