Subway Swept: Yankees drop fifth in a row

May 30, 2013 by Mike Axisa 88 Comments

The free-falling Yankees dropped their fifth consecutive game on Thursday night, falling to the Mets by the score of 3-1. All the magic of April’s lovable overachievers is long gone, as the Bombers have now lost seven of their last nine games. They’ve scored a whopping ten runs in their last five games. I didn’t see a single pitch of the game and I’m very happy that was the case. I got home just after ten and figured I’d get to see an inning or two, but nope.

Robinson Cano hit a solo homer in the third inning and that was it — Mets pitchers retired the next 20 batters (!) to finish off the win. Twenty in a row sat down, eleven by strikeout. Keep in mind that Dillon Gee entered this game with a 6.34 ERA (4.93 FIP) in 49.2 innings. He allowed four hits (three singles and Cano’s homer) and walked no one in 7.1 innings. Oh, speaking of walks, the Yankees haven’t drawn one since Monday, 106 plate appearances ago. The last time the Bombers went three straight games without a walk was way back in 1991, which, coincidentally, is the last time they had an offense as anemic as this one.

The only mistake Vidal Nuno made was giving up a two-run homer to the corpse of Marlon Byrd, a deficit that was far too big to overcome. Two runs in six innings is plenty good enough from the seventh starter. Shawn Kelley and Joba Chamberlain combined to strike out six of ten batters faced, which is pretty great. Joba allowed a run (charged to Kelley) on an infield single. It happens. Austin Romine‘s passed ball didn’t help. Yes, I know it was scored a wild pitch, but the damn thing hit him right in the chest. He has to keep that in front of him.

I guess the good news is the schedule gets a whole lot easier now. The first place Red Sox come to town for three games this weekend, the second place Indians come for three games next week, then the Bombers go out on a ten-game West Coast trip. Piece of cake. Check out MLB.com for the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs for some more stats, and ESPN for the updated standings. The Yankees are one game in the loss column away from both first and fourth places. CC Sabathia and Jon Lester is your Friday night pitching matchup.

Pour some cougar on me

“I guess the good news is the schedule gets a whole lot easier now. The first place Red Sox come to town for three games this weekend, the second place Indians come for three games next week, then the Bombers go out on a ten-game West Coast trip. Piece of cake.”

Lmao, love the sarcasm here
- Kramerica Industries
  
  Mike has a very biting snarky side to him.
  
  As someone cut of that same cloth, I can always appreciate it.
Kevin

In the absurd way baseball works,watch us win games we have no business winning after getting swept by one of the worst teams in baseball.
Or we’ll continue our freefall..I’ll be at the stadium next week to let you know.
- Robinson Tilapia
  
  Yup. Have a great time.
Robinson Tilapia

Not to sound like Greg here, but this probably sells a lot more copies of the Post tomorrow.

What can I say? Didn’t have the stomach to watch any of it and, with my other favorite team playing strong right now in the third, can you blame me? This was…..quite the ditch for this team to fall into right now. Just wow.

Schedule looks shitty. Would anything surprise me, though? Nope. This had better just be a simple slump. I’m not banking on instant greatness from the two guys returning tomorrow.

Time to put on the big boy trousers, folks.
- SDB
  
  Instant greatness isn’t needed. But if the two guys returning tomorrow bring a little more power, the occasional extra base hit, and more importantly some long counts and walks – rather than 2-3 pitch long PAs, it’d help a fair bit.
  
  The last few games have been against teams with pretty awful bullpens (and the Red Sox and Indians’ bullpens aren’t exactly brimming with D-Rob and Mo equivalents). If the Yankees can actually give themselves a shot against those bullpens, then I’ll be hopefully. But if it’s like tonight and an average-at-best starter is only at 60 pitches in the 6th, then… ugh.
  - SFJ
    
    “and the Red Sox and Indians’ bullpens aren’t exactly brimming with D-Rob and Mo equivalents”
    
    Yeah. Not like Breslow (1.38 ERA), Uehara (2.14 ERA), Tazawa (2.70 ERA), and Bailey (1.76 ERA) have been good at all.
    
    Meanwhile, Robertson (2.86 ERA) and Mo (1.86) have been excellent, but to say the Red Sox bullpen isn’t “brimming with D-Rob and Mo equivalents” is a bit ignorant.
- mustang(The Has Been & Wannabes Bunch 2013)
  
  “Time to put on the big boy trousers, folks.”
  
