Same old story. The Yankees didn’t get a quality outing from their starting pitcher but it didn’t really matter anyway because the offense put up nothing resembling a fight. This was the eighth time in their first 37 games they’ve been held to one run or less, the first time that’s happened since 1990.

Just tip your cap! It's the easy answer. (REUTERS/Mark Blinch)

Lifeless

The Yankees have scored a total of three runs in their last 18 offensive innings, and two of those three came on a Curtis Granderson homer that a fan may or may not have kept out of Xavier Avery’s glove on Tuesday. The only run they scored against Kyle Drabek — who entered the game with the ninth worst FIP (5.09) out of 118 qualified starters — came when Mark Teixeira‘s ground ball took a funny hop over first baseman Edwin Encarnacion in the sixth. Robinson Cano‘s double down the right field line one batter earlier was the only hard-hit ball I can remember. From the Yankees, that is.

After a run of offensive dominance last week, the Yankees have now scored two runs or fewer in eight of their last 16 games (!). Drabek was behind hitters all night and he didn’t pay at all; in fact he recorded 19 of his 21 outs on the infield. I’m a patient guy, but at some point you have to stop tipping your cap to the opposing starter. Look in the mirror and realize that being offensively noncompetitive for two straight games is your own damn fault.

(AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Frank Gunn)

Consistently Inconsistent

Hiroki Kuroda came into Wednesday’s start having allowed no more than two earned runs in any of his previous four starts, but he instead allowed six or more runs for the third time this year. Like I said, consistently inconsistent. The Blue Jays tagged Kuroda for three homers in five innings, the same number of dingers he allowed in those previous four starts combined. He didn’t pitch well at all but it happens. Hopefully he improves on his 5-to-3 strong start-to-dud start ratio going forward.

Leftovers

(REUTERS/Mark Blinch)

Cano is in the middle of his annual 3-4 game defensive slump, botching the transfer on a routine double play pivot — immediately prior to Encarnacion opening the scoring with a two-run homer — in the second and flubbing a ground ball in the seventh. This is after he made a poor flip to second on a force play in the previous game. Let’s knock that off, mmmkay Robbie?

Downside of Raul Ibanez‘s hot start: Joe Girardi now leaves him in against lefties. He was left in to face a southpaw with men on-base in the late innings for the second time in three games, this time striking out after getting hit by a pitch on Monday. Andruw Jones is on the roster for these exact situations, use him please.

Clay Rapada gave up a homer to the left-handed hitting Kelly Johnson in an otherwise effective outing, but I can’t help but wonder if his roster spot would be better used on a reliever capable of getting both righties and lefties out. It’s tough to carry a true specialist like this with all the injuries. Cody Eppley allowed two dinky singles in 1.2 mop-up innings. He’s got a chance to pitch his way into a role of more importance but I’m not sure if he can do it given his arm slot.

Cano (double and walk), Tex (single and walk), and Ibanez (single) had the only three hits while Alex Rodriguez, Eric Chavez, Russell Martin, and Jayson Nix drew walks. Curtis Granderson and Teixeira were the only players to see more than 16 pitches in their four plate appearances. That’s pretty gross against a starting pitcher who came into the game with the highest percentage of full counts in baseball this year (19% according to YES broadcast).

The Yankees faced Wayne Tolleson’s kid on Tuesday and Doug Drabek’s kid on Wednesday. I can only assume Alvaro Espinosa Jr. will be in Toronto’s lineup on Thursday.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings

MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs the nerd score, and ESPN the updated standings.

Source: FanGraphs

Up Next

The second game of this two-game trip to Toronto will be played Thursday night. Phil Hughes will try to stop the bleeding against the rookie right-hander Drew Hutchinson.

What’s the old saying, every team is going to win 50 games and lose 50 games so it comes down to the other 62 games? This feels like one of those 50 losses. It just wasn’t happenin’ for the Yankees on Tuesday and they split their two-gamer with the Orioles.

(REUTERS/Gary Cameron)

Double Trouble

The Yankees have a bit of a double play problem at the moment, grounding into three twin-killings in this game and eight (!) in their last three games. That’s pretty frustrating. The first double play came with a man on first and one out in the third, the second with men on the corners and one out in the eighth, and the third with a man on first with one out in the ninth. All three ended the inning, and that’s pretty much the worst way to make the second and third outs.

The double plays snuffed out rallies, but the Yankees also couldn’t get Alex Rodriguez home after he led off the second inning with a single and immediately stole second base. Robinson Cano was nearly stranded after his leadoff double in the seventh, but Curtis Granderson hit a two-run opposite field homer to save us all from a horrible RISPFAIL death. Replays showed that a fan in Yankees’ garb may have reached up and caught the ball before Xavier Avery could get a glove on it. I hope that’s what happened, anyway. They had no answer for Wei-Yin Chen, who has now allowed two earned runs or less in six of his seven starts this season.

