One of the
reasons why the Yankees have been playing lackluster baseball for the
past 50 days, give or take, is because the starting pitching has been
sub par. The Yanks once held a 10 game lead and everything looked great.
Now that their lead is trimmed to one game (it has been tied on a few
occasions) thanks to going 22-27 from July 19- now, the team is
searching for answers.
In this stretch of 49 games, the Yankees
as a team have pitched to a 4.23 ERA. That’s not horrible by any means,
but it’s certainly not as good compared to the 3.72 mark they posted in
the first 91 games of the season.
Not everyone has pitched poorly
during this period, to be fair. Hiroki Kuroda has pitched to a 2.31 ERA
in that span, and Phil Hughes has pitched to a 3.98 ERA as well.
Unfortunately, those are where the positives end.
Though
Kuroda and Hughes have been awesome and decent, respectively, there are
others who haven’t been as fortunate. Freddy Garcia is one of those
guys, as he’s pitched to a 5.12 ERA in his last 10 starts. He’s actually
been worse than that, really, as he’s failed to complete five innings
in any of his last four starts. They got five pretty good starts out of
him from July 24-August 15, but he’s really struggled since. As I said
in my recap titled YANKEES WIN BIG OVER ORIOLES, Freddy’s just about out
of gas. A transition to the bullpen makes the most sense once everyone
gets healthy.
David Phelps has been a culprit as well. Since
July 19 he has pitched to an even 4.00 ERA, though he’s only made six
starts in that span. His last three outings have hurt the team, however,
as he’s pitched to a 7.20 ERA while failing to get out of the fifth
inning in his last two starts. What’s even uglier is that he’s given up
five homers in that 15 inning stretch (3 HR/9 inning rate) of games.
Again, like Garcia, a transition to the bullpen makes sense, though I’d
like for Phelps to pitch in more important innings, while Garcia takes
over as the mop-up man in place of Derek Lowe.
The Yankees have
had three different starters spend time on the DL in this 49-game
stretch. CC Sabathia is one of those pitchers, as he missed two weeks
from August 9-August 24. He has come off the DL since and has not been
the CC we know and love. Andy Pettitte was placed on the DL in late June
after breaking his fibula on a line drive come backer off the bat of
Casey Kotchman, and he’s inching closer to a return. Finally, Ivan Nova
was placed on the DL on August 22, but he has recently been activated
and could be inserted back into the rotation in near future. The Yankees
could really use the latter two of the trio, considering the starting
staff as a whole has been suspect.
I’m well aware that Ivan Nova
struggled pretty mightily before he landed on the DL, but hopefully the
time off refreshed him both mentally and physically. Pettitte’s rehab
process has seemed to go well, too, but my fingers remain crossed. In
the ideal world, both of these guys come back, prove they’re healthy and
effective, and both are a part of the postseason rotation. I would like
Nova to out-pitch Hughes when he comes back, simply because I like
Hughes in the bullpen more than I do Nova. Of course these days it’s a
case of “if” the Yankees make the playoffs than a “when,” but if both of
these guys pitch like they’re capable of, we’re almost assured of
October baseball.
--Jesse Schindler, BYB Lead Staff Writer
Follow me on Twitter @SchindlerJesse
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