The Yankees look like they really miss the Orioles — especially the Baltimore pitchers.
For the second straight night, a Phillies starter handcuffed the Yankees offense, this one a 7-1 Phillies victory last night in front of 47,204 at Yankee Stadium.
A night after 47-year-old Jamie Moyer held the Yankees to three hits, 25-year-old Kyle Kendrick gave up just four, and faced trouble
in only one inning.
Oddly enough, the only Phillies starter the Yankees hit in the series was Roy Halladay.
“He shut us down,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of Kendrick.
Andy Pettitte lost for the first time in nearly
a month and dropped
to 8-2. He pitched well enough to win, going seven innings and giving up two earned runs,
but he received no run support.
The Yankees’ bats seem only to work when second-tier teams like the Orioles or Astros are in town. The starting pitchers have carried the load for the Yankees this year, with the offense an inconsistent mystery.
Against teams at .500 entering last night’s games, the Yankees are 21-20 this season. They are 20-5 against sub-.500 teams. The above-.500 Mets visit the Stadium tonight to start a three-game Subway Series.
With the Rays’ loss to Atlanta, the Yankees remain tied for first in the AL East, but the Red Sox now are just two games out after winning their third in a row.
Kendrick, who is 4-2 with a 4.48 ERA, looked like a Cy Young candidate as he put the Yankees’ bats to sleep.
“We just haven’t really gotten much going,” said Mark Teixeira, who went 0-for-3. “Give them a little credit, but at the same time, we didn’t swing the bats very well.”
The only offense the Phillies needed against Pettitte came on an RBI single from Ryan Howard that was set up by a Ramiro Pena error, and a two-run homer from Shane Victorino.
Pitching two days after his 38th birthday, Pettitte lost for the first time since May 20, when the Rays blasted him for seven runs. This was a completely different kind of loss.
Pettitte’s only mistake came in the fifth, when Victorino took him deep to left field to make it 3-0.
“It was a stupid pitch,” Pettitte said of the cutter. “It was just a poor decision on me to throw that pitch right there and where I threw it. It was a little bit of a mental lapse, and it basically cost me the game tonight.”
Pettitte worked out of jams in the sixth and seventh innings, but the damage was done.
The Yankees scored once in the sixth and had runners on the corners when Placido Polanco made sa diving catch onto the tarp of a Nick Swisher pop-up in foul territory to end the inning.
“He made a great play to end that inning,” said Robinson Cano, who had two of the Yankees’ four hits. “Who knows? It could have been a different game.”
The bullpen let the game get out of hand, with Joba Chamberlain and Damaso Marte allowing four runs in the ninth.
After a stretch against putrid teams like the Orioles, Indians and Astros, the schedule toughened up on the Yankees this week with the World Series rematch against the Phillies. It continues tonight against the red-hot Mets.