Game 86 Wrap-Up: NYY 3 BAL 2

(Courtesy of the AP)

The Yankees rode back into town on the turnaround high of their 4-game road sweep in Minnesota, and they came home to find the Baltimore Orioles waiting for them.  The O's would be the first opponent in a critical 10-game stretch before the All Star break and the Yankees would face them a week after getting swept out of their place with Ivan Nova on the mound in place of the originally scheduled and banged up Hiroki Kuroda.  Nova proved to be more than up to the task of stepping in for Hirok and he pitched the Yanks to their 5th straight win with a little walk-off help from Vernon Wells.

Game Notes:

- Ivan had his stuff working from the start last night, but looked primed to crumble after he started the top of the 2nd by hitting Chris Davis and giving up a 2-run HR to Matt Wieters 3 pitches later.  The Yanks were in a 2-0 hole early and they needed the whole game to climb out.

- They got 1 back in the bottom of the 4th on a nice little 2-out rally.  Wells singled, Lyle Overbay walked, and shortstop of the week Luis Cruz came through with another RBI hit.

- Nova was, in all honesty, brilliant after the Wieters homer.  He retired the next 12 batters in a row, including striking out the side in the 5th, and he erased the 1 hit he did allow in the 6th on a double play ball.

- The offense blew a prime chance in the bottom of the 5th, loading the bases with 1 out on an intentional walk to Robinson Cano and then failing to drive a run across.

- Nova was undeterred by the lack of run support on his way to the best start of his career.  He allowed just 1 baserunner (walk) in the final 3 frames and racked up 4 more strikeouts.  He was absolutely electric.

- And it paid off in the bottom of the 9th.  David Adams singled to start the inning, Brett Gardner reached on an error, and they moved up on a sac bunt.  After another intentional walk to Cano, the Yanks were in a repeat situation of the 5th.  This time Travis Hafner drew a 4-pitch walk from Jim Johnson to force in the tying run and Wells followed up with a walk-off single to win it.

Friday Afternoon Linkapalooza: 7/5/13

Got the company tickets for tonight's Brewers-Mets game.  Requested 'em planning to catch a Matt Harvey start.  Missed him by 2 days.  Instead I got Zack Wheeler.  So pissed.  Now onto the links!

- On Monday, el duque of It Is High... suggested another lefty DH option.  That short bench could probably use him too.

- A pair of good ones from the IIATMS/TYA team.  On Monday, Domenic Lanza visually represented the Yankees' offensive downturn which, if you're interested in that kind of thing, makes the numbers look even worse than they already did.  Holy balls, this team cannot hit!

- On Tuesday, Mike Eder constructed the worst team possible from the Brian Cashman Era.  That team would have been so bad that they almost would have been fun to watch.

- Martin Riggs of NoMaas pointed out a drastic change in trends for Robinson Cano's 2013 Home/Road batting splits.  Different approach with the short porch?

- Dave Dechenaux of Yanks Go Yard compared the careers of Andy Pettitte and Whitey Ford as Pettite passed The Chairman for the franchise K record this week.

- Daniel Burch of The Greedy Pinstripes had an interview with 2013 11th round pick Kendall Coleman.  Kid's toolsy, that's for sure.

- On Wednesday, Mike Axisa of RAB prioritized the Yankees' trade deadline needs.  If you were thinking "pitching depth," you would be wrong.

- Derek Albin of Pinstriped Bible examined the negative impact CC's diminished fastball might be having on his other pitches.

- SG of RLYW commented on how valuable Brett Gardner has been this season and on the different path he's taking to generate that value.

- On Thursday, Chad Jennings of LoHud had the latest on the A-Rod Rehab Tour and got A-Rod's thoughts on his first 2 games.

- On Friday, Craig Calcaterra of Hardball Talk took down Wally Matthews for his latest idiotic anti-A-Rod post.  Double kudos to Craig for doing it a lot more succinctly than I usually do it.  That's why he gets the big bucks.

For today's jam, we're going with a little more America music.  Since none of the major networks were smart enough to play this classic last night - and why would they with such great American artists like Swedish House Mafia and Rihanna who needed to be played? - we'll ride out on it today.



Enjoy your weekends, everybody.

