Thursday, June 11, 2009

So Close Yet So Far Away, Yanks Lose To Red Sox Yet Again

I've been sitting in front of my laptop now for about 15 minutes trying to figure out what to write. My mind is pretty much blown after watching the Yankees choke away yet another game to the Red Sox, running their record against them this year to 0-8. I'm flabbergasted. I really am.

My friend and co-worker Nick and I were talking about tonight's matchup at work today. Nick is pretty big into sports betting and much of the discussion was around whether or not the Yankees would cover a 1.5 run spread. We both thought for sure that the Yankees were going to hammer Brad Penny. Penny isn't exactly a dominant pitcher. He came into tonight's game with an ERA a little south of 6 and we thought for sure the Yanks would light him up. And what does Penny do? He throws 6 shutout innings! Are you freaking kidding me? The Yankees offense is scuffling as of late, especially when it comes to hitting with RISP. They were 1 for 11 tonight and were 3 for 28 in this series. They're hitting the ball, just not when they need to. And what the freak is up with Nick Swisher? He had a horrible series. A misplayed fly ball and a baserunning mistake yesterday. A big baserunning mistake today. Today's blunder was inexcusable. It looked like he got punked a little by Bay but even still, Swish was way too far off the bag. He scores easily if that ball drops. Inexcusable. CC pitched a great game and deserved better.

Despite getting the loss, CC Sabathia pitched a great game. He deserved much better than what he got. I don't blame him that much for melting down in the 8th. I was a little surprised that he started that inning. It was the bottom of the order. It was raining. His pitch count had to be around 100. If I'm Girardi, I go to David Robertson. I'm surprised when he actually pulled Sabathia that he went with Aceves over Robertson. I understand why he went with Ace. It wasn't a bad move. I just thought Robertson was the guy to go to. Had it been Robertson maybe the Yanks would have squeaked out the win and maybe Nick would have won his bet. When it comes to betting on MLB, I'm like a curse. Don't take my advice. Anyway, is it me or does it seem like no matter what RP Girardi trucks out there, they blow it? The Yankees bullpen for the most part is awful. It's better than it was a few weeks ago, but it's still in need of improvement. I'd start with dumping Veras. Come back soon Brian Bruney. And come back healthy.

The Yankees are now 2 games behind the Red Sox. You'd think the Yankees would be further back considering they're 0-8 against them. The good news is that the 2 teams don't meet again until August 6th. Hopefully by then the Yanks will figure out a way to beat those guys. It's now time for the Subway Series. 3 games at home versus the Mets and then a well deserved off-day. The Yanks need to bounce back and take at least 2 of these 3 games. It'll be tough but it's doable.

Now go out and start hitting with RISP!!!

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

1 comments:

She-Fan said...

There were lots of little things that went wrong, besides the pitching. Swisher's base running blunders, bad at-bats with men in scoring position, etc. Just a tough, tough loss.