NEW YORK – Javier Vazquez proclaimed before his start against the Red Sox Friday that he wanted this stage.
He wanted a chance to redeem himself. It was an opportunity to show that he can earn the trust of Yankee fans that look at him cynically, always awaiting his eventual meltdown.
Last night, he did none of that.
Even worse, Vazquez again served notice that in a big game, he has yet to earn the confidence that he can come through in big games, especially come October, which is a damaging sign for the Yankees.
The Yankees 6-3 loss to the Red Sox dropped their AL East lead to five games, but it was about more than that. This was about a continuing belief that this pitcher, when asked to come up big, continues to come up small.
It all began with two outs in the first inning when he left a pitch over the middle of the plate that David Ortiz drove out to dead center to give the Red Sox a quick 1-0 lead.
After Mark Teixeira gave him a 2-1 lead to work with in the second, he gave it right back, albeit with some help. After Adrian Beltre doubled to the gap to lead off the second, Vazquez got J.D Drew to pop out and then appeared to have the second out when Mike Lowell popped up a ball along with the first base line near foul ground. Vazquez would have caught it, but then Francisco Cervelli called him off and the ball bounced off his glove in fair territory.
It is unknown whether that rattled the right-hander. He was able to strikeout Ryan Kalish, but walked the ninth place hitter Jed Lowrie, who is not a threat with the bat to load the bases. Jacoby Ellsbury then drew a walk that forced home a run to tie the game as the crowd groaned.
Marco Scutaro then got a pitch up in the zone and drove it down into the left field corner for a two-run double to expand the lead to 4-2. The crowd, expecting the worst, got it.
It made no difference that since his awful 9.78 ERA start in April, he has been the Yankees second best pitcher (3.34 ERA). All Yankee fans know and believe is the past and that memory hangs over like a dark cloud.
Last week against Tampa Bay in a similar situation, he got behind quickly. Once the Yankees evened the game for him, he quickly gave it back.
When the game was tied in the sixth, all the Yankees asked was for him to keep the game the game tied, he could not do it, giving the Rays the lead once again. The Yankees would eventually win, but his propensity for “coughing it up” rendered its head again.
Friday night, it was back and no one was going to forget.
Vazquez would settle down for the next three innings and when Alex Rodriguez had an RBI single to trim the lead to 4-3 going into the sixth, it was incumbent on him to hold the lead right there to give the Yankees a chance against both Clay Buchholz and the Red Sox bullpen. All he needed to do was get at least three more outs.
This, he could not do.
After getting the first out, Lowell singled to left. Kalish then came up and drove a two-run homer into the Yankees bullpen in right center to balloon the lead to three. The crowd, the most intelligent in all of baseball knew what was going on here. They had seen this pitcher do exactly what they knew going in, and that was find a way somehow to spit the bit.
These were the house rules with Vazquez the moment he returned. No matter how he performed this season, he would never fully earn the fans trust unless came through in big games and in October. He could perform like Bob Gibson in 1967 or Pedro Martinez in 1999 and none of would matter unless had gave fans the belief and faith in him.
Here in early August, he still does not have it.
So as we look ahead to October, the dread still exists of Vazquez melting down on the road in the postseason or at worst, Game 2 at home and continuing his career legacy.
When the Yankees brought him back this season, the move was met with trepidation. Why bring this man back when his past stint was filled with negativity.
The belief was that he could not pitch in New York. Vazquez claimed he was hurt, thus leading to complete inefficiency in the second half of that 2004 season after Joe Torre named him to the All Star team.
His first month was awful and continued the trend that he was not fit to pitch here. However, he rebounded, able to salvage a season when all seemed lost.
Last night though, he opened up old wounds.
Who knows how the game would have turned if Cervelli was able to make that catch for the second. Maybe not all three of those eventual runs would have crossed the plate and he could have settled in to pitch a good ballgame.
Unfortunately, those things happen and the dropped ball did not lead to him walking two hitters and then give up a two run double, nor a two-run homerun in the sixth when the team needed him to put up a zero.
That is why when Joe Girardi came to the mound after his 108th pitch to take the ball from him, the crowd showered him with boos.
The past is still there. Only Vazquez can change it.
Right now, there is no belief in him that he can.
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