[新聞] Yanks Fumble Away an Opportunity

[decorum (Brave New World)]

吉總發飆了，居然失誤比得分多，輸了一場不該輸的比賽。
洋基還是對菜鳥投手一籌莫展，而且這次更糟的是，
對手不是左投。AJ開玩笑說他想在休息區裡大叫：
這傢伙要投出無安、完封，好讓他倒楣....

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/sports/baseball/16yankees.html?_r
=1&ref=baseball

August 15, 2010
Yanks Fumble Away an Opportunity
By BEN SHPIGEL

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Yankees had more errors than hits Sunday, which is
the most succinct way of explaining why they lost to the Kansas City Royals,
1-0. They negated many fine moments from this six-game trip with a sluggish
performance that annoyed Joe Girardi like no other loss this season.

Not five minutes afterward, Girardi stewed in the visiting manager’s office
at Kauffman Stadium, irritated that their wasting of a superb start by A. J.
Burnett — one run, eight innings — cost the Yankees a chance to capture a
series against one of the worst teams in baseball.

“That’s a game we need to win,” said Girardi, adding: “It’s not what we
wanted, and we need to play better. That’s the bottom line.”

The urgency in his voice was reflected by the American League East standings,
where Tampa Bay, which defeated Baltimore on Sunday, has pulled to one game
behind the Yankees. The Yankees still have the best record in baseball
(72-45), but they have not won a series in nearly three weeks, since July 27
to 29 in Cleveland. Four missed opportunities came against teams with winning
records.

The Royals (49-69) sent out the 29-year-old Bryan Bullington, a former No. 1
overall draft pick with no career victories, and he allowed two hits over
eight sparkling innings, benefiting from a first-inning run aided by the
first of three Yankees errors.

“It’s frustrating, because usually guys that come in and dominate us are
left-handed pitchers,” said Alex Rodriguez, whose bid for a home run in his
fourth straight at-bat was caught at the left-field fence. “Usually we’re
able to fare a lot better off a guy like today who throws the ball hard and
really challenges us all day, but we had nothing for him.”

The topic irritates Girardi — “I get tired of talking about it, I know that,
” he said — but he is far more upset at the results every time the Yankees
face a pitcher they are seeing for the first time. They have beaten Roy
Halladay and Johan Santana, David Price and Francisco Liriano, but have
succumbed to Jake Arrieta, Kyle Kendrick, Sean O’Sullivan, Hisanori
Takahashi, Josh Tomlin and now Bullington.

“Whether we’ve seen him once or a hundred times, the way he threw today, he
’s going to beat us,” Derek Jeter said.

Even after the game, Rodriguez struggled to explain how Bullington baffled
the Yankees. Rodriguez said Bullington’s ability to throw first-pitch
strikes was crucial, although Bullington threw first-pitch strikes to only 9
of 25 batters, and in none of Rodriguez’s three at-bats. Rodriguez called
Bullington’s approach “very transparent,” estimating that he threw 80 to
90 percent fastballs, but Bullington, according to Pitch f/x data, threw the
fastball 64 percent of the time, effectively mixing in a slider and a
changeup.

“If you have a game plan they haven’t seen before, it does help if they
haven’t seen you before,” said Bullington, who added with a smile that his
first career win was “a long time coming.”

Drafted in 2002 by Pittsburgh, Bullington made his debut Sept. 18, 2005.
Since then he has bounced around, and Kansas City is his fourth team in the
last four seasons. “I’m to the point where I don’t want to kick around in
Triple-A for another few years,” Bullington said. “If I want to do this, I
want to do this now.”

Racing through the first two innings on 16 pitches and the first five on 58,
Bullington faced the minimum 21 hitters through seven innings Sunday, the
Yankees’ only two base runners erased on a double play and a caught
stealing.

The first hit, a one-out single in the fifth by Robinson Cano, added injury
to insult when the next hitter, Lance Berkman, jammed his right foot after
stepping on Bullington’s foot at first base. Berkman was removed after
limping off with the help of the trainer Steve Donohue, and by his locker
later, he could not fit his cowboy boot over his swollen foot. He said he
hoped to play Monday, when the Yankees open a four-game series at home
against Detroit.

As Bullington was carving up the Yankees, Burnett joked that he was trying to
jinx him from the dugout, yelling, “He’s got a no-no” and “He’s got a
shutout.” The thought is what counts, and Burnett, holding out hope that his
teammates could manage a run, protected the deficit with the help of a
dominant curveball that he consistently threw for strikes.

“I really felt in control,” said Burnett, who allowed four hits and struck
out six. “I felt like I could pretty much throw it where I wanted to. I got
away from it a couple times, but I knew I could get it back. I had in the
back of my mind that I could throw my hook at any time. When I have that
confidence, it’s a lot easier.”

What he did not have behind him was strong defense, as Francisco Cervelli
made two throwing errors and a mental one that irked Girardi: by not
immediately corralling an errant throw from Cano by the Royals’ dugout,
Cervelli let Gregor Blanco scamper to second, and then to third, when his own
throw bounced into center field. It was representative of a listless
afternoon, a disconcerting way to end the week.

“When your starting pitcher gives up one run,” Girardi said, “you expect
to win the game.”

--
There are a lot things we don't want to know about the people we love.

                                                    --- Chuck Palahniuk

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