Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Joba Shaky as Jays Roll Over Yanks 9-3


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
R H E
Toronto 1 0 1 1 0 0 6 0 0
9 12 0
N.Y. Yankees 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
3 9 1

The Yanks lost their third straight tonight, a 9-3 loss to the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium. The loss drops the Yankees to 28-30 on the year, and back into last place in the AL East.

As I'm sure you know Joba Chamberlain made his first Major League start tonight. He seemed to be too pumped-up at the start and didn't have great command of his pitches. He threw 38 pitches in the first inning alone, allowing one run on a hit, three walks, and one balk. Not a typical Joba Chamberlain inning.

Joba settled down and had a quick and easy 2nd inning, then in the 3rd retired the first batter he faced, but was pulled after walking Alex Rios. In 2.1 IP, Joba allowed two runs on one hit and four walks, while striking out three. Don't make too much out of this start, this is a work in progress and it's not like he got shelled for seven or eight runs in .1 of an inning. Sunday should be a lot better for Joba.

Recently called-up Dan Giese replaced Joba and pitched pretty well. He did allow a run in the 4th which gave the Jays a 3-2 lead, but overall he did a good job, and kept the Yankees in the game. He allowed one run on five hits and a walk in 3.2 innings. He probably could have stayed in the game longer, but Girardi, in another one of his genius moves, decided 65 pitches was enough, which is extremely odd when you consider that he is a starter and the Yankees have Mike Mussina going tomorrow. It may have been wise to get as much out of Giese tonight as possible.

Giese was replaced by Jose Veras to start to 7th and this is where the night got really ugly. Veras allowed the first two runners to get on base, then struck out Scott Rolen, and that was it for Veras.

Edwar Ramirez
then came into the game and had by far his worst outing of the season. Ramirez did not retire a batter and allowed four runs on one hit and three walks. He had zero command of any of his pitches tonight.

With the game already decided, Girardi called on Latroy Hawkins who after allowing a two-run double to David Eckstein to make the score 8-2 actually didn't pitch that bad. He retired four of the last five batters he faced, including two on strikeouts.

Chris Britton pitched the 9th inning and did allow two hits, but struck out two and didn't allow a run. Maybe it would be a good idea to use this guy when the Yankees are still in the game. Just a thought.


IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Chamberlain 2.1 1 2 1 4 3 0 2.42
Giese (L, 0-1) 3.2 5 1 1 1 0 0 2.45
Veras 0.1 2 2 2 0 1 0 5.25
Ramirez 0.0 1 4 4 3 0 0 2.81
Hawkins 1.2 1 0 0 2 1 0 6.31
Britton 1.0 2 0 0 0 2 0 1.29

JAYS PITCHING

Not much to talk about offensively. After the first inning when he gave up two runs, Roy Halladay was very good. He allowed just two runs on six hits and a walk, while striking out three in six innings of work. The few times the Yankees did get runners in scoring position they failed to do anything with them.

Robinson Cano is still lost at the plate, but at least he didn't swing at every first pitch he saw.

One bright spot was that Derek Jeter tied Mickey Mantle for third on the all-time Yankees hits list with 2,415 hits.


AB R H RBI BB SO LOB AVG
Damon, LF 4 1 3 0 1 0 0 .301
Jeter, SS 5 0 2 0 0 0 4 .282
Abreu, RF 5 0 0 1 0 2 5 .285
Rodriguez, 3B 3 1 0 0 1 1 4 .294
Matsui, DH 4 0 2 1 0 0 1 .332
Giambi, 1B 2 0 1 1 0 0 2 .253
Duncan, S, 1B 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 .175
Cano, 2B 4 0 0 0 0 0 6 .216
Molina, C 4 0 0 0 0 2 2 .211
Cabrera, CF 3 1 0 0 1 1 0 .266
Totals 35 3 9 3 3 6 24

BATTING
2B: Damon (18, Halladay), Duncan, S (3, Carlson).
3B: Damon (2, Halladay).
TB: Damon 6; Jeter 2; Matsui 2; Giambi; Duncan, S 2.
RBI: Matsui (27), Giambi (29), Abreu (37).
2-out RBI: Matsui; Giambi.
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Cano 2; Jeter; Molina; Rodriguez.
GIDP: Molina.
Team LOB: 10.


JAYS OFFENSE

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Roy Halladay (6 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K)

HONORABLE MENTION: David Eckstein (2-for-4, 2B, 3 RBI)

GOATS OF THE GAME: Jose Veras and Edwar Ramirez who combined for .1 IP, 3 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 1 K.

The Yanks look to even the series tomorrow night at The Stadium. Mike Mussina starts for the Yanks, with Jesse Litsch going for the Jays. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m., and the game can be seen on YES and heard on WCBS 880.

4 Comments:

M-Rod said...

Hey, it could be worse - it could be raining. Oh wait - it is! FU@K!

Anonymous said...

Time for a major shakeup. I think Cashman needs to go, now. Next, have the Steinbrenner brothers haul Girardi into the office and tell him that Hank is running the team from now on, including all lineup and strategy decisions.

Let's get the Fat Mouthy F*** era of Yankees baseball REALLY started! 'Cause right now, too many other people are confused into thinking they're actually in charge.

Hank's decision to remove Joba from the pen SUCKS, and is a symptom of everything that's wrong with this team.

Jeff said...

Joba has time to come around, but needs to get over this idea of painting the corners that he apparently picked up from Ian Kennedy. Let's just hope he can keep his confidence up and that the team can be patient with him.

What really gets me about last night's game was the performance of Ramirez and Veras. Those guys had me sold as the next big relievers, but the performances turned in against the Blue Jays were troubling.

Greg Cohen said...

Anon,

One thing you must realize is that the move to put Joba in the rotation was always going to happen this year. And in the long-term it will help the Yanks. The key is finding a couple arms for the pen so that the Yankees can still win this year. That part of the equation may not be easy.


I agree Jeff, those two performances were really troubling. I'm going to hope that they both, and especially Ramirez, can put yesterday behind them and pitch well the next time out.

Something needs to be done, though. Because the entire pen suddenly can't get anyone out.