The Yankees should have lost to the Mets on Friday night and did lose to them on Saturday afternoon. With Johan Santana taking the mound for the Metropolitans Sunday against A.J. Burnett, who kicked off the Yankees’ sweep at the hands of the Red Sox with a stinker in Boston on Tuesday, things looked bleak.
Even after the Yankees put up a four-spot on Santana in the bottom of the second, things continued to teeter as Burnett opened the top of the third by loading the bases. With the bags juiced and none out, Burnett started out 2-0 on Mets’ leadoff hitter Alex Cora, but battled back to 2-2 then got a very generous call on what looked to be a sufficiently checked swing by Cora for strike three. Burnett then struck out rookie Fernando Martinez on four pitches, exposing the phenom’s inexperience with a curve that Martinez missed by several feet for strike three. Carlos Beltran then creamed an 0-1 fastball, but hit it directly at Derek Jeter, who squeezed it for the third out, preserving the Yankees’ 4-0 lead.
Then came the bottom of the fourth. Nick Swisher led off with a walk. Hideki Matsui, DHing over Jorge Posada because of strong career numbers against Santana, drilled fastball into the right-field box seats for a two-run homer that made it 6-0. Melky Cabrera huslted a ball cut off in the right field gap into a double. Francisco Cervelli, catching Burnett to try to get him back on track, beat out an infield single when first baseman Dan Murphy ranged too far to his right, cutting off a grounder that should have gone to the second baseman, then lobbed the ball underhand to Santana preventing him from beating Cervelli to the bag. Derek Jeter reached on another infield single that tipped off Cora’s glove in the shortstop hole, plating Melky and making it 7-0.
At that point Jerry Manuel took Santana out of the game . . .
. . . in the fourth inning . . .
. . . with no one out . . .
. . . and the Mets trailing 7-0.
With Brian Stokes on in relief, the Yankees just kept on hitting. Johnny Damon doubled into the left field corner. Mark Teixeira reached on yet another infield single when Stokes slipped making a play to the third base side of the mound. Alex Rodriguez hit into a near triple-play when Damon made a bad read on Alex’s sinking liner to Cora, but beat out the throw at first, thus allowing Robinson Cano to come to the plate and deliver a rain-maker of a two-run homer. Swisher walked for the second time in the inning. Matsui walked on four pitches. Both scored on Cabrera’s second double of the inning, though Melky finally brought the inning to a close by trying to stretch the hit into a triple.
When the dust cleared, the Yankees were up 13-0 and Santana had allowed a career-high nine earned runs in just three official innings of work. After the game, Santana claimed he just couldn’t find his rhythm and that the Yankees agressiveness at the plate helped keep him off balance. Never mind that the average Yankee batter saw 5.4 pitches in Santana’s 38-pitch second inning, that Santana threw less than 60 percent of his pitches for strikes, or that Santana’s fastball was sitting around 90 miles per hour and toping out at 91.
Whatever the reason, the game was over by the time Santana came out. A.J. Burnett shut the Mets down for seven innings, striking out eight. David Robertson struck out two men in a perfect, 12-pitch eighth, and Phil Hughes struck out two more in a scoreless ninth. Meanwhile, the Yankee subs added two runs in the seventh (Angel Berroa was hit by a pitch, Damon walked, Brett Gardner walked, Ramiro Peña reached on still another infield single plating Berroa, and Cano plated Damon with a sac fly of Ken Takahashi) to set the final score at 15-0.
Just like that, the Yankees won the series in perhaps the most improbable manner possible. They’ll spend Monday taking it easy (Burnett implied that he’ll take his kids to the zoo), then welcome the worst team in baseball, the 16-45 Nationals, for a three-game set starting on Tuesday.
Crisis averted.
Crazy weekend of games!
Watched the Sunday game with AJ, nice rebound. Mets broadcast, Ron Darling is really good. Keith Hernandez..not so good.
Do wins against the Nationals count in the standings? This should be an easy sweep...
Pitching coach says Santana had blisters.
K-Rod v Bruney: would guess this was covered in the game thead..K-Rod can celebrate however he wants, if you don't like it then hit him hard so he can't save it. Bruney should get off the DL and pitch some innings before he comments on good closers.
