"It's great to be young and a Yankee."

It's not as if he totally came out of nowhere, really. But for whatever reason, I look at the Yankees starters like this:

Tubbo.com
Everyone else

Sweaty Freddy obviously gets no credit for anything ever, other than coming within spitting range of the strike zone. Nova keeps plugging away. Hughes is as about as reliable as a Ollie Blacuweather forecast.

And then there's Kuroda.

Who pitched a 2-hit CG last night.

Seriously.

Against one of the best offenses in the league.

Yeah, we all saw that coming. Nope.

But why haven't we? That's the real weird part of it all. There's not a whole lot of reason we should be surprised, given his pattern of efficacy. Remember that.

Yes, yes. Pat-tern. Patt-ern. My friend Pat took a turn. That's how I remember that.
Remember, it isn't just a pattern, It's a pattern of disrespect, and inappropriate behavior.
Disray .My friend Disray got news specs. Disray spect. My friend Inappro drives a Prius with his behind neighbor.

Anyways, so the Yankees win AGAIN! Swish and Tex went back to back or belly to belly, whatever. (Cheers to "Apoorplayer" who cleared up the whole where-the-hell-does-belly-to-belly come from question.)

Not only was it possibly the best pitching of the year from the Yankees (yeah, Girardi agrees with this, so it isn't just me being hyperbole-y), but it was a no-hitter through 7. Those are so stressful. Even more so when you're following the game via radio, when CBS announcers aren't as graceful about this situation.

You know, YES announcers will be a little more savvy when it comes to these delicate jinx situations. Usually because there's an ex-ballplayer in the booth who reveres these types of things. HOWEVAH, Sterling and Suzyn are a little more excitable about things. Which I love about them, normally, but not when the whole world of Yankee-cheering listeners are praying for everyone to keep their pieholes shut.

The tension/no-hitter was broken up vy Andrus, and I wonder if Jayson Nix feels bad about that. It wasn't an error by any stretch, but there WAS a bit of ball-bobbling on his end and he threw a Knoblauch-y airmail that wasn't going anywhere good. BUT, I think Nix needs to realize he kept the ball in the infield. Also, the Yankees won. So who cares.

Actually, I don't think there were more than 2 or 3 balls that left the infield. It's tough to guesstimate here given the highfarcaught-penchants of our beloved Sterling, but I'd bet a lot of money that it was definitely no more than 5. Kuroda was, indeed, dealing.

Matt Harrison, who was on the All-Star team, didn't get it done. He was okay, but like I said yesterday, Harrison pitches in the Yankees wheelhouse. He isn't one of those newfangled crazy off speed pitchers that tend to paralyze the Yanks' bats. No, he is more than hittable. Not that the score really indicated that (3 runs ≤ a lot of runs).

But still. Cano, Jones, Sneach, and Grandy were hitless, but the top and bottom of the lineup were hit-ful. Like I said, the Yankees won, so I'm not about to start analyzing the significance of this. Of which there is none.

Sometimes, SOMETIMES, I'm a little too much of a bottom line person. Which gets annoying when I'm at meetings at work and we all sit down, and before anyone can open his or her mouth, I immediately ask, "ok when is it due?"

Similarly, there's "Did the Yankees win or lose?"

In this case, the answer is WIN.

And like almost everything else that comprises my genetic makeup, my dad's coding is very evident in this type of behavior.

(Phone conversations with my dad: “What’d you do this weekend?” “Well, I hung out with Ollie, and—“ “Ok, I get the gist of it. I’m gonna take a nap now.”)
Kuroda said through a translator that he ALSO is a bottom line guy! Common interests!

"A complete game or a shutout is not really important here. The most important thing is for the team to win, and that's what we accomplished today, and that's why I'm happy."

Awww, we're happy, too!

Yankees moved a game ahead of the O's and Tampa, but 6 is still not as fat a distance as I'd like. (100 is, but I don't know if that's possible.)

Like Patrick Bateman said, "You can never be too thin."

Except, the opposite of that when it comes to baseball division leads. Also, when it comes to our favorite starter.

Speaking of American Psycho, since my cat's birthday is RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER, it should be mentioned that his claim to fame is being the cat that is fed to an ATM.

always confused

Also, that's 100% not true at all. But it makes for a great ice breaker. Or a great way to repel any potential person who toyed with interest in talking to me.

The Red Socks lost last night, btw. Hehe.

Kuroda is now 2nd in wins for pitchers born in Japan. I hate stats like this. Why isn't there a running list of white pitchers or something? It's ridiculous. You're a pitcher. Your nationality isn't important. Your ERA is.

See? Bottom line stuff. And I don't care if Kuroda isn't anywhere CLOSE to first (Nomo has 123, our boy has 52), because last night, Kuroda was so good that you'd get goosebumps watching it. Seriuosly. I love watching players perform like that.

It's like what the Olympics is, if you're into the Olympics. But unfortunately, trampoline jumping ousted baseball from the Olympic lineup (this isn't true, but I'm running with it), and in the wake of the Olympics being dunzo for another few years, Kuroda pitched like a champ.

One day at a time.

Manere fortis. Manere acue. Manere mundus.