Burnett to the rescue

by Travis G on Apr 19, 2009 4:57 PM EDT in Game Recap

This is already the third time A.J. Burnett has stopped a losing streak. He wasn't great (seven walks, three wild pitches, one hit batter), but was good enough.

The Yanks finally hit with RISP, going 3-7 (while Cleveland went 0-6), yet they made Carl Pavano look like Christy Mathewson.

In reality, the Bombers were very lucky to salvage a split. Cleveland outscored the Yankees 40 to 19. We had no business winning two games, but did somehow.

- Is it too early to call the new park a bandbox? According to the YES broadcast, more homers were hit in the first four games of the new Yankee Stadium than in any ballpark in history. Michael Kay paraphrased something Brian Cashman said, to the effect of: "Once the old Stadium is demolished, the jet stream will diminish." It sounds pretty far-fetched - I'm not sure what one has to do with the other, but I hope he's right.

- As far as the 'Park Factor' goes, it's still too early to know. For example, Camden Yards is (at this point) the second best pitcher-friendly ballpark (and we know that ain't true).

- Only two pitchers in (recorded) history have pitched less than four innings and allowed more than seven runs in three straight games: Chien Ming-Wang and Hayden Penn (in 2006). We have six losses on the year - half can be directly attributed to one pitcher...

[the Yanks only had a 15% shot of winning midway through the 7th]

- One more thing: the Yanks benefitted from the first homerun video review of the year (just like A-Rod last year), as a 7th inning Posada homer was upheld after a fan interfered (reminiscent of Jeff Maier).

Tweet Comment 7 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Yea the park thing

I think has a lot to do with the day games. Lets see what goes on during the summer when the Yanks play at night a lot.

As for AJ, he was far from on today. In fact he kinda looked like crap. 7 walks was pretty bad but he had the Indians off balance.

Pavano pitched good. I give him a lot of credit.

by FreeBradshaw on Apr 19, 2009 5:13 PM EDT reply actions

AJ

bottom line is he kept the Yanks in the game today. Much like Joba on Friday. Neither one were on at all— but they kept the game close enough for the Yanks to make a move. Often times that’s more important than a win for a starter- since you’re not always going to be lights out. Keep your composure and concentrate on the guys at the plate— not the ones on base… that’s what AJ did today..

I thought Joe G left him a little long, but it worked out so whatever.

by NumberSeven on Apr 19, 2009 6:58 PM EDT reply actions

Burnett

Thank you.

by Shock2580 on Apr 19, 2009 7:07 PM EDT reply actions

Not so bad.

Hey, Yanks are 7-6, in 2nd place, it’s not even the end of April and things can only get better.

I’m going to my first game at the new house on tuesday and I can’t wait!

I’m pretty sure this team isn’t going to have long losing streaks…how can they…CC, AJ and Andy will hold down the fort over the long haul.

by Ragnar808 on Apr 19, 2009 8:01 PM EDT reply actions

Hey there, new around here

I’m a blogger at Bright Side of the Sun but I’m a huge Yankee fan (yeah, guys at Arizona are not to happy about that).

Burnett is awesome. Even when he’s off he gives us a chance to win the game. I agree with Ragnar808, I think things will get better as the season moves along. We do need Wang to figure things out though, we can’t afford to lose a guy who won 19 games for us on previous seasons. CC, AJ and Andy will do their part but we need someone else to step up.

"Basketball doesn't build character. It reveals it"

by PanamaSun on Apr 19, 2009 10:10 PM EDT reply actions

Travis...

“In reality, the Bombers were very lucky to salvage a split. Cleveland outscored the Yankees 40 to 19. We had no business winning two games, but did somehow.”

They scored 32 of those runs in 2 gams…and 8 in the other 2…so this doesn’t really make sense — I’m not sure how you think we had ‘no business’ winning 2 games, when in those two games our starting pitching and bullpen pitched very well. And, half of those 32 runs are attributed to Wang and Claggett.

THe games where the SPs pitch well, we’re winning (realistically, the bullpen has only killed us in 2 games, 1 in KC and the opener vs. Cle). Outside of that, 4 of the losses are on Wang (3) and CC (1).

The bottom line is we’re playing roughly .500 ball with one of our top starters totally lost, our best hitter in Tampa, another top hitter on dead knees, and 4A players at 3rd, CF and wherever Cabrera plays. I’d say that’s promising with Tampa and Boston looking up at us in the standings.

Survive April. That’s all they need to do. The team is playing .600 in their last ten games — that’s what they want to achieve over the course of the season. Be nice if they could take 2 of 3 from Oakland and Boston each.

I have tix to 2 of the games here in Detroit (4/28 and 4/29)…looking forward to seeing them on the road here :)

by detroit yankee on Apr 19, 2009 10:20 PM EDT reply actions

agreed

that we need to ‘survive’ April. that’s been our worst month the last few years. we havent been .500 in April since 2006.

re: Cleveland’s 40 runs -
they did score half in one game, but things like run differential tend to even out and give a pretty fair representation of the quality of a team (over the long haul).

by Travis G on Apr 20, 2009 1:35 PM EDT up reply actions