Source: FanGraphs
For only the seventh time in 24 games at the new Yankee Stadium (including postseason), the Twins won on Friday night. They took the series opener by the score of 6-1 and frankly I’m amazing the Yankees even scratched that one run across. The offense was non-existent. Let’s recap the loss:
- Blame The Park: Vidal Nuno allowed four runs in 6.2 innings on Friday, and his ERA at Yankee Stadium dropped to 7.94. It was 8.72 coming into the game. The Twins scored those four runs on three homers, all of which were moonshots. No Yankee Stadium cheapies at all. Maybe Nuno is just a bad fit for a small ballpark. Maybe he just isn’t very good. Maybe it’s both. Either way, he’ll start again in five days because the Yankees are simply out of starters.
- NOffense: Sometimes you run into great pitchers like Ricky Nolasco and you just have to tip your cap. He only came into the game with the second highest ERA (6.12) in baseball, after all. The Yankees couldn’t do much of anything against Nolasco even though he walked more batters (four) than he struck out (three). The box score says they had 13 base-runners in the game, but I don’t believe it. Must be an error or ten somewhere. Their only run scored on Jacoby Ellsbury’s third inning double, which brought home Brett Gardner. That’s all they got.
- TOOTBLANs Aplenty: The Yankees made an inning’s worth of outs on the bases. Brian Roberts got picked off first, Derek Jeter took too big a turn around first base on a single and got caught in a rundown (Gardner got caught in a rundown when he tried to score while Jeter was in his rundown), and Roberts was thrown out at the plate on a single. Getting picked off first base happens, the other two plays were just bad mistakes. Bad mistakes that killed rallies.
- Leftovers: The Yankees have now gone four straight games without a homer — they hit three on the road trip, or the same number the Twins hit in the first four innings on Friday — the second time they’ve done that this year. They did it four times last year and six times total from 2006-12. Not sure how they’re supposed to contend in a tiny ballpark with so little power … Preston Claiborne allowed two runs in 1.1 innings and was nice enough to put this one completely out of reach … Gardner stole two bases, Mark Teixeira drew three walks, and Yangervis Solarte had both a single and a double. Hopefully he’s coming out his funk.
MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs some other stats, and ESPN the updated standings. These same two teams will continue this three-game series on Saturday afternoon, when Masahiro Tanaka starts against Kevin Correia. Correia has the highest ERA in baseball (6.34). If they can’t win that game, DFA everyone.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.