No Control

(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

CC Sabathia has been on a pretty dominant run of late, but he labored against the Orioles on Tuesday and the result was four runs allowed in six innings. He walked a season-high four, including free passes to noted hackers Wilson Betemit and Bill Hall. Avery also drew a walk, and I’m pretty sure the walk to Adam Jones was unintentionally intentional after his solo homer earlier int he game. Sabathia allowed eight hits, seven to right-handed batters. The one exception was dinky little bunt single by Avery.

Every so often CC’s going to be off his game and it seemed pretty obvious that his fastball was giving him trouble in this game. He went to the slider whenever he needed to make a pitch, which is exactly what he was doing when he struggled in his first two starts of the year. Hopefully it’s just a blip on the radar and he’ll get back to dominating next time out. It happens.

Leftovers

The Orioles tacked on a pair of insurance runs because of Yankees’ mistakes. Sabathia induced what was supposed to be a routine inning-ending ground ball in the sixth, but Cano bobbled the ball and rushed the flip to second base for the force. Derek Jeter had to slow down to receive the ball and Robert Andino slid in safe to simultaneously extend the inning and allow a run to cross the plate. Chris Stewart‘s second passed ball — following a missed caught stealing call at second — allowed Jones to trot home in the eighth. Grumble grumble.

Jeter (single, walk), Cano (double), Mark Teixeira (single), Granderson (homer), Andruw Jones (walk), Jayson Nix (single), and pinch-hitter Russell Martin (walk) were all the offense on the night. Nick Swisher smoked the ball four times and only has a fielder’s choice to show for it. His inning-ending line drive at Chen’s face in the sixth was a pretty good indication things weren’t going the Yankees’ way.

Freddy Garcia threw two innings late, allowing just that one run on the botched caught stealing call/passed ball thing. He struck out three and I thought he looked pretty good actually. Better than he looked earlier in the season, anyway.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Box Score

MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs the advanced stats, and ESPN the updated standings.

Source: FanGraphs

Up Next

The Yankees are heading off to Toronto for another quick two-game series. Hiroki Kuroda will get things started against Kyle Drabek on Wednesday night.

(REUTERS/Gary Cameron)

CC Sabathia has a chance to do something tonight that hasn’t been done by a Yankee in 14 years. He’s completed exactly eight innings in each of his last four starts, and another eight tonight would make him the first pinstriper to throw at least that many innings in five consecutive starts since David Cone in 1998. Justin Verlander managed to do it five times in a row last June and Cliff freakin’ Lee put together a stretch of ten (!) straight starts of at least eight innings back in 2010. That’s insane. Sabathia had a four-start stretch of eight innings each last summer and is the only Yankees hurler to do that many times since Cone. Hopefully he makes it five in a row tonight. Here’s the lineup…

SS Derek Jeter
RF Nick Swisher
2B Robinson Cano
3B Alex Rodriguez
1B Mark Teixeira
CF Curtis Granderson
DH Andruw Jones
LF Jayson Nix
C  Chris Stewart

LHP CC Sabathia

The weather in Baltimore isn’t great again, but it’s better than last night so hopefully they’ll get a full nine innings in. The game can be seen on My9 locally and MLB Network nationally. Enjoy.

Ivan Nova Update: Nova walked with a limp today and had his right foot and ankle wrapped, but he thinks he can make his next start. The Yankees don’t have to make a final decision for another four days, obviously.

Clay Rapada Update: Rapada left last night’s game with a viral infection but it’s not a concern. He says he’s been fighting it for a few days and doesn’t anticipate being unavailable at any point soon. In case you missed it earlier, David Robertson was placed on the DL with a strained left oblique.

Some wins don’t really feel like wins because someone gets hurt, and this game kinda has that feel. The Yankees potentially lost four players in Monday night’s win over the Orioles, though technically one of those players was injured a few days ago and we just didn’t know about it.

Puffy face power! (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Teixeira Contributes

It’s been a rough start to the season for Mark Teixeira offensively, but he has consistently provided stellar glovework at first base throughout his Yankees tenure. On Monday night, he finally contributed something with the stick. His tie-breaking, two-run homer off former teammate Luis Ayala in the seventh inning turned a 5-5 game into a 7-5 game, a lead the Yankees would never relinquish. The homer came in a two-strike count and after Teixeira fouled off a tough two-strike slider to stay alive.

The blast cleared the tall wall in right and frankly, it was unexpected. Tex has been pretty awful this season — .231/.286/.403 even after his 2-for-4 effort in this game — and it’s easy to expect a weak pop-up or a strikeout on offspeed stuff whenever he comes to the plate. Ayala missed his spot and left a pitch right in the happy zone, and Teixeira did exactly what he was supposed to do. Hopefully these two hits — the second was a booming double off the right field wall — plus Sunday’s dinky little infield single get him going, but we’ve said that a few times already this season.

