Yanks can't hit… Pineiro?

The Yankees lost to the Angels today, 3-5.

There is little to say about today’s game. The Yankees’ starting pitcher, Javier Vazquez (5 1/3 IP 6 H 4 ER 2 BB 4 K), was ineffective against the Angels, although his line might say otherwise (the bullpen, for the most part, kept the Yankees in it after Vazquez departed). Throughout the day, I received emails from many irate Yankee fans which said, “Look, Vazquez just is not an American League pitcher,” as well as the very blunt, “Vazquez sucks.” While I can certainly understand their frustration as Vazquez seemed to nibble entirely too much throughout the game, as Chan Ho Park demonstrated, early evaluations are judgmental misfires that often make us look foolish in the end. He struggled in his past two games, that much is true, but he is too talented to struggle all year long. It’ll come, folks.

Also, the blame cannot all be placed on Vazquez’s shoulders. At least he only allowed 4 earned runs, which is far from insurmountable. Much of the blame can be placed on the Yankees’ bats, instead. The Yankee offense was absolutely miserable today against Joel Pineiro – i.e., “I was terrible in the AL a few years ago and had to reinvent myself in the NL” Pineiro – who was able to strike out Alex Rodriguez 3 times, indicating just how “on” he was. To their credit, though, Derek Jeter (2-for-4), Robinson Cano (2-for-4), and Nick Swisher (1-for-4, RBI) looked like they came to play.

Eh, as they say, “There’s always tomorrow,” which is when the Yankees’ fifth starter, Phil Hughes, will make his first start of the season against the tough left-hander, Scott Kazmir. That should be an exciting outing for Yankee fans.

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