Results tagged ‘ Andruw Jones ’
CC picks up from where he left off
It was if he never left. Two weeks after sustaining a left groin injury that kept him out of the All-Star Game, CC Sabathia got back on the bike Tuesday night and pitched six-plus innings of zeroes against the Blue Jays in a 6-1 Yankees victory.
Any concern Yankees manager Joe Girardi might have had about what effect the layoff would have on Sabathia was eased in the first inning when the lefthander showed hop on his fastball and bite on his breaking pitches. CC was touched for doubles by Edwin Encarnacion with none out in the second inning and Rajai Davis with two down in the third, and in each case the runner was stranded. Davis stole third and was the only player to come close to scoring with Sabathia on the mound.
He pitched into the seventh and came out after yielding a leadoff single to Adam Lind, one of four hits off Sabathia, who walked one batter and struck out six. Toronto was without two-time American League home run champ Jose Bautista, who was placed on the disabled list due to a left wrist injury, but that probably didn’t matter much. Bautista is 1-for-19 with eight strikeouts in his career against Sabathia.
CC’s 10th victory in 13 decisions moved him into a tie for the staff lead with Ivan Nova (10-4).
The Yankees’ left field platoon continued to wreak havoc against opposing pitchers. The night after Raul Ibanez hit a grand slam to head the Yankees toward a victory, Andruw Jones clubbed a three-run home run to left off lefthander Brett Cecil in the second inning that proved more than enough support for Sabathia.
The Yanks may miss the speed and defense Brett Gardner brings, but Ibanez and Jones have done a wonderful job in the left fielder’s absence, which goes back to mid-April. They have teamed for 24 home runs, 65 RBI and .483 slugging percentage, which is very good considering their combined batting average is only .241.
Overall, Yankees left fielders have hit .235 with 16 home runs and 43 RBI in 311 at-bats. Jones and Ibanez are among the players who have occupied the seventh position in the batting order that has been the Yankees’ most productive this year. The Bombers have gotten more RBI (75) out of the 7-hole than any other spot, and the 22 home runs from 7-hole hitters are second only to the No. 2 position (26, all by center fielder Curtis Granderson).
The Yankees didn’t do much more damage against Cecil, who lasted six innings, but they got three runs in the seventh off reliever Sam Dyson on doubles by Chris Spencer and Derek Jeter and a fielder’s choice by Alex Rodriguez to pull away.
At least, that is what it looked like until the Jays got on the board in the eighth and loaded the bases with one out in the ninth that forced Girardi to call on Rafael Soriano, who got his 24th save with a major assist by Mark Teixeira. The first baseman gloved pinch hitter J.P. Arencibia’s liner and slapped a tag on rookie Anthony Gose for an impressive, game-ending double play.
Freddy, Andruw examples of Yanks’ support group
One of the strengths of the 2012 Yankees is how they have overcome injuries. Much has been made in this weekend series at Fenway Park about the makeshift lineups that manager Bobby Valentine is throwing out there because of injuries to key Red Sox players, but the Yankees have not been exactly running on all cylinders, either.
And yet the Yanks have the best record in the major leagues just past the midway point of the season, due in large part to the contributions of players filling in for those on the disabled list. What better example could there have been than the matinee of Saturday’s split-admission twin bill with Freddy Garcia and Andruw Jones reaching back into their past glory to put their stamps on a 6-1 victory.
Garcia, who was banished from the rotation three months ago, has been given a second chance as a starter with CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte on the DL, and he has responded with two straight quality starts. The righthander pitched into the seventh inning for the first time this season in his longest start (6 2/3 innings) over a calendar year and held the Red Sox to five singles, a double and two walks with five strikeouts to post his first victory as a starter this year.
Granted, Boston’s lineup won’t make anyone think of its 2004 or ’07 World Series champions, but Garcia had the kind of stuff that might have handled those squads as well. Freddy’s fastball was in the upper 80’s, which made his breaking stuff more effective. Considering that Pettitte will be out probably until around Labor Day, Garcia could become a fixture in the rotation for a while.
Jones, who along with Raul Ibanez has made up for the nearly season-long loss of left fielder Brett Gardner, supported Garcia with two solo home runs and a splendid play at the base of the Green Monster in the sixth inning that became a stylish double play at the expense of Adrian Gonzalez.
