Aug
25
Yanks drop another to the A’s
ByThe A’s have one of the better pitching staffs in the league, so it’s not entirely surprising that they’ve held the Yankees to eight runs in the first two games of the series. What’s surprising is that they’ve scored 12 themselves. (Even more surprisingly, A.J. Burnett has yet to pitch in this series.) This sort of thing happens during the course of a 162-game season, so there’s no reason to get worked up about it. That doesn’t make the loss any less frustrating, but hey, they play one again today — during the day, even, so we hardly have to wait until they have their next chance at a W.
- Coco Crisp and Scott Sizemore went nuts in this one, combining to go 8 for 8 with a walk, a double, and two homers. Crisp had both homers, tagging CC for a solo homer in the first and then getting Soriano for the decisive three-run shot in the 10th. Any time you have two players hit like that, especially when they’re just one batter apart in the order, you’re probably going to have a big day on offense.
- Nick Swisher has been demolishing baseballs lately. He homered twice in the game after hitting a three-run shot yesterday and barely missing a walk-off shot. He’s been one of the few run producers in the series.
- How does the team get 11 hits and draw two walks, yet score only three runs? They went 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position, making them 3 for 23 in the series. Again, that’ll happen from time to time. At least this current slump comes when the Yankees already have a large lead on a playoff spot.
- CC Sabathia looked shaky at times, but still pitched very well through seven, allowing just one run. In the seventh he ran into some trouble, but, since it was CC, Girardi let him try to pitch out of it. That backfired, and the A’s tied the game and then eventually took the lead when David Robertson entered the game. It’s tough to assign any blame there. CC was under 100 pitches and, again, had pitched generally well. Sometimes baseball’ll do that to ya.
- As for Soriano, again, that’s going to happen from time to time. He’s pitched exceptionally well since coming off the DL. It’s agitating, yes, but that’s about it.
- Mark Teixeira was again all or nothing, going 1 for 5 with a long home run into the right field bleachers. It tied the game, so go Mark. Of course, he also hit a humpback liner that turned into a double play with a man on second in the first inning.
Again, they’ll be back on the field at 1 p.m., so at least this one gets put behind them, and us, pretty quickly. Phil Hughes gets the ball.
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I’m already over this one. I’m gonna give credit when its due. We have seen some good pitching this series. Just don’t lose too many Yanks. It would be nice to win the division ya know.
Also. Jesus Montero please. That is all.
Seriously. They reportedly put in a waiver claim for Carlos “Feast or Famine” Pena, which would necessitate giving him AB if he was acquired, but they can’t give Montero the chance to prove that he might be ML ready to rock?
As for this came, stuff happens.
came = game (sheesh)
I don’t think the issue with Montero is about a lack of ABs – its all about the roster spot. I’m ok with the Pena move because in less than a week they will have more active spots then they know what to do with. They can fit both Montero and Pena no problem. If a deal does happen, it probably wouldn’t be until just before the deadline anyway.
The only thing that makes me nervous…Tampa and the ANgels are creeping ever so closer to the wild card…
Tampa 7.5 back. Angles 8 back. Nothing to worry about.
In May or June, that would be something to pay attention to. With September a week away, for the Rays and Angels, 8 games is like crossing the Sahara with no water.
RAB could assemble a team and it would have about as much chance at the wild card as the Rays and Angels.
“How does the team get 11 hits and draw two walks, yet score only three runs? They went 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position, making them 3 for 23 in the series. Again, that’ll happen from time to time.”
Maybe I’m mistaken, but it seems to happen with alarming frequency w/ the Yankees.
It’s RISP FAIL. It happens. They’re saving their clutch hits for Boston. idgaf about Oakland, at least CC has had two solid, not great, starts in a row. I just hope Hughes continues to dominate so he forces Girardi’s hand.
I think RISP FAIL happens A TON when the Yanks are behind. RISP numbers accummulate for all situations. We know the Yankees have lots of big innings, where they score 4+ runs and maybe have a .750 or higher RISP number.
But what about all these bleeders we have lost? It seems like going 1fer or 2fer with RISP is very common.
I wish they would break up RISP into 3 categories.
RISP-ahead
RISP-tied
RISP-behind.
It’s fun to watch those pile-on innings, but there are far too many games where we have very high LOB with very poor RISP.
But what about all these bleeders we have lost?
