I don’t know what it was like watching this one on television, but it was dead inside the Stadium. The crowd lacked energy as soon as Andy Pettitte gave up three in the first inning. The ballpark didn’t get rowdy until the Yankees threatened in the bottom of the 9th, when it was too little too late, in the stands and on the field.
For the second time in as many nights a Yankee pitcher underperformed when the team needed a big outing. Yesterday it was A.J. Burnett. Today it was Pettitte.
Coming into today’s game Pettitte’s ERA was under 2, and he’d yet to suffer a loss on the season. It’s hard to tell from the stands why a pitcher is off, but a simple glance at the scoreboard revealed that Andy didn’t have his best stuff.
Andy put the Yankees in a three-run hole right off the bat. The offense got that back for him before he gave up another run in the 4th. It was tied entering the 5th, but Pettitte would surrender three more runs. His night ended without recording an out in the 6th. Chan Ho Park gave up home run to Carlos Pena in the 8th, just for good measure.
Despite the loss, this game had some bright spots. Juan Miranda hit a 2-run home run, had a triple, and scored a run in an excellent audition for the DH spot. Derek Jeter broke out of his slump a little, getting 3 hits, including driving in 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th to make it closer than it seemed. Finally, David Robertson was brilliant. He relieved Pettitte and struck out 4 in two perfect innings of work, an impressive outing given D-Rob’s struggles this year.
Other than those few bright spots the Yankees never led in this one, and the pitching made sure they never would. The Bombers have now lost 3 in a row and are 6-8 over their last 14, games which have come without a night off.
Despite the poor play, the Yankees have still outscored their opponents by 68 runs, which is good for 2nd in all of baseball, and have the third-best winning percentage in the game behind only the Rays and the Phillies. Hopefully the team can jumpstart things against the Mets this weekend.
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One Response to Pitching comes up short as Yanks lose 2nd in a row to Rays
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TIQ IQ
Great recap, Mike. A bit more even-handed and rational than I might have been.
A couple of random observations:
- The lack of depth in the lineup has been super-exposed this week, especially given that the Yankees have actually had chances to come back in the bottom of the 9th in all three losses.
- If I have to see Randy "How am I a Major League Baseball player" Winn take another late hack at a fastball, I'm gonna go crazy.
- Even more disgusting is that the Yanks have scored six runs in each of the last three losses, and have given up 25! Not to mention they should've also lost Monday if not for some absurd late inning heroics.
- Over the last five games the pitching staff has given up 40 (!!) runs. Not good.