Yankees Bow Down To The King

Won-Loss records in baseball aren't indicative for starting pitchers. Just look at Felix Hernandez. "The King" dominated the Yankee for a third time this season, yet has the same number of wins (9) as the bumbling, stumbling, inconsistent A.J. Burnett.

His royal pitchness has allowed one, I said one, earned run in 26 innings with 31 strikeouts against the supposedly potent Yankees lineup. The Yankees have hit just .176 (16 hits) in the three starts.

Burnett put the Yankees in an immediate hole last night when he gave up the first of two bombs to Russell Branyan to give the Mariners a 3-0 lead in the 1st. The audible groan from the crowd was expected since the King was toeing the rubber for the M's.

Just that quickly a team can lose it's good feeling. The Yankees just took 3 of 4 from the Tigers, but now after losing the opener to an inferior Mariners team, the Yankees are in danger of losing the three game series. You can't have much confidence, again, in Javier Vazquez these days. His loss of velocity has returned along with an associated lack of pinpoint control. This is a problem.

Vazquez's last four starts have regressed from 6.1 to 5.1 to 4.1 to 4 innings pitched. He's allowed 16 earned runs in those 20 innings. By the way, Vazquez also has the same number of wins as the King.

Jorge Vargas, wow..9 wins too, gets the start for the M's today. He limited the Yankees to a run over 7 innings in his previous start (no decision) against them this year. He's got a 4.15 ERA in three career appearances, two of which were starts.

There will be no Alex Rodriguez in the lineup tonight either. One at-bat is all A-Rod lasted last night after his calf prevented him from doing more than loping down to first base. Can't even imagine why he was in the lineup at all; his calf couldn't have felt that good beforehand. A DL trip is a definite possibility as well as a look at the waiver wire again. In case A-Rod is out for a substantial amount of time you really don't want Ramiro Pena's bat in the lineup on any consistent basis (esp. when Francisco Cervelli is in there too).

Is Edwin Nunez the Yankees heir apparent to the Captain? Who knows, but Nunez will get a look while Lance Berkman is on the DL with a sprained ankle.

Back with more later.

In the meantime, whose better than Eric Clapton and BB King?