A very disappointing outing for some Yankee pitchers. Ian Kennedy got behind in the count on a majority of batters and paid the price. He was unable to challenge the hitters and throw effective strikes. Kennedy lasted just 2.1 innings, giving up 6 runs on 4 hits with 4 walks and 2 strikeouts. He threw 70 pitches for 32 strikes.
I had high hopes for Kennedy this season, hopefully this outing was just a fluke, but I think this is going to be the way Yankee pitching goes this year. You'll get some quality starts and some we'd all rather forget.
The next three relievers performed admirably. Albaladejo, Ohlendorf and Traber combined for 4.2 (2.2, 1, and 1 respectively) innings of 2 hit ball. What I don't understand is why Thompson didn't leave one or two of them in for another inning.
Instead we were left with Hawkins coming in to pitch the 8th. Hawkins looked good on paper and did well in the spring but hasn't delivered the goods early on in the regular season. He only got 2 outs tonight giving up 6 runs on 6 hits. Maybe the fans are getting to him with their booing him for wearing the number 21.
To cap things off Farnsworth came in with 2 outs in the 8th inning and pitched the rest of the game. By the numbers he pitched 1.1 innings, gave up 3 hits, 1 run, no walks and struck out 3. The very first batter he faced hit a 3 run home run. Fortunately for Farnsworth the official stats don't credit him with 2 of those runs, but a manager can't rely on a guy who comes into a game in relief and gives up home runs.
Yankee hitting was pretty sparse and they're going to have to step it up a notch to keep this pitching staff afloat.
Quite a frustrating game all in all. Giving up 7 runs in the 8th inning isn't going to produce too many wins. A starter who is having a bad outing can be replaced with a long reliever, but you need to be able to rely on your bullpen to get batters out.
