A payroll observation about Milwaukee vs Arizona

The Brewers and Diamondbacks played a thrilling 5 game Division Series.

The Milwaukee Payroll was $86 million.
The Arizona Payroll was $53.8 million.

The Brewers payroll was lower than what the Yankees paid for A-Rod, Sabathia, Teixeira and A. J. Burnett in 2011.

The Diamondbacks payroll was lower than what the Red Sox paid for Lackey, Crawford, Drew and Dice K for 2011.

Keep that in mind when discussing payroll in baseball.

Please have Berkman be a NICE Tony LaRussa comeback story

In the last few years, Lance Berkman's stats have been falling off. He was a part time player for the Yankees in the playoffs last year, pressed into starting duty after Mark Teixeira's injury.

Well now he is in St. Louis and is putting up All Star numbers again.

Among the leaders in batting, he knocked his 15th homer tonight and drove in his 45th run.

It's a terrific comeback.
Tony LaRussa has had a lot of players comeback for him.

Dave Stewart in Oakland became an Ace, as did Chris Carpenter in St. Louis. Jim Edmonds refound his stroke and countless pitching reclamation projects.

But there have been other kind of comebacks.

The Mark McGwire comebacks... the lots of players who played for him being connected to stuff kind of comebacks.

Remember how quickly the Rick Ankiel story turned from the feel good baseball story of the decade to "Oh dear..."?

I so hope this is a NICE comeback on a LaRussa squad. But my guard is up.

Focus on winning... have the Yankees focus on retaliating

The talk in Yankee-land seems to be about Mark Teixeira's being beaned and knocked out by Jon Lester (a notorious hot head) and Big Papi flipping a bat away after a homer (because I'd be SHOCKED if the Yankees ever had a home run celebration.)

Even the writers are talking about retaliation.

Let them.
Go ahead.

Put some runners on base for A. J. Burtnett whose ERA against the Red Sox last year was over 7! Put something on their mind other than winning the freaking game.

Two teams tied for first place shouldn't be thinking about hurt feelings.

A team that has lost 6 of the first 7 head to head games with their biggest rival shouldn't be talking about anything other than their win and loss record.

If A. J. Burnett hits a batter, so what? It's another runner on base.
It's not like the Yankees will be afraid of Tim Wakefield throwing a 40 MPH knuckleball at them.

So come on Tim! Another win will put you 10 behind the All Time Red Sox wins leader. Now THAT is something to keep track of.

Joey's Small Bites: Yankees Flaccid Against Dickey

The Mets entered this year's Subway Series on a roll, coming off a series shutout of the Washington Nationals. The two-game mini-sweep catapulted the Mets past the Nats in the NL East standings. But the Nats (.223 team batting average, 32 HR prior to last night's game) are clearly not the Yankees (65 HR entering the Subway Series opener).

The Yankees had scored 218 runs over their first 42 games. A total of 111 of those runs had scored on home runs (33 solo shots, 20 two-run homers, 10 three-run blasts and two grand slams). You wouldn't need Jaime Escalante to tell you that the Yankees have scored more than half of their runs on home runs. So basically, the formula to stop the Yankees is to keep them in the ballpark. Except for one solo pop-up by Mark Teixeira, that's exactly what R.A. Dickey and his fellow moundsmen did. This is Joey Beartran and you're about to read my small bites from last night's game.

I'll take the Mets' small ball style of play to the Yankees' "homers or nothing" approach any day of the week.

The Yankees took the early lead against the Mets on the "strength" of Mark Teixeira's pop-up to the shallow right field seats. Carlos Beltran gave it a valiant effort, but he was still unable to catch Big Texy's solo bloop. Had the game been played at Citi Field, Beltran probably would have had to come in to make the play.

The Mets responded quickly in the top of the fourth. Back-to-back two-out doubles by designated hitter Fernando Martinez and the man Jason Bay wishes he could hit like, Justin Turner, knotted the game at 1.