  So many can’t because they have already shitted in them.
Brandon Mauk

The Yankees scored 5 runs against Jeremy Hefner, Dillon Gee (best start of his horrible career) and Jon Niese. Absolutely atrocious
- Bob Buttons
  
  A tad harsh considering Hefner had some nice stats in the minors, Gee is definitely serviceable and Niese was their ace coming into the season.
  
  Oh and Gee’s best start was May 19th 2011.
  - WhittakerWalt
    
    No, “atrocious” just about does it. You can’t put a brave face on this performance.
    - Bob Buttons
      
      Then maybe it’s just me who’s conservative about using “atrocious”.
      
      /notsarcasm
  - WhittakerWalt
    
    “Hefner had some nice stats in the minors?”
    
    There’s reaching and then there’s REACHING.
    - Bob Buttons
      
      And then there’s drafting Culver in the first round.
Mick taylor

Mike is right about romine. He is not a majorleaguer. Is Johnny Damon available to take ichiro’s spot?
- Bob Buttons
  
  Well I’ve heard that it was always his dream to play for the SWB RailRiders.
  - Need Pitching & Hitting (but mostly hitting)
    
    +1
Eddard

It’s been hard to watch but let’s rationalize here. They’re sitting one back in the loss column of 1st place at the end of May. 7 games over .500 when most thought at best they’d tread water. Four teams are bunched up near the top of the division but we figured it’d be that way anyway.

If anything this team is still overachieving and help is on the way tomorrow. This team of backups was never going to run away with the division. The bats will come around and the pitching is still strong. They’re primed to take 2/3 from the Sox this weekend.
- http://www.penuel-law.com/ Cuso
  
  Only the last sentence was false
Kramerica Industries

Oh, and the Marlins really need to be contracted, by this point.

Not that it’s likely to keep up, but at the rate they’re at right now, they’d finish 39-123. Not 1916 A’s bad, but still unbelievably awful.
- Robinson Tilapia
  
  The Heat would beat them, five on nine.
Bob Buttons

Took a peak at the game thread out of curiosity and my suspicions were right. Some unnecessary bitching, whining and over-reacting.
Losing or not, we are still within striking distance of AL East and I think hanging onto 2nd WC. This is still better than our expectations and most projections. Most of us had “stay within striking distance until reinforcements arrive” as one of the better scenarios. We are certainly doing as well, if not better. Sure, we got absolutely crapped on against the Mets, but we had our share of random wins out of nowhere, like the Jones dropped ball.
“TEH BATTING SUX!!!” No shit. Even our plan B at short is on DL, our backup 3B is forced to play SS, back-end is a coin-flip, and Ichiro continues to be the anti-Ichiro. However, our 2B is still well above average, our 1B is passable, our catcher is filling in admirably (compared to his career stats), and there was still some magic left in Vernon’s old bat. Not to mention our plan C at third has a positive oWAR. Talk to me in August and I bet this lineup will be at least middle of the pack.
Pitching has been a problem lately. CC got old. Hughes has been coin flip. Phelps and Nuno aren’t to be counted upon. However, Kuroda is doing quite well and Pettitte is doing as well as you could reasonably expect for his age. However, overall the staff is posting the 2nd best ERA, and it’s not like they are getting too lucky. Team BABIP against isn’t out of the ordinary, and the fact that they are mid-upper group for allowing HRs and hits while top at limiting walks is a good sign. Sure, some of the guys might regress, but you can make the case that some of them might get better/replaced with more parts.
I’ll admit it, this team right now may not be enough for the playoffs, However, Cashman will not stand pat and watch the ship sink. I sincerely believe that a couple of middle-tier acquisitions can help the team win a close race for WC spot.

What am I trying to say? For short, I’m just saying, the ship is still half afloat, and sooner or later some of them will get rid of water sooner and maybe they’ll trade for some plugs. For a season that was suppose to be “lost”, there’s a disproportional amount of bitching and whining. I mean seriously, people are panicking that the team is going on a losing streak. No team is “warm” at all times. They get hot and cold. Crap happens. Take a look at the larger picture instead of getting upset over relatively minor things.
- Robinson Tilapia
  
  God bless you, Bob.
  - Bob Buttons
    
    Probably been blessed already. I’m awfully optimistic about too many things.
- WhittakerWalt
  
  If you don’t want to see real-time reactions to horrible baseball the game threads are not for you.
  - Bob Buttons
    
    Problem is real-time reactions to anything is often overreaction.
    
