Yankees two-hit in Texas
ByIt was bound to happen at some point. After avoiding it for the first five-plus months of the season the Yankees were swept in a three game series this weekend. None of the games was particularly inspiring. They were in all of them and scored their season-average number of runs across the first two games, but bullpen woes meant that no lead was safe. Moseley took one on the nose in this one, though he pitched as well as the Yankees could have expected. Cliff Lee made it all moot, though, as he had trouble with just one Yankees hitter in his eight-plus-inning, one-run auditionperformance.
Best photo of Jeter available (AP Photo/Brandon Wade)
Rather than dwell on the team’s poor hitting in this one, let’s look at the one bright spot. Derek Jeter came to the plate four times and had four excellent at-bats. The rest of the team had maybe one among them. In those four plate appearances Jeter saw 27 pitches, or just a hair under quarter the number Lee threw all game. That’s all the more impressive considering his third PA, a double that drove in the Yankees’ lone run, lasted just one pitch. The first and last were nine pitches and resulted in walks. The second lasted eight pitches and ended with a ground out.
Jeter went 1 for 2 with two walks and an RBI double against Lee. The rest of the lineup went 1 for 25 with one walk. This might not be Jeter’s finest season, but yesterday he looked like an All-Star while the rest of the team tripped and stumbled towards the end of the series. If he starts looking like this more often it could lend some consistency to the offense down the stretch and into the playoffs.
(AP Photo/Brandon Wade)
Dustin Moseley deserves some credit, too. He has thrown just 10 pitches since August 30, but he kept the Yankees in this one. Through six he was downright excellent, almost matching Cliff Lee frame for frame.
Moseley through 6: 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
C, Lee through 6: 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
That all changed in the seventh, of course. Moseley had thrown just 79 pitches through six, and Girardi “loved the way he was throwing the baseball.” But his first seven pitches resulted in a walk, and considering his like workload in the past two weeks a move might have made sense there. Moseley did get the next two guys, but thanks to a smart tag-up at first by Ian Kinsler the Rangers were able to capitalize on a single. A stolen base and another single ended the day for Moseley.
The Yanks now fly to Tampa and try to escape this week-long funk. They’ll have their best guy give it a go tomorrow night, but it will be ace against ace.
21 Comments»
RAB Info
The Founders
Mike Axisa, Ben Kabak, Joe Pawlikowski
Editor-In-Chief
Mike Axisa Archives | Email
Managing Editors
Ben Kabak Archives | E-mail
Joe Pawlikowski Archives | E-mail
Contributing Editors
Larry Koestler (Archives)
Moshe Mandel (Archives)
Eric Schultz (Archives)
Weekend Writers
Hannah Ehrlich (Archives)
Matthew Warden (Archives)
Special Contributor
J.R. O'Grady (Archives)
Technical Consultant
Jay Gordon
Subscribe to RAB by RSS
Follow @RiverAveBlues
Search RAB
Yankees News from YESNetwork.com
- Yankees acquire Reid Brignac from Rockies
- Kuroda proving he's one of baseball's best
- Joe Girardi's confidence helping Yankees rookies seize their opportunity
- Postgame Notebook: Yanks holding out for a Hiro
- Kuroda pitches eight scoreless innings to carry Yankees past Blue Jays in series opener
- Managing a steady stream of injuries, Girardi's creative lineups powering Yankees
- MRI shows no structural damage to Stewart's groin
- Joba takes all precautions as return to mound nears
- Veteran fill-ins playing huge role as Yankees hit quarter pole
- Postgame Notebook: Yankees add more injuries to insult in 3-2 loss to the Mariners
Banner Design By
The Tyler Austin Watch
Go NYY – get ‘er done!!!
This week sucked. Let’s hope we win six in a row. Hell I’d be happy with being .500 this week. Just as long as we see some offensive consistency.
The first inning DP by Granderson basically defined the whole game.
