Last night, the Yankees wasted a decent outing by Chien Ming Wang (7 innings, 1 earned run) in his attempt to go 7-1. The Yanks lost in 11 innings 2-1 to the first place Tampa Rays.
Mariano Rivera took the loss while giving up his first run all year!
After Joe Girardi's 35 minute pregame (lets hope Hank Steinbrenner wasn't in attendance) meeting with the ball club, the Yankees got a little payback reversing the role and winning 2-1 tonight. Robinson Cano went 4-4 and is now above the Mendoza line.
Coming into the season, the question surrounding the Yankees was their pitching. So far Wang has been Cy Young worthy, Andy Pettitte has been up and down, Mike Mussina is rebounding nicely from his horrific 2007 and is now 6-3 with his ERA at 3.99.
Phil Hughes is out until at least the All Star break. Ian Kennedy isn't quite there yet. Darrell Rasner has come up with a big shot in the arm going 2-0, ERA 3.00 with wins over Seattle and Detroit.
All that being said, the Yankees are still lurking around, 20-21, 3 1/2 games out.
Their record last year at this time was 17-19, 8 games out.
Lets not forget last year June 4: the Yankees were 24-31 and 12 1/2 games out!
And of course Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada have been on the DL.
These two accounted for 74 homeruns last year, 54 and 20 respectively. That's a lot of pop out of your lineup.
You kind of start to see why A-Rod's a MVP.
Joba's been human with two losses and has also been under a lot of criticism lately. And now Goose Gossage! Who cares Goose! As long as Joba's still striking out opposing hitters. And maybe Goose is just jealous.
The Yankees bullpen has actually been the brightest spot this season.
Even the erratic Kyle Farnsworth's ERA is 2.84.
Joba's ERA-2.60
And Rivera, after giving up his first run all season-ERA 0.53.
Lets not get too excited kids. There's 121 games left!
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