Eutaw, Not Utah

There aren’t many people who can hit a baseball further than Curtis Granderson, which is impressive considering how damn skinny the guy is. Granderson clubbed a go-ahead solo shot onto Eutaw Street in the fifth inning, his 12th dinger of the season. Ten of those 12 homers have come at home in Yankee Stadium, the other two in Camden Yards. Curtis has hit homers in old two parks this season, but I’m sure that will change soon enough.

(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Nova’s Problems Continue

Ivan Nova been hit very hard this year, coming into this game with a .325/.376/.618 batting line against and he did nothing to improve it. The Orioles tagged him for five runs on seven hits and three walks in 5.1 innings, including two doubles, one triple, and one homer. Nova’s now allowed 20 doubles, three triples, and nine homers on the season, nine more extra base hits than any single batter has recorded in 2012 — Josh Hamilton leads baseball with 23 multiple base knocks. That’s a problem and that’s what happens when you leave pitches up in the zone. They get hit hard.

Another problem is that Ivan left the game with an injury, specifically a contusion and sprain of his right ankle and foot. He got hit by a comebacker in the third inning and appeared to aggravate things fielding a ball in the sixth before being removed. X-rays were negative, but obviously this is a concern. David Phelps could easily step into the rotation if need be, but I’d rather see Nova out there working on whatever needs to be worked on to stop giving up all these extra-base hits.

Bumps and Bruises

What a rough night. In addition to losing Nova, the Yankees also lost Clay Rapada (viral infection), Raul Ibanez (hit-by-pitch in elbow), and David Robertson (ribcage). It was obvious something was up with Robertson not only when Rafael Soriano came in to close, but also when Boone Logan and Cory Wade split eighth inning duties. There’s no definitive timetable for any of these guys, so keep your fingers crossed.

Leftovers

(Rob Carr/Getty Images)

The bullpen is losing pieces to injury left and right, but how about Logan? He struck out all three batters he faced on Monday and has now struck out five consecutive batters and nine of the last 12 he’s faced. That’s pretty awesome. Phelps allowed three singles (two infield singles) in his inning of work, and there’s a chance he could see some more leveraged relief work given Robertson’s injury. That’s if he isn’t needed in the rotation to replace Nova. Sigh. Those three hits were the only hits the bullpen allowed in 3.2 innings, so big ups to them.

Derek Jeter‘s stuck in his first slump of the season, going 1-for-5 and hitting into two rally-killing double plays in this game. After grounding into one double play in the first 33 games of the season, the Cap’n has now bounced into four twin killings in the last two games. It was bound to happen at some point; you really didn’t think he’d hit .400+ all season, did you?

Robinson Cano‘s resurgence continued with a 2-for-5 night, including a hot shot double to the opposite field. He also turned a sweet defensive play on a ground ball single up the middle. Alex Rodriguez‘s hot hitting continued with a three-single night, raising his season line to .292/.391/.431. The power isn’t there anymore, but he’s doing everything else. Nick Swisher reached base three times, including a two-run double into the gap that tied the game at two in the fourth inning. Russell Martin drew a pair of walks and Eric Chavez both singled and drove in an insurance run with a sacrifice fly.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings

MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs the advanced stats, and ESPN the updated standings.

Source: FanGraphs

Up Next

Game two of this quick two-game set will be played Tuesday night … or maybe not because the forecast again looks pretty crummy. If they do play, it’ll be CC Sabathia against Wei-Yin Chen. Given the loss of Robertson, a fifth straight start of eight innings out of Sabathia would be very appreciated.

Source: FanGraphs

It’s not often that a regular season game gets as much attention as Sunday afternoon’s loss to the Mariners. The Yankees were unable to finish off the series sweep but the real story is Andy Pettitte, who officially came all the way back from retirement to rejoin the rotation. I’m sure that made many Tri-State Area mothers extra happy on Mother’s Day. Let’s recap…

• Andy’s Back: Four runs — on two two-run homers — in 6.1 innings isn’t anything to write home about except when it happens in Pettitte’s first start back. From what I saw, he basically looked like the same ol’ Andy, just a bit rusty. That’s too be expected, obviously. I’m sure nerves were a factor considering the crowd noise and everything, but the start is pretty encouraging given the unique circumstances. There’s lots of season left, so let’s see where this thing takes Pettitte and the team.
• Ball Four: The Yankees managed just two runs in a game started by the corpse of Kevin Millwood, and both runs came on bases loaded walks. Russell Martin took ball four in the fifth inning — the only run they scored off Millwood — and Robinson Cano did the same in the eighth. Derek Jeter grounded into a first pitch double player following Martin’s walk and Mark Teixeira struck out after Cano’s. Pretty rough day for the offense.
• LOOGY vs. RHB: I know there was a hideous throwing error involved, but Joe Girardi couldn’t have been surprised that Clay Rapada allowed runs to score when he was left in to face right-handed batters. I mean, walking Brendan Ryan and his .144/.266/.222 batting line is as awful as it gets. It’s okay to use David Phelps for something other than long relief, you know. Yuck.
• Leftovers: I know the replay showed he was safe, but Nick Swisher‘s TOOTBLAN in the ninth was as dumb as it gets … Cory Wade allowed an earned run in his 1.2 IP of work, just the second time he’s allowed an earned run in an appearance this year … first four hitters: 1-for-13 with three walks; bottom five: 5-for-16 with three walks … Teixeira’s hit was a dinky little swinging bunt infield single, but otherwise he has a whopping 12 hits in his last 19 games. Dude’s a total drag on the offense and shouldn’t be hitting anywhere close to fifth.

MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs the other stats, and ESPN the updated standings. The Yankees are off to Baltimore for a quick little two-game series starting Monday, but there’s a very good chance that game will get rained out. The forecast is pretty ugly. If they do manage to play, it’ll be Ivan Nova against Jason Hammel.

Source: FanGraphs

At this point last week, the Yankees were in turmoil following Mariano Rivera‘s injury and four losses in five game. Now? Everything’s looking pretty great as they beat the Mariners for the second straight day on Saturday, their fifth win in the last six days. Let’s recap…

• BABIPhil: Phil Hughes is a fly ball pitcher, and fly ball pitchers give up homeruns but fewer hits in general. Hughes surrendered one homer on Saturday — a moonshot by Mike Carp — but just five other hits (all singles) in 7.2 IP. He struck out four and recorded 13 of his other 19 outs on fly balls, walking just one. Fly balls can be problematic at Yankee Stadium, but they also help keep runners off base and that’s exactly what Hughes did in his second straight strong start. He’s gotten progressively in each of his last three starts, so let’s hope this little run continues.
• Two Outs: Hector Noesi retired five of the first six Yankees he faced with relative ease and appeared poised to strand Mark Teixeira at second base in the second, but he just couldn’t get that final out of the inning. Raul Ibanez doubled to score Tex, Russell Martin doubled to score Ibanez, and Jayson Nix homered (a Yankee Stadium cheapie, for sure) to drive in Martin and himself. Two outs, three extra-base hits, four runs. It was all the Yankees would need on the afternoon, really.
• Rauuul: Because the RBI double wasn’t enough, Ibanez tacked on a solo homer in the fourth inning, a legit blast that landed in Monument Park about 420 feet from home plate. It was his second homer in as many days and fourth in five games. Raul’s become the 2012 version of 2010 Marcus Thames, hitting big homers and driving in a ton of runs despite the lowest of expectations. Go him.
• Relief: Boone Logan picked up the save, becoming the four different Yankee to record the team’s last four saves. All four of his outs came via the strikeout, but I have to think he’ll get tomorrow off given his recent workload. Logan nearly gave up Carp’s second homer, but it hit off the very top of the wall and replays confirmed it stayed in the park. Either way, Boone’s been absolutely money lately.
• Leftovers: Derek Jeter had two hits and Robinson Cano extended his hit streak to ten games … Curtis Granderson and Alex Rodriguez each went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, the eyesores in an otherwise strong offensive day … the Yankees didn’t draw a single walk, continuing a recent trend of impatience at the plate. I think part of that has to do with the recent competition, including Jamie Shields, David Price, and Felix Hernandez.

MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs the nerd score, and ESPN the updated standings. The Yankees will look to complete the sweep tomorrow when Andy Pettitte (!) makes his triumphant return to the team. That will be a blast, but alas I will be unable to watch. Blame Mother’s Day. That game starts at 1pm ET, and Seattle is sending Kevin Millwood to the mound. If you hurry, RAB Tickets can help get you in the door.

Source: FanGraphs

Don’t look now, but the Yankees have suddenly won four of five and were an uncharacteristically bad David Robertson inning away from winning five in a row. The last three starting pitchers they’ve beaten are Jamie Shields, David Price, and Felix Hernandez. I’m sure all three just had off-nights since the Yankee can’t hit good pitching. To the bullet points…

• My Hiro: To be perfectly honest, I don’t think Hiroki Kuroda pitched all that great on Friday. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take two runs in seven innings eight days a week and twice on Sundays, but he seemed to fall behind every batter — first pitch strike to 14 of 29 hitters — and only struck out a pair against the club with the fourth highest strikeout rate in the league. In his last three starts, Kuroda has seven walks and seven strikeouts in 18.1 IP. Underwhelming, though he’s the kind of guy that bends the laws of DIPS theory. Still, I’ll take this type of outing all year long.
• De-Crowned: Felix came into this start having allowed one earned run in 24 IP at the New Stadium, but the Yankees got to him for a run when Robinson Cano singled in Curtis Granderson in the very first inning. The also tagged him for three runs in the fifth when Raul Ibanez assaulted a first pitch fastball with two runners on. The three-run dinger was Raul’s sixth of the season and his third in four games. Four runs on eleven hits and two walks against Hernandez is more than I could have ever expected. Great job.
• Matchups: With Rafael Soriano on the shelf due to his recent workload, eighth inning duties fell on the shoulders of three guys. First Clay Rapada retired Ichiro, then Cory Wade retired Jesus Montero, then Boone Logan retired Kyle Seager. Boone got the first out in the ninth before allowing an infield single. Roberson came on to record two stress-free outs on six pitches, and it was good to get him back out there so soon after that hideous blown save.
• Leftovers: The Yankees won so I can be happy Montero homered, a solo shot to (where else?) the opposite field … Andruw Jones‘ two-run pinch-hit homer was the team’s first pinch-hit dinger since Jorge Posada in September 2010 … Cano went 4-for-4 with a double and now has 12 hits in his last 20 at-bats, raising his season line to .308/.350/.462. That’ll do … Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira had two hits apiece while Derek Jeter, Granderson, Nick Swisher, Ibanez, and Eric Chavez had one each.

MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs the advanced stats, and ESPN the updated standings. The second game of this three-game set is a rare 4pm ET, non-FOX broadcast on Saturday afternoon. Phil Hughes gets the ball against former teammate Hector Noesi. Check out RAB Tickets for some sweet deals.

It’s kinda hard to believe, but the Yankees were one bad David Robertson inning away from sweeping the Rays in this three-game set. They’ll have to settle for taking two of three as CC Sabathia manhandled Tampa Bay for eight innings in the 5-3 win.

(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

X+1

Having to beat the other team is hard enough, but having to beat your own team as well is damn near impossible. We’ll talk about Eduardo Nunez‘s defensive adventures in just a second, but all you need to know right now is that they led to a pair of unearned runs in the first and second innings and cost Sabathia something like 10-20 extra pitches. That’s rough.

After the second inning though, CC was untouchable. He retired 18 of the next 22 batters he faced including eight via strikeout. Rays’ batters swung and missed 16 times at his 119 pitches, a season-high for both swings and misses and total pitches. Sabathia recorded 22 of his 24 outs on the infield, and this was his fourth consecutive start of exactly eight innings. The opponents during those four starts: the Rangers, Tigers, Royals, and Rays. Those clubs can hit a little.

There are a lot of reasons to love Sabathia, but I think my favorite is that whenever I think he has X innings left in the tank, he goes X+1. In the sixth inning I thought he had one inning left, but he had two. That’s what I’m talking about. The Yankees’ bullpen was a little short because of the recent workload, but as usual CC picked up the slack and gave his team a ton of high-quality outings. Considering how shaky the first two innings were, the big man deserves a ton of credit for going eight. He was awesome.

Eduardo Scissorhands

Wide left. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Nunez’s defense is a very real problem and it has been since last season, and we’re starting to reach the point where waiting around for him to straighten himself out is no longer an option. In the first inning it was a muffed routine grounder with two outs that extended the inning and in the second it was a routine throw to second that wound up in right field and again extended the inning. A big leaguer can’t be doing that stuff, not when they provide relatively little on offense. Tampa tried laying down some bunts towards Eduardo after the second error, but fortunately they couldn’t get any of them down.

Girardi said after the game that they’re going to re-evaluate the way they use Nunez at so many different positions in an effort to get his defense up to snuff, but that won’t be a quick process. Something’s gotta give though, they can’t keep running him out there like this. I mean, they lifted him for a defensive replacement in the sixth (!) inning. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player pulled for defense that early. Nunez should be legit embarrassed.

Answering Back

Eduardo’s errors put the Yankees in a two-run hole pretty early, but the mostly dormant offense started to wake up in the bottom of the second. Curtis Granderson got it all started with a leadoff homer to deep right, the third time he’s taken David Price deep in his career. No other left-handed batter has homered off Price more than once.

That was just the start of the game tying rally. Nunez began to redeem himself two batters later by working the count full and drawing a walk before stealing second. That’s when Chris Stewart single him in, his fourth run-scoring hit of the season. Chris Stewart people, this is really happening. The Yankees had a chance to add more runs after Derek Jeter drew a walk, but Nick Swisher hit a line drive right back to Price. He saved his face/caught the ball and flipped over to first for the double play. That’s just bad luck, but at least the Yankees were able to knot things up before long.

