Late night, another loss

May 29, 2011 by Mike Axisa 78 Comments

309084452 — At least Miguel Olivo did that.

The Yankees had multi-run leads against Michael Pineda and Felix Hernandez in the last two games, and they lost both. The days of pounding bullpens are apparently long gone, as they again couldn’t touch the various cast-offs Eric Wedge called upon after Hernandez was out of the game. The Yankees had their chances, but they again just refused to capitalize. Oh, and Ivan Nova is terrible. Same story, different day. They suck*.

(box) (WPA graph)

* Right now.

stuart a

same story different day. offense is totally inept.

tex swung 3 and 0 in the 9th or 10 with 1 out and grounded out weakly to 2nd and no one see’s anything a matter with that logic.

jeter did nothing with runners in scoring position for a change. jeter has 3 more years on his gift contract.

arod sucks, posada should retire, swisher is lost…

this offense is the most overrated in baseball.

also the lose of feliciano hurts a ton…..they are short 1 pen arm for sure.
- Thomas Cassidy
  
  It’s not an overrated offense. They are just playing like shit. Also, at least Tex didn’t pop it up.
- It’sATarp
  
  Arods sucks..yet he still is the second best player on our team in terms of WAR and has the highest BA on our team…The bottom of our order did shit, the management needs to get their heads out their asses and call up Jorge Vazquez or Montero to give a spark to the offense since swisher, posada and Jeter are playing terribly.
- http://danielslifka.wordpress.com Jerome S.
  
  The offense doesn’t suck… they were playing Felix friggin’ Hernandez…
Thomas Cassidy

Never quite understand why they always bring Rivera in when it’s not a save situation. He always gives up runs then. Am I the only person who would use Rivera last in a non save situation?
- Oeld
  
  No, there are plenty of other people out there that would also make terrible managers.
  - Thomas Cassidy
    
    Joe Girardi and Jorge Posada for Ozzie Guillen. Posada would be their second best hitter, haha.
    - Gonzo
      
      Seriously, I know a SF fan that would love to take Posada of of Girardi’s hands. JoPo would never ok it though.
- David N
  
  I’m not sure I feel any better with Pendleton in the game. And it wasn’t like Rivera got smacked around. Those things happen, but they’re magnified when your offense is getting fewer hits with RISP than there are opposing fans running on the field.
  
  But what I really want to know is: if Girardi was fine using Robertson and Joba to combine for three innings tonight, why not last night when there was actually a lead to protect?
- Evan3457
  
  That’s the 4th time this year when Rivera was used in a tie game. First time he’s allowed a run.
bonestock94

I guess its a good thing the past 2 games haven’t worked with my schedule
Jenny

gawd, aRod left 5 runs on base.
MikeD

Glad I was out and didn’t see *most* of the game. Unfortunately, I turned my TV on just in time to see Cust bloop a double down the leftfield line. Have no idea what happened before, and I don’t think I care…right now.
Zack

ANother complete joke of a game, from our offense, to our SP that can’t hold a lead against one of the WORST offensive teams in the league,it truly is going to be a long and ugly year.
stuart a

arod was late on a pauley 84 mph fastball.

arod was flat footed on some of his swings…i thought he was going to dominate this year, he looks bad..

the whole offense is offensive… this team unless something changes is just not that good that is the bottom line.

grandy is the only guy on offense meeting or exceeding and jeter , jorge , nad swisher have fallen off totally. ALso 1 of those guys hits 1st and is hitting under 150 with risp…
- It’sATarp
  
  Arod has been .386 in his last 10 games (including this one) give this guy a break for having one really terrible game. Prior to the injury he was the best player in baseball…better than bautista, after the injury he went through a prolonged slump and recently gotten out of it altho he could walk some more…
  
  I do agree with some of you other points tho.
  - dalelama
    
    That is the softest .386 ever, how many infield dribbler singles has he had in the last ten games? One game I think he had three.
    - It’sATarp
      
      He hit 3 infield hits vs the mets, one vs baltimore, But he also has had 9 line drives in the last 10 games. (vs only 4 in his prolonged slump of 15 games when he returned) So he has been hitting the ball with some authority. The only thing that hasn’t improved his ability to put the ball over the fence and walk rates as of now…So that’s something to look out for.
BigBlueAL

Im a bit worried that maybe in this new “era” of baseball where its more about pitching and defense than offense that this Yankee team is not constructed in a way to be a great team.

