Ian Kennedy only looked horrible for one inning, the third, and looked sharp for a few innings. Unfortunately in the fifth he started struggling again and was pulled by Girardi. If your starter doesn't make it at least six innings, your chances of winning are pretty small. Kennedy is second to last in the league for average innings per game for starters. The bottom of the list is occupied by Phil Hughes. That should tell you something about the Yankees chances of winning.
Jonathan Albaladejo came in and got out of one jam, but then started allowing a few runs in the next two innings he pitched in, eventually being replaced by Chris Britton. The one ray of hope was that despite all his shuttling back and forth between NY and Scranton, Britton was sharp and pitched 2.2 hitless and scoreless innings.
The Yankees had a nice start to the game offensively, with a walk a hit and then a three run homer by Bobby Abreu. The Yankees had a few other hits during the night and Shelley Duncan picked up an RBI single, but the Yankees once again couldn't score enough to save their struggling pitchers. The team LOB was 11, once again showing us the Yanks are having trouble hitting with runners in scoring position.
I can't see Kennedy spending too much more time in the rotation here. I think he needs to spend the rest of the year in Scranton. The problem is the only replacement available at the moment other than Joba is Kei Igawa and no one wants to see him in NY.
2 comments:
The melt down of the starting rotation should make it easier to start the Joba transition sooner rather than later.If the Yanks starters were keeping them in games, you can make a case for strong back end pitching but their failure, makes the decision a no brainer. Let's see, Igawa revisited or the next Clemens
Hey, even if Joba reaches his innings limit in the fall, maybe Pavano will be back of the DL by then?
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