Yankees Pitching Implodes In 10-6 Loss To Angels

Because the game started late last night, I only made it to the 7th inning stretch before I fell asleep with the game on. The Yanks were down 7-6 and I remember thinking that they could easily come back and win the game, assuming the pitching held up. I woke up a few hours later and the replay was on. I rolled over to the laptop to check the score. 10-6 Angels. Ugh. I was half asleep but was still awake enough to skim the box score. The pitching did them in and it all started with Joba Chamberlain.

To be frank, Joba sucks right now. Simply put, he sucks and he's not getting the job done. He's been absolutely awful in his last 2 starts, throwing a total of 8 innings, allowing 18 hits and 13 runs, albeit only 7 of them were earned. Joba needs to pick the team up after a defensive miscue, not melt down. The downfall yesterday happened after A-Rod booted a ball in the 5th. A-Rod makes an error and the next batter goes yard. The next batter then doubles and Joba's night was over. In his last outing against the Jays, he gave up a double, a single, a homer, and a single after a fielding error. To his credit, he did get a guy out before that all happened. If Joba wants to keep his spot in the rotation, he needs to step up his game. I'm not really high on Joba right now. I was in Toys R Us today looking for the Lou Gehrig McFarlane figure that came out. They didn't have it. But they did have the new Joba figure. I picked it up and put it down. That says a lot because I pretty much have every Yankee McFarlane figure that's been released in the past several years. I really had no interest in buying it. I'm just not a Joba guy.

I'm also not a Mark Melancon guy either. I have yet to see in him what everyone else sees. I know it's really early in his career but I'm not, and haven't been, impressed with him. Maybe someday I'll see it. I hope so.

I'm becoming less and less of a Brian Bruney guy. Talk about a total 180. Earlier this season he was lights out. Now he's the new Jose Veras. His last 4 outings have been God-awful. 4 IP, 8 hits, 4 walks, and 5 earned runs. Congrats Bru. You're the new mop up guy. What the heck happened to you?

Andy Pettitte pitches today and I hope he fares better than the guys yesterday. Andy has pitched much better on the road this season. He's 4-1 with an ERA of 2.79 on the road. Opponents are hitting only .228 against him. If the "Pettitte Pattern" holds true, he'll win today. His last 8 starts have gone like this: win, loss, win, loss, win, no-decision but got shelled, win, loss. Notice the pattern? Hopefully it rings true today and he can break the pattern after the ASB.

Congrats to Jonathan Sanchez on the year's first no-no.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie