Yanks can’t complete sweep, fall to Rays

Source: FanGraphs

Two out of three against the division rival isn’t bad, but I think all of us wanted the Yankees to get a little greedy and finish off the sweep of the Rays with CC Sabathia on the mound Thursday night. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Let’s recap…

• On The Ropes: The Yankees had David Price right where they wanted him in the fifth inning. The bases were loaded with one out, the middle of the order was due up, and his pitch count was approaching the century mark. Alex Rodriguez saw seven curveballs as part of an 11-pitch at-bat before striking out, then Robinson Cano grounded out to end the threat. Pretty much every time the Yankees lose, you can point to a hideous RISPFAIL situation like this. Then again, you can say that about any team losing just about any game ever.
• Not Good Enough: Sabathia allowed five runs (three earned) in his seven innings of work, with the big blow being a two-run Drew Sutton double on a pretty good slider down in the zone. He hooked it into the left field corner and some bobbles by Jayson Nix and the relay man allowed the second run to score. It didn’t help that A-Rod threw a ball into the stands to start a rally in the third either. Sabathia did strike out a season-high 12 though, walking just one. Just wasn’t good enough.
• Leftovers: Ugly night for Curtis Granderson, who struck out four times and grounded out to the pitcher in his five trips to the plate … Russell Martin’s garbage time opposite field homer was their only extra-base hit, plus he’s now hitting .324/.432/.595 since the start of the Royals series before the West Coast trip … Cory Wade allowed a pair of extra-base hits and has been struggling of late, though he hasn’t worked all that much either … Clay Rapada walked Matt Joyce in the ninth and now has more walks (seven) than strikeouts (six) against left-handed batters … the defense was quite ugly in this one, the Yankees did themselves zero favors in the field … 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position brought them to 5-for-26 in the series, and this RISPFAIL nonsense is getting old fast.

I don’t think there’s much more you can say about this one. The Yankees have been playing well of late but it just wasn’t happening. Get back on the horse tomorrow. MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs the nerd score, and ESPN the updated standings. The Subway Series starts on Friday night with Hiroki Kuroda giving it a go against Johan Santana, who is coming off his no-hitter. If you want to catch the game, check out RAB Tickets for some deals.