I still expect to win 90 games which this year could be more than enough to win the WC at the least but I cant see this team being as successful in the regular season as the 2009 and 2010 Yankees were.
- David N
  
  Pitching hasn’t been the problem, though – overall, the staff has been doing their job. There aren’t too many teams that can get by with only scoring four or five runs a night and do well enough to make the playoffs.
  - BigBlueAL
    
    Only 2 teams in the AL are scoring 5 runs per game and the Yankees are one of them (them and the Indians just barely average 5 runs per game).
    
    Thats the thing teams now are just averaging between 4 and 5 runs a night so thats how you have to win games.
    
    The Yankees are in the top half in the AL in runs allowed so far but they arent built to win games with pitching and defense, even less so now that Hughes and Soriano are hurt.
    - Cuso
      
      that 5 runs/game average is a farce. If you alternate games scoring 1 run & 10 runs every other day, you finish the season 81-81.
      
      Their offense feasts once a week. That combined with a good first two weeks in April = 5 runs/game.
- http://youcantpredictbaseball.wordpress.com bexarama
  
  Scoring a lot of runs is the new market inefficiency
  
  #notserious
  #orami
Freddy Garcia’s 86 mph Heat

Terrible loss. You can’t blame Mo when he gives up a bullshit hit to Olivo and the game winner on a little bloop. The offense actually managed to score 4 runs off King Felix but couldn’t do anything against the likes of David Pauley, Aaron Laffey, Brandon League and Jamey Wright. I miss the “run up the starters pitch count then tee off on the bullpen” days. Also, I didn’t watch this game on YES but in case you didn’t know, 4 (!!!!) people including a streaker ran onto the field between the 7th and 9th innings and a fifth got into a fight with a Safeco Field security guard.
Kosmo

I wonder what the near future holds for Nova ? 10 starts is a decent sample size .Nova has pitched well on occasion but his SO to walk ratio is just plain terrible .Does management feel confident with Nova in the rotation ? Am I having a nightmare or is Carlos Silva on the horizon ?
- psk
  
  Interesting question. I can’t imagine he will live through many more poor starts. Maybe he is better off in the pen since he truly is a 2 pitch pitcher. He has been by far the worst of the 5 startes, but if you consider that this is really his first year (24 ys old) you would expect many ups and downs. That said, it will be hard to find sucess when you combine no ability to miss bats with poor command. This is one of the reasons why it is difficult for the Yanks to deveolp picthers as they never will allow a young pitcher to struggle for long. It’s a tough spot as you would like to give him 25+ starts to allow him to develop but at the same time the team is struggling and he really does not profile as anything more than a back end starter. Noesi looks like a better long term prospect just by the fact that he has better command and can actually generate a swing and miss now and again.
- It’sATarp
  
  I really hope the management don’t look at Nova’s ERA (prior to this game) and think he is going to be good. Watching Nova, i have to say he is 5th starter at best. Nova for the most part has gotten lucky in some games where he manages to put the whole team on base and yet escape with only a few runs scored, basically he’s been p;aying with fire. I mean if you’re going to walk a lot of guys or get a lot of guys on base, at least have strike out stuff (like AJ) but he doesn’t and that’s problematic. If we go back to another sinker baller like Wang when he was healthy, he never struck out much more than he walked but he had a very good BB/9.
  
