Tigers rough up CC, take game two of the series
ByThe Yankees have pounded Brad Penny time after time, including once already this year. Since he was on the mound for the Tigers and CC Sabathia was starting for New York, we all felt pretty good about this one on Tuesday afternoon. I guess it’s not easy to foresee the reverse jinx when your team is involved. The Yankees’ bats were silent for much of the night, and Detroit ended its seven game losing streak.
(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
No Good CC
It was bad from the start. Austin Jackson doubled on the first pitch Sabathia threw, then Scott Sizemore did the same two pitches later. The first run came around to score on a Magglio Ordonez ground out, the second on a Miguel Cabrera sac fly. The Yankees finally wised up later in the game and intentionally walked Miggy with a base open, and sure enough they escaped that jam unscathed. The whole “don’t pitch to one of the best hitters in the world if you don’t have to” thing took a game-and-a-half to sink in I guess. But I digress.
Tells you what kind of pitcher Sabathia is when seven innings and four runs is a bad start, but the Yankees probably win that game six or seven times out of ten. He threw a season high 119 pitches (76 strikes, 63.9%) and really just got burned by the top of the order. Jackson and Sizemore combined to go 5-for-6 with two doubles and a triple before Sabathia struck each out the last time he faced them. The rest of Detroit’s lineup went 5-for-21 (.238) off the Yankees’ ace. Oh well, CC’s allowed a stinker every once in a while, and this wasn’t even that bad.
Too Much RISPFAIL
Although the box score says they only had five at-bats with men in scoring position (Russell Martin had the only hit, a double), the Yankees left two men on base in the first, two in the second, and one in the fourth. They had chances (plural) to get to Penny early but just couldn’t capitalize. The right-hander allowed six hits and walked two in six innings, striking out just one with an unspectacular 8-6 GB/FB ratio. I mean come on, he should have been begging for mercy after three.
Almost Andruw. Well, not really. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
Three, Three Outs On The Bases
There’s nothing quite like giving away a full inning’s worth of outs on stupid baserunning plays. Andruw Jones, representing the tying run, got thrown out at the plate on a would-be sac fly to end the fourth inning, not even making it to the plate. If the bases were 75-feet apart, he would have juuust made it in under the tag. Then in the sixth inning you had not one, but two runners get caught in rundowns between first and second. Three Yankees reached base in the inning, but they somehow managed to not score a run and leave the bases empty. I don’t know what Robinson Cano and Jorge Posada were thinking there, but yeah, stupid. Lesson for the kids out there: if you ever get caught in a spot like that, just keep running to second. Don’t stop. At least you have a chance that way.
Leftovers
Oh yeah, Tex hit a garbage time homer. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
Brett Gardner is the hottest hitter on the team right now, and it’s not all that close. He went 1-for-2 with a walk in this game, and has now reached base safely in eight of his last ten and in 16 of his last 19 plate appearances. He went from .145/.197/.306 to .219/.337/.411 in six games. Is it time to give him another shot leading off? I say no, not yet, but it’s good news that we’re even discussing the possibility. Right behind Gardner is Posada, who went 2-for-4 on Tuesday and now has five hits in his last 11 trips to the plate (plus another taken away on a great defensive play). Good stuff from those two.
The four-five hitters combined for one hit (a ten-hopper through the left side) in eight at-bats, which isn’t exactly middle of the order production. Despite that single, Alex Rodriguez is in a definite slump, has been since he left that game with a stiff back/oblique. Is he playing hurt maybe?
I’m not sure that David Robertson is comfortable pitching without a runner in scoring position. He gave up a double on the first pitch he threw, then escaped the inning like he always days. I guess D-Rob is just a fireman at heart, it’s what he does.
WPA Graph & Box Score
MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs the nerd score and no highlights for you!
Up Next
Alright, that’s it. Frustrating loss, but that’s baseball. Move on and focus on Wednesday night’s game, which will feature Freddy Garcia and Max Scherzer. ‘Til then…
58 Comments»
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The Mason Williams Watch
It’s amazing that a 4 R in 7 IP constitutes a stinker for CC.
I am not looking forward to Garcia’s start tomorrow. A-Rod is really slumping and killing my fantasy team, he needs to get his shit together.
So we win Colon/Verlander, but lose Sabathia/Penny? Sign of the apocalyplse. Maybe the 5/21 rumors are true.
