G-Unit Soldier

You may wonder what the title of this post means, other than an obscure reference to the collection of 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, Young Buck, and Tony Yayo.

Well....

The "G" is for Giambi, who slugged two home runs against Atlanta, driving in all 5 Yankee runs on the day. He is now at .271/.432/.624 with an OPS of 1.056 for 2006. He has 22 home runs and 61 RBIs, and is .304/.512/.804 with runners in scoring position, which equates to a 1.315 OPS. Yowza!!

The "Unit" is for Randy Johnson, who dominated the Braves in a 5-2 victory, giving up 4 hits and no walks, striking out 9 over 7 innings of brilliant work. Over his last 3 starts, the Big Unit has posted a 1.77 ERA and a 0.74 WHIP. He's posted a 9.7 strikeouts per 9 inning ratio in those games and the Yankees are benefitting from his dominating presence again. He's doing his part to shore up the top of the rotation, and we can only hope he's back in black.

The "Soldier" is Mariano Rivera, who keeps on coming strong even when he deserves more rest. Scott Proctor has a 5.34 ERA spanning the months of May and June. He also sports a 1.344 WHIP during that same time, which isn't a disaster, but also isn't anything I want to see from a key reliever. Rivera has been the victim of a shaky bridge and has earned more multi-inning saves this season that in recent years, that I remember. With a 5-0 lead, we should have been able to put the whole thing to bed without the Sandman, and perhaps Proctor could have retired the final two batters, but with 27 pitches under his belt and a statistical save waiting for Mariano, Torre did what any manager in the Majors would do these days and yanked him.

Last thing today. A few people have been asking where the Matsuzaka Watch feature has gone. The fact is, I just got too busy to write about the Yanks and post about Japanese baseball for a little while.

I'm back, and better than ever with an entire blog dedicated to Matsuzaka Watch. You can find the link in the Japanese Baseball section of the linkroll on the right. Check back at Matsuzaka Watch for updates on his weekly outings and his plans for next season. Hopefully, pinstripes are in his future. Enjoy.

Go get the Braves fellas. No mercy. See you tomorrow.