Yankee Talk: Road Trip Edition – A Successful Weekend in Chicago

Yanks take two of three in series against White Sox

CHICAGO – When we did this same trip last year, the results were much different.

In four games, the Yankees only managed to salvage the final game to avoid a sweep.

This year, with much of its team depleted the defending world champions used all of its available resources to reach deep down and come away with a series win.

In watching Sunday’s starter Ivan Nova, who was making only his second ever Major League start, he showed everything that Friday’s starter AJ Burnett was not on Friday evening.

The spunky rookie showed of an array of dazzling pitches and control not in the strike zone, but also in his own ability to trust his stuff.

From fastballs on the corners to dancing off-speed pitches, Nova became a revelation right in front our eyes.

For the second straight start though, Manager Joe Girardi pulled the pull on him entirely too early as he was doing well, only to nearly have it backfire.

The moved ended up working out. But more than the Yankees eventual 2-1 win was that they feel as if they may have something in Nova and that he could be a valuable asset down the stretch. He had a great season at Triple-A Scranton and that has been able to translate with the big club.

In the fifth inning when he gave up his first run, the White Sox had mounted a two-out rally and had a chance to tie the game. Other pitchers may have folded in this situation, but not Nova, who was unflappable, striking out Omar Vizquel to end the inning.

Nova showed an ability to minimize damage and keep the Yankees in control.

The same could not be said for Burnett.

Burnett, who this earned his undisputed title of “Mental Case” for his horrific pitching for most of the season, simply showed up on the mound on Friday for the bottom of the first inning and quickly checked out.

How is this for an opening frame: Double, single, stolen base, strikeout, single, single, double.

Yeah, that’s a good way to start. It was as if the Yankees had lost the game before he ever threw a pitch. Watching Burnett in person is even more painful than watching on television.

You clearly can see him rattled on the mound and trying to find composure and confidence in himself that