Five hours, 26 minutes to be exact, and all to watch the Yankees embarrass themselves in a 3-0 loss to the Washington Nationals. You really have to feel for the fans who waited around for the game only to see their favorite team take another night off. At least they got to move down to the field level and got some free tickets to an upcoming game.
For the second night in a row the Yankees were dominated by a pitcher that they have never seen, and a pitcher that can't throw harder than 88 mph. Craig Stammen held the Yankees scoreless through 6.1 innings tonight. He allowed just six 6 and did not walk a batter, and of his 82 pitches, 53 were called strikes.
I could understand it happening once, especially with the way John Lannan kept the Yankees off balance and commanded his pitches yesterday. But two nights in a row? And tonight all Stammen did was challenge the Yankees hitters with 88 mph fastballs, and they couldn't do a damn thing.
Joba Chamberlain had another frustrating start tonight. In six innings he allowed 3 runs on 7 hits, walked 4, struck out 6, and threw 60 of his 100 pitches for strikes. Allowing 11 base runners to the Nationals in six innings is not good. Three of the walks came in fourth, including one with the bases loaded scoring the Nats second run. His velocity wasn't great tonight, he topped out at 95.6 mph, but averaged just 92.2, and he also had some trouble locating the fastball. He's going to have to become more consistent. Still, had the Yankees offense done anything he could have gotten a win.
There is absolutely no excuse for losing two of three at home to the Washington Nationals - a team that came into this series with a 16-45 record. It's embarrassing. The Yankees looked like they were sleepwalking through this entire series. They scored just seven runs in 26 innings against the worst pitching staff in baseball. I think they took the Nationals for granted and it cost them, they very easily could have been swept. You have to put some of the blame on the manager when a team doesn't show up for a game, or in this case a series.
Tonight they had one real shot to get into the game, when they loaded the bases in the seventh. Alex Rodriguez was robbed of an extra base hit by Willie Harris who made a great leaping catch in left for the first out. But then Robinson Cano singled and Nick Swisher doubled to puts runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out and knock Stammen out of the game. Former Yankee Ron Villone came in and struck out Hideki Matsui on a pitch two feet out of the strike zone for out number two and walked Jorge Posada to load the bases before being taken out of the game. Derek Jeter came off the bench to pinch hit and the Nats went with right-hander Julian Tavarez. He continued his domination over the Yankee captain - Jeter is 3-for-18 against Tavarez - getting Jeter to ground into a fielder's choice to end the threat.
The Yanks now head on a nine-game road trip all in National League ballparks. Maybe getting away from home will be good for this team, because they really haven't look good lately. They open up a three game series with the Florida Marlins tomorrow night, Andy Pettitte will be on the mound for the Yanks.
Brett Gardner made a great catch in the top of the eighth slamming into the wall in left-center and hit his head on the plexie glass. He had to leave the game, but went through a series of tests after the game and the team doctors determined that he was fine and he's listed as day-to-day. He said he was just suffering from a headache
| AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | LOB | AVG | |
| Gardner, CF | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .277 |
| Cabrera, M, CF | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .286 |
| Damon, LF | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .281 |
| Teixeira, 1B | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .283 |
| Rodriguez, A, 3B | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | .212 |
| Cano, 2B | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .311 |
| Swisher, RF | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .244 |
| Matsui, DH | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .249 |
| Cervelli, C | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .288 |
| a-Posada, PH-C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .282 |
| Pena, SS | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .247 |
| b-Jeter, PH-SS | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .305 |
| Totals | 32 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 16 | |
a-Walked for Cervelli in the 7th. b-Grounded into a forceout for Pena in the 7th. | ||||||||
BATTING 2B: Swisher (15, Stammen). TB: Gardner; Teixeira; Cano 2; Swisher 3; Matsui. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Rodriguez, A; Jeter 2. GIDP: Swisher. Team RISP: 0-for-4. Team LOB: 7. FIELDING DP: (Teixeira-Pena-Chamberlain). | ||||||||
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA | |
| Chamberlain (L, 3-2) | 6.0 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 3.89 |
| Aceves, A | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2.54 |
| Coke | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3.45 |
| Robertson | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2.08 |
NATIONALS STATS
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Craig Stammen (6.1 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, first big league win.)
HONORABLE MENTION: Ryan Zimmerman (3-for-5, 2 doubles, RBI, 2 R)
GOAT OF THE GAME: Take your pick, they just lost two of three to the Washington
Tomorrow's Game
Yankees @ Marlins
Game Time: 7:10 p.m. | TV/Radio: YES, WCBS
Game Time: 7:10 p.m. | TV/Radio: YES, WCBS
LHP Andy Pettitte (6-3, 4.52 ERA) vs. LHP Sean West (2-1, 3.00 ERA)
8 Comments:
Embarrassing loss.
This the first game without a home run at the Stadium. (35th game)
This sucked.
Joba still needs to learn that you don't have to strike out every... single... batter. It's like he's unwilling to say "here it is, hit it" to anyone regardless of how weak of a hitter they are. He gets to two strikes, then slider, slider, slider, slider, walk. Over and over, it's the same thing. He's at 100 pitches by the 5th inning almost every time he starts.
But the blame, quite clearly, rests on the offense. They were baffled for the first 4 to 5 innings by nothing but a constant stream of straight in, 88-89 mph fastballs. They were swinging at way too many pitches on the corners rather than making the guy work a bit more in the first several innings. That guy just kept tossing meatballs over the corners of the plate, and they kept getting themselves out on two to three pitchers per batter... over and over again for like 6 innings.
The coaching on this team is just awful. From the manager on down to Eiland and Long. They're all doing virtually nothing for these guys. They can't straighten out Wang, Burnett is inconsistant, Joba has become a timid, nibbling pitcher, Jose Veras went from being ok to being awful, great hitters like A-Rod are batting .215... it's a discrace. The team makes virtually NO in-game adjustments, and it often times looks like they just have no set approach to a particular pitcher, regardless of what they see the pitcher do to hitter after hitter after hitter.
Talent has carried these guys a long way, and it will most likely carry them into the playoffs. Heck, they might even win the world series. But that doesn't negate the fact that this coaching/managing team doesn't seem to have a clue how to get the team to have a smarter, more fundamentally sound approach to the game when they are struggling.
What happened was the Yankees went into the series cocky. They thought that they could just breeze through the worst team in baseball. The Nationals on the other hand played the Yankees with determination hoping that they could at least beat the Yankees in a season in which they are destined to lose over 100 games. The Yankees can’t afford to lose these kind of series. They need to head into Florida and treat the Marlins as if they were the Red Sox because otherwise, their in trouble.
5 pitches in the 2nd inning got 3 outs. they abandoned working the count vs the nats pitchers.
Very good point about the coaching staff. The pitchers are actually regressing under Eiland. Name one of the starting rotation who is pitching better than he did last season. Certainly not Wang, Burnett, Pettitte or Chamberlain. The only one I can think of is Hughes...and he can't even get a start! And why do you need a hitting coach when you can't hit? A-Rod, Swisher and Matsui are killing this team at the moment. In fact, A-Rod is so bad that soon pitchers will be walking Brett Gardner to get to him. What an outrageous waste of money. Never mind can't hit in the clutch, can't hit period these days. One or both these guys needs relieving of his duties so we can hire someone who knows what they're doing.
To me this goes back to the Posada / another catcher argument. Joba called his own game and rarely challeged batters-at least Posada will challenge these pitchers. I don't care what the numbers say. Left to his own devices Joba does not manage his pitch selection well. It s a good thing King George is has "stepped back" or this would be Billy Martin / Bob Lemmon week in the Bronx. Girardi should have done a Pinella on Thursday on the Guzman bad call and tried to light a fire. It was pretty eveident this team was sleep walking
Yanks need some very talented patient hitters who can hit, not just home runs, spray the ball all over the field, like a McLouth, Zimmerman, those types of good young hitters. It will be easier to re tool the lineup when some of the veterans like damon and matsui are gone. When the Yanks were winning in the 90's and early 2000, it was a lineup that got one, got 'em over, and scored the run.
Cashman and Girardi should be fired. Gut the team whats the point of having a Yankee team filled with primadonnas and bitches....u dont have to get along u have to be a pro and preform, its really that simple what happened to the stoic yankee who understood that oh yea hes Posada and the team hates him b/c he is intense and calls people out for being lil bitches and not making pitches b/c the media is in your head or watching some guy who never pitched in the bigs dominate the yankees of course a guy like Posada is oging to be beside himself...you put these low class clowns who trash the town when they are drunk you put them on pedestals and this is what happens you get a team of girls where guys like Jeter and Posada guys who deliver time and time again are considered to intense...its pathetic really...we need to dump arod hes the biggest pussy on the team....he should have been a model hes not a competitor and hes so huge media wise it allows everyone else to get away with being lil bitches
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