  I personally think we should give nosei (SSS but he currently has a 12.8% swinging strike rate) or Phelps a try if nova keeps putting men on at an accelerated pace.
http://twitter.com/aviatkin Avi Atkin

Tough game to endure. At least we have this gem from David Aardsma: http://bit.ly/lUAzil
http://www.facebook.com/cecala Joseph Cecala

I would rather give Noesi a rotation spot and move Nova to longman
- mike c
  
  you mean hughes, right?
45yearyanksfan

does anyone out there feel as i do that i could live with a non playoff team this year if that necessarily means montero, two of the b’s, alot more of the kid seeing time at short or left, putting swisher on the bench….noesi stays for the rest of the season…maybe hughes to the pen when he comes back, ala 2009… and for God;s sake can someone manage a game with a little “feel” react with a little instinct and not always manage by binder
- special kid
  
  its a successful season if posada dies ! i take that back
- OldYanksFan
  
  Montero has a .764 OPS at AAA. You really think NOW is the time to bring him up as our Savior? As much as Jeter sucks, I’m not sure that Nunez, with his shaky defense and throwing, will be much better. And as bad as Swish has been, as has been discussed, his peripherals are career average, and he could snap out of his funk anytime. Again, do any of our kid OFers really have a better chance going forward?
  
  The bottom line is that we have 2/3rds of our offense underperforming. We have the ‘right’ guys, but they are playing like shit. There is little you can do except hope they wake up.
  
  Jesus over Posada? Yeah, maybe an upgrade going forward, but no guarantee.
  
  Last year, Papi absolutely sucked, looked absolutely cooked, for the entire 1st half. Then he woke up and RAKED the rest iof the year. And he is cooking this year.
  
  Jeter may be cooked, but Swisher? ARod? Cano (sub .800 OPS)? Posada (look at last year’s numbers)?
  
  As frustrating as it is, aside from some small tweaks, there is little we can do but hope these guys WAKE THE FUCK UP!
- Monteroisdinero
  
  As I said on a previous post, asking an engineer to be instinctive is futile. There is a plan and a binder and every game is played accordingly.
- dalelama
  
  No but I wouldn’t really have a choice.
- LarryM.,Fl.
  
  Its a transition year. The Yankees can win 81 games without trying but do not have the talent in the SR to make it to 92/94 wins. Lets the young kids pitch wherever possible and give Nunez more playing time. One day a week at 3rd, SS and second.
  
  Injuries to Hughes, Soriano, Feliciano and Chavez have cooked our goose. Boone Logan can not get lefties out. By the All Styar break Montero should be here.
special kid

noesi > nova. please wake up girardi.
- Thomas Cassidy
  
  King Felix>Noesi>Nova.
  
  WHAT THE FUCK IS CASH WAITING FOR?
  - special kid
    
    no shit
  - Evan3457
    
    Maybe he’s waiting for the M’s to say they’re willing to trade Felix.
    
    At all.
BavarianYankee

another well deserved victory for the M’s. Pineda and Felix go back to back with likely their worst starts of the season and we can’t take advantage of that.
http://twitter.com/#!/riddering Riddering

Yankees are 6-4 in their last ten games and only 1.5 games out of first place. Put in perspective, I’d say they don’t suck but just lost a pair of frustrating one-run games.
- It’sATarp
  
  It’s amazing how we get to both Felix and Pineda two of the better pitchers in the league right now and just do shit against the Mariners Pen, which has been solid but not unhittable.
- nycsportzfan
  
  your right, they don’t suck, but the yankees and there leauge high has to do alot more then not suck, and they seem to have the same problems daily, sure they have WON some games, where u look back at the end, and say “how’d we win that one” and sure, they have a chance to still make the playoffs, but to see this team, and not feel like your almost “HOPING” more then expecting anything special from this season, is just homerism, and not telling yourself what you see on the field is legit.. This teams got mad issues…
Don Juan

We don’t score enough runs so Girardi decides to hit and run with a slow runner in Cano and a struggling hitter at the plate, Posada. This forces Posada to swing at a bad pitch and Cano gets thrown out. Girardi’s an idiot.
CMP

I don’t know what they can do about Nova but unless he comes up win another pitch or really refines one he already has, he’s always gonna be a mediocre starter because he just doesn’t miss enough bats. I think he needs to be moved to the pen or traded to the NL west where Pitchers with fringe stuff excel. I read on ESPN he has the lowest swing and miss percentage of any pitcher in baseball and we all know there’s some shitty pitchers around the league.

As for the offense, they’ve scored 7 runs against Pineda and the king which is more than I expected. Their disappearing act against a bunch of crap relievers is very disappointing though as mentioned above.

