8 months ago
GAME 62: Just More of the Same
Box Score/Recap
Well, that was ugly. Andy Pettitte, like Joba Chamberlain the day before, like A.J. Burnett two days before that, like Chien-Ming Wang the day before that, threw too many pitches in too few innings, putting the Yankees once again in an early hole to climb out of.
They didn’t do it this time.
The Yankee offense could not get it done against Fernando Nieve, a generally unspectacular fill-in starter whom some might refer to as a career journeyman were he not just twenty-six. While I won’t say this in complete certainty—I haven’t seen the statistics, yet—it seems like the Yankee bats really struggle mightily against pitchers they’ve never seen before. The problem could be with the scouting reports, or with the hitting coach, or maybe even with the hitters themselves—or maybe facing the Yankees just tends to bring out the best in young pitchers trying to prove themselves.
At the end of the day, the Yankees are lucky that the final was just 6-2; the Mets racked up seventeen hits against Andy Pettitte and the Yankee bullpen, while the Yankees managed just four.
Still, with yesterday’s “win” against K-Rod (erm, Luis Castillo?), the Yankees have the opportunity to win the series tomorrow—although with A.J. Burnett on the mound facing the Mets’ Johan Santana, it doesn’t look like it’ll be easy.