Baseball teams that lose a lot of bleeders:
All of them
[end of list]
It seems like going 1fer or 2fer with RISP is very common.
Teams that commonly go 1fer or 2fer with RISP:
All of them
[end of list]
There are far too many games where we have very high LOB with very poor RISP.
Teams that often have a very high LOB with very poor RISP:
All of them
[end of list]
Yankees this year with RISP: .268/.349/.446
Trailing(in avg) only the Cardinals, Sox, Tigers and Rangers. 3rd in SLG, 9th in OBP.
I think we’re fine.
You mean that people telling me that the Yankees can’t hit “in the clutch” is a completely fabricated narrative based solely on over-emotional, reactionary feelings? Get OUT!
Thank you for posting that.
I’m pretty much over it right now. Just disappointed Rafey gave up that dinger,he’s been pitching so well of late and I’ve been behind him all along. Oh well, Phil Phuckin’ Hughes pitches tomorrow, so guess who will be at the game thread?
For what it’s worth, the Sox have lost 7 series to teams currently under .500. The Yankees have only lost 4 including this one.
The point is good teams lose to bad teams all the time. Chill out, it’s not the end of the world.
This. I remember the Sawx losing 2 of 3 to the pirates and mariners.Plus its not like Oakland is throwing total scrubs at us. Cahill was good tonight and they have a much improved lineup (Allen, Sizemore,Weeks). We have just be unable to catch lucky breaks.
Yea it’s not 2012 yet.
Question:
If Phil Hughes goes out and throws a gem tomorrow…(hopefully) securing a spot in the rotation for the rest of the season, would anyone feel the least bit worried about the way this series went down?
Personally, I would say “hell no”
Just a tad, because Colon didn’t pitch well again.
League Avg w/ RISP is .255/.338/.391. Yanks are .268/.349/.448 (overall .268/.348/.449 ZOMG same). They lead AL in scoring w/ runner 3rd, less than 2 outs, and are 2nd in productive out rate. They do just fine situationally, it just seems like they fail a lot because they have a ton of RISP opportunities.
Annnnnnnnnd they have a ton of RISP opportunities because they have the second best OPB in the MLB this year (One percentage point behind the Red Sox and 14 points ahead of the third place Rangers.)
Seriously, It’s just two crappy games against the A’s who actually have a legit pitching staff. And a team can go 2-10 or worse and still win a game by a considerable margin. If Swisher’s bases-loaded flyout in the ninth inning of the opener had traveled 5 feet farther the Yankees would have gone 2-12 that night with RISP and still won 9-6.
They do just fine situationally, it just seems like they fail a lot because they have a ton of RISP opportunities.
That, and the human brain feels the psychological pain of losses perhaps twice as intensely as the psychological pleasure of wins, so all those RISP fails in our 50 losses carry more deeply imprinted emotional heft than the more plentiful RISP successes in our more plentiful 77 wins.
In summation: Your brain often works against your own better judgment. Trust no one, not even yourself.
This is true, but as I said above…
until I can see RISP numbers WHEN BEHIND….
I still say we do far poorer in these situations then our overall RISP numbers indicate.
Just my own flawed judgement.
Not sure how to sort using 2 stats(and I think the data would be meaningless anyway, SSS concerns), but:
Close and late: .742 OPS, 5th in the majors.
Trailing: .751 OPS, 5th in the majors
Tied: OPS: .880, first in the majors by basically 10%
It seems that the people who regularly complain about the issues you mentioned watch very few games that don’t involve the Yankees. Their rants are without merit and when it’s done on an at-bat by at-bat basis it is incredibly annoying. Much of it seems to be coming from a new group of posters who are using fictional literature characters as handles. I wonder if it’s all the same person. I understand the concept that people have the right to their views and can say what they want. All in all though it is so sad, because it brings down the quality of this otherwise incredible site. The sheer quantity of their silliness camouflages much of the great insights the majority of the other posters bring.
Much of it seems to be coming from a new group of posters who are using fictional literature characters as handles. I wonder if it’s all the same person.
I wonder that myself.
We’ve been too inundated with Kilgore Trouts, Billy Pilgrims, Hester Prynnes, Jack Merridews, and a few key others—all of whom spout roughly the same complaints and all of whom arrived on the board at roughly the same time—for all that shit to be coincidental.
BTw the Red SOx have lost seven series to teams under .500, the Yankees four.
Yay! We get to see Beckett again next week!
