The Throwaway

We've seen many occurrences over the years of last night's ball game. Start a pitcher that's garbage and fiddle as Rome burns.. The opposing pitcher, may be mediocre. A guy with flashes of brilliance who, more often than not, ends up throwing a poor game. But in "Throwaway" games, he's brilliant. Once your starting pitcher is gone, 1 or 2 relievers will get lit up as well. And as soon as the pitching goes into the tank, so does the offense, and the defense.

Last night it was Jeffrey Karstens turn to play the role of the crappy Yankees pitcher. Daniel Cabrera was in the starring role for the Orioles as he and the O's bullpen held the Yankees to 2 hits (in true Daniel Cabrera fashion he walked 6 in 6.2 innings; part of 9 walks issued by the O's). And Robinson Cano made the error - you get the impression Cano loses his concentration in these games as this is when he tends to screw up. The outcome was a 12-0 Orioles white washing, that combined with a 9th inning Red Sox win, dropped the Yankees back to 5 games out in the AL East. Both Seattle and Cleveland lost, so the Bombers remain tied for the wild card lead.

Before these games even take place, you already know what will happen. Granted, we don't know if Ian Kennedy would have pitched well had he been recalled, but we were pretty positive that Karstens wouldn't. Karstens teased the crowd with a scoreless 1st, got of out a jam in the 2nd by only allowing 1 run, and then gave up the big blow- a grand slam to Aubrey Huff - in the 3rd, that signaled the end of a competitive game. Brower then came in - hopefully for the last time now or ever - and gave up the next 6 runs, 2 earned, in 4 innings.

Singles by Alex Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui were the lone hits for the Yankees, as Melky Cabrera's 18 game hitting streak came to an end.

What makes this game even more annoying is that there is a good chance the Yankees will lose 2 of 3, AGAIN, to the O's. They've already dropped 7 of 11 meetings. And while we love seeing Phil Hughes out there today, we can't be sure how he'll be yet from start to start. However, Erik Bedard goes for the O's and we're pretty sure you can figure on 6-7 innings minimum, with 8-10 strikeouts.

To address the bullpen needs - and Joe Torre told reporters last night that he thought help would be on the way - Edwar Ramirez has been rumored to be returning. I love that, but it's also time to get Chris Britton back up here. We've already seen that Bruney can't throw strikes consistently, so Britton should get the call. Send Karstens and Brower back down (in Brower's case I believe he has to be DFA'ed).

....

As expected, the Yankees showed a video tribute to Phil Rizzuto on the stadium videoboard. The number 10 was painted into the foul lines and stitched into the left sleeve of the Yankees uniforms for the remainder of the season. Flowers were also placed at his plaque in Monument Park.

Yogi Berra briefly joined Michael Kay and Ken Singleton in the YES booth and was very emotional.












photos courtey of AP