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Thursday, August 21, 2014

Umps brighten day for kids

Major League Baseball umpires visited patients at The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore. They gave out Build-A-Bear toys and outfits, including bear-sized Yankees™ and Mets™ uniforms.

Prince Cruz, 7, enjoyed his visit from MLB umpires at The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore on Wednesday, August 20.



Isabelle Ortiz, 2, was thrilled to receive a monkey Build-A-Bear during the MLB umpires visit.

MLB Umpires, UMPS CARE Charities, and The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore staff prepare to hand out bears to the kids at CHAM.

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Time's Running Out for Yankees

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Time's Running Out for Yankees: Time's Running Out for Yanks Brass dumbfounded by the way Yankees are playing By Rich Mancuso BRONX, NEW YORK, AUGUST 21- It was Jo...

Time's Running Out for Yankees

Time's Running Out for Yanks
Brass dumbfounded by the way Yankees are playing

By Rich Mancuso

BRONX, NEW YORK, AUGUST 21- It was Joe Girardi bobble head night at Yankee Stadium Wednesday night and the manager got booed when he lifted starter Michael Pineda in the sixth inning. The anguish for the Yankees continued and the displeasure from their fans were heard more when the Houston Astros scored four runs in the seventh inning.

And when any team takes a lead against the Yankees, the lowly Astros or a front runner, there is a good chance they will not score and make the comeback. Such was the case again as the Astros go for a three-game series sweep Thursday afternoon after their 5-2 win in the Bronx.

Now, it is more than panic time for the Yankees who are going backwards instead of forward and seeing their playoff chances dwindle each day. They will try and prevent a sweep of the series in a stretch of seven games this week, also with the Chicago White Sox that could have helped their wild card chances.

But the Yankees wild card chances are fading each day, losing seven of their last nine games. And unless there is a winning streak on the horizon, this could get worse before they arrive in Detroit next week to play the Tigers, a team that leads the Yankees by five games for that second wild card.

Girardi said, after this latest disappointing loss, “We got to score more than two runs. We’re just not getting it done.  The bottom line is, we can’t worry about who is in front of us.  We need to play better. If we don’t play better we won’t get there.”

Truth is, the reality is starting to set in.  The Yankees are not looking like a playoff team, nor have they resembled one with 37 games remaining. In their last nine games they are batting .135 with runners in scoring position, going 1-for-9 Tuesday night, and 1-for-8  Wednesday in trying to get runners to score with men on base.

Again, it has become a mission in futility. And at this juncture of the season, with every game having significant meaning, trying to figure out why and why not is not going to produce an answer. You hear, this is baseball and there is still some time to get it going, those words coming in a very quiet Yankees post-game clubhouse.

Girardi is now baffled. He can’t recall a time, either in his playing or managerial career when a team with such prominent names struggled to this magnitude. The scouts who sit up in the press box offer the same opinion, though with a perspective that perhaps the Yankees, overall as a team are pressing.

It has gone so backwards, enough to a point that Girardi was answering questions to a member of the media in the post game about possibly shifting positions in the lineup. Batting, maybe Jeter at cleanup and moving Jacoby Ellsbury to the third spot, and the manager quickly knocked that down.

He is the manager. And apparently a lineup he has, with experience and numbers to prove, should be and is expected to be producing at a better rate. That continues to not happen for any number of reasons that have the baseball experts perplexed. Either the roster on the field is playing below expectations, or these veteran hitters are past their prime and in their final years. The seventh inning continued to support a dilemma that the Yankees can’t seem to figure for themselves.

This time after Pineda left the game, which prompted fans to boo, the bullpen imploded again as it did the night before. The results was working from behind again and failing to get the big comeback hit.

David Huff and Esmil Rogers combined to give up four runs in relief of Pineda that gave away a one-run lead.

After Pineda walked a batter to start the seventh, Huff got an out and gave up a hit.  Rogers gave up five straight singles and the Yankees were behind 5-2.

A highlight of the night was Brett Gardner making a grab of a foul ball as he fell into the stands making a catch over the cement barrier down the left field foul in the ninth inning. He also tried to ignite something with a single to center with two outs in the Yankees ninth. If anything, he has proved to be the MVP of this team. Jeter followed and worked a walk off Jose Veras.

So the tying runs were on for Ellsbury who came to bat after with two singles and two stolen bases on the night. Of course, the futility continued with a fly ball to right and another loss for the Yankees in this stretch of games that should have been in the win column.

Before that, against starter Scott Feldman, whom the Yankees made into a Cy Young Award look alike, Mark Teixeira struck out the first of two times and Brian McCann popped out to end a rally. Gardner ended an inning with runners on second and third, and in the seventh in was Ellsbury again striking out with runners on second and third.  

Bottom line, the Yankees need to play better but time is not on their side as they continue to go backwards.

COMMENT RICH MANCUSO: RING 786@aol.com  Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso  www.newyorksportsexaminer.com

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Quality Start for Michael Pineda but Yankee Pen Fa...

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Quality Start for Michael Pineda but Yankee Pen Fa...: Quality Start for Michael Pineda but Yankee Pen Fails By Howard Goldin BRONX, NEW YORK, AUGUST 21-On Wednesday night, Michael Pineda mad...