Cervelli Suffers Setback In His Rehab

Francisco Cervelli really can't catch a break, can he?  The broken hand from April continues to haunt him after the Yankees announced yesterday that he had suffered a stress reaction in his right elbow that will cause him to be shut down for at least 2 weeks.  The team believes he re-aggravated an old elbow problem trying to change his throwing motion to compensate for the hand.  He had been doing throwing and hitting drills in Tampa for a few weeks and was part of the mob expected back sometime after the All Star break but that's off the table.

The question now becomes what will the Yankees do in response?  They have been letting catching upgrade options go by on the waiver wire for the last few weeks despite an obvious need for an offensive upgrade over the Stewart-Romine tandem.  If Cervelli is now out until mid-August or later, will they take a more active approach in looking for that upgrade or will they go with with they've got?

Hey Thanks For Coming Out, Minnesota. We'll See You Again Soon

 

(Courtesy of Getty Images)

(Originally published at IIATMS/TYA)

You gotta love the Twins.  You really do.  Every time the Yankees need a good series they always seem to be available to get stomped on.  Year after year after year after year; postseason series after postseason series after postseason series.  They're the most reliable opponent in recent Yankee history and this week's rendition of that reliability came at the absolute perfect time.  The Yanks were nosediving into the bottom of the AL East, with their starting pitching showing cracks to match the already shattered offense.  After 4 days in the Twin Cities, the Yanks have found their bats, found their bearings, got Robinson Cano completely locked in after a few good games to end June, and swept the Twins out of their own park as they head back home for an important 10-game stretch before the All Star break.  Heck, Minnesota was even nice enough yesterday to confirm once and for all that Joba Chamberlain should not be used in any situation other than an absolute blowout.  And they did it without affecting the outcome of the game.

Game 85 Wrap-Up: NYY 9 MIN 5

(Bump it.  Courtesy of Getty Images)

"Good job, Twins!  Good effort!  Thanks for playing.  We'll see you again next week when we need to dish out another season-saving ass whooping."

Seriously, that was a huge series for the Yanks.  They were down on the mat being counted out after the sweep in Baltimore and they answered the bell by responding with a 4-game road sweep of the lowly Twins.  The offense has woken up in a big way, and they put this game away early yesterday.  David Phelps had a nice start, something he really needed, and the Yanks head back home for 10 feeling good about themselves.  How's that for a nice 4th of July present?

Game Notes:

- The Yanks came out swinging against rookie Kyle Gibson, putting 3 runs on the board in the first 5 batters.  2 doubles from Ichiro and Travis Hafner and 2 singles from Zoilo and Vernon Wells (off a righty) around a Robinson Cano sac fly sandwich and the Yanks were off and running.

- They tacked 2 more on in the 3rd when Wells doubled home a run (off a righty again) and new SS Luis Cruz singled him in to make it 5-0.  Much better game for Cruz than his first one on Thursday.

- Minnesota got 1 back on a now rare Justin Morneau HR in the 5th, but Phelps was pretty good through 5. He gave up a few hits here and there, nothing new for him.  He also made pitches when he needed to and worked out of trouble well.

- The lineup put the game away in 6th, with more unusual suspects contributing.  Cruz doubled to put runners on second and third with no outs and Alberto Gonzalez singled home a run.  Ichiro came up with a big 2-run triple and scored on Zoilo Almonte's groundout and it was a 9-1 game.

- Phelps ran out of gas in the 7th and watched as Joba Chamberlain and Boone Logan combined to sully his final line.  Those 2 faced 6 batters and let 4 reach base.

- Shawn Kelley and David Robertson had to clean up the 8th and 9th innings and they did it properly, retiring all 6 men they faced in a row and striking out 3.

Happy 4th Of July From AB4AR

Hope everybody is having a great 4th already.  If you haven't yet, go outside, have a beer, and eat something grilled.  It's the American way.  Blog will be back tomorrow.

Game 84 Wrap-Up: NYY 3 MIN 2

(Courtesy of the AP)

Can the Yankees just play the Twins all the time?  Seriously.  The Yanks stumbled into Minnesota playing some of the worst and most inconsistent baseball you've ever seen and since arriving at Target Field it's like everything has started to come back together.  The offense is producing more regularly, they're back to making the most out of even small rallies, and they're getting hits when they need to.  They supported CC Sabathia in just 1 inning last night but it was enough to give him a lead and another shot at his 200th career win.  This time he came through.  Congrats, big guy.

