Rasner, Yes, Offense, No. (Postgame Notes 06 June 2008)

Two walk off wins in a row.

Could it be?

Twice in a row, the ninth inning came with the Yankees down and two outs before anyone reached base. Twice down to their final strike. Could they repeat the feat and walk off again?

Alas, they could not.

It's a little weird. Yesterday's game could not have been more different than tonight's--a slugfest against a good ole' pitcher's duel. Yesterday, Chien Ming Wang had another shaky outing. Tonight, Darrell Rasner had, possibly, the pitching performance of his career. Yesterday had costly errors; tonight had (mostly) solid defense.

Yet, at the end, in the ninth inning, it was the same scenario: down a run, two outs and no one on.

Momentum was clearly on the Yankees' side yesterday--having been down at one point 7-2, while, tonight, a very clearly botched call by home plate umpire Ed Montague in the eighth stole much of the momentum that the Yankees had in that inning.

That said, the Yankees lost tonight's game because of a total lack of offense.

Rasner did not just what he was supposed to do but more, and the offense reverted back to what they've been doing in stranding runners and not getting the big hits.

Rasner should be satisfied with his performance (though I'm not sure any pitcher would be when his team is on the losing end), but the offense needs to figure this not-getting-the-big-hit thing. A-Rod's healthy and Posada's healthy. They're out of excuses at this point.


Headed up to Scranton tomorrow for the LoHud gathering. Since I won't be able to catch the Belmont, I'd go ahead and put money on Big Brown.