Well, that game kind of stunk. So much for my fearless prediction that A.J. Burnett would have a very slight edge over Josh Beckett in a pitchers' duel. Ha! The only edge in that game was when Yankee fans wanted to slit their wrists while watching the nightmare of Burnett's outing.
Oh, and one of my brothers wondered if the Sox could go 18-0 against the Yanks this year. Then again, look what happened to the Patriots after they went 18-0!
So much for Burnett being a Sox killer. The only thing A.J. had good aim for last a night was the cooler he kicked while going into the dugout. That was a strike right down the middle. Let's hope the often-injured Burnett didn't break a toe!
Pie-thrower Burnett was the one with pie on his face after this debacle. He said this after the game:
I appreciate that he was mortified over the way he pitched. But I'm troubled by A.J. saying he wasn't going to try to figure out where he went wrong.
"It's embarrassing, it's very disappointing," Burnett said. "But obviously I'm not going to kill myself. I'm not going to go and try to figure out what went wrong or this and that. I'm going to get back out there. The confidence is there."
Here are his numbers against Boston so far this year: 12.91 ERA, with 13 hits and 8 walks in 7.2 innings. Last night Burnett gave up five walks and five hits in 2 2/3 innings, and the slumping David Ortiz hit a monster shot off him. Heck, a double by Nick Bleeping Green knocked him out of the game!
I'm not saying Burnett needs to be a shoe-gazer, but it wouldn't hurt him to figure out where the heck he went wrong.
As for Ortiz, I did call that homer in my pre-game predictions. What's funny is that Squawker reader Paul from Boston disagreed with that prediction of mine!
While Burnett was a thousand shades of awful, I can't let the Yankee batters off the hook. I figured Beckett would pitch well, but I didn't think he would flirt with a no-hitter. I was so peeved over that turn of events that I went on Facebook last night and wrote this in my status update at 8:34 p.m. "Lisa Swan is going to jinx Josh Beckett's potential no-hitter. There, I said it. Jinx, jinx, jinx!"
Literally within a minute, Robinson Cano had broken up the no-hitter, albeit with a little help from Dustin Pedroia. Lisa the Jinx strikes again!
The Yankee bats managed two hits all night. Two. It didn't matter who was pitching - Beckett, Manny Delcarmen, the man in the moon - the Yankees weren't going to do anything, and they got shut out for the first time this season. What a disaster.
One other note - did you hear how Michael Kay called Beckett "Burnett" not once but twice, including after Beckett struck out the side in the fourth? Good grief.
(Puking pumpkin pic courtesy of extremepumpkins.com)
What did you think of Tuesday's game? Leave us a comment!
14 comments:
The pumpkin pretty much sums up how I feel.
There's still 12 more games to be played ....for the past 5 years or so the Red Sox always beat us in the first few months and we have had the better record the the rest of the way. Here's hoping it still holds true starting tonight with a "surprise" terrific performance by our man CM (who is going to be a new daddy any day now). Heck..even if the Sox won 18 straight from us as long as they lose to the other teams and we come in first ...I'd be ok with that !!! Yankee lumber will hopefully awake from it's slumber of last night too.
Peggy
Go Yankees 2009 !!!
Beckett was on fire last night! Now I'm a nervous wreck again for tonight's game. The Yankees have been so hot lately that I doubt it's going to go smoothly the next two nights.
And Peggy, you are absolutely right about the Sox/Yankee series. It has gone that way that of recent.
Good luck!
Noreen
Yeah, but the Yanks aren't going to finish in first if they keep on losing to the Sox.
0-6 against the Sox, 0-7 going back to last year is really sickening me too. Burnett even let Big Mami get a home run, that's gotta be embarassing. Hopefully tonights game works out a little better with Wang looking a little better in his last appearence.
Despite the recent talk about how the Yankees are a "different" team than what they were earlier in the season,they stunk last night...as badly as they did during the previous five games with Boston.If A.J. could only be as effective throwing the baseball as he is in throwing pies, we'd be all set!
Wang tonight?...Take cover!
<< "It's embarrassing, it's very disappointing," Burnett said. "But obviously I'm not going to kill myself." >>
Here's the question, A.J.... If Met fans don't mind me borrowing part of their shtick: Are you... devastated? Like Tom Glavine wasn't the last time he pitched for the Mets? Because you weren't a whole lot better than that!
And don't, A.J., don't give me "It's just one regular-season game." If we finish one game out of the Playoffs, then that WAS a Playoff game!
And while I didn't see that kick, I'd hate to think of Burnett as the Kevin Brown of feet. We thought we were getting a new David Cone. If it turns out we got a new Kevin Brown, then I'm going to "go pumpkin" the next time Burnett pitches!
Interesting how "Roger9" only shows up when the Yanks are awful.
Last night's game was absolutely dreadful. It's akin to getting elbowed in the solar plexis every 15 minutes for three hours.
A.J. stunk last night. No mincing words here. He was miserable and he truly sucked; he was out in front of hitters all game long and had no command of his breaking ball at all.
Beckett was outstanding: I take nothing away from him, but for us to not eke out even one lousy run was just awful, and a complete shock for the way the Yanks have been playing lately!
Now Wang goes on the hill tonight. What fate lies in store for us today? He usually gets his ass carved off in slices up in Fenway, whereas Wakefield usually keeps us off balance. I pray that we reverse this trend and finally get a win agaist this team!
We're so much better than what we've been showing against the Sox, and I think if we can manage to win the next two games we'll be in pretty good shape.
If not, oy vey...At least if we win one game we'll be tied for 1st place at best.
Getting swept again is not acceptable.
Kay's name swapping was really torturous last night. I think at one point he said, "Burnett has five straight strikeouts" and I just about cried. Maybe he was announcing from an alternate universe where Burnett fares well against the Sox this season?
As for A.J.'s showing, I'd feel better if he had just followed Girardi's line and said having extra rest wasn't good for his command, etc. But instead he admitted he had no excuse for being so terrible and no plans to straighten it out. Considering this isn't the first time A.J.'s had to depend on the fastball because his other pitch wasn't working during a game, the guy really ought to do something about that.
I'm optimistic about tonight. I don't why--it might me the crazy hyped-up Pollyanna inside.
Re: Anon about what I said on Ortiz: Maybe I can pretend I never said it, the way so many Sox fans pretend that they never really wanted Mark Teixeira anyway!
Who said we didn't want Teixeira? We wanted him bad; just weren't willing to pay the price, although he seems to be paying off for the Yankees. I said I would have been sad to say goodbye to Lowell. And Youk ain't bad on first or at bat.
While I have not won any spelling bee championships I do think I can spell that word, but although I am a Sox fan, I have chosen not to. I love any Sox win - and a win against the Yankees is always THAT much better, but making immature comments like doesn't really enrich the experience for me. However, let me thank you for adding such riveting dialog to this blog.
Here, here Paul. There are still 11 games left between these teams and like Bob Ryan said, it means nothing, it's 1-0 right now.
I was at game 5 of the Yankees 5 game sweep of the RS at Fenway. Yankees can just easily win the next 7 (God forbid!). Just enjoy the game and the win and brace yourself for the next game.
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