Game Notes:

- Sabathia gave up a cheap run on a leadoff walk and an RBI double by Joe Mauer to start the bottom of the 3rd.  A Cruz error could have meant more but CC made pitches and got out of the inning without further damage.

- CC gave up another run on a Trevor Plouffe solo HR in the bottom of the 5th to make it 2-0, and the Yankees lineup did NOTING against P.J. Walters.  Through 5 they had just 3 total baserunners and only 1 hit.  Pretty it was not.

- When the batting order turned over to start the 6th, it was like everything clicked.  Brett Gardner walked on 4 pitches to lead off the inning, Ichiro and Robinson Cano doubled to bring in 2 runs, and a Lyle Overbay sac fly gave New York a 3-2 lead.

- That was all they'd get and it was all they would need.  CC made the lead stand up through the 7th and gave the ball to D-Rob and Mo to do what they do.  The Yanks are officially back on a winning streak.

Cano Locks Right Back In

(Originally published at IIATMS/TYA)

June was a pretty mediocre month for Robinson Cano by his standards (.275/.395/.418, .345 wOBA).  The elevated BB rate was nice, but the low average and lack of power were crippling in the middle of the batting order when almost everybody else around him was regressing at the speed of sound.  And Robbie started to hear about it from the fans.  The calls for the Yankees to not re-sign him, foolish as they may be, became greater and the whispers about trading him at the deadline grew louder.

Cano has predictably turned things around quickly in the last handful of days.  He's 12-21 in his last 5 games with 4 HR, 8 RBI, 8 R, 1 BB, and not a single strikeout.  The switch has been flipped and he's locked in again.  But what was the real cause of his June swoon?  The guys in the ESPN broadcast booth on Sunday night, John Kruk in particular, were convinced that Robbie was struggling due to him expanding his strike zone and trying to do too much with everybody else around him slumping.  This made little sense to me considering Robbie's BB rate in June was as high as we've ever seen it as 15.8% in 114 PA, and including intentional walks he was given 23 free passes.  You just don't walk that much as a notorious free swinger if you're expanding your strike zone, and the pitch plots from last month agree:

A-Rod & Nunez Start Their Rehab Assignments

(Courtesy of the AP)

The ongoing below-replacement level saga in the Yankee infield got a boost for the near future yesterday when both Alex Rodriguez and Eduardo Nunez appeared in a MiL rehab game playing for Low-A Charleston.

For Rodriguez, it was his first rehab game of his 20-day window and he finished it without doing anything on the field to injure himself or saying anything off the field to cause a stir.  He went 0-2 at the plate with a K and a GIDP in 3 innings and a challenging day in the field on 2 bunt attempts that he came through without any reported physical issues.

For Nunez, yesterday was his third rehab game after playing 2 with High-A Tampa.  He went 2-3 yesterday and played 7 innings at short and now has 3 singles and a walk in 7 rehab PA.  He'll be eligible to come off the DL during the All Star Break, with A-Rod becoming eligible a few days later.  It's hard to think of Nunez as an upgrade, but both he and A-Rod will be welcome additions to the right side of that infield as long as they don't suffer any setbacks.

Kuroda To Miss His Next Start

As first reported by David Waldstein late last night, Hiroki Kuroda returned to New York earlier this week to have some tests run on a sore left leg issue.  An MRI revealed it to be a sore left hip flexor, nothing too serious but enough that Kuroda will be skipped when his spot comes up in the rotation again on Friday and Ivan Nova will start in his place.

Joe didn't sound overly concerned talking to the media about the injury after the game, which is good news.  It's still best to err on the side of caution with a pitcher Kuroda's age and missing 1 start isn't huge cause for concern.  I have to think the team would have put him on the 15-day DL if they felt it was necessary.  This probably explains why a move wasn't made with Nova yesterday to add a man to the bench after Nix's hamstring problem was announced.

Game 83 Wrap-Up: NYY 7 MIN 3

(Courtesy of Getty Images)

An already short and terrible bench got even shorter before last night's game when Joe announced that Jayson Nix was out with a tight hamstring and could miss a couple days.  The last thing the Yankees needed was to lose another position player, what with the amount of available reserves at a premium.  And maybe that was the reason they decided to not make a roster move to call somebody up before the game and only went with a 2-man bench.  Because that decision didn't really make a whole lot of sense to me, especially with Ivan Nova still unavailable after throwing that long relief session over the weekend.  But out they went, and win they did.

