About to take a break

vs.

Game 7: April 7, 2008 - 7:05 p.m. ET
Yankee Stadium, New York, N.Y.
Play-by-Play: Michael Kay
Color: Kenny Singleton and John Flaherty

Pregame: Michael Kay decides to go sans tie for the evening and wears a black turtleneck under a brown sports jacket. After a few games of conceding that the first pitch of the game is in fact baseball, Kay goes back to his "lineups, first pitch baseball" routine.

Top first: Kay blends fact with fiction when he says the "Yankees would never (emphasis his) shift like this under Joe Torre."

• He's right that they have been more liberal in employing the shift under Joe Girardi. But David Ortiz comes to mind as a hitter who got Derek Jeter over to the first-base side of second base.

Top second: Kay busts out the ole "home run in a silo" joke on a popout by Willy Aybar. He never loses points for originality. Since the ball was caught in foul territory, wouldn't it be a foul ball in a silo?

Top third: Johnny Gomes hits a solo homer to left field. "A late edition to the lineup, and it pays off."

• Cute, Michael. But he was only in the lineup because Cliff Floyd's knee acted up. If you were listening to yourself from an inning ago or to John Flaherty from earlier this inning -- we tune out too, it's OK -- you would have known that.
  

Commercial: YESterdays looks like a show to miss. Why? It's hosted by Kay. Don't the YES bigwigs get tired of seeing him? No one this side of Joe Buck is more overexposed at a network.

Bottom third: All Kay can come up with for Morgan Ensberg is "made the team out of spring training. Non-roster invitee."

• What about his 2005 with the Astros? What about what he did last season?

Why does Kay say "Hey" before reading the disclaimer that says "This copyrighted telecast ..."? Why does he feel the need to say "aforementioned New York" every time he reads that thing? These are the questions that keep me up at night.

Derek Jeter, who left the game in the third inning, has a "strained left quadricept" as Kay phrases it. Too bad it's "quadriceps," even when it is singular.

Top fifth: Kay tells everyone that Mussina allowed a .347 batting average with two outs and runners in scoring position. "Those are backbreakers." Then he reads a pitch-count graphic.

• That's nice, but Mussina allowed all opponents to hit .311 against him last season. With runners in scoring position, that went up to .316. In the 75 at-bats with RISP in two outs, that number went up a bit. Stop the presses! Maybe Mussina just sucked altogether last season. His ERA was north of 5.00, after all

Bottom fifth: Bad news! Kay isn't going to Kansas City. He's going to take three days off, show up in Boston for one game -- two of the games are on national television -- then, maybe, IF we're lucky, grace us with his presence in Tampa Bay St. Petersburg.

"Let's take this baby to the sixth."

• I just love it when he says that.

Top sixth: Robinson Cano makes an error, but Mike Mussina gets out of the inning. "Mussina avoids trouble because of the E-4."

• I think you meant, "He avoids trouble despite the E-4." Nitpicking? This is the bigs!

Bottom sixth: Kay gets on Bobby Abreu for not running out a ball that turned into a triple. Think that had to do with this?

WHOOOOSH. "Chat with other Yankees fans on YESNetwork.com." The sound effect for that graphic almost made me jump out of my chair.

Bottom seventh: Kay says the Yankees have had four no-hitters since they last had a cycle on Sept. 3, 1995, the date of their last cycle. "Including two perfect games."

• That's three no-hitters by my count: Doc Gooden, David Wells and David Cone.

Top of the ninth: Not the time to identify yourself. Especially with two outs. Game over. On to basketball in earnest.

No fields, fires or oh, what a plays -- remember, Jeter left the game with an injury -- but Kay did owe Juan Rivera an apology for forgetting how many no-hitters the Yankees had thrown.