"In addition to being a 210 wRC+ player over the last two weeks, I also do game-saving takeout slides." (Photo by J. Meric/Getty Images)
After his offense took a quick 1-0 lead against Tampa Bay in the top of the 1st, A.J. Burnett promptly gave it all back and then some in the bottom half of the frame, ultimately digging the Yankees a 4-1 hole following his departure after 5.1 mediocre innings eight-hit, six(!)-walk ball. Frankly, it’s rather incredible that A.J. only allowed four runs to score having put 14 men on base. A.J. hasn’t thrown a quality start since June 29 against Milwaukee, and only has seven to his name out of 20 starts on the season. While he’s certainly been less of a disappointment than he was in 2010, he remains no less an enigma.
Thankfully for A.J. and for the Yankees, the offense bailed him out, battling back to tie the game in the top of the eighth on a combination of singles, walks and an RBI groundout made possible by a tremendous take-out slide by Brett Gardner, who broke up what appeared to be an inning-ending double play ball off the bat of Eduardo Nunez and that would have seen the Yankees remain down a run. Gardner continued his tremendous play of late, picking up another hit and walking twice. After a flawless bottom of the eighth by David Robertson, the Yankees went to work against rookie Alex Torres — making his Major League debut — and were able to plate a Curtis Granderson leadoff single as the go-ahead run with a succession of three straight walks, the final of which was of the bases-loaded variety earned by Russell Martin after a tremendous at-bat. Mariano Rivera came on and nailed down the 5-4 victory with a perfect ninth, and just like that the Yankees are on another tidy three-game win streak.
Speaking of rookies, prior to the Yankees’ big comeback this game had all the makings of a vintage Pitcher-the-Yankees-Have-Never-Seen performance, with Rays’ rookie Alex Cobb hurling six innings of two-run ball (only one earned) on a mere three hits (though he did walk four). In fact, the Yankees walked nine times in this game.
By my count, this appears to be the Yankees’ first come-from-behind victory of three runs or more in a month — June 19 at the Cubs, to be exact — and only the third time all season they’ve won a game after entering the eighth inning trailing. Oh yeah, and the game experienced an approximately 20-minute power delay due to the Trop getting hit by lightning. So yeah, there were semi-rare occurrences all around in this one.
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http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/cache/zoneplot.php-pitchSel=all&game=gid_2011_07_18_nyamlb_tbamlb_1&sp_type=1&s_type=7.gif
That’s embarrassing. Look at the lower right hand corner. Robot. Umps. Now.
Yeah, the strikezone did appear to be pretty brutal; forgot to mention that in the recap.
That Tex at-bat where Coney said the ump made Tex swing at that terrible pitch was pretty amusing, and I assumed that the called strike — which appeared to be outside — was a terrible pitch, but according to Brooks it was right over the plate:
http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/cache/numlocation.php-pitchSel=456776&game=gid_2011_07_18_nyamlb_tbamlb_1&batterX=78&innings=yyyyyyyyy&sp_type=1&s_type=3.gif
Last night was not a good start. But at least 2011 “Bad AJ” battles. By not imploding for 7 runs in 2.2 innings, not only did AJ save the bullpen, but for one night it was enough for the Yankees to come back. Burnett is frustrating, but I give him credit for being tougher in this regard.
I also forgot to point how awesome it was to see D-Rob toss several huge changeups seemingly out of nowhere. Has D-Rob thrown a changeup previously? If he can consistently get that over for strikes, he’s going to be even more unhittable then he already is.
If he develops it into a legit pitch, he’s the future closer, hands down.
[...] here: Yankees battle back after early deficit, beat Tampa Bay 5-4 in … AKPC_IDS += "26713,"; AKPC_IDS += [...]
[...] something pretty cool happened the other night during the Yankees’ comeback win against the Rays on Monday night: David Robertson threw two changeups. And got a swing and miss on [...]