RISP Failures Doom Yanks Again

(image courtesy of yankeeanalysts.com)

It’s difficult to put into words just how awful tonight’s Yankee loss to the KC Royals was, but I’m going to attempt to do just that. When your starting pitcher throws a 1-hitter over the course of 7 innings and only surrenders one run, you should win the ballgame. When, in that same game, your offense records 12 hits, 8 walks, and a hit batter, you should really win that game.

Unfortunately, when your bullpen gives up a run in 3 of the 4 innings they pitch (2 on two-out hits, no less) and your offense grounds into two double plays and leaves another 15 on base while going an ungodly 2-16 with runners in scoring position, the end result is an ugly 4-3 loss in 11 innings.

I’ll start with the good (also known as AJ Burnett and Curtis Granderson). Somebody forgot to tell Burnett that the calendar switched to May, because he has been absolutely outstanding in his two post-April starts. While Burnett has gained a reputation of faltering once the season’s first month comes to an end, he seems to be doing an excellent job of putting that to rest. Alas, the Bombers are 0-2 in those two games, so AJ has nothing to show for it. The defense and offense let him down last time. This outing it was the bullpen and offense doing the honors.

Over those two starts, Burnett has gone 14 innings and allowed only 3 earned runs on 4 hits while striking out 11. Tonight, while he struggled with his command (issuing 5 free passes), he battled through to shut down one of the most potent offenses in the American League. The lone blemish was the first career home run off the bat of uber-prospect Eric Hosmer. Games like this where he had trouble throwing strikes would have resulted in one of Burnett’s trademarked implosions, but his work with Russell Martin and Larry Rothschild seems to have taught AJ how to curtail those disastrous innings. He appears to be more focused than ever and has excelled at limiting the damage when he gets himself in trouble, which has allowed him to post a tremendous 3.38 ERA and 1.12 WHIP. It’s still early (not that early anymore, though), but Burnett has given the Bombers more than even the most optimistic Yankee fan could have hoped for so far.

Granderson continued his hot hitting, providing most of the offense from this woeful lineup. He went 2-5, plus a walk and a stolen base. Both hits were big moments for the Bombers. His third inning home run gave the team a 2-0 lead and he added some exceedingly rare damage with runners in scoring position with his game-tying RBI single in the 10th.

The rest of the offense, however did not follow suit. Jorge Posada delivered the team’s only other hit with runners in scoring position thanks to his RBI single in the 2nd to give the Yankees the game’s first run and, overall, had a pretty good game. However, in a crucial spot following an intentional walk to load the bases, Posada struck out to end the inning and send the game to extras. Russell Martin grounded out with the bases loaded to and an inning on two separate occasions and flew out with a runner on second in another at-bat. The remaining members of this cast of characters did not do anything to inspire confidence either and combined to waste a fine performance by their starting pitcher.

They also gave away a couple outs thanks to ill-advised bunt attempts. Sacrifice bunting is almost never a good idea and tonight was no exception. You give away a valuable out with only a minimal benefit and, as we saw tonight, there is no guarantee that it will even succeed. On top of that, it allows the pitcher to record an out without throwing many pitches.

In the bottom of the 8th with Brett Gardner on first, Derek Jeter tried to bunt him into scoring position. Considering how poorly the team had been performing all night with RISP, the smart move would have been to allow Jeter to hit away. Scoring Gardner from first with three outs to work with is a much better proposition than scoring him from second with an out already in the books. Of course, it never got to that point because Jeter popped up the bunt for a quick, effort-free out.

Even more absurd was the inexplicable bunt that Gardner laid down in the 10th inning. With the Yankees down a run, Joakim Soria came in and walked Russell Martin on 4 pitches. He then threw the first two pitches to Gardner out of the strike-zone as well. With a 2-0 count, Gardner bizarrely tried to bunt his way on and fouled it off. Soria followed that with yet another ball, so, 8 pitches in to his outing, he had thrown 7 balls with the only strike coming on a bunt attempt. In an extreme hitters count and with a pitcher on the mound who is seriously struggling with his control Gardner maddeningly bunted the next pitch (presumably in an attempt at a hit, which didn’t really make it any better of a decision) and sacrificed Jeter to second. It was completely inexcusable to give away a free out like that in that situation and even though the Yankees eventually tied it up in that inning, it very well may have cost them the game.

As far as the bullpen is concerned, as disappointing as their performance was, it’s hard to get too angry with them. Because they were without Soriano and, for some mysterious (or at least mysterious while I’m writing this) reason, Joba for the evening, the bullpen was extremely shorthanded. David Robertson has been excellent for the most part this season, including a Houdini act to help win the game the previous night, but his lack of control got him in trouble and a terrible 1-2 pitch to Wilson Betemit cost him the lead just before he was able to get out of the inning. Buddy Carlyle pitched very poorly, but he is a mop-up man and not all that good to begin with. It’s hard to expect him to pitch well in a big spot. That’s just not what he’s here for, but by the time he came in, there weren’t many options. As long as they get Soriano and Joba back in short order and as long as Robertson pitches like he usually does, the bullpen will be fine. The starting pitching has been more than fine. Now it’s up to the offense to pick up the slack and bring home some runs once they get men on base.