Yankees Failure with Men on Base Haunts Them

It feels like I have been telling the same old story about the Yankees all year. Just when you think they have turned a corner in their runners in scoring position problem, the Yankees come back tonight and leave ten men on base and ended up losing by just one run. The Yankees had opportunities all night to get big hits off of the Baltimore starter but mustered only two runs, one of which was earned. The Yankees displayed a pathetic effort tonight offensively. This is why winning the first game is so important. If the Yankees went into tonight down 0-1 in the series this loss would have stung even more than it already stings. For the players in the Yankee dugout, they will have two whole days to sit and think about how they failed to get big hits in this game. Hopefully it eats at them to the point of them coming out with red hot bats on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium where they will try to wrap up the series in front of the home crowd. The Orioles were able to do what the Yankees were not able to and ended up edging out the victory at home in front of their bandwagon fans. I won't get into that however.

Andy Pettitte pitched his heart out tonight, going seven innings and allowing only three runs. He kept the Yankees in the game the whole time but as they have done many times this year, they were unable to come up with the big hit against the Orioles pitchers. Pettitte falls short of winning his 20th postseason game but was very worthy of getting it tonight. If you take out the third inning, Andy Pettitte only gave up one run and the Yankees probably win the game.

It's up to Kuroda on Wednesday night to give the Yankees a series lead against the O's who seem to have all the momentum at the moment. If Kuroda's home statistics are any indicator of how he will do on Wednesday night, then the Yankees should be wrapping this series up on Thursday night in a game four. First though, they need to win on Wednesday before thinking about taking the series. Even before winning on Wednesday, the Yankees need to get their situational hitting together if they want to advance in this postseason.