It will be Beckett, Lester, and Lackey as usual. God we need to win a series against them for once.
AJ vs Lackey (over/under 20 total runs)
Nova vs Beckett
Freddy vs Lester
They may shuffle the rotation so CC goes one of the days, but now this is what it lines up to be.
Hughes starts Thursday, which means he’ll pretty much have to start one of the games (and yes if he keeps pitching well Girardi WILL NOT take him out of the rotation)
CC is scheduled to pitch Monday in Baltimore and Girardi said that they want him to stay on schedule and pitch that game, but they could change their mind. If not CC I say Nova and Garcia start the other two games.
This may sound odd, but I kinda sorta like my chances with Hughes against Lackey, Nova vs Beckett, and Garcia against Lester. Hughes is on a roll, Beckett is well overdue to collapse against the Yankees and Lester has been hitable against the Yankees this year. We’ll see, with the possible hurricane during the weekend which could screw things up.
Beckett is well overdue to collapse against the Yankees
That’s not how it works.
Sometimes, it is.
Especially because Beckett,s numbers against the Yankees are unsustainably good.
*Beckett’s
You should go to Vegas, play Roulette, and wait until the board has hit about 8 reds in a row. Then put all your money on green, because hey, it really can’t hit red every single time.
It’s called Gamblers Fallacy. Go look it up. This is a perfect example of it.
What exactly is it about a Garcia v. Lester matchup that makes you feel good?
Lester vs NYY this year- 3 games 18 innings, 5.00 ERA, 18 hits, 9 walks. And A-Rod should be back as well.
That looks like a sweep. Fuck I hate that team.
Yankees currently have 6 less wins than they should have according to their run differential. Their record should be 83-44 but they are only 77-50 thanks to their 4-7 record in extra innings and their 15-18 record in 1-run games.
In 2009 it was the opposite, they won 6 games more than they should have thanks to a 22-16 record in 1-run games and a 7-3 record in extra innings.
What the hell does this mean?? Absolutely nothing I guess lol. Funny thing is many people theorize that bullpen strength is a reason for records in close games but the Yankees arguably have the best bullpen in the AL so that cant be it. I guess it really could be equated to just bad luck but what fun is that, gotta put the blame on something!!
“… thanks to their 4-7 record in extra innings and their 15-18 record in 1-run games.”
I would love to see their RISP numbers in those 25 loses, and how many times they failed to score with a runner on 2nd or 3rd and no outs.
Of course the numbers in those games are going to be worse. They lost.
The Yankees are below .500 in games they lost. They suck.
I don’t get why people are ripping on CC tonight. He isn’t the reason we lost this game and quite frankly neither is Soriano. Runners on first and third in the 7th, no outs and we couldn’t bring Nunez home.
It NEVER should have gone to extra innings.
Agree. The Gardy popup on a 2-0 pitch (a 2-0 pitch!!!) really hurt. Since when does Gardy NOT take a strike in those situations let alone most abs.
Because, again, a 2-0 pitch is a great hitter’s pitch. If you get the pitch you want, you can do what you want with it (theoretically). Gardner, I assume, got the pitch he wanted and – unfortunately – popped it up. Swisher, on Tuesday, put a 2-0 pitch to the f’ing wall and people here gave him shit for swinging. Clearly, it was a pitch to crush, so he crushed it (if only 398 ft.). Even a guy who takes a lot of pitches, like Gardner, has to be salivating at a 2-0 pitch in a run-producing situation.
I would say that, since Soriano gave up a three-run home-run in the tenth inning, he would take primary blame, but I agree not one event loses you a game. That seventh inning was incredibly frustrating.
Balfour must not have gotten the note about throwing slow junk outside to Tex. He can flat turn a fastball around.
Yeah, the Yanks HAVE occasionally hit Lester this season and therefore have a reasonable chance against him. And historically they have ALSO hit Lackey and have a shot this time too. I dunno about Beckett this year. But if they open with A.J., the Sox will go to nuclear weapons in the first inning and that could set a tone for the series. The Sox seem pretty damn confident against the Yankees this year, play them with swagger and expose the merely statistical appearance of Yankee pitching strength. Girardi would be nuts to play into this situation by giving AJ a start against them.
First and third.
Zero outs.
Top of the order of the best offense in baseball.
Oakland A’s middle relief.
Zero runs.
Loss.
Das it!
It’s baseball, sh*$ happens.
