New York Yankees Recap: Tough Luck for CC

The Yankees came into Wednesday night’s game looking to win the series against the Rangers. In the end, the offense again failed to show up, and they lost 3-2.

Coming into his fourth start of the season, CC Sabathia really needed a good outing. He pitched well in his season opening start against the Tigers, but couldn’t even make it through even the fifth inning in his following starts against the Mariners and and Rays. Through most of this game, Sabathia pitched extremely well, but he faltered in a few key situations. Those lapses in concentration, combined with the Yankees continued insistence on using pool noodles as baseball bats, wearing blindfolds to the plate or whatever it is they’re doing on offense, cost CC a potential win, and saddled him with his second loss of the year.

The lapses for CC came in the second, third and sixth innings. In the second, he got himself into a second and third situation with nobody out after Ryan Rua and Rougned Odor singled to start the inning (Odor went to second when Jacoby Ellsbury threw to third to try to get Rua). Sabathia bore down, getting Elvis Andrus to ground out without advancing the runners for the first out. The next batter, Hanser Alberto, hit a soft grounder back to CC. Instead of making sure to look the runner back to third, Sabathia only gave a glance towards Rua before throwing to first base. Rua took off and scored on the throw to tie the game. At least the Yankees were able to nab Odor at third when the Rangers’ second baseman over-slid the bag. I know Rua showed great hustle, but, for a pitcher who needs every trick in the book to win games these days, Sabathia seems to have an awful lot of trouble with fundamentals. It’s very frustrating.

The Rangers took a 2-1 lead on CC’s next lapse. The big lefty walked Bryan Holaday to start the inning, but got the next two outs on a groundout and a strike out. With two outs and a man on second, Adrian Beltre singled to score Holaday. The last few years, as his stuff has diminished, it seems like CC is always one out, or one strike away from escaping a jam, but simply cannot close those door. I don’t know if it’s lack or concentration or just bad luck, but it’s greatly annoying.

The same thing happened to him in the bottom of the sixth. He was one strike away from getting through six with the game tied at two, but made a bad pitch and allowed an RBI triple to Andrus. Again, it was a simple lapse of concentration that once again came back to haunt the aging hurler. Don’t get me wrong, Sabathia definitely pitched well enough to win this game. Unfortunately, it seems like any Yankees pitcher who gives up more than two runs these days might as well give up 100. It’s become very important for these guys to never let their focus slip, and that seems to be something that has plagued CC for years.

The Yankees offense, as I mentioned, was garbage once again. It seemed like every swing ended in a ground ball to a middle infielder somewhere. They managed to push a run across in the top of the second on a clutch RBI single by Starlin Castro, but the inning had started with back-to-back walks, and looked quite promising until Brian McCann grounded into a double play. Thankfully, Castro came through to give the Yanks a 1-0 lead at the time. The only other run scored in the top of the fourth, when Alex Rodriguez hit a towering home run to left-center to tie the game at 2-2. Alex also had a double (following another double play) and a single in this game, so maybe he’s coming around a bit. Somebody has to, right?

Overall, the Yankees only managed those two runs on just six hits and two walks. It was another putrid and uninspired performance in a season that has been full of them since their outbursts against the Astros and Tigers early on. It’s like they’re waiting for the opponents take the lead so that they can tank the rest of the game and go home. After the Rangers took that 3-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth, the Yankees only even managed one hit the rest of the way. Pathetic.

I know this team wasn’t the greatest on paper, but I don’t think they’re a last place team… Are they? Here’s hoping the climb out of the cellar can start Friday night at Fenway. Save us, Masahiro!