Saturday, May 2, 2009

CC Stinks Again, Yanks Lose 8-4

(REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine)


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
R H E
LAA 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 1 2
8 11 1
NYY 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
4 4 2

It was another rocky start for the Yankees $161 million dollar man. In 6.2 innings pitched CC Sabathia allowed five runs (four earned) on eight hits, walked one and struck out five. He was having a good game until Derek Jeter's throwing error with one out in the sixth, but that led to a run, and then in the next inning he completely lost it, allowing another four runs on four hits. CC's outing today reminded me a lot of Pettitte's performance last night. I'm also starting to think the Joe Girardi may be pushing his starters a little too far, but then again, with this bullpen you pretty much have to.

Sabathia is now 1-3, with a 4.85 ERA, which is not exactly what you would want from your ace. To make matters worse, he was outpitched today buy a 30-year-old rookie with a 6.12 ERA, but I'll have more on Matt Palmer and the putrid effort by the Yankees offense in a minute.

First, I want to bring up the bullpen, and most importantly Jose Veras. On the third pitch he threw in the game Kendy Morales launched a 400 foot blast the Yankees bullpen in right. He ended up walking two in the inning as well but somehow got out of it without allowing another run. I know he had that one very good outing against Oakland last week, but besides that he's been pretty awful all season. I'm not sure what the Yankees should do, but he's a disaster waiting to happen every time he steps on that mound.

David Robertson was also shaky out of the pen, and like most Yankee relievers this year, he was killed by walks. In one inning he allowed two runs on one hit, walked two and struck out two.

If these guys are not going to throw strikes they don't belong in the majors.

As for the offense it was another one of those days where they were dominated by a no-name pitcher. In 6.1 innings pitched Matt Palmer held the Yankees to a run on three hits, walked two and struck out two. The only Yankees run off Palmer came in the first on an RBI single by Hideki Matsui.

Like Sabathia, Mark Teixeira has run out of excuses and it's time to start hitting. I do like that he still has good at-bats and draws a ton of walks, but he needs to stop trying to hit everything a mile and just look to hit the ball up the middle or the other way. A prime example came from the sixth inning of today's game. With Jeter at third and one out today in a 1-1 game he failed to get the run in when he flied out weakly to shallow centerfield. Who knows how the game plays out if the Yankees can get the lead back in that spot. Teixeira is now hitting .182 and the boo-birds are starting to make themselves heard.

With the score 8-1 the Yanks were able to score three runs in the bottom of the ninth off reliever Fernando Rodriguez to cut it to 8-4, but that was all they would get today. Hey, if the bullpen actually did their job the Yankees might have been able to come back and win this one too.

Robinson Cano had his 18-game hitting streak snapped.

If you had told me on Thursday that the Yanks would take two out of the first three from the Angels I would have taken that in a heartbeat, so based solely on that I'm not too upset. It's just very annoying when you take the first two and the ace of the staff can't get the job done in game three. The Yankees can still take three out of four with a good start from Phil Hughes tomorrow. Problem is the Angels are starting Joe Saunders and he's been one of their best pitchers so far.


ABRHRBIBBSOLOBAVG
Jeter, SS4110003.275
Damon, LF5000013.276
Teixeira, 1B3000101.182
Matsui, DH4011011.288
Cano, 2B4000002.363
Cabrera, M, RF3110102.321
Molina, J, C2000100.258
Berroa, 3B1000011.222
Pena, 3B2000010.313
a-Posada, PH-C2112012.293
Gardner, CF2100200.222
Totals324435515

a-Struck out for Pena in the 7th.

BATTING
2B: Jeter (5, Palmer).
HR: Posada (5, 9th inning off Rodriguez, Fe, 1 on, 2 out).
TB: Jeter 2; Matsui; Cabrera, M; Posada 4.
RBI: Matsui (11), Posada 2 (20).
2-out RBI: Posada 2.
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Cabrera, M 2; Matsui; Jeter 2; Damon.
Team RISP: 2-for-11.
Team LOB: 7.

BASERUNNING
SB: Jeter (5, 2nd base off Palmer/Napoli).

FIELDING
E: Jeter (1, throw), Cabrera, M (1, fielding).

ANGELS OFFENSE



IPHRERBBSOHRERA
Sabathia (L, 1-3)6.28541504.85
Albaladejo 0.11000007.30
Veras 1.01112018.03
Robertson 1.01212205.40

ANGELS PITCHING

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Matt Palmer (W, 6.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K)

HONORABLE MENTION:
Kendry Morales (2-for-4, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R, BB)

GOAT OF THE GAME: CC Sabathia
(6.2 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 5 K)

TOMORROW'S GAME

Yankees vs. Angels @ New Yankee Stadium
Game Time: 1:05 p.m. | TV/Radio: YES, WCBS 880
Phil Hughes
RHP (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Joe Saunders RHP (2-1, 3.51 ERA)

15 Comments:

Anonymous said...

