For Yanks, a Return, but Not a Triumph
Blue Jays 2, Yankees 1
Published: August 19, 2008
TORONTO — This is how badly things are going for the Yankees: They activated a star player from the disabled list on Tuesday, and it indirectly lost them a game.
Hideki Matsui returned as the designated hitter, which pushed Johnny Damon into full-time duty in center field. He dropped a fly ball in the first inning and got away with it. But when Damon leaped on the warning track with one on and two out in the eighth inning, he let a deep drive by Toronto’s Marco Scutaro deflect off his glove for a double.
Damon flipped away his glove in disgust, but there was nothing he could do to erase the damage. Joe Inglett scored from first on the play, and B. J. Ryan saved a 2-1 victory for A. J. Burnett in the ninth.
“Those should have been two easy outs,” Damon said. “If they’re going to use me in center more, I need to be better. That’s very uncharacteristic of me and of most center fielders in the league. I’ll take this one on me.”
With the victory, the Blue Jays crept a game behind the third-place Yankees in the American League East. The Yankees are 11 games behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays and six and a half behind the Boston Red Sox, who lead for the wild card.
Burnett struck out 13 over eight innings for his 16th victory. José Veras took the loss in relief of Darrell Rasner, who carried a shutout into the seventh before allowing a game-tying homer to Adam Lind.
“I wish I would have been better on that one pitch,” Rasner said. “I’m going to try not to beat myself up.”
Across the locker room, Damon was doing plenty of that. He said he wished he had been playing deeper against Scutaro, to guard against a double, because then he might not have had to jump at the track.
But he made no excuse for the play, which he said should have been ruled an error. The ball simply hit the top of his glove and fell away. “I’m baffled,” Damon said.
The Yankees hoped for a ninth-inning rally when Alex Rodriguez led off with a spinning bloop single over first baseman Lyle Overbay. Rodriguez said he thought the ball would trickle to the side wall, but Overbay chased it down, sliding on his knees to barehand it before throwing a strike to second to nab Rodriguez.
It was reminiscent of a game in Anaheim this month when Rodriguez was caught stealing third, trying to force the action. But it was a gamble worth taking, he said, because the Yankees have struggled for runs.
“The one thing we shouldn’t do is play passive,” Rodriguez said. “If he does three things — barehand it, slide and throw a strike — he deserves it. We didn’t do enough early in the game.”
That was because of Burnett, who regularly carves up the Yankees. So does his teammate Roy Halladay, who starts Thursday. In the last two seasons, Burnett is 4-0 with a 1.21 earned run average in five starts against the Yankees.
He walked Damon to lead off the first, but issued no more walks the rest of the game. The Yankees got an opposite-field double from Bobby Abreu to score Damon, then they went cold.
Burnett’s fastball had vicious late movement — in the fifth, Damon could only wave at a tailing third-strike fastball he expected to be inside — and his curveball was humbling.
“He was throwing pellets,” said Rodriguez, who struck out three times. “He was 0-2 on everybody, throwing in the high- to mid-90s, and then he had a snake for a breaking ball. Give him credit.”
At a softer setting, Rasner was just as effective. The Blue Jays tried to take advantage of his aggressive approach by swinging early, but that helped Rasner because he was locating his pitches so well.
He threw only seven pitches in the fifth, and six in the sixth. Through that inning his pitch count was 68, and he worked into the seventh for only the second time in 11 starts.
With one out and the left-handed Lind batting, Manager Joe Girardi had the left-handed Dámaso Marte warming up in the bullpen. But Rasner had struck out Lind with a cutter in the fourth inning, and he stayed in to face him.
“He’d done a good job against him,” Girardi said. “I was comfortable with Raz, the way he was throwing the ball.”
But this time, Lind lifted a cutter over the right-field wall for a homer to tie the score, 1-1. As he watched the ball’s flight, Rasner slumped forward, his hands on his knees, and shouted. The lead was lost — not to return — and another day was soon gone from a season that is rapidly shrinking.
INSIDE PITCH
Carl Pavano has pitched twice for the Yankees in the last 1,149 days, but he could start Saturday in Baltimore despite rumblings of various minor injuries. General Manager Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi said that Pavano would pitch in the bullpen on Wednesday. “He’s going to start Saturday,” Cashman said. “Whether for us or for Trenton remains to be seen, but he’s definitely starting on Saturday.” Girardi said Pavano and Phil Hughes, another candidate to start Saturday, were experiencing “normal soreness” after their minor league starts on Sunday. Cashman said other minor leaguers could be options for the start, and it is worth noting that Víctor Zambrano pitched five shutout innings for Class AA Trenton on Monday. ... Joba Chamberlain played catch and made 60 throws. He will intensify the workout on Thursday and throw in the bullpen on Saturday but does not seem likely to return this month.
