Sabathia rocked (again) as Yankees lose to Red Sox (again)

September 14, 2013 by Mike Axisa 62 Comments

I can’t be the only one who goes into these games against the Red Sox thinking the Yankees have very little chance of winning, right? The Yankees just aren’t in the same class. Not offensively, not on the mound, not in the field, and certainly not when it comes to developing homegrown players. Saturday’s loss was not really a bloodbath but it was just another example of Boston’s obvious superiority. Let’s recap the 5-1 loss:

Sad-bathia: Things were looking up for CC Sabathia after he threw a perfect first inning on seven pitches. Then 13 of the next 27 batters he faced reached base. Six singles, three doubles, four walks, two sac bunts, and one sac fly led to five total runs in the second through fifth innings to put this game out of reach. Sabathia has now allowed 59 runs in 71 innings across his last 12 starts, and opponents are hitting .307/.369/.486 against him during that time. Brutal.
The Grandy Can … : … but no one else can. Curtis Granderson was the only player who did anything noteworthy at the plate, going 2-for-4 with a double and a triple. Robinson Cano drove him in with a ground ball after the three-bagger. Offensive Catalyst Brendan Ryan slapped a single through the right side and both Alex Rodriguez and J.R. Murphy drew walks — Murphy was the only one of the final 13 batters to reach base. That’s it. That was the day for the offense. Non-Granderson hitters went a combined 1-for-26 with the two walks and five strikeouts. Three of those five whiffs were Lyle Overbay vs. Jon Lester. No Brett Gardner, no Alfonso Soriano, so chance.
Leftovers: This game lasted only two hours and 42 minutes, so at least it was quick … Joba Chamberlain walked two and got a lucky line drive double play in his inning of work before Matt Daley struck out two in a perfect ninth … the Yankees were held to just one run (or less) for the first time in 27 games … they allowed at least five runs for the eighth time in their last eleven games … the bullpen was not charged with a run for the first time in five games. The last time that happened was the series opener against the Orioles, when Sabathia went 7.1 innings and Adam Warren recorded two outs in the road loss … the Yankees have lost 70 games for the first time since 2008 and second time since 2000.

MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs some nerd stats, and ESPN the updated standings. Depending on the outcome of the late game, the Yankees will be either three games (Rays lose) or four games (Rays win) back of a wildcard spot. If the Athletics hold on to win, the Rangers will be tied with the Joe Maddon’s club in the standings. The Yankees could be chasing Texas and not the Tampa soon. Ivan Nova, who is coming off his triceps problem, will start Sunday’s series finale against Clay Buchholz.

Kenny

No, you’re not the only guy who thinks the Yanks have very little chance. They’re completely outclassed now by Boston, lineup vs. lineup, rotation vs rotation, organization vs. organization.
RetroRob

Sad-bathia…hmmm, I like that, in a very sad way.

As I noted in the game thread, Yankee-Red Sox games have been a bit depressing the last few years because even when the Yankees were the better team the Red Sox were winning too many of them. Now if feels like no contest.

Hopefully the Yankees can get out of town with a win tomorrow, stay within three, and then beat up the teams for the last twelve games, obviously the head-to-head games with Tampa key.

Yet the reason Cleveland’s odds are so much better is they have the easier schedule, and the Yankees/Rays playing each other is most likely a win for them.
- JGYank
  
  I think Cleveland’s odds are better because of run differential as well as schedule. The better run differential makes them look like a better team so they are predicted to win more games.
JGYank

The RS have our number and are the better team. We are facing injuries again and the number of games are dwindling. Hopefully we will rebound. After tomorrow we only have one series against a winning team and that’s TB the team we are chasing. We have to go like 7-2 vs the BJs, Giants, and Houston while taking at least 2/3 from Tampa. If we win tomorrow that would bring us to 89 wins. The only questions are is this team capable of going 10-3 the rest of the way and will that be enough for the 2nd WC. We will see…
forensic

Least surprising loss ever. Who says you can’t predict baseball?
HateMclouth (formerly I’mVernon)

Oh you are certainly not alone, Mike. As Kramerica pointed out in the game thread last night, if we somehow make it all the way past the WC play-in game, we’d be likely be facing the Sox in the ALDS. I can’t imagine that being pretty.
Eddard

I said before the game they had no chance of winning today. Their only chance of beating the Sox with CC on the mound is if an equally worthless starter like Ryan Dempster is opposing him.

