Picture Post 2

So since I have been doing the minor league report, my blog has sadly suffered. I have decided to do some picture posts to recap the events of the Tampa Yankees and my adventures following the team to away games and home games and everything in between. I hope you enjoy this post.

                                                   Steinbrenner Field after a night game.

Blue and his friends for Blue's Birthday Bash(Blue is at the bottom right corner) Also helping celebrate his birthday was Thunderbug from the TB Lightning, Finley from the Clearwater Threshers, DJ from the Dunedin BlueJays. Rocky from USF and a dog from celebration station and coney dog from Sonic.

 Rafael Soriano in his first rehab appearance with the TY

 Eric Chavez up to bat in his first rehab game with the TY

Driving to Bradenton in the pouring rain, there was a 45 minute delay.

 I made a pitstop at the Outlet Mall on my way to Bradenton as the game was delayed.

 The Marauders home field and the Pittsburgh Pirates Spring Training home. Pronounced mc-keck-knee

 The suites and press box, the overhangs to the left and right were taken down earlier in the season because they were deemed unsafe by the county. 

 Lineup on the first night I went to Bradenton

 Marauders in the Majors

 A table top by the team store

The Bucco Bar behind the stands in right field.

 View of the outfield

 Another view of the field

 Lineup on the second day that I went to Bradenton.

 Graham Stoneburner throwing a pitch for the TY in Bradenton

 View of the field from behind home plate

 Eric Chavez on deck.

 Eric Chavez practicing his swing before stepping in to hit.

Michael Solbach waiting in the on-deck circle to bat in the 14th inning. He borrowed the helmet from Neil Medchill and the bat and batting gloves from JR Murphy. He kept the ball, gloves and bat after getting the game winning hit.

 Jose Quintana delivering a pitch in Saturday. Quintana allowed 2 runs but got a no decision so his 8-0 record is still safe.

I call this one "how many guys does it take to fix a pitchers mound?" It rained through most of Sunday's game so they were constantly fixing the field. 

I hope you enjoyed my picture post. Expect many of these posts in a week when I go on my road trip.

Picture Post

I really have to apologize for not updating this. I am kind of a do things half way kind of person hence the lack of posting. I also have been doing the minor league report for the TY Booster Club which takes up a ton of time and energy. The TY have also been away for a week so I havent gotten to go to any games recently except Clearwater on Saturday. Since I dont have the energy to write up a lot of stuff, I have decided to just do a picture post and caption the pictures.

Here goes:

 Here is Melky Mesa in the on-deck circle at his only home TY rehab game. I love his batting stance, I could recognize him by this stance in an instance.

 Here is the view from my seats at the Rays game against the Reds. We had a pretty great view of Evan Longoria's walk off home run as it landed a few sections to our left.

 Here is a very blurry picture of Aroldis Chapman sitting in the Reds bullpen. Sadly I didnt get to see him pitch.

This is Slade Heathcott in one of only 4 at-bats he ever had with the TY before hitting the disabled list for good. See you next year Slade.

 This is a storm that was over the field one day when I was late for a TY game. Oddly enough it never rained.

 Brett signed his TY baseball card for me on Saturday July 3rd. They only gave out a few card sets because they made a printing error on a few cards.

 After the game on July 3rd, I got JR Murphy to sign a copy of the Pinstripes Plus magazine with him on the cover.

This is the view from my seat on Saturday July 9th for the GCL Yankees game 1 of a DH. The GCL Yankees got to play at the big boy field because theirs was probably still underwater and the TY have been away for a long time, the field needed some baseball.

 Here is a picture of me and my dog at Brighthouse Field in Clearwater for the Threshers Bark and the Ballpark. I love their field. The Threshers are the class A+ affiliate of the Phillies.

Me and my dogs. Bimmer(brown dog) was being a stubborn dog and would not open his eyes for the picture even with my dad calling his name.

This week has been kind of hectic for me but Im going to try to recap it as best as I can.

Sorry that I've been slacking again on updating this, lots of interesting moves around the Tampa Yankees team in the past week. The biggest news is that we received prospect catcher J.R. Murphy from Charleston. I've only seen him get one hit and a walk but in Friday nights game he sent 2 balls to the wall in left field that were caught, unfortunately for him, the wind was blowing in both times he came to the plate.

We also received Rob Segedin from Charleston as Rob Lyerly got promoted up to Trenton. Segedin has played 5 games for the Tampa Yankees and already has 4 errors. Tonight's game was his first without an error which is just really not great. Unfortunately all these moves up meant that someone had to move and Kevin Mahoney and Kyle Higashioka got sent down to Charleston. That is a total bummer for me because I normally sit with Kevin's wife at away games and some home games if the boosters don't show up. The good thing is that Kevin will get more playing time down there as he was blocked up here. We also received Kyle Roller and Slade Heathcott though I haven't seen Slade, I heard that he was still on the DL but working out at the minor league complex.

On Monday I went to the GCL game for a little bit after work. I got there around the 5th inning and stayed through the 8th but as soon as my water was gone I knew I had to leave. The bank down the street from the field said it was 100 degrees out and I believe it. I put some sunscreen on my face but not on my legs and arms and I got some color which I needed. I was there for about an hour which was enough. I am going again this coming Saturday as long as it doesn't rain. I got some videos, if you want you should check them out on my Youtube to the right of the page. I got to see Dante Bichette Jr. hit but there wasnt a ball hit to him while I was out there so I can't tell you how he fields.

Ravel Santana

On Monday night I went to Clearwater to see the first game in a 3 game series between the Tampa Yankees and the Clearwater Threshers. It was a great game, Josh Romanski pitched for the TY and was just dominant. He pitched 7 innings and struck out 11. He got 8 of his strikeouts on his offspeed pitches, he had the Clearwater batters practicing their golf swing as they swung at a ton of balls in the dirt. They touched him up for a 2 run home run in the 4th inning but that was it.
The TY were on fire this game(actually in this whole series) as Walter Ibarra and Kyle Higashioka both hit home runs. Kyle's home run was actually a broken bat home run over the left field wall which was amazing because the wind was blowing out to right. Walter Ibarra, Luke Murton and Emerson Landoni had 3 hits each, Kyle went 4-4 with a walk. The only TY batter with no hits was Taylor Grote who went  0-5 with 1 strikeout. The TY won that game 10-3. They had 17 hits which is just ridiculous.

On Wednesday the Tampa Yankees played at home against Clearwater again in the last game of the first half. The TY were being dominated by all-star Trevor May. He struck out 13 or 14 in 8 innings. Sean Black was all over the place but he limited the Threshers to just 2 runs over 7 innings. In the bottom of the 9th inning, the TY tied the game up but in the top of the 10th the game got suspended due to really bad weather. They are not going to finish that game because it was the last game of the first half so it doesn't matter anymore. In the stand on Wednesday was 2010 FSL Player of the Year, Melky Mesa. I ended up talking with him with one of the other boosters and he told us he would be down here for about a week. It was cool to see him at a game, we told him he needs to give some tips to our outfielders so they can be as good as he was. During part of the game, he was sitting around some of the players families and one of the boosters kids were surrounding him, everywhere he went they would follow him, it was really cute.

Melky entertaining the kids

On Thursday I got to the Tampa Yankees game late because I went to visit my friend who had just had her baby. I got there in time to see the TY score 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th. It was the first game that J.R. Murphy played in and he had 2 hits, the last hit was a double to left field and I got a video of that which you can see right here or on my Youtube. The TY had that game in the bag the whole night as Jairo Heredia continued pitching well and earned his 8th win which is best in the Yankees minor league organization. It seems to me that when Jairo pitches, the TY always hit and field well which is good for him.



On Friday I had a busy night. I read in the program over in Clearwater that they were having a blue jersey giveaway to promote prostate cancer awareness. I LOVE giveaways so I knew I just had to get over there and get myself one. I headed over to Clearwater and got there just after 6pm. I got my jersey for just the price of parking($2) and a ticket ($6.50) The jersey is made of a nice mesh and it is great quality. I am probably the only person who would drive to Clearwater to get a free giveaway but I don't care. I walked around a bit and looked in their amazing team store and left around 6:20. I got to the Tampa Yankees game by 6:50, perfect timing. Brett Marshall had the start for the Tampa Yankees and he did well. I actually sat with his brother while he was pitching because I was the only booster there(as I sit with the boosters during the games) and didnt want to sit by myself. Brett pitched 7 innings, he gave up 8 hits, 1 run with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts. He left with a 1-1 tie and Chase Whitley relieved him. Chase got shafted as his infield combined for 2 errors, he ended up getting the loss on 3 hits and 3 unearned runs. The TY lost 4-1

While sitting with Brett's brother, we found out that J.R. Murphy's parents were sitting in front of us. His mom actually mentioned something about Brett and his brother chimed in about him. I got to talking to her about how I have heard that the  crowd in Charleston is so much better and bigger than the crowd in Tampa. She explained that they live in Bradenton so they were very excited not only that he got promoted but that he got promoted so close to where they live so they can see him play more often. I invited her to the booster club players dinner at the end of July which she seemed excited about. His parents seemed really nice and down to earth.

Bimmer enjoying the game

On Saturday it was Bark and the Ballpark and I brought my dog with me. They had a pregame dog fair where they had booths set up that gave out free stuff for your dog. My dog came home with some pretty awesome swag. July 9th the Clearwater Threshers are having a Bark at the Park and since the TY are away that day I am going to bring my dog to that one too. The weather was hot and humid and it sprinkled throughout the game but never really rained. Starting for the TY was Josh Romanski. He only pitched 3 innings which was weird, he gave up a run and a 2 run home run but that was it. His command was there and I didnt think he threw so many pitches. They may have pulled him because I just saw on his Twitter that he is being promoted to Trenton. Good for him. We also got a great treat as Melky Mesa started in Center Field as part of his rehab. He will probably spend the next few days with the TY and then head back up to Trenton. He went 1-3 with a double, walk, groundout and strikeout. He only caught 2 balls in center but on a ball hit to right center he covered double the ground than Zoilo Almonte and had he not been called off he could have caught it. That is just how good of a defender he is out there. I am hoping he makes it to the majors and is able to show off his range. The TY won this game 7-4 as Luke Murton homered and Abe Almonte tripled and doubled. Overall it was a good week of baseball. The TY are away until Wednesday when they will come back to play Brevard County and Daytona through the weekend.

Melky!

On Tuesday night I am going to see the Rays and Reds. I am looking forward to it.

FSL All-Star Game

To the right of your page is my flickr account. There are about 130 pictures that I took from the AllStar game if you want to check them out, they're pretty good. Ill add some on here where they make sense.

The gates at Clearwater opened at 5pm which is just when I got there, I ended up pulling in right before the rest of the boosters got there, we parked right next to eachother which is funny because there are probably 5 parking lots you can park in at Clearwater. When we got inside they handed us programs and we hit the gift shop for AllStar game shirt. The Phillies team store is amazing, not only do they have every piece of Phillies paraphernalia that you would ever want, they also have a ton of Clearwater Threshers merchandise.  I bought a shirt and a pin. I figure once I wear out the shirt, I will have the pin as proof that I went.

We walked around and explored the park a bit, I have already been there a few times but there are still places I haven't been like the Berm in the outfield. Right in front of the berm in Left field are the teams bullpens, pretty neat. We also found the starting lineups and Rob Lyerly got the start at 3rd and was also batting 3rd in the lineup.

At 5:45 was a home run derby competition, all the contestants hit home runs and Bradley Glenn of the Dunedin Blue Jays and Justin Bour of the Daytona Cubs advanced to the final round. Bradley Glenn is a righty batter and he was just hitting bombs out of the park, some of the longest home runs I have ever seen. He was being pitched to by one of the Phillies staff. Justin Bour was the only contestant that was pitched to by the TY manager Luis Sojo and he was a lefty batter, the wind was on his side as it was blowing out to left field so he was able to hit line drive after line drive home run and a few long home runs. Bradley Glenn hit first and hit 8 home runs(they got 10 outs) Justin Bour tied up Bradley with 2 outs and with just 1 out left, he pulled one and won the home run derby competition with 9 home runs. These two were the ones on the roster with the most home runs leading into the contest so it was fitting that they were to final contestants. Bour was awarded with a bat from the Yuengling company.

After the home run derby and about 15 minutes before the game started they had the paratroopers from SOCOM do a fly in, it was pretty cool, they had 3 paratroopers do the fly in, one had the SOCOM flag, one had the US flag and the last had the Florida Flag.

The game started at 7pm. The North division was the home team(the TY are in the North) and the South division was the visiting team. The South went down 1-2-3 in the first and in the bottom of the first with 2 outs, Rob Lyerly singled up the middle. He was driven home when AJ Jimenez of the Dunedin Blue Jays tripled and then made it home on an error by the center fielder. Jimenez just booked it and slid into home to beat the tag.

AJ Jimenez sliding into home on his triple and error

The North had a 2-0 lead going into the 5th inning, one of the South batters hit a ground ball to left and Lyerly didnt even get a glove on it so the batter was safe on first. Aaron Baker of the Bradenton Marauders then hit a home run over the rightfield fence to tie up the game. Aaron Baker won player of the game because he hit the game tying home run and walked twice even though the South lost.

Rob Lyerly only played until the 5th inning and was replaced by Matt Cerda of the Daytona Cubs, Rob went 2-2 with a single, double and run scored. He made a bad throw on a bunted ball but no damage was done thankfully. The North would go on to win 5-3 over the South. Trevor May of the Threshers got the win and Wes Etheridge of the Dunedin Blue Jays got the Save. Scott Moviel of the St. Lucie Mets got the loss after allowing the go ahead runs to score.

There were some exceptional plays in the game too. The Bradenton 2nd baseman snared a ball to his right  that was just hit extremely hard. Tony Plagman of Lakeland, not to be outdone, did the same thing at 1st base. Matt Cerda of Daytona dove to his right to stop a line drive ground ball, got up and fired to 1st for the out and Matt Den Dekker of the St. Lucie Mets made two great catches at the wall in center field. It was a pretty solidly fielded game but the pitching, especially for the North was exceptional. The Clearwater Threshers had 4 of their 5 starters in the game and all four pitched scoreless, hitless innings.

It was a beautiful night

The scariest/funniest part of the game was when Justin Bour was batting, he hit a foul ball of the end of his bat which hit Bradley Glenn who was in the on deck circle, poor guy added injury to insult as earlier in the day, Bour had beaten Glenn in the home run derby.

The in game entertainment was hands down amazing. The Phillies boast the Phillie Phanatic who was also at the game. During a pitching change it came on the dugout and did a dance competition with some members of the audience, during the 7th inning stretch when they were fixing the field, it came out on an ATV dressed as Lady Gaga and did a dance with the umps. The Threshers mascot and the Dunedin Blue Jays mascot were also there and provided a lot of funny moments.

I am most likely headed to Clearwater again on Monday as the TY and the Threshers are starting a 3 game series there, the final game will be played Wednesday at Tampa. Not sure if I will go on Tuesday as well but who knows. I am looking forward to Saturday night which is bark at the park, I am going to bring my dog because he did fine last time.

More Videos

Here are the rest of the videos from the the 5/24 game against the Ft. Myers Miracle.

Rob Lyerly Strikes Out



Abraham Almonte Triple



Brett Marshall gets the second out of the 4th inning



Brett Marshall gets the last out of the 4th inning

Videos

Here are a few videos I uploaded from the May 24th game. The TY against the Fort Myers Miracle at Steinbrenner Field.

Kyle Higashioka doubles to lead off the inning.



Taylor Grote singles to bring home Higashioka



Kelvin Castro reaches on a fielding error. If you dont want to watch the whole at-bat, at least skip to the end to see the error.



Brett Marshall

My Season So Far

In the coming days I am going to post a few videos of some at-bats and pitching from the Tampa Yankees game from May 24th's game against the Ft. Myers Miracle but for now I want to recap some of the things I've learned and experienced through the first 2 months of the season. The TY don't play any more home games in the month of May so I figured now would be a good time to stop and reflect on how the first two months have gone for me both numbers wise and with personal involvement.

So far this Minor League season I have been to 29 games. 6 were away games and 2 of those were games that the Tampa Yankees didn't even play in. I have been to 27 Tampa Yankee games through the first two months.

The two games that I went to that the TY did not play were Dunedin at Lakeland to watch Brandon Morrow make a rehab start and Ft. Myers at Charlotte as a road trip with a friend. Lakeland and Charlotte won.

I have seen 10 wins and 17 losses.

The bullpen received the win or loss in 9 of the games I went to. The bullpen received the win in 6 games and the loss in 3.

I have seen the TY walk off twice.

Breakdown of starting pitchers I have seen and how many times I saw them.

Brett Marshall - 8 games - 4 losses, 2 wins and 2 no decisions
Sean Black      - 6 games - 4 losses, 0 wins and 2 no decisions
Josh Romanski - 3 games - 1 loss, 1 win and 1 no decision
Jairo Heredia  - 3 games  - 1 loss, 0 wins and 2 no decisions
Jose Ramirez  - 3 games - 3 losses
Michael Solbach - 2 games  - 1 loss, 1 win. Solbach also contributed for a win and a loss in the bullpen
Scott Allen - 2 games - 1 loss, 1 no decision

Interesting note: Francisco Gil was the winning pitcher for both of the TY walk offs.

I've realized that the corner infielders we have can hit the ball but not field it exceptionally well. The 3rd baseman, Rob Lyerly has 10 errors and the 1st baseman, Luke Murton has 9. Sometimes Rob Lyerly plays 1st base but all his errors are at 3rd.

We have had many SS/2B combos but I always feel the game is safer when Walter Ibarra is playing SS. I am not sure who I like as much at 2B because normally that rotates between Emerson Landoni, Kevin Mahoney and Kelvin Castro. To begin the season we had Carmen Angelini at SS but he apparently got injured again and hasnt played since the first few weeks of April. Since Kelvin Castro has done so well he tends to get more starts in the field. Kevin Mahoney also has gotten more starts than the first month of the season. Emerson Landoni does not start as often.

The TY has 2 catchers and tend to rotate them on a regular basis. Kyle Higashioka normally plays 2 or 3 games in a row and then Mitch Abeita will catch a day. Every now and then Hector Rabago will get into a game but he is more the backup's backup. Mitch tends to also catch in the day games. Rabago has played more games at 3rd then behind the plate(at least for the games ive been to).

The TY outfield is not always consistent. For the most part, Abraham Almonte plays centerfield and Taylor Grote plays right field but there have been many people to play left. Zoilo Almonte played there a lot until he got put on the DL. We then had Jason Place there, Neil Medchill has played a few games there and so has Deangelo Mack.

The TY lineup is not always the same. Except for Abe Almonte who leads off nearly every game, the order changes pretty often. Rob Lyerly usually hits 3rd and Luke Murton usually hits 4th.

Here is the lineup from the first home game of the season:
Abraham Almonte - CF
Carmen Angelini - SS
Rob Lyerly - 3B
Luke Murton - 1B
Taylor Grote - RF
Zoilo Almonte - LF
Kyle Higashioka - C
Deangelo Mack - DH
Walter Ibarra - 2B

Currently 2 of those players are on the DL(Angelini and Z. Almonte)

Here is the lineup from the game on 5/24
Abraham Almonte - CF
Walter Ibarra - SS
Rob Lyerly - 3B
Neil Medchill - LF
Luke Murton  - 1B
Kevin Mahoney - DH
Kyle Higashioka - C
Taylor Grote - RF
Kelvin Castro - 2B

Everyone but Kelvin Castro was on the opening day roster. Kelvin was the first player called up from Charleston this season though he came by way of Scranton where I am assuming he pinch ran in 2 games because he has no at-bats or walks with Scranton.

Taylor Grote would make a great K-man at a game because its VERY rare to see him not strike out. His hitting has gotten better but lately he has just been hitting the ball at fielders.

Kelvin Castro has done well offensively here since he came up around May 10th. He has 5 triples and 1 double. We were joking saying that he needs a lasso to hold him back because he always goes for 3rd and sometimes he should just stop at 2nd which he rarely does.

None of the outfielders get as good a read on balls that Melky Mesa did last year. If the ball is hit in the air in the outfield, Melky would be on it whether it was in his territory or not. These outfielders, with the exception of Grote most of the time, do not get good reads on the ball and miss many of them. They run and run and put their glove out and the ball falls like 5 feet away.


Some things I've learned through the Booster Club and from talking to other people who work for the TY.

The TY players got their ping-pong table taken away because they kept losing a few weeks ago. Apparently they were coming to practice early so they could play ping pong and I also heard that they limit who can play according who is better, if you're good then you get more playing time than if you suck. Too funny.

I also learned that for the most part, the catchers call the games. I thought at this level that the calls came from the bench but apparently the catchers call games themselves. Most of the pitchers have preferences as to who they prefer to catch them. I wont name names but some catchers prefer to play to the hitters weakness while some are more sensitive to the pitchers strength.

We talked about some of the spanish speaking players who don't speak English at all. The translator in the clubhouse is Walter Ibarra, he doesn't alway have to be asked to translate either, if he sees that someone is speaking English to a player who speaks Spanish only then he will just come over and start translating.

I hope this has helped you get to know the players better.  Im sure the rosters will change more in the next month so I will probably do an update of this later.

Oh and it was Cito Culver that I saw at the game the other night. He had apparently just gotten back from NYC after getting his wrist checked out. He tweeted about his wrist on Twitter but somehow I missed it. Wish I had known, I would have asked for a picture with him. Hopefully I see him again before the Staten Island season starts up if not then I wont get to see him for another year(minor league spring training)

Who wants pie?

Tonight the Tampa Yankees took another game from the St. Lucie Mets with a final score of 5-4 in the bottom of the 12th inning, Walk off style of course. It wasnt that they didn't get hits like was their problem the first month of the season as they had 15 hits in 12 innings, it was probably the small army that they left on base in those first 11 innings that could have cost them the game tonight had they not come back. According to the box score, the Tampa Yankees went 5-19 with runners in scoring position and left 17! on base.

The starter for the Tampa Yankees tonight was Jairo Heredia. (pronounced hai-ro) He was also the keyword for Facebook Friday. On fridays they have Facebook friday where admission for Facebook friends is $2 and there are dollar drink specials. Something new they added is $10 all you can eat wings from 6-8.

Jairo was dealing through the first 3.1 innings. He didnt allow a hit until the second batter of the 4th inning singled up the middle, Heredia stomped his foot when he saw that the ball went through for a hit which may have had something to do with how the rest of the inning went. After the second batter singled, the next batter doubled to put runners on 2nd and 3rd. The next batter singled both runners home which put the score to 2-1, he scored on a 2 out single and the St. Lucie Mets had a 3-1 lead. The score stayed the same until the bottom of the 8th when Tampa staged their comeback.

Luke Murton led off the 8th inning with a walk, he was pinch run for by Emerson Landoni since he is a slow guy. Kevin Mahoney walked to put 2 on and none out, Kyle Higashioka then struck out swinging,  Taylor Grote singled to bring home Landoni and move Kevin to 2nd. Deangelo Mack grounded out which moved the runners up, Abe Almonte was intentionally walked to load the bases for Walter Ibarra. Walter singled which drove in both runs. Rob Lyerly was hit by a pitch and Neil Medchill struck out swinging to end the inning. The TY had a 4-3 lead going into the top of the 9th. In the top of the 9th, Ryan Flannery came in to get the save.  Flannery got the first out of the inning and when the second batter bunted, he threw to 1st(Lyerly was now on 1st) and the throw got away from Rob, the runner was safe on 2nd base on the throwing error. With 2 outs, Flannery got a fly ball to shallow center field that fell in and the tying run scored.  The TY went quietly in the bottom of the 9th and we had bonus baseball for the first time in Tampa this season.

