Afternoon Baseball

Yeah, it's puzzling to me, too. But he's been the best part of the bullpen this year, and giving enough reason to maybe finally get rid of Tanyon Sturtze, who is not hated around these circles but is certainly overly loved in Torre's mind.

Today was just another exhibit of the contrast. Jaret Wright pitches decent, which for him is great, and Sturtze allows inherited runners to score. Proctor, however, is able to get out of that inning and pitch two more on a day when Mariano Rivera was not available. That's huge.
He's got better control than he used to have, and he's durable for a middle reliever, going 24.1 innings in 16 appearances so far. Plus, that 1.48 ERA and .186 BAA looks pretty nice.

Jeter hit a home run (and his third error), and although he's coming down from his power binge, he's still a .338/.439/.526 for the season with 25 runs batted in. That was his first extra-base hit of the month, though, so he's got to prove April's power was not a fluke this year.