    Oh well, ’tis life. Could be in our blood from the early human days.
    - WhittakerWalt
      
      Oh, there’s always going to be overreaction. I even noted that commenters were already going “here we go again” after the Mets got ONE basehit in the FIRST inning.
      But I appreciate the emotion and the immediacy of the live game threads, overreactions and all.
      - Wheels
        
        Dude, I was just messing around with my comment.
        
        WhittakerWalt
        
        Ahh, never mind. I had you confused with Greg.
      - Bob Buttons
        
        To each his own. As a guy who has no opportunity to watch the games I’d probably think half of our guys bats with their feet and catches with their hat if I only had game threads to judge by.
        
        Mikhel
        
        Some of them are… really!!! hehehe if you lived (and survived) the 1980s-1990s Yankees, then you know that over-reacting is futile, this is what the team was designed to do from the start by Cashman and the Steinbrenners. They had enough money to get Napoli and Victorino for the same if not less amount the bosox got Youkilis and Vernon Wells.
        
        If Victorino is not hitting at least he can field, which is something Wells can’t do. Napoli can’t field but he can bat and is a DH. Instead the NYY have had the back-up of the back-up’s back-up bat DH.
        
        Give me some Fishlin with a bit of Zuvella to go.
- mustang(The Has Been & Wannabes Bunch 2013)
  
  I love you man.
  
  Tear running down my face.
  - Bob Buttons
    
    There there. Maybe one of theses days I’ll add “Perpetual Optimist” to my handle.
    - Robinson Tilapia
      
      Rebecca would have to return and kill you, then.
Need Pitching & Hitting (but mostly hitting)

Yankees got 254 PAs from non-pitchers with a wRC+ under 85 all of last year.
They’ve gotten 736 PAs from non-pitchers with a wRC+ under 85 already this year.
Granted, some of the players currently under 85 might find their way above that by the end of the year, but that’s a whole lot of AB’s going to horrible hitters.
- Evan3457
  
  And that is it, in a nutshell.
  
  It isn’t effort.
  It isn’t a lack of heart.
  It isn’t a lack of guts.
  It isn’t Kevin Long.
  
  It’s too many replacement level and sub-replacement level hitters in the lineup, combined with slumps by the 2 or 3 worthwhile hitters they do have right now, making the lineup slightly above replacement level as a whole.
  - vicki
    
    NB: a bit of the worthwhiles’ slumping has to be attributed to the utter awfulness of the rest of the lineup too.
    
    end of the day, we were spotted two months by quirk, coincidence, aberration, quote-unquote luck, yahweh and pitching. it’s been nice.
    
    having expected the correction doesn’t keep me from feeling bottomless depression. seriously. i need a hobby or something.
    - NeilT
      
      The Yanks’ first month and a half was a microcosm of the Orioles’ entire 2012.
      
      Now that the Yanks are unraveling, just goes to show how utterly ridiculous those 2012 O’s were.
      
      As for tonight’s game, Gee was finding some filthy late movement on pretty much every pitch. No idea where he got it from, but it was there, and it was fooling everyone.
      - JohnnyC
        
        I would “tip my cap” to Gee if it was an isolated event where every dog has his day but the Yankees’ offense has been terminal for 2 weeks now (or about the last time Vernon Wells had an RBI). Frankly, Mike Axisa could probably go 7 strong against this lineup.
      - vicki
        
        yep. ’12 o’s made fools out of a lot of us; bill james and me, to name two.
        
        re your last point, 90 degrees, 50% humidity and the confidence of facing a shitty offense will make your ball daaaance.
        
        TomH
        
        These “’12 o’s'” of which you speak–are they now the 13 Orioles, currently .5 games behind the Yankees?
  - Bob Buttons
    
    Now that’s some good sense making. Way too early to call for Long’s head and call this team “out of fire”.
- Tom
  
  It’s weird, I get the sense that folks think the pitching has fallen off a bit; there was even a comment above that it was a problem of late. The pitching has allowed 3runs or less in 4 of the teams last 7 losses.
  