News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/sports/baseball/20yankees.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin
TORONTO — This is how badly things are going for the Yankees: They activated a star player from the disabled list on Tuesday, and it indirectly lost them a game.Hideki Matsui returned as the designated hitter, which pushed Johnny Damon into full-time duty in center field. He dropped a fly ball in the first inning and got away with it. But when Damon leaped on the warning track with one on and two out in the eighth inning, he let a deep drive by Toronto’s Marco Scutaro deflect off his glove for a double.
Damon flipped away his glove in disgust, but there was nothing he could do to erase the damage. Joe Inglett scored from first on the play, and B. J. Ryan saved a 2-1 victory for A. J. Burnett in the ninth.
“Those should have been two easy outs,” Damon said. “If they’re going to use me in center more, I need to be better. That’s very uncharacteristic of me and of most center fielders in the league. I’ll take this one on me.”
With the victory, the Blue Jays crept a game behind the third-place Yankees in the American League East. The Yankees are 11 games behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays and six and a half behind the Boston Red Sox, who lead for the wild card.
Burnett struck out 13 over eight innings for his 16th victory. José Veras took the loss in relief of Darrell Rasner, who carried a shutout into the seventh before allowing a game-tying homer to Adam Lind.
“I wish I would have been better on that one pitch,” Rasner said. “I’m going to try not to beat myself up.”
Across the locker room, Damon was doing plenty of that. He said he wished he had been playing deeper against Scutaro, to guard against a double, because then he might not have had to jump at the track.
But he made no excuse for the play, which he said should have been ruled an error. The ball simply hit the top of his glove and fell away. “I’m baffled,” Damon said.
The Yankees hoped for a ninth-inning rally when Alex Rodriguez led off with a spinning bloop single over first baseman Lyle Overbay. Rodriguez said he thought the ball would trickle to the side wall, but Overbay chased it down, sliding on his knees to barehand it before throwing a strike to second to nab Rodriguez.
It was reminiscent of a game in Anaheim this month when Rodriguez was caught stealing third, trying to force the action. But it was a gamble worth taking, he said, because the Yankees have struggled for runs.
“The one thing we shouldn’t do is play passive,” Rodriguez said. “If he does three things — barehand it, slide and throw a strike — he deserves it. We didn’t do enough early in the game.”
That was because of Burnett, who regularly carves up the Yankees. So does his teammate Roy Halladay, who starts Thursday. In the last two seasons, Burnett is 4-0 with a 1.21 earned run average in five starts against the Yankees.
He walked Damon to lead off the first, but issued no more walks the rest of the game. The Yankees got an opposite-field double from Bobby Abreu to score Damon, then they went cold.
Burnett’s fastball had vicious late movement — in the fifth, Damon could only wave at a tailing third-strike fastball he expected to be inside — and his curveball was humbling.
“He was throwing pellets,” said Rodriguez, who struck out three times. “He was 0-2 on everybody, throwing in the high- to mid-90s, and then he had a snake for a breaking ball. Give him credit.”
At a softer setting, Rasner was just as effective. The Blue Jays tried to take advantage of his aggressive approach by swinging early, but that helped Rasner because he was locating his pitches so well.
He threw only seven pitches in the fifth, and six in the sixth. Through that inning his pitch count was 68, and he worked into the seventh for only the second time in 11 starts.
With one out and the left-handed Lind batting, Manager Joe Girardi had the left-handed Dámaso Marte warming up in the bullpen. But Rasner had struck out Lind with a cutter in the fourth inning, and he stayed in to face him.
“He’d done a good job against him,” Girardi said. “I was comfortable with Raz, the way he was throwing the ball.”
But this time, Lind lifted a cutter over the right-field wall for a homer to tie the score, 1-1. As he watched the ball’s flight, Rasner slumped forward, his hands on his knees, and shouted. The lead was lost — not to return — and another day was soon gone from a season that is rapidly shrinking.
INSIDE PITCH
Carl Pavano has pitched twice for the Yankees in the last 1,149 days, but he could start Saturday in Baltimore despite rumblings of various minor injuries. General Manager Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi said that Pavano would pitch in the bullpen on Wednesday. “He’s going to start Saturday,” Cashman said. “Whether for us or for Trenton remains to be seen, but he’s definitely starting on Saturday.” Girardi said Pavano and Phil Hughes, another candidate to start Saturday, were experiencing “normal soreness” after their minor league starts on Sunday. Cashman said other minor leaguers could be options for the start, and it is worth noting that Víctor Zambrano pitched five shutout innings for Class AA Trenton on Monday. ... Joba Chamberlain played catch and made 60 throws. He will intensify the workout on Thursday and throw in the bullpen on Saturday but does not seem likely to return this month.
News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/sports/baseball/20yankees.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin
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