The Yankees scored a ton of runs, so that’s good… but if you’re trying to figure out what’s going with the Yankees pitching (and their opponent’s pitching, for that matter) since the All Star break, let me advise you to not try. Last night’s game was especially perplexing.
CC Sabathia gave up a zillion hits (that’s 11hits in 6.1 IP for fans of reality) to the Kansas City Royals offense, which isn’t the worst thing in the world – it’s not like they’re Baltimore – and 4 runs, 3 earned. It felt worse, but it’s probably because he gave up like 6 hits in the first two innings. CC’s 9 strikeouts is probably the only thing that kept the Royals from getting out of hand. David Robertson came into the game in the 7th and did a good job again, and then Joba Chamberlain entered the game for another roller coaster ride, but after loading the bases, he managed to wiggle his way out of trouble for what at least feels like a rare scoreless outing. 2 hits, 1 walk in 1 IP. Dave Eiland, your mission is clear.
On the offensive side, Derek Jeter dropped his first in the park homer since his rookie year – David DeJesus almost made a great catch – well, did make a great catch – before his collision with the wall made him drop the ball, and Jeter was off to the races. It looked like DeJesus jammed his wrist pretty good on the wall – I’d be surprised to see him in tonight’s lineup. Alex Rodriguez delivered home run number 599 of his career, along with 3 other RBI. There were also RBI from Posada, Thames, Swisher (2 on the night), and Teixeira.
I know the Kansas City Royals aren’t exactly build for success, but Bruce Chen? Really? I know his numbers are decent this year, and you don’t have to throw hard to get guys out, but Chen isn’t exactly Jamie Moyer – and that’s saying something, isn’t it? And this is the America League, so any success Chen has had this year I would, for the most part, throw up to catching lightening in a bottle. I think the Royals would be better off letting a young guy get some experience in that spot – they’re not going anywhere with Chen in that roll, I don’t care how good his curve ball is this year. It’s a miracle he got through 6 innings. I guess there is some value in having a well traveled veteran on the team in terms of talking to the kids on the team about ‘been there, done that,’ but whatever. I just get sick of teams like the Royals taking revenue sharing money and then they roll out players like Chen. Sheesh!
Oh, and don’t to harp on the umpires again after my last post, but Wilson ‘Can’t find a Better Man’ Betemit was clearly safe at 2nd in the 1st inning. That momentum might have, in some ways, cost the Royals any chance they had in that game. Oh and who got thrown out and home? He was safe, too.
And on to the adventure that is Jorge Posada at home plate. I think Posada is going to have to warm up a bit more to the idea of being the DH on this team, because wow. That snap throw to third was awful. And why did he try to throw over the runner on that dropped strike 3 instead of stepping to the side and throwing to Teixeira? Why did he try to pick the runner off at third in the 1st place? It didn’t look like he had a chance… I feel like I’m missing another one of his moments from last night’s game… Oh well. It’s best not to think about it. I like Posada a lot; in my view, he’s the captain of the Yankees, not Derek Jeter, but I’m ready for him to DH his way into the sunset. The Yankees have at least 3 young catchers in their system that are looking good, and one of them looks like he’s going to hit the ball to the moon (or Queens) on a regular basis, so lets get the Posada to DH transition going.
Jamie Insalaco
