(REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi)| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | ||
| NYY | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 0 | |
| TEX | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | X | 7 | 9 | 1 |
Winning pitcher - Jason Jennings (2-1)
Losing pitcher - Alfredo Aceves (3-1)
Not only did they squander virtually every scoring opportunity they had tonight going 2-for-11 with RISP and leaving 11 men on base , but they also blew an opportunity to pull even with Boston for first place in the division. Boston, Toronto, and Tampa all lost so they actually could have gained ground on everybody.
Things were bad from the start; a two hour rain delay, then after Derek Jeter led off the first but the Yanks couldn't score, and then Melky Cabrera injured his shoulder slamming into the wall on the first play of the bottom of the inning, a triple off the bat of Ian Kinsler. (Melky has a strained right shoulder and is headed for an MRI tomorrow.)
Yankees starter Joba Chamberlain had absolutely no command of anything tonight, it seemed like every pitch missed its target. In just four innings Joba allowed three runs on four hits, walked four and struck out five, and of his 84 pitches, on 46 of them were strikes. Joba's velocity was also nowhere to be seen tonight. With the lack of command and velocity he was very lucky to have only allowed the three runs. The first inning was once again his worst. He allowed two runs in the inning, and what made things worse was they both came with two out. Nelson Cruz drove in the first run with an RBI double, and then following a walk to David Murphy, Marlon Byrd singled in the Rangers' second run. The inning would have been a lot worse had it not been for a great defensive play by Alex Rodriguez. With Kinsler on third and nobody out, Michael Young hit a grounder to third, Kinsler fell asleep in no-man's land and A-Rod beat him back to third base for the out. The third run Joba allowed came on a solo homer off the bat of Chris Davis in the fourth.
The Yankees did show a little fight, Mark Teixeira cut the Rangers' 3-0 lead to two with a solo homer in the fifth, and then tied it in the sixth. Brett Gardner led off the sixth with a single, then stole second and scored on a Hideki Mastui RBI double. Two batters later Francisco Cervelli drove in Matsui with an RBI single to tie things up.
At that point Joba had been replaced by Alfredo Aceves, and after a solid first inning in relief he failed to keep the Yankees in the game. He gave the lead right back to the Rangers in the bottom of the sixth, although it did come on a cheap bloop hit by Jarrod Saltalamacchia, but then again, a hits a hit. Aceves allowed two more runs in the bottom of the seventh.
Phil Coke came in to get out of Aceves' jam in the seventh but then allowed another run in the bottom of the eighth on another Chris Davis solo homer.
David Robertson replaced Coke in his first appearance since being called up, and retired the only three batters he faced.
Like I said earlier the Yankees had chances all night to score runs. Gardner singled in the second and then stole second and third with Matsui up and one out, but Matsui failed to drive in the run when he struck out looking. With first and second and one out in the fourth Cervelli grounded into an inning ending double play. Then in the seventh, in their best chance for a big inning, the Yanks had the bases loaded with just one out, but Nick Swisher grounded into a double play to end the threat. The Yankees rolled into three double plays on the night.
Speaking of Swisher, he stinks. I think we all are starting to see why this guy hit .219 last year. I love what he's done to help create a fun clubhouse, but on the field he's become useless. So far this month he's hitting .119 with 2 homers and 8 RBI, and he's struck out 25 times. If Melky doesn't miss much time I think it's time to sit Swisher and start Melky and Gardner in the outfield everyday.
On the positive side of tonight's frustrating loss, Brett Gardner had a great game replacing the injured Melky Cabrera. He went 3-for-5, with three stolen bases and a run scored. This is the second time he's come off the bench to pick up three hits in a game. The other time came last week against the Twins when he replaced Johnny Damon who had been thrown out for arguing balls and strikes.
It will be a big game for A.J. Burnett as the Yanks look to take the rubber game of this three-game set. Burnett hasn't won a game since April 14th and has struggled virtually every time out since then, it's about time he goes out and pitches a good game. The Yankees will be facing Rangers rookie left-hander Derek Holland. It will be Holland's second career major league start.
| AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | LOB | AVG | |
| Jeter, SS | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .287 |
| Damon, LF | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | .310 |
| Teixeira, 1B | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | .271 |
| Rodriguez, A, 3B | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .258 |
| Cano, 2B | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .317 |
| Cabrera, M, CF | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .323 |
| Gardner, CF | 5 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .271 |
| Matsui, DH | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .250 |
| Swisher, RF | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | .222 |
| Cervelli, C | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .300 |
| Totals | 37 | 3 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 21 | |
BATTING 2B: Matsui (9, Millwood). HR: Teixeira (14, 5th inning off Millwood, 0 on, 2 out). TB: Jeter 2; Damon; Teixeira 4; Rodriguez, A; Cano 2; Gardner 3; Matsui 3; Cervelli. RBI: Teixeira (37), Matsui (15), Cervelli (4). 2-out RBI: Teixeira. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Rodriguez, A; Cervelli; Cano; Teixeira; Gardner. GIDP: Cervelli; Swisher; Damon. Team RISP: 2-for-12. Team LOB: 12. BASERUNNING SB: Damon (5, 2nd base off Millwood/Saltalamacchia), Jeter (10, 2nd base off Millwood/Saltalamacchia), Gardner 3 (9, 2nd base off Millwood/Saltalamacchia, 2nd base off Millwood/Saltalamacchia, 3rd base off Millwood/Saltalamacchia). FIELDING DP: (Rodriguez, A-Cano-Teixeira). | ||||||||
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA | |
| Chamberlain | 4.0 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 3.97 |
| Aceves, A (L, 3-1) | 2.0 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3.24 |
| Coke | 1.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4.43 |
| Robertson | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3.18 |
RANGERS STATS
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Chris Davis (2-for-4, with 2 HR and 2 RBI.)
