Breaking Down a Bad Loss: Yankees 4, Orioles 5

Box Score

Okay. So...I said I wasn't gonna let this happen. I said I was gonna do my best not to let my education interfere with my duties as the New York Yankees unofficial information guide. But I have failed. I missed two series. Not even just one, but two whole series. That, my friends, is unacceptable. I apologize to my fans (Cody) and I apologize to the game of baseball in general. With that out of the way, let's turn over that leaf and get back into it.

Oh, and just so we're all on the same page, the Yanks won the road series against the Athletics and then lost their first series of the year to those God-forsaken Angels at their ballpark in Anaheim, no thanks to Vazquez. That would put us at 12-6 on Tuesday going into this game. Cool? Cool.

Ha, always refreshing to return to your blog after a long hiatus to find that you have to start with a loss to the Orioles. Let's talk about the O's for a minute. They had three, count 'em, three wins coming into this game, and sixteen losses. After avoiding the sweep in their opening series at Tropicana with a 5-4 win over the Rays, the partially-orange Birds went on to drop nine straight, as they were swept in back-to-back series at home against the Jays and Rays before falling in the first three games of a four-game road series against the A's.

I'd just like to point out that the O's got completely screwed with the scheduling this year. I mean, 16 straight games to start you season? That's a lot to ask of players far removed from mid-season form, especially the bullpen. In comparison, the Yankees had a pampered schedule, since it felt like they had an off-day after every series. Could this be a carry-over effect of Girardi's whining last year? If so, then I suppose your plan worked Joe.

Anyway, you'd think a team with Miguel Tejada (hitting .283 heading into this series), Nick Markakis (.282), Adam Jones (.212), a hot Ty Wigginton (team-leading .327) and future star Matt Wieters (.324) would be able to muster more than three wins in nineteen games, right (worst start since 1988 by the way)? And yet before Tuesday, the O's had managed to score more than 3 runs in a game just six times, two of which were in their previous two contests against the Red Sox. Something just doesn't compute. I'm guessing clutch hitting is a huge issue for this team.

How about the starters? Their projected #1 Jeremy Guthrie (who then dropped off in the rotation due to a bad spring) made through at least 6 innings in each of his first four starts and never allowed more than 3 runs. Entering with an ERA of 3.46, he's had a very respectable April for a guy everyone thought would wet the bed, although his team could never get him the win. Brian Matusz, who apparently had the best spring out of all the starters, has also pitched respectively, allowing no more than 4 runs in any start (just once to the Rays) and working through 6 innings in every start but his first. He's was the only starter with a win coming into Tuesday, holding claim to two out of the team's three victories. How about Brad Bergesen? Oh, yeah some trouble here. Bergesen surrendered 14 earned runs, 4 homers and 6 walks over 10.1 innings in his first three starts, and his 12.19 ERA got him demoted to triple-A for what manager Dave Trembely felt were "mechanical issues." Ouch. David Hernandez has done a solid job in the fifth hole with a 4.84 ERA, giving his team at least 5 innings with every start.

Kevin Millwood, an off-season signing who became the opening-day starter, held the best ERA on the club coming into New York at 3.38 (despite an 0-3 record), and he started the first game of this series. Millwood worked 5.1 innings, allowing 2 ERs on 5 hits and 3 BBs. Millwood relied on his cutter and his 2-seamer for the majority of the game, occasionally mixing in a slider in long ABs and even going to a change-up in the last couple of innings. For the Yankees order, it was their typical approach against veteran pitching: run the count as deep as possible and make him earn every out. As a result, Millwood had already thrown 67 pitches through three innings, and was forced to exit after a sixth inning walk to Posada (who tagged him in the fourth for a lead-off homer), having flung 112 pitches. A long third inning (in which the Yanks put two on base right to start and batted in on run on a Tejada error) and two nine-pitch ABs against Teixeira (more on him later) sealed it for the veteran starter. Somehow he left with his ERA unchanged at 3.38. Someone wanna check that math? Just kidding Yahoo, I trust you.

Then it was up to the O's bullpen who you'd assume was the a big reason why they're awful, based on the above breakdown of the starters. But you know what they say about assuming...don't ever do it. Alberto Castillo (a recent call-up with little big league experience) and Jim Johnson (who had a 7.04 ERA before Tuesday) blanked the pinstripes in 2.1 innings relief. The Yanks stung a couple of balls, but everything was hit right at somebody. Alfredo Simon came in to close it out. Odd that he's making his season debut in such a pressure situation, but he did the job, battling through Cesar Izturis's 2-out error and Tex's RBI single to record the save. Apparently there was something about Gardener's swing that was putting some kind of tricky spin on the ball, as both errors committed by the O's defense were on balls he hit. Or maybe their defense is the real reason they're struggling.

Speaking of struggling defenses, the Yanks also posted 2 errors in their losing effort, both coming in the eighth inning. The first was a fielding flub by Jeter on a Wigginton grounder, then when pinch runner Lugo attempted to swipe second, Posada's throw sailed into center field, allowing Lugo to scoot to third. Izturis stepped up to drive him in for the O's fifth run, the run that turned out to be the game-winning score. Izturis would also committ the error that brought the Yanks to within striking distance in the ninth . Baseball's funny that way, ain't it?

Hughes wasn't as sharp in this contest as he was in Oakland, where he threw another almost-no-hitter. That's not saying he wasn't good, it's just that he didn't have his best stuff. He was struggling to put the Orioles away and as a result they were able to run his pitch count up near 100 by the end of five innings. Four walks certainly didn't help his bid for the win. Neither did Boone Logan or David Robertson. Boone faced just one batter, Luke Scott, and walked him. Thanks. Then Robertson came in and hit Wigginton, gave up a hit to recent call-up Rhyne Hughes, hung a 2-2 curve to Nolan Reimold, and then got burned on five-straight fastballs to Nolan Reimold. Each of the three hits came on pitches where he threw the exact same pitch in the exact same spot the pitch before. Not smart at all. When the inning was over, the Orioles had taken the lead 4-2. There's your ballgame.

I'm not even questioning Girardi's decision to take out Hughes. 108 pitches in the sixth inning and with a lefty coming to bat with 2 outs sounds to me like the typical moment Joe-must-intervene moment. I just don't get why he goes to Robertson in that instance. It's a one-run ballgame, your team is coming off a full days rest and you go to the guy with the worst ERA in the bullpen? Really? Why not Joba? Or Aceves, then Joba? Or even Mitre? Robertson has had the least effective April of any arm on the team besides Vazquez. He shouldn't be coming into a game that close when all your arms have had a full day of rest. Girardi, once again, I just don't know where your head is at.