Afternoon Baseball

I didn't see a lot of last night's game, but I did catch the last three innings at a bar. No sound, but I don't think I really needed it.

Scott Proctor threw nothing but fastballs, but he located all of them very well until the last pitch. He was spotting Bonds just a bit too far inside -- not over enough to be consistently called a strike, but close enough that 2007 Bonds might get impatient. Let's face it: although Barry smoked that ball last night, 2000-2004 Bonds would have earned a four- of five-pitch walk.
I was most impressed with the penultimate pitch, the heat tailing away from Bonds. He somehow looked surprised to see another fastball and was way late. The problem? I think that was it for Proctor's strategy. So that next pitch, though slotted outside, was really just an attempt to throw as hard as possible (95 mph).

Proctor didn't do a bad job, but he might want to get the courage to try another pitch.

Outside of that, I really think Kei Igawa is a woman. He's got such a pretty face. At the least, it's laughable to watch him try to have a tough-guy look.

But I loved Derek Jeter's triple in the eighth. And Bonds' homer aside, A-Rod showed his skills with an all-around 4-for-4 night. He's the heir to the pre-homer-happy Bonds who truly was the game's best all-around player.
I also liked Melky Cabrera hitting lead-off. In his career, he's a .299/.379/.409 hitter there, and he's awful batting eighth, so it can't hurt.

Labels: Baseball, Yankees