(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | ||
| NYY | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 1 | |
| BOS | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | X | 4 | 8 | 0 |
Winning pitcher - Takashi Saito (1-0)
Losing pitcher - CC Sabathia (5-4)
SV - Jonathan Papelbon (16)
So which loss to the Sox was worse, the game Mo blew on April 24th or tonight's disaster? I'm gonna say tonight, simply because tonight made it eight losses in a row against Boston.
It had all the makings of a great win. CC Sabathia pitched great for the first seven innings, allowing just one run on a solo homer off the day of a rejuvenated (thanks to Yankee pitching) David Ortiz. And even though they made Brad Penny look like an all-star tonight the Yankees' bats managed to put three runs on the board against the Sox pen and gave their ace a 3-1 lead.
The Yankees got their runs in the top of the seventh. Melky Cabrera led off with a single, Francisco Cervelli then lined a double down the left field line and with Cabrera running on the pitch was able to score all the way from first to tie the game at one. Later in the inning Alex Rodriguez line two-run double off the wall in center and the Yanks led 3-1. It looked like a huge hit for A-Rod, and a game winner. That all changed in the bottom of the eighth.
After allowing the homer to Ortiz in second, Sabathia cruised through the next five innings and looked like he was on his way to giving the Yankees exactly the kind of start they needed, but he ran out of gas in the eighth and things quickly fell apart. Nick Green led off with a single, and then Dustin Pedroia had the at-bat of the game. After fouling off six pitches and working the count to 3-and-2, he drew a much deserved walk on the tenth pitch of the at-bat. Not only did it put two on with nobody out, but it pretty much drained Sabathia of whatever energy he had left. The next batter was J.D. Drew and he lined an RBI single to cut the Yanks lead to 3-2. That was it for CC.
Alfredo Aceves came into a very difficult situation with runners on first and second and nobody out in a one run game with Kevin Youkilis and Jason Bay coming to bat. Two singles later the Sox had tied the game and the bases were loaded. Mike Lowell then hit a sac fly to shallow center to give the Sox a 4-3 lead. With a good throw Brett Gardner probably could have gotten Drew at home, but he threw the ball into the ground and never had a chance.
Phil Coke then came in to replace Aceves and after walking Ortiz on four pitches he got Jason Varitek to pop out to Teixeira, and then struck out Rocco Baldelli to end the inning. It was a pretty impressive outing from Coke.
Jonathan Papelbon made quick work of the Yanks in the ninth, retiring them 1-2-3 to finish off the game and the sweep.
In the end, this game, like the two before it, came down to two main things; starting pitching and hitting with RISP. Brad Penny pitched very well for the Sox tonight, but there's no way he should have held the Yankees scoreless over six. They had runners on base in almost every inning, they just once against failed to get the big hit. IAfter going 2-for-17 with RISP in the first two games they followed it up with a 1-for-11 in game three. That's 3-for-28 for the series, and that's pathetic. I have to believe that they were pressing, there were many meatballs that they fouled back or missed completely, pitches they were crushing a week ago, you know, against teams not named the Red Sox.
Then they finally get the hit they needed. In fact they got two; Cervelli's game-tying RBI double and A-Rod's two-run double that gave them the lead, but that's when the starting pitching failed them. After A.J. Burnett and Chien-Ming Wang lasted just 2.2 innings a piece over the first two games CC gave the Yankees a much, much better effort. He pitched great for first seven innings allowing just one run on four hits. And if Brian Bruney was healthy he probably would have been done after those seven. but Bruney isn't here and CC's job tonight was to hand the ball to Rivera. He failed. I don't blame CC that much because he really pitched a hell of a game, but still, in the end he gave up four runs in seven innings and that's not the results we were hoping for.
Oh, I almost forgot Nick Swisher's terrible base running. What the hell is going through this dude's skull? For the second day in a row he inexplicably gets doubled off to end an inning. Today the brainfart came in the bottom of the second. With one out the Yanks had Hideki Matsui on first and Swisher on second and Cervelli was batting. He hit a fly ball to the warning track in left and for some reason Swisher was 3/4 of the way to third. Bay caught the ball, threw it to Green who threw to Pedroia to complete the double play. Even if Swisher thought it was going to hit the monster he had no need to get that far off the base. Like the play in Wednesday's game it was completely stupid and inexcusable. You can't make those kind of mistakes in one-run games against your rival, because they usually come back to haunt you.
