The Yanks slammed four homers and scored 13 runs in a ridiculous 8th inning last night to beat Tampa by a college baseball score, 20-11. Today, they lose for the 6th time in nine games against the worst team in the AL. Remember the time-worn and completely true baseball adage: momentum's only as good as tomorrow's starting pitcher.
Well, today's starter was the man who is becoming flop #2 for the Yanks this year, Carl Pavano. In 94 innings, Pavano has allowed 16 homers this season. In 222+ IP last year, he allowed . . . 16 homers. And the opponent's batting average has increased more than 55 points! Pavano has been victimized by the 'pen three times this year, but a 4.69 ERA speaks for itself in other games: he's stunk. And today Torre left him in to finish the 7th inning and go out to cheers with a 3-2 lead . . . instead, he coughed up a two-out three-run bomb that cost the Yanks the game.
It gets worse. Think about it, against the two worst teams they've played this year, KC and Tampa, the Yanks are 3-10. By all rights, if they played at the level of the rest of the league, they should be 8-5 or 9-4 -- Tampa's record is 19-44 when playing nottheYanks, KC's is 22-46. If and when the Yanks fail to make the playoffs, they can look back on terrible performances against these bottom-feeders as a key reason why they failed.
Yuk.
Note: I updated this after tonight's loss to correct the last full paragraph.
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