Confirmed Kill: Yankees Can Beat The Minor Leaguers At Home


The Big Unit needed only five innings to mow down the Royals as the Yankees proved yet again they can beat the nobodies at home, 9-3.

Yesterday marked the 14th straight Royals loss at Yankee Stadium, the longest losing streak for an opponent in the Bronx since the Cleveland Indians lost 22 in a row from 1960 to 1962.

"They're a good team," Yankee owner Steinbrenner dared breathe. "They are not going to lose 100 games."

Not before the All Star game, anyway.

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An anonymous hand getting too close to comfort to Carlos Delgado's bum...is that a teammate or the bat boy?

Don't open your eyes yet, but the Mets have won six in a row against inferior NL East opponents and sport the best record in the Major Leagues at 7-1 now following their 13-4 Mercy Killing of the Nats yesterday in DC.

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After winning six of their first seven games, the division-leading Blood Sox dropped their second straight last night to their division rival wanna bes, when Matt Clement was utterly outpitched by Blue Jay Ted Lilly in an 8-6 loss to Toronto at storied Fenway Park. Maybe it was just the opponent. Clement is, for example, 5-0 lifetime vs. Baltimore but last night fell to 0-3 with a 9.45 ERA in five career starts vs. Toronto. So keep that in mind - Clement against the pushovers, fine. Against the contenders, keep him hidden in the bullpen.

And speaking of Blood Sox pitchers having piss-poor outings, how about the Fat Man, David Wells two days ago?



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Oliver Perez emotes following a grand slam against him.

On the other end of the infinite spectrum come the Pathetic Pirates who dropped yet another game yesterday, this time to the LA Dodgers and this time by a 13-5 margin.

Perez threw 106 pitches yesterday -- 43 of them balls. In his 4 2/3 innings, he doled out 9 hits, 5 walks and 6 runs -- the final four coming on Cody Ross's grand slam on a split-finger changeup.

But it's not just Perez. In 11 games, Pirates starters have worked just 55 2/3 innings, packing in 77 hits, including 13 home runs, 33 walks and 45 earned runs. Not much left for the jackals in the bullpen to pick over is there then?

As Post-Gazette columnist Ron Cook pointed out, a lot of bad stuff happens when your starting pitcher can't get past the fifth inning game after game after game.

"Hey, everyone knew the Pirates' young starters were going to struggle at times, but this is ridiculous. As a group, they are 1-5 with a 7.28 ERA. In the first 11 games, only two starters went six innings -- Duke in Milwaukee April 5 and Maholm in Cincinnati April 7. In six games, the starters allowed at least five earned runs, including all four of the games against the Dodgers. The Pirates were lucky to get a series split because they hit four home runs in each of their wins Tuesday and Wednesday night."

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World Champs Complete Sweep of Tigers


Big Ugly blasted his 6th homer of the young season which must simply drive Phillies Phans mad. I mean, can't you just imagine being a Phillies fan, smoldering whilst Ryan Howard struggles and Jim Thome blasts homer after homer after homer like one slap in the face after another?

But hey, maybe the Phillies fans were comforted by second straight over the Braves. (more on that later)

But in snuffing the Tigres, the White Sox put a runner on base in every inning as they collected 15 hits and scored their most runs since earning a 14-6 victory at Kansas City on July 25 and moved above .500 for the first time since Opening Day.

Has this palpatation to White Sox hope driven away the johnny-come-lateleys who hopped aboard the Bandwagon sometime in late September last season? That would probably take a half-season hangover to do but in the meantime, what the hell is going on with Jose Contreras? Dating to last August, Contreras is 9-0 with a 2.06 ERA. And since the second inning of his last start against Cleveland on April 5, Contreras has allowed one run (a homer by Detroit's Craig Monroe) and one walk in 13 innings. Who was it the Yankees inked two offseasons ago in a desperate ploy to shore up their weak rotation? Besides the Big Unit, that is...oh yeah, Jaret Wright and the bimbo Carl Pavano. How many big performances, hell, how many victories have those two Injury Clowns earned whilst Contreras, once a Yankee punching bag, scorches MLB with his fancy pitching?


Just look at that mean wind up. Like a snake posed to strike.

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Personally, I never jumped on the White Sox bandwagon. Not even one foot got on board. It's not that I dislike the White Sox or even like the Cubs for that matter. It's just that the White Sox World Championship, on the heels of the Blood Sox World Championship is just too damned many feel good stories too close together, like some sort of sinister Bud Selig plot or something.

But speaking of the Cubs anyway, how about that thrilling 8-3 pounding at the hands of the Cincinnati Reds? Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano (0-1) allowed five runs (four earned) on four hits, walked three, hit a batter and struck out eight in his third start of the season and second shaky outing against the Reds. He allowed five runs and walked five in 4 2-3 innings but didn't figure in the decision as the Cubs beat Cincinnati 16-7 on opening day.


Momentarily diverted from the misery of getting pounded twice by the miserable Reds in two games at Wrigley, Cubs fans discover something else to cheer about: Matt Murton.

Who is Matt Murton? The new Cubbies cleanup hitter. For fans with low expectations, this is the most exciting news thus far in the season. Murton hit the first pitch of the fourth inning over the center-field wall for his second home run, and the Cubs scored two more in the fifth on Murton's bases loaded single and Dunn's error in left.

Fortunately for Cubs fans, the misery might be clearing as the Pittsburgh Pirates are up next on the schedule so the delusions can go on uninterrupted...

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As for the Phillies, Gavin Floyd gave up three runs in six innings and Utley hit his first two homers of the season, giving the Philadelphia Phillies a 7-6 win over the Atlanta Braves.


Gavin Floyd, the new Jon Lieber?

The Phillies won two of three from the Braves after opening the season with a 1-5 homestand.

Utley was hitting only .200 with no homers while Floyd (1-1) had an ugly 10.13 ERA after his first start.

But here's the even better news: Through 10 games, the Braves' five starting pitchers are 0-5. The last time the Braves had no starting pitcher with a win after 10 games was 1988.

Is this FINALLY the Braves swan song? Paging Mr Leo Mazzone. White phone for Mr Mazzone...