Yanks Drop Third Straight as They Fall to Indians 4-3

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

The Yankees fell back under .500 with a 4-3 loss today to the Indians at Progressive Field. Ian Kennedy got the start and after a shaky beginning was able to settle down and actually pitch a decent game. Early on he was getting into far too many deep counts, walked too many, and wasn't challenging hitters. He also gave up several bloop hits, one off the bat of Travis Hafner that drove in the 3rd run of the game. After the 2nd inning Kennedy started being more aggressive and didn't allow another hit. His final line: 5 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 2 K. He threw 105 pitches, 61 of them for strikes.

Latroy Hawkins pitched the 6th and 7th; in the 6th he walked the leadoff man and the Indians were able to get me on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out, but thanks to a great defensive play by Alberto Gonzalez at third the Yanks were able to get out of the inning without allowing a run. He walked the leadoff man again in the 7th, but got out of that inning as well. Not a great performance, but he got the job done.

Kyle Farnsworth continued the trend of walking the leadoff man in the 8th, but was also able to get out of the inning without allowing a run.

Ross Ohlendorf came into the game to pitch the 9th and was not as fortunate. With one out he gave up a singles to Grady Sizemore and David Dellucci. Then while facing Travis Hafner, threw a wild pitch which allowed the base runners to move up to 2nd and 3rd. He then intentionally walked Hafner to load the bases. The next batter was Victor Martinez and he hit a game winning opposite field single. After a decent start to the year, Ohlendorf has been awful and may be in need of a trip to Scranton.

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Kennedy	5.0	4	3	3	4	2	0	8.53
Hawkins	2.0	1	0	0	2	0	0	8.56
Farnsworth	1.0	0	0	0	2	2	0	3.97
Ohlendorf (L, 0-1)	0.1	3	1	1	1	1	0	6.48

INDIANS PITCHING

The Yankees offense was non-existent for the first 5 innings off Indians starter Jeremy Sowers, but finally in the 6th the Yanks were able to score three to tie the game. With 1 out Alex Rodriguez singled, Jason Giambi was hit by a pitch, and Shelley Duncan walked to load the bases. Then in a move that had me scratching my head, Joe Girardi decides to pinch hit with Robinson Cano (Abreu and Matsui were also on the bench). This is the same Robinson Cano that is 2 for his last 22, and is a lifetime .220 hitter with the bases loaded. Cano eventually would strike out, which was actually a good thing considering how many times he's hit ground balls to second this year. Luckily for the Yankees Jorge Posada stepped to the plate and hit a line drive that David Dellucci tried to make a diving play on and missed allowing the ball to roll all the way to the wall for a 3-run triple.

The Yankees had two more chances to drive in that fourth run but couldn't get it done (what else is new?). In the 7th Johnny Damon led off the inning with a double, but Melky Carbrera was unable to get the bunt down, and eventually struck out. Derek Jeter then reached on an infield single, but both Damon and Jeter were left stranded as A-Rod struck out, and Giambi popped out.

Their second chance came in the 9th inning when Damon and Melky both singled with 1 out setting up 1st and 3rd for Derek Jeter, but he grounded into and inning ending 4-6-3 double play.

I feel this would have been a perfect time for a squeeze play, Jeter is a very good bunter, Johnny Damon has very good speed, and the defense was playing back at double play depth. And if you haven't noticed Jeter has hit into many double plays the last few seasons, the one thing you are looking to avoid in that spot. Another option would have been to have Melky steal second, this way even if Jeter hits the ball on the ground, a run would score. Apparently, this "NL" manager of ours who is a mix of Joe Torre and Billy Martin (according to Hank Steinbrenner) didn't feel the same way.

And trust me, I know how good Jeter is at getting that run in, but I also know how many times he's hit into DPs since the beginning of '07. The number is 24 and he leads the Yankees in that period of time. I also know how rare a clutch hit has been for this team this season. Sometimes it's better to try and make things happen as apposed to waiting for things to happen.

AB R H RBI BB SO LOB AVG Damon, LF 5 0 4 0 0 0 0 .276 Cabrera, CF 5 0 1 0 0 2 4 .289 Jeter, SS 5 0 3 0 0 1 2 .282 Rodriguez, DH 4 1 2 0 0 1 3 .302 Giambi, 1B 3 1 0 0 0 0 4 .177 Duncan, S, RF 2 1 0 0 1 0 3 .143 c-Abreu, PH-RF 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 .293 Ensberg, 3B 2 0 0 0 0 1 3 .281 a-Cano, PH-2B 2 0 0 0 0 1 3 .152 Molina, C 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 .286 b-Posada, PH-C 2 0 1 3 0 1 0 .302 Gonzalez, 2B-3B 4 0 1 0 0 0 1 .316 Totals 37 3 12 3 1 8 23 a-Struck out for Ensberg in the 6th. b-Tripled for Molina in the 6th. c-Struck out for Duncan, S in the 8th. BATTING 2B: Damon 2 (9, Sowers, Lewis, J). 3B: Posada (1, Lewis, J). TB: Damon 6; Cabrera; Jeter 3; Rodriguez 2; Posada 3; Gonzalez. RBI: Posada 3 (11). 2-out RBI: Posada 3. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Cabrera; Ensberg; Gonzalez; Giambi. GIDP: Cabrera; Jeter. Team LOB: 9. BASERUNNING CS: Giambi (1, 2nd base by Sowers/Martinez).

INDIANS HITTING

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Victor Martinez (2-for-4, RBI, BB, game-winning single in bottom of the 9th)

HONORABLE MENTION: Johnny Damon (4-for-5)

Game three of this four game series is tomorrow afternoon at 1:05 p.m.. In a rematch of game one of last year's ALDS Chien-Ming Wang will face off against Indians' Ace C.C. Sabathia. Hopefully this time it works out better for the Yankees. The game can be seen on YES and heard on WCBS 880.