Give me 10 runs and the ace of the pitching staff and I'll get a win 99 out of 100 times. Unfortunately for the Yankees, today was that one time when everything went from all good to all bad in a hurry. Leading 10-4, the Yankees bullpen imploded and the Cleveland Indians pulled out a 13-11 victory before a stunned Yankee Stadium crowd.
The crowd had already had already gone silent earlier in the game with Alex Rodriguez smoked a line drive off the left side of Indians pitcher David Huff's head. Huff lay motionless for several minutes before he was placed on a back board and carted off the field. He gave a thumbs to the YS crowd as they gave him a standing ovation. Huff apparently never loss consciousness and was taken to the hospital for an MRI. The results were good, but Huff was being kept for observation.
Yankees starting pitcher and ace CC Sabathia (6 IP, 5 ER) had his second rough outing in three starts, but departed the game with a 10-5 lead. That's when the wheels came off. Back muscles too. David Robertson replaced Sabathia to start the 7th and hit Trevor Crowe to start the inning. Three batters later and the lead cut to 10-6, Robertson threw ball one to Jhonny Peralta and grabbed his back. Enter the Joe Girardi merry-go-round.
Sergio Mitre came on and despite having as much warm up as needed, proceeded to walk Peralta. That was apparently enough for Girardi, who sent for Damaso Marte to face lefty pinch-hitter Russell Branyan. That was the only move that worked as Marte retired Branyan for the second out of the inning. Signal to Joba Chamberlain. Signal end of lead.
To put it mildly, Chamberlain was awful. He gave up an RBI single to Mark Grudzielanek, walked Matt LaPorta, surrendered back to back 2-run doubles to Lou Marson and Jason Donald, and a come full circle, RBI single to Crowe. Seven runs and 12-10 deficit.
Just to show he's consistent, Chad Gaudin gave up a long ball to Branyan in the 9th. It was the second home run in as many games for Go-away. I mean Gaudin.
Needless the Yankees fandom was furious. Yours truly included. And while Joe Girardi isn't the guy throwing the pitches, he is the guy mixing and matching too much.
Remember when relievers faced right and lefty hitters? When a guy wasn't the "7th inning guy" or the "8th inning guy". Other than the long man and the closer there is no reason for any reliever to have a specific inning assignment.
Twitter was atwitter with frustrated tweets galore during the debacle and after. I for one was upset that Girardi yanked Mitre after one batter. One follower said he's not used to pitching on consecutive days. If that's the case then why was he the one brought in? While no fan of Gaudin, he is used to pitch consecutive games, so Girardi could have opted for him first.
Chamberlain on the other hand, has some major issues going on. He's been scored upon in three of his last five games (5 IP 10 ER) and has been hit extremely hard. There is a genuine overreaction towards his outings, good or bad, based on his 2007 work. Some were saying he would better off working on things in the minors. While far from perfect, he had a 2.16 ERA prior to those five games. And while a reliever's ERA can be misleading, Chamberlain had been decent.
Brian Cashman needs to work the phones for sure though. This is much of the same pen that won a title last year, but that was because Phil Hughes was added and David Robertson emerged.
Chan Ho Park is garbage. I can't say that enough times. One good year in the NL does not make a solid AL reliever. Mitre and Gaudin are mediocre. Marte is downright scary. Even Mariano isn't as reliable these days, but I do believe that is a physical issue that is not completely healed. Mariano is the man and will still go out there whether his cutter is biting or not.
Throw it all away and come back tomorrow and win..especially since we will be there.
Notes
Nick Swisher and Robinson Cano continued their torrid streaks. Though Swisher, representing the tying run, struck out to the end the game, he had three more hits, a walk, a ribbie and two runs scored.
Cano was 3-4 with 3 RBI and a run scored as well. He's 10-16 over the last four games.
photo courtesy of Yahoo Sports
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