Yankees SWEPT by Oakland

Wow. That is my reaction. This is the one game where the Yankees had a lead in the entire game leading up to the ninth inning. In each game, there has been a dramatic ending to the game. Inge, who is hitting below .200 got huge hits against the Yankees. How he groups his hits is beyond me but he always seemed to come up with a big hit. Yoenis Cespedes raked against the Yankee pitching. Did they ever think of walking him in a big spot? The Yankees have now lost four straight in Oakland, the first time it has ever happened. They got swept by Oakland in New York in 1972 which was also a four game series. Not once in this series did the Yankees have momentum. They were beat largely by a AAA team. Resting Derek Jeter in a game where the Yankees desperately needed a win was foolish, as were most of Girardi's lineup decisions. The Yankees need a reliable outfielder. DeWayne Wise and Raul Ibanez aren't going to cut it in the second half. They need speed. The A's ran all over the Yankees in the series. They won all of their games but one because of speed.

CC Sabathia pitched well enough to earn a victory today, but he too was careless at times. He couldn't get Inge out for the life of him and Suzuki, who had gone half of the season without hitting a home run, mashed one out against Sabathia. I know Sabathia is a horse but if he has a lead in a game the Yankees need to win, he doesn't have much room for error. These A's are scrappy and don't go down without a fight. The number of runs the Yankees scored in this series shows how well the A's pitching staff has been. They don't take a lead for granted. CC Sabathia makes careless pitches when he has a lead. The A's run the bases. The Yankees never take a shot and do not come up in the clutch most of the time. The A's did everything right in this series and they outplayed the Bombers. That is why the Yankees were swept. This was just a terrible series that the Yankees need to forget about. They are going into Seattle where if they don't win two out of three, it will be time to re-evaluate this team and make a trade for a bat with speed on the bases.