HONORABLE MENTION: Brett Gardner (3-for-5, 3 SB, R)
GOAT OF THE GAME: Joba Chamberlain
Yankees @ Rangers
Game Time: 8:05 p.m.| TV/Radio: YES, WCBS 880
RHP A.J. Burnett (2-2, 5.28 ERA) vs LHP Derek Holland (1-1, 4.82 ERA)
Game Time: 8:05 p.m.| TV/Radio: YES, WCBS 880
RHP A.J. Burnett (2-2, 5.28 ERA) vs LHP Derek Holland (1-1, 4.82 ERA)
13 Comments:
We still dont know what Gardner is as a everyday player, not enough of a sample size to see if he could hit enough to play everyday. But you do see huge improvement from last year. Atleast he is turning into valuable bench player with his tools.
I really like Gardner and Cervelli they play hard aggressive and always hustle. They bring a nice young energy to the team.
This game reminded me of the 1st week of the season when Sabathia and Wang got knocked out early. It very tough to win a game when the starter struggles to go 4 innings.
You need the hitters to step it up but they didn't. Hitting with RISP was terrible.
It'll be very interesting to see what kind of OF the Yanks have in '10. I think we have to trade for a good, young OF... yes, they're expensive, but I think it's the best answer.
I'm going to take a guess and say our outfield is something like..
Damon-AJax-Swisher.
Resign Damon to a one year deal, call up AJax and see what he can do. However, we could always move Damon to DH and have Gardner play.
Hell, Holliday is also available. But I'd like to see his numbers after a full year away from Coors first.
We were due for a game where we hit badly with RISP. We've been so good at that for the past couple of weeks. I wish we had more than one effective pitcher (Robertson) last night. Well, Coke wasn't terrible I guess.
Outfielders are the easiest to obtain. I am not worried about our 2010 outfield.
But I am a little worried about our 2009 outfield. Melky can't be missing time right now. I suggest the Gardner Experiment be reopened, & let Swisher take his swishing bat to the bench for a few games in a row. Hopefully Nady will return fairly soon & be able to play RF. Swisher is being exactly what we figured he was coming into the season, a part-time player. He had a great first 10 games is all. His saving grace is that he walks so much, so even though his BA is bad, his OBP is still pretty good, in fact it's a few points better than Jeter's & Cano's. But you gotta hit sometimes. Like I said, just sit him for a bit, let Gardner play for a few games in a row. Maybe we'll get lucky with Gardner.
Actually that reminds me--
Starting off the 5th inning, why put in Aceves, who pitched one inning Monday, instead of Wang, who hadn't thrown since May 22 and could possible have gone 3 innings? When asked about that by PeteAbe after the game, Girardi didn't really have an answer-- "we went to Ace, Wang will be our guy tomorrow." It doesn't make sense to me.
Horrible performance by Joba. For me the hype surrounding him has pretty much worn off.
I agree with the comment that last night's game reminded us of the Yanks during the first week of the season.
Yep, we could have gained on everybody, but instead we lost to a pretty mediocre team....
Tonight? Could Burnett be the next Pavano?
Almost forgot--Swisher is a rally killer of the first degree. When he now steps up to the plate, I'm thinking "here's an out (or two)."
Here's hoping tonight turns out better.
Mike
Daniel Cabrera got DFA'd by the Nationals...Am I the only one who thinks we should sign this guy, stick him in SWB and see what he does..I know he refused a minor league assignment from the Nats but maybe if we stick a "Must be called up by XXXXXX" tag he'll jump on it.
maybe Matsui should put some viagra in that bat, get it going for more then...wait he hasnt had anything going this season
Next year I think a pretty potent outfield would be Gardner in left, Jackson in center, and Melky in right. This gives the yankees two very good defensive fielders with arms in center and right and Gardner should be able to hit the cuttoff in left.
counting ur eggs before they hatch? AJax has been slumping down in the minors, I wouldnt be surprised if we let him stay down there another year.
Anon you need to check your numbers.
AJax is batting .358 through the 5/25 game, and over his previous 10 games is 13 for 35, or .371. He has hit in every game since 5/15 except for the first game of a doubleheader on 5/17.
His problem is that he swings & misses too much still-- 42 strikeouts in 40 games. But when he makes contact, he's great.
42 strikeouts in 40 games is horrible in triple a. Jackson will strikeout 200 times in the majors and he is not a homerun hitter. He is still not ready.
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