Game Notes:

- Strong start for Phil Hughes.  He gave up a run on a Joe Mauer single in the 3rd and looked primed for the big inning in the 4th after putting runners on second and third with nobody out.  But he got 2 straight strikeouts and a groundball out to escape without any further damage.

- He got picked up by his offense in the top of the 5th as a reward.  Alberto Gonzalez came up with runners on the corners and drove them both home with a double down the right field line, and Ichiro tacked one on with an infield single to make it 3-1.

- The Yanks really opened it up in the 7th.  A David Adams 1-out double and another Gonzalez hit scored 1 run, and a few batters later Robinson Cano put the game out of reach with a 2-out, 3-run HR.

- Hughes was solid after his 4th inning Houdini act.  He gave up just 1 hit and 1 walk in his final 3 innings of work and didn't allow a runner to reach second base.  Second straight really good outing for Phil.

- Bit of a rough go for Preston Claiborne in the 9th.  He got touched up for 2 runs and had to have Mariano Rivera come clean up his mess.  Worth it to give the regulars a night off though.

- 4 hits, 4 R scored, and 3 RBI from the 8-9 hitters, a 5th straight game of 2+ hits for Cano, and a second straight Yankee victory.  I'll take all that.

The Return Of The Old Guy Outfield Platoon

(Courtesy of the AP)

(Originally published at IIATMS/TYA)

The Yankees won for the first time in almost a week last night.  And they did it with one of their most recently productive bats on the bench to start the game.  With a left-handed starter on the mound, Joe elected to sit Ichiro Suzuki, probably for rest more than anything, and start Vernon Wells in right field.  With Zoilo Almonte looking good in his Major League debut and solidifying his role as the starting left fielder, right field turned back into the L/R platoon the Yankees always envisioned it, for one night at least.  With the way things worked out last night, Joe might want to consider going to that well more often.

AB4AR "Best Of The Month" Awards: June 2013

It feels strange picking "Best Of" awards after such a poor month for the Yankees.  Their 11-16 record was made even more depressing by how pitiful the offense became as players crashed back to regression earth or got re-injured, and the resulting lifelessness their games took on really started to test the patience of the fanbase. But believe it or not, there were a few bright, shiny moments and month-long displays of good baseball from a few guys, so to get some good vibes going in a new month where the boys are currently undefeated let's look back on those now.

Oh Really... ?

Braves, Giants Interested In Joba Chamberlain http://t.co/FeYGaY8uUN #mlb
— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) July 2, 2013

Saw this tweet come out from MLB Trade Rumors a little while ago, and while I have to say it's a bit surprising given how awful he's been recently, it's also good news for the Yankees and something I hope they pursue if this interest turns out to be more than just testing the waters.

I said earlier in the year it was better to wait until closer to the deadline to discuss trade scenarios for Joba.  Well, we're there now and it definitely bears talking about if the market is still there for him.  Joba has been really bad since coming off the DL (9.35/7.32 ERA/FIP split in June) and has been relegated to "only use when trailing" duty behind Shawn Kelley and Preston Claiborne.  As a free agent after this season, he's unlikely to re-sign with the Yankees and this could be their last chance to get something meaningful out of him.  They shouldn't expect much in return, but as a team that needs a lot of help the Yankees should definitely be willing to engage Atlanta and San Fran to try to get something useful back.

Game 82 Wrap-Up: NYY 10 MIN 4

(Courtesy of Getty Images)

A change of scenery from New York to Baltimore didn't do much to turn things around for the Yankees.  Maybe a change in time zone would.  They started a 4-game series in Minnesota last night - an hour behind in my neck of the woods - with Andy Pettitte on the mound.  That was the good news.  The bad news was that they had both Vernon Wells and Travis Hafner in the lineup against a lefty starter hitting 4th and 5th.  That's about as little protection as Joe can offer Robinson Cano right now, and if Twins starter Scott Diamond could safely navigate his way around Cano he could have had an easy night in front of him.

Game Notes:

- He did a pretty poor job of it in the top of the 1st.  Diamond threw 4 straight fastballs and missed with 3 to put Cano into a great hitter's count.  He threw a 5th 4-seamer and Cano parked it way out in center field for a 1-0 Yankee lead.

