Whilst the Yankee bats were quiet in September, the pitching held its own but the makeshift starting rotation started to creak at the seams and the bullpen which had been such a nightmare in May / June continued to bail out starters who just couldn’t go as deep as they had earlier in the season…….
What to say about the Yankees in September? Well, the month was going well until they clinched the title, at which point – as he has done in previous seasons – Joe Girardi decided to avoid injuries by using the length and breadth of his extended roster. This produced a different line up every day and more defeats than wins. The team’s batting average hit a skid which it never pulled out of when the regular line-up was restored for the first round of the playoffs against Detroit in October. Whether this was due to Joe’s excessive tinkering we’ll never know……. but here’s how things looked by the end of September
Mariano Rivera finished? Well, so they were saying in the first half of August. But in reality the bullpen was probably the Yankees’ strongest asset in the dog-days of Summer as unlikely as that seemed just a couple of months ago….. Let’s see what the statistics reveal……
As August drew to a close, the Yankees were embroiled in a vital series with Boston at Fenway. It was the conclusion of a turbulent month which had seen Derek Jeter return to a higher level of form with the bat and suggestions that the Mariano Rivera era was coming to a close. Let’s see what the statistics reveal:
Sometimes you just hear something that is so unusual and innovative that you just know that there must be an audience out there for it…….
Something like that happened to me the first time that I heard Perkelt. I was wandering around Stratford-Upon-Avon trying to visualise in my head the structure of a Shakespearean production that I was eager to develop ……. when I heard some folk music.
It needs to be observed that the Yankees’ bullpen – which at times been their great strength and other times their greatest weakness – didn’t come back from the All-star break doing quite as well as they had in the first half. Those ERAs that were 1.something became 2.something for the month of July but, overall, the team’s pitching held their own. Let’s see who did particularly well and particularly badly…….
Sad Cafe alumnus, Ashley Mulford is now one of the members of the Mandalaband who have a new album “AD – Sangreal” which has been recently released through Diverse Artists. I’ll post my review on here sometime soon. Ashley is a key composer on this one and those who liked his guitar work on “BC- Ancestors” will need to acquire a copy.
July saw the Yankees stay close to the Red Sox and ready themselves for the big run in. It’s hard to believe that they are not going to be at least the wild card for the American League. Here are some of the reasons why:
What: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Where: Stratford-Upon-Avon
When: 4th of August 2011
This is the third play that the Royal Shakespeare Company have performed from the Shakespearean canon since the launch of their new theatre – and to say that I did not approach the grim exterior of that new theatre with much enthusiasm would have been something of an understatement.
And now we turn our attention to the pitchers…………………….
twilightdawning 