Wow! They really came fired up yesterday. The embarrassment of Saturday must have really gotten through. They were just so thoroughly out-classed that how could these professionals not respond with their pride still intact? Burnett too. What a solid bunch of professionals. Their manhood was challenged and they responded in roaring fashion. The manager really knows how to fire this team up. He had them prepared for a must win game and they went out and stepped on the throat of a great pitcher.
Of course everything I just said is bullshit. Good win though it looks like Burnett is going to be the most infuriating pitcher since Kevin Brown.
Just a note on Santana's velocity . . .
I've watched many of his starts, and, at least from the graphics posted at the end of each pitch, he tends to top out at 91 normally. So yesterday was not quite an anomaly.
http://www.fangraphs.com/pitchfx.aspx?playerid=755&position=P
When you hear a Yankee use the word zoo, don't you think of Sparky Lyle?
Santana's blisters really pulled the Yanks' fat out of the fire, eh? Nothing like beating the best pitcher in baseball about the head, neck and chest to wash the foul taste of the Boston series away. And Castillo - how could I forget him? Castillo + blisters = no post-Red Sox tailspin this time! Whoopee.
Btw if Posada catching results in Tuesday's performance and Cervelli in Sunday's, I don't think Posada's bat does make up for what he lacks behind the plate.
And just to put a little fly in the ointment of yesterday's big inning vs Santana, Tyler Kepner
Oops - [7] cont'd
Tyler Kepner reminds us
"The Yankees sent up 12 batters, and only one made an out — Alex Rodriguez, who hit into a double play."
Thanks, Tyler!
David Cone, who is really growing on me as a broadcaster, made the point during the game that AJ needs to develop a third pitch so that he can give hitters another look when he can't command his curveball. Cone has impressed me so much over the course of the season with his knowledge of pitching, his willingness to drill down into stats (he often mentions B-R.com), as well as his candor, that I think the Yankees would be wise to hire him in some capacity in which he could actually help the team (assuming he's interested). If they don't, some other team will try.
[8] Right now, Alex's defense is ahead of his offense, which I did not expect.
@ 9
So they gave $85 million to a guy with two pitches?
Sorry, but if Burnett hasn't developed that pitch yet, he's never going to. He's a chucker. I mean, is it really that hard to develop a circle change and throw it at the same slot and speed as the fastball?
Burnett kind of has three pitches, because he throws four seam and a two seam fastballs. Maybe not enough of a difference there, I guess. I wonder if he could work on a change up. An effective change could be devastating with the heat he throws.
@ 11
That's exactly it. But why the hell hasn't he developed that pitch already? I mean how hard is it to put an extra finger on the ball or hold it closer in the palm?
If the guy was a pitcher he would have been tinkering to get it right. It took Moose all of one spring to learn his change up that gave him two solid seasons at the end.
[12] It's entirely possible he's tried and not been able to master it. He's not the sharpest tool in the shed, as as we all know.
@ 13
Do, or do not. There is no try.
If he hasn't done it yet I have exactly zero hope he'll do it ever. It's going to be a looooong five, infuriating years, isn't Ass Juice?
P.s. That's how we also know he's full of shit about Halladay's influence. A pitcher hones his craft. This chucker only knows how to throw it hard. And he'll never change.
I think Halladay's influence is real, it just brought him a step up from being a complete caveman. Burnett is far from a finesse pitcher, but I think he was even worse before ...
@ 16
Too bad that difference didn't show up in Toronto. He was the same he ever was.
[17] Regularly winning is a requirement for Burnett's contract size, but if he goes out and "chucks" 7 innings of shutout against someone like Santana every few, I'm going to have a hard time not being more balanced in my analysis of Burnett.
@18
It all depends. Even with yesterday he's still an average pitcher. Same as it every was. Even last year - supposedly the best of his career - he had an 105 ERA+.
For the money, it was a terrible signing. He's not going to put up above average numbers with any consistency to warrant the contract. Meanwhile, Phil Hughes sits in the pen.
[17] Well the story goes that last year was the year he learned.
@ 20
Except nothing in his stats show he changed - not the big picture or the peripherals. Same as it ever was except now he's making $16.5 million a year for the same inconsistency of chucking it.
Well wasn't it about not getting injured anyway? We'll see.
Oh my God.
Sixteen and forty-five?
That's unspeakably sad.
There ought to be a mercy rule for such teams.
Wow, that's really, really bad.