Sanit saves the pen as Royals blow out Yankees

May 13, 2011 by Mike Axisa 50 Comments

Joe Girardi — The AP didn't bother to take a picture of Sanit. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

There’s nothing from Thursday’s game worth writing about, so I’ll just say “thank you” to Amaury Sanit for sparing the bullpen. He was called up before the game for that very reason, and he ended up throwing 81 pitches from the fourth through eighth innings after Ivan Nova‘s implosion. In fairness to Nova, his defense really let him down. That six-run second inning was some of the ugliest baseball I’ve seen the Yankees play in a long time. Sanit’s season high in Triple-A was 62 pitches, and on only one other occasion did he throw more than 40 pitches. So yeah, a big thanks to him for sacrificing his 31-year-old arm and saving the rest of the bullpen before Boston comes to town.

Otherwise, ugly ugly ugly. I mean, at least Alex Rodriguez hit a homerun (plus another ball hard for an out), so maybe he’s starting to come around. We can dream, can’t we? The Royals won their first series in the Bronx since 1999, and now we get to welcome the Red Sox to town for a weekend set. Bartolo Colon gets the ball against Clay Buchholz on Friday night. Here’s the box score and WPA Graph of this game, if you’re curious.

http://www.twitter.com/jmhs Jake S

Remember when the Yankees dropped 2/3 to the Nationals in 2009? This too shall pass.
- Will F.
  
  Exactly. Hard to watch but its not the end of the world.
http://twitter.com/Carlosological Carlosologist

The last time the Royals won a series in the Bronx (1999) the Yanks won it all. #silverlining

This was a shitty game, no doubt. At least A-Rod is starting to come around. I can only hope we can knock around Buchholz tomorrow and get a strong outing from Colon.
- MannyGeee
  
  its not “that” they lost, or “who” they lost to… or even “where” they lost for that matter…
  
  HOW they lost is the stinger… just shitty and sloppy and not motivated.
http://www.CarlsYankeeDugout.com Carl

So embarrassing.
Mike Myers

If someone is going to beat us, at least its a town that has be suffering for a long long time….nope, that didnt make me feel better.

PS, The throw Cano made was not that bad. Jeter gets one out on that.
Rob Has No Innings Limit

Can we talk about the fact that over 12.1 innings this series the Yanks mustered 8 H, 5 BB, 2 R, and 10 K off the Royals bullpen?

That is just. Terrible. Awful. Horrendously. Pathetic.
- http://www.riveraveblues.com Mike Axisa
  
  The Royals actually have a pretty good bullpen. Lot of kids that throw hard and miss bats. That said, yeah they need to do better.
  - Freddy Garcia’s 86 mph Heat
    
    The only thing that bothers me is the way we didn’t hit Soria around the other night. He was throwing 85-86 with no control and even the outs he got were when he was behind on the count. It seemed like we could’ve strung a few hits together and won there but The Binder told Joe that a bunt was the right play and…well, you know the rest.
  - Rob Has No Innings Limit
    
    I know the adage is “good pitching trumps good hitting”, but this is still the Yankees’ lineup, which was assembled on the strength of hundreds of millions of dollars for the sole purpose of pounding into submission whoever steps onto a mound. So good bullpen or not, we come to expect the Yanks find a way to do something, not nothing, agreed?
JobaWockeeZ

So yeah I said during game one that Hosmer would be a future Yankee killer but god damn it wait a year or two. Shit.
- FIPster Doofus
  
  I’m scared shitless every time he comes up to bat. That didn’t take long.
Pat D

At least Community, The Office and Parks & Recreation were all good tonight.

Especially Community. It morphed from a Western parody to a Star Wars parody, and did it pretty damned hilariously.
- Corporate Scum
  
  Community is outstanding.
- Brian in NH
  
  can i just say…Parks & Rec is like my favorite show? I’ve loved the office for a while, but I think at this point Parks & Rec is funnier, better written, and I think I like the characters more.
  - goterpsgo
    
    I’ve always hated The Office because it’s always been painful to watch and I’ve wanted to punch out Michael Scott’s lights. Now I want to be like a SEAL and put two rounds in Dwight Schrute’s head.
    
    Meanwhile, I LOVE Parks and Rec. It’s VERY funny and completely pain-free to watch. IMO all the characters are easy to root for and likable.
forensic

Joe looks pissed that he couldn’t bunt away an out or two tonight.
http://www.twitter.com/jordansmed JGS

Shrug. This one bothered me a lot less than lasts night’s shitshow. Whatever. Getting the chance to beat the crap out of the Red Sox is always fun.
johnnyl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLMl0CLIDLg

That’s how I feel
Will

I hope Planned Parenthood has a jar of nice, fresh fetuses to donate to Bartolo, cuz we need him at his best tonight.
- Rob Has No Innings Limit
  
  Why does everyone seem so nervous about this Sox series?
  
  First of all, it’s May. Second, as far as I can tell, the Sox have not yet done anything this season to prove to me that they don’t kinda suck. They’ve been middling for a good month and a half now; the Yanks for maybe a week.
  - MannyGeee
    
    1. because the Yankees have limpwristed through the past 2 weeks.
    
