Opinion

Brett Gardner was 0-3 for the New York Yankees. Not zero for three at bats in yesterday's loss to the Angels.

Gardner is zero for the last three games. In a total of 10 at bats in the last three Yankee games, Gardner has not gotten a hit.

He did get one walk yesterday and scored one of the Yankee runs.

Gardner is not the only Yankee struggling right now. The most obvious is Mark Teixeira. But Teixeira has enough credit in the bank to run up some lousy numbers, even for the entire month of April.

Just like Monday was a bad day to be an American League second baseman, Wednesday was a bad day to be an American League closer. Whether it was because of injury or because of just flat out pitching poorly, there were a bunch of closers who were replaced on Wednesday.

Let’s take a look at what is going on in the world of closers.

Baltimore Orioles

Javy Vazquez started his second game in his second stint for the New York Yankees yesterday.

Pitching against the Angels, Vazquez was just as abysmal as he had been against the Rays last Friday night.

Philadelphia Phillies players make manager Charlie Manuel look like a genius time after time.

The latest blow to the defending National League champions was leadoff man Jimmy Rollins landing on the 15-day disabled list due to a strained calf muscle.

No problem.

Juan Castro filled in nicely at leadoff in the first game without Rollins. In a 7-4 win on Monday against Washington, he hit an RBI double.

Castro had to lead off because Rollins' name was already on the lineup card. Rollins was pulled shortly before the start of the game.

If you look at the box score for Wednesday night's game in Toronto, the White Sox starting nine, plus a few pinch hitters, are batting .227 as a team.

While I know that seems low, to me it shows promise.

In Saturday's loss to the Minnesota Twins the team was only batting .186, a good 40 points lower.

"I can't think of a player who contributes in so many ways...David embodies what we want a Red Sox player to be.  It was just an easy decision for us that David as a player and David as a person is someone we want to commit to and commit to for a long time." - Theo Epstein, April 11, 2006.  

Today, late in the ballgame, Adam Everett was due up in a key RBI situation for the Tigers. Since offense isn’t exactly Adam’s specialty, Jim Leyland looked to his bench for a pinch hitter.

Who did he turn to? Was it young Alex Avila, who with one swing of the bat could have potentially turned the tide for the Tigers? Was it the experienced Ramon Santiago, who while will never be confused with Barry Bonds, has put together his share of key hits over the years?

The Mets' pitching rotation is their biggest key to their season.  Mike Pelfrey, Oliver Perez, and John Maine are all key players for the Mets this year.  If two of those three pitchers have solid years then that will deeply help the team. 

As of now, two of those guys performed while the other didn't.  Mike Pelfrey and Oliver Perez both had good first starts.  On the other hand, John Maine's first two starts have been a mess.

There has been a lot of talk in the streets, on talk radio, and on the interwebs today about John Maine and whether or not the Mets should keep him in the rotation.

If you read my article from earlier today, you know that I would like to see Maine get at least one more start, so I won’t get into that again.

What we should talk about is if Maine is removed from the rotation, who would take his place?

Besides the ring ceremony, nail-biting finish, and return of Godzilla, there was one other noteworthy occurrence at Yankee Stadium yesterday afternoon: the emergence of Nick Johnson.

When the Yankees embraced Hideki Matsui in a goosebump-inducing moment for Yankee fans, it finally set in—Matsui is no longer the Yankees DH.

No, instead of Matsui, the Yankees penciled the oft-injured Nick Johnson to fill Matsui's void of designated hitter this past offseason.