Might be time to shave the mustaches, fellas. The Yankees dropped their third straight game on Thursday night, losing 6-1 to the Rays. They’ve lost three straight games for the first time since April 9-11 and only the second time this year.
Down Goes Whitley
Losing a game is one thing, losing a starting pitcher to injury is another. Chase Whitley exited Thursday’s game with an elbow injury in the second inning, and while speaking to reporters after the game, Joe Girardi sure made it sound like they are expecting Friday’s tests to show a major injury. Yuck. Whitley admitted his elbow has been bugging him for a while, but he said he didn’t tell anyone and tried to pitch through it. No regrets, he said.
Before Whitley exited the game, he allowed a run on a two-out, two-strike single to James Loney, who makes a living off making the Yankees pay. Whitley got two quick outs in the second, but walked the next two batters, and none of the balls were particularly close to the plateither. In hindsight, that was a pretty clear indication something was up. Girardi and trainer Steve Donohue popped out of the dugout after the second walk and Whitley was done.
In came long man Esmil Rogers with runners on the corners — Asdrubal Cabrera stole second and advanced to third when Brian McCann threw the ball into center field earlier in the inning — and light-hitting catcher Rene Rivera swatted his first pitch out to dead center field for a three-run homer. I didn’t even think it was that bad of a pitch. It was a slider right at the knees, a borderline at best strike (via Brooks Baseball):
The homer effectively put the game out of reach given the offense’s recent struggles. Rogers did soak up 3.1 innings out of the bullpen before David Carpenter, Chasen Shreve, and Branden Pinder threw an inning each. Shreve allowed a run on three hits while Carpenter and Pinder had 1-2-3 innings. Hopefully this is the start of Carpenter getting on the right track. The Yankees could use him.
Losing Whitley is a real bummer. Losing pitching depth is never good, no matter where the guy sits on the depth chart. Girardi confirmed Chris Capuano, who threw six innings in his latest minor league rehab start earlier this week, will slot back into the rotation to replace Whitley, they just haven’t decided when yet. The Yankees have two off-days next week and don’t need a fifth starter until May 26th, 12 days from now.
Almost Nothing
The Yankees were on the verge of being shut out when Alex Rodriguez hit an opposite field solo home run leading off the ninth inning. It was the team’s first extra-base hit since Mark Teixeira’s homer in the ninth inning on Monday. The Yankees haven’t gone three straight games without an extra-base hit in nearly 15 years, and they avoided it by one inning.
Jacoby Ellsbury led off the game with a single and the Yankees didn’t pick up another hit until Brett Gardner singled in the sixth. They had five hits total: two by Ellsbury, one by Gardner, two by A-Rod. The top three hitters in the lineup went 5-for-11 (.455) and the other six hitters went 0-for-19. Eek. Teixeira and Chase Headley drew walks and that’s it. Seven base-runners all game. Bit of a funk for the offense.
Leftovers
Gardner had a tremendous defensive inning in the seventh and didn’t even record an out. Hits were blooping in all over the place and he cut off three of them to prevent them from becoming extra-base hits, including two with dives. No outs were recorded, but he likely shaved a few runs off Shreve’s ERA.
Following Ellsbury’s leadoff single in the first, Gardner was credited with a sac bunt when he laid the ball down in front of the plate, but I’m pretty sure he was trying to bunt for a hit. There was a bit of a jailbreak out of the box. Still don’t like it though. He’s swinging the bat too well to settle for a bunt. Swing the bat in the first inning! Do some damage maybe.
Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
Here are the box score, video highlights, and updated standings. We also have Bullpen Workload pages and Announcer Standings pages that are worth checking out. Here’s the loss probability graph:
Source: FanGraphs
Up Next
This four-game series in Tampa is finally over. Didn’t it seem like it lasted forever? It did to me. Anyway, the Yankees are off to Kansas City for a three-game weekend series with the Royals. Big Mike Pineda will be on the mound in the series opener Friday night. It’ll be his first start since his 16-strikeout gem last weekend. Believe it or not, he won’t be the tallest starting pitcher in the game. The 6-foot-10 Chris Young will start for the Quarter Pounders.
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