DUMBING DOWN THE YANKEE GAME: ANOTHER BYB TAKE

Baseballs were flying out of Yankee Stadium on Wednesday afternoon, and though the Yankees and Braves were playing their rubber game of their three-game set, it seemed like they were also playing a June version of the Home Run Derby. Unfortunately, they lost both the Home Run Derby (5-4), and the actual game, 10-5.

The nine home runs is record for most homers hit at the new Yankee Stadium. If you were there melting in the 90+° heat, at least you can say you witnessed history, so there’s that.

Anyway, the Yankees were playing catch up the entire game as they fell behind 3-0 right out of the chute. Their homers came from Derek Jeter (First pitch in the first inning), Eric Chavez (fifth inning), Alex Rodriguez (sixth inning), and Robinson Cano (sixth inning). The fifth and final run for the Yanks came in the seventh on a Curtis Granderson RBI single before ARod hit into a critical inning-ending double play which let the air out of the Yankees’ comeback balloon when it was 6-5 at the time.

Phil Hughes started for the Yanks, and he was ineffective, to say the least. He broke the string of 19 consecutive starts of 6+ innings pitched by Yankee starters by lasting only 4.1 innings. He allowed six runs, on six hits (four homers!), while striking out five and walking no one. Personally, I was regaining confidence in Phil Hughes, but of course he had to lay this stinker. Oh well, get ‘em next time, Phil.

Overall, it was a dumb game, but all loses are dumb, so that’s not a surprise. Following the recently snapped 10-game win streak, the Yankees will head on over to Citi Field on Friday with a two-game losing streak on their minds. Andy Pettitte ( 3-2, 2.77 ERA) will oppose Jonathon Niese (4-3, 3.82 ERA) to kick off round two of the Subway Series.

 


--Jesse Schindler, BYB Lead Staff Writer

Follow me on Twitter @SchindlerJesse

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