UMPS & SLOPPY PLAY GET THE BEST OF THE YANKEES

Yesterday’s win against the Oakland A’s was not only their seventh straight, but the best of the season. It was an up and down roller coaster type of win that would propel the team going forward, at least in theory. However, following some umpire shenanigans, sloppy defensive play, and underwhelming pitching, the Yankees were unable to complete the sweep and win their eighth straight in a 5-4 loss.

Let’s get the umpire stuff out of the way because normally I don’t like to blame something the Yankees have no control over. Home plate ump Mike Estabrook had a pretty crappy strike zone the entire day, most notably on strike three calls to Alex Rodriguez in the first and Nick Swisher in the fifth. But the one blatant, awful call came in the second as Josh Donaldson was ruled safe at first, according to first base ump Larry Vanover, after Eduardo Nunez threw him out.

 Following a ground out by George Kattaras, Cliff Pennington hit a two-run home run to make it 3-0, though it should have been just a solo homer to make it 2-0. Hiroki Kuroda probably shouldn’t have given up a homer to Cliff friggin’ Pennington, who went 3-for-3 on the day, umpire miscues or not.

The Yanks also made some pretty sloppy plays in the field in this one. I hate to single out Eduardo Nunez, but it’s pretty hard not to. He had a rough game in the field, which is nothing new. With the game tied at four and one out in the sixth, Nunez made a two-base throwing error as he threw the ball away on a Donaldson grounder. Donaldson ended up scoring with two outs in the inning, as Pennington grounded a single through the left side of the infield to give the A’s the lead for good. To say this error hurt is an understatement.

Nunez’s second error came on a fielding miscue the following inning. He bobbled a Yoenis Cespedes grounder, though thankfully that did not cost the Yankees another run. The Yankees made three errors in total; the non-Nunez error was sandwiched in between Nunez’s errors as Clay Rapada threw the ball away attempting to pick-off Pennington at first in the sixth. The ball got so far away from everyone that Pennington was able to advance to third. Like Nunez’s second error, this one did not cost the Yankees a run. Either way, errors are bad and they need to be kept to a minimum, especially in a pennant race.

Hiroki Kuroda started, and he wasn’t very good, though he wasn’t very bad either. He went 5.2 innings while allowing five earned, four earned, or three earned runs depending on your perspective (officially four earned) on seven hits, three walks, and five strikeouts. This whole “Kuroda wasn’t very good or very bad” thing has been the norm for him for about a month now, and it’s getting quite annoying. Of course we don’t want him to be bad, but we want him to get back to his mid-July-mid-August form, or at least close to it.

The Yanks scored four runs, as you already know, and they all came in the fourth inning. Nick Swisher started it off with a two-run homer to drive in Robinson Cano, who led off the inning with a single, before Raul Ibanez doubled home Curtis Granderson. To cap the inning off, Eduardo Nunez drove in Russell Martin from third on a grounder to second. Derek Jeter also recorded two hits as his hit-streak is now up to 17 games. ARod had a pretty tough game, as he struck out three times and flew out to the right field wall in the ninth.

Final was 5-4, A’s

For some reason I’m not too terribly upset about this loss. It could be because I’m still pumped up after Saturday’s game, or I’m just in a good move overall. Either way, the lead in the AL East remains at one as the Red Sox beat the Orioles. The Yankees will head on out to Minneapolis to play three against the Twins. Andy Pettitte (4-3, 2.97 ERA) squares off against Liam Hendricks (1-7, 5.88 ERA) in the opener.




--Jesse Schindler, BYB Lead Staff Writer
Follow me on Twitter @SchindlerJesse


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