Get That Bum Outta There

"No Coke, Pepsi" (recap from Baseball Digest)

Outside of Mariano Rivera and Phil Hughes, there isn't one reliever that Joe Girardi can totally depend on to come out of the bullpen and give a solid effort. Brian Bruney, Phil Coke, Al Aceves, and others have all had good stretches followed by equally poor ones. This afternoon's game was a perfect case in point. Coke and David Robertson turned a 3-2 deficit into a 7-2 game enabling the Rangers to takethe rubber game of the three game series.

The Yankees lack of hitting and poor relief also overshadowed a good outing by A.J. Burnett. It might have been an overpowering or dominant performance if not for Burnett's 4th inning. After retiring the first 11 men to start the game, Burnett issued back to back walks to Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz, and then left a BP fastball over the middle plate to Ian Kinsler. The Rangers' 2nd baseman hammered it into the left field seats for a 3-1 Rangers' lead. Burnett got back on track after that and finished the game with a season high 12 strikeouts. Nonetheless he was saddled with his 4th straight loss, dropping to 10-8 overall.


Mark Teixeira drove in both Yankees' runs, including an RBI single in the bottom of the 4th against starter Dustin Nippert. But unlike their counterparts, the Rangers' bullpen tossed 5 1/3 scoreless innings to seal the win. That included the 4th inning when, with two on and two out, Jason Grilli retired Alex Rodriguez on a weak comebacker to end the Yankees threat.

Girardi went to Coke to start the 7th after Burnett tossed 105 pitches. He gave up back to back hits to David Murphy and Taylor Teagarden to start the inning and then a back breaking a 3-run shot to Chris Davis for a 6-2 Rangers' lead. Kinsler added his 2nd home run of the game off Robertson in the 8th to account for the game's final run.

Game Notes

Jake Peavy will not pitch in the Chicago White Sox series at the Stadium this weekend. It was originally thought that he might face Joba Chamberlain on Sunday, but he's not ready to be activated after all.

The Yankees were limited to six hits, two each by Teixeira and Johnny Damon.

Andy Roddick threw out a ceremonial first pitch prior to the game.