Dominant closer as late as 2010 signed to one-year deal with two player options comes in for 10th inning.
Gives up three-run home run.
Loss.
Das it.
I understand the seventh was frustrating, and it was. It was Soriano’s job to get the team, with that seventh inning already occurring, to give the team a chance to win it in bottom of the inning. He didn’t.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter. Today is a new day. Even if it doesn’t go well, every good team gets swept by a bad one at some point in the season.
I’m not over it yet. I don’t sleep well when we lose games that I feel we should have won.(Oakland for God’s sake). Now I’m in a crappy mood. I’m glad it’s a 1 o’clock game, maybe I can take a nap.
I don’t sleep well when we lose games that I feel we should have won.(Oakland for God’s sake).
The best teams in baseball lose 60 times a year. And, since they’re the best teams, most of those 60 tend to be games they “should have won” since they’re better than their opponents 9 times out of 10.
If it’s hard for you to sleep well after your favorite baseball team fails to win that night, baseball is clearly not the sport for you. You should start watching cooking shows where everybody wins and receives a tasty dish at the end as a prize.
I shudder to think of what your agita would be like if you rooted for the Natinals/Pirates/Royals, who have lost 100+ games (many of them that they “should have won”) annually for two decades.
You’re not helping.
Being a Yankees fan conditions you to expect a win. Being a Nationals/Pirates/Royals fan you expect to lose so you sleep better.
Huh, that’s funny. I’m also a Yankee fan, and I’ve been conditioned to expect three things:
1.) To have a team full of great players, amongst the best in baseball
2.) To have a winning season and make the playoffs
3.) To compete for a title annually and win one frequently
What I haven’t been conditioned to expect
1.) To win every single fucking game
2.) To defy all the odds of baseball/human history and be the first team/organization/entity to never ever have a bad day/week/month/year/decade
You’re still not helping, especially when I never said 1&2 of what you haven’t been conditioned to expect.
No, I am helping. You’re just not listening, that’s the problem.
You’re really not. You make up things to fit your pre-conceived narrative running in your head.
No, I’m responding to what you’re saying.
You’ve said
A.) I don’t sleep well when we lose games that I feel we should have won.
B.) Being a Yankees fan conditions you to expect a win.
I’ve said (in so many words):
Baseball teams lose winnable games all the time. You’re taking this shit way too hard and expecting a level of success that is unattainable.
You’ve actually now toned it down a bit. You were saying that I expect the Yankees to win every game, I don’t nor did I say that. I did say that games that are very winnable that end up as loses can interfere with a good nights sleep. If that’s taking it too serious what can I tell you, it’s too late to stop now.
Three separate times in this series we’ve had the leadoff man hit a double and all three of those times yielded 0 runs. That’s not playoff baseball. The last two games have concerned me. Especially concerning is Girardi’s management of the starters and bullpen and his eagerness to bunt with his hottest hitters.
Three separate times in this series we’ve had the leadoff man hit a double and all three of those times yielded 0 runs. That’s not playoff baseball.
Three separate times in this series we haven’t played playoff baseball… because this series is not the playoffs.
A leadoff double in the playoffs will be a less frequent occurrence and we must get that run in. HR’s will not be as plentiful.
So let’s worry about that in the playoffs. You can’t really “practice” that in the regular season. It happens or it doesn’t. (And, also, you’re ignoring the times that it does happen.)
I know its like Monday morning quarterback, but dont you think Girardi should of went to Robertson after the hit to Suzuki? CC will never admit when hes gassed, but he had nothing in that 8th inning
Absolutely, but he pulled a Grady Little. I don’t care who you are, when you’re done you’re done. Girardi has the best bullpen in baseball and refuses to use them until his tired starter has already done the damage.
There was definitely a knot in my stomach at that point, but I also can’t blame a manager for sticking with a pitcher who is capable of giving you nine strong almost every time.
It’s not the first time Girardi has defaulted to CC at a point in the game at which you could argue the Big Man was done. But, again, it’s CC. The man is pretty remarkable. I’ll call it an understandable, if questionable, decision.
LIke I said last night..I knew the minute we left those runners stranded it would come back to haunt us..and it did.
As for Girardi,you should go with your gut sometimes and not go on the word of your starter.
Eh, a slightly tired CC is still better than any option not named Mo.
Man… when Swisher laughs, he is just a joy to watch. GREAT PICK at 1st!