Every loss seems to play out the same way these days. The starter pitches okay but not great, the offense doesn’t get The Big Hit, and the Triple-A bullpen allows an insurance run or two. That’s exactly what happened in Friday night’s 5-2 loss to the White Sox. It followed the script perfectly.
Three Bad Innings
Earlier this season, CC Sabathia seemed to fall victim to the One Bad Inning start after start. He’d pitch well for a few innings, allow like four runs at once, then continue to pitch well afterwards. It was annoying. This game featured three bad innings. The White Sox scored one run in the second, another run in the third, and then two more in the seventh.
The second and third inning rallies involved a series of base hits. They’re weren’t quick rallies. Melky Cabrera singled and scored on Alexei Ramirez’s double into the right center field gap in the third — Ramirez’s double was a single that became a double because, you know, Carlos Beltran defense — then Sabathia put two more runners on base before escaping the inning. Four of the first six batters reached base in the second.
In the third, Sabathia allowed a one-out single to Trayce Thompson and a two-out single to Avisail Garcia to score the run. (Thompson took second on a ground out earlier.) The PC Richard & Son whistle mistakenly went off after strike two to Garcia, which was amusing. Both hits in the inning came in two-strike counts, which was less amusing. Mike Olt and Gordon Beckham then hit solo homers in the seventh for two runs. Olt hit a ball into the second deck in left. Very bad pitches. Very, very bad.
Sabathia finished the night with four runs allowed on six hits and two walks in 6.2 innings. He struck out three and did get an impressive 14 ground ball outs. (Only two in the air.) Sabathia has pitched much better since coming off the DL but this was easily his worst start of the four. Those two homers in the seventh ruined it. Sabathia was fine up until then.
Blown Chances
Carlos Rodon did everything in his power to give this game to the Yankees. He walked five and hit two batters in six innings of work. That’s seven (!) free base-runners. Not a single one of those seven scored. Didi Gregorius drove in both of New York’s runs in the fourth inning. Brian McCann (single) and Chris Young (infield single) reached base earlier to setup the rally.
Of course, all those free base-runners led to lots of chances, yet the Yankees never capitalized. A hit batsman and a walk in the second? Rob Refsnyder grounded out to end the threat. A hit batsman and a walk in the third? Beltran popped up to end the inning. Bases loaded in the fourth? Chase Headley hit into an inning-ending double play. A double and a walk in the sixth? Brett Gardner banged into a double play. A leadoff base-runner in both the seventh and eighth? More double plays! These by Alex Rodriguez and Young.
That was rough. The Yankees had plenty of chances but were smacking into double plays or popping or whatever all night. The offense has been scuffling for weeks now — there are simply too many players not hitting at the moment, most notably Gardner, Headley, and A-Rod — and we’ve seen a few too many games like this recently. Lots of opportunities but not lots of runs. They’ve got ten days to figure it out before the wildcard game.
Leftovers
David Robertson tossed a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his 32nd save. Wait … he’s not on the team anymore. Force of habit. Anyway, Andrew Bailey was the first reliever out of the bullpen and he retired all four batters he faced, with two strikeouts mixed in. Nick Rumbelow (two singles) and Chasen Shreve (one single) conspired to allow an insurance run in the ninth. The bullpen is a mess right now.
The Yankees had six hits: a double by Refsnyder and singles by Gardner, Headley, McCann, Young, and Gregorius. A-Rod, McCann (two), Greg Bird, Refsnyder, and Gregorius drew the six walks. Gardner and McCann were hit by pitches. McCann was on base four times? Huh, didn’t realize it.
Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
Here are the box score and video highlights for the game, and here are the updated standings and postseason odds for the season. The magic number to clinch a postseason spot remains five as of this writing. The tragic number in the AL East is also five. Here are our Bullpen Workload and Announcer Standings pages. Here’s the loss probability graph:
Source: FanGraphs
Up Next
The Yankees and White Sox still have two more games to play. They’ll play the third game of this four-game set Saturday afternoon. That’s a 4pm ET start. Adam Warren and John Danks is the scheduled pitching matchup. There are only six home games left in the regular season, so head over to RAB Tickets if you want to catch any of them live.
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