(Mike Stobe/Getty Images)

Welcome Back, Robinson

It’s been a slow and frustrating start to the season for Robinson Cano, but he started to show some signs of life in Kansas City and seemed to announce his triumphant return to awesomeness against the Rays on Thursday. His first hit of the day was a hotshot ground ball single back up the middle, his second another hard hit ground ball back up the middle, and his third a mammoth two-run homer over the home bullpen and into the right field bleachers to break a 2-2 tie. All three hits came off a very tough left-hander in Price, which is exactly what we like to see. Robbie went 3-for-4 overall and extended his hitting streak to eight games. His season batting line now sits at .286/.331/.437. He’s getting there.

Leftovers

(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

With Robertson unavailable due to his recent workload, ninth inning duties fell on the shoulders of Rafael Soriano. Pitching for the third straight day, Soriano allowed a cheap run — infield single, defensive indifference, ground ball, ground ball — in an otherwise uneventful inning, his first save of the season. He’s still searching for that elusive first 1-2-3 inning of the year, but honestly I don’t care right now. Props to Soriano for getting those last three outs despite his pitching for the third time in as many days.

Andruw Jones doubled in the team’s fifth and final run in the fifth, a laser into the left field corner with two outs off Price. It seemed like the Yankees were going to squander another rally before he picked up Granderson, who’d grounded into a double play one batter earlier. Jones also appeared to hurt his hamstring(s) running out a ground ball earlier on the night — he was shown grabbing at the back of his legs — but apparently he was just fixing his sliding pants. He remained in the game until Dewayne Wise replaced him for defense in the late innings.

You know who’s very quietly hitting the snot out of the ball? Alex Rodriguez. He went 2-for-4 with a double on Thursday night, raising his season batting line to .287/.388/.443. The power numbers aren’t what they used to be, but that’s a damn productive hitter. Alex is hitting .329/.427/.514 in his last 82 plate appearances, dating back to mid-April.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings

MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs the nerd score, and ESPN the updated standings.

Source: FanGraphs

Up Next

The Yankees welcome Jesus Montero, Hector Noesi, and the rest of the Mariners to the Bronx for a three-game series starting Friday night. Hiroki Kuroda and Felix Hernandez square off in the opener. RAB Tickets can help get you in the building if you want to see the King.

Whenever a team has beaten the Yankees with a ninth inning rally over the last 15 years, there was nothing more you could do than tip your cap because you knew they beat the best in Mariano Rivera. Wednesday night’s 4-1 loss to the Rays was a stunning culmination of every Yankees fans’ worst nightmare in the post-Mo era.

(Nick Laham/Getty Images)

Blown Save

It took David Robertson all of six pitches to load the bases in the ninth inning. Sean Rodriguez led off with a first pitch ground ball single through the left side, Brandon Allen followed up with a solid first pitch line drive single to right, then Ben Zobrist drew a four-pitch walk. Six pitches, three base runners, and one of them was a walk. That’s hard to do.

The Houdini Act finally caught up to Robertson on Wednesday night, as his team handed him a one-run lead and he couldn’t convert it to a win. B.J. Upton plated the tying run with a sacrifice fly — Nick Swisher nearly threw the runner out at the plate, surprisingly — and Matt Joyce broke things open with a two-strike, three-run homer one batter later. It was a total Yankee Stadium cheapie off the top of the wall in right-center, but they all count the same. It was the first homer Robertson allowed to a left-handed batter in more than two years, since Matt Wieters got him in Baltimore in May 2010.

Blown saves do not sit well with the natives, and there are going to be a lot of questions about the security of the ninth inning over the next few weeks. It’s the nature of beast. Robertson is as qualified to close as anyone, but he’s going to have to show everyone he can actually do it. This is a results town. “Tomorrow can’t come fast enough,” said David after the game and that’s all anyone can do, turn the page and look forward to the next game. At some point soon, Robertson will have a chance to redeem himself.

He Belongs

(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

David Phelps is going to lose his rotation spot this weekend through no fault of his own, really. Andy Pettitte is coming back and someone has to go, and it’s very likely the rookie will head back to the bullpen. Other than throw a no-hitter, there was pretty much nothing Phelps could have done to save his job against the Rays, but he took care of business and showed the team that whenever they need another starter — and they inevitably will at some point — he’s the man for the job.

A double and two walks made the first inning a bit of a nightmare, but Phelps escaped unscathed by getting Will Rhymes to ground out weakly to second. That started a string of seven straight and 12 of 13 retired by the Yankees’ right-hander before he ran out of gas with two outs in the fourth. Having spent most of the year in the bullpen, hitting the wall at 75-80 pitches isn’t a surprise. Phelps allowed another double to Ben Zobrist and issued two straight walks before being lifted for Boone Logan, who struck out Matt Joyce to end the threat.

