Jabin Botsford/The New York Times
Alfonso Soriano, acquired from the Cubs on Friday afternoon, after one of his five hitless at-bats in his first game with the Yankees since 2003.
With the trade deadline looming next week, the Yankees' front office will meet this week to discuss trade possibilities that it hopes will jump-start the team into a late-season playoff run. While General Manager Brian Cashman said on Friday that he was hesitant to trade valuable prospects for aging veterans, he knows the Yankees never concede a season so early. If the math says the Yankees are still in the race by the July 31 nonwaiver trade deadline, well, the Yankees will be in the pennant race.
But as C. C. Sabathia and his teammates were beaten, 10-6, on Friday by the first-place Tampa Bay Rays, the larger question remains whether these Yankees — who scored five of their six runs in the final two innings on Friday, when the game was out of reach — can be saved. They continue to struggle offensively, and their ace has fallen into one of the worst slumps of his career.
The Yankees have lost 7 of their last 10 games and 10 of the past 16, and are seven games behind Tampa in the loss column. In that span, they've stumbled into fourth place in the American League East and hardly seem to be a team that will be in a pennant race.
The reacquisition of Alfonso Soriano, the 37-year-old seven-time All Star, from the Chicago Cubs for the Class A prospect pitcher Corey Black — who, according to Cashman, throws as hard as 96 miles per hour — may have been only the first phase of the Yankees' effort to reconstruct the team into a contender. The team is still looking to make deals.
"I don't know if we'll be able to or not," Cashman said. "Ownership's commitment is still the same. They have a strong desire to reinforce this team and find a way to get into the playoffs. The season is now shorter. The best way to do that is to get everyone healthy as well as reinforce with any possible upgrades that we can match up on. Soriano is a manifestation of that aspect."
The Yankees may acquire several big-name players before the trade deadline, yet the validity of any acquisitions still rests on Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez returning, not only healthy, but to the form that made them All-Stars. At this point, it may be asking too much for Rodriguez to return without controversy, much less at an All-Star level.
Just as important would be Sabathia pitching at the level that made him one of the best in the majors. In his past three starts, Sabathia has allowed 17 earned runs in 14 innings. He has allowed seven earned runs in consecutive starts.
"It's just really shocking what he's going through," Manager Joe Girardi said.
Sabathia's night began quietly when he retired the side in the first inning. But he flamed out in the second, allowing six runs on balls that were well struck. In that inning, Sabathia allowed six hits — three of them doubles — and walked one. Almost all of Sabathia's missteps came on pitches that were near the middle or in the upper half of the strike zone.
Sabathia allowed another run in the fifth, which inflated his earned run average to 4.65, which is seventh worst in the American League among qualifiers. Sabathia has not ended a season with an E.R.A. higher than 3.38 since 2005.
"I feel like if I could help us out, we'd be doing a lot better," Sabathia said. "But getting no help from me is making it tough."
Not even Soriano's arrival could help the Yankees on Friday. They were shut down by Jeremy Hellickson, who allowed just one run on four hits in six innings.
Soriano, who arrived in New York early Friday morning and was immediately thrust into the cleanup spot — more of an indictment of the Yankees' lineup than an indication of where Soriano stands at this point in his career — was hitless in five at-bats. This season, Yankee cleanup hitters have a .215 batting average, last in the A.L. They also rank last in the league in on-base plus slugging percentage.
It may take time for Soriano to readjust to life back in the American League.
"I haven't faced those guys, so I don't know what they throw," Soriano said. "I have to work on my timing and make some adjustment because I haven't played in the American League in a long time and I haven't faced those guys. We have a hitting coach and we have video, so I'm going to make adjustments as quickly as possible."
By the top of the eighth inning, Girardi had all but conceded the game after 12 consecutive Yankees batters had been retired. He took out second baseman Robinson Cano and right fielder Ichiro Suzuki, replacing them with David Adams and Melky Mesa.
The game was beyond saving — but, at least for now, Cashman does not feel that way about the season.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Rays 10, Yankees 6: A Welcome Back for Soriano, Followed by a Debacle for the Yankees
Dengan url
https://dunialuasekali.blogspot.com/2013/07/rays-10-yankees-6-welcome-back-for.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Rays 10, Yankees 6: A Welcome Back for Soriano, Followed by a Debacle for the Yankees
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Rays 10, Yankees 6: A Welcome Back for Soriano, Followed by a Debacle for the Yankees
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar