My good friend Steven Goldman called Tuesday night’s loss to the Rangers the most annoying game of the year due to Joba Chamberlain’s struggles with two outs and the botched Nick Swisher bunt that appeared to kill the ninth-inning rally. Having held off on assigning that title, I’ll slap it on Wednesday afternoon’s contest.
What do you imagine the final score would be of a game in which A.J. Burnett struck out a season-high 12 Rangers and allowed just two hits, and the Yankees put 14 men on base? Would you believe 7-2 Rangers?
The Yankees staked Burnett to an early 1-0 lead when Johnny Damon walked, stole second, and scored on a Mark Teixeira single in the bottom of the first. Burnett responded by retiring the first 11 men he faced. Then, suddenly, with two outs in the fourth, he walked Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz and gave up a three-run home run to Ian Kinsler on a first-pitch fastball.
That was the game. After Damon scored, Rangers starter Dustin Nippert walked six more men, but the Yankees stranded three in the first, one in the second, two in the third, two in the fourth, two in the seventh, and two in the ninth, scoring just one more run along the way.
All together, the Yankees went 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position, both hits coming off the bat of Mark Teixeira, who singled Jeter home in the fourth. The Yankees drew eight walks, but didn’t manage a single extra-base hit, and two of their six singles didn’t leave the infield. They also struck out ten times, three each against Nippert (in 3 2/3 innings), Jason Grilli (in 2 1/3), and lefty C.J. Wilson (in 2), and once against closer Frank Francisco in the ninth.
Burnett left after six innings and 105 pitches, yeilding a 3-2 deficit to Phil Coke. Coke’s first three batters doubled, bunted for a hit, and homered, boosting the Texas lead to 6-2. The home run, by lefty Chris Davis, was the sixth Coke has surrendered to a lefty this year. Coke has otherwise dominated southpaw batters (.196 average, .224 OBP), but the nine home runs he’s allowed this year to batters of all types have given him a Farnsworthy rate of 1.57 HR/9, moving him ahead of the broken Chien-Ming Wang as the most homer-prone pitcher to throw more than 40 innings for the Yankees this year.
The Rangers scored all seven of their runs on homers in this game, with Kinsler rubbing it in with a two-out, 1-2 solo homer off David Robertson in the eighth to set the final score. Meanwhile, over the final five innings, the Yankees managed just a walk and two singles, only one of which left the infield.
With that, the Yankees dropped a series at home for the first time since the Nationals were in town in mid-June. It was just the second series loss for the Yankees since the All-Star break. The other was to the White Sox, who come into town on Thursday having salvaged the final game of a four-game set against Boston on Wednesday to protect the Yankees six-game lead.
I think that was actually Coke's sixth homer given up to a lefty this year
Cano just missed breaking the game open with the bases loaded.
Sox lost. Angels losing 2-0 T7. Fug it.
[2] If this day can just take a day off the calendar, I think it can be a net positive.
[1] Yeah, it was. Fixed. And agreed [2]. Really just ticking off the days now . . .
If the Yanks claim Brad Penny then I will beat Mattpat11 to establishing http://www.firebriancashman.com
[5] Oh no, didn't know someone already started the site!
mmmm, cybersquating
Why is Coke on the roster? We coulda had Nick Green!
"Burnett left after six innings and 105 pitches, yeilding a 3-1 deficit to Phil Coke. Coke’s first three batters doubled, bunted for a hit, and homered, boosting the Texas lead to 6-1. "
i think those scores should be 3-2 and 6-2....otherwise, solid recap. thanks.
Coke should not pitch important innings.
Are we still blaming Posada for pitch selection?
While Penny is not a guy I like, I don't think you can bash Cashman for TSAWSWS (Throwing Shit Against the Wall and Seeing What Sticks). These moves all involve basically no cash and have little to no commitment.
You really never know. Either Hinske or JHJr could have been worthless, but by RCNB, they have both helped out. You just never know when SmallChacon syndrome might take place.
I never buy Lotto tickets... it's a waste of money. But you want to give me a ticket for free? What the hell... I'll play.
You never know with injuries. It could come down to Penny or Igawa. (One bad Penny vs. another).
I think these 2 games epitomize a lot of what we have seen from our Yankees.
1) Whether it's a 2 run or 5 run deficit, these guys have an amazing ability to rally to the point of looking like it's an amazing comeback Win, and then juuuuuuust fall short, leaving the tying run in scoring position. We've seen this many times... no?
(although, this year they have won a number of games when behind, so maybe complaining ain't fair)
2) An amazing ability for our entire team to hit worse then Nick Green (the pitcher) with RISP. Yes, we have a great OBP team, so there will be a lot of guys who are on base.... but still.... we can just really suck and getting them home. One top of that, we do not make productive outs (moving guys over and sacrificing them in to score).
While Swisher is our worse hitter (for average), I'm happy to see him up during a rally. Swish is HAPPY to walk. If he makes an out, it's usually on a hittable pitch. Conversely, you can always count on Melky and Cano to be overanxious and swing at pitches out of the zone.
I believe the main philosophy of Ted Williams hitting style was to wait for a good pitch... a good, hittable pitch. If only Cano and Melky got this, we would have a truly unbeatable lineup. With a .345 and .328 OBP, they are both wasting their talent.
Here's what I would do.
I would show them a replay of every one of their ABs after the game. For every swing at a pitch out of the Zone (except nasty curves/sliders that could fool anyone), I fine them serious money (maybe Cano 5k and Melky 2k), and let them know when they reach a certain point, they are traded. These 2 need 'tough love'.
Penny still throws 97. Can he really be worse than Gauditre?
[11] I "blame" Posada for one thing: not being able to block pitches in the dirt.
[9] Fixed, thanks.