Yankees Win Behind Burnett's Solid Start (Postgame Notes 03 July 2009)

After AJ Burnett's last start in Boston (which, let's face it, was awful), he made a comment after the game that when he got on a roll, it would be a beautiful thing to behold.

Many of us shook our heads--how could he say something like that when he had yet to prove it?

Now, it might be him who's laughing: over his last four starts he's given up 0, 1, 0 and 2 runs. His ERA now is almost a full point lower than it was after his last Boston start, going from 4.89 to 3.93.

Watching him pitch today was, with rare exception, a joy to watch.

If he keeps pitching like he pitched today, seven innings, two runs, six hits, two walks and seven strikeouts, having him pitch after Sabathia may very well give the Yankees the best 1-2 punch in the Majors.


The Yankee offense wasn't great today, but it was good enough--four runs, with the way the team pitched, was enough. There were two bombs off of Canó and Alex Rodriguez; the other two runs came when the Yankees had a bases-loaded no one out situation and scored on a walk and a wild pitch. Mark Teixeira should have scored on a ground out, but the umpire missed the call.


Tomorrow's game does not favor the Yankees--Chien Ming Wang against Roy Halladay--but then, AJ Burnett against Johan Santana, at the time, didn't favor the Yankees, either.

True story, though: Wang's last start was better than Joba's last start. Maybe things are looking up for him after all.