(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
I’m not going to delve terribly deeply into this one since I’d been expecting a Yankee loss in this game since last Sunday, but I do want to note two significant happenings from last night’s in extras to the Mariners:
1) They scored against ! Not only that, but they scored more than one earned run against the King for the first time since May 3, 2008! The damage came via a two-run homer off the bat of (who also walked three times against Felix, making him the only Yankee hitter who appears to be truly comfortable against the King), a solo shot by and a triple from (who else?) .
2) Near the beginning of the broadcast, and were talking about last year’s voting, and how Felix won the voting despite not having the traditional gaudy win total dinosaur baseball writers still salivate over. Cone, being the advanced statistics aficionado that he is, began talking about how Felix was obviously the deserving winner based on the fact that all of his numbers aside from his win total — which, as we know, is more or less completely out of his control given that he doesn’t have the ability to score runs for the putrid Mariner offense — also known as “peripherals” in stat-nerd speak, were incredible. This prompted me to toss off the following tweet:
Not five minutes later, did exactly that. And it was glorious.
Anyway, the Yankees fell to 6-9 in one-run games on the year, losing their second-straight one-run contest in yet another game they probably should’ve won. If you’d told me prior to this weekend the Yanks would hang three runs each on and Felix, I’d have (a) called you a liar, and (b) figured the Yanks would’ve been a pretty good bet to win both games, but alas, they could not.
was pretty terrible in this one (a mere 3.2 IP, 5 hits, 4 runs, three walks and only one strikeout), which is rather unfortunate when you consider he was facing one of the limpest offensive attacks in the American League. I’m still not a Nova believer, and I can’t say this outing makes me any more confident in his ability to be effective going forward. Not being able to strike anyone out appears to be catching up to Nova, even with a 50% GB%. gets a gold star for coming on in relief and pitching 2 1/3 shutout innings, while and also did their jobs. The Mariners managed the scratch the game-winner out in the 12th off the bat of , yet another in a long line of scrubby players who always seem to get big hits against the Yankees.
Of course, had the Yankee offense actually bothered to do something — anything — against a Mariner bullpen that yielded three measly hits and no walks over five more scoreless innings, maybe they could’ve won this game. Thus, the 2011 Yankees’ bizarre reverse MO of actually getting to tough starters but not unleashing on the bullpen after years of following this formula to a tee continues. Not to discredit the Mariner bullpen, but really, the Yankee offense has to be better than three baserunners over five innings.
The team will look to not get swept in Seattle this afternoon, for what would be the first time since either 1995 or 1996 (I saw this stat somewhere on Twitter but can’t remember which year it actually was). Fortunately ‘s on the hill; hopefully he shows the Yankee pitching staff how one is supposed to attack a crappy offense.
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Two games. 8.2 SP IP com combined. 0 runs off of SEA pen in 8 IP. Doing it wrong.
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Cone talking about FIP was the announcing highlight of the decade.
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It may not help, but maybe it is time to shake up the order of the offense at least. Just to get a different feel.
Also, I think Kevin Long is great, but virtually no one hits the ball the opposite way, almost every member of the Yankees is trying to be a pull hitter and it doesn’t work for most. Cano, Arod, and Teix all come to mind as much better when they are spraying doubles to all fields. Especially Robbie and Mark.
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I’d be happy listening to Cone talking about anything – stamp collecting, accounting, baking. Anything rather than these lousy games. This team is bipolar – a pretty solid pitching staff with several pleasant surprises, tethered to a rapidly aging, lethargic and ultimately inept offense. No energy, no passion, nothing. Let them finish fourth – then sack everyone.
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This is starting to get very frustrating as a Yankees fan. It seems lately the Yankees starting pitchers and bullpen can not hold a lead over any team once they get one. On top of that unless I’m mistaken excluding CC Sabathia the Yankees starters are notoriously poor at getting through 7 innings in fact. Here are their numbers for making it through 7 innings: AJ 3 in 11 starts, Nova 1 in 10 starts, Garcia 2 in 9 starts and Colon who has done the best 3 in 7 starts. The bullpen has struggled in part I’m sure because of overwork and in part because of injuries to the original cast and to be honest having relief pitchers on the roster that otherwise would not be except for the injuries. If Cashman specifically and Girardi don’t do something soon to address the situation it’s going to get a lot uglier before it gets prettier.
As a side note and I be remiss if I didn’t also say that Posada and Swisher are killing the offense a team can’t have 2 out of 9 batters virtually automatic outs every game.
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Good to see we can’t hold multi-run leads against the worst offense in baseball.
Made even worse by the fact we got those leads against pitchers who are tough to get leads against.
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I stayed with that game all night, and had a distinctly different experience. I thought it was a great ballgame.
Tex got under Felix’ skin (as he did the prior night to Pineda); Jete punching Felix in the first at bat; Nova had to learn from this; the bullpen came thru until the last man you would expect to get dented; great plays by Gardner, Jeter and Alex; Jeter oddly mishandling several, but reviving his “slump-proof” dink swing; Nearly all cylinders heating up, Cano, Tex, Grandy, especially (Cano, importantly), and even Swish hitting them well these last three games.
Hitting, fielding, pitching, some terrific plays, right down to Gardner grabbing grass on that sinking liner. Coney split my side with that slo mo description of Moreno’s face plant at first. Just wish I could have seen those streakers to complete the night.
I didn’t and don’t think the Yanks have a prayer* of winning the WS this year, so maybe I just watch with less fervor. Lets me enjoy a gutsy performance.
*Unless Brian Cashman has some miracles up his sleeve. The Cliff Lee Incident was a big one.
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Felix Hernandez winning last year’s CYA with A DOZEN LOSSES was a joke.
So what he had a low ERA? He had ZERO PRESSURE to post it.
He left the game trailing enough to lose a dozen times. You want to call that lack of run support, those are the breaks.
Get back to me when he pitches in the A.L. East for whoever especially the Yankees who he’d have the most pressure to succeed with. If he pitched for the Yankees, he’d have to deal with each division rival 4 or 5 times a year each, considerably more difficult than facing the As, Angels, and Rangers, plus the postseason.
The real king of MLB nevermind the AL is C.C. Sabathia who is an ace on the biggest stage. If he finishes this year with a 3 ERA and Felix Hernandez finishes with a 2.50 ERA, C.C. should get the Cy cuz he had to do what he did against much better division competition.
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T.O. Chris Reply:
May 29th, 2011 at 4:22 pm
You do realize that Felix pitched 26 innings against us last year with a 0.35 ERA, 3 wins, 2 CGs, 1 HR, 8 walks, 31 strikeouts, and a .176 BAA right?
Normally I would agree with you on the pressure of playing in New York, and not having to face AL East opponents, but Felix proved he was the best pitcher in baseball last year anyway you slice it. If he had only had slightly better numbers everything you say would be true, but he numbers that blew CC’s out of the water in every category outside of wins. At this point in baseball we have evolved far away from judging guys based solely on wins, batting average, HRs, and RBI.
He only walked 1.3 per 9, he K’d 8.4 per 9, he led the league in almost every major category besides wins, he more than deserved that Cy Young.
I think Sabathia should have actually won the MVP. He was clearly no only the most valuable Yankee last season, but also the most valuable player in the entire AL. But the Cy Young isn’t the most valuable pitcher award, it’s the best pitcher award and that was King Felix.
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