- Andy didn't do much to inspire confidence in the bottom of the 1st.  He missed his spots with 2 strikes, walked 2 batters, and made a blooper reel-worthy error on his way to a 42-pitch, 3-run frame.

-  Cano came up with a runner on in the top of the 3rd and once again Diamond tried to go to the fastball well.  It was a 87 MPH one and Cano took it to left field this time for a 2-run homer and a tie ballgame.

- After needing 42 pitches for the 1st, Andy settled down and worked the next 3 in just 28.  He had some difficulty finishing off the 5th and it might have cost him in the 6th when he left a 2-2 slider up to Chris Parmalee that turned into a go-ahead solo HR.  It was Andy's first HR allowed to a lefty this year.

- Cano continued to will the offense forward with a leadoff double in the 8th, and Ichiro reached on a bunt single to put runners on the corners with no outs.  Relief pitcher Jared Burton did the work for Hafner by throwing a ball away to score Cano, and a Zoilo Almonte GB single through short gave the Yanks the lead.

- The offense tacked in 5 (holy shit 5!!!) more insurance runs in their final 4 outs, D-Rob and Mo actually got to do their jobs for a change, and the Yankees got back on the right side of the ledger.

What's Become Of The Yankee Way?

(Joe's running out of options here.  Courtesy of the AP)

(Originally published at IIATMS/TYA)

The Yankees wake up this morning at the halfway point of the 2013 regular season.  All things considered, it could be said that it's a positive that they sit 42-39 and still very much in the thick of things in both the AL East and Wild Card races.  After all the injuries they suffered and with the way they went about replacing those injured players, there were many who signaled this season as the start of the rebuilding process and predicted a last place finish in the division.  A closer look at the last month of play, however, reveals numbers and outcomes much more predictive of that end result than a playoff berth.  The Yankees left Baltimore losers of 5 straight, owners of some of the most hideous offensive statistics in recent memory, a -16 run differential that's much more telling about how they've played than their W-L record, and with no signs of relief or hope for a turnaround in sight.

BREAKING NEWS: He's BAAAAAaaaack

Update on Alex Rodriguez...cleared by the Yankees to begin rehab assignment and will head to @ChasRiverDogs tomorrow nite (7/2) to play
— Yankees PR Dept. (@YankeesPR) July 1, 2013

Well sort of.  Nobody has to get told to shut the fuck up on this because it went through the properly scrubbed Yankee PR channels, and everybody kinda already knew this from last week, but it's still big news.    Alex Rodriguez will officially start his MiL rehab assignment tomorrow night in a game for Low-A Charleston.  He'll start at third base and play a minimum of 3 innings.

This marks the final significant step in his return from his latest hip surgery, and also will officially start A-Rod's 20-day rehab window.  There's really no telling how much of that time he's going to need, but I can't imagine the Yankees not taking the cautious approach with him.  Despite all the BS with the media and the conspiracy theories, the Yanks have to be smart enough to realize they need A-Rod on the field and in the lineup.  He should get as much of that 20 days as he needs to come back fully healthy and ready to contribute.

It's not much by way of speed, but it's something.  The A-Horse is riding again.

Oh, Vern...

(Courtesy of Texas Leaguers)

Look at that.  Just look.  That's absolutely terrible.  It's brutally damning.  Vernon Wells is done.  D-U-N.  He only hit 1 ball to the warning track last month in 77 plate appearances and didn't even come close to doing it again.  He hit .133/.143/.177 last month, with just 1 walk and 17 strikeouts.  I think I could go up to the plate 77 times, just stand there with the bat on my shoulder, and probably generate a higher OPS than that in a month.  Totally kidding but not really.

Looking at the pitch result breakdowns, it's not easy to see why Wells has fallen off the productivity cliff.  If you throw him an offspeed pitch, he's going to swing and miss it.  You throw him any kind of fastball, he isn't going to get around on it fast enough to generate any kind of solid contact, forget about power.  It's not surprising that he got bested by that pitching machine a little while back.  He just doesn't have anything left.

Can Fernando Martinez Actually Help Right Now?

For as long as he's been an organizational depth piece instead of the former top prospect he was, there was understandably little fanfare when the Yankees traded for Fernando Martinez from Houston a few weeks back.  The real goal of that move was to make sure the team had enough warm bodies out there in the Triple-A outfield after the rash of injuries they suffered.