Four walks, three strikeouts, five ground balls, four fly balls, and two doubles allowed in 4.2 innings doesn’t look great in the box score, but Phelps sure looked like he belonged on Wednesday night. The starting pitching has started to sort itself out over the last two weeks or so, and part of that turn around has to do with Phelps’ solid work to bridging the gap between the awful Freddy Garcia and the un-retired Pettitte. Nice job, kiddo.

NOffense

Not to absolve Robertson of anything — bottom line, he’s gotta close the game out — but the Yankees can’t expect to win many games by scoring only one run. Not against an AL East rival and definitely not in Yankee Stadium. The only run they did score came on a two-out opposite field double from Robinson Cano in the very first inning, driving in Derek Jeter all the way from first. The Yankees were a slightly better relay throw away from being shutout.

Unsurprisingly, the team went hitless in eight at-bats with men in scoring position. That’s a pretty good explanation of why they only scored the one run. The worst instance of RISPFAIL came in the sixth, after Alex Rodriguez stole third (!) with one out. Mark Teixeira couldn’t put the ball in play and struck out, then Nick Swisher flew out to end the inning after an 11-pitch at-bat. The Yankees also had runners on first and second in the eighth before Tex grounded into a well-turned inning-ending double play. One run’s not enough, fellas.

(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Leftovers

Give Joe Girardi major props for lifting Phelps when he did. It would have been very easy to leave him in to face Joyce in an effort to get him a win, but the quick hook — and Boone’s four sliders — preserved the one-run lead in the middle innings. We all wanted to see Phelps escape the jam and stuff, but the team win is more important and Girardi make a big-time move to help the cause. Too bad they couldn’t finish it off.

It’s pretty easy to forget that before Robertson’s blow save, Rafael Soriano nearly coughed things up in the eighth. A throwing error by Cano put runners at first and second with no outs, but Soriano escaped the inning with a strikeout, a great play on a hot shot ground ball by Teixeira, and a fly ball. Big ups to Cory Wade for retiring all four men he faced between Logan and Soriano.

Jeter became the fastest Yankee ever (ever!) to 50 hits in a season with his first inning excuse-me single. He did it in just 30 games. Coming into Wednesday night, Derek had six more hits than any other player in the majors. That’s not a small margin, folks.

Cano, A-Rod, and Swisher all had two hits while Jeter, Raul Ibanez, and Russell Martin had one each. Robbie’s double was the only extra-base hit and Ibanez was the only batter to draw a walk. The Yankees have only drawn 20 walks in their last nine games, well below their usual rate. It’s not a coincidence that they’ve only scored 3.2 runs per game during that stretch.

Two streaks came to an end on Wednesday night. Robertson’s scoreless streak dating back to September 1st of last year ended at 27 innings, and Curtis Granderson‘s streak of reaching base in 28 consecutive games came to an end as well. Both were bound to end sometime.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings

Now that’s an eyesore, yikes. MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs some other stats, and ESPN the updated standings.

Source: FanGraphs

Up Next

It’s a battle of ace left-handers in the rubber match Thursday night, when CC Sabathia gets the ball against David Price. If you want to check that one out, give RAB Tickets a look for the latest and greatest deals.

It wasn’t pretty and it definitely wasn’t easy, but the Yankees picked up their first 2012 win against the Rays on Tuesday night. David Robertson cut his teeth in the ninth inning with his first save of the post-Mariano Rivera era in the 5-3 victory.

No sweat. (Mike Stobe/Getty Images)

Enter Strand-man (h/t Peter Botte)

Let’s start this one in the ninth inning. The Yankees gave Robertson everything he could have possibly asked for in his first save chance following Rivera’s injury, including a multiple run lead with the bottom of the order due up. Rafael Soriano had taken care of business against the heart of the order in the eighth and Mark Teixeira‘s run-scoring double down the line gave the team some late breathing room. Piece of cake, right? Wrong.

Things are very rarely easy with Robertson, who has definitely earned his Houdini nickname through the years. The first out of the inning was a simple ground ball to second from Jeff Keppinger, but Will Rhymes worked a walk as the next batter. Sean Rodriguez, the next hitter, nudged a ground ball single through the 5.5 hole to put the tying run on base. Robertson recovered to strike out pinch-hitter Brandon Allen for the second out, but leadoff man Ben Zobrist walked to load the bases and put the typing run in scoring position.

Bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, and the absolute last guy the Yankees wanted to see at the plate was the guy due up: Carlos Pena. Pena’s both willing to take a walk and capable of hitting a grand slam, but he’s also prone to the strikeout. Robertson started him off with a breaking ball away for a called strike and followed up with a fastball away for a quick 0-2 count, and that’s when the chess match began. A curveball down was taken for ball one, a fastball up for ball two. Neither was particularly close to being in the zone, so they were easy for a patient hitter like Pena to lay off. With a 2-2 count, the Yankees had one pitch to play with but did not screw around. Robertson painted the black with another fastball, getting a called strike three to end the game.

I plan on writing … something about this whole bullpen situation tomorrow, but I’m not exactly sure what. Robertson did what he always does in this game, but the feeling is quite a bit different when it happens in the ninth inning rather than the eighth. He’s still gotta get three outs, but the fact that there’s less margin for error makes it a little more nauseating. Let’s hope David settles in and has some clean innings going forward now that he’s gotten his feet wet.

Ivan Keeps It Together

(Mike Stobe/Getty Images)

On Monday afternoon I wrote about Ivan Nova‘s need to keep his fastball down and more importantly, the team’s need for him to get in a groove and become a reliable workhorse starter. He showed signs of doing exactly that against the Rays, retiring 13 of the 14 batters he faced before dancing around danger in the fifth and seventh innings. Overall, Nova struck out eight and walked two, surrendering two runs — solo homers to Matt Joyce Luke Scott and Jose Molina — in seven innings.

By far, the biggest outs of Ivan’s night were the last two. The Rays put men on second and third with one out in that seventh inning, though Keppinger was held up at third base thanks in part to Nick Swisher‘s quick recovery of Rhymes’ double. As expected, Nova went offspeed heavy to Sean Rodriguez and Molina, getting the former to fly out to medium right — Keppinger did not score thanks again to Swisher, who made a strong throw home — and the latter to strike out on three pitches. By WPA, those two outs were the second and third biggest outs of the game behind Robertson’s strikeout of Pena. The score remained 3-2 and Nova left the game knowing he’d just thrown his best start of the season.

(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

I-bomb-nez

Not many Yankees came into the game with respectable numbers against Jamie Shields, and Raul Ibanez wasn’t one of them. He had just one hit in 15 plate appearances against the changeup specialist, but that one was the three-run homer he hit on Opening Day. Raul repeated that effort twice over on Tuesday night, hitting a two-run homer to open the scoring in the third before tacking on another run with a solo shot (off Burke Badenhop and the right field foul pole) in the seventh. Ibanez now has five homers this year, which is about four more than expected following his showing in camp.

One thing I think we can all agree on: when Raul gets a hold of one, he really gets a hold of it. According to Hit Tracker, his five homers a) have averaged 412 feet, b) were all considered “No Doubt” homers, and c) would have been out in all 30 ballparks. That’s pretty awesome.

Leftovers

There was a little offensive funny business in this game worth mentioning. First of all, how come Curtis Granderson Alex Rodriguez didn’t take third base in the top of the first? The third baseman was a mile away from the bag because of the shift. Nitpicking, I know. Secondly, Robinson Cano running home on contact on Swisher’s ground ball in the fourth was terrible. The infield was in and the ball was hit directly to second, so Robbie was out by a mile. Gotta be a little smarter than that.

On the bright side, Granderson capped off a ten-pitch at-bat with a solo homer off Shields and Teixeira beat the shift for that insurance run in the ninth. Not only did they have the shift on, but Joe Maddon brought in the right-hander to flip Tex around to his weaker side. That was satisfying. Everyone in the lineup had a hit except for Swisher and Russell Martin, and the best at-bats of the night award goes to Alex Rodriguez. He walked in the first and laced a line drive single to center in the ninth, seeing a total of 30 (!) pitches in four plate appearances. That’s part of the reason why Shields needed 100 pitches to record the first 15 outs.

Soriano’s eighth inning was incredibly shaky, though I give him credit for limiting the damage. Zobrist led off with a triple, but Soriano rebounded to whiff Pena and B.J. Upton. He would have escaped the inning unscathed if not for the wild pitch that allowed Zobrist to score. Following a walk to Joyce, Soriano fell behind in the count 3-0 to Luke Scott before rebounding to strike him out. That was a little hairy. The new eighth inning guy has yet to have a 1-2-3 inning this season, which is nothing new, unfortunately.

The win was Joe Girardi‘s 400th as Yankees manager, so congrats to him. He’s the seventh winning-est manager in franchise history and has a real chance to climb into the top five during his current contract. The top four — Joe McCarthy (1.460), Joe Torre (1.173), Casey Stengel (1,149), and Miller Huggins (1,067) — are pretty much out of reach though.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings

MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs some more stats, and ESPN the updated standings.

Source: FanGraphs

Up Next

Game two of this three-game set will be played Wednesday night, when David Phelps makes his second career start. Right-hander Jeff Niemann will give it a go for the Rays. RAB Tickets can help get you in the door if you want to head to the Bronx.