Those three outs on the bases make 6 over the first two games of this series. You can’t give away an average of one offensive inning per game and expect to win consistently.
Jorge has locked up worse base runner of all time!
Sorry, it’s all my fault. I knew this would happen after I posted this comment:
http://riveraveblues.com/2011/.....nt-1981688
Today had YCPB written all over it.
Cano and Posada goofed yeah, but at least the Jones play at home was aggressive base running. Which is, seemingly, everyone’s game but the Yankees. Case in point: in the TOR series Posada tags at 3B on a Jeter fly to mid CF, but doesn’t tag on a deep fly to RF–in the same game, if I recall correctly–allegedly due to Bautista’s arm. Yeah, he’s got a rifle but provoke the throw, especially if the game is tied or you have the lead. Tonight I watched the tail end of the SFG at NYM game and as soon as the Giants got their speedsters on base you could immediately sense K-Rod’s and the rest of team’s anxiety. I wish Gardner could provoke the same reaction but the timid base running is just…ugh.
I hear ya that some cats should be more aggressive on the bases but, man, no way should it be Posada or Jones. Jones wasn’t even close, it was terrible base running. He could have made it back in ’96, but this was a joke.
Gardy, Grandy, Martin–by all means. Aggression away. But let the slow guys be slow.
Point taken.
True.
Jones just looked silly on that play.
Posada did tag and the throw from Bautista was a perfect one bounce rocket that would have had him by 30 feet!
Btw, I love Bob Lorenz in the studio—Nancy Newman is a disaster; thank God for Jack Curry—but he’s such a boring play-by-play man. (I’m assuming since Kay can’t make it out there during the week, and Ken Singleton is the only other regular play-by-play guy and he’s possibly on bereavement leave, they had to go w/Lorenz. Somebody else has to be able to fill in. And not John Flaherty, please.) Also, at least on the YES broadcast, the fans in the vicinity of the booth were almost as loud as Lorenz and Flaherty, which made it quite distracting.
Speaking of fans, I know the Tigers have been thru a rough patch but their fans seem quite lethargic, even when their team has the lead. Hmmm…
Agree. Painfully colorless/lifeless. Just like the team yesterday!
It seems strange that Kay doesn’t go for a 4-game series in Detroit and never goes to the west coast or Toronto while many other teams have one play by play guy do pretty much all the games no matter where they are playing.
Jeter looked decent today.
He did, actually.
If by decent you mean he didn’t single handedly torpedo this game, then I agree.
He did have a solid line drive single and a sharp liner that was grabbed by Cabrera at first. Perhaps signs of life. Time will tell.
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut from time to time
On a somewhat more serious note, I do believe that Jeter couldn’t possibly have continued to be as absolutely dreadful as he had been. That said, I still don’t see a >100 ops+ at any time in his future, for any meaningful period.
I’m osrry but I can’t help but be frustrated at these past few games.
It’s one thing to lose because of good pitching. It’s quite another to lose agian and again due to boneheaded plays and the inablity to score with RISP.
We have left more than 60 runners on base in the past 10 games. That is inexcusable and if you don’t think that will bite us in the butt post season time, you are sadly mistaken.
We have cost ourselves several games already by our inablity to score if we can’t do homeruns.
These things will stabilize. When you’re getting this many hits and base runners, they will start to score. It’s just bad luck that it hasn’t happened yet. The Yankees aren’t mysteriously unclutch and the BoSox haven’t hired Voodoo practitioners to generate these RISP woes. The HR dependence is a fluke, not the fury of Imhotep. There will be runs that we don’t deserve, too. Zen baseball man, zen baseball.
I’m with you, NJ_Andy but it’s still frustrating, regardless.
Actually I’m pretty sure that Imhotep is indeed involved here.
I’d be ok with the fury of Imhotep, how awesome is that?
… to lose agian and again …
Yeah, that 7 game losing streak they’re on could be cured if only … oh, wait.
These things will happen. Overall, the team is winning. They’ll learn form this and move on. Posada and Cano are not known as top base runners. They’ll make mistakes. It really hurts when they both goof up in the same inning, but I don’t see this as totally unexpected. As professional ball players, I wish it wouldn’t, but we have come to expect this of them from time to time. No need to panic.
As I have posted many times Jorge Posada is the dumbest player I have ever seen in my lifetime. When God was dishing out brains to Jorge he used a thimble. Has Jeter hit anything over an outfielder’s head yet this year?
