Games 70 and 71. Yanks split DH.

Game 1: Yanks win 6-4. Lyle Overbay hit a 2-run double and Ichiro went 3-4, HR (3) and 3 RBI.

Hiroki Kuroda pitched 6 2/3. 2 R 8 H 1 walk and 2 K. He goes to 7-5, 2.78.

Shawn Kelley 1/3 IP. K. 4.73.

Preston Claiborne had a blip. 1/3, 2 R, 2 H, 0 walks and 0 K. 1.69.

David Robertson 2/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 2 walks and 0 K. 2.86.

Mo got save #25 on the year and #633 for his career. 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 walks and 2 K. 1.73.

Game 2: A 6-0 loss. The Yanks got just 3 hits & Phil Hughes was disappointing again.

Hughes fell to 3-6, 5.09. 6 IP, 5 R, 10 H, 0 walks and 3 K.

I’ve defended him (after all, he won 16 last year and 18 in 2010) but Hughes, a free agent after the year, won’t be back. You’d like to move him at the deadline, but who will take a two-month rental? Hughes, a flyball pitcher, may do well in a big ballpark, for example SD, SF or Detroit.

David Phelps has surpassed Hughes on the depth chart. If Nuno were healthy and not on the minor league DL, I’d advocate Hughes be pulled from the rotation for Nuno who had three very good starts.

Michael Pineda may be ready in a month or so.

One option is this: Swap Warren and Hughes. Give Warren a start and make Hughes the long man.

Warren tossed three innings tonight to lower his ERA to 3.11. You may remember that he tossed six scoreless in that 18-inning loss in Oakland last week.

Warren: 3 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 0 walks and 1 K.

Vernon Wells is down to .224. Brignac is now 4 for 41 as a Yankee. Austin Romine is now 7 for 55 for the season.

The Yanks have to find another backup c. Romine needs more seasoning. He is an automatic out. Brignac is also bad. You have two guys on the squad right now a combined 11 for 96 as Yankees. That’s barely above .110. .110! Pitchers can hit better than that.

The minors today.

AAA: SWB lost 4-3. Brett Marshall 4 R in 6 IP. Francisco Rondon 3 scoreless IP. Catcher J.R. Murphy solo HR. DH Randy Ruiz solo HR.

AA: 5-1 Trenton win. Sean Black 1 R in 6 IP. 3B Reegie Corona solo HR. C Francisco Arcia solo HR. LF Ramon Flores 2-run HR. CF Slade Heathcott and RF Tyler Austin 2 hits each.

High A: Tampa lost 9-4 in 11 innings. CF Ben Gamel 3 hits (HR short of cycle) 1 RBI. SS Ali Castillo 2 hits, rbi.

Game 70. Yanks ppd.

The Yanks were ppd. tonight. They will play a day/night DH on Wednesday, thus postponing the return of #23 (retired) Don Mattingly to the Bronx (albeit as Dodgers manager).

Kuroda will start the afternoon game vs. Ryu, and Hughes the nightcap. Even though the Yanks didn’t play, there was a lot going on behind the scenes.

Teix to the 15-day DL. Youk needs surgery for a herniated disk in his back. Youk out 10-12 weeks which means a return after Labor Day.

Screw it, just shut him down for the rest of the year and (since it’s a one -year deal) let him go.

 Adam Warren was brought back up along with switch-hitting OF Zoilo Almonte.

Chris Bootcheck was DFA’d.

The minors.

AAA: SWB split a DH.

Game 1: 10-1 loss.  Caleb Cotham 5 R in 2 1/3. EIGHT walks. 2 H each for RF Addison Maruszak, LF Zoilo Almonte, 1B Dan Johnson and DH Randy Ruiz (just signed).

Game 2: 5-3 win. Graham Stoneburner 1 R in 4 IP. Chase Whitley 2 scoreless for the W. C Bobby Wilson 3-run HR. 2 hits for Ruiz, double and RBI Maruszak.

AA: Trenton off.

High A:  6-4 loss. Bryan Mitchell 5 R in 5 IP. 2b Rob Refsnyder 2 hits. 1B Saxon Butler solo HR.

Low A: Charleston off.

LF Michael O’Neill, just drafted, 2 for 4, double in Staten Island’s opener (short-season league).

The minors today.

AAA: SWB lost 5-4 in 11 to Lehigh Valley. Ivan Nova 3 R, 1 ER in 6 2/3. CF Cody Grice 2 h. LF Zoilo Almonte 3 h, rbi. SS Alberto Gonzalez (who I’d rather have than Brignac, lefty/righty hitter be damned) 3 hits, rbi (and Gonzalez isn’t known for his bat; but still, Brignac IS 4 for 40). 3B Dan Fiorito 2 h. Dellin Betances with the loss.    