One day after winning a game without hitting a home run, the Yankees left the yard four times Saturday afternoon. Jones was part of two back-to-back homer innings for the Yankees. He followed Nick Swisher’s three-run bomb in the first with a home run and went yard again in the fourth in front of Jayson Nix, who played shortstop to give Derek Jeter a half-day off as the designated hitter. Swisher’s homer ended a hitless stretch that had reached 17 at-bats.
The Yankees’ four-run first gave Garcia a comfort zone. Unlike teammate Hiroki Kuroda, who blew a 5-0, first-inning lead Friday night in a game the Yanks eventually won, 10-8, Garcia protected the early bulge. The only run he allowed came in the fourth on successive singles by David Ortiz, Gonzalez and Mauro Gomez.
Jones added another solo homer in the nightcap, a sloppy, 9-5 Yankees loss in which they committed four errors. Three more first-inning runs, on Mark Teixeira’s 15th home run, makes it 14 first-inning runs for the Yankees in five games this season against Boston. Phil Hughes failed to hold the lead, and one-day call-up Cory Wade continued to have problems as the Red Sox batted around in both the sixth and seventh innings to produce seven runs.
Garcia and Jones are just two examples of players who have plugged holes for the Yankees. Cody Eppley (2.74 ERA), who pitched 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, has been an effective situational right-handed reliever in the absence of Joba Chamberlain and while David Robertson was on the DL. And the panic the Yanks felt at first following the knee injury to Mariano Rivera back in May has subsided with Rafael Soriano stepping in for 20 saves in 21 opportunities.
Think also of the recent career week of reserve outfielder DeWayne Wise and the season-long steadiness of veteran corner infielder Eric Chavez and you have the ingredients that have kept the Yankees from tumbling down the standings despite the injuries they have sustained.
Who’s hot? Everybody but Yankees
As the temperatures in New York keep rising during this heat wave, the Yankees have cooled off. The American League Central-leading White Sox under rookie manager Robin Ventura beat the Yankees for the second straight game Friday night in a game the Bombers were hoping to steal with a pitcher making his major-league debut.
No ninth-inning heroics were required this time from the White Sox, who overcame a 4-0 deficit against rookie righthander Adam Warren and went on the beat the Yankees at their own game. Chicago used four home runs to the Yanks’ one (by Curtis Granderson) on the way to a 14-7 victory.
Warren was not stuck with the losing decision because the Yankees, who had 11 hits, came back from 6-4 to tie the score in the fourth inning on the second of two doubles by Andruw Jones. But relievers David Phelps and Cory Wade couldn’t keep the ball in the yard any more than Warren had. A.J. Pierzynski swatted two home runs and Paul Konerko and Alexei Ramirez one apiece as part of a 19-hit attack that also included five doubles.
The underbelly of the Yankees’ bullpen has been exposed somewhat the past two nights. Wade especially has been on a downhill cycle. He was roughed up for six earned runs and seven hits in 2 1/3 innings and has allowed 10 earned runs in his past two outings totaling three innings. That is an ERA of 30.00. Over his past six appearances, Wade has pitched to a 28.69 ERA and given up 13 earned runs and 17 hits, including three home runs, in 5 1/3 innings. His season ERA over that stretch has gone from 2.63 to 5.79.
“He relies on location,” Girardi said of Wade. “He was up in the zone, and he can’t live there.”
The situation reached the perilous point that Yankees manager Joe Girardi resorted to using outfielder DeWayne Wise to get the final two outs, which was one of the few highlights for Yankees pitching in the game.
“You can see guys pitching in and out and changing speeds and plains and can’t get anybody out and then someone comes in and simply throws BP [batting practice] and gets both hitters out,” Girardi said. “It’s a strange game.”
Warren Report: Rough rookie outing
The Yankees did their best Friday night to put Adam Warren, who made his major-league debut, in a comfort zone. They jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning off White Sox lefthander Jose Quintana, who entered the game with a 16-inning scoreless streak and a 1.25 ERA.
Derek Jeter started the ball rolling with a double into the left field corner for his 3,185th career hit that pushed him past Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. for sole possession of 13th place on the all-time list.
“Congratulations to Derek on passing me on the all-time hits list,” Ripken said. “Derek has been such a special player for such a long time, and I am happy to see him continue to play at a high level. He represents the game and the Yankees wonderfully, and I hope that he continues to give all of us baseball fans great memories.”
Curtis Granderson ended Quintana’s zeroes streak with a drive to right-center field for his 22nd home run off a 1-0 fastball. Another streak by Quintana came one out later when he walked Alex Rodriguez, the pitcher’s first base on balls in a stretch covering 100 batters.
