Dropping the Ball

There are a lot of words that come to mind when trying to describe what I just witnessed for the last two and a half hours. I’ll start with the pleasantries and build to the darker matters, because I like to lead with the good and finish with the bad, for no reason in particular.

It was a great pitchers’ duel, something I did not expect in the least if the Yankees were going to end up losing. To me, this was the type of game with a lopsided Yankees loss written all over it, more so than a gritty, nail-biting heartbreaker decided in the final inning. But Darrell Rasner outperformed any sane person’s expectations and threw an absolute gem. He got through 6.2 innings giving up only 3 hits and 1 run and departed with the game tied at 1, hoping his team would scratch something across against A.J. Burnett or the Jays’ bullpen.

Okay, so…other good news from this game:...

…..Hideki Matsui came back?

Where to begin on the negatives. Might as well start in inning #1: I figured that Johnny Damon’s defense would hurt the team when the merry-go-round on the basepaths began, and runners were going from 1st to 3rd and scoring from 2nd on singles to center. I did not worry about Johnny’s ability to catch the ball when hit his way. After all, he played center for his entire career leading up to this year. But in the first inning, he dropped a routine fly ball hit by Alex Rios that put runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out. Rasner amazingly got out of the jam, but the Yankees had just taken a lead on Burnett and gave their back of the rotation starter some breathing room. To immediately force him to unnecessarily work that hard in the 1st inning was a sure-fire bad sign.

From there on, it was the A.J. Burnett vs. Darrell Rasner Show. It is hard to tell the difference between the Yankees offense struggling and the opposing pitcher being on top of his game. Regardless, for some reason the rest of the league has been able to get to A.J. Burnett. The Yankees, however, can not touch the guy. Jason Giambi, A-Rod, Johnny Damon, they all looked completely overmatched in their at-bats against Burnett. Giambi has been particularly dreadful regardless of his grand slam against Kansas City. He got 1 hit in that entire series, which happened to be that homer, and tonight he struck out a whopping 4 times, including twice with runners in scoring position.

To be shut down again and again by one pitcher makes me question the Yankees’ hitters ability to adjust and determination to overcome adversity. Those are two things that this year’s team seems to completely lack. If a pitcher is said to “have their number” this year, he keeps that number and exploits the team’s hitters again and again. You can look to Josh Beckett, Burnett, Oliver Perez, and Daniel Cabrera for good examples of this. Yet, only one of those guys is what you would call a legitimate “ace” pitcher (Beckett).

Adversity, well that has sunk the Yankees’ chances in many games this year. Unless they are in complete control of a game this year, it has been near impossible for the team to suck it up and fight back, or deal with any random things that go wrong in the course of 9 innings or more.

Johnny Damon dropping an unfathomable second fly ball in the bottom of the 8th inning, costing his team a run, is some serious adversity. How does the team respond in the top of the 9th? By having a leadoff single by A-Rod turn into a 3-6 put-out while Alex was trying to turn a single into a double. The play was made by an outstanding Overbay hustle effort, but Alex could have played it safe and remained at first knowing that it meant the tying run would be on and some good hitters (allegedly) were following him.

Then again, Jason Giambi is no longer a “good hitter” following A-Rod. He predictably recorded his 4th strikeout, this one at least against B.J. Ryan (a night of pitchers with abbreviated first names for Toronto). The thinking is that A-Rod was trying to get something started in the 9th, and I understand that and fault him less than bring the play up to point out how everything possible has gone wrong this year for the Yankees. But you wouldn’t be so adamant about trying to get to 2nd base to lead off if you had more faith in the guy hitting behind you. That’s not to say that A-Rod thought that as he ran towards second, but the sense of urgency would be there because of the #5 man’s struggles.

All in all, a disaster. I am ready to give up hopes of the team finding a way to get red hot and make it into the playoffs, just because it seems as though this group of players can not find any magic to get them anywhere near hot. Playing decent baseball and winning the final games in Yankee Stadium will be enough at this point.

To put a cherry on top of a terribly disappointing night, this story about Carl Pavano pops up. It is completely mind-boggling that as soon as he becomes discussed as a possible option for the Yankees’ pitching staff, he again comes up with an injury. A stiff neck? A stiff neck is going to keep a pitcher who has been out for almost 2 full years from making his potential return to the major leagues? I’m going to probably be the first person writing about baseball to do this, but I’m going to have to go ahead and question Carl Pavano’s fire and desire to pitch for the Yankees.