Quality Start for Michael Pineda but Yankee Pen Fails

Quality Start for Michael Pineda but Yankee Pen Fails

By Howard Goldin

BRONX, NEW YORK, AUGUST 21-On Wednesday night, Michael Pineda made his second major league start since April 23. On that date, the 25 year old was ejected from the game after 1.2 innings and given a 10-game suspension for possessing a foreign substance.

When his suspension ended, the right-hander was placed on the disabled list with a right shoulder muscle injury. Pineda missed 87 games while on the disabled list.

After two minor league rehab appearances in August, the native of the Dominican Republic was reinstated to the Yankee roster on August 13 to start against the Orioles.

Pineda pitched extremely effectively in Baltimore. He yielded only two hits and one run in five innings. He did not walk a batter, but fanned four. Although he left the game with the Yanks leading, 2-1, the Yankee relievers were unable to save the game for Pineda as the Yanks were defeated by a 5-3 score.

On Wednesday night, Pineda was on the Yankee Stadium mound for the first time since August 16. As in his first three starts of the season in April, Pineda pitched an impressive six innings. He retired the first nine batters he faced in the contest until Robbie Grossman led-off the fourth with a single. With two out, Dexter Fowler doubled to right to knock in the first run of the game.

The only other hits surrendered by the Yankee starter came with two out in the fifth as third sacker Matt Dominguez and left fielder Jake Marisnick singled back-to-back. Grossman was retired on a grounder to end the frame without a score.

Pineda retired all three batters he faced in the sixth.

The only walk he issued was to Jason Castro to lead-off the seventh. Yankee skipper Joe Girardi then removed the starter after he threw his 89th pitch. Unfortunately the move was a mistake that cost the Yankees the victory.

Reliever David Huff struck out Jon Singlerton and then gave up a single to Marwin Gonzalez before Huff departed. The next relief pitcher, Esmil Rogers, yielded four consecutive singles. Before the inning concluded, the Astros scored four runs, which brought the score to 5-2. No further scoring ensued after that half inning. The first run of the frame was charged to Pineda, who thus was not involved in the decision.

Pineda commented about his ability and desire to go further than he was allowed, “I’m feeling good. I had good energy, but I don’t have control for this situation. I want to pitch, but they have control.”

Girardi, while praising Pineda’s performance, explained why he removed the starter, “I thought he was a little tired at the end, but that’s to be expected. We pushed him a little bit, but he gave us a really good performance.”

Pineda has the highest active streak of consecutive starts of giving up six hits or less, 14 games. He has the fourth lowest active career mark of opponents’ batting average with .211. He only trails Jose Fernandez, Matt Harvey and Clayton Kershaw.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Cops Search for Driver in Road Rage Attack

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Cops Search for Driver in Road Rage Attack: Cops Search for Driver in Road Rage Attack Photos by David Greene By David Greene BRONX, NEW YORK, AUGUST 20- A 50-year...

Cops Search for Driver in Road Rage Attack

Cops Search for Driver in Road Rage Attack
Photos by David Greene

By David Greene


BRONX, NEW YORK, AUGUST 20- A 50-year-old woman is fighting for her life after an apparent traffic dispute where witnesses say that after striking the victim, the driver backed his vehicle up and over the fallen victim-- before running her over a third time and driving off.


Officers from the 40th Precinct and paramedics were called to the southbound 

Bruckner Boulevard service road at East 138 Street at just after 1 p.m. on August 18.


The still-unidentified victim was rushed to Lincoln Hospital, one police source stated that the victim suffered severe, "trauma to the body and head."


Late Monday night that source added that police were in the process of releasing video obtained by detectives of the vehicle fleeing the scene. The brief clip of video was released to media outlets the following day.


The source described the vehicle as, "a white sedan, probably a Chevy Impala," with a dark front panel and bumper.


Friends of the victim reported that they were crossing East 138 Street when words were exchanged with a driver who was headed northbound, but made a U-turn.


Seconds before impact witnesses say the victim pushed a male friend out of the way as the driver apparently aimed for the group.


A major thoroughfare, Bruckner Boulevard has been the site of several fatal hit-and-run accidents in the last several years.


On September 15, 2013, Maria Dulce-Valencia, 27, was also struck and killed along the southbound Bruckner Boulevard service road at Evergreen Avenue in Soundview.


Police are believed to still be looking for the driver of the black sedan responsible for Valencia's death.


It was nearly one-year ago when on August 31, 2013, Abigail Lino, 24, was one of dozens of partygoers who fled a nightclub after false claims of gunfire.


Lino was mowed-down along the Bruckner Boulevard service road at Austin Place and she died at the scene.


Police would later capture and charge Leroy Forest, 31, with leaving the scene of a fatal accident.


On April 1, 2013, two men were discovered dead along Bruckner Boulevard and East 138 Street, the site of the latest crash. The driver in that crash remains at large.


Despite being one of the borough's most deadliest roadways, Bruckner Boulevard is not slated to become a "slow zone," with a 25 mile-per-hour speed limit as part of Mayor Bill de Blasio's "Vision Zero" plan.











Anyone with any information on any of the hit-and-run incidents are urged to call investigators at (800) 577-TIPS, all calls remain confidential.




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