2-for-16

The Yanks approached John Starks territory by going 2-for-16 with RISP and left a season-high 15 men on base in Wednesday’s abortion. The less said about that game, the better.

You can blame D-Rob if you want, you can blame Buddy Carlyle if you so choose, but there’s no getting around the fact that the offense put them in a hole. Sure, the Royals drew 11 walks and scored four runs on four hits, but if the Yanks hit with RISP this game is over by the sixth inning.

Fun facts (and some not so fun):

• Posada was 1-for-18 prior to his RBI single in the second inning, it was his first RBI in eight games. He finished 2-for-3 with a pair of walks and recorded his 1,600th career hit.
• We’re 34 games into the season and Grandy has already notched half of his home run total from last year — a MLB-leading 12 dingers.
• A-Rod got his 2,700th career hit, but went 1-for-5 and hasn’t had an extra base hit in 11 games (43 at-bats) — his longest streak as a Yankee.
• Gardy was 85-for-101 in stolen base attempts heading into the season, however he’s just 5-for-10 this year.
• In Vin Mazzaro’s last start against the Yanks, he gave up nine runs in 3 2/3 innings of work; he was 0-2 with a 9.79 ERA in three career starts against them; he threw four innings of two-run, six-hit ball with two strikeouts to four walks.
• Coming in, the Royals starting nine had 17 combined homers while the Yanks starting nine had 52 combined long balls. Each team recorded one homer (Grandy’s and Hosmer’s first career).
• Cano was beaned in the head and left the game in the fifth inning. He went for a CT scan, which came back negative. Girardi said “I’m not sure if he’s back yet.”
• AJ threw seven innings of one-hit, one-run ball with six strikeouts to five walks. He has given up a total of four runs over his last two starts — the Yanks lost both games.

Other news:

• Kevin Russo has cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
• Luis Ayala was activated from the DL prior to the game and threw the 11th, it wasn’t pretty. Lance Pendleton was optioned to Scranton to make room for him.
• Legendary Yankees trainer Gene Monahan will retire after the season. He is the longest tenured member of the organization at 49 years of service. The team will miss him, he’s the man.

Postgame Quotes:

Girardi:

"We had a ton of opportnuities tonight, we just never cashed in.The bottom line is we’re better than this, and we’re struggling offensively. The good thing is we had a lot of baserunners, the bad thing is we didn’t get them in.When you give away that many opportunities away it’s hard to win games.What really killed us tonight is the walks. They get four hits and four runs, one was a home run but the walks are what scored on us."

AJ:

"I felt alright, I didn’t let the walks bother me."

D-Rob:

"I didnt have great command tonight and the walks killed me. I flat out blew the game because of the walks.I walked the leadoff guy and couldn’t find the zone. I was one pitch away from escaping and getting the ball to Mo’s hands but I didn’t make the pitch and Betemit made me pay for it.I’m really frustrated with myself, I’m just ready for tomorrow…for another chance."

The Yanks will finish up this series tomorrow at 7:05 as SuperNova (3-2, 4.08 ERA) takes on Sean O’Sullivan (1-2, 4.31 ERA). You can pencil in a win because I’m going to the game; I’m 3-0 and 12 of my last 13 at games. The Royals don’t have a shot.

LET’S GO YANKS!!!!