Kuroda, Nova, And Pray For Rain

It's been 1 turn through the rotation since I wrote my post calling out the Yankee rotation for its downward trend in July.  In that last turn, here's how the results broke down:

- Kuroda/Nova: 14 IP, 9 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 16 K

- CC/Hughes/Andy: 11 IP, 28 H, 17 R (all earned), 7 BB, 9 K

Hiroki Kuroda and Ivan Nova pitched near identical gems just 2 days apart, holding their opponents scoreless and yet they only came up with 1 win even though they deserved 2.  The other 3 combined for a 13.91 ERA and 3.18 WHIP in fewer total innings than Kuroda and Nova pitched, and each got the loss they undoubtedly deserved.  Obviously wins and losses are far from the best way to judge pitching performance, but when it's the kind of performances shown above they're more than accurate.  That's not night and day, it's night on the darkest side of the moon versus day on the surface of the sun.

It's hard for a team, any team, to stay competitive when 60% of its starting rotation is pitching this poorly.  It's even harder for a team to stay competitive in that situation when its offense is as weak as the Yankees still is.  They're now 6-10 since the ASB, the worst record in MLB.  It's not hard to understand why.