AA: Trenton lost 2-1. Mikey O’Brien 2 R, 1 ER in 6 IP. SS Reegie Corona and 2B Jose Pirela 2 h each.

High A: Tampa off. All-Star break.

Low A: A tough night as AAA/AA and A- all lost tough ones. 2-1 loss. Cesar Vargas (5 IP) and Dietrich Enns (4) teamed up to K 11. Enns run he gave up was unearned (0.61). 1B Greg Bird 2 hits.

Game 69. Yanks snap losing streak, escape vs. Angels 6-5.

It looked good going into the bottom of the 9th. Yanks up 6-0 and CC doing well.

It ended 6-5 when Mo had to strike out Pujols with the bases loaded to end the game.

The Yanks got five in the third when Travis Hafner broke an 0 for 23 skid with a two-out, 3-run HR (11). Wells then singled, Overbay doubled him in and Nix (3 hits) singled in Overbay. For the way this team has been lately, it was an offensive eruption.

A double by Cano, groundout by Hafner and SF by Wells made it 6-0 in the eighth and the Yanks needed it.

The first two men reached on CC in the 9th.

CC (7-5, 3.93) 8 IP, 2 R, 5 H, 3 walks and 6 K.

Robertson could only get one out.

1/3 IP, 2 R, 1 H, 1 walk and 1 K. 2.93.

Mo finished it, barely, but was hardly vintage Mo. Save #24 and #632 of his career.

2/3 IP, 1 R, 3 H, 1 walk and 1 K. 1.80.

Reid Brignac (ugh) an 0 for 4 and he is now 4 for 40 as a Yankee.  I hate picking on him everyday but it is what it is.       

The Yanks are off Monday (travel day) as they come home. They welcome Donnie Baseball and the Dodgers for a two-game set Tues. and Wed.

Game 69. Lineup, stats and comments

Anything to shake up the lineup. Ichiro moves to #2 today. I don’t think he (OBP .304) should be there, but whatever works.

Yanks 37-31, 3rd in A.L. East, 4 games back. Three games better than Pythagorean record (they have scored just 3 more runs than given up, and the Pythagorean suggests that they should be 34-34 right now).

OPS+ 87, ERA+ 111. Average is 100, so you can see how weak the offense is.

No news yet on Teixeira. He could be done for the year. It’s obvious he rushed back too soon. (.151-3-12 on 8 for 53 hitting, 19 K & OPS+ 66).

BA/HR/RBI    SB/Total attempts   OPS+   Comments   Team leader
OPS+ way below average (100)

Gardner 8  .283-6-28  10/15  117
   Would you believe 4th on team in RBI and 2nd in OPS+? 1st in B.A.
Ichiro 9 .267-2-11  8/11  77    .304 OBP isn’t that suited for the 2 slot (and it’s even lower than Nix’s), but what can you do? Get speed up top.
Cano 4 .278-16-42  3/3  133    .278 is low for Robbie. 
Hafner DH .219-10-29  2/2  108    7 for 60 since May 21 (.117)
Wells 7 .229-10-26  4/7  78   Another year under contract. Not good. Since May 14, 12 for 97 (.124). Middle of lineup awful over the last month (that includes Teixeira and the Dl’d Youkilis).
Overbay 3 .240-8-29  0/0  94     6 for last 35 (.171)
Nix 5 .249-1-18  10/10  68   Slugging Ave (.297) worse than OBP (.311)
Brignac 6  4 for 36 as a Yankee (.111) with 16 strikeouts and just one walk. Don’t get me started on him. That sucks.
OPS+ MINUS 24. That’s worse than even Romine. Overall Co/NYY .190-1-6, OPS+ 32. 16 for 84. 4 walks. 29 strikeouts. Ugh.   
Stewart 2 .277-3-10  3/3  88   3rd in batting average on the team. Enough said.

Sabathia 1     6-5, 4.07   ERA+ 100.

CC hasn’t been an ace this year, just mediocre. Check the ERA. Right on the average line.

I don’t mean to rip but some numbers speak for themselves. All I do is report anved comment on the numbers THEY put up or don’t put up.     

 

The minors

AAA: SWB shutout Lehigh Valley, 7-0. David Huff 4 1/3 and Chase Whitley 2 IP. Catcher J.R. Murphy 3 for 6, rbi (maybe a callup if Romine continues not to hit?). LF Zoilo Almonte 4 for 5. 3b Dan Johnson 2 h, 2 rbi. DH Josh Bell 2 h, rbi and 2 doubles and 2 rbi for 2b Walt Ibarra.

