Burnett’s One Bad Inning Dooms Yankees

By BEN SHPIGEL

Published: September 12, 2009

Derek Jeter played shortstop and batted leadoff for the Yankees on Saturday afternoon, as if there was ever a doubt. The day after he surpassed Lou Gehrig to become the franchise’s career hits leader, in a rain-delayed game that ended at 1:28 a.m., Manager Joe Girardi quashed the notion of giving him a mental or physical break. If the Yankees are playing, so is Jeter, their paragon of consistency.

On the other end of that spectrum is A. J. Burnett, who combusted in the second inning of the Yankees’ 7-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium. A fresh batch of fans had barely finished standing and applauding Jeter, who padded his total by leading off with a single and later scoring, when Burnett gave back that lead by allowing six runs.

Brian Roberts capped the outburst with a grand slam that landed in the Yankees’ bullpen in right-center field, where Josh Towers was hastily warming up. Towers did eventually succeed Burnett, but not until the eighth inning. Burnett finished by retiring 17 of the final 19 batters he faced, including eight straight after Roberts’s slam.

But his tendency to throw “one bad pitch,” as he called that down-and-in sinker to Roberts, and have one bad inning is what concerns the Yankees as they steam toward the American League East title and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

“You do want him to get on a roll,” Girardi said. “It’s important for us.”

Despite losing two consecutive games for the first time in almost a month, the Yankees (91-52) have little to worry about aside from manipulating their rotation for the playoffs. Starting C. C. Sabathia in the division series opener is a near-lock, meaning that for Game 2, Girardi would choose between Andy Pettitte (5-1, 3.06 earned run average in 11 starts since the All-Star break) and Burnett, who has pitched well at times but rarely throughout an entire game.

In eight starts between June 14 and July 27, Burnett was 6-1 with a 1.68 E.R.A. In his last nine starts, he is 1-5 with a 6.14 E.R.A.

Jose Molina, who caught Burnett on Saturday, speculated that he might be tired but quickly added that he had not seen any evidence.

“That’s a question that a lot of people are going to ask, if he’s tired or worn down, but I don’t think he needs a rest, I think he’s 100 percent,” Molina said. “To me, it seems like he’s battling all the time. It just happens to be that way and he’s on a bad roll.”

Compared with other A.L. teams, the Orioles do not hit many home runs — they entered Saturday tied for 11th among 14 teams — and had not hit one since last Saturday, a stretch of 42 2/3 innings, before Nolan Reimold led off the second inning by clobbering a fastball into the seats in left-center.

A one-out walk to Matt Wieters preceded three consecutive singles, the last, by Robert Andino, driving in Wieters to nudge the Orioles ahead, 2-1. After Roberts’s slam, three of Burnett’s next five outs were deep drives caught on the warning track.

“No, I’m not concerned, man,” Burnett said, adding: “I’m not looking at what’s in front of this team. I’m looking to my next start.”

By giving up two home runs Saturday, Burnett has allowed a career-high 24, including 9 over his last seven starts. The hitter-friendly dimensions at Yankee Stadium have hardly been a factor, as he has surrendered 13 homers over 15 home starts compared with 11 in 14 starts on the road.

“There’s a lot of little things you have to do to be successful,” Girardi said. “Sometimes, if you don’t do one of them, you can get away with it. If you don’t do a couple of them, it’s hard to get away with it.”

Brian Matusz, the Orioles’ rookie left-hander making what may have been his final start of the season, allowed four hits while silencing the Yankees over seven innings. Baltimore does not want to overtax the 22-year-old Matusz, one of its prized pitching prospects, in his first full professional season. He has pitched 157 2/3 innings in the majors and the minors.

The Yankees have some history of being humbled by pitchers they have never faced before — Fernando Nieve, Craig Stammen, Doug Fister, for example. They will see a lot more of Chris Tillman, who struck out eight in five innings Friday, and Matusz, and they did not sound excited.

“What did we have? Four hits on him?” Jeter said. “They were just scattered. He was never really in trouble.”

Neither are the Yankees, who scored twice in the ninth off Jim Johnson. But their final three weeks would feel a little less like an anticlimax if Burnett had not thrown one bad pitch, in one bad inning.

INSIDE PITCH

Johnny Damon missed his second consecutive game because of a sore hamstring and lower back, but Joe Girardi said he expected him to start Sunday.

News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/sports/baseball/13yankees.html?ref=baseball