They do have a chance at one win in the series with Nova on the mound tomorrow. It’s already over but I’m hoping another embarrassment on national TV will force ownership to make changes at the top because that’s our only way forward.
https://twitter.com/KramerIndustry Kramerica Industries

All setting up for when the Yankees sweep the Red Sox in the ALDS, I suppose.
- Kiko Jones
  
  THIS.
  (I know you’re being facetious, but fuck it, I’m not, heh heh.)
Rolling Doughnut

There is a reason the probability of getting into the postseason never went above 18%. The team is not good enough. The question is what do they do moving forward? They ave to fill holes at 3B (assuming ARod is done), SS (with all due respect to the Cap’t), C, and RF. Even 1B if you consider that Tex as been in a slow agonizing decline for several years. Then there’s the pitching. Could be a tough slog the next few years.
Vern Sneaker

It’s not just the Red Sox. We’re 25-22 since July 25 when Soriano got added. It’s a .500 team, perhaps a bit better, and most of us saw that at the end of ST. We’ll get maybe 86-87 wins. Win three, lose two. Win again, lose two, win two, etc. etc. no point getting too high or too low with a team like that. But miracles do happen, so here’s hoping.
- dalelama
  
  Actually very few other than myself predicted .500 at the beginning of season. I did and caught tons of crap from the homers because of it.
  - WhittakerWalt
    
    Look who decided to show up, the troll who never says a peep when we’re playing well!
  - Improbable Island’s Dirty Midget Whores (formerly RRR)
    
    Well, you’re going to be wrong, since they’re not going to go .500.
    
    85 wins was a pretty common prediction, actually, and I think they’ll beat that. 86-88 is my guess.
    
    I’m not going to be very proud of this team if they miss the playoffs. I won’t be disappointed either. Most likely, they’ll do almost exactly as well as we expected them to do. Nothing to be particularly proud of, but absolutely no shame in it either.
    - dalelama
      
      The historical revisionism is quite hilarious.
  - Get Phelps Up
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJYztt2WWVo
JGYank

ESPN has us at a 12.2% chance of making the playoffs which is ironic because the Orioles are tied with us and have an 8.8% chance and they have a better run differential. So I guess the schedule does have an impact on the chances.
bigbsarteest

Thank god
Billy Martin and the Mick are not alive to see this.
- Kiko Jones
  
  They might have been on worse teams than this one—the Mick certainly was.
Dars

I refuse tocgivevthe Steinbrenner brothers a penny of my money until I see that they care to win….

This throwing out rejects from other teams and done veterans has to stop….
- WhittakerWalt
  
  Yes because season-ruining injuries to Jeter, Tex, Granderson and ARod never happened. The main guys got hurt, some for pretty much the whole season. Then the backups got hurt. Then their backups got hurt. I’d like to hear you explain how that was the FO’s plan all along.
  - Delbert Grady
    
    Stop licking their boots. Everyone knew Jeter & Arod were old and coming off major injuries so the front office and ownership relying on them for anything was absentee landlord at best. As for Tex and Granderson, Tex can’t hit RHP and Grandy couldn’t hit anything other than HR’s so it’s not like we’re talking Miggy and Prince here. You want to say they (meaning the Yankees front office) did their best, try doing that while looking in the mirror. It’ll be tough. They thought just rolling out stiffs in pinstripes equaled a wild card and they were wrong.
    - WhittakerWalt
      
      F you.
      - Frank
        
        Delbert gave a valid response to you and that’s your response? Real mature.
        
        WhittakerWalt
        
        He called me a “boot-licker” when all I was doing was pointing out a glaring hole in someone’s argument. Seems to me like the unpleasantness started with him.
      - Rolling Doughnut
        
        Delbert is spot on. Wait till next year when the still finish with 88 wins with Tex, Jeter, Granderson and a few retreads they’ll hire on the off season.
    - JGYank
      
      You are right they didn’t put the best product on the field but you can’t argue injuries crippled the team this year. And some the guys went on the DL multiple times. All those guys that were out were above average hitters that probably would have prevented us from the crappy summer this team had. Our pitching was doing pretty well up until August and our lineup was in shambles before that so if we had the lineup together to start with we could of won at least 5 more games if not more. Things would be a lot different if we were healthy this year.
  - Dick M
    
    Of the 4 guys you mentioned, 2 are nearly 40 and one is a grossly overpaid 250 hitter. And we have no one in the system to take their place. If the FO has a plan it ain’t working very well.
    
    DCAs (Delusional Cashman Apologists) unite.
    - JGYank
      
      Those are still all above average hitters that I gladly would have put into the scrub filled lineup from April-July.
    - WhittakerWalt
      
      Is the “grossly overpaid 250 hitter” a reference to Teixeira? And if so, are you saying the team should have come into spring training with a different first baseman? Because Tex is on the team, and if healthy is better than anyone they could have brought in to replace him.
      - Dick M
        
        The fact is we are stuck with Tex, an in-decline 250 hitter making 25 mill. Another stroke of genius from the,as you put it,FO.
        
