Sleepful in Seattle

Sleepful

sleep·ful

1. Able to easily nod off while watching the Yankees play in Seattle.
2. Going through the motions. Uninspired while playing the Mariners.
3. A condition caused by a manager that no longer inspires his team.

You've probably surmised by now that last night's Yankees-Mariners game was a borefest. The game took just 2:19 to play since the Yankees did absolutely nothing at the plate. Was that Jarrod Washburn or Sandy Koufax on the mound for the Mariners? That's how ridiculous the Yankees looked in getting blanked 3-0 nothing. Consider that 2 of their 6 hits were bloop shots by Jorge Posada that barely made it out of the infield. Josh Phelps and Alex Rodriguez had the only 2 good shots all night and only one of them was a hit.

The key to the Yankee's success is working the count, but time and time again last night they swung at the 1st pitch. Some players you expect to show no selectivity - i.e. Robinson Cano, but when Bobby Abreu hasn't walked in 12 games, you know that things are not going smoothly.

Right now the majority of the team does not have a plan when they go up to the plate. Just look at the individual batting averages other than Jeter, Giambi, Posada, and A-Rod. Whether that falls on Joe Torre, Kevin Long, the individual players themselves, or a combination of all of the above, something has to change soon. This team's pitching staff has proven not to be good on its own to win ball games. That situation gets exacerbated when the team doesn't hit. And let's not forget they're not the greatest fielding team in the world either.

The climb back to .500 continues again tonight with another 10:00 start.

~~~

Darrell Rasner was quite ordinary in his 2 innings of work as he struggled with his command. Kenji Johjima blasted a 2-run HR off of him to completely ruin his evening.

Scott Proctor and Brian Bruney combined for 3 scoreless innings out of the pen.