But since being acquired, Martinez has somewhat surprisingly hit incredibly well for SWB.  In 54 plate appearances, Martinez has a batting line of .378/.463/.667, good for a .484 wOBA.  Considering he was hitting just .219/.291/.371 for the Astros' Triple-A affiliate prior to the trade, that's borderline unbelievable.  Martinez has looked much more like the elite prospect he was expected to be than the complete disaster he'd become as a hitter in the last few weeks, and with all the problems the Yankees are having in their lineup it begs the question of whether or not they should consider calling him up.

Game 81 Wrap-Up: BAL 4 NYY 2

(Courtesy of the AP)

Hiroki Kuroda on the mound used to mean a win was in the cards for the Yanks.  These days, it feels like they'd be the underdog even with Bob Gibson in his prime out there.  It was another lackluster loss last night to complete a sweep at the hands of the Orioles, something that hasn't happened in 8 years.  I live blogged the game and you can catch up on all the finer details here.  Lowlights from the affair are below.

Game Notes:

- Kuroda didn't make many mistakes last night, but the ones he did were enough to sink the Yanks.  He gave up a solo HR in each of the first 3 innings, 2 of them on hanging sliders to Manny Machado and Nate McLouth.  By the time he got his location under control, the Yanks were already behind and never came back.

- As has become the norm for them, the Yankees didn't take advantage of the mistakes Chris Tillman made. He seemed primed to unravel in the top of the 2nd and all they could muster was a single run on a bases loaded walk.  Robinson Cano's solo HR was the only other scoring for the night.

- I mentioned it last night, but it bears repeating again.  The Yanks NEED to ditch the 13-man pitching staff and add a bat to that bench, preferably a left-handed one.  They had potential rallies in the 7th and 9th innings that were snuffed out because the righty lower third of the lineup (Nix, Stewart, Adams) is awful and incapable of generating anything.  The Yankees' own offensive woefulness did more to kill their chances of scoring late last night than Baltimore's pitching did.

Sunday Night Yanks-O's "Might As Well Watch This Ship Go Down" Live Blog

(So appropriate)

The Yankees and the Orioles are the ESPN "Sunday Night Baseball" game tonight, and as much as it pains me to have to watch with the way they're playing right now, I can't not watch them when I have the chance.  So with the play on the field being of little entertainment, I figured I could try to make tonight's game a little more watchable with the first live blog since Opening Day.  The Yanks send Hiroki Kuroda to the hill tonight to try to salvage something from this series.  Here's the lineup that will attempt to support him:

1) Brett Gardner- CF
2) Ichiro Suzuki- RF
3) Robinson Cano- 2B
4) Travis Hafner- DH
5) Zoilo Almonte- LF
6) Lyle Overbay- 1B
7) Jayson Nix- SS
8) Chris Stewart- C
9) David Adams- 3B

First pitch is set for a little after 8 PM EST/7 PM Central.  Live blog will start sometime shortly before then.

Get Ready For More No-Name Roster Additions

Earlier today, Chad Jennings reported that both Josh Bell and Adonis Garcia were officially activated off the Triple-A disabled list.  Both players have spent the bulk of the MiL season out and just began their rehab work recently in the lower levels.  Even though neither are household names by any stretch of the imagination, they represent another opportunity for the Yankees to marginally upgrade their roster and add some desperately needed offensive options to their completely decimated and unproductive lineup.

Bell, 26, has played in the Majors before and offers a ton of flexibility, both at the plate as a switch hitter and in the field as a guy capable of playing both outfield and infield corners.  Garcia, also 26, was an unheralded international signing out of Cuba - one I've profiled before - and could stand to get his shot at reaching the show thanks to the Major League roster's offensive ineptitude and injuries to Ronnier Mustelier and Brennan Boesch.

It's highly unlikely that either of these guys will make much of an impact, but with their season and postseason hopes starting to crumble around them the Yankees need to do something.  The 3-man bench isn't working for them and there's little need for 8 guys in the bullpen.  I wouldn't be surprised to see another move or two made in next day or so.

