New York Yankees Recap: Tuck Your Tail and Run

Despite another strong effort by a starting pitcher, the Yankees lost to the Blue Jays 7-0, as their offense sinks deeper and deeper into the doldrums.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before–actually, I’ll just stop myself, because we’ve heard this for the last three games now, and close to half of the Yankees games this season. The Bronx Blunderers (yes, I’m channeling my inner Joker from the original Batman TV show for that insult) again wasted a tremendous start by Masahiro Tanaka, because their offense completely failed to show up.

We really must commend Tanaka, who continued his trend of pitching much better on extra rest, on his performance in this one. He didn’t have his best stuff, but did what a true ace should do, minimizing the damage from a pretty good–and slightly oddly constructed–lineup, and finishing his night with just two runs allowed (one earned) on seven hits and a walk in six innings while striking out two on 104 pitches.

Tanaka threw too many pitches, gave up a few too many hits, and didn’t strike too many guys out, but he did his job, and deserved a better result than his first loss of the year. Even the “back-breaking” second run he gave up, which put this game well out of reach of the Yankees anemic attack, wasn’t even his fault. It only scored because Jacoby Ellsbury dropped a fly ball in center to set the run up in the bottom of the sixth.

The Yankees offense, meanwhile, somehow managed to play worse than it had over the last two games, during which it combined for only three runs. Aaron Sanchez had them fooled all night, but in actuality, it could have been Mark Sanchez pitching out there tonight. I’m pretty sure the results would have been the same. The Yankees’ bats, which had seen a bit of an improvement in May (although not exactly a rise from the ashes), have slipped back into the darkest depths of late, and tonight was as bad as they’ve been all year. Seriously, they might as well have been swinging french baguettes out there.

The two men they put on in the second were left in their tracks by another Chase Headley strikeout, and the two they put on in the third also stayed put, this time because of a strikeout by Brian McCann. Alex Rodriguez was left on second base after a one-out double in the fourth, and McCann left two more on in the fifth with a fly ball out. Back-to-back one-out singles in the seventh also went unrewarded, as even Carlos Beltran–the team’s lone shining beacon of hope–flew out sharply to end things.

Kirby Yates came back to earth in the seventh–he’s been pretty tremendous so far this season–before getting yanked in favor of Nick Goody. Goody kept the Blue Jays’ hit parade going, and by the time the inning was over, so was the game, and this awful series.

Related Story: New York’s Offense Takes Memorial Day Off

Next up, the Yankees travel to Detroit for a makeup game. It will be Michael Pineda, who is somehow still hanging on to his rotation spot, taking on Matt Boyd. Here’s hoping for a W… although I’ll settle for a run if we can score three runs. Baby steps!