Both teams had men on base in every inning between the 10th and 12th and finally in the bottom of the 12th the TY had the bases loaded with 1 out and Rob Lyerly stepped up to the plate. He hit a ball down the rightfield line and he ended our misery scoring Kelvin Castro for the walk off win.

The handshake line and Rob Lyerly getting pied by Kevin Mahoney(12)

Poor Kyle Higashioka was the final batter of 5 innings in the game tonight. He left 8 men on base(5 in scoring position) by himself. He went 0-6 with 4 strikeouts. He played the Taylor Grote of the game though Taylor did strikeout 3 times on his own.

The Tampa Yankees play another game tomorrow night and go for the sweep of St. Lucie. They won their 3rd straight game for the first time this season. Tonight was also their 3rd straight come from behind win so maybe they are starting to show some life in the later innings.

St. Lucie Mets at Tampa

Tonight was the first game of a weeklong home stand for the Tampa Yankees. They play here until next Wednesday but unfortunately tomorrow and next Wednesday's games I believe are at 11am which means I wont make it to them. The TY play the St. Lucie Mets for the next 3 days and then play the Fort Myers Miracle the following 4 days. They are then on the road until June 5th so I am going to try to make it to as many games as possible. Also really looking forward to the Ft. Myers games because of another shot to see Joe Mauer's brother and up close too.(but thats a post for another day)

Pitching tonights game for the TY was Brett Marshall who pitched the last home game. He did such a great job last game he had a lot to live up to. I got to the game late but when I sat down the TY were up to bat and Marshall had allowed just a hit and someone committed an error in the top of the 1st. In the second inning he got a grounder down the RF line and Kevin Mahoney who was playing 1st, jumped on it, recovered and threw to Brett to get the runner out at 1st. It was a great play. Brett then allowed a double and walk but got out of the inning with a strikeout. In the 3rd inning I realized that Angel Pegan was playing for St. Lucie just in time for him to hit a leadoff solo shot to right to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. Brett got into more trouble that inning after walking the second batter and and allowing a single to put runners on the corners, after a strikeout for the first out of the inning he got a groundout which scored the 2nd run. He escaped the inning with no further damage on 2 more groundouts. In the 4th inning the Mets again touched up Brett for a run though this one was all his fault. He walked the first batter got a groundout and then hit the next batter. He threw a wild pitch to move the runners up, after a walk(to Angel Pegan) he allowed a single that scored the runner from 3rd. He then got a groundout to end the inning. In the 5th inning for Brett, the leadoff hitter reached on an error by Rob Lyerly,  he then got a groundout, a single move the runner to 3rd. Brett then got a popout and Hector Rabago who was catching, threw out the runner for the last out of the inning. Overall Brett was not that sharp, he allowed 3 runs on 7 hits, he walked and struckout 4, and he threw a wild pitch. He did however limit the damage and keep the TY in the game so they could stage a comeback in the late innings.

Pegan up to bat

Pegan on 3rd. Luckily he didn't score this time

The TY offense was pretty dead through the first few innings of the game.Leading up to the 5th inning they only had 2 hits and a walk. In the 5th with 1 out, Kevin Mahoney doubled, he moved to 3rd on a single by Kelvin Castro and scored on a sac fly by Deangelo Mack. When Castro singled, the ball bounced off the SS glove and went into center, Sojo held up Kevin at 3rd and this man behind me  started yelling at Kevin for not trying to score the run. Apparently he thought it would be okay to just ignore the manager, uh no. (in the minor leagues, the manager usually stands in the 3rd base coach box)
Luckily Kevin was able to score on the sac fly because that guy probably would have had words for him. In the bottom of the 7th inning the TY scored 2 runs to tie the game. Those runs came on a walk by Mahoney, a fielding error which moved Kevin to 2nd and Castro safe at 1st, (the ball just rolled through the 3rd basemans legs)  Deangelo Mack then sac bunted the runners over for the 1st out of the inning. Taylor Grote pinch hit for Rabago and got himself a walk(surprisingly because he strikes out a ton) This loaded the bases for Abraham Almonte who greeted the new Mets pitcher with a 2 run single. That was it for that inning but it tied up the game and got Brett off the hook.

In the top of the 8th Mitch Abeita came in to catch since Taylor had pinch hit for the catcher Rabago and Kyle Higashioka was the DH for the night. Ryan Flannery came in to pitch and after getting the first out he allowed a triple down the RF line, the runner scored on a groundout. Flannery got out of the inning with another groundout. This put the score at 4-3 going into the bottom of the 8th.

Neil Medchill led off the bottom of the 8th with a walk, Kyle followed with a single off the fresh into the game reliever for St. Lucie, this moved Neil to 3rd. Kevin Mahoney then walked and was followed by a bases loaded walk to Kelvin Castro, this scored Neil with the tying run(again). Deangelo Mack then popped up(infield fly rule) Mitch Abeita grounded out which scored Kevin for the go ahead run and Abe Almonte struckout to end the inning but the TY was now leading 5-4 going into the top of the 9th.

Ryan Flannery stayed in to pitch and allowed a leadoff single and then 2 groundouts that moved the runner to 3rd. He thankfully struckout the final batter of the game and the TY beat the 1st place(in the south division) St. Lucie Mets in the 1st of 4 games. Flannery got the win though something has to be said for Preston Claiborne who pitched a perfect 6th and 7th with 3 strikeouts. Things have been looking up for the T-Yanks though things should after dropping 9 in a row, it couldnt have possibly gotten much worse.

Going back to the shifts that happened in the game, its always neat to see how things work out after the fact. Hector Rabago got pinch hit for by Taylor Grote who only came in to pinch hit, he didnt replace anyone in the field. Because Kyle Higashioka was the DH and Mitch Abeita was on the bench, they were able to do those substitutions without losing the DH. Taylor actually walked instead of striking out. Before that at-bat he had walked only 15 times yet struck out 43 and his walk came on a 3-2 count. In the next inning, Mitch who came in to catch after Rabago got pinch hit for came up to bat and grounded out to score the go ahead run. Who knew what would have happened if they hadnt made those substitutions.

When I got to the game one of the other boosters gave me her 2 tickets to see the Reds and Rays in the end of June, I am excited because I like interleague play and I like the Reds. The tickets were also free so I couldn't pass them up. I also saw that Brett's girlfriend was in town and I talked to her and Kevin's wife for a while at the end of the game. I stayed over where they were because I didnt want to mess with the mojo if I were to leave since we were already up a run. She is only going to be around until Sunday morning so she will miss the dinner on Sunday night. While I was sitting over by the dugout with them, another foul ball flew our way, they are attracted to us as we almost got hit by one in Clearwater. Kevin's wife said she finally talked to Kevin about the ball that almost hit us in Clearwater and he said he didnt realize how close it had come to knocking one of us out until Brett said something to him. I think ill stick to behind the screen from now on.

I wont make it to the TY game tomorrow because I have to work but I should make it Friday through Tuesday.  Depending on how the games go I might do updates but probably not for every game.

The Tampa Yankees dont play another home game until next Wednesday. Hopefully they can do well against the Palm Beach Cardinals who they are playing a 4 game set against(their game got postponed today) They then come back to face the St. Lucie Mets who are currently first in the FSL south.


                   Here is a picture of the Award that I presented to Walter at the game last night:

Bradenton Marauders at Tampa game 2

Tonight the Tampa Yankees played game two of four against the Bradenton Marauders (Pittsburgh Pirates)
It was also Yankees night light giveaway. I got 2 night lights, one at the gate and one at Costumer Service when I went to get my lineup card. It  was a weird night for me. First I went up to get my RBI Rewards card stamped and the girl traded out my ticket for another one. No clue at all why, it was the ticket for tonights game and everything. Then I went to Costumer Service and got a second night light. Odd but I can't complain.

It was a warm game and made even warmer because I was wearing my Mitch Abeita Hawaiian jersey. The other woman wore her pink one too. We decided that his number for tonight was 28.5 since I was wearing 28 and she was wearing 29 which is his new number(I think by wearing the 28, I am the more loyal fan since I got his jersey last season) Mitch even played tonight though he wasn't really great defensively as he had 2 passed balls(his first 2 of the season) and a throwing error. In his defense it was a poorly played game all around so he wasn't the only one who had a bad night. He did do well at the plate getting the first 2 hits of the game and driving in the first run.

Speaking of bad nights, it is Kevin Mahoney's birthday and he got to play, with Carmen Angelini and David Adams on the DL he is getting into more games though he hasn't done well in the past 2. Today he went 0-3 with a strikeout but he did get on base on a fielder's choice. He made an error in the top of the 3rd after making a great play on a ball just one out prior. I think the official scorer likes to mess with us because when Kevin made that error they put up an E5 which would be an error in the 3rd baseman, Rob Lyerly in this case. When they put up E5 on the screen we yelled "Rob, What did you do?" and he looked up at the screen in time to see that the error had been attributed to him. In the game on Monday they kept  putting up E3 for all the errors which would be an error on Luke Murton at 1st base. I guess they are just so used to giving those 2 errors, they dont know how to give an error to anyone else anymore.

