Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Moose, Pettitte and forget it

Borrowing on the famed "Spahn, Sain and pray for rain", we now have the "Moose, Pettitte and forget it" refrain.

Last night's game was just terrible for the Yanks. Pettitte was laboring early and often and the bats hit into four double-plays. Blech.

With Joba off to see Dr. Death, we're forced to rely on Moose and Pettitte. Moose has been exceptional this year, a huge surprise. Pettitte is up and down. He's been our "stopper" for years and right now he's not stopping squat. We need him to pick it back up. Soon.

Pettitte (12-9) last night lasted five-plus innings, giving up five runs on six hits and three walks."I just set, really, a poor tone to the game," he said of Josh Hamilton's two-run homer in Pettitte's 30-pitch first inning.

Through five innings, Pettitte had thrown 93 pitches in the heat. But trailing 4-1, the Yankees sent him out for the sixth -- and he failed to get an out.
If Joba's shoulder is worse than expected, things could spiral down quickly. If he did any real damage, I'm gonna be pretty damn upset.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Isn't Livan Hernandez available? (just kidding...really...please, put down that bat...honest, it was a joke...no...no...AIIIEEEE!!!!)

But seriously, Moose and Andy carried the Yanks for so long, it was only a matter of time before their (older) arms hit a bit of a rough patch. Of course, it's been the story for a few years now...when the pitchers are good, the batters can't hit a thing, when the batters are good, the pitchers throw batting practice pitches.

Personally, I think the Yankees should follow the advice I've been screaming at the TV for years (and the Red Sox followed)...give the older pitchers (or all starters) a little rest in the July/August time frame so they'll be fresh for the stretch run (and post-season, if it happens). Unfortunately, at this point we need to win too much to do that...but maybe in a few weeks when we have Hughes, Kennedy and Pavano available (HA!).

tHeMARksMiTh said...

It's still better than Jurrjens, ??, and, well, never had it.

Jason @ IIATMS said...

Seriously, Livan was CLAIMED by the Rockies, meaning the Twins are totally off the hook for the balance of his salary (about $2M). Livan is the Latin version of Ponson.

Unknown said...

Yeah, I saw that in Olney's blog after I had posted it...the comment still works from a humor perspective, though.

Something else I read today...Freddy Garcia is being heavily scouted (the Yankees supposedly had as many as SIX scouts watching him). Let THAT one sink in a little bit...

(shiver)

Unknown said...

Meanwhile, Jeff Karstens followed up his excellent first start for Pittsburgh with another gem...he was perfect for 7 2/3 innings.

Nice.