Burnett awful yet again, gives up eight earned runs in 9-4 Yankee loss

The Yankees managed to punt the one game they absolutely had to find a way to win this weekend, falling to the White Sox 9-4. For their troubles, they get to face John Danks and Gavin Floyd the next two days. Goody.

What else is there to say about A.J. Burnett, who turned in yet another disaster, lasting 3 1/3 innings and giving up nine runs (eight earned)? Sadly enough this wasn’t even the first time he gave up eight earned runs in an outing this year, it was the third. After a very strong start to the year he’s been utterly horrendous this season. I can’t even get jazzed about his solid July because he’s just been so wretchedly inconsistent since then. I have absolutely no idea what to expect out of Burnett with any given start and have zero confidence he will succeed.

Even if they’re fortunate enough to get a healthy and effective Andy Pettitte back, the Yankees are going to have to get Burnett straightened out if they have any intention of making a deep run in the playoffs. A couple of extra days in between outings didn’t seem to work, so perhaps he needs to take a start or two off a la Home Run Javy to clear his head. I know the Yankees aren’t exactly in a position to comfortably do that, but maybe you bite the bullet and give Sergio Mitre a start or two (I can’t believe I’m recommending this). He really can’t be much worse than Burnett has been. Well, he can, but after tossing 4 2/3 scoreless against the White Sox I’d be willing to give him a shot.

Not that it would have mattered, given that they were sunk in a 9-2 hole after four innings, but the Yankee offense was punchless for what felt like the 8,000th time in August. Against Freddy Garcia of all pitchers! Nick Swisher hit a two-run homer with one out in the ninth off Scott Linebrink, but it was too little, too late.

The loss dropped the Yankees to 10-10 on Fridays this season — a random stat, I know, but given that it felt like they hadn’t won on Friday in forever I decided to look it up. And I was right; the last time they won on a Friday night was over a month ago, on July 23 against the Royals. I wonder how many other teams have had five-game losing streaks (or more) on a certain day of the week.

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