Monday, April 27, 2009

Yankees Outpitched in Mo-Town; Slip below .500

Over the weekend it could be argued that the Yankees got themselves beat, especially in the first two games of the series.

Tonight, however, it was much simpler: Justin Verlander pitched better than CC Sabathia.

It wasn't that Sabathia pitched poorly--in fact Sabathia pitched all eight innings for the Yanks in one of his best performances on the young season--but even the 1998 Yankees would have had a hard time beating Verlander's gas.

It's not that the Yankees didn't have their chances.

On more than one occasion, the Yankees had men on base with no one out, but they did not score a single run until the ninth inning, and by then it was simply too late. Jorge Posada came up as the tying run, and as if personally sticking a dagger in the hearts of Yankee fans, bounced into a double play.

The loss wouldn't really be so hard to take if the Yankees hadn't already lost their three previous games. As far as losses go, this one wasn't a bad loss-not in the way that Friday's or Saturday's was.

There were some bright spots.

Ramiro Peña had two hits along with some quality glove work; Robinson Canó is doing a very good job of atoning for last year, and no on in the "firestarter five" (thank you PeteAbe) had to come into pitch.

On the other hand, Damon just looks really sore and Teixeira is still not quite right. A couple of the deep fly balls he hit would have been home runs if he was locked in and healthy.

Although Toronto is, for the moment, losing, Boston looks as though they may never lose another baseball game ever again.

With the Angels coming up after this series, things look kinda bleak in Yankeeland in the early goings of the season.

Still, the team's still missing their best offensive player and one of their starters. It's not really time to be calling for Girardi's head just yet.