NOT OUR DAY YANKEELAND, NOT OUR DAY

On Monday of this week, David Phelps recorded his third win of the season with a creditable five-inning outing against the Rangers.  Today... well, let's just say it was a different day. The Boston Red Sox knocked the luster off that victory over the Rangers in the very first inning. Boston's second hitter Carl Crawford singled to left, stole second, and came home on an opposite field HR by Adrian Gonzalez.  The Red Sox led 2-0 and really never let the Yankees up for air the rest of the day.

 

The Yankees put the first two batters of the inning on base in the bottom of the first.  Derek Jeter walked and Nick Swisher followed with a single to left.  In what would be a harbinger of the Yankee performance, Robinson Cano struck out, Andruw Jones grounded out weakly to third, and Casey McGehee struck out to leave both runners stranded.  Jon Lester was masterful in the first and through the remainder of his seven innings of work.  He ran his career record  against the Yankees to 9-4. 

 

Jon Lester threw 105 pitches, 61 were strikes.  The story of Lester's day was that many of the strikes were out of the zone.  He worked down and in to right-hand batters and down and away to left-hand hitters.  The Yankees showed little or no pitch recognition ability and virtually no plate discipline.  Lester recorded 13 of his 21 outs via the ground ball.  Red Sox third baseman Nick Punto recorded seven assists, while shortstop Pedro Ciriaco recorded another three assists as the Yankees beat balls into the ground for routine putouts.

 

Ciriaco was also a major story on the offensive side for Boston.  He went 4 for 4 on the day and scored a run.  He is now 15 for 29 against the Yankees this season.  Ciriaco also had a 4 for 4 day against New York on July 7th.  He has officially staked his claim as the current holder of the "Yankee-killer" title. We've said it before here at BYB, this kid's something special to watch. Unfortunately, we don't need him playing well against us Yanks.

 

The Yankees managed a lone run in the fourth inning on a solo HR from Curtis Granderson, his 32nd of the season.  Otherwise the Yankee offense was miserable.  They never managed more than a single hit in any inning.  New York batters also struck out six times on the day, and managed to get only a very few balls into the outfield.  Robinson Cano's day personified the Yankee futility.  Cano struck out in the first, lunged at a ball in the third and was put out on a weak fly to center.  Cano recorded another bad at bat in the sixth, as he swung weakly at the first pitch of the inning, and rolled out second to first.  Robinson also loafed down the line on the ground out.  Cano's final at bat was another ground out into a 3-6-3 double play to end the eighth inning. 

 

Apart from the Granderson HR, Nick Swisher did manage two hits and Ichiro Suzuki added one more to his total.  Ichiro has now hit safely in 20 of his 22 starts as a Yankee.  Suzuki also stole a base in the fifth inning following his only hit of the game. 

 

In addition to the first inning runs, Boston scored on Nick Punto double in the fifth inning.  His hit plated Ciriaco who had reached base via one of his four hits.  Boston added another run in the ninth on a wild pitch.  Scott Podsednik scored after he singled to lead off the inning and was pushed to third by a Ciriaco double.

 

This was an ugly game for New York.  The Yankees seemed to have pop-singer Adele on their minds, or at least lyrics from her song, "Rumor Has It."  The Yankees played like they had their collective "head in the clouds."  A beautiful 78-degree day was turned ugly by a lackluster Yankee performance, the final was Boston 4  New York 1.  

--Frank Gentry, BYB Writer

Twitter: @yankeefrank23



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