Another Offensively Challenged Night

Challenged is an understatement for the offense that the Yankees were able to generate against Matt Garza in his first start with the Rangers. He didn't have any jitters and got down to business, meaning the Yankees were in trouble from the first inning on. Garza went 7.1 innings, allowing one unearned run on five hits and five strikeouts. The one unearned run came in the sixth inning thanks to a throwing error on Garza on a ground ball by Brett Gardner. Matt Garza threw the ball away and it rolled down the right field line, allowing Gardner to advance to third base. He would get driven in by Cano on a single. Aside from the sixth inning run the Yankees were not able to score anything in any other inning. Gardner and Cano both picked up two hits. The rest of the Yankee lineup collected two. One coming from Wells and the other by Overbay. The bottom half of the lineup contributed nothing to the game offensively, leaving Pettitte little to nothing to work with in terms of wiggle room. The moment that Pettitte gave up the first inning run I knew that the Yankees would have a difficult time catching up to the Rangers. Andy has not been dandy since June and because of the recent slide, now has a 7-8 record. In eighteen years, Andy Pettitte has never had a losing season. However, with this offense behind him he may be headed in that direction. Regardless, Pettitte deserves better than what he gets from the Yankees. He is always on the wrong end of 3-1 losses and his record suffers because of it. Granted, Pettitte has been giving a lot more hits recently but he still manages to get the big out when he needs it. What needs to be brought up is that Andy is no longer a young man in baseball terms. He is 41 years old and his body may be tiring after half of a season. I don't know what Pettitte has left in the tank but I sure hope he finds whatever he has left, and quick before the Yankees are any further out of the playoff race.

In tomorrow's finale the Yankees will try to earn a split against the Rangers before coming home for three games to play the Tampa Bay Rays. The pitching matchup will be one to keep an eye on as two aces throw in Hiroki Kuroda and Derek Holland. The last time Holland pitched against the Yankees, he went the distance in a shutout of the Yankees. This time around the Yankees want to get on him, score some runs and put themselves back into the pennant race.