Another day, another loss: Yanks drop fourth in a row
BySame shit, different day. The Yankees lost their fourth straight game on Saturday night, getting shut out for the fourth time this season and the second time by Josh Beckett. To make matters worse, Jorge Posada pulled himself out of the lineup for reasons that vary depending on who you ask. Neither the team nor Jorge needed the distraction, but that’s another post for another time.
"I just want to take my hands and put them around my entire team's neck just like this, all 25 of 'em at the same time. Is that too much to ask? I don't think it's too much to ask." (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
The Ugly Line That Wasn’t
When everyone looks back at this start in the future and sees 6.2 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 1 WP, 1 HB, they’re going to think Sabathia sucked. But through six innings the Yankees’ ace had held the Red Sox to just two runs on four hits and two walks, which is exactly the kind of start we’re accustomed to seeing out of CC. But a wild pitch, a blown call on what should have been strike three to Jason Varitek, a bobble by Nick Swisher, and a homerun allowed on his 116th and final pitch of the night uglified his line and put a game that was essentially out of reach even further out of reach. That seventh inning ruined what was a valiant effort by the big guy.
Sabathia retired a dozen in a row after allowing the first two runners of the game to reach base, emphatically striking out the side (not in order) to escape the jam in the first. I was ready to flip when they intentionally walked Dustin Pedroia to load the bases for Adrian Gonzalez later on, but a routine double play showed why I’m just some schmuck that writes a blog instead of managing a team. The homerun was unfortunate, but I have a hard time hanging this loss on just CC.
(AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Runs? Where They’re Going, They Don’t Need Runs!
Hitless in ten at-bats with men in scoring position and ten runners left on base. Just par for the course these days. The first two Yankees reached base in the first inning, then the next three batters went down like wimps. Red Sox pitchers (mostly Beckett) struck out the leadoff batter in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh innings, so the Yankees didn’t even put the ball in play and give themselves a chance to reach base. Batting average with men in scoring position isn’t the be all, end all stat, but they have four singles and a double in 39 at-bats with men on second and/or third during this four game suckfest.
The only batter in the Yankees’ lineup to get two hits and/or not strike out at all was Curtis Granderson, who is pretty much the only player worth watching right now. Alex Rodriguez took yet another 0-for-4, and the 5-9 hitters combined for three singles and a walk in 20 trips to the plate. Andruw Jones struck out three times, Robinson Cano twice, A-Rod twice, and Tex twice. At least the first baseman busted out of an 0-for-30 slump against the Red Sox with a dinky little seeing-eye single back up the middle in garbage time. I could go on about the terrible offense, but I’d just be repeating myself from the last few days.
Leftovers
What the hell is Fox trying to do by having Sarah Silverman in the booth while promoting Paul Simon’s music between innings? What’s the target audience there? And is anyone more outdated that Tim McCarver? Every reference that guy makes is to something that happened when there were just 48 states in the union. Relevant information, please.
The Yankees have lost four in a row, obviously, but they’ve also lost eight of their last 11 and have been outscored 54-41 in the process. They’ve dropped six of the last seven against the Red Sox, and eleven of their last 16. The next three pitchers they face? Jon Lester, David Price, and the awesome version of Jamie Shields. These next three days could get ugly.
WPA Graph & Box Score
MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs the other stuff.
Up Next
Another ESPN Sunday Night Game, which is what, the fourth of the season? It’s at least the third, I’m sure of that. Freddy Garcia gets the ball against Lester, so maybe reverse lock laws will apply. One thing to remember: a team is never as good as it looks on its best days or as bad as it looks on its worst. The Yankees are better than this, I promise you.
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Sarah Silverman is a Masshole.
I can say that, because there’s an M there.
You know what was great about that segment?
McCarver didn’t say a damned thing.
The bad thing is that Buck kept talking and that Silverman came off as a complete idiot. Of which I always suspected her to be in the first place.
You know what was great about that segment?
May I sub-respond before you finish?
You’re right. The choice of language was too strong.
Allow me to correct that to read “you know what was 5% amusing/tolerable but still 95% unwatchable about that segment?”
?You know what was great about that segment??
That I could switch to Chinese and not listen to any of the junk they were saying? And our commentators actually ripped Fox for pulling this kind of s***. Funny stuff~
She brings out the best in Joey Buck: did you hear that confession of nervousness in dealing with America’s First Lady of MassComedy, how happy he was that Fcx didn’t need to employ its 20 second delay? She’s so jazzy, so Lenny Bruce, so French female armpits… I knew I loathed that New Hampshire trash mouth for some reason. But I digress…
Tonight is about ugly as it gets (game & posada/cashman incident included) Tomorrow will be a brighter day. Wait what’s that? It’s going to rain till next Saturday? F’in A
One thing to remember: a team is never as good as it looks on its best days or as bad as it looks on its worst. The Yankees are better than this, I promise you.
You positive posse pansy.
Now, now. I’ve seen Mike break down and make some negative comments during the last couple game threads.
It’d be hard not to criticize the types of games we’ve been watching, every team has its struggles. The Yankees need just one person to get hot to carry them, unfortunately it hasn’t happened yet.
Oh, I know, I’m getting frustrated, too. I just don’t feel like articulating it all the time.
That whole Jorge episode has left me between a rock and a hard place. Jorge Posada is my favorite Yankee because of all the great seasons and moments he had which went generally unnoticed and unappreciated because of being in the shadows of players like Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. But his struggles along with his “hissy fit” fiasco are no good for this team at all. I believe his time in the Bronx is almost through which makes me very sad. At least we have Jesus Montero to look forward to. Unless Cashman trades him of course.
A change is needed.
Dynamite the stadium?
Blowing up the team…taken to a new level.
I like it. Let’s do it.
Jesus.
I think Sarah Silverman is kinda hot.
The team will rebound, but the future looks interesting. Looks like Cashman is going to take the role of bad cop from here on out.
Worst offense in the American League.
not even.
today? yeah, sure.
Seriously, people. They’re called “qualifying statements”. Learn how to use them and people will disagree with your assertions less.
If I said “Dustin Pedroia is tall”, you’d call me batshit insane, and you’d be right to do so. If I said “Dustin Pedroia is tall when compared to Herve Villechaise and Verne Troyer”, you’d say “Sure, by a few inches.” And then we’d all have a good laugh and maybe a few Pinstripe Tampa Light Limes™.
And then we playthe game.
OOps
A few teams got goose-egged with less hits today.
If you mean the only team in the AL to not field a .300 batter today, then you’d be factually accurate.
You slump as a team you get hot as a team. At least everybody is sucking at the same time.
i haven’t felt this gloomy about our chances of winning the world series since 5/14/09
this season is turning out like a lot of us suspected: an awesomely unpredictable roller coaster full of unscripted drama
garcia vs lester = reverse lock
This is the worst you’ve felt about the Yanks in two years? That’s a bit rough.
2009 ended well. just reminding myself that october is still a ways off
I think it’s valid. I’m pretty sure our next fan confidence poll is going to reflect dkidd’s opinions. A lot of gloom around this team, right now, and moving forward.
To mention a few… player age, some farm system questions, bullpen inconsistencies, cashman’s nack for shoving his foot in his mouth, changed player perception of organization given recent mistreatment of yankees by organization
Italics.
I say, release A-Rod, Teixeira, and Sabathia, trade Montero, Cano, all three Killer B’s, Slade Heathcott, and our #1 2011 pick for Lance Berkman. Trade Granderson for Joe Blanton, bench Jeter and bring back Enrique Wilson, fire Girardi and name Posada the new manager. We are seriously running out of time. It’s May 15th already!! What the heck is Cashman waiting for??
You know what I think?
So many go to bed hungry in this nation, yet cat food is full of tuna. I can’t help but think each time I go to the zoo and see those porpoises, crammed into those tiny tanks, what a waste that is. Butcher half of them now! That’s hundreds of pounds of dolphin meat that can be fed to our cats, freeing up that tuna for our nation’s hungry.
Yeah the team’s in a bad spot. They weren’t anywhere near as good as they were April. They’ve managed to waste a shitload of good starts by AJ, Bartolo, and Sweaty Freddy. Pretty soon those good starts will stop coming, those three dudes are on borrowed time as it is. It doesnt help that the whole team is in a slimp, but they’ll need to make a few acquisitions at the deadline to make October.