Onto the game. Josh Romanski was the starter for Tampa, his first start since being activated from the DL. He wasn't perfect but was able to limit the damage through the first 3 innings allowing just one run in the 3rd. In the 4th inning Romanski allowed a leadoff single, the runner advanced to second on a passed ball, he scored on a triple by the next batter. The following batter laid down a pretty good bunt which brought the runner home, with no throw, he made it safely to 1st base. The next batter grounded out on a batter's interference. Mitch attempted to throw to second and the batter didn't get out of the way. The next batter singled and then stole second base. One walk later, Romanski's night was over He left with 3 runners still on base and the lone lefty Jose Quintana came out to get the last out of the inning. Mitch then had his second passed ball of the game and a run scored. He tried to recover but he threw to Quintana who couldnt hold onto the ball, he wouldnt have had him out anyway. By the end of the inning, the TY was down 4-1.

The score remained the same until the 6th inning when Bradenton had their own sloppy inning.

The starting pitcher for Bradenton was replaced in the bottom of the 6th and then things started going downhill. This was probably one of the first times that the TY was able to take advantage of another teams bullpen.
Abe Almonte started the inning off with a walk, he moved the 2nd on a wild pitch. Walter Ibarra was then hit by a pitch. Rob Lyerly got his first hit of the night, a double which scored both Walter and Abe. Luke Murton followed Rob with a double of his own scoring Rob in the process. Neil Medchill flew out to center for the first out of the inning. He was followed by Taylor Grote who walked. Things got crazy when Taylor Grote broke for 2nd base, I was watching to see of he got the steal when I heard yelling, around home plate. Luke Murton was stealing home! Luke is probably the slowest guy on the team so I had no clue what he was thinking stealing home but he somehow pulled it off, the SS for Bradenton made a throwing error when Luke was stealing home which allowed Taylor to move to 3rd. Mitch then hit a ball right to the 3rd baseman who let the ball roll right through his legs allowing Mitch to reach and Taylor to score. All this happened with just 1 out. Bradenton switched pitchers which allowed them to get through the inning without anymore damage.  The TY scored 5 runs in that inning on just 2 hits.
Mitch had 2 hits and Rob had 2 hits. The TY was outhit 10-6 but still managed to win. (Deangelo Mack and Luke Murton had the other 2 hits)

Jose Quintana was followed by Preston Claiborne in the 7th inning. Things got a bit dicey when the first batter of that inning reached on an error by Rob Lyerly(E5 - was actually right this time) Claiborne struck out the next 2 batters and on a hit and run/strike-em out throw-em out, Mitch threw the ball to center  field moving the runner to 3rd. Claiborne got out of trouble getting a flyout to end the inning.

Claiborne pitched the 8th working around a leadoff double. He was followed by Ryan Flannery who allowed a leadoff single, he then showed off his skill by starting a 1-4-3 double play, it looked just like the DP that Mariano Rivera started in the game Tuesday night. The last batter popped out to Rob in foul territory(more like a line drive caught in foul territory, as it was more line drive than popup). The TY won the game 6-4. Jose Quintana got the win and Flannery got the save. I am not sure if Quintana will stay in Tampa as he played only a few games in the GCL and Charleston last year. He may be here because Tampa doesn't have any lefty relievers without him. He has done well though. Ryan Flannery has pitched 12 innings so far, giving up 9 hits and no runs so he has so far done well for himself.

While I was at the game I saw a friend of mine from High School, more like an acquaintance I had a few classes with who is now an EMT with Hillsbourough county, he was working the game tonight so I went over and talked to him. He said he likes to work the minor league games(on his day off) but they are hard to come by since they only bring in 1 paramedic for the TY games. He said that he got to come to 3 spring training games and caught a foul ball hit by Teixeira and landed himself on Sportcenter top 10 plays. He has a 3 year old son who looks just like him, and he informed me that his wife is expecting a girl in the fall. Just thought that was a cute story I felt like sharing.

The TY play again tomorrow and will hopefully be able to keep their win streak alive. Scott Allen gets the start for the TY in the place of Jose Ramirez who was sent back down to Charleston. Hopefully Scott does well in this start, he didn't do well last time he had a spot start but I don't think he was as prepared for it, this game he has known about for a while. I have seen him the past few days up charting pitches and normally only starters get to do that. I will try to do a recap of that game depending on how it goes but I may just combine it with friday.

My birthday is on Monday and my free tickets fell through for the Yankees at Rays game but I am still going and with a friend who lives across the street from Tropicana, she is going to pick up our tickets on Friday, avoiding the "day of game" fee and then I am going to park at her town house complex on Monday avoiding the parking fee. I wanted a Robinson Cano shirt for the game but other expenses got in the way. Ill probably just wear my Swisher shirt since they seem to win when I wear it.