Game 100 - Yanks Play Like a Last Place Team

Instead of looking like the division leaders that have been steamrolling since the All Star break, the Yanks looked like a cellar dwelling team going through the rigors of a long season in their 6-2 loss to Tampa Bay. Crooked Cap Sabathia's pitching was abysmal, their hitting was non-existent, the defense was an absolute joke, and for good measure, they even committed a hideous baserunning blunder.

The Crooked One got lit up for 9 hits and 6 runs in 5.2 innings of work. Granted, his defense deserted him at times, but he never buckled down and caused his own troubles. After Derek Jeter's hideous throwing error over Mark Teixeira's head allowed Ben Zobrist to reach second, Sabathia walked the pitiful .223-hitting Pat Burrell (who struck out in his next 3 at bats) and the equally pitiful Gabe Kapler to load the bases. Instead of knuckling down to try and get the even weaker hitting Dioner Navarro to strike out or hit into an inning ending DP, he allowed Navarro to drive the ball to CF for a sac fly.

Sabathia never found his groove, as he allowed a run-scoring triple to Crawford on an 0-2 count, surrendered a HR to the struggling Evan Longoria, and embarrassed himself further when he allowed the aforementioned pitiful Kapler to double off him in the 6th. Jason Bartlett followed with and RBI single and then BJ Upton, in turn, doubled in Bartlett to finish off Crooked Cap.

As for the Yanks defense - there was none. As previously mentioned, Jeter airmailed one. ARod followed suit with an errant throw of his own. Sadly, it would have held Crawford at 3B, but the bad throw allowed him to score. Then, there's Nick Swisher. He must be drinking buddies with the official scorer, because he blatantly had 2 hideous plays in RF and wasn't given any errors. On one play, he ran down the RF line and unnecessarily went into a slide and dropped the ball that was ruled a triple. A major league ballplayer catches that ball 99 times out of a 100. If not, it's usually ruled an error. Then he allowed a bloop hit from Upton turn into an RBI double instead of knocking it down, or strange as it sounds, fielding it cleanly and holding the runners to first and third.

The Yanks hitting tonight wasn't any better. Facing an old nemesis, Scott Kazmir, someone forgot to tell the Yanks this wasn't the same guy that has given them trouble in the past. Kazmir came into the game with an unsightly 6.69 ERA. Obviously, the rest of the league has been having their way with him like a drunken sorority chick. Not the Yankees though. Even when they scored their first run, Hideki Matsui, running on the legs of an 80-year old, was caught between 1st and 2nd on a late throw to home. Where the hell did he think he was going? Not 2B with those stumps! Tonight clearly could have been collectively one of their worse performances of the year.

The Yanks did have 2 bright spots though. Rookie reliever, Mark Melancon, had his best performance as a major leaguer, throwing 2.1 scoreless innings with 2 Ks. ARod looks like he's coming out of his slump, after doubling in his last at bat last night, he had 2 more hits tonight.

Yankees Record: 61-39