Overall the way they’re playing, they better get used to looking at the Red Sox rear bumper because thats the view they’re gonna have for a while.
- The BIG 3
  
  The more I see of Nova, the more I become convinced that he’s just a stop-gap here to eat innings and, more importantly, here to insure that the more talented arms in the farmsystem stay there until they’re ready to advance, and then a bit longer still. The Joba/Hughes/Ian/Melancon rush-jobs worked like shit, so let’s try bringing the next bunch up properly.
  
  If that means Nova pitches like a typical 5th, albeit with peripherals that suggest he’s closer to a 7th, I can deal with his ass, knowing it’s being done for the good of the organization.
  
  So, that said; send Noesi back down NOW.
Wil Nieves Number 1 Fan

Trade Posada for Felix, trade Nova for Lincecum and Cain, Boone Logan for Johnny Benters, and Freddy for Halladay. It’s that easy. I should be a GM.
Wil Nieves Number 1 Fan

It’s also nice to know that Mo blows at Safeco and Oriole Ballpark.
China Joe

I didn’t see the game, how did Noesi look?
first time lawng time

Keep losing to crappy sub .500 teams. That’s really going to help.
- The BIG 3
  
  I don’t know off the top of my head what Seattle’s record is with King or Pineda starting, but I’d be willing to bet it’s not sub .500.
  - The BIG 3
    
    “the Seattle Mariners won for the ninth time in 10 games” + at home + East Coast travel + King starting = pretty much a guaranteed loss.
- http://yesnetwork.com Jim
  
  They’re not sub 500 anymore.
Bronx Byte

As usual, Girardi just stands there like a statue. He’ll never be accused of being a motivator. The team is a mirror of their manager. The stagnant offense is putting pressure on the pitching staff with no run support when needed. Girardi offers excuses – not reasons.
This road trip is nothing compared to all the road games the Yankees will have in August and September.
Between games that should have / could have been won and poor managerial decisions, the Yankees should have 10 more wins than they do right now.
Patrick

Frustrating to watch this team right now. I should have just gone to sleep the last 2 nights instead of watching this bs.

Mostly frustrated with the offense. Some rail on the pitching–but the offense is the main problem.

Too much dead weight in that lineup.
Swisher and Gardner are terrible. Posada is done. Jeter isn’t too far beind. ARod will hit homeruns… when the game is 7-0. Very few guys in that lineup having “good” years.

Yanks need to make some major moves. Otherwise they will be sitting home this postseason.
- It’sATarp
  
  Gardner’s line looks like crap due to the 0-9 in the series.(.270/.348 obp before the series which is pretty decent) Prior to that he was one of our hottest hitters. And even with the Crappy stat line he still manages to have a higher OBP than swisher, posada, Jeter, Cano, and Andrew Jones. (tied with Cano in WAR) So how exactly is he terrible? because he is in a two game slump?
  
  Also the meaningless homerun crap was sooo 2009..So it’d be better if we don’t score when we’re down runs?
Scout Finch

Our inability to push one run across the board when we need it is going to doom us come playoff time. That is, if our inability to score one run and win close ballgames doesn’t cost us a playoff berth. In the postseason you get into close games and have to beat bullpens. We needed 15 to beat the Orioles pen, lost 2-1 to the Mets and their pen, lost the last two nights to Seattle’s pen after we got a few runs off the starters.
- Xstar7
  
  I like the “To Kill a Mockingbird” reference in your handle.
spark

“The days of pounding bullpens are apparently long gone”

Yanks for a long time were a team that scored important runs late to decide games. Now, it seems by the 5th inning they’re done scoring all too often.
TSJC Troll Doppleganger

They’ve sucked all season. With a cushy schedule heavily tilted with home games to this point and their 2 rivals getting off to dreadful starts, they should be up by 3-5 games in this division.

Sadly, their pitching has done well, for the most part, too. This offense is overhyped, overrated and underwhelming.
- Freddy Garcia’s 86 mph Heat
  
  The offense isn’t overrated. They just suck right now. If anything, the pitching staff is overrated when Nova and Garcia pitch well.
Pat D

I’m really starting to think that commenting here is a waste of time.

