07/29: Yanks Play Sloppy, Lose to Rays
Posted by: Seamus
This game looked promising for the Yankees before it started with CC Sabathia facing a struggling Scott Kazmir, but it wasn't meant to be as the Yankees failed to bring their "A" game to Tropicana Field and lost 6–2 to a desperate Rays team.
Ugly defense was the culprit in this one along with some mediocre pitching from Sabathia. Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez both made throwing errors early on and Nick Swisher played a little hot potato in right field as he struggled with a couple plays out there. Despite the sketchy defense, however, five of the six runs allowed by CC Sabathia were earned, and he was forced to exit earlier than he and the Yankees would have liked, leaving with two outs in the sixth after allowing nine hits in the game.
Offensively there wasn't much to talk about really, aside from an RBI single by Hideki Matsui in which he was caught rounding first too sharply and was tagged out trying to get back. Matsui also drove home the other run scored in the game, bringing in A-Rod with an RBI double in the ninth.
Things have been so good for the past two weeks and really for the last month or so that you almost sort of forget that games like this just happen every once in awhile. Fortunately for the Yankees, a clunker like this was coupled by a late inning collapse by the Red Sox, who blew a three-run lead in the ninth and lost in extra innings.
The Yanks and Rays will finish things up tonight as Joba Chamberlain will go up against Matt Garza in the rubber game of this series beginning at 7:08 ET. Chamberlain is showing signs of heating up, allowing just one earned run and going 6+ in each of his last two outings.
Off the field news: I decided against giving this its own post since I'm a little late on it (I fell asleep pretty early last night), but Chien-Ming Wang's season is done after he and the Yankees have decided to undergo season-ending surgery. After winning a total of 38 games in 2006 and '07, Wang will end this season having won only 9 in his last two seasons.
Recap records: Patrick: 28–13, Seamus: 26–17, Andrew: 7–9
Ugly defense was the culprit in this one along with some mediocre pitching from Sabathia. Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez both made throwing errors early on and Nick Swisher played a little hot potato in right field as he struggled with a couple plays out there. Despite the sketchy defense, however, five of the six runs allowed by CC Sabathia were earned, and he was forced to exit earlier than he and the Yankees would have liked, leaving with two outs in the sixth after allowing nine hits in the game.
Offensively there wasn't much to talk about really, aside from an RBI single by Hideki Matsui in which he was caught rounding first too sharply and was tagged out trying to get back. Matsui also drove home the other run scored in the game, bringing in A-Rod with an RBI double in the ninth.
Things have been so good for the past two weeks and really for the last month or so that you almost sort of forget that games like this just happen every once in awhile. Fortunately for the Yankees, a clunker like this was coupled by a late inning collapse by the Red Sox, who blew a three-run lead in the ninth and lost in extra innings.
The Yanks and Rays will finish things up tonight as Joba Chamberlain will go up against Matt Garza in the rubber game of this series beginning at 7:08 ET. Chamberlain is showing signs of heating up, allowing just one earned run and going 6+ in each of his last two outings.
Off the field news: I decided against giving this its own post since I'm a little late on it (I fell asleep pretty early last night), but Chien-Ming Wang's season is done after he and the Yankees have decided to undergo season-ending surgery. After winning a total of 38 games in 2006 and '07, Wang will end this season having won only 9 in his last two seasons.
Recap records: Patrick: 28–13, Seamus: 26–17, Andrew: 7–9
Nick wrote: