The Yankees Be Scuffling

My friends and I went to see The Hangover (freaking hysterical!) on Saturday night. We went to the 9:50pm show so I got to see most of the Yankees/Marlins game. It was a quick one as both pitchers were dealing. I listened to the top of the 8th on the radio as I sat and waited for my buddies to show up. Talk about a buzzkill. As we've seen quite a few times this year, the Yanks get runners on base and fail to bring them home. With runners on 1st and 2nd, no outs, Jeter grounds into a DP, and Damon strikes out, leaving Gardner on 3rd. Typical. I would have sent the runners for a flat out double steal but that's me. I can see why they didn't because Jeter was up and he seems to do well in those situations. Then again, why have him bunt? Oh yeah, because he grounds into quite a few DPs. I'd rather see them go for it all with a double steal, then to drop a sac bunt. Go for the jugular and try to make something happen. If it fails, you've still got 2 cracks at bringing the runner home. I recall hearing that they did try a hit-and-run. Props for that but I would have kept the pressure on and sent them again. Oh well. It's over. It's done with. No need harping on it.

During the previews, my wife sent me a text message letting me know that Cano ended the game with a DP. I was bummed. The Hangover made me quickly forget about it. I thought A.J. Burnett pitched pretty well. It sucks when you give up 2 runs and your team doesn't score. For all intents and purposes, that game should have ended 1-0. Damon should have caught that fly ball and the Marlins should have turned that DP. The Yanks should have been shutout. Where or where is the Yankees offense? Where or where can it be?

I saw some of the game on Sunday. Had it been a 1pm start I'd have seen the whole thing. But it was Father's Day and we were having dinner at the in-laws. I saw the key parts though. CC got yanked with some kind of bicep tendinitis. I'd be a little worried about that except CC has said it's happened before. He's on track to make his next start Friday in Atlanta. CC's early exit was definitely a game changer. When your ace gets pulled in the 2nd inning, you're in trouble. Alfredo Aceves pitched very well in relief. Unfortunately, Brett Tomko did not. He's probably the weakest link in the Yankees bullpen. They didn't have much of a choice there in using him. They probably could have gone to Hughes for an inning or two but with Wang starting tomorrow, I can see why they didn't want to use him. They offense was pretty non-existent until the tail end of the game. Too little too late. I read that Girardi protested the game so it's possible, but unlikely, that the game gets replayed from that point. As I understand it, it should get replayed because the move was "illegal." Now I'm not up on all the substitution rules, but from what I know, the Marlins should have had to pull their pitcher. If it's decided that they should have, it could mean they start the game over from that point. That'll be interesting.

The Yanks are struggling right now. They've lost 2 straight series to 2 sub-par teams. They're lucky Luis Castillo dropped that ball or it would be 4 straight series losses. The Yanks are 4-8 over their last 12. They've been shutout twice and have scored 5 or less runs in 10 of those 12 games. The pitching has been holding its own. It's the offense that's failing to deliver. I haven't updated the numbers yet as they pertain to facing pitchers they've never seen before. They ran into 3 straight in Florida and came away with 1 win. Their next 2 games against the Braves are against guys that they'll be seeing for the 1st time. They need to figure out a way to start hitting these guys. It's a problem. They need to fix it.

Hopefully the off day does them some good.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie