Swisher and Posada's Contributions Not Enough to Overcome Garcia's Abysmal Outing

Commentary:


It's All About the Money (Yankees blog) has a great article on why Freddy Garcia's performance last night should not have been unexpected.  Read it here.

Speaking of Garcia, it couldn't have been much worse for the veteran righty last night.  He managed a meager 1.2 innings, gave up 4 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks.  That's 7 base runners in 1.2 innings...a WHIP of 4.19!  As the always informative Susan Waldman mentioned at least 3 times within 2 innings last night: Garcia just can't get by unless he's on.  No kidding Susan...I'm so glad I learn so much from listening to your "color commentary" on the radio.  On-air personality rantings aside, Freddy Garcia does not have the velocity to make location mistakes  and a veteran team like the Red Sox will not swing at pitches outside the zone.

Not all aspects of last nights game were negative however.  The bullpen performed very well including a 7 inning, 2 run outing by Hector Noesi who continues to shine despite limited use.  Luis Ayala continued his consistent season with 1.1 innings of scoreless baseball.  On the offensive side, embattled Jorge Posada (0-27 batting right handed this year) decides to break that streak by going 2-2 off of arguably the best lefty in the game, Jon Lester.  All of this coming after Mark Teixiera had to leave in the first inning after being plunked on the left knee by a Lester cutter.  Maybe Posada does indeed play better when he is playing the field as opposed to DH.  Nick Swisher had a productive night going 2-4 with a 2-run, 2-out double in the 5th which cut the Boston lead to 3.  That was it for the offense until the 9th when New York brought the tying run to the plate after Posada had an RBI single.  A-Rod struck out to end the game with Posada on first.

Grades:


Offense: C  Wasted several opportunities, especially in the middle innings when they continuously stranded the lead off runner at first.

Starting Pitching:  F  You can't do much worse....

Bullpen:  A  Bright spot for the night.

Grades from Angels Game (Sunday June 5)


Offense:  B

Starting Pitching:  B-  Colon struggled but kept his team in the game.

Bullpen: A  4 hits and a walk over 3.2 innings.