Sox it to Me

The Yankees followed up their series win against the Red Sox in Yankees Stadium last month with a 5 game losing streak. Last night they started their next post Red Sox series win on the wrong foot. Matt DeSalvo was awful and John Garland came within 2 outs of a complete game in the White Sox 6-4 win.

One has to wonder why DeSalvo was even given another chance to pitch. He was designated for assignment after his awful performance against Toronto on May 28, and then assigned to Scranton when he passed through waivers. It was clear that Joe Torre no longer had any confidence in him. That was backed up when he pulled DeSalvo in the 2nd inning, trailing 3-1.

Obviously DeSalvo only got another chance because of the injury to Roger Clemens. It's possible the Yankees didn't want to make another change to the 40 man roster, but at this point it would have made more sense to bring Kei Igawa back up to pitch (not that I have a lot of confidence in him either, but that's what he's getting paid big money for).

Just as it did on Saturday, a poor throw lead to a bigger inning and an injury. With the game tied 1-1, and runners on the corners with 1 out in the 2nd, Josh Phelps cleanly fielded Jerry Owens' grounder, but threw wide to 2nd. Derek Jeter was left prone and was upended when Joe Crede slid into the bag. Jeter was slow to get up and was grimicing noticeably. It was obvious from the way he ran the rest of the game that Jeter was hurting. Afterwards he said Crede stepped on his foot on the slide.

The White Sox built up a 6-1 lead as Jim Thome and Paul Konerko homered. Ozzie Guillen left Garland in to try for the complete game, but the Yankees finally woke up. Hideki Matsui nearly hit one out and settled for a one out double, knocking Garland from the game. Matt Thornton walked Robinson Cano and Josh Phelps followed with an RBI single. Melky Cabrera's sac fly off of closer Bobby Jenks cut the lead to 6-3 and the Yankees added another when Tadahito Iguchi threw away Johnny Damon's infield single. But Jeter, representing the tying run, bounced out to short to end the game.

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Newsday is reporting that utility infielder Chris Basak, not Andy Phillips, will be recalled for tonight's game. This may lead to Johnny Damon playing 1st base earlier than expected.

Chris Britton showed why he should be on the squad instead of retreads like Mike Myers, Ron Villone, or Luis Vizcaino. The hard throwing righty allowed on one hit, Konerko's solo HR, in 3 innings of work.