Monday, August 20, 2012

Bullpen Struggles in Yankee Loss

In a snail's pace of a game, the Yankees had the lead heading into the fifth inning. They smacked starter Gavid Floyd around for three runs in 2.1 innings and held on to that lead. Freddy Garcia was rolling along through the first four innings and I thought that this win was in the bag for the Yankees. The White Sox offense was sluggish and they looked foolish at the plate. In the fifth inning, the White Sox steam rolled all over Freddy Garcia, Cody Eppley and Clay Rapada. With a five run fifth inning, the Sox temporarily took the lead over the Yankees. The Yankees came back in the sixth inning with two unanswered runs. Shortly thereafter, Joba Chamberlain entered a close game and blew another lead for the Yankees. In fact, he allowed the go-ahead run on a Gordon Beckham home run. The bullpen was even more atrocious than Freddy Garcia was.

One bright spot in a terrible game for the Yankees was Derek Jeter, who collected four more hits to tie Eddie Murray on baseball's all-time hits list. He has been on fire and his season average now stands at .326. Casey McGehee pinch hit for Chavez in the sixth and singled in the go-ahead run which momentarily gave back the Yankees their lead.

This loss stings for the Yankees even more because the Rays won tonight and now trail the Yankees by only four games in the division. The Rays just won't stop winning and are becoming a thorn in the side of the Yankees. Tomorrow night, Ivan Nova will have to give the Yankees a good and long performance after the disaster their bullpen faced tonight. Francisco Liriano will make his first start against the Yankees since being traded from the Twins before the deadline.

No comments:

Post a Comment