In his series preview, Larry suggested that the unknown Chicago starter, Philip Humber, whom the Yankees had never faced before, would no-hit the Bombers over nine innings. Larry is prone to exaggeration. Instead, Humber limited the Yankees to one hit over seven innings. If not for a seventh inning single from Alex Rodriguez, Humber probably would have no hit the Yankees.
On the surface, Humber didn’t seem like the kind of never-before-seen pitcher who shut down the Yankees so routinely last season. For one thing, he’s right handed. For another, he can top 93mph on the radar gun. But, he pitched in the mold of Carl Pavano. None of his pitches were over powering, but, according to Al Leiter, he mixed a decent fastball with two different breaking pitches and a changeup to keep the Yankee bats off balance. He mixed in a little magic too, because at one point during the potential no-hitter Leiter confessed to Michael Kay that he couldn’t figure out why the Yankees wouldn’t have been able to hit Humber with a paddle. They just couldn’t, continuing a vanishing act against no-name pitchers who are new to them that’s been stale since August, 2010.
The tragedy to this is that the team squandered A.J. Burnett‘s best start of the season, which was probably his best start since 2009, and arguably the best start from a Yankee thus far in 2011. Burnett allowed only one run, three hits and two walks in eight innings of efficient, 108 pitch work. The only run came in the fourth inning when Adam Dunn grounded out to score Carlos Quentin, who had led the inning off with a double. Other than that Burnett was dominant, and at times brilliant. He only labored in the second, when he burned 27 pitches.
Offensively the Yankees were miserable. The team managed only six base runners on the night on three hits, two walks and one hit batsman. That, however, exaggerated the Yankee threat because Jorge Posada and Mark Teixeira each grounded into double plays, so the Yankees only left four men on base.
Rafael Soriano came on to pitch the top of the ninth, and was sharper than his line would indicate. He allowed one run on one hit and one walk, but the hit came on an infield pop-up that Derek Jeter couldn’t chase down. While it should have been an out, in all fairness to Derek, a more equitable box-score would have scored that hit, “reached on attitude” because Soriano was closest to it and made no effort to catch it. Once he walked Adam Dunn, Soriano received a well-deserved Bronx Cheer. Its all fine and good to be petulant and brooding on the mound when you’re throwing strikes and getting outs, but when you’re struggling it pays off to look less grumpy out there.
Curtis Granderson made things interesting in the bottom of the ninth. He led off with a solid single to right, making him the only Yankee to reach base twice in the game. Unfortunately Tex grounded into the double play mentioned above before A-Rod made the last out of the game. Good riddance. It was ugly offense from top to bottom.
Ivan Nova faces off against Gavin Floyd tomorrow in the second game of this four game set. Coverage is on Yes. First pitch is at 7:05pm. Hopefully the bats come to play in this one.
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11 Responses to Yankees face inexperienced pitcher for the first time; inexperienced pitcher wins
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Am I the only one who thinks that the strike zones have been a little ridiculous these last couple of games? especially sunday. The guy for the orioles was getting some Glavine/Maddux calls.
I was not in a position to watch all of Sunday’s game, but the zone last night was definitely wide. The only thing I can say is that neither team seemed thrilled about it, so hopefully it was being called both ways.
Great recap, Mike. It was definitely odd to see the Yankees struggle against a righty who throw fast. I thought Leiter was particularly prescient in the booth; noting that despite Humber’s seemingly average repertoire, he was getting a ton of late life on his fastball, in particular his two-seamer. PitchFX classified his two-seamer as a sinker, and had him throwing it only 4 times, but it seemed like he threw it more often than that.
In any event, while Humber obviously had a tremendous outing, I doubt he’s really that good, and the Yankees probably end up shelling him next time they face him.
Thanks Larry. I love it when Al is in the booth. I have yet to hear an announcer explain pitching better. He just seems to love doing it.
I recall Leiter called Humber sneaky-fast, like Robertson. I didn’t see the late movement on the fastball that clearly had to be there, the way I see it when Colon is tossing, but the results speak for themselves. The Yankee bats have been red hot, hit better at home, and were totally useless last night.
I will add that this whole inability to hit a guy the first time thing is well past its sell-by date. Don’t the Yankees have scouts? These are big league hitters! Is it that hard to figure out what a guy is tossing if there’s not a lot of tape on him to review? What happens if they face a new pitcher in a big game? Should they just forfeit?
As you know, the inability to hit pitchers they’ve never seen thing has been one of my biggest gripes about the Yankees, although for what it’s worth, I’ve seen fans of other times complain about this as well, so it doesn’t appear to be a Yankee-only problem.
Given the fact that pitchers have a slew of built-in advantages as it is before a hitter even steps up to the plate, I guess the whole “newness” factor is just one more thing to help throw a hitter off. I realize that’s incredibly unscientific, but I really don’t know what else to attribute it to.
I’m also a little tired of the “Yankees can’t hit new pitchers” storyline (and its corollary: “the Yankees can’t hit soft-tossing lefties”). Many teams can and do struggle against new pitchers, and a soft-tossing lefty can have a good game once in a while. Sometimes, this happens to the Yankees.
However, nobody remembers when the Yankees crush a rookie pitcher or a lefty finesse pitcher, which also happens from time to time. Until I see evidence (not just anecdotal) that the Yankees struggle against rookie pitchers more than other teams, I will continue to call this storyline silly.
It frustrates me too. Plus, I don’t see why its such an advantage fo the pitcher. Why doesn’t it help the hitters? If a pitcher steps on the mound and knows he’s gotten ARod out before with his curve, he’ll try it again. If he hasn’t gotten ARod out before isn’t he also more likely to make a mistake?
I will say that if the Yankees knew of a simple way to solve this problem they’d have it figured out by now.
It really isn’t true that the Yankees don’t hit pitchers they’ve seen for the first time…the details are in the following link: http://t.co/sum56G4
Ha, I also did something similar after the Tomlin game on Yankeeist.
Not trying to swim against the current here or blow sunshine up anyone’s shirt, but I think the Yankees came away from last night’s game with a lot more to be optimistic about than the Sox.
Take away Granderson’s valiant dive and Soriano’s miscue walking away from that infield pop-up, and this game would’ve been scoreless after nine and AJ would be one of the biggest stories of the day. Meanwhile, we know the Yankees offense will return tonight while the Sox must face the grim truth that even with a near no-hitter from one of their pitchers they needed the opponent’s help to score both their runs.
I also found it encouraging that Humber threw 66 of his 100 pitches for strikes and 32 of those strikes were foul balls, which tells me this guy wasn’t exactly baffling our guys with dazzling stuff that locked their knees or anything. Just one of those nights they couldn’t square up on a strong young guy with four pitches, good command and consistent delivery having a career best night. No shame in that…not as long as we crush them the rest of the series.
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