After Robinson Cano flied out, Nick Swisher kept the rally alive with a flare single behind first base that was positioned so well that A-Rod got to third. Andruw Jones got both runners home with a booming double off the wall in left-center.
The comfort zone didn’t last long for Warren, who gave all of the lead back the very next inning on A.J. Pierzynski’s 13th home run, singles by Dayan Viciedo and Alexei Ramirez, a two-run double by Gordon Beckham and a run-scoring infield out by Kevin Youkilis. The rookie learned that in the big leagues nothing can be taken for granted as Paul Konerko led off the third with his 14th home run to put the Chisox ahead.
Chicago added another run before Warren came out of the game after 2 1/3 innings with his ERA an unsightly 23.14. The Yankee Stadium crowd recognized the circumstances and disappointing as fans may have been to see a 4-0 lead vanish gave the rookie righthander polite applause. To have done otherwise would have been unkind.
Nothing chicken-hearted about Yanks’ tough loss
For a while there, it looked as if Frank Francisco would not get into Friday night’s game. He is the Mets closer with the big mouth, the guy who before the Subway Series called the Yankees “chickens,” as quoted in the New York Post. Some of the Mets had fun with this, playing “The Chicken Dance” and other poultry-related tunes in the clubhouse before the game.
To their credit, the Yankees did not overreact to the charge, which Francisco based on his belief that the Yankee complain about everything. That’s rich. He plays for a team that tried to stick their own hero, third baseman David Wright, with an error on an official scoring change in an effort to get R.A. Dickey a no-hitter. Even Dickey was embarrassed by such a bush maneuver. Thank goodness Joe Torre, Major League Baseball’s vice president for baseball operations, upheld the original ruling.
The chances that Francisco would get into the game looked pretty slim after the Mets broke out to a 5-0 lead in the first inning and were up, 6-2, through seven. But Robinson Cano’s two-run home run in the eighth off Miguel Batista made it a two-run game, creating a save opportunity for Francisco.
The righthander had also said that he looked forward to striking out the side against them, which he apparently he did once some years ago. Francisco did manage to chalk up his 18th save in the Mets’ 6-4 victory, but there was nothing chicken-livered about the Yankees’ at-bats that inning.
Francisco got a huge boost from his center fielder, Andres Torres, who made a sensational running catch to rob Russell Martin of a potential extra-base hit at the start of the inning. The play loomed large when Francisco walked pinch hitter Raul Ibanez and gave up a lightning bolt of a single to left by Derek Jeter.
The one strikeout Francisco got that inning was indeed impressive, locking up Curtis Granderson on a 95-mph fastball. Francisco hit 95 on the gun twice more against Mark Teixeira, who made the last out on a pop to shortstop.
The Yankees’ third straight inter-league loss this week was particularly bitter because of the opponent, but Yankees fans can come away with some satisfaction that their team did not go down quietly. Plenty of other clubs might have folded up after trailing by five runs in the first inning, especially when opposing pitcher Jonathan Niese was throwing so well.
They used their greatest ally – the long ball – to make a game of it. Solo shots by Alex Rodriguez in the sixth and Andruw Jones in the seventh plus Cano’s bomb in the eighth had the Mets reeling after they had failed to knock out Pettitte, who tagged on five shutout innings after the first.
Wright doubled in the Mets’ only run after that first inning, and he was doubled up after a diving catch by Jones off a Scott Hairston liner in the seventh. Yes, it was a tough loss for the Yankees, but they did not complain about it.
Andy recovers but hurt by 1st-inning 5-spot
The first inning Friday night at Citi Field was a stunning development for Andy Pettitte, who allowed five runs, which was the total he had yielded in his previous two starts covering 13 innings. Both were no-decisions, by the way, which Andy might have settled for again if the Yankees could get back in the game.
The five spot in the first put the Yankees in a decided hole and not surprisingly all the runs were scored after two were out. This has been a Mets specialty this season. They lead the majors in two-out runs. Their first-inning uprising brought the season total of two-out runs to 155.
The Mets had the bases loaded with one out, but it looked like Pettitte would work out of danger when he got Lucas Duda on a fly to shallow center. Justin Turner turned back a 1-2 sinker for a single through the middle that scored two runs. The real killer blow came on the next pitch, a hanging slider on Pettitte’s first delivery to Ike Davis, who popped a three-run home run to right field.
