It was a long one and a bad one on Sunday night.
Phil Hughes was terrible, the offense left a small village on the basepaths and Joe Girardi continues to perplex as the
BoSox defeated the Yanks 8-5 at Fenway. This game was an exercise in frustration from beginning to end and it drops the Bombers to 6-7 on the season.
The Good:Jason Giambi. The Giambino claimed to Joe Morgan before the game that he was swinging the bat well despite the lowly .080 average. I thought the statement was ridiculous, but Giambi proved me wrong when he belted his second solo homer of the weekend to inch the Yanks closer at 7-5 in the eighth. Giambi finished 1 for 3 with a walk, 2 runs scored and an RBI. With his performance, Jay Jay finally pushed his average into the triple digits and is batting a more muscular .107 on the season.
The Bad:Phil Hughes. It started poorly for the kid and never got better. The Red Sox touched Hughes up for three runs in the first inning and knocked him out of the game with two more in the third. Hughes had no command of his breaking ball, allowed the leadoff runner to reach in all three of his innings and seemed to have trouble communicating with catcher Jose Molina. The performance was ugly and was made worse when Ross Ohlendorf came in and promptly allowed his inherited runners to score. Hughes' night: 2+ IP, 6 H, 7 R (6 earned), 3 BB, 3 K.
*Joe Girardi. The new Yankee manager continues to mystify. G.I. Joe elected to pinch run for Jose Molina after the Yankee catcher followed Giambi's homer with a single in the eighth. Girardi replaced Molina with the "speedier" Wilson Betemit, but more importantly Jorge Posada, who was at DH, was forced to go behind the plate in the bottom of the inning. Posada hadn't caught since April 8 because of a sore shoulder. Girardi's calculations didn't turn into any Yankee runs as Johnny Damon would later ground into a double play with runners on first and second. And when Posada took his place behind the dish the Red Sox ran with impunity. Boston swiped two bases without throws and one of those steals turned into a big insurance run. Heading into the ninth down three runs instead of two means a bloop and a blast doesn't tie the game. I don't understand it.
*Erin from
Beantown West gave me the heads up on why Girardi pulled Molina. Turns out the Yanks are
down another catcher. My fault for jumping before I knew the reason. But those are the perils when you use both of your catchers in the lineup.
Robinson Cano. Robbie's struggles continued on Sunday night. Cano followed up a 2 for 4 game Saturday with another 0-fer. The Yankee second baseman finished 0 for 5 and left four runners on base. Canu went 2 for 14 this weekend.
The Ugly:For a stinkin jersey? The claims were
made and then refuted and then
action was taken. If you haven't heard or followed (or cared), a Red Sox fan who was working construction on the new Yankee Stadium buried a David Ortiz No. 34 jersey in the concrete. The reason? To jinx the Yanks or something like that. The Yanks unearthed the offending material Sunday. Hal Steinbrenner proved he does have a voice when he said this about the construction worker: “I hope his co-workers kick the
[expletive] out of him." Now there are two of them.
The Yanks now head to Tampa to face the Rays in a mini two-game set. Ian Kennedy (0-1) will try and rebound from his strange outing in Kansas City where he came in to pitch in the sixth inning. Andy Sonnanstine (1-1) will make his second start against the Bombers this season. He pitched six innings and earned a win in Tampa's 13-4 drubbing of the Yanks at The Stadium earlier in the year.
Time for one of the Baby Bombers to step up.
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I just read on Peter Abraham's blog that Molina hurt his leg, so that's why he was pulled. I guess that makes Girardi's move less moronic, but it means the Yankees are in need of another catcher.