One interesting note on Sabathia: He’s won 3 games this year, and in them he got 15, 12, and 12 runs. He’s 0-3 with 3 NDs in his other 6 starts, though the team is 2-4. Those numbers jive with what my eyes have been seeing, which is that CC hasn’t pitched as well as his ERA suggests, and also that he has seemed to have issues pitching in close games. Plus, his two truly great starts were against the completely punchless Orioles, and even those games had some bad signs–major location issues in the Soriano meltdown game, and early tiring in the blowout in B’more.
I’m not all that worried about CC, as he usually takes a while to get going every year anyway, but the fact remains that a team shouldn’t have to score 12 runs to win with its ace on the mound.
our offense hasn’t picked him up at all.
In the ND: 6 innings 3 runs 2 er
7 innings 0 runs
6.1 innings 4 runs
In the losses:
5.2 innings 1 run
7 innings 4 Runs
6.2 innings 6 runs (today)
So aside from this game, his losses and ND are basically our offense sucking it up bad. in every game except this one he as pitched well enough to win or at least keep us in the game.
The offense pisses me off, but it will come around.
In my opinion, though, the sloppy defense is a concern. That was the #1 defense last year?
Defense isn’t something that suddenly gets ‘hot.’
I see a lot of misplays by Cano this year. Lack of concentration/mental preparation in the field, or just making simple mistakes? Either way, we need Cano deference of 2010 back.
jorge is lieing his ass off.
quiter.. slighted to bat 9th. what a friggin ungrateful clown.
retire you fool……………..
pooor jorge feels demeaned, get a real job you jack a–….
I have seen pissy attitude outbursts from Posada in the past so I wasn’t surprised by Jack Curry’s tweet at all.
Sweet poem, man.
I understand Posada’s reasons for playing the sick card, because I did it a few times in high school, when school was unbarable. But unlike me, it’s his JOB to be on the field playing.
He should have simply appologized and move on. This just makes him look worse.
Tiger Mom say go to school.
You know what would be awesome? If Montero was called up on the 21st which is the day the crazy preacher people are saying will be judgement day. Jesus has risen
Posada won’t play against Lester or Price so this story should quiet down especially if we get dominated by those 2 pitchers.
It wouldn’t be much of a story for Posada to play and get his first hit against a lefty. The guy will definitely crack if that becomes chum for the press.
Playing in Tampa may be a good time to call it quits since it is close to his home.
Andy knew when to get out. One or two year contracts after age 35 please.
Just taking advantage of the italics freebee
The scariest part of this game for me (besides McCarver and Buck and the very painful to watch Silverman segment), was the fact that when he needed a back up DH, against a tough righty, Joe’s only option was Andruw Jones? Also, If I was KLong, I don’t know if I’d be doing book interviews on national TV when my team was getting shut out for the 12th game in a row. Just sayin…
Silverman was so bad. If she can’t curse, what does she have left? She could barely articulate and the “LSD for pitchers comment”…..
wow
A-Rod for MVP!
Sarah is way hot! I love sexy Jewish women like her.
oy vey
She’s relatively attractive but in my view, a really unfunny comedian that probably got by more because of said attractiveness mixed with vulgarity than any actual talent.
Yeah, I know where you’re coming from…like going down on Golda Meir.
Tonight is it for us. We can’t get swept in our own ballpark. You’ve got player quitting on the manager, 3-9 hitters who can’t hit a lick, and supposed ace pitchers who haven’t put a good outing together in a month. Either Freddy stops the bleeding tonight or we are in danger of losing 7 straight as the Rays are up next.
1-5 so far on this homestand…yeah that’s not good at all.
Weather kinda crappy in thr tri-state area…anyonelse hoping for a rainout?
Also, Buck is so stupid. “Red Sox are in game 2 of a stretch of 20 consecutive games in 20 days.”
Is there a way to play 20 consecutive games in 21 days?
Hoping for a rainout? No, absolutely not.
Amidst all the doom and gloom-which is justified-we are still in second place and ahead of the Sox!
That may be true for the moment but the the ship sure is taking on water.
There are peaks and valleys to every season. Certainly even the positive results this year have looked better than the process, which is somewhat concerning. Still, it’s a marathon and not a sprint. They could lose 7 straight, play middling baseball for a few weeks and then storm back. They could also kick it into gear or merely be up-and-down with a few bursts of highs and a few of lows. I think it’s still too early to put much stock into this.
The situation with Jorge is getting really ugly. I hope both sides calm down.