AA: Trenton got shut out 4-0. Zach Nuding 4 R, 3 ER in 5 IP (2-8, 3.42). Former top draft pick Jeremy Bleich 2 IP of relief. The lefty has a 3.16 ERA.

High A: The Florida State League had their All-Star game. Tampa was part of the North team which lost 8-1. C Gary Sanchez doubled and scored the North’s only run.  Shane Greene pitched a scoreless inning.

Low A: 3-0 win for Charleston. Luis Niebla 5 IP, 6 K. 1B Greg Bird 3 H, 2 doubles, 2 rbi. 2 doubles for CF Jake Cave. RF Danny Oh w/2 h.

Game 68. Yanks lose 5th straight, 6-2

In their last eight games, the Yanks have scored just 18 runs.

I don’t know of a team whose pitchers have an ERA of 2.25, do you?

For that is what the Yanks’ offense has been the last eight games. It’s tough for pitchers to know that if they so much as give up three runs, they’ll lose.

David Phelps kept the Yanks in the game for a while. It was 2-2 after 5 1/2 but then he and the Yanks’ bullpen cracked.

Meanwhile the Yanks had five hits all game. That has been their norm lately, two runs on five or six hits.

After Erick Aybar homered in the second, the Yanks got two in the third on a single by Stewart, a triple by Gardner and a single by Nix.

That was the extent of the Yankees’ offense today.

What made things worse was that in the middle of the game, Teixeira hurt his wrist.

A broken-bat single by Pujols tied it in the bottom of the third.

Aybar singled in a run in the sixth and the Angels were up 3-2.

The game was lost in the seventh. Ichiro got a bunt single, and stole second and third and the Yanks still couldn’t get him in. Neal, Brignac and Stewart all struck out.

I’ll have more later in another post but God how I’d like to dump Brignac (he is terrible) and get Romine back in AAA. Both are wastes at the plate. Absolute zeroes. I won’t give up on Romine yet (24 y.o. catcher) but please get me Jeter and/or Nunez back ASAP. Brignac is what, 4 for 36 (.111) since the Yanks picked him up? Awful. Romine so far is overmatched in the majors, hitting .132 or so.   

The Yanks stole four bases today (and should have had five, blown call). No help.

Ichiro had two of the Yanks five hits, two SB and made a great defensive play. He also got CS on a controversial call.

Phelps wasn’t bad but when your lack of offense places so much pressure on you…. 6 IP, 4 R, 9 H, 2 walks and 2 K. He falls to 4-4, 4.08.

Kelley 1 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 3 walks & 0 K. 4.78.

Joba 1 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 1 walk and 2 K. 5.74.

I can seriously see Joba and /or Hughes (both free agents and both most likely gone at the end of this year) being shopped around to another contender in order to try and find a bat.

Game 68. Lineup, stats, comments.

Yanks 37-30. 3rd in A.L. East, 3 g.b. They are three games better than their Pythagorean record.

OPS+ 88, ERA+ 112. 100 is average.

BA/HR/RBI  SB/total att.  OPS+   Comments   Team leader
Significantly Below average (under 100)

Gardner CF .283-6-27  10/15  117
Nix 3B .249-1-17  9/9  69
Cano 2B .281-16-42  3/3  135
Teixeira 1B .157-3-12  0/0  72   8 for 51, 19 K since return.
Overbay DH .245-8-29  0/0  98
Suzuki RF .263-2-11  6/8  74    If Granderson were Ok, how much would the fading Ichiro be playing?  Probably not much.
Neal LF 2nd game as Yankee. 1 for 2, one walk.
      Neal in his MLB career is 6 for 25. .240.
Brignac SS  Ugh. 4 for 33 as a Yankee. .121-0-0, OPS+ MINUS 18. 
      Overall (CO/NYY) .198-1-6, 0/0  37.
Stewart C .275-3-10  2/2  88

Phelps RHP   4-3, 3.90   ERA+ 105. As a starter, 3-2, 3.38.

Against a righty, Neal (a righty bat) is in there and Wells sits. Also, Overbay is in and Hafner is sitting tonight. Game on FOX, 715.

So we have a guy with 25 MLB at bats in there (and we don’t know what we’ll get. But he SHOULD have been up in place of Francisco a long time ago). Francisco is now gone.

Also, Brignac. UGH.

Teix got to heat up.