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August 29, 2005
Huge Game For Jason Giambi Yesterday
Jason Giambi had a monster July which led to him being named player of the month but August was a pretty weak month for Giambi at the plate. However, lately he's been showing some signs of life at the plate and yesterday he broke out of his 4-38 slump in a major way, going 3-3, hitting two homeruns and knocking in 7 RBI in a 10-3 Yankee win over the Kansas City Royals. Those 7 RBI tied a career high for Giambi, the last time he did that being back in 2000. But Giambi didn't just help the Yankees win, he achieved some personal milestones at the same time. Giambi's three run homerun in the third inning gave him 1,000 RBI for his career. In addition his fifth inning two-run homerun gave him 1,500 hits.
Giambi didn't even realize he had achieved either of these things until Joe Torre congratulated him in the dugout and he wondered why. Often big-time players are accused of being selfish, caring only about individual statistics. But a player who doesn't even realize that he has reached those career milestones is a player to whom individual stats aren't very important. All Giambi wants to do is go out there and help his team win which he's struggled to do in August. But perhaps this is a sign that September could be a different story.
While watching the sports report on the news last night they played a clip of an interview Giambi did after the game and he said that during August he had been bothered by tendonitis in his elbow so bad that it necessitated a shot of what was presumably cortisone a few days ago. That caused the pain to diminish, if not go away completely, and I would guess that's why Giambi has suddenly looked so much better at the plate the past few games. That interview was the first time I heard it mentioned that Giambi had been experiencing pain in his elbow and I'd say that's another example of the Yankees doing what many teams do which is play it coy about injuries. But hopefully Giambi's elbow won't be much of a factor for him for the rest of the season.
If the Yankees keep on playing the way that they are now they might very well end up in the post-season, something that I wasn't sure would happen just a few weeks ago. What I'd really love would be for Giambi to come up big in the post-season and show a few doubters that he can still get it done both in the regular season and when the games are ultra-important.
Posted by silverdsl at August 29, 2005 02:35 PM