WHAT, ME WORRY?

 

According to Joe Girardi, there is no panic in the Yankee clubhouse in spite of the team's slide down the slippery slope of poor play marked by a 15-13 record in August and seven losses in the last ten games.  Joe may be right, even if he is in full-blown Alfred E. Neuman "What, me worry?" mode.  Baseball players are generally astute judges of their team's circumstance, even if they will not admit as much in their day-to-day public discourse.

One suspects that Yankee players know all too well that the current collection of teammates is not a high quality baseball unit.  Like most average major league teams, the Yankees entered the day yesterday just looking to win a baseball game.  No panic was required for them to assess the dire straits of the situation they face.  The hotly pursuing Baltimore Orioles sent that message Friday night and were looking to repeat that commentary on Saturday at Yankee Stadium. 

The Orioles got things rolling early as New York starter David Phelps struggled.  Phelps yielded three walks, one hit batsmen, two hits, and two runs to the first nine batters he faced.  The Birds added another run off Phelps in the fourth, as Matt Wieters led off the inning with a HR to right field.  Oriole starter Wei-Yin Chen was perfect through the first 3.2 innings, but his perfection ended with a two-out opposite field HR off the bat of Robinson Cano.  Through four, the Yankees trailed 3-1.

Phelps had to depart after 98 pitches and 4.2 innings of work.  On the day, Phelps allowed six walks, a hit batsman, three hits, and three runs.  He did not have good command at any point during his outing.  His relief help was better.  Cody Eppley, Boone Logan, David Robertson, and Rafael Soriano combined for 4.1 innings of scoreless relief. 

In the bottom of the seventh inning the Yankees finally got to Chen to support that bullpen effort.  Steve Pearce, who had entered the game in the second inning for Curtis Granderson (tight hamstring), delivered a single.  Jayson Nix followed with a walk, and with two out, freshly recalled Eduardo Nunez delivered a big RBI single to creep closer. 

The Birds replaced Chen with hard-throwing Pedro Strop who walked Ichiro and Derek Jeter. Suddenly, Nick Swisher reached on a fielding error by shortstop JJ Hardy, Eduardo Nunez scores, the Yankees take the lead 4-3. It's not exactly the way you want to win, but a win's a win and you take it any way you can at this time of year.

Robertson and Soriano were perfect in the eighth and ninth innings to hold that lead.  Logan got the win to move his record to 6-2 on the year, and Soriano recorded two strikeouts in the process of earning his 35th save of the season.  The win was terrific, but the Yankees still have major issues.  The offense produced only four hits on the day.  Clean-up hitter Andruw Jones is hitting .137 since the All-Star Game.  As chronicled, Phelps was very shaky as a starter. 

Nevertheless, the Yankees found a path to victory.  They found a way to win a game that they really needed to win.  Today calls for the same; just look for a way to win another baseball game!

Saturday's final:  New York 4  Baltimore 3.     

--Frank Gentry, BYB Writer

Twitter: @yankeefrank23

 

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