Before Tuesday, the Yanks had been 16-1 in the past two seasons and playoffs against the Minnesota Twins. Last year, the Yanks spanked the Twins 16-3 in games 2-4 of their playoff series. This year, the Yanks have had their hats handed to them 8-2, 7-2 the last two nights. Worse yet, the pop-gun Twins have 4 homers, the Yanks 1.
I thought the Yanks looked flat Sunday and didn't like that going into this series, especially because the Twins had their two best pitchers lined up against the Yanks. Both dominated. Meanwhile, the Yanks' preseason #3 and #1 starters sucked. Javy Vazquez will be only the third Yankees pitcher since the juiced-ball era began in 1987 to give up 30+ homers. He's lost all feel for his breaking balls and now struggles with his heater. Mike Mooooooosina is in his second rotation of Bret Saberhagen disease -- sucking in even-numbered years and pitching lights-out in odd-numbered years (see Saberhagen's tenure with the Royals). Worse yet, his fastball is topping out at < 90 mph. These two MUST get right with ball by October.
It's somewhat screwy that the Yanks' best pitcher right now is the revivified El Duque. I have my hopes for Brown (he's been good against teams not from Texas), but Vazquez concerns me. For 2.5 months he was outstanding. Since just before the All-Star break until now, he's been awful. This needs to straighten out, and soon.
BTW, dumba-- statement of the day last night: Buck Martinez on ESPN discussing how important Tanyon Sturtze is to the Yanks because they need a bridge to QuanGoMo. Moron. The Yanks are set up to have Quantrill, Gordon and Rivera pitch the 7th, 8th and 9th. The bridge to those three is called the STARTING PITCHER. This is because starting pitchers are usually expected to pitch 6 or more innings.
No wonder Martinez flopped as a manager. After that comment, I flipped over to the YES telecast and they gave lots of info on how Houston and Florida had honked by allowing Johan Santana to go through their fingers before winding up with the Twins.
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