Game 120 Wrap-Up: LAA 8 NYY 4

(Courtesy of the AP)

Can you believe we've reached the quarter pole of the 2013 season?  It doesn't seem that long ago that we were worrying about CC's velocity, Derek's ankle, and A-Rod's hip.  Now we've moved on to CC's command/weight, A-Rod's suspension, and Derek's... well, ankle still.  The Yankees have fallen out of the lead spot in the AL playoff race, but they're toying with the idea of legitimately pulling back into contention with this little run of 5 wins in 6 games.  The middle of their order has beefed up, and they could have made a statement to the rest of the AL with a win yesterday afternoon and a series sweep of the Angels.  Instead, they got beat by one of their former sub-replacement level middle infielders.  Can't make this stuff up.

Game Notes:

- Phil Hughes was up to his old tricks early yesterday, giving up a 2-out hit on a poorly-located pitch to allow Anaheim to get on the board first after striking out 2 batters in the top of the 1st.  Worse, he gave up the hit to Josh Hamilton's corpse.

- The Yanks evened things up in the bottom of the 3rd on an Alfonso Soriano RBI single.  The inning could have been bigger than just 1 run had Vernon Wells not rapped into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded.

- Hughes didn't keep the game tied for very long.  In fact it only took him 4 batters into the next half-inning to turn the tie into a 3-1 deficit.  I don't know much, but I know it's not good to give up a home run to Chris Nelson after a 10-pitch at-bat where you couldn't put him away with 2 strikes.  His solo shot was his first homer of the year.

- There was no shortage of hits against Angels starter C.J. Wilson.  The Yankees got at least 1 runner on base in all of the first 6 innings.  They also stranded almost all of them and had just the 1 run to show for their 10-hit effort.

- With the game still 3-1 in the top of the 8th, Joe went to Boone Logan in a LOOGY situation and even got the bonus of another out against righty Erick Aybar.  With 2 outs and a runner on second, Joe called for the intentional walk of Mark Trumbo to pitch to Hank Conger.  Logan walked him too, unintentionally, to load the bases and up came Nelson again.  Logan left an 0-1 slider up to him and Nelson snuck it over the fence for the game-clinching grand slam.  I get pitching around Trumbo to get to 2 weak hitters.  I don't get leaving Logan in to face those righties in the first place.

- If you want to, you can talk about the Yankees' token 3-run rally in the bottom of the 9th to make the game respectable.  I'm not.  I'll just say at least they're still hitting.


F*ck Yeahs:

- Soriano: 4-5, 1 R, 1 RBI.  Soriano, so hot right now.  Soriano.

- Robinson Cano: 3-5, 1 2B, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 LOB.  Quietly racking up hits and back to a .300 batting average.

Oh Nos:

- Overbay: 0-4, 2 K, 5 LOB.  They really need to get a right-handed platoon bat for this guy.  Oh hello there, Mark Reynolds.

- Logan: 0.2 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 K.  I know they're righties but come on, dude.  It's fucking Hank Conger and Chris Nelson.  You can't walk and give up home runs to guys like that.

Next Up:

Time for another Sawx series and the Yankees already have their bench and bullpen reinforcements in place.  They'll kick off a weekend series in Boston tonight with lefties Andy Pettitte and Felix Doubront squaring off.