I was worried you might have a reasonable, rational and measured response. Thanks for not doing that.
Martin shows how poor fundamentally Jorge has been behind the plate for years. Bill James proved statistically that Jorge has been the second worse base runner in MLB this century after Piazza. Analysis was done two years ago so Jorge has probably surpassed him by now. Just goes to show how much a great stick is worth for a catcher. Great hitter for position yes but I could never support someone so weak in baseball brains for the Hall of Fame.
Great hitter for position yes but I could never support someone so weak in baseball brains for the Hall of Fame.
Ty Cobb stabbed a guy.
Irrelevant…..
In fact, he has (1). Just to cheer you up.
Thanks I must have missed that game.
With the amazing power numbers Jeter has put up this year, I can understand that.
Was the outfield pulled in because the winning run was in scoring position? LOL…Are you sure it wasn’t a gap hit? I know he hasn’t hit a homer.
Don’t know about the outfield positioning, but it was a shot to the left field corner.
How do you manage only 2 runs off Brad Penny and Detroit middle relief? CC was clearly not his best last night, but all things considered his line wasn’t terrible. Offense? More like shitfense!
Lol yeah offense wasn’t good. They haven’t been good lately…lots of LOB, few homeruns. I think it’s just a slump though. They had bad streaks last year and then the next week they would average 7 or 8 runs.
I think it’s just a slump/not a good game in general.
Why isn’t AJ tmorrow? Is our rotation messed up from offdays and stuff?
Same as last week. Freddy after CC, then AJ.
Yeah, pretty much after the first two turns in the rotation, off-days, rainouts, and guys being skipped means 1-2-3-4-5 has no real correlation with the order they pitch in.
Valverde comes back after a 30+ pitch night. Verlander throws 130 pitches. You won’t see that kind of suicidal managing on our side. Valverde has/had trouble finding the strike zone and Martin swings at the first pitch (an inside ball) after a walk. Poor judgement.
After 20 years in MLB and no speed whatsoever-I can only think that Posada must have some post-concussion issues. What is wrong with him? No way he runs to 2B until a ball is hit by the batter.
Cano stopping between 1st and 2nd is somewhere between an 8-11 year old little league decision.
Awful night.
Jorge has been a bonehead forever.
At least Jeter hit a couple of balls hard, but it was a horrible game. Cano’s play was dumb. Posada’s play was top ten all-time stupidity.
As long as the mets are around the top ten stupidity list is full
Series has been frustrating so far. Every inning feels painful to watch. It feels very futile when we are on offense. Would love to see some players break out.
Uh-OOh
New York Times does a negative front page story on Jeter’s decline
http://webmedia.newseum.org/ne.....NY_NYT.pdf
The problem-after reading the article-is not the 100-150 ab’s this year but adding the 300ab’s the second half of last year.
It’s 400 ab’s now and the guy is just terrible at the plate.
The thing about Jeter is what is the best possible scenario?
Taking a shot:
This year – .277 average with almost no power, SS with no range, makes the routine plays.
Next year – slightly worse than that.
Is this what a team with championship aspirations needs at one of the most important positions on the field?
Somebody in the organization must be somewhat mesmerized by this guy.
The jones sac fly was baffling. How much of that blame goes to rob thompson? I would imagine he didn’t hold him up.
I don’t mind the play because if he held up then it would be Jeter with RISP.
All the blame goes to Robby. He needs to be aware and tell Andruw not to go. He didn’t do his job and needs to be let go.
I’m pretty sure Jones said he was going no matter what after the game. Firing coaches after every little mistake isn’t the answer.
Imagine if our workplaces were like that. Make a small mistake and you’re fired!
Maybe Billy Mumphrey means Robby Thompson should be let go to Dave and Busters to get a nice meal and play some video games to clear his head and get refocused on tonight’s game.
I hope that’s what he meant.
I am ok with Andruw going. A bad throw is certainly more likely than Jeter bringing him in with 2 outs.
dude the guy gave your team, what: 15 great yrs?
is it really going to be 3, 4, 5 comments /day for 162 games for another yr (or 2, or 3)?
this place used to have a rep for intelligent comments.
Maybe he will hit a homer tonight.
It would be like “Where were you when Kennedy was assassinated?”
Or
“Where were you when they got Bin Laden?”