    2. They’re the best last place team in the history of foreverdom*.
    
    3. National TV all weekend long.
    
    4. SiX AceS!!!!11!11!
    - Matt :: Sec110
      
      friday game isn’t national tv.
      - Matt :: Sec110
        
        in the new york area at least, haha.
      - RL
        
        Tonight’s on MLB Network nationally.
    - Clay Bellinger
      
      Who cares if it’s on national TV?
      
      Six aces? Where?
- URAdork
  
  Too bad your mom didn’t abort you!
JimAbbottFan

The past road trip and so far this mini home-stand definitely leave much to be desired, but all you can do is either give up watching or tough it out, simple as that.

Considering that the Yankees had a losing record at this point in 2009 and were being swept by Boston for the season proves that there’s still plenty of baseball left
- Brazilian Fan
  
  that team had something. Those comeback wins and the defense, and the pitching.
  
  Two diferent monsters
  - Total Dominication
    
    They have better defense now.
    - Brazilian Fan
      
      outfield; not infield defense.
  - Clay Bellinger
    
    After May 12 in 2009, that team was 2 games below .500 and 6.5 out of first. You have no point.
    - Brazilian Fan
      
      yeah we are in good shape…
      
      Cmon.
      
      In 2009 our rotation had CC, good AJ, and Pettite dealing.
      
      Be real.
      
      Our bullpen was much better then this year.
      
      Dont even get started with the infield, on the defense and offense.
      
      that team had potential.
      
      This one not so much, unless we trade someone.
      
      And we are lucky Garcia and Colon are having a good year so far.
      - Clay Bellinger
        
        You’re kidding me right? 2009 was only two years away, how did you forget so quickly?
        
        In 2009 our rotation had CC, good AJ, and Pettite dealing. – We still have CC and AJ (by the way, his era was over 5 at this point in ’09).
        
        Our bullpen was much better then this year. – LOLZ…Not at this point. Remember Veras, Ramirez, Tomko, and Albaladejo?
        
        The infield has the same players.
        
        Once again, you have no point.
Brazilian Fan

Do you guys really feel that this team have what it takes to win it all?

Right now i don´t think so.

It´s so frustrating to watch this team play, i don´t even know what to say.
paul

Offense-piss poor…esp with RISP…Hopefully, Arod HR gets him going, but otherwise just poor right now.
Defense-truly shocked how poor they have been defensively…
SP-AJ goes 7ip, 1r…I mean come on offense back him up.
Nova-was due for a bad start-hopefully he can get back on track.

We all know this year is going to be one of those tough, frustrating years…
Colon, CC, and Freddy this weekend vs sucks big 3….Come on Yanks!
- RL
  
  Early (not even a third of the way through) in the season. We’ve seen much worse starts from teams that went on to win it all. I expect they’ll go well into the playoffs, if not take it all. I don’t worry until late July/early August. And even the there’s hope!
Butthurt Department

We only write game recaps after wins these days. It’s contractually mandated by the YES Network.

Come on guys, you’re better than this.
Accent Shallow

This is my fault. Last game I attended this year was a loss, and the one before was a rainout.

I’ll just stay home, problem solved.
- RL
  
  Thank you! 127-0 the rest of the season! :-)
Yank the Frank

I know a loss is still a loss but last night’s game was easier to take. Wednesday we should have been kicking the crap out of KC with all our scoring chances and AJ’s pitching. Last night we just sucked.
Stevis

Well, Well, Well…Frankie Cervelli!
When is Cashman or Girardi going to wake up and get rid of the WORST defensive catcher. this is a $200m team and thats the best that they can come up with!!
I will be shocked if we make the playoffs the way we are playing.
I just hope that we don’t let the Red Sux back into the fray this weekend, although our guys certainly aren’t giving us much to cheer for…The Yankees MUST perform well this weekend!!!
Fairweather Freddy

Maybe the Red Sox coming in is exactly what this team needs to wake them up. Hopefully, they got that stinker out of their system and can refocus tonight
Billy Mumphrey

Last night’s performance was a disgrace to old George who built this franchise and a disgrace to baseball. Now Boston’s coming to town and we ain’t done nothing to show that we can beat them. Hopefully a must win series like this one is what they need to get their act together.
- Clay Bellinger
  
  Overreation? Here’s a newsflash – as of now the Sox have are below .500 and the Yanks stand 4 games ahead of them. It’s mid-May – this is by no means whatsoever a must win series. Last night was just an ugly loss in the season’s second month. Get real.
  - Billy Mumphrey
    
    Excuse me? The Sox have intentionally lined up their 3 best pitchers for this series because they know how important it is. If we keep saying, well we still have 120 games left, we’re gonna run out of time. The Sox know what this series means, I hope the Yankees do come tonight.
    - NYinTX
      
      Doomed!!!!!1!!1!!111!11111
    - Clay Bellinger
      
      The Yanks lost the first 8 games to the Sox in ’09 and how’d that turn out? This series is slightly bigger than the normal May series as it’s against a division title contender. 3 games of the like 18 times they play each other. We all hope the Yanks are on the top of their game for it, but it’s not a must win or anywhere close to it.
David, Jr.

Hosmer is really good. They should find a 39 yr old who can’t do anything to replace him.
psk

Obviously Nova gave them little chance last night. However, what is really disappointing is that you would be hard pressed to find three starters lined up in succession on the same team worse than the three they just faced.