Tommy John is famous for two things, the elbow surgery that saved his career and which is now named for him (Tommy John Surgery) and being a soft-toss control-minded groundball pitcher.
Jon Lieber is now 3-1 for the Yankees and has two wins over the Angels. Tonight he induced 14 groundball outs (including the key DP in the fifth) and struck out only two. Lieber is a control, groundball pitcher who sat out last season recovering from Tommy John Surgery. The Yanks signed him to a two-year contract before last season with full knowledge he'd miss all of 2003 because he'd be insurance for 2004. He's been even better than that so far.
Four notes, all bad: Arod is 0-20 with two outs and runners in scoring position; Jeter is 0-17 after an earlier 0-32 streak; Bernie Williams AGAIN honked with a runner on third and less than two out in a key situation; and despite their 4-2 win, the Yanks had only 7 hits and left 14 men on base thanks to 10 BB and their usual weak hitting (the Yanks are dead last in MLB in hitting with runners in scoring position and 2 outs).
But they won and had their third straight GOOD start from the starting pitcher, something that has not happened in three weeks or so.
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