R.A. Dickey struggled a bit in the bottom of the fifth inning, allowing infield singles to Brett Gardner and the man who claims to have an Edge. But then his royal Edgeness' counterpart, Jose Reyes, made a spectacular game-changing defensive play on a grounder hit by third baseman Alex Rodriguez, diving to his left to rob Cameron Diaz's boy toy of a potential game-tying single. It was a play the aforementioned Edge driver would never have made due to his lack of range. Yes, it's a fact that Derek Jeter may have an Edge (I believe everything I see on TV, don't you?), but Jose Reyes has a Range Rover, and it proved to be the difference in last night's ballgame.

Speaking of differences, Daniel Murphy yanked a ball down the right field line that gave the Mets the lead in the sixth inning. Murphy's fourth homer of the year was one of only five hits surrendered by Yankee starter/Met castoff Freddy Garcia. However, four of those five hits went for extra bases and accounted for both runs scored by the Mets. (Aren't you glad the Mets went with Tim Redding as their No. 5 starter in 2009 rather than Freddy Garcia?)

Dickey was lifted after throwing 101 pitches in six effective innings, culminating his start with back-to-back strikeouts of Jorge Posada and Nick Swisher. It was then up to the bullpen to preserve the lead. Mike O'Connor (0.00 ERA, 0.35 WHIP in 5.2 innings), Jason Isringhausen (1.80 ERA, seven hits allowed in 15 innings) and Francisco Rodriguez (15 consecutive saves) retired every batter they faced, with K-Rod putting an end to the game the same way Dickey ended his outing, striking out Jorge Posada and Nick Swisher.

After the game, Yankee manager Joe Girardi said it best when he offered this explanation as to why his players were confounded at the plate throughout the game:

"Whenever you face a knuckleballer, you're really not sure what's going to happen because it's not something guys face every day. It's a totally different day for all of our hitters."

Thank you for saying it so succinctly, Joe. Facing a knuckleballer confused the hitters. In fact, they were so confused that they forgot how to hit the non-knuckleballing firm of O'Connor, Isringhausen and Rodriguez over the final three innings as well.

With the victory, the Mets improved to .500 on the season, a mark they hadn't reached since they were 4-4 on April 9. The Yankees fell to 23-20, or one step closer to where the Mets are now.

Tonight, Chris Capuano faces A.J. Burnett, who is making his 19th career start against the Mets, but has only won four of them (4-6, eight no-decisions). The game will be broadcast by FOX, which will afford Mets fans the opportunity to listen to Howie Rose call the game on WFAN.

I will not be watching the game on FOX or listening to it on WFAN. Instead, I will be in attendance at The House That Juice Built, hoping to see the Mets win their fifth road series of the year, which would be one more than they won all of last year.

The Yankees might be the ones currently taking large bites out of the New York fanbase, but the Mets showed that if they take enough small bites out of the Yankees' overhyped (and overpaid) machine, the teams can be on even ground. After all, small bites tend to make the meal more satisfying, while big bites just give you indigestion. I should know. I'm an expert on the topic.

The Yankee Illusion

The Red Sox are 3-1 against the Yankees this year and for some reason those wins seem to mask the fact that in mid May the Red Sox are STILL sub .500!

But man it feels good to win by one run against the Yankees.
Bartolo Colon has 2 losses this year and both were hard luck losses against the Sox.

Meanwhile Joba Chamberlain is the gift that keeps giving... if by giving you mean insurance runs.

Daniel Bard made me scream at the TV as it was clear that Jorge Posada can't catch up to a fastball yet he was throwing him curve balls. And of course Jonathan Papelbon had to make it interesting.

But Mark Teixeira popped up and I get to update the tally.

DODGED BULLET GAMES - 9

April 8 - 9-6 win against the Yankees. (The Sox end their 6 game losing streak with a slugfest. John Lackey stinks but Phil Hughes stinks even more.)
April 10 - 4-0 win against the Yankees. (Beckett and Sabathia duel in a game that was 1-0 until the late innings.)
April 20 - 5-3 win in Oakland. (Red Sox survive a lead off homer and two bases loaded situations and facing the tying run at the plate to win their first road game.)
April 21 - 4-2 win in Anaheim. (The Red Sox stranded 15 men on base and Josh Beckett's went 8 strong with no decision. But the Sox rallied in the 11th to win.)
April 22 - 4-3 win in Anaheim. (Peter Bourjos makes a 2 run errors and the Red Sox survive a bizarre passed ball by Jarrod Saltalamacchia that let a run scored from second.)
May 1 - 3-2 win against the Mariners. (Ichiro loses a ball in the sun that turns into a 9th inning triple for Lowrie. Crawford singles him home for the win.)
May 8 - 9-5 win against the Twins. (Dice-K lets up 3 runs in the first but settles down as the Red Sox clobber Carl Pavano.)

May 9 - 2-1 win against the Twins. (A bullpen breakdown cost Beckett the decision but Cark Crawford ended the game with an 11th inning walk off hit.)
May 13 - 5-4 win in the Bronx. (Youkilis homers off of Joba and Bard and Papelbon make it more interesting than it needed to be.)

TEETH GRINDER GAMES - 12

April 1 - 9-5 loss in Texas. (The Sox tie Opening Day in the 8th with an Ortiz homer only to have Bard implode and the Sox let up 4 in the bottom of the 8th.)

April 5 - 3-1 loss in Cleveland. (The Sox drop their 4th straight as the bats are dead in Cleveland.)
April 7 - 1-0 loss in Cleveland. (Sox blow a great Lester performance on a squeeze bunt and Darnell McDonald overrunning the bag to end the game.)
April 12 - 3-2 loss to Tampa Bay. (A solid Lester performance is wasted as Kyle Farnsworth of all people shuts down the Sox.)
April 15 - 7-6 loss to Toronto. (Bobby Jenks implodes with a 4 run seventh inning as the Red Sox waste Pedroia and Youkilis homers and a clutch RBI double by Scuatro.
April 19 - 5-0 loss in Oakland. (Pedroia gets picke doff, the Sox bats go dead and waste a solid Lackey start.)
April 26 - 4-1 loss in Baltimore. (Buchholz pitches tentatively and the Sox let Kevin Gregg of all people to close out the 9th.)
April 27 - 5-4 loss in Baltimore. (The Sox tie the game with a 3 run 8th only to have Bard lose it in the bottom of the 8th.)
April 29 - 5-4 loss to Mariners. (Bobby Jenks blows a 7th inning lead, wasting 2 Mike Cameron homers.)
April 30 - 2-0 loss to Mariners. (The Sox strand 11 runnerss and let Milton Bradley double home the go ahead run.)
May 4 - 5-3 loss to Angels. (7 hours with rain delays and stranded runners. Marco Scutaro was thrown out at the plate in the 12th)
May 10 - 7-6 loss in Toronto. (8th and 9th inning heroics, including a homer by Adrian Gonzalez, are undone by a walk off sacrifice fly by David Cooper.)

-3.

Win tomorrow and the Red Sox will have won their first two series with the Yankees.

That would make a hell of a birthday present.

Look, I am happy the Yankees lost but...

The Royals beat the Yankees today and frankly, with KC on pace to lose 92 games, they need all the help they can get.

But when Mark Teixeira hit a difficult grounder with 2 outs and 2 on and the Yankees down by three, he beat out the throw to first base.

I thought it was the case with my naked eyes and less than one minute later no fewer than two replays showed he was clearly safe.

He was called out.

The Yankees would have had the bases loaded, 2 outs, Yankees down by 3 and A-Rod up, knowing an out would win the game for the Royals but a grand slam would win it for the Yankees.

It would have been pure baseball drama... and all instant replay screens showed it should have been.

But alas we can't have it because we can't waste that minute.

Ahhh the insanity of no instant replay.