Four Game Slide

The player at fault for tonight's Yankee loss was David Phelps. His offense didn't do a good enough job of scoring runs when they were needed, but Phelps was just pathetic all by himself. The Yankees loaded the bases in the first inning with two outs and were not able to get any runs in on the opportunity. Phelps, who was probably set on pitching with a lead, promptly gave up four runs in the first inning. Chris Davis hit his 29th and 30th home runs of the season off Phelps and the Yankees found themselves drowning before the game even began. After a bounce-back second inning from Phelps, he completely imploded in the third inning when he served up a five-spot to the Orioles. At that point the game was already over. When the Yankees were down by four runs early you figured they would be able to get something going at some point in the game but after they were down by nine runs you knew the game was over. Too bad there isn't a mercy rule in the Major Leagues because the Yankees only hurt themselves by finishing the game. This is not the first time this season where Phelps has given up a ton of runs early in a game. Against the Mets at home, Phelps recorded one out and gave up seven first inning runs to a Mets team that has been scratching for offense the entire season. When the pitching doesn't keep the Yankees in the game you know that it will be a long night. Tonight was one of those nights, and the silver lining you take away was that Ivan Nova continued to pitch well in relief over 5.2 innings. He allowed only two runs to score in his mop-up role out of the bullpen  Unfortunately for him and the rest of the team, the offense was 3-16 with runners in scoring position opposed to the Orioles 4-7 in those situations. The Yankees left ten runners on base. If nine of those runners scored in the opportunities that the Yankees were presented with, they would have won tonight's game. You can't always count on runners scoring when they are in scoring position with the Yankees. Their offense has been comparable to that of the Houston Astros this season. They are slumping badly at the plate right now, and have now lost four in a row to fall back to four games back in the loss column to Boston. But hey, at least Cano is hitting!

The Yankees will hope to win at least one game tomorrow night on ESPN. Maybe playing in front of a national audience will help their offense to get something going. Hiroki Kuroda, the Yankees most consistent starter, will try to ride the Yankees to a win to snap their skid. Chris Tillman, who has won nine games will pitch for the Orioles.