  April ERA: 4.00
  May ERA: 3.34
  Last 2 weeks: 3.70
vicki

so this dillon gee kid looks like the real deal. anybody know when he’s a fa? me, i totally back up the truck for the next tom seaver.
- JohnnyC
  
  If he’s the next Seaver, Cashman shoulda acquired the next Tommy Hutton before the game.
  - vicki
    
    maybe i shoulda said clemens?
    - JohnnyC
      
      I feel like I’m in a conversation with e.e. cummings.
      - vicki
        
        finally somebody gets me.
        
        http://plagiarist.com/poetry/344/
        
        Young Whippersnapper
        
        For some reason I read it as the way to hump a cow is hot.
Pistol pete

Let’s face it the Yanks have over achieved to this point but there’s no way anyone could think it would continue. They just don’t have enough good players on the field and a long season will,prove,out their weaknesses. Tex, Youkalis, and Pettitte will help if they stay healthy. The most important piece, however, is CC. Without him returning to form it’ll be tough to compete.
- Winter
  
  With all due respect to CC and how important he is, he’s far from the most important piece. Kuroda has been amazing, and no one (aside from Nova early) has stunk. No, by far the most important player is Cano. Obviously it’s best if everyone produces, but this team lives and dies woh Robinson Cano. He’s their superstar; when he’s hot they win games, when he’s slumping they lose them. Getting Youkilis and (especially) Teixeira bak will mitigate that to a certain extent, but he is the only elite hitter on this team. I don’t buy into the “Robbie doesn’t try” spiel. He’s an amazing player and I have no doubt he’s doing everything he can to help his team win. Every player slumps, but if the Yankees want to win they need Cano to break out of the one he’s in right now.
- Bob Buttons
  
  They just need to hold on for a few more weeks and then they can keep winning without being seen as overachievers.
D$1184

Injuries aside, George M. Steinbrenner would be furious right now if he was alive and he would have made a move or two by now. Not saying that’s the right thing to do but that’s what he would have done.
- WhittakerWalt
  
  There aren’t really any moves to make. We’d have made them by now.
  - George Pacino
    
    (To Girardi) You’re fired!
    (To Cashman) You’re fired!
    (To the players) The whole team’s fired!
    - Mikhel
      
      Specially Cashman after his declarations about how the NYY will continue to scrap the garbage bin for SS replacements.
      
      That has to be one of the worst declarations of any NYY general manager in history, if not the worst (paired with his criticism of the Soriano signing).
- vicki
  
  then why do you say it to begin with?
  
  i know the answer. because back when, it was somewhat comforting, when the yanks were losing, to have your irrational voice heard, amplified, publicly. outside of your brief
  
  but outside of your satisfaction it did no good, and it wouldn’t now.
  
  pre-banning boss was before my time, but i study my history. i recommend ‘damned yankees’ by bill madden and moss klein. if everyone read it the meme would vanish.
  - trr
    
    No need for a few of us, including myself, as we lived it. It was constant turmoil, some brilliant highs, but for most of us, a lot of cringing. Frankly, I’ll take the current version, hideous warts and all.
  - TomH
    
    Memes don’t exist. They’re a concoction that an undereducated geneticist tried to foist upon us.
- Robinson Tilapia
  
  Probably. And?
  
  Not trying to be snarky at you, but I fail to see what would have been better had this been, say, 1985, besides the mustaches.
  - Mikhel
    
    Those 1980s Yankees were good offensively considering the state of the hitting in those years around the MLB.
    
    The bad thing about those 1980’s Yankees was their pitching, Righetti blew saves almost every week.
    
    The new version of those Yankees began with JoeG, that world series is looking more as a fluke than an achievement, a team which can win because of the way it is built, but it can never really win under pressure because JoeG is not a manager, he just moves the lineup a bit according to what his personal logic says (which goes against reality).
    
    Heck, this Yankees team like the Marlins teams he managed, bat like a bunch of Joe Girardis in their prime.
JohnnyC

Looks like advance scouting finally caught up to the Yankees’ band of plucky over-achievers. And I guess Kevin Long is no longer a genius.
forensic

Wow, I thought hoping/expecting to split the series was low enough expectations to keep things realistic. Apparently that isn’t even close to low enough for this offense right now.

Getting Tex and Youk back is nice, but it sure seems to be expecting too much of them to step in and immediately start hitting really well to try to help carry the offense. That goes moreso for Tex, since at least Youk has played some this season. Tex hasn’t done much of anything prior to the rehab this year, and of course everyone knows how he usually starts seasons. Might still be in for some tough times until they can start hitting some sort of stride, and until Cano and Hafner start to hit somewhat consistently again (and maybe even one or two of the other guys hits a little to join them too).

Facing Lester tomorrow probably won’t help things, but at least he’s coming off two lesser starts in a row. It’ll be interesting to see what Sabathia looks like too.
- Bob Buttons
  
  This series just gave them more reasons to say you can’t predict baseball.
  
  I mean, I doubt anyone seriously thought Yanks would lose all four.
  - Mikhel
    
    It was predictable if you looked at their stats, the Mets had better stats than the NYY when you don’t count the DH which was the “advantage” of the Yankees, at least in paper.
    
    Once you removed the DH, the Yanks had worse stats than the Mets before their series. Once the Mets defeated the NYY the first two games, the yanks could not cope with the pressure and got pummeled, and some of it lingered to the last game where once again, their bats fell asleep as it has happened for 34 of their games where they can’t hit the starting pitcher for more than 6 hits (23 games of 4 or less hits vs the opposing starter).
    
    Even the Padres have better stats when you don’t count the offense of DH nor the P.
    - Robinson Tilapia
      
      You may be embarrassed by this series, but that’s not 1/10th as embarrassed as I was by Papa Bear before his suspension.
trr

Many times I’ve said patience and forbearance . I never said it would be easy. I think we all knew what we were signing on for this season. But the worm ALWAYS turns. Meantime, keep your heads high and your powder dry. You can’t fully appreciate the highs without suffering the indignation of the lows.

And Brothers and Sisters, are we ever low now
- Bob Buttons
  
  Could be worse, but yes, probably will get better.
Bennett

Welp, if there is anything good to take from this, it’s that maybe Hal will keep quiet about how all these fill-ins helping the team win justifies the payroll plan.

Actually two things, nice to see Nuno do well after being written off by the Indians.
King George

Soooo, I guess that whole “you play better in pinstripes” mantra has come to a screeching halt.
- LarryM Fl
  
  The pinstripes are fading as we watch each night.
  - Robinson Tilapia
    
    Somehow, those unis turn blue and orange as the stripes fade. How does that happen?
    - LarryM FL
      
      Only if your allegiance changes!
Evan3457

Oh, and as I mentioned elsewhere, why does Stewart play so much, when he’s pretty awful?

Because his backup, while he might be a decent starting catcher someday, right now, is very awful.
LarryM Fl

As I watched in disbelief. The Yankee lineup showed no signs of putting a few hits together with productive outs to score some runs. Michael Kay was announcing the return of Youklis and Teixera. I watched as Cano aside from his single and HR looking frustrated at the events of the last week. I knew the season had the opportunity to be like this last week at times with the team assembled to replace our injured heroes who are getting older as we wait. We have gone at least 4 deep at third, 4 deep at short, 3 deep at catcher, 2 deep at first,2 deep in left, 6 or 7 deep in RF. So what can we expect.

The good news is we are 7 games above .500. Do I thing the return of Youklis and Teix. will help? Not dramatically but it will slowly. Maybe Robbie Cano will not feel he has to hit the 5 run HR to help the team everytime up. Maybe the two returnees will make the lineup more solid at least on paper. I can recall Teix. having his issues in April and May. Will June and July be his April and May? I sure hope not.

All I know is the Yanks are my team. They are the best TV win or loss most of the time but can be as interesting as the food channel when they get swept by the Mets scoring 7 runs in 4 games.