Game 80 Wrap-Up: BAL 11 NYY 3

This is starting to get sad.  That's all that you can really say right now.  The Yankees just don't hit, at all.  Ever.  It doesn't matter if they get a great starting pitching performance, a good one, a decent one, or an absolute horseshit one like David Phelps gave them yesterday.  This team is folding its tent as we speak and there's a good chance they head into the All Star Break in 4th place or even 5th in this division.  It's hard to say they no-showed with 11 hits last night; that's better than nothing.  With what Phelps gave them in his start though, nothing would have been just as helpful.

Game Notes:

- It was ugly right from the start last night.  The Yanks strung together 3 straight hits in the top of the 1st only to come away with nothing, and Phelps responded by giving up 4 in the bottom half, the big blow a 3-run homer by Chris Davis.

- He managed to keep Baltimore off the board in the 2nd, then melted down big time in the 3rd.  After getting the first out of the inning, Phelps went walk, single, walk, single, HR to the next 5 batters and was lifted after giving up 5 more runs.  Less than a third of the way through the game and it was 9-0.

- Even when the Yankees did score in the top of the 6th it was pathetic.  With the bases loaded and 1 out, they got a run on a Zoilo Almonte sac fly and another on a fielding error.  The Bronx Bombers these guys are not.

- Davis hit his 2nd HR of the game - and 30th(!) of the year - in the bottom of the 6th.  Even as an opponent, you have to marvel at what he's doing this season.  That was the only stain on an otherwise solid relief outing by Ivan Nova.

- Brett Gardner doubled in a run in the 9th for the final Yankee run.  Not that it mattered.

Some Not So Fun Yankee Facts

- The Yankees have lost 4 of their last 5 games, 6 of their last 9, 11 of their last 16, and 19 of their last 31.

- They've scored 4 or fewer runs in 6 of their last 10 games and 14 of their last 20.

- In the month of June, they rank dead last in MLB in: Runs (83), Home Runs (17), SLG (.326), wOBA (.270), and wRC+ (65)

- They rank second to last in: Hits (181), RBI (80), Batting Average (.221), and OBP (.287)

- For the season, their team batting line is now down to .239/.301/.379 (.297 wOBA, 83 wRC+).  If the entire Yankee offense was one player, they would be Drew Stubbs.  That sound you hear is this team's ship sinking.  Something needs to change with the construction of this roster and it needs to change soon.

Game 79 Wrap-Up: BAL 4 NYY 3

(I feel ya, bro.  Courtesy of Getty Images)

There was a bit of confusion yesterday afternoon when the Yankees announced that David Phelps had been scratched from his scheduled start and CC Sabathia would pitch in his place.  After a brief stir of wondering what happened to Phelps, it turned out last night was always supposed to be CC's scheduled day to pitch and a mistake had been made in setting the rotation order for the series.  It was CC's first shot at getting his 200th career win, an impressive milestone for any pitcher in any era but one even more impressive in today's baseball world where 300 now looks out of the question.  Sabathia looked well on his way to getting that win early before things fell apart in the later innings.  Once again, the Yankee offense was nowhere to be found to help him in those late innings and the Yanks lost their 3rd straight.

Game Notes:

- The lineup wasted no time in getting CC a lead in the top of the 1st.  Brett Gardner doubled to lead off the game, came around to score an a single by Robinson Cano, and it was 1-0.

- They stretched it to 3-0 in the top of the 3rd on a pair of RBI singles by Vernon Wells and Chris Stewart.  Jayson Nix and Cano set the table with singles of their own and the cushion was built.

- CC made it stand up through 5 innings with little issue.  In fact, he didn't allow a single hit in those 5 innings.  He had all his pitches working, threw them at different times in the count, and used his slider to neutralize the big Baltimore lefty hitters.  Dude was cruising.

- Then he hit a speed bump in the 6th.  After a Nate McLouth single and an Alexi Casilla infield single that David Adams basically let happen by trying to field the ball at first instead of covering the bag, Manny Machado doubled to right to score them both.  He came around to tie the game on another infield single off the bat of Adam Jones.

- McLouth struck the final death blow in the next inning, crushing a hanging 1-0 slider to right for the go-ahead HR.  CC stormed off the mound and threw a bit of a tantrum in the dugout after the inning and with good reason.  He let the game get away after being handed a lead.

- But give the offense credit.  They did their part to make sure there would be comeback, failing to get even 1 baserunner to second base or beyond from the 4th inning on.  You pretty much have to make no mistakes with this group supporting you right now, and CC made too many mistakes in the 6th-7th innings.