Fresh off of his no-hitter against the Cardinals, Johan Santana struggled mightily against the Yankee hitters. Robinson Cano did most of the damage against the lefty, smashing two home runs in a row off Santana. After Cano's second two-run shot, Nick Swisher and Andruw Jones decided to pitch in with home runs of their own. Three straight bombs were hit off Johan Santana but he still managed to go five innings despite his struggles. I stated in my video preview that the Yankee hitters have had success against Santana and that if they would be patient, they would succeed against him. Elvin Ramirez struggled when he was put into the game but limited the damage thanks to a double play grounder induced by Jeter.
Kuroda was brilliant tonight, going seven strong innings and allowing only one hit! I posted in my video that I predicted Kuroda would toss seven innings and if he pitched anywhere near how he pitched in his last few starts, he would be alright. The Yankee offense gave him run support that he wasn't accustomed to meaning there was no way he would relinquish the early lead given to him. The Mets success against Kuroda as a Dodger did not translate into success against him as a Yankee. Beltran and Reyes are no longer on the Mets, and that may have been where Kuroda had previously struggled against the Metropolitans. Based on his pitch count, I think that Girardi should have sent Kuroda out for the eighth inning but he only lasted seven. Kuroda was hit by a line drive off the bat of Daniel Murphy so the early hook may have been a result of that. I still believe that Girardi still doesn't have complete faith in Kuroda. He occasionally takes him out with low pitch counts and to me that's a sign of distrust.
No comments:
Post a Comment