That was a crusher for Pettitte, who allowed insult to injury by later in the inning giving up a single to opposing pitcher Jonathan Niese, although Pettitte would return the favor the next inning.
Two weekends ago when the Yankees were out-homering the Mets, 8-2, in the Bombers’ sweep of the first round of the Subway Series, a lot of people around the Mets complained about the cheapness of home runs to right field at Yankee Stadium. Well, the homer by Davis was just as much a bargain-basement job.
In fact, the ball was almost caught by Nick Swisher. The right fielder leaped at the wall near the 330-foot mark for the ball that hit against the thumb of his glove and fell over the fence when his glove hand made contact with the top of the wall. So who’s talking cheap now?
Davis, who has shown recent signs of coming out of a season-long slump, was hitting only .121 at Citi Field this year before that at-bat but over his past 12 games overall has hit .382 with three home runs and 14 RBI in 34 at-bats. As horrid as Davis has been this year, his 36 RBI are only three behind David Wright, who is hitting over .350.
It was also Davis’ first career at-bat against Pettitte, who was retired last year. Davis broke into the majors in 2010 but did not face Pettitte. Mets manager Terry Collins loaded his lineup with right-handed hitters against the lefty Pettitte except for Davis, Duda and, of course, Niese. Andy caught a break with Jason Bay on the disabled list because of a concussion. Bay is a .400 hitter in 35 career at-bats against Pettitte.
Before the series, Collins said Citi Field would play different from Yankee Stadium as far as home runs were concerned. That was probably wishful thinking. Citi Field was an airline hangar for three seasons before the Mets got wise and brought in the fences the past offseason to make the yard fairer to hitters. It is by no means a bandbox, but the Yankees have proved they can hit home runs anywhere.
This was demonstrated by Alex Rodriguez, who got the Yankees on the board in the sixth by driving a 1-1 cutter into the Big Apple well over the 408-foot mark in straightaway center for his 12th home run of the season and career No. 641.
Leading off the seventh, Andruw Jones, who gave the Mets fits for years in his heyday with the Braves, launched his seventh home run into the left field stands beyond the old dimensions. Jones also made one of the fielding gems of the night, a diving catch in left field in the seventh that became a double play as Wright, who had doubled in a run, kept running and was forced out at second.
Pettitte was lifted for a pinch hitter in the seventh after having settled in nicely after the first-inning debacle. He pitched five scoreless innings after that with only two hits allowed, no walks and six strikeouts.
Yanks not so ‘chipper’ as winning streak ends
Chipper Jones has been enjoying his time at Yankee Stadium this week. The Braves’ third baseman will retire at the end of this season and is in smell-the-roses mode. There is definitely a case of mutual respect between Jones and Yankees captain Derek Jeter. The two have chatted it up throughout the two series.
Jones, whose former Atlanta teammate Andruw Jones is now with the Yankees, is one of the game’s greatest switch hitters. His father was a huge Mickey Mantle fan as a kid and taught his son to switch-hit. Before the Yankees and Braves play the finale of their series Wednesday, Jones plans to visit the New York Yankees Museum presented by Bank of America at the Stadium to view the special exhibit on Mantle.
I am not a big fan of inter-league play, but clearly the best thing about it is the opportunity to see great players from the other league in your ballpark. Sure, the Yankees just saw Chipper a week ago in Atlanta, but what a treat to see him at the Stadium. Not all of Jones’ memories of the old Stadium are positive. He was on Braves teams that lost the World Series to the Yankees in 1996 and 1999.
Perhaps there was a sense of revenge achieved as Jones helped the Braves end the Yankees’ 10-game winning streak with a 4-3 victory, only their third loss in 14 inter-league games this year.
Chipper, who has tormented the Mets throughout his career, was in the middle of a lot of stuff Tuesday night. He doubled home a run in the fourth inning off Hiroki Kuroda that tied the score. Jones failed to reach the plate, however, before Jason Heyward was gunned down at third base on a strong throw from Curtis Granderson in center field for the third out. One run scored on Andrelton Simmons’ single to give Atlanta a 3-2 lead, but Heyward was tagged at third by Chavez about a half-second before Jones hit the plate.
The Yankees took advantage of an error by Jones to tie the score in the bottom of the fourth without a hit. With two out and runners on first and second, Russell Martin hit a hard line drive that dipped as it approached Jones and went off his glove, allowing Raul Ibanez to score from second base.
