Is there a game out there more illustrative of the frustrations of the 2008 Yankee season that this one? Because this one really laid it all out there for us.
It started out so promising. The Yanks had two on in the first against Scott Kazmir, and while they didn’t have a hit, it seemed as though the one-time Mets farmhand didn’t have his best stuff. Of course, Kazmir settled down and Darrell Rasner, well, he pitched just like Rasner. In fact, to cap of a progression of bad starts, Rasner reached some valley. It may well have been the last start Rasner makes for the 2008 Yankees.
After getting out of the first, Rasner just ran out of everything. He made it through four outs and twelve batters today. He allowed six hits and two walks en route to a five-earned run effort. When Al Aceves took over, you could feel that collective “here we go again” sigh ripple its way across the Yankee Universe.
While Rasner couldn’t deliver, Aceves could. The Mexican Gangster threw five stellar innings. He allowed one run on five hits. And two walks while striking out four. Sixty one of his 97 pitches went for stikes. I would have liked to see Aceves take Sidney Ponson’s spot a few weeks ago, but now it seems as though he’ll inherit Darrell Rasner’s starts this month.
As the game progressed, the Yanks couldn’t put much of anything together. But in the ninth, an unlikely rally materialized. Cody Ransom – 3 for 3 on the evening – drove in the Yanks’ first run of the night. Derek Jeter blasted a three-run shot, and A-Rod went back-to-back with another monstrous home run. But 7-5 would remain the final score, and the Yanks would slip another half game in the Wild Card.
Rasner’s outing tonight highlights something that has impacted the Yanks all year. While some fans feel the Yanks just had bad pitching this year, Darrell Rasner had no business being in the rotation. Had Joba not gotten hurt, had Chien-Ming Wang not gotten hurt, had Phil Hughes remained healthy, we wouldn’t be watching Darrell Rasner fall to 5-10 with a 5.43 ERA on the season.
But for the Yanks, 2008 has been one long season of what-if’s. Tonight’s loss and the short Rasner outing is just one more of those games in a season filled with them.
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