Bronx, N.Y., August 15, 2008 — The poor play and ineffective offense continued for the Yankees Friday night, as they lost a heartbreaker at home to one of the few teams they should be expected to beat of late. Kansas City broke a 3-3 tie with yet another run against Mariano Rivera in a tie game and, despite Joakim Soria’s and fate’s determined efforts to let the Yanks back in the game, they lost 4-3.
A cursory glance at some of the numbers might fool you into thinking some areas improved, as both Derek Jeter and Bobby Abreu singled with one out and a man in scoring position at different points in the game to plate the Yanks’ first two runs. Weirder still, Alex Rodriguez delivered the tying run with one down in the seventh with that rarest of Yankee achievements: a sacrifice fly.
You would be wrong to take heart in that though. The only reason Mo got the loss in this one rather than the starter Andy Pettitte is that Royals lefty Ron Mahay couldn’t find the strike zone when he relieved Gil Meche to start the seventh. To that point, the Yanks had failed eight times with a runner on second, and they were down 3-1 after Derek Jeter provided the lone success, an rbi single to drive in Jose Molina, who doubled to start the home fifth.
Pettitte was good, but he got better, after the Royals had scored three runs on the five doubles they managed against him. Not all of the two-base hits were well struck, but Mark Teahen’s long drive to left center in the top of the fifth was, and it scored the second and third runs. In addition to the hits, Andy walked walked four, and two of those scored. Ironically, Andy allowed just one single among six safeties, a pop fly to short center one out after Esteban German’s leadoff double in the third. Brett Gardner, who otherwise had a forgettable, 0-for-4, two-strike-out game, charged and threw a strike to the plate to nail German.
Still, by any measure Pettitte gave his team the opportunity to win, qualifying for a “quality start” by allowing just three runs through seven innings. But, the self-critical lefty probably thinks he could have done better and, truth be told, he could have. The Yankee teams Andy has played with most often would have gotten him a “W” for this night’s work, but anyone who has been paying attention knows that this team is operating several rungs down the quality ladder from almost all of its predecessors. Oddly, Pettitte garnered every out until a sac bunt in the fifth on fly balls and strike outs, with Gardner’s assist counting for one. The sacrifice moved two guys into scoring position, Teahen scored them, then Andy closed the inning with yet another outfield fly and punch out. With 89 pitches already thrown, he then retired six of the next seven on his only ground ball outs of the night. Would that he had found the ground-ball-causing action a few frames sooner.
But that just describes how it all happened; Andy did pitch his way out of an acceptable amount of trouble. And the two-run seventh got him off the hook. Both Johnny Damon and Jeter worked seven-pitch walks against Mahay with one down. Abreu singled for one against Leo Nunez, and Rodriguez drove rookie center fielder Mitch Maier to the wall in deeep right center on the next pitch for the 3-3 tie. A few feet further and I might be writing a different column. It was a tedious night in the Bronx, and after both teams and 50,000 fans sat through a 90-minute rain delay, balls were not carrying, or Alex’s ball would have gone out. Abreu’s deep drive to right in the fifth died too.
Neither team did much in the eighth. Billy Butler did reach on a swinging bunt, but pinch runner Jason Smith was doubled up on a liner to Jeter. The Yanks went down one-two-three, and Rivera came into yet another tie-game situation. The Yanks have lost a succession of these in 2008, but some are just too strange to understand. Two weeks ago, they fell to Anaheim after Mo, with a 12-to-one strike-out-to-walk ratio, walked the leadoff man. Tonight it was different. Following a strike out, German fouled off an attempt at strike three, then doubled to the gap in right center. Maier’s bouncer up the middle was reached by Cano, but by then he had reached. If there is anything more rare in Rivera’s palette than a leadoff walk it’s a wild pitch. So that, of course, is what he unleashed on the very next pitch, as the fourth run crossed.
Still, the Yanks had a chance, and they should have tied it. Wilson Betemit batted for Molina and reached on a swinging bunt on a 2-2 pitch from KC closer Joakim Soria. Speedy Justin Christian pinch-ran, and he bounced off the bag as Johnny Damon showed bunt but never offered until the count finally went full. Anxious to get a good break off first, Christian was picked off by Soria, who then retired Damon on a ground ball. But Jeter singled to right, Abreu walked on five pitches, and A-Rod reached on yet another 20-foot roller down third. Most felt Giambi would work a walk, but he took a ball, fouled one off, then took another off the plate. He lofted the fourth pitch to short center, falling for an out that closed Jason’s night at 0-for-5 at 11:59 pm. It disappointed a despondent crowd one last time.
Six years ago this day, the Yanks bested the Royals 7-5, but Bernie Williams, who had five hits that day, isn’t on this team. And both teams were fighting through bad times on August 15, 1991, in a season during which the Yanks and Royals would finish fifth and sixth in their respective divisions. But as the baseball world snickered with the announcement that Don Mattingly was being benched and fined for wearing his hair too long, the Yanks still went out and beat the Royals 5-1.
No one expects this Yankee team to finish fifth in the AL East. They need to stop the poor play and losing, and they need to stop it now.
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!