Another aspect is the AL East will be very competitive and I doubt any team will run away with the division so it should be interesting to the end. We probably will not win the division or even qualify for the WC because of the competitive nature of the AL East but it could nip and tuck(TV show) til the end.
Kosmo

Yanks need to find a SS in the worst way. Nix/Brignac ain´t cuttin´ it. Nunez is a joke.
Alex Amarista ?
- trr
  
  we DO need an upgrade at SS. But do you really think SD is looking to move him at this point?
  - Kosmo
    
    probably not. At this point in the season SD would have to be blown away for to part with Amarista who happens to be a very good UI.
Robinson Tilapia

Why I truly love Mets fans. This was a friend’s response to the sweep:

“I don’t know why they bother winning at all.”
- trr
  
  ?
  I guess it’s a Mets’ thing?
- rek4gehrig
  
  LOL. That’s too darn funny.
- LarryM FL
  
  They are in a state of eternal depression because of cultural breeding which flows through the genes of all Mets fans in the past and present. Only a removal of the team from NY at least one time zone away with new ownership and name change can relieve the Met fan of its lifetime burden.
  
  That is one funny comment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m still laughing.
Frank

Tough night, tough week for Yanks. It happens. On to the next series. As for last night, the summary above is fairly accurate except for the fact the third run was not the result of a passed ball by Romine. It was a WP. I realize a lot of people don’t like Romine and get on him for his lack of hitting, but fundamentally, he did exactly what a catcher is taught to do when a ball bounces in front of the plate- he dropped to his knees and attempted to surround the ball. It happened to bounce to his left- that’s not his fault.
- LarryM FL
  
  A slider breaking down and away or 98 mph fastball bouncing at your mid section then control it to fall softly at your knees. It can not be ez but our only alternative is a guy who lets them go through his glove.
  
  I want Romine to catch just about everyday. He surly is not hurting the offense.
trr

Can’t kill Romine (or any player) over any single play, but what we’ve seen so far is the young man is not MLB ready. I’m not ready to give up on him after a few weeks, but it’s fairly obvious he should be at Scranton. Could Bobby Wilson be any worse until Cervelli returns?
mt

As I predicted in yesterday’s recap, the only way Nuno was winning this game was if Nuno pitched a shutout.

The slide before these last 2 games were manageable somewhat because Cobb, Price, Harvey, and to some extent Niese (historically against the Yankees) are pretty good. It is embarassing to look so bad aagaint the likes of Hefner and Gee.

If tonight’s game against 7-2 in YS3 Jon Lester isn’t a reverse lock, I don’t know what is. The problem is that if we do happen to miraculously score 3 or 4 runs against Lester (I know, I am fantasizing), we have CC on the mound who has recently rarely dominated the Red Sox and has been giving up a lot of hits and Hrs in his last few starts.

As I said before, considering how historically bad as a Yankee offense they look I am just hoping we don’t get swept. Youk and Tex are going to need some time (going from facing AA pitching to a dealing Jon Lester is a big step up) but everyone is right – at least we hopefully see some deeper counts and maybe a walk or two. (Not having any walks may be the biggest problem with this offense – no one can work a count. Gee had like 68 pitches in 6 innings.)

The demotions to allow Youk and Teix to coem back are my fascination today – originally thought it might be Boesch and Nuno with another pitcher going down on Monday for Pettite’s return. Thatw as the “keep adams/Overbay” scenario. But Wells/Ichiro have been so bad (not that Boesch is magnificent but at least he is an alternative) – they may not be confortable with Nix as 4th OF – so I guess Nuno and Adams are the ones to go.

I like Nuno but he is a perfect embodiment of Yankees this year – little engine that could but with such a small margin for error becuase of sub-par true talent (I actually did not know his stuff was so mediocre based on his good minor leauge performance.) It is one thing for Freddy Garcia and Jamie Moyer at latter parts of career to be dealing like that to stay in league but can Nuno really be part of our rotation next year with that stuff? Can guile and location take him that far?

(Yesterday sucked so bad – not to mention Freddy’s near shutout of the Nationals and Martin’s walk-off single.)
- Frank
  
  Not saying he’s at their level, or even close, but Maddux and Glavine had outstanding careers throwing no harder than Nuno.
trr

A lot of pitchers have had pretty good careers with guile and location. I’m sure not ready to anoint Nuno, and yeah, his velocity is a concern if he throws the ball upstairs, but so far the results have been good. Need to see more.

Like you, I’m curious to see the roster moves. IMO, it should Adams/Nuno. They’ve both shown us something, but it’s a numbers game right now with some dead weight (like Ichiro) clogging the roster….If they are sent down, they’ll both be back at some point.