Yankees Fall Flat to Rangers

It's one thing when you get beaten by Oliver Perez. It's another when the Scott Feldman and the Texas Rangers hold you to one run. That's exactly what happened last night when the Yankees wasted another good start from Mike Mussina and lost to the Rangers 2-1.

Mussina was excellent again, pitching on short rest after his start against the Pittsburgh Pirates last Thursday was called after 2 innings. He limited the Rangers to 5 hits in 6 innings of work and struck out 8, including Milton Bradley three times (Bradley would later get the Golden Sombrero).

But the Yankees couldn't must anything against Feldman save for a solo home run by Alex Rodriguez that rocketed in the Monuments area in left-center field. The Yankees only had 3 more hits off of Feldman in 3.2 innings and none the remainder of the game against the Rangers pen.

The Yankees had the first chance to score when Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi drew back to back walks to start the 2nd inning. But Jorge Posada flied out and Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera both grounded out. The Rangers took advantage of the good fortune and broke the scoreless tie in the 3rd.

Ian Kinsler, who leads the American League in extra base hits, stroked a 1-out double, and two baters later, came home on Josh Hamilton's RBI single. It was Hamilton's major league leading 80th ribbie.

The Rangers scored what proved to be the game winner in the 4th, when rookie David Murphy walked, moved to 2nd base on Marlon Byrd's slow grounder, and came home on rookie Chris Davis' double to the gap in right-center.

A-Rod's 534th career home run came with one out in the 4th and the Yankees later put the tying run on 2nd base when Posada doubled with two outs. But Cano grounded out to Michael Young at shortstop to preserve the lead.

The Yankees also stranded the tying run at 2nd in the 6th, after Brett Gardner picked up his first career stolen base, and at 3rd base in the 7th when Jason Giambi tripled with two outs. But Derek Jeter and Posada both failed in those clutch situations.

C.J. Wilson retired the Yankees without incident in the 9th to extend the Bomberless Bombers losing streak to two games. They've also lost 5 out of their last 7 games.


News and Notes

Derek Jeter's streak of 29 straight games of reaching safely ended with an 0-4 night.

Josh Hamilton's 80 RBI are the most at the end of June since Carlos Delgado, then of the Blue Jays, had 89 in 2003.

Brett Gardner was 0-3 with a stolen base in his MLB debut and showed off his blazing speed. He was removed for pinch-hitter Johnny Damon in the 8th inning.

Jason Giambi's triple was the 9th of his career.

Mike Mussina is 0-2 in his last 2 starts, despite allowing just 6 earned runs in 14 innings pitched. He's struck out 12 in the two games combined. Last night's start was the 519th of his career.

June 30, 2008

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Texas	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0		2	7	0
NY Yankees	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0		1	4	0

Texas	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Kinsler, 2B	5	1	1	0	0	1	1	.321
Young, SS	4	0	3	0	0	0	1	.285
Hamilton, RF	3	0	1	1	1	0	2	.312
Bradley, DH	4	0	0	0	0	4	5	.318
Murphy, LF	2	1	0	0	2	0	2	.270
Byrd, CF	4	0	0	0	0	1	3	.245
Davis, C, 1B	4	0	1	1	0	1	0	.333
Saltalamacchia, C	4	0	1	0	0	2	1	.215
Vazquez, 3B	3	0	0	0	1	1	1	.320
Totals	33	2	7	2	4	10	16
BATTING 2B: Kinsler (26, Mussina), Davis, C (1, Mussina), Young 2 (22, Mussina, Veras). TB: Kinsler 2; Young 5; Hamilton; Davis, C 2; Saltalamacchia. RBI: Hamilton (80), Davis, C (4). 2-out RBI: Hamilton. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Murphy; Vazquez; Bradley; Byrd. Team LOB: 8. BASERUNNING CS: Saltalamacchia (1, 2nd base by Ramirez/Molina).

Texas	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Feldman (W, 2-3)	5.2	4	1	1	3	3	1	4.38
Francisco (H, 7)	1.1	0	0	0	0	2	0	3.66
Guardado	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3.18
Wright (H, 10)	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	0	3.60
Wilson (S, 18)	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4.58

NY Yankees	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Gardner, LF	3	0	0	0	0	1	1	.000
a-Damon, PH-LF	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.315
Jeter, SS	4	0	0	0	0	1	1	.280
Abreu, RF	3	0	0	0	1	0	0	.283
Rodriguez, 3B	3	1	1	1	1	1	0	.322
Giambi, 1B	3	0	1	0	1	0	0	.263
Posada, DH	4	0	1	0	0	1	3	.286
Cano, 2B	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	.242
Cabrera, CF	3	0	0	0	0	0	2	.244
Molina, C	3	0	1	0	0	2	0	.228
Totals	30	1	4	1	3	6	10
a-Grounded out for Gardner in the 8th.
BATTING 2B: Posada (11, Feldman). 3B: Giambi (1, Feldman). HR: Rodriguez (16, 4th inning off Feldman, 0 on, 1 out). TB: Rodriguez 4; Giambi 3; Posada 2; Molina. RBI: Rodriguez (44). Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Cabrera 2; Cano; Jeter; Posada. Team LOB: 5. BASERUNNING SB: Rodriguez (11, 2nd base off Feldman/Saltalamacchia), Gardner (1, 2nd base off Feldman/Saltalamacchia). CS: Abreu (5, 2nd base by Feldman/Saltalamacchia).

NY Yankees IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Mussina (L, 10-6) 6.0 5 2 2 2 8 0 3.87 Ramirez 1.0 1 0 0 0 1 0 3.33 Veras 1.0 1 0 0 1 1 0 2.84 Giese 1.0 0 0 0 1 0 0 3.32

WP: Veras. IBB: Murphy (by Veras). Pitches-strikes: Feldman 105-60, Francisco 18-11, Guardado 0-0, Wright 11-7, Wilson 13-9, Mussina 103-68, Ramirez 9-7, Veras 24-10, Giese 10-5. Ground outs-fly outs: Feldman 9-4, Francisco 2-0, Guardado 0-0, Wright 2-0, Wilson 2-1, Mussina 2-8, Ramirez 1-0, Veras 0-2, Giese 1-2. Batters faced: Feldman 23, Francisco 4, Guardado 0, Wright 3, Wilson 3, Mussina 25, Ramirez 3, Veras 5, Giese 4. Inherited runners-scored: Francisco 1-0. Umpires: HP: Dan Iassogna. 1B: Bill Hohn. 2B: Dale Scott. 3B: Ron Kulpa. Weather: 80 degrees, partly cloudy. Wind: 14 mph, In from LF. T: 3:04. Att: 53,045.