Pettitte And Bats Struggle In 4-2 Loss To Rangers

Ah, the ups and downs of the season. One day you're in 1st with the best record in the AL. The next you're tied for first and don't have the best record. The season can definitely be a roller coaster ride. You just hope when the ride is over that your team is where you want them to be. When this ride is over, I think we Yankee fans will be pretty happy.

Andy Pettitte didn't have it tonight. He was definitely not on his game. It's possible that he has a lingering back issue but it's something I don't think we'll ever find out about. Andy is a gamer and he's not one to admit when he's not 100%. I hope that there was something wrong with him because it would at least provide some explanation for his poor outing. OK, I don't really hope something is wrong with him. I'd never want someone to be hurt. Pettitte's control was definitely lacking. He only threw 57.6% of his pitches for strikes, which is not a good percentage. He walked 6, which he hasn't done since 1999 (if I remember the stat I heard correctly). All in all, not a good night for AP. Surprisingly though, he only gave up 4 runs. He definitely didn't pitch well enough to win, but I guess you could say he kept the Yanks in the game. The offense definitely had its chances, but they didn't deliver.

The Yankees offense was pretty much non-existent tonight. Jeter's 16 game hit streak came to an end. Bummer. I guess he'll have to start a new one. The team was 1-for-6 with RISP and the goat of the game has to be A-Rod. He killed what could have been a big inning with his inning ending 5-5-3 DP in the 3rd. Alex whiffed with 1 out in the 6th, failing to bring Damon home from third. Not a good night for Alex. The team definitely missed having Mark Teixeira in the lineup. He was scratched late with a bum ankle. Girardi said in his post game interview that he'd probably be back tomorrow. If you ask me, I don't think he will be. Tomorrow is a day game so I wouldn't be surprised if he's not in the lineup. Hopefully Posada is. Typically catchers get a day game after a night game off. Jorge has been the man since he came off the DL. In his 6 games, he's hitting .348 (8 for 23) with 3 HR and 6 RBI. If he's not behind the dish, I hope he's slotted at DH. I don't think he will be, but one can hope, right?

Tomorrow marks the return of Chien-Ming Wang to the rotation. I'm down with moving him in and shifting Phil Hughes to the bullpen. I wrote the other day that if I were running things, I give the ball to Wang as opposed to Hughes. It looks like Wang is healthy so there shouldn't be any reason to think he'll get railed tomorrow. Except for maybe having below average arm strength because of only pitching 8 innings in 2 weeks. For his sake, and for ours and the Yankees, I hope he has a kick-ass outing. I have a good feeling. Oh wait, it's just gas.

Day game tomorrow which means I'll be following along on the radio. I'm not sure what my afternoon at work looks like. I'm hoping there are no meetings because nothing is worse than work interfering with listening to the Yankees. Stupid work. Always fouling up my day.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie