It might be unfair, but there is more pressure on CC than any another other pitcher in baseball. Without a great CC, the Yankees starting rotation goes from below mediocre to terrible. For most of this season, many would have said a CC pitched game was a lock for a Yankee win. That is not the case recently. Right now he is not Justin Verlander. He is not even CJ Wilson. He needs to be them and even pitch better than them in order to carry the Yankees rotation to a 28th World Series title. (more…)

In his first 10 starts of 2011, he held batters to a .224/.269/.378/.647 line with 59 strikeouts to 15 walks over 67 innings. Over that span he yielded 23 runs — 22 earned — on 55 hits with eight homers. Three of those outings were scoreless and he had one complete game while hurling at least seven innings three times (eight frames twice).

Then, on June 12, he went on the DL with a strained left hammy. He made his triumphant return on July 2, throwing six innings of five-hit, scoreless ball against the Loser Mets to lower his ERA to 2.88. Since then, however, he has been anything but Cy Colon.

Over his last nine starts, Colon has allowed batters to hit .311/.365/.534/.899 while striking out 34 and walking 16 over 46 2/3 innings. Bart has given up 34 runs — 27 earned — on 60 hits since that Mets game, and he has yet to record a scoreless outing. He’s made it out of the sixth stanza just once and lasted a season-worst 2/3 of an inning on July 14 against the Blue Jays [not his fault, they were probably stealing signs].

His ERA is still a solid (for a 38-year-old who hadn’t pitched since 2009) 3.71, and he’s at least been somewhat effective — averaging just three earned runs over these nine starts — but this is the wrong part of the season to have the proverbial wheels fall off.

So what could be the reason for this drop in production? The easy answer is he’s getting tired. He’s thrown 131 innings in 2011, whereas he hadn’t broken a c-note since his Cy Young year of 2005. However, his velocity would suggest otherwise. Take a look at the velocity of his fastball in each of his 20 starts this season:

(more…)

The team’s 1-4 hitters (Gardy, Nunez, Tex, Cano) went 1-for-17 with two RBI (both Gardy’s) and two runs scored. The 5-9 hitters (Swish Dog, Chavez, Posada, Dickerson, Cervelli) went 10-for-19 with six RBI (including a two-run homer from Swish, who went 3-for-4) and six runs scored.

Each 5-9 hitter had at least one hit and an RBI and all but Posada — who was the only one without two hits — scored at least once. In other words, the team rested Grandy, Jeet and Martin and still scored eight runs on 11 hits.

Where was this offense last night?

Cy Colon (8-6) wasn’t great but he kept the team in it. He lasted just five innings (throwing 105 pitches, 66 for strikes) and gave up two runs on five hits with two walks. He struck out six batters, bringing his career total to 1,705.

Cory Wade threw three innings of two-hit, one-run ball, and BOOne Logan gave us a scare but tossed a scoreless ninth.

It was a good win and the teams will get back at it about three hours after the final out was recorded. SuperNova will go against Zach Britton at 7:05. A roster move to accommodate Nova has not been announced yet.

Other news:

• (more…)