There was not a lot to like about this one. For the second night in a row the Yankees managed only a handful of hits against a White Sox starter, this time , who led Chicago to a 3-2 victory. Floyd wasn’t over-powering. Most of his pitches were in the high 80′s, so it’s safe to say that the Yankee bats have cooled. This was to be expected because most of the damage was coming from about half the lineup.
Adding insult to injury, the Yankees squandered their second consecutive strong start. made it into the seventh inning for the first time in his Major League career, lasting 6.1 innings on 92 pitches, allowing only one run on five hits and two walks. Nova was pulled in the seventh to make way for , who continued his brilliance this season, getting the last two outs of the inning. The Yankees were up 2-1 after seven.
A one run lead is never safe but, if memory serves, the Yankee front office committed about $35 million this offseason to to make sure that Yankee one run leads would be all but a sure thing from the eighth inning onwards. Soriano continued his miserable start to the season, allowing the go-ahead two run home run to . While it is fair to say that home plate umpire Greg Gibson was squeezing Soriano like a vice when it came to any pitch above the belt (a call he did not give in the ninth inning, by the way), the blame with this one rests squarely with the petulant reliever. Most of the suspect calls came when was at the plate, after Konerko deposited one in the people, and a pitcher of Soriano’s purported caliber should be able to adjust to poor officiating. That, and the pitch to Konerko was right down broadway, belt-buckle high. would have crushed that one. (Related, but only a bit, I welcome readers to comment on whether or not Soriano wants to be in New York. Did he look this miserable with the Rays? Is his jerky air just an act? I for one am sick of the grumpy smurf routine.)
Soriano deserves only most of the blame for the loss. The rest can be divided equally among , Alex Rodriguez, , , and, to a lesser extent, . Those are the Yankees who managed not to get on base a single time in this game. (Martin is partially exonerated because he only got one at-bat.) In total the Yankees managed just four hits and two walks against the White Sox. was the first Yankee to reach scoring position, and that only happened in the bottom of the ninth. The only offense came from a moon-shot to right (which isn’t enough to make me forgive him for his .306 OBP this season) and a no-doubter off the bat of , of all people.
The Yankees did make it interesting in the bottom of the ninth. Derek Jeter led things off with his new signature hit, a wimpy infield single. then instructed Curtis Granderson to bunt because using all three of the Yankee outs would have been unfair to the White Sox. The only silver lining is that the sacrifice was effective and Jeter moved to second. then drew a walk.
That’s when the show began. Lillibridge had come on as a pinch runner earlier in the game. The move paid off in spades. First, Lillibridge saved the lead when he made a leaping catch against the wall to get A-Rod for the second out of the inning. Rodriguez missed an opposite field homer by about an inch on the bat. If Lillibridge hits the wall even a bit harder, A-Rod has a double, and at least Jeter scores. But Lillibridge wasn’t done. Cano came up after that and smoked one down the right field line … right into the glove of a diving Brent Lillibridge. Ball game.
Admittedly, the Yankees had been coasting on a small handful of players who had been hitting out of their minds. With as many as four starters struggling mightily at any point in time there was no way the Bombers could continue their pace. Fortunately the Yankees have gotten off to a strong start, and have a two game hold on first place. The Yankees look to right the ship tomorrow against , with on the mound.
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Two tough losses in a row, for sure, although it’s damn hard to win ballgames when your offense averages 1.0 runs per game.
I’d have griped quite a bit more about Girardi’s insane decision to giftwrap an out to the White Sox in the bottom of the ninth (“Here Chicago, please take fully one-third of our opportunity to win this game. Best, Joe Girardi”) — especially with your team’s leading home run hitter coming to the plate with an opportunity to win the game with one swing of the bat — except that’d be letting the Yankees off too easy, as they managed to muster all of three measly hits off Floyd* in the first eight innings of this game.
Of course, Girardi’s predictable and foolish bunting gambit nearly paid off if not for Brent Lilibridge. The only defense of the bunt I could see is wanting to avoid the double play, but Granderson has a near-50% FB% against a 34% GB% — you have to let him swing there. Worst-case scenario Grandy does rap into a DP; you can still play for the tie with Tex coming up. I HATE ceding outs.
*I suppose there’s not too much shame in getting shutdown by Floyd, who has established himself as one of the better pitchers in the American League, but the offense has truly been wretched to watch these last few games. As Mike noted, the team had been coasting on some extraordinarily hot bats, and now that those bats have cooled somewhat, the entire lineup is flailing about.
