(Photo by J. Meric/Getty Images)| Final 11th | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | R | H | E |
| N.Y. Yankees | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| Tampa Bay « | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
First, let's start with the good, and that was CC Sabathia. He was fantastic over eight, holding the Rays to just two hits, walking two, and striking out nine. He had everything working and threw strikes (77 of 111), so in other words, the Rays had no chance. The big left-hander did everything in his power to carry the Yankees to a much-needed win, too bad the rest of the team didn't do the same.Well, that's not entirely fair. Kerry Wood, Boone Logan and Chad Gaudin all pitched well in relief. In Gaudin case, he really didn't pitch well, but he did keep Tampa off the board, and that's obviously the point of this game.
It was the bats that cost them in this one--usually the case when you don't score any runs. Some credit must go to David Price, who matched CC and shut the Yankees down for eight innings. He allowed three hits, walked two, and struck out four.
The Yankees best chance to score off Price came in the 7th. With one out, Robinson Cano singled, and that was followed by a walk by Mark Teixeira to put two on. However, the Yankees came up one big hit short (what else is new?) as Alex Rodriguez popped out and Marcus Thames flew out.
With the score still locked at zeros in the 10th, Brett Gardner pinch-ran for Lance Berkman, who had walked. Gardner then stole second base with two out, but inexplicably tried to steal third and was throw out by the pitcher.... Really, what the f*** are you thinking?Then, after Gaudin got into and out of a bases loaded jam in the bottom half, Austin Kearns led off the 11th with a single. Curtis Granderson moved him over to second with a bunt, and once again the Yanks were one big hit away.
Once again they wouldn't come through.
Colin Curtis flew out to center, and Derek Jeter flew out to right. Inning over.
Reid Brinac then led off the bottom of the 11th with a homer off Sergio Mitre to win it for Tampa. It also puts them alone in 1st place.
If you were wondering where Joba Chamberlain was, the Yankees are apparently giving him a break since he's close to 65 games this year. At least that was Girardi's excuse.
Anyway, this sorry stretch of baseball just keeps rolling on for the Yanks. They've now dropped seven out of eight and have fallen into 2nd place. And who knows, another week of this crap and the Red Sox may be back in the wild card race. They won last night, and are now 7 back. Seriously, it's time for this team to wake up. These are the points in a season when the manager need to start managing. Call a team meeting, flip a table over, drop Jeter to 8th, just do something to give this team some sort of jolt, because right now, they're playing terrible baseball.
Ivan Nova looks to get the Yankees back in the W column tomorrow night when he takes the mound for game two. Matt Garza will start for Tampa. First pitch is at 7:10 p.m. and the game will be on MY9.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: CC Sabathia
HONORABLE MENTION: David Price
GOAT OF THE GAME: Sergio Mitre & Brett Gardner