Meh.
what do you guys think about the yanks’ pursuit of lee this winter? I can’t help but think about the lee’s age, 32, and offering a multi year deal. we’re kind of burned on burnett, who knows if he’ll bounce back from this. it seems like hes dealing with age effects, his velocity has been down this year. burnett is 33, a year older than lee. they’re two pretty different pitchers but you can’t help but wonder how many dominating years lee has left.
He does scare me as having a fairly small frame and maybe not holding up but he did have a couple of years off basically when he was hurt so maybe his arm will hold up longer. Also, the real problem is if not Cliff Lee…then who? We’ll have CC and Hughes next year. Other than that it’s an inconsistent and under performing Burnett and MAYBE Pettitte. That leaves us with 2 reliable starters and maybe 3. And one of those is going to be 25 while the other is close to 40. I guess we could try and package Gardner with some prospects to get a high end SP and then sign Werth/Crawford and that might be less expensive and get us a younger staff. Who all would be available that we would want though?
Considering the state of the Yanks rotation beyond this year, I say Lee is a risk the Yanks will easily be willing to take. They were even willing to trade Montero for him earlier this year.
Javy is gone. AJ is essentially a back end starter at this point. Pettitte could retire at any minute. Hughes is still a bit of a question mark as to what his true ability is (I obviously love his potential and how he pitched overall for the year, but he is young and has dropped off as the year has progressed). Joba, Nova and other minor league guys could only be counted on for back end type production. And of course, thank the baseballs gods for CC.
The thing with Cliff Lee though is that he isn’t dependent upon velocity. He is a control pitcher, control pitchers generally age better. I bet he would still be a very good pitcher if his velocity dropped down to 89.
Lee is a total beast, he’s a LHP, and my gut says the Yankees will go after him according to plan. There’s an injury risk with any contract, of course.
Lee will basically be Dallas Braden minues the douchiness in 5 or 6 years. I’m fine with that.
This series just came at a bad time. Everyone, except A-Rod and Thames/Berkman, in the starting lineup is mired in a minor or somewhat major slump over at least the past week. 7 starters have a sub-.700 OPS over the past week, 6 have a sub-.600 OPS, and 5 have a sub-.536 OPS.
If you want it even more in-depth, 2 starters have a sub-.500 OPS. Jeter is .429 over the past week and Grandy is at .388 (though he has a couple of hard outs lately).
(This does not include today’s game).
not to mention we threw our 3 worst starters
I’ve been saying for a while that I expect Derek to have a good enough playoffs that it will at least leave a good taste in our mouths at the end of the year, if not overwhelming confidence for the future
Now, my fear is the rest of the team might be at the point where Derek’s good playoffs lasts all of five games, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it
Now that dreadful series is history, I hope the Bombers live true their name and destroy some Tampa pitching. I won’t be able to watch em because I’ll be on away business all week, I’ll be rocking the NYY cufflinks and a jersey every opportunity and checking the RAB gametreads for updates. I expect a series sweep in Tampa but a series win would be just as sweet!
I smell a lot of home runs today, the Yankees are about due for a couple.
I agree, I practice the technique of something I refer to as positive visualization. Jeter will go 5-5 with 4 Jeterian hits and a lead off HR off Price, Grandy will homer off a tough lefty while picking up 2 doubles. Big things popping today in Tampa!
I like it.
(Closes eyes)
What about war and famine ? Whatcha got ?
Not much else, hard ______ and bubble gum, and I just chewed my last stick, know where I’m coming from?
Worst. Series. Ever.
Wow, no one could have seen Cliff Lee breaking out of his AJ-esque slump against the Yankees could they? What a surprise!
And it was nice of Joe to trot out the C- lineup.
Dear Yankees, please wake the fuck up. Thanks.
I’m very glad that I was too busy this weekend to actually watch any game after Friday’s loss. Friday’s game just killed me because I knew it was over when Gaudin came out for a second inning.