Swept Under the Rug

After Friday's night painful loss, was there any doubt in anyone's mind that the Yankees would be swept this weekend? Friday's game was the crucial one to take in the series, since the pitching match ups for Saturday and Sunday were heavily in Boston's favor.

Now the really painful part, the Yankees, as they did on Friday, knocked around the Red Sox starting pitching, and still lost. Here's how it looked against the big 3.


Curt Schilling: 7 IP 8 H 5 ER 2 HR 6.43 ERA

Josh Beckett: 6 2-3 IP 4 ER 9 H 5.40 ERA

Dice-K: 7 IP 6 ER 8 H 1 HR 7.71 ERA


Those are not good numbers at all, but here's the problem:

Jeff Karstens: 7 ER in 4 1-3 innings
Chase Wright: 4 ER, 3 BB, 4 HR in 3 innings

The Bullpen on Fri and Sun: 8 ER in 7 2-3 innings. This comes out of too much too soon. With the starting staff, outside of Andy Pettitte, giving absolutely no innings, the pen has already been maxed out.

If you read my Friday night entry you know that I pinned the loss completely on Joe Torre. The weekend losses clearly go to Brian Cashman, the Tampa office, and George Steinbrenner. Starting pitching is what everyone craves, and was the centerpiece of the Yankees 4 World Series championships in 96 - '00.

But the moves made the last few years have gone directly against it and made this team resemble those of the mid 80s, when offense was abundant and pitching was scarce. When those teams didn't hit, they didn't win, and that's what we've seen with this team the last few years.

First there was the mistake of letting John Lieber walk, and the bigger mistake of bringing in Jaret Wright to replace him. No one could have foreseen the issues Carl Pavano would have, but they did base his contract on 1 big season. Acquiring Javier Vazquez seemed like a great deal, a steal even. But giving him a huge contract was another mistake. Jose Contreras' name can be thrown in there too.

There's no question in my mind that the Yankees were smart not to throw the kind of money at Dice-K that Boston did. It's time to change those erring ways of the past. The money towards Igawa was an overpayment, and was basically a panic move. The Yankees are going to have to stitch and sew their way to get through this year, which at once looked promising, and now looks rather dismal. The hope is that the return of Chien-Ming Wang and Mike Mussina bolster the rotation. Roger Clemens may or may not be the answer, but he couldn't be worse than Jeff Karstens or Chase Wright.

This could be a very long year.