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Professor Longnose Reply:
April 27th, 2011 at 2:04 pm
Another thing about the bunt–the slot in the order Girardi was potentially giving up was Cano. With the runner on first, you get at bats from Teixeira, Rodriguez, and Cano (unless there’s a DP). With the runner on second and one out, you get Teixeira and Rodriguez but not Cano.
It didn’t work out that way, since Teixeira walked and Cano came up anyway. But if it were me, I’d do my best to let Cano hit in that inning.
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Larry Koestler Reply:
April 27th, 2011 at 2:15 pm
Yes x1,000,000. There was just no good reason to take the bat out of Granderson’s hands and hand Chicago an out, ESPECIALLY with Tex, A-Rod and Cano all due up.
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Mike Jaggers-Radolf Reply:
April 27th, 2011 at 3:00 pm
In a very real sense these two games have seemed like a race to the bottom between Ozzie and Girardi to see who can micro-manage badly more often.
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Professor Longnose Reply:
April 27th, 2011 at 3:25 pm
And something else about Girardi’s managing I noticed. The bunt was playing for a tie, lessening the chance of a win in the 9th to increase the chances of the tie (all things being equal, which they weren’t because of the hitters coming up, but anyway).
But then, he replaced Teixeira on first with Nunez, which lessened the value of the tie by taking out one of the Yankees’ best hitters if a tie actually occurred. In that case, he was playing to win now.
Girardi must have figured that the new situation–first and second, one out–was now more conducive to playing for the win.
It seems odd, but was Girardi right? Is this measurable?
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Larry Koestler Reply:
April 27th, 2011 at 4:09 pm
Tango’s famously published several run expectancy tables for the 24 base-out states, but every time I’ve come across one it always excludes the bottom of the ninth. I’m sure some saberist somewhere has done a study of run expectancies for the base-out states in the bottom of the 9th, but I have yet to find one.
I’d have to think playing for the tie at home is also mathematically foolish as well.
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Professor Longnose Reply:
April 27th, 2011 at 11:17 pm
Thanks for that link. I can see why the run expectancies would exclude the bottom of the 9th–it warps the numbers because you’re not able to score as many runs as possible, only enough to win.
Plus the question of a pinch runner in the 9th is separate. You’d have to somehow estimate the value of the added speed in scoring a run, and then the value of having a better hitter in an extra-inning game. You’d also need not just run expectancy, but run distribution–how often 1 run is scored, how often 2 are scored. That’s out there too–ESPN’s gamecasts flash some of those stats.
I seem to remember an article by Bill James in which he says that by a narrow margin, playing for the tie at home is a winning proposition–if you understand the subtleties of the situation and don’t use it indiscriminately. Can’t remember where, though.
Thanks – glad SOMEONE agrees with me on RaSo – every time I watch him on the mound, it sure LOOKS like he would rather be anywhere else. Once again, the Yankees got sucked into paying a Boras client who had no desire whatsoever to actually PLAY in NYC.
Cashman was right – we have better (or at least, equally poor) options in house to fill his spot – there was no reason to pay a pouty smurf (love that) 35 mil to lose games – Boone Logan or Joba could do that for a tenth the price. Without the attitude.
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Is it too late for me to change my prediction about the Worst Signing of the Offseason to Rafael Soriano? I hate to rub salt in the wounds (lol, no I don’t) of Yankee fans, but he isn’t as good against LH batters as you would want him to be in pressure situations for that $35 million. And he apparently isn’t happy with his role as setup man.
If anyone in Yankee nation thought that Soriano was going to hold all leads like Mo Rivera did in the 8th inning back in the mid 90s, then that person was in for a disappointment.
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As hard as it is to watch the Yankees lose games, a small small part of me smiles inside to see both Randy Levine signings blow up in his face (albeit early). Maybe the obnoxious moron will learn going forward that its best to let his GM handle assembling a team.
That said, I still hope Soriano can figure it out, because he’s a big part of this ball club in 2011.
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Soriano has been a tremendous disappointment to start the season and has cost the Yankees at least two wins (one more than Mariano, but he got lucky). His body language and facial expressions on the mound are awful. I find my self screaming at the television, “Hey, Rafael, if we paid you more do you think you could look happy?!” I’m not a fan so far.
Normally I would also hesitate to throw him completely under the bus, because its early in the season, except he has a bad reputation. Apparently he is known for trying to dictate how he is used. This is bad, because right now my feeling is he needs to be used in other situations until he works out his kinks and Robertson should be given the set up role.
And, yes, I’m still upset Granderson bunted. What a waste!
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