Now the Yankees must move on, there is nothing else they can do. Losing eight in a row to the Red Sox sucks. A lot. But now they begin a three-game series against another rival, the New York Mets. They also find themselves just two games behind the Red Sox for first place in the division with 100 games to go, so this team is far from being in trouble. Put this ugly series in their rear view mirror and get back to doing all the good things they were doing before embarrassing themselves in Boston.
| AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | LOB | AVG | |
| Jeter, SS | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .298 |
| Damon, LF | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | .286 |
| Teixeira, 1B | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .289 |
| Rodriguez, A, 3B | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .234 |
| Cano, 2B | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .293 |
| Swisher, RF | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | .255 |
| Gardner, CF | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .267 |
| Matsui, DH | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .260 |
| Cabrera, M, CF-RF | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | .298 |
| Cervelli, C | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | .269 |
| Totals | 36 | 3 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 21 | |
BATTING 2B: Swisher (14, Penny), Cervelli (2, Delcarmen), Rodriguez, A (5, Delcarmen). TB: Jeter 2; Rodriguez, A 2; Cano; Swisher 2; Matsui 2; Cabrera, M 2; Cervelli 2. RBI: Cervelli (5), Rodriguez, A 2 (25). 2-out RBI: Rodriguez, A 2. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Cano 3; Cervelli; Matsui. Team RISP: 1-for-11. Team LOB: 9. BASERUNNING SB: Jeter (12, 2nd base off Penny/Varitek), Rodriguez, A (2, 2nd base off Penny/Varitek). FIELDING E: Damon (3, fielding). DP: (Jeter-Cano-Teixeira). | ||||||||
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA | |
| Sabathia (L, 5-4) | 7.0 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 3.68 |
| Aceves, A (BS, 1) | 0.1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.55 |
| Coke | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4.01 |
RED SOX STATS
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Brad Penny (6 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K)
HONORABLE MENTION: David Ortiz (2-for-3, HR, BB, R)
GOAT OF THE GAME: Nick Swisher - For three days worth of boneheaded plays.
Tomorrow's Game
Yankees vs. Mets
Game Time: 7:05 p.m. | TV/Radio: YES, WCBS 880
Yankees vs. Mets
Game Time: 7:05 p.m. | TV/Radio: YES, WCBS 880
Joba Chamberlain (3-1, 3.79 ERA) vs. Livan Hernandez (5-1, 3.88 ERA)
23 Comments:
This team played tight. They made some boneheaded plays and mental errors, I have not seen this year from them. A lot of the lineup throughout the series had terrible at bats. You got the feeling that the red sox are in there heads.
Examples all of Swisher foolish plays, Cano had horrible at bats did nothing this series, Damon drops a ball, Gardner makes a bad throw (his arm is not that bad the ball either slipped because of the rain or he just pressed and rushed the throw), A-Rod did nothing except in the series except for his at Delcarmen. No doubt Burnett was pressing.
4-46 RISP Pathetic
Just horrible baseball from the entire team except for Mark Teixeira and also Phil Coke pitched well.
Not that it's really that much better, but didn't they go 3-for-28 with RISP?
I really want to kill myself after this sereies. Boston is just bitch slapping us around like we used to do to them.
Yes, I believe they went 3-for-28 with runners in scoring position this series.
Sorry about posting 46 my mistake I was rushing. Just a frustrating series.
3-28 is not good. They are lucky the new stadium plays like a bandbox because they cant manufacture runs without hitting homeruns.
Another bad part was the yank really did help the red sox by raising Brad Penny's trading value
Despite how badly we played, we REALLY got some awful breaks, especially in this last game. Oh well. Move on.
As for Penny's value rising, you'd hope and pray that nobody is that stupid to think more highly of this guy after one decent outing.
Simply unacceptable.
They lose to Boston because Boston figured them out a long time ago. They play so many games against each other--they know their enemy. They know what the Yankees are going to do before the Yankees themselves know what they're going to do. They know them like a book, and their decision making so poor. Oh yes, Joba best helps us in the rotation. Really? It sure help you last night in Boston with him on the bench. The Yanks will be lucky if they win "a" game against Boston. I hate Boston, but I'm starting to hate the Yankees even more because they keep doing the same things over and over again expecting a different result.
Let's just brush off this loss and look foward to this week. We're playing the Nationals, Marlins, and Mets. We are bound to win the series versus the Mets, and sweep both the Nationals and Marlins. We are still a good team, just not against the Red Sox.
Besides, this series didn't hurt us that bad standings wise. A win here, a Red Sox loss there, and we'll be back in first in no time.
Yes ! OPTIMISM IS ESSENTIAL!
We need Nady back, when is X returning ? We also need to figure out who is the 8th inning guy. If we had one, somebody really good, he would have been in last night.
It doesn't seem to matter how much money the Yankees spend on new players in the winter, the Red Sox still have their measure. We knew before the start of the season that Cashman overpaid for both Sabathia and Burnett, now we're finding out by how much. Sabathia is a good (I stress the word good) pitcher, but he's no Johan Santana and, he can't beat the better teams by himself. Burnett has been a bust. Plain and simple. The only time he's been able to hit the target is with a custard pie in his hand. We signed him to help us beat the Sox and all he's done is help them beat us. Not bad for $85 million, eh? I can't believe these morons are seriously going to give Wang another start. Might as well call Kei Igawa up from AAA and give him another chance. After all, his ERA is lower than the Wang-ker. A-Rod and Cano once again demonstrated at Fenway that they can't handle the pressure. Combine that with Jeter having possibly his worst-ever series against the Sox and it's not hard to see why we got swept. The simple truth is that the Sox are a better all-round team than the Yankees and rise to the occasion, rather than shrink from it. Now we shall see if the Yanks can bounce back against the injury-ravaged Mets in the Sub-par Series. The good news is that in the next three series we have an opportunity to get back to what we do best...run up the score on bad teams.
This team stinks since Posada came back. And, again, he is part of the problem and always has been. If Posada starts tonight then Girardi should be fired. Go with Cervelli from now on. Let the chips fall where they may. Simple as that. Time to move on and stop hanging onto these old veterans.
Optimism is absolutely the way down and will make matters worse. Every time. That is a proven scientific fact. YOu have to figure out what is wrong (think negaatively) BEFORE you think positive. The positve comes afte the negative. Its called DEBUGGING. And, this team has ALOT of debugging to do.
The worse part is it won't happen and you propaganda preachers will continue down to the bottomless pit.
The only thing men learn from history is that men never learn anything from history.
Whether you're optimistic or pessimistic it doesn't matter. We're fans, our feelings aren't going to effect the outcome of any games.
However, being a miserable pessimist is not a fun way to root for a team.
I like to look at it this way. The Yankees are 34-18 against teams not named the Red Soxs and the Red Soxs are 28-24 against teams not named the Yankees. We are fine against every team not named the Red Soxs and I expect that to continue.
This isn't pessimistic, this is a fact:
If the Yankees can't beat the Red Sox, they can't win the World Series.
Period.
How is that a "fact"?
What if the Yankees win the wild card and the Sox win the division and the Sox lose in the first round?
There is no reason to get that far ahead of ourselves. The Yankees play the Mets now, shouldn't that be what we're focusing on?
Also, remember 2007? The Yankees owned Cleveland during the regular season winning all six games. Then they met in the playoffs and the Tribe won.
To make statements today about what's going to happen in October is pointless.
I can not find the words to concisely express the embarrassment disgust and disappointment I feel right now. I cant wait till Joba is mowing people down, getting all fired up shorting games and getting us to Mo.
Hopefully the yankees can find their swagger, exploit Joba's potential, merge the tough guys of Jeter and Posada with the loose guys like Burnett and Damon and even the young pumped guys like Cervelli.
At some point this team needs to coalesce into the ferocious beast they are capable of being, and we cant wait until game 3 of a 5 game series. This team could be better than 98 if they could just get tough. I feel like they need to get mad and really come together...maybe new leaders need 2 step up maybe its CC or Tex i dunno those guys are the kind of professionals the yankees are all about
Greg - which AL team is going to beat the Red Sox in a 5-game series?
Be reasonable. The Yankees and Red Sox are the two best teams in the American League. The Yankees will most likely have to beat them in the ALCS on the way to the World Series.
Come on, you know that's true.
There is a ton of baseball left, plus trades to go down. Lots of time. Chill panickers.
At this point I'd make the Sox favorites against anyone, but that doesn't mean they have to win. Anything can happen in a 5-game series. The best team doesn't always win.
As for the ALCS, I'll cross that bridge when they come to it. I'm not gonna sit here in June and worry about October. That's for Cashman and his staff to worry about.
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