Game 25 Wrap-Up: KC 4 NYY 3

(Good morning, Mr. Phelps.  Courtesy of The AP)

Freddy Garcia's spot in the rotation is dead.  Long live Freddy's rotation spot.  Taking that spot was David Phelps, and last night was Phelps' first career Major League start.  As if making your Major League debut wasn't stressful enough, Phelps had his family in the house and was facing a lineup with plenty of good young hitters in Kansas City.  About the only thing that made it less stressful was the game taking place in KC and not The Stadium.

Game Notes:

- It goes without saying that everything that happened in the game last night took a backseat to the shocking injury that befell Mariano Rivera during BP.  Just an incredible amount of terrible luck to suffer an injury doing something that he's probably done tens, if not hundreds, of times during his career.

- Baseball was still played, and Phelps was game in his first start.  He threw a lot of strikes, attacked hitters, and exhibited solid control of his stuff as he generated 5 strikeouts to 0 walks through 4 innings.  His problem was that he missed his spots in the zone a little too often and it cost him a few runs.

- Phelps was done after 4 because of the 85 pitches he threw, and he left down 2-1, but all things considered I would say it was a pretty good first start.  He kept the Yankees in the game and they had a chance to win when he left.

- The Yankee offense showed more life than it had in the previous 2 games, putting 7 baserunners on in the first 5 innings.  But struggles with RISP (1-6 through 5) kept them a run behind in the game.  The lone early run came on a pair of doubles by Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira.

- Clay Rapada and D.J. Mitchell had a rough go in the 5th trying to pick up Phelps, and allowed 2 more runs, but the bullpen was generally good again on a night where they were asked to carry more of the load than usual.

- The Yankee offense continued to chip away, led by Jeter's 4 hits.  They scratched a run across in the 6th on a pair of singles and a sac fly from Eduardo Nunez, and then another in the 7th on the same method, with the sac fly coming from Teix.

- It looked like things were set up for a comeback in the 9th after a leadoff single from Jeter and a walk to C-Grand, but Teix grounded a 1-1 fastball into a double play to end the major threat, and A-Rod grounded out with Jeter on third to end it.


F*ck Yeahs:

- Jeter: 4-5, 1 2B, 2 R, 1 K.  Even when he has a bad night this season, it doesn't seem to affect him.  He just comes back the next day and sticks 3 more hits in your eye.

- Andruw Jones: 3-4.  He had really looked bad at the plate lately, so 3 hits to boost his BA back over .200 is a good thing.

Oh Nos:

- Robinson Cano: 1-4, 1 R, 2 K, 6 LOB.  It seems like there's at least one instance every game where Cano has a prime run-scoring opportunity and he keeps failing to come through.  Sooner or later this slump has to turn around.

- Mariano Rivera: The MRI on his injured knee revealed a torn ACL and meniscus, and it's likely that Mo will miss the rest of the season.  Watching him speak to the media after the game about the injury and his future was incredibly difficult.

- RISP Fail: 1-9 as a team, 10 team LOB.

/shakes head in disgust

Next Up:

Game 2 of this weekend series is tonight.  CC Sabathia will be looking to keep his hot streak going against Bruce Chen, and the Yankees will once again be looking to him to carry the pitching staff after a taxing inning to the bullpen last night.  The gloomy cloud that was already hanging over this team got a lot bigger and a lot more gloomy last night.  They need something good to happen tonight.