How can you say CC stunk? He was great until the 7th, when his pitch-count started getting up there.

I think you're being a little unfair with that headline.

Greg Cohen said...

I said he piitched well until the sixth. But he was walking a tight rope for much of the game.

And when your ace gives up a four spot in the seventh inning that stinks. He's gotta start living up to the contract and his ace status.

Also, if he can't go past 100 pitches, Girardi shouldn't have sent him out there for the seventh.

Anonymous said...

I was there, CC gave us a great game, It was a duel for 6 innings. When CC left it was 4-1. Veras imploaded, as soon as he came in my section booed. I really would like to see Veras on the train out of town, the guy is a joke.

Anonymous said...

CC pitched good he also pitched good against the tigers too. His pitching line doesn't do him justice today.

Also Veras and Edwar are worthless they shouldn't be on the team.

Has anyone seen Damaso Marte i think Friday against Boston was the last time Girardi used him. We are stuck with Marte though because Cashman gave him a 3 year deal but Phil Coke is the top lefty and top reliever in the pen besides Mo and Bruney.

The Goat of the game should be the yankees offense, once again the offense makes a journeymen pitcher look like CY Young.

Anonymous said...

uh oh, we signed casey fossum.
bad to worse.

Greg Cohen said...

Four runs on eight hits is not a good start people. This is our number one pitcher we're talking about, not Darrell Rasner or Sidney Ponson.

Unknown said...

I thought Joe should have taken CC out sooner. But then again the bullpen would have lead all the runners to score that CC would have left on base so it didn't matter. The only person I trust in the bullpen is Rivera. Joba needs to go back to the bullpen and have Phil take his spot on the rotation.

Anonymous said...

the stadium is a bandbox those are great numbers for CC.

anonyMOOSE said...

Sorry Greg, usually I agree with you but you and I were watching a different game today. This was a great start by CC. Jeter's error, a little bloop dunker in front of Damon in left (that would have been a DP had Damon not been playing a singles hitter by the LF wall, thereby pretty much negating the entire inning), a weak infield single RBI grounder up the middle by Kendrick... the guy was pretty much solid all day. I realize the final line of 8 hits isn't totally shutting them down, but the only time he gave them ANYTHING with runners in scoring position was Hunter's double. Albaladejo came in and allowed the hit to Napoli, making it 5-1. If Napoli had been retired, it would have been only 4 total runs (3 ER) for CC.

If the idiot offense could muster more than two hits in the first 6 innings off of a 30 year old rookie with an 87 MPH fastball, he might not have had to pitch so careful there late in the game.

This game is by far, without any hesitation, on the pathetic offensive showing today. When your SP takes you to the bottom of the 6th, having allowed just one unearned run, you've got to do something against Matt Palmer.

Greg Cohen said...

anonyMOOSE,

I agree about the offense, they were pathetic today. But I'm not going to give CC a pass anymore. It's time he goes out and shuts down another team. Aces aren't just supposed to be good, they're supposed to be dominating.

I do also agree that the error and the Damon play both screwed him, but he's got to be good enough to come back and get big outs.

Mario said...

forgot to mention Cano had 18 game hit streak snapped, and CC has labored thru all his starts so far, he hasn't looked comfortable, he's throwing way to many balls, he's gonna end up on the DL soon...Right now i'm wishing we'd gone and gotten Santana...making hughes & joba untouchable...

Greg Cohen said...

Thanks for reminding me Mario. I just added the info on Cano.

As for Santana, I don't think it was possible to get him without giving up either Hughes or Joba.

JC said...

I think we all might be expecting too much from CC. He's not a Santana, so we need to not expect those kinds of numbers. CC has always been a streaky pitcher, who is sometimes great and sometimes bad. It's just that when he's on, he's really on.

But I don't think we can epxect im to go out there and throw shutouts of throws lines up of 8 innings with one run all the time.

Jeff said...

I was disappointed by CC as well. He wasn't horrible, but no where near where your ace should be. The problem is that this is the status quo for CC. I can take a bad game every once in a while but that's all we've been getting from Sabathia.

The Bullpen is atrocious. Even if CC is struggling there is no one who you can bring in. Unfortuntately there aren't any arms out there on the trade market to pick up and we're stuck with what we've got. Hopefully Melancon is ready to step in and if we're lucky Bruney comes back soon.

Nice move letting Geise go Girardi, nice one.

Greg Cohen said...

"But I don't think we can epxect im to go out there and throw shutouts of throws lines up of 8 innings with one run all the time."Two things, if he can't be the Yankees ace, then they shouldn't have signed him. And if he's not going to be the ace he better get used to boos.