Pettitte Not Strong in Loss

The Yankee offense did the job tonight, scoring five runs to back up their pitching. Andy Pettitte has not pitched well lately, with his record falling to 5-6 with tonight's loss. Pettitte is the kind of pitcher who you don't think will go through slumps because when he pitches well he makes batters look foolish at the plate. In six innings of work, Pettitte gave up three earned runs which is respectable but four of the runs scored in the third inning. When pitchers put up crooked numbers it is difficult mentally for the starter's offense to put him on their backs and score all of those runs again. Aside from all the runs given up, the Yankees played sloppy defense. Jayson Nix and Brett Gardner both committed errors on which runs came home to score. Three of the eight runs scored by the Rangers were unearned. If the Yankees play fundamentally sound defense, the game would have gone into extra innings and would have possibly had a better outcome for the Yankees. A concern I have is Joba Chamberlain, who is pitching for his spot in the bullpen right now. In two-thirds of an inning, Joba allowed four hits and three runs to score. His ERA had inflated to a nasty 6.38 in what could be a very crucial year for him. If the Yankees had any ideas of trading Chamberlain they will not be getting much back. Joba is a great pitcher; he throws very hard and is capable of striking everyone out. Then he has his lapses, similar to what he is going through right now, where he can't record an out without allowing at least one rum to score. What Joba really needs is a change of scenery. If he gets traded to a different team I expect that Joba will look like he did when he first came up. He can pitch but with Chamberlain it is more a matter of where he pitches. His days in the Bronx are numbered. Shawn Kelley has not pitched well recently either, as he allowed two more runs tonight thanks to an error by Brett Gardner in the ninth inning.

The offense did all it could and the runs scored tonight should have equated to a win. However, the Yankees again squandered opportunities. In the sixth inning with one out and the bases loaded with the Yankees down by only one run Jayson Nix grounded into a double play that put the fans to sleep for the rest of the game. Ichiro has been on a roll lately, going 3-4 in tonight's game with another home run to put the Yankees to within one run before the Rangers scored insurance runs in the ninth inning. With his three hits tonight, Ichiro's season average has climbed all the way up to .278 and a .300 average isn't looking unachievable anymore.

In tomorrow's early getaway game, Phil Hughes will put his 5.09 ERA to work against Derek Holland as the Yankees are looking for a win in the rubber game of the series. The Yankees have done well against Holland in the past but this team is very different, so you can't expect the same results.

In other news, Brian Cashman told Alex Rodriguez to shut the f--- up after Rodriguez made comments on his Twitter regarding a clearance by his doctor to play in minor league games. Cashman is clearly fed up with A-Rod's antics and he is unsuccessfully trying to run the injured slugger out of town.

Also, Mark Teixeira's wrist has not recovered so the doctor has recommended season ending surgery that will shelve Teixeira for six months. Girardi stated that the earliest we will see Mark will be in spring training, where he should be ready to start fresh.