Cliff Lee won a good pitchers’ duel, hand-cuffing a dormant and confused offense that looked on its heels all night. He threw a lot of strikes early, and got the Yanks lunging forward for weak ground outs. On the whole, Wang was good and did more than his share to keep the team in the game, yet got absolutely no run support. Wang went seven, allowing five hits, three runs earned, walked three and fanned four on 99 pitches/65 strikes. The lead-off walk to Sizemore cost Wang in the first, leading to a run. A hanging slider that resulted in a Marte single, combined with the follow-up walk to Sizemore, helped make it 3-0 Indians.
But the bats were the downfall tonight. Credit Lee for locating very well, throwing strikes, and keeping the Yankees confused. But the Yanks hurt their own cause by chasing some bad pitches. Melky tried unsuccessfully to check his swing on an 0-2 eye-high fastball in the second. Matsui fanned in the sixth on a curveball that was almost a foot off the plate. Cano weakly grounded out to second yet again, getting jammed on a fastball nearly a foot inside as well. Again, credit Lee for a job well done; he was excellent. But blame the Yankees for assisting his cause.
Abreu was 2-4 to raise his average to .305. Duncan, Matsui, Melky and Cano each went 1-4 and Ensberg 1-3 on a 45-foot chopped bunt. But fully half the Yankees’ hits were excuse-me hits, bloops, or just placed by divine providence. They didn’t hit much hard at all tonight. The team clearly misses both A-Rod and Posada. I love Molina, and he’s a terrific defensive catcher, but somewhat predictably the Yankees aren’t getting much from Molina offensively. I really like Shelley, but as Frank the Sage and I discussed during the game, while it’s understandable to break up the knot of lefties the Yanks trot out, Shelley is quite simply not a clean-up hitter. At best, he’s a six or seven-hole hitter. Of course, he wouldn’t have to hit up there were it not for the injuries and the incredibly unproductive play from Giambi thus far. JD and Jeter were 0-8 combined, and JD really looked bad at the plate tonight, with four ground outs–two to second, one to first and one to short. Jeter hit the ball hard but at fielders twice. The bottom of the lineup, not unlike last year during the early-season struggles, is very weak, especially as Cano continues to flail and flounder. Another thing The Sage and I discussed and agreed upon was the disgust with Cano’s poor, sulking posture. Suck it up and stop sulking, Cano, dropping your shoulders and head and flipping your bat over poor plate appearances that are so often your own fault. Stop looking like every pitcher who takes the mound is inside your head. Act like a professional, even when not hitting like one. Jeter in 2004, though farther along, never acted like this–as Torre reminded us during Jeter’s prolonged slump that season. Cano would do well emulating him instead of proffering the appearance of sniveling.
Another garbage effort, another good start wasted from a lack of run support. Mussina faces Byrd tomorrow to try to avoid the second sweep this home stand.
