Raz was wonderful, but he could have been awful. He threw some bad pitches, but the horrendous Mariners offense coupled with the fact that they didn’t know him really helped him.

So I’m fine with Girardi pulling him, especially with an off day. Raz is probably most effective as a spot-starter type guy, that way he maintains that element of the unknown with teams that allows him to win games with “smoke and mirrors.”

I went out for some yardwork from innings 6-9 and when I came back the contest had just ended with Mo getting the final out. It was 8-2 when I checked in last, and I thought maybe Seattle had slammed Ohlendorf & Farnsworth for 4-5 runs with Mo being in there and the way Sterling was belting out his ‘Yankees win’ catchphrase like it was Game 5 in 2000.

Yeesh.

if a start by igawa doesn’t say “this team needs another starter,” i don’t know what does. i’ll keep hoping otherwise, but i expect him to get punished by that detroit offense.

what is interesting now is this “race” to find another high-performing starter or reliever. meaning, with hughes out until ~july and kennedy stumbling, this team will need to find a quality addition to the rotation (if joba stays in the pen) or pen (if joba successfully converts), and they’ll need to do this by late july, else be forced to make a deadline trade. the chances that hughes or kennedy fills that role in the rotation look slim now. but it’s frustrating to be looking at ohlie, farnsy, albaladejo, edwar, rasner, igawa etc. for the answer. longshots, those.

Face it — it’s gonna’ be Quest and it’s likely to be ugly.

and every inning he soaks up IS valuable, even if he isn’t an elite set-up guy.