Yankees tired or just uninspired?

Game one of the three game series between the Red Sox and the Yankees, was a good game. Exciting, and both teams refused to give in until the very last end. Too bad that the Bosox took it by one run after nineteen innings. I am not acting like I don’t care. Every loss vs the Red Sox hurts. But some hurt more than others.  In fact this loss did not hurt me that much because the Yankees seemed to have given everything.

But that was Friday.

Saturday’s game was a complete different story.

Joe Girardi sent Adam Warren to the mound. Warren pitched for what he is capable of. He is a fifth starter, so don’t expect any crazy things. IMO he did a decent job by allowing one earned run in 5.1 innings. The catching error that Alex Rodriguez made at first base led to another run when Warren was pitching. Can you blame A-Rod for not catching a not perpect throw from Didi Gregorius? Yes and no. The throw itself arrived low and wasn’t all that hard to catch, so in a certain way you can blame him. But on the other hand, A-Rod has close to zero experience at first base, and he played there because his manager wanted him to.

But that wasn’t all. Missed catches by Brett Gardner, who tracked the ball in a wrong way IMO, Chris Young, who misjudged Daniel Nava’s linedrive and Garrett Jones, were the “highlights” in poor defensive outfield play.

Backup catcher John Ryan Murphy rushed to make throws at second to throw out base stealers. In one case he threw at the left side of he base. Everyone who has played catcher knows that a throw should be at the base or at the right side of the base. In another attempt Murphy completely overthrew and thus allowed Xander Bogaerts to advance to third.

Didi Gregorius wasn’t sharp either. When Brock Holt cleared the bases with his hit that sailed over Chris Young’s head, Gregorius received the ball from Young and did not turn around. If he had, he might have tagged out Holt for the final out of the inning. The Yankees had rushed in pitcher Matt Tracy from the minors to have an extra reliever available. In order to make room for him, the Yankees sent down Chasen Shreve to AAA. Looking to his performance on Friday, Shreve he did not deserve this demotion, but the Yankees wanted to have a fresh arm. Tracy did a decent job and if Chase Headly had not made that throwing error, he would have gotten out of the inning and Boston would not have scored those three extra runs.

So on the defensive side, the team rather stank last night. But so did they at bat. Joe Kelly, who is one of five nr. three starters in the Red Sox rotation, according to the YES announcers, kept the Yankee lineup in check rather well. After Gregorius drove in Alex Rodriguez with a sac fly, Kelly retired sixteen (!) hitters. Only after Kelly was replaced by Alexi Ogando, the Yankees started to hit again.

Sure a pitcher can be dominant, but to me the Yankees looked rather uninspired last night. But that doesn’t mean that Kelly’s performance wasn’t a good one.

The Yankees hired Jeff Pentland in the off season to be their hitting coach. The Yankees have a team batting average of .193. A pathetic .193. Only two teams are below them with a batting average that is worse than that. It seems to me that Didi Gregorius isn’t feeling quite comfortable at the plate right now. I realize that when the team would have played better he might have hit better too. It is a psychological thing at times. So what kind of tricks does Pentland have on his sleeve to improve DIdi’s hitting and that of his team mates? So far very little. The Yankees fired Kevin Long because they were not happy with how the Yankees hit under his helm. So far they are even doing worse.

I have said several times that I did not have high hopes for this Yankee team this season. And I did not expect them to win this series vs the Red Sox, not only because the Yankees do not have a stellar team but also because this year’s Red Sox do have the better team on paper (in the meantime they have proven that it is not only on paper). But the least you can expect that they (the Yankees) play their butts off; that they pay for what they are capable of. They are paid millions, amounts that the average fan can only dream about.

I bet that when the team keeps playing like this, Girardi’s days are numbered. But is he really to blame? Their players are playing like they don’t give a damn. Maybe it is time to cut loose players like Sabathia, Teixeira and Beltran. Maybe that will cause a shock which will make the other players realize that even their job is at stake. I rather see a team with grade B players that give everything than a bunch of over the hill veterans that doesn’t give a damn.

I can live with a loss. But it is the way how the Yankees lost yesterday. Like they were totally unintersted. That is something that ticks me off.

I have one more thing to say to the Stoneburner family and to Brian Cashman: Don’t be surprised when Yankee Stadium will have a desolate look this season.