Random Thoughts-Sweepless in Seattle

-Somebody shoot me for that headline. The Yanks are rolling, on a 12-2 run for the month of August and 36-11 since Girardi’s ejection in Atlanta. They also started out the season 13-15 and went on an 18-6 run in early May, so if you go back to May the Yanks have played 61-28 (.685 win/pct) baseball. I guess the Yanks got young and Girardi got smart all of a sudden.

-I’ve never heard of him, but he must be related to Mo somehow.

-One of the cardinal sins of Baseball is making the last out of an inning at Third base. There’s rarely an excuse for it, and there certainly wasn’t one when Ichiro did it last night. Here’s Dave Cameron’s (Fangraphs/USS Mariner) take on it:

That was the dumbest thing I’ve seen on a baseball field in a long, long time.

If you missed it, Ichiro was on second base, with Lopez over at first and Branyan hitting, with two outs in the 7th inning. The team was down 4-2. Ichiro tried to steal third, and was thrown out by a couple of feet to end the inning.

…Even if Josh Wilson was hitting, Ichiro had no business trying to take third. With Branyan up there, in a hitters count, representing the go-ahead run, running from second base is about as dumb a decision as you can make on a baseball field.

That was incredibly dumb, and it cost the M’s a pretty significant part of their chance at winning the game. If he wasn’t an MVP caliber player, it’s a benchable offense. I might bench him tomorrow anyway. Holy crap was that stupid.

Yankee fans can send their thank you notes to:

Ichiro Suzuki c/o Seattle Mariners
PO Box 4100
Seattle, WA 98194

BTW-Anyone want to chip in and put “YANKEE FANS SAY-THANK YOU ICHIRO” on the big screen in Seattle? Only costs $100.

-The Yankee bullpen has been nothing short of dominating, and was again last night. Pete Abe writes:

Yankee relievers have allowed only one run over the last 20.2 innings. April and May sure seem like a long time ago. Of the 11 outs they recorded tonight, eight were by strikeout.

-Oh yeah? Well I think your wine tastes like rotten grapes.