In the sixth, Kuroda clearly pitched around Jones with Brian McCann, who led off the inning with a double, on third base and two out. The deliberate if not intentional walk to Jones preceded a hard grounder by Heyward that went under the glove of first baseman Mark Teixeira and struck him in the left heel and caromed toward second base for a single as Atlanta regained the lead.
Jones helped maintain that lead with a dazzling play to atone for the earlier boot. The Yankees had runners on second and third with one out when Teixeira hit a hard chopper to third that Jones gloved with a backhand scoop on the in-between hop and fired a strike to McCann the catcher to nail Granderson at the plate.
It was a tough loss for the Yankees. One-run losses always are, particularly those in which two runners are thrown out on the bases. Yet those in the crowd of 41,219 at the Stadium got to see why the guy at third base for Atlanta is likely to have a place in Cooperstown in about five years.
Gardner suffers another setback
The Yankees have been without left fielder Brett Gardner for more than six weeks, and it appears that he will not return to action before the All-Star break. Gardner, who has been disabled since April 18 because of a right elbow strain, suffered a setback in his second injury-rehabilitation assignment and will visit two specialists.
The Yankees had hoped Gardner could return for their upcoming trip to Atlanta and Washington, D.C., for a couple of inter-league series, but instead he will be examined by Dr. James Andrews, the noted orthopedic surgeon, and elbow specialist Dr. Tim Kremchek. Gardner reported pain in the elbow when he played for Class A Charleston Friday on injury rehab.
“There is a concern that we won’t have him for a while,” Yankees manager Joe Giardi said. “He seems to get to a point where he can do everything he needs to do. Then when he plays in the game, maybe it is the intensity being turned up a little bit, some swinging and missing, it seems to bother him.”
Gardner played in nine games for the Yankees and hit .321 with two doubles, three RBI and two stolen bases in 28 at-bats. His place in left field has been taken by a platoon of Raul Ibanez and Andruw Jones with DeWayne Wise and Jayson Nix as defensive backups.
The drop-off in defense is the main concern to general manager Brian Cashman, who did not rule out the possibility of a trade. “I don’t want to expose the old guys,” he said, referring to Ibanez, 40, and Jones, 35.
Yankees turn tables on Santana
Johnny Vander Meer’s record of consecutive no-hitters in 1938 remains intact. Mets lefthander Johan Santana in his first start since his historic no-hitter seven days ago at Citi Field was quite the contrary Friday night at Yankee Stadium as the Yankees proved he was very hittable to open the Subway Series with a 9-1 victory.
They flat out teed off against Santana, who last week ended a 51-season drought of no-hitters in the Mets’ history. Robinson Cano ended Santana’s bid for a back-to-back no-hitter by following a leadoff walk to Alex Rodriguez with a two-run home run off a first-pitch fastball. But that was nothing compared to what happened the next inning to Santana, who had a scoreless string of 19 innings ended.
Once again with A-Rod on first base, this time after a two-out single, Cano jumped on the first pitch, a hanging slider, and smoked another home run. Two bombs and four RBI on two swings of the bat from the Yankees’ second baseman. The barrage continued when Nick Swisher and Andruw Jones also connected with long home runs to left field.
It was the first case of back-to-back-to-back home runs for the Yankees since the same three players connected in order in the second inning of the night game of a split-admission doubleheader Aug. 28 last year at Baltimore. It was the first time Santana gave up three homers in a row and the fourth time he allowed four homers in a game.
It was Yankees starter Hiroki Kuroda who flirted with a no-hitter over the first five innings instead of Santana. Kuroda was perfect until one out into the fourth when Derek Jeter botched a grounder by Josh Thole for an error. Kuroda erased that blemish by getting David Wright to ground into a double play. Wright’s bat shattered in such a manner that the top half of the bat landed just to the right of Rodriguez as he was fielding the grounder, which made the play all that much more difficult.
Kuroda had still pitched to the minimum number of batters two outs into the sixth when his no-hit big came to an end as shortstop Omar Quintanilla, the 9-hole hitter, drove a liner to left-center for a two-out double. The sellout crowd of 48,566 accorded Kuroda an appreciative ovation, and he reciprocated by retiring Kirk Nieuwenhuis on a grounder to first base.
Quintanilla’s hit was the only one off Kuroda, whose final out looked like a hockey kick save. Daniel Murphy’s liner to the mound struck Kuroda on the left ankle, shot into the air towards third base and was gloved by Rodriguez for a painful out. Kuroda came out of the game, which was the bad news. The good news was that x-rays were negative, the only thing negative about the night for Kuroda.
With the seven-inning, one-hitter, Kuroda over his past three starts is 2-0 with a 0.82 ERA and has lowered his season ERA from 4.56 to 3.46. The righthander has allowed two earned runs, 12 hits and three walks with 14 strikeouts in 22 innings.
The Yankees even had some hits with runners in scoring position – a ground-rule double by Swisher and a single by Jones in the three-run seventh. The Mets didn’t get on the board until two outs in the ninth on a double by Lucas Duda, only their second hit.
Santana was done after five innings – real done – with six earned runs, seven hits (including four home runs) and one walk with five strikeouts. What a difference a week makes. Mets manager Terry Collins blamed himself for giving Santana two extra days’ rest out of concern for the 134-pitch workload in the no-hitter for a pitcher in the season after serious shoulder surgery.
“We erred on the side of caution, and it cost us a game,” Collins said. “He wasn’t as sharp after the layoff. He left a lot of pitches up, especially the two to Cano.”
But it wasn’t so much about Santana’s failure as it was about Kuroda’s success. While with the Dodgers, Kuroda had problems against the Mets (1-5, 5.75 ERA). The only problem Friday night was being forced out of the game. “Absolutely,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said when asked if Kuroda would have come out for the eighth inning if not for the ankle injury.
“He had great command of his slider and curve and moved his fastball up and down,” Girardi said. “In short, he pitched.”
Yanks keep up the heat heading for Anaheim
With the way the Yankees and the Angels are playing lately, this could be quite a series coming up between them beginning Monday night. The Yankees will arrive in Anaheim on the wings of a five-game winning streak. The Angels, who were mired in last place in the American League West for most of April and May, have won six in a row and moved into second place, albeit 6 ½ games behind the Rangers.
The Yankees have moved up the AL East standings as well (to third place, 2 ½ games behind first-place Baltimore and Tampa Bay) with this hot stretch that has come at the expense of two of the league’s weakest clubs, Kansas City and Oakland. Hey, the Royals and the Athletics are on the schedule, right? You can’t play the Red Sox and Rays every week. Think of how fans would howl if the Yankees had not handled their struggling opponents? In fact, that 6-0 loss last Monday night to KC at Yankee Stadium had a lot of fans howling for improvement.
Well, they have gotten it. Sunday’s nifty, 2-0 victory was marked more by quality pitching than overwhelming hitting, which was a bit different from the previous four victories. The Yankees suffered a setback with runners in scoring position (1-for-11), but the way Hiroki Kuroda was mowing down Oakland hitters inning after inning Andruw Jones’ second-inning home run off lefthander Tommy Milone, the A’s best pitcher, was going to hold up.
The second of two doubles by red-hot Mark Teixeira gave Kuroda another run in the seventh, but he didn’t need it. The righthander fashioned eight shutout innings for the second time this season (the other was the home opener April 13 against the Angels) by keeping the ball down and using an impressive curve. The A’s managed only five hits, all singles, off Kuroda, who walked one and struck out three in lowering his ERA from 4.56 to 3.96.
Kuroda gave a lot of credit to his catcher, Chris Stewart, who caught him for the first time. Stew put on the gear because regular backstop Russell Martin could not play because of a stiff neck. CC Sabathia is 6-0 with Stewart as his catcher, so some of that rubbed off on Kuroda Sunday. The Yanks are 8-4 with a 2.80 ERA when Stewart is behind the plate.
Milone was the ninth starter this season facing the Yankees for the first time in his career, and Sunday’s victory pushed the Bombers’ record in those games to 5-4. Milone was impressive, however, but since a team cannot win a game by the score of zero to minus one he didn’t have a chance.
Not that the Yankees tore the cover off the ball. They are still straining in the clutch, which has been a season-long problem. Even in the winning streak, the Yankees are batting .200 in 40 at-bats with runners in scoring position. They stranded six base runners in the first three innings Sunday. The Yankees are batting .220 with runners in scoring position for the season and .125 in 112 at-bats in those spots since May 13.
Also disturbing is their record with the bases loaded. They had a chance to get on the board in the first inning by filling the bags with one out but did not score. They are a collective 8-for-48 (.167) with the bases loaded this year, which ranks 26th of the 30 big-league clubs, pretty odd for the team that led the majors in hitting with the bags juiced each of the past two seasons.
Fortunately, Sunday’s game was one that did not require slugging. That could change Monday when they run into a club equally sizzling.
Jack O'Connell
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