Thursday, June 17, 2010

Game 65 Recap

[WE data via FanGraphs]

This game was pretty much the inverse of last night's. The biggest hit was an second inning triple by the center fielder and the losing pitcher gave up six runs before being yanked. Each game was close for about two-thirds of a second later on but was pretty much decided by the end of the third. The difference was that last night A.J. Burnett wasn't getting unlucky, and unlike Roy Halladay, had to be pulled from the game in the fourth.

There's no sugar coating it, Burnett was terrible last night. Just about half of his pitches were out of the strike zone - 39 of them in 3 1/3 innings, to be exact. He allowed more men to reach base (11) than he retired (10) and gave up a triple and two homers. He couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with his curveball.

A.J. dug his own grave in the second inning as he walked two guys and gave up two singles before running the count to 3-1 on Shane Victorino. Since Burnett's aforementioned Uncle Charlie didn't show up, he ended up and feeding Victorino a meatball smack dab in the middle of the plate, about dinner table-height. All that was missing was a fork, some spaghetti and some spicy tomato oil and some bread to mop up after it.

The coupe de grace came during the fourth inning when Chase Utley smoked a ball down the first base line that Mark Teixeira fielded and got ready to toss to first - except Burnett wasn't there to cover the bag. The crowd erupted in a loud chorus of boos and Burnett was yanked before he had a chance to face another batter.

There were some good pitching performances last night as well. The only baserunner Boone Logan allowed in his 2 2/3 innings was an intentional walk to Jayson Werth, which was a direct result of him having to clean up A.J. Burnett's mess. Chad Gaudin was just as good, pitching perfect 7th, 8th and 9th innings.

Of course, Jamie Moyer was excellent as well. He gave up only three hits and a single walk in eight innings, but two of the hits were solo homers by Robinson Cano and Jorge Posada, so it doesn't look quite as dominant in the box score as it actually was. The Yanks brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth against Brad Lidge but Posada struck out on a slider to end the game.

Andy Pettitte faces Kyle Kendrick tonight as the Yanks try to salvage a series victory and forget about the turd A.J. Burnett just laid.

5 comments:

  1. Jamie Moyer was a freaking marvel last night. What's even more amazing is he's done this at least three times to this year to my knowledge (gone very deep into a game to save a shitty Phillies' bullpen). He even had a complete game two-hitter a month ago against Atlanta. Forty-fucking-seven years old.

    AJ's horrid night took some heat off of what was an abysmal defensive night for Jorge. I know he's off an injury and I know AJ is probably the toughest pitcher on the staff to catch, but watching him chase after wild pitches and just give up on trying to throw out runners is getting very frustrating. Obviously there's a logjam at DH with A-Rod also hurting, so for the time being we're going to have to suffer. I think the writing is on the wall though.

    Kendrick vs Pettitte should be entertaining. If it goes as advertised, expect a lot of runners on base for both teams (the difference being Andy's penchant for wriggling out of jams). Hopefully our own AARP candidate mitigates the running game with the threat of his pick-off move.

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  2. Posada was pretty brutal last night, Jimmy. I didn't want to open that can of worms just yet but the time that they pitched out and he didn't even make the throw was especially frustrating.

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  3. That's the play right there, Jay. I wasn't even 100% sure if it had happened it seemed so unreal to me.

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  4. Really - I rewound a couple times, just to be sure that AJ's pitch was firmly in Posada's glove (it was.) Jorge just frkn DROPPED the ball transferring it to his throwing hand. Inexcusable. Not a big league catching performance.

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  5. Posada's play behind the plate last night didn't help matters at all, but I don't know how much of a difference it would have made had he been better or had Cervelli been catching. Not all of it is on him either; as they mentioned on YES Burnett has had difficulties holding runners all year.

    No one's ever confused Posada with Pudge back there and the fact of the matter is he's nearly 39 years old and was catching just his second game in a month. Shit's gonna happen sometimes.

    That's the reality of the Yankees' catching situation for the rest of this year and probably next as well. As long his bat is providing more than his glove is taking away, I have no problem with Jorge remaining a sometime/most of the time backstop.

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