July 03, 2007
Asian Games
Nice outings by both Daisuke Matsuzaka and Chien-Ming Wang tonight. Dice-K pitched eight shutout innings, striking out nine as he picked up his tenth win in a 4-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Matsuzaka's ERA in down to 3.56 as he's allowed just two earned runs in his last 29 innings while striking out 34.
Wang walked four and allowed four hits over seven shutout innings of work. He also induced two double plays. It's a nice recovery from his poor performance against the Orioles as the Yankees defeat the Twins 8-0.
Update: Devon Young raves about the major league debut of Edwar Ramirez:
So the Yanks, up by 8 runs, let this rookie pitch the 9th for them. It's his major league debut. His name is Ramirez, and he has a nasty changeup. I'm telling you. I was sitting here watching it a few minutes ago and just laughed. He struck out the side in his major league debut. He proceeds to strike out Cuddyer on 3 pitches, then gets Morneau on 4 or 5, and Ford on 4 or 5 pitches, and they all went down swinging. They were dead fooled. His fastball seems good and he can definitely paint the outside corner, but then he tosses this changeup and it's all over.
His basic stat line for the time he spent in AAA Scranton this year - 26.1 IP, 0.67 ERA, and 47 K's. I've often heard that the difference between a minor league & major league pitcher is the ability to have a good changeup. This Ramirez kid seems to be proof of that by his AAA numbers.
He threw fourteen pitches, nine for strikes. Obviously there were no two strike fouls.
Correction: Fixed typo.
Posted by David Pinto at
10:11 PM
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Yeah, in a game that (finally!) gave Yankee fans several things to be happy about (A-Rod in the line-up, lots of runs, Abreu looking like last year's model, Cano hitting for power, and Wang killing worms), definitely the most exciting part was Edwar Ramirez. Sure, it's one inning, I know. But, whoa. I think Kyle Farnsworth saw his career flash before his eyes...
Edwar's changeup is just filthy, like Eric Gagne circa 2003 filthy. In a game where Yankee fans had alot to cheer about, Edwar stole the show at the end. He was simply awesome.
So, does this mean the Yankees can let Mo walk at the end of the year?
This kid could do for the Yanks what Marmol has done for the Cubs the past few weeks -- turn the bullpen from a millstone dragging the team down to a plus.
Sad thing is, the high walk-low k disaster that is the Yanks pen this season has been clearly in need of improvement since the season began, and the powers that be left Edwar in Scranton dominating when he clearly could have helped stopped the bleeding in the Bronx at least a month ago.
Minor quibble: it's Daisuke, not Diasuke.
In 1954 Bklyn brought up Karl Spooner in Sept to open with 2 shutouts. His career was over after 1955. Point is, don't annoint Ramirez till he repeatedly baffles batters and puts up good numbers.