Yea, these two games sucked ass. And if a couple of small things had broken their way, they would have won both rather than losing both.

Yea, it sucks they haven’t been able to hit these no-name relievers. But for all their past mediocrity, those guys have pitched well this year. We should know all too well how flaky middle relievers can be, since we’ve had brief periods of time where guys like Edwar Ramirez and Jose Veras and Brian Bruney and Dan Giese have pitched well for the Yankees.

It’s only been 50 games. Their Pythag. W-L is three games better than their current records, so things should start to even out. They’re not hopelessly out of a pennant race. Hell, they’d still be the wild card team right now!

Yes, Posada and Swisher’s continued struggles are concerning. Obviously Jeter can do almost anything at any time. Sure, the rotation is still an issue. How about we let things play out?
- Xstar7
  
  It’s a long season. Things will change for the better eventually.
  - JohnnyC
    
    Or not. Nothing’s guaranteed. 2008 was just 3 seasons ago.
    - Xstar7
      
      This team is better than the 2008 team. When our hurting pitchers start to come back, and when Cashman makes a trade or two by the deadline, this team will be even better. They’ve just had some bad luck this season.
      - Kostas
        
        This is true, they are better than the 2008 team on paper. But right now – for the past month – they have been a collection of sloppy baseball, save a handful of games. They are a great inconsistency scoring 15 runs one game and getting shut out by a 3rd rate pitcher the next game. Scoring 4 runs the next game while committing stupid errors fielding, base running, and swinging at 3-0 pitches.
        
        They are a good team playing poor baseball and right now there is not a leader or any direction coming from anyone, The Captain, manager, etc.
        
        So to say they have had some bad luck would only account for half of their losses. The rest is nothing more than above average players under performing. Will it change, most likely, but currently, it is beyond painful to watch.
        
        Pat D
        
        Um, you do realize you’re gonna lose a few games in a baseball season, right? Like at least 60 and usually around 65-70, if you’re the Yankees?
Kostas

For what it is worth the best approach to this team is this: 1. Ignore the results until two weeks before the All Star game. Hope that by the middle of June they figure out how to play the game. 2. Hope that the potential WC teams from other divisions fall back to their mean thus allowing the Yankees to make the playoffs. 3. Accept they won’t catch Boston.

This is an above average team greatly underperforming. They lack fire, direction, and above confidence due to constant coddling from the manager making every game a cliche of excuses. THIS is what this team is and will be for a while. Hopefully they can win today and steal 2 from Oakland before tanking against the Angels.
wow

The way the team is currently built, it’s a third place team. I don’t really see them improving much without something being done.

The offensive solution: trade for/call up a replacement RF.

Defensive: trade for a SS (maybe Reyes?) and move Jeter to DH.

Pitching: we probably only will need one top-of-the-line starter behind CC once Hughes (hopefully) comes back and is his old self along with Feliciano and Soriano.

Maybe I’m mad off target, but as it stands, I don’t see much in the way of improvement.
- mike c
  
  there’s no way in hell reyes comes to the yankees
  - wow
    
    but it’s only a short train ride away.
    - mike c
      
      and a $140MM contract… it’s not going to happen
Greg

Wave hello to the Red Sox as they zoom into first place.

This stretch will make or break our season, going to Oakland and LA before coming home to face the Red Sox and Indians.

If we bomb this stretch we’re done. This is a barometer stretch for this team and so far they whiffed.
- http://danielslifka.wordpress.com Jerome S.
  
  no?
- Evan3457
  
  Not at all. There are still 95 games left after this stretch is done.
mike c

the DH spot is starting to become a real problem… posada should have to compete with chavez for AB’s when he returns
Freddy’s Mom

It’s far from over. The Yanks have surged after the AS break before, and it could certainly happen again, but I don’t think it’s hysterical to note that we are in trouble right now. It’s not Girardi’s fault, the whole team is playing either A) consistently bad or B) very streakily. The starting pitching is way better than I expected while the relief pitching is way worse than anybody expected. I’ll wail till 15 or 20 games after the break to get worried.