09/10: Yankees Smoked by Sox 9-2
Posted by: Patrick
Ouch.
In the top of the 1st, after making 2 outs, Chacon walked Manny. Ortiz homered. 2-0 Red Sox. Nothing doing on either side until the 4th inning, which would be the big black mark.
It was a long top half. To start, John Olerud leads off with a home run. Mueller singles. Kapler singles. That's the end of Chacon's day (his line: 3 IP, 5 ER). In comes Felix Rodriguez. Tony Graffanino singles, but no runs score. This is where two critical mistakes were made - mistakes that put the game out of reach. F-Rod the pitching pitcher did his job on Renteria - he induced a slow roller that bounced perfectly back to him. No doubt double play ball. Unfortunately, F-Rod the defensive pitcher almost throws it away. Flaherty makes a nice catch and gets 1 out. Out goes F-Rod, in comes Leiter. Here is critical play number two. Leiter gets Ortiz to hit a lazy fly to left. Uh oh... Matsui's lost it in the sun, it looks like. Whatever it was, he misplayed it, first going back too far and then having to rush in. However, he still should have caught it - it hits his glove and goes out. Run scores, inning still alive. Right there is 3 outs. Plays we should have made and if we had made them, there would have only been 1 run scored in the 4th, instead of 6.
Unfortunately, that's not how it happened. After Matsui's error, Manny singled in a run. Then Trot Nixon singled in 2 more. Then Varitek comes up and hits a double play ball to end the inning. But, wait, no... Cano throws it into the seats on what was a very awkward play. I don't know how the ball got that far, but it did. And another run scored. Finally, Olerud comes up again and ends the inning.
Giambi hit number 28 in the bottom of the 4th. It was solo and that would make the score 8-1. All was quiet for the 5th, 6th and 7th innings before both teams (Renteria sacrificed Cora in and Bernie singled in Lawton) added a run. And that was all she wrote, as the Yankees lost 9-2.
Al Leiter actually pitched a good game, eating up 5 and 2/3 innings, allowing just 1 ER. Our pitching was good today. Our defense was terrible and (forgetting only 2 runs scored) that was the main problem. The Yankee offense came up with 6 hits, 2 by Cano and then 1 each by Jeter, Williams, Giambi and Matsui.
I look at tomorrow as a must win if we're going to have a shot at the division. Sure, we could win, but there will be a big difference between 3 games back and 5 games back with 20 to go. We need to win. And we'll place it on the guy that was supposed to be our rock, supposed to win the big games. That's Randy Johnson. He'll face Tim Wakefield (15-10, 4.05).
In the top of the 1st, after making 2 outs, Chacon walked Manny. Ortiz homered. 2-0 Red Sox. Nothing doing on either side until the 4th inning, which would be the big black mark.
It was a long top half. To start, John Olerud leads off with a home run. Mueller singles. Kapler singles. That's the end of Chacon's day (his line: 3 IP, 5 ER). In comes Felix Rodriguez. Tony Graffanino singles, but no runs score. This is where two critical mistakes were made - mistakes that put the game out of reach. F-Rod the pitching pitcher did his job on Renteria - he induced a slow roller that bounced perfectly back to him. No doubt double play ball. Unfortunately, F-Rod the defensive pitcher almost throws it away. Flaherty makes a nice catch and gets 1 out. Out goes F-Rod, in comes Leiter. Here is critical play number two. Leiter gets Ortiz to hit a lazy fly to left. Uh oh... Matsui's lost it in the sun, it looks like. Whatever it was, he misplayed it, first going back too far and then having to rush in. However, he still should have caught it - it hits his glove and goes out. Run scores, inning still alive. Right there is 3 outs. Plays we should have made and if we had made them, there would have only been 1 run scored in the 4th, instead of 6.
Unfortunately, that's not how it happened. After Matsui's error, Manny singled in a run. Then Trot Nixon singled in 2 more. Then Varitek comes up and hits a double play ball to end the inning. But, wait, no... Cano throws it into the seats on what was a very awkward play. I don't know how the ball got that far, but it did. And another run scored. Finally, Olerud comes up again and ends the inning.
Giambi hit number 28 in the bottom of the 4th. It was solo and that would make the score 8-1. All was quiet for the 5th, 6th and 7th innings before both teams (Renteria sacrificed Cora in and Bernie singled in Lawton) added a run. And that was all she wrote, as the Yankees lost 9-2.
Al Leiter actually pitched a good game, eating up 5 and 2/3 innings, allowing just 1 ER. Our pitching was good today. Our defense was terrible and (forgetting only 2 runs scored) that was the main problem. The Yankee offense came up with 6 hits, 2 by Cano and then 1 each by Jeter, Williams, Giambi and Matsui.
I look at tomorrow as a must win if we're going to have a shot at the division. Sure, we could win, but there will be a big difference between 3 games back and 5 games back with 20 to go. We need to win. And we'll place it on the guy that was supposed to be our rock, supposed to win the big games. That's Randy Johnson. He'll face Tim Wakefield (15-10, 4.05).
Seamus wrote: