FREDDIE GETS FOXXED

Two years ago it looked as if Freddie Garcia was going to be one the star pitchers in the AL for a long time, but he struggled last year, and last night took it on the chin again, as the Yanks pounded him for nine runs in the third inning, on route to a 16-5 win over the Mariners.

According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

What was so baffling about Garcia’s terrible outing is that other than the results, it wasn’t all that bad. By all accounts he had great stuff, had command of all his pitches and didn’t lose his cool. When Garcia struggles, that usually means home runs, yet he gave up only one extra-base hit, a double.

“In the bullpen I was warming up, and I was like, ‘This is my day today,’ ” said Garcia, who fell to 3-4, 5.40. “I had good stuff, good velocity, everything going, and then in one moment, it disappeared.”

“The kid got hit,” pitching coach Bryan Price said. “I don’t think he nibbled, I think he went after ’em. They hit his mistakes and they hit them hard.”

The U.S.S. Mariner reports:

What an ugly game that was. Long, cold, and painful. From a fan’s perspective, Garcia seems to self-destruct so completely it’s difficult to believe. Fans are starting to boo him now, and there were a bunch of fans behind me who carped about him for innings after he left — standard stuff, he’s overpaid, see below, but also that he needs to go to the minors to work things out… which may be something to watch, now that I think about it — the Mariners have a long history of abusing the DL and rehab assignments when they need to make someone disappear and in this case, possibly collect juicy insurance money.

Here’s hoping the Yanks still have some runs left in their bats, because they are headed for Oakland, and the three-headed monster that is: Hudson, Zito, Mulder.