There's not much to say about today's game

Except that the Yankees completely embarrassed themselves. There were really no positives....

This game obviously was not Joe Torre's fault. However, I need to get one thing off of my chest. Why put Damon in the game and thusly make any DL stint retroactive to today instead of the last time he played? (in Colorado) That bothered me a bit, and if anyone has any answers as to why he did that, please leave a comment.

Yankees Win, Baroid Homers: Yankees 7, Giants 3

If Baroid Bonds is going to hit a home run, that's how I want it to be. Trailing pretty big late, bases empty on a challenge fastball. I have to give credit to Scott Proctor for letting him hit it as opposed to walking someone with a big lead. That's the way the game should be played so my hat is off to Scott Proctor for yesterday. That makes it 749 home runs for Bonds, who inches ever close to the real record holder, Hank Aaron. The closer he gets to the record, the more we'll hear about his on the field exploits, and less about his off the field ones. That's due to the extremely hypocritical nature of ESPN. They'll roast you one day, and prop you up for ratings the next. Big reason why in my eyes I can't take them truly seriously when it comes to some sports news topics.

Anyway, I digress. My prediction was basically the same score flipped around (Giants 7, Yankees 4), but I'm very glad to be wrong. Yankees took a 3-0 lead right away off of great ABs from Miguel Cairo and Kei Igawa, both of them working walks. Yeah, I can't believe that actually happened either. Melky Cabrera scored Cairo and Cano (who singled) to make it 3-0. Kei Igawa looked amazingly sharp in the first four innings, making the Giants players seem lost, including Bonds. He really had that changeup I talked about in the preview working well. Was able to control it pretty easily. What I will say is this: he left some pitches over the middle a couple of times through the first four that he got away with and he needs to prevent this from happening again. Sure, he limited his mistake pitches from his earlier outings, but there still were a couple of floaters. On to the fifth. Igawa started to get hit and it clearly started to show in his approach. He seemed a bit rattled walking to batters in a row, one letting a run in (a Bonds bases loaded walk). I'd much rather see that then the game tying grand slam. At this point the game was 5-2 Yankees and Igawa was pulled after 4 and 2/3 innings of work. It disappointed me a bit because he was doing so well, only to falter. But it was heartening to see that he can be a good pitcher in this league, and he proved it through the first four innings.

Since I've already mentioned the Bonds home run and the Yankees scoring, the game got pretty uneventful after Hideki Matsui saved the game in the fifth on his bases clearing double saving catch. If he didn't catch it the game would have been nodded up at 5. Who knows what happens then: maybe Baroid's homer actually means something. All I know is that it didn't matter at all last night: both in the course of history and in the game.

Yankees at Giants 6/22 Game Preview

Hey, look who has made his return...the one, the only: Kei Igawa? Yeah, you definitely cannot liken his rise through the minors like Roger Clemens'. However, Kei was effective in his minor league appearances. In six minor league starts, he posted a 3-3 record with a 2.65 ERA and a .233 BAA. Another striking statistic is that he has struck out 33 batters in 34 innings, nearly 9 K/IP. Apparently Tampa pitching guru Nardi Contreras has gotten Igawa to figure out how to stop pitching up in the strikezone, especially with his changeup, which was a huge problem in the majors, and was a large cause for his major league struggles. With that in mind, expect to see a marked improvement over his initial starts with the Yankees, although it would be rather hard for him not to do better this time around.

Taking the mound for the Giants tonight is the electric youngster Matt Cain. He has pitched through some serious bad luck this season, with a 2-7 record and a 3.15 ERA. Kind of hard to imagine a low ERA like that adjoined with such a poor win-loss record. More proof to the fact that the win-loss statistic is completely meaningless. Run support can do wonders to it, and make a pitcher who really wasn't that good look good and vice versa. To be honest I really can't see the Yankees winning this one. Prediction: Giants 7, Yankees 4.