        WhittakerWalt
        
        No one was questioning the signing when we made it, and they probably don’t win the WS without him in 2009. I’m on board.
        
        Dick M
        
        Do you really want to get into his post-season performance?
JGYank

What really sucks is after the last series in Baltimore we had a 23% of making the playoffs. That was the highest chance since July 13th. This series has crippled us and our chances.

This is a really useful feature on coolstandings if you want to check it out.

http://www.coolstandings.com/baseball_team.asp?sn=2013&id=NYY&date=913
- JGYank
  
  May 25th was our highest chance at 64.9% while August 7th was our lowest at 1.8%. Shows you how badly we played between that time.
  
  Also I saw that our chances to make the postseason on March 30th were 38.6% even when no team had played any games yet. Shouldn’t every team start off with 33.3% since 5 out of the 15 teams in the league make the postseason?
  - JGYank
    
    Actually for opening day it has that for “dumb” standings while every team is expected to win 81 games with a 20% chance for the division and a 13.3% chance for the WC. The “smart” standings have different expected wins for every team. The Yanks were predicted to win 84.7 games and therefore had the 38.6% chance since they were expected to be over .500 and had a better chance than 33.3% chance since they were predicted to be a winning team I guess. That makes sense now. I just wonder where they got the predictions for wins at the beginning of the year before the games started.
Kiko Jones

The Red Sox are not a superior team—they’re just outplaying the Yankees.
What if the pitching were doing the job they were doing early on when the now vibrant offense was practically non-existent? And let’s not be like those ridiculous folks who jump on a guy for not producing on an off day.
WTF?!

The injuries put the team in a hole and unfortunately the different aspects of play have not been working at the same time. But…how ’bout we learn a lesson from Mo and turn the page and look forward to the next game. As long as they’re still in it, we might as well, right? Why start with the doom and gloom, when there will be an entire off-season to dedicate to that?
- WhittakerWalt
  
  I hope the “off day” you’re referring to wasn’t about CC. Because he’s been having an off-YEAR.
- FIPster Doofus
  
  The Red Sox are absolutely the superior team. Saying otherwise is just living in denial.
- rsf
  
  I would love to have whatever you’re smoking. The Red Sox are clearly, in every way possible, the better team.
  
  – The Yankees are 11.5 games back.
  – The Red Sox run differential is around +180. the Yankees – 8.
  – The Red Sox are winning the season series handily 12-6.
  
  Yes, the Yankees had a lot of injuries Part of that their own fault for depending on a 39 year old shortstop and a 3rd baseman who’s falling apart.
  
  But the Red Sox have lost players as well. They lost their first closer for the season, then lost their second closer for the season. They’re on their 3rd and he’s lights out. They’ve lost 3 relievers they were depending on for the season.
  
  There best picture and at the time a cy young candidate just returned after missing several months. Their shortstop went down and they replaced him with what might be the rookie of the year, yet they’re so deep they traded him for a starting pitcher and brought up yet another shortstop. The Red Sox have used 3 shortstops this year and all three would have been better replacements for Jeter than what the Yankees had.
  
  Look at the Red Sox lineup today. Yeah, Gardner was injured. The Red Sox were without Ellsbury, sat both their starting shortstop and catcher, and still had a dangerous lineup on the field. Injuries or not, they’re a far deeper team.
  
  If the Yankees can sneak in the playoffs anything can happen. Someone gets hot in a short series and a team can go on a quick run. But over this season the Red Sox are clearly the superior team, and it’s not even close.
  
  Claiming otherwise means you either know nothing about baseball or you have your Yankee blinders on.
  - toad
    
    Yup.
  - Kiko Jones
    
    Neither, Mr. Guru.
    
    What I’m saying is that all things being equal this Yankee roster playing to expectations and not plagued by injuries, would NOT be in 4th place, 11.5 games out of first. No way. You don’t have to drink the Yankee Kool-Aid to realize this.
- Silvio
  
  Sorry, but rsf has given the definitive response to your post.l
  
  As for “The Red Sox are not a superior team—they’re just outplaying the Yankees.” They’ve done it 12 out of 18 times this year. At a certain point, a pile of sand becomes a beach. The Sox are outplaying the Yanks BECAUSE Boston’s the superior team.
  
  There’s no point hiding our heads in the sand or singing “Happy Talk” over and over again. Cold-hearted assessments are necessary now of this team and its front office. Hell, even those guys on Fox were yammering about it today.
Kiko Jones

Nah, I was referring to the knocks Fonzi gets when he has an 0-fer game.
jors

The Yankees can turn this around but they need to spend money… I would let Cano walk and bring in Brian McAnn and Nelson Cruz and raid the Red Sox for some of their gritty players that are about to hit free agency. Napoli and Drew. Perhaps trade for Howie Kendrick on the Angels. Sign Grant Balfour and Matt Garza and Dan Haren….
Goodbye Pettite, Kuroda, Hughes, Joba, Mariano, Cano, Reynolds, Stewart, Logan, Granderson
Force Jeter into retirement by telling him he’ll be the utility player… Give Warren to get Kendrick.

2014 Line Up

Gardner CF
Kendrick 2B
Cruz RF
Teixeira 1B
Napoli DH
Soriano LF
McAnn C
Drew SS
Adams 3b

Bench: Wells, Ichiro, Almonte, Nunez and Cervelli

Starters: Sabathia, Garza, Nova, Pineda, Haren
Bullpen: Phelps, Cabral, Betances, Balfour, Kelley, Robertson and another lefty
- Will
  
  You’ve been playing MLB the show way too much.
  - JGYank
    
    Love that game. Too easy to win though.
Farewell Mo

The Yankees just aren’t in the same class… certainly not when it comes to developing homegrown players.

That pretty much sums up this season and likely The next several.
Delbert Grady

Red Sox seem to know how to draft and develop while our front office knows how to pump and dump. There’s no excuse for all the misses over the years or all the guys who just don’t make the jump. The less heralded guys like Robertsen and Nova come up and contribute while the supposed “stars” of the system can’t get out of their own way. The Yankee system is broken and until Cashman is removed from this organization and a true baseball mind is brought in, it’s going to stay broken.

That being said, let’s not hold a coronation for the Red Sox just yet. A lot can go wrong between now and the World Series parade. I don’t think they’ve built some dynasty there. But I do believe they filled their roster with quality depth while we stripped ours this off season and went into the season without a real catcher.
- WhittakerWalt
  
  If the Yankees had signed all the free agent busts the Sox had in the past couple years, you’d be killing them. The Sox got lucky when the Dodgers took all the dead weight off their roster.
  - Silvio
    
    “The Sox got lucky when the Dodgers took all the dead weight off their roster.”
    
    And you assume that this was mere “luck”?
    - WhittakerWalt
      
      I don’t know what really happened. Good fortune, at any rate.
      - vicki
        
        you know the dodgers feel they won that trade.
Steinbrenner’s Ghost

I missed the game.

How many times did Fox reference “2004” and Bob Gibson?
jim p

Through 4.5 I watched, Gibson once. A story you probably never heard of how Tim wouldn’t go out to the mound to tell Gibson to slow down. There was a batter up during the story, but I don’t think they mentioned him.
your mom

Barf. . . . . . . . . . ..
Kevin

Sadly,mike is 100%. Boston is superior to us in developing home grown players and it’s why their future is going to look far brighter then ours in the next decade.
It’s time to clean house and start fresh with the FO and the development staff.
The people we have now simply aren’t cutting it.
- WhittakerWalt
  
  Homegrown players are not necessarily the answer, unless you’re home-growing Mike Trout and Steven Strasburg. Which is pretty tough to do unless you have crazy good draft position or a stroke of blind luck.
nycsportzfan

That SD and White Sox series looms very large at this point. Basically left no room for error, and now were pretty much done.
- forensic
  
  That’s what they get for starting Hughes in San Diego. You just can’t expect a good performance and a win when you put him in against such a powerful offense in a great hitter’s park.
Trisha

Actually it has nothing to do with anything you guys have talked about. The whole Sux team is doing steroids at Big Poopy’s apartment. Now that his wife has divorced him he has the ability to have all the players over and they do roids. So sorry it unequivocally has nothing to do with the Sux being superior. They are just big cheaters.

Oh and Bud Selig is in on it. He tells the team ahead of time when the testing is coming to make sure they pass it. And even if they fail he just destroys the tests.

I am very perspicacious and know all. And if I think something then it is definitely true. So HMMMMPH!!!!
forensic

I typically hate games where A-Rod is active and doesn’t play, but I certainly hope they don’t play him tomorrow. Missing one game basically gives him three whole days off, which will hopefully really help the hammy. He’s clearly not moving well and hasn’t hit the first two games either, though he does have good numbers against Buchholz in his career.

I say sacrifice the potential gain in that one game for hopefully improved production in the last 12. Especially given that they’re already underdogs against the Sox and Buchholz and that the next three after tomorrow are on turf.