For golf fans, today was a big day. The British Open concluded at
Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club in England. Growing up around
the game of golf, I always loved the British Open, especially the
commentary of the late Henry Longhurst. Mr. Longhurst would always call
a spade a spade. Formerly Captain of the Cambridge University Golf
Club, rest assured Henry knew his golf. If a player misread a putt or
misplayed a shot, old Henry would intone, in that thick British accent,
"That was a dreadful effort." I shutter to think what Longhurst would
have said about the Yankees the last three days had he been a baseball
commentator. Dreadful indeed, especially on the offensive side of
things, but the pitching was certainly not clutch either, yielding late
runs on Friday and Saturday that cost the Yankees a chance for victory.
The Yankees were in desperate need of help to salvage
something from the four game series in Oakland. Who better to turn to
than their horse,
northern California native CC Sabathia. Sabathia was the closest thing
to a genuine stopper today, and the team
really needed him. Pennant races in this division have a way of turning
dramatically and quickly.
Sabathia had pitched well his last outing, throwing 87 pitches, 66 for strikes, in 6+
innings in securing his 10th win of the season. On Sunday, CC squared off
against old teammate Bartolo Colon in this critical match up against the
red hot Oakland A's.
Sabathia began the
afternoon pitching reasonably well. In the first four innings, he
allowed only a Josh Reddick double in the first and a Johnny Gomes
single to left in the fourth. Offensively the Yankees showed a little
life in the third inning sending nine batters to the plate. DeWayne Wise, Chris Stewart, and Curtis Granderson all singled and scored. Wise
came home on a Mark Teixeira single while Stewart and Granderson scored
on a double to center by Alex Rodriguez. The Yankees added a solo home
run by Granderson in the fourth to take a 4-0 lead.
Then the trouble started. Sabathia faltered giving
up two runs in the fifth inning on solo blasts by Brandon Inge and Kurt Suzuki. Sabathia gave up
yet another run in the sixth on a Reddick walk, a Yoenis Cespedes
fielders choice, a Chris Carter single to left, and one more fielders
choice by Inge who was credited with the RBI as Cespedes scored the
run. At the end of six the Yankee lead had shrunk to 4-3.
Sabathia survived one more inning, but gave up a couple
of hard hit balls in the seventh. A single by Seth Smith and a smash
off the bat of Jemile Weeks on which Teixeira made a diving stop to
preserve a scoreless inning left fans wondering how much CC had in the
tank. Sabathia appeared to be tired following the sixth inning.
Perhaps he has not fully recovered his stamina following his three week
stint on the disabled list. Whatever the problem, he seems to be
suffering some ill effects from the layoff, throwing only 98 and 87
pitches in the last two outings.
Evidently Girardi had seen enough and went to his
bullpen to try and preserve the one run lead. The manager's plan
failed. David Robertson pitched well enough in the eighth, but Rafael Soriano blew his second save of the year in the ninth by allowing a home
run to Seth Smith on an 80 mph slider delivered on a 3-1 count. Smith
hammered the pitch to straight away center field and the ball cleared
the wall by several feet. Soriano seemed a bit shaken and gave up a
single to Eric Sogard who followed Smith. He rallied and was able to
retire the next two batters to preserve a 4-4 tie in regulation.
Meanwhile the Yankee offense had gone dormant after
Curtis Granderson's 26th home run in the fourth. The next nine Yankee batters
were retired in succession but Bartolo Colon was replaced following a
hit by Teixeira in the seventh. No worries however, as the Athletics
bullpen continued the Yankee offensive futility. The Yankees struck out
six times against the A's bullpen combination of Jordan Norberto, Grant Balfour, and Jerry Blevins. The Yankees also left runners in scoring
position against the A's relief crew in the seventh, tenth, and twelfth
innings.
(In Photo: Coco Crisp gets showered with water by the Oakland A's after win today)
Cody Eppley allowed the winning run to score in the
bottom of the 12 inning on and infield single that glanced off
Derek Jeter's glove and could have been scored an error, a Jemile Weeks
sacrifice of the runner, Derek Norris, and an RBI single to right by Coco Crisp to propel the A's to another one run victory over the
Yankees, 5-4. This one stung. I mean losing stings, but four
consecutive one run losses in a row hurts like hell.
The Yankee performance in this series leads to the
conclusion that the recent Yankee success was more aberration than
representative of the team's actual capabilities. I know the late Henry
Longhurst would have been incredulous had he watched these last four
games. I can only imagine his utterances concerning this "dreadful"
Yankee effort.
--Frank Gentry, BYB Writer
ORDER A BYB SHIRT NOW, DROB WEARS ONE! Also, Please comment, we have DISQUS, it's easier than ever. Let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.
ORDER A BYB SHIRT NOW, DROB WEARS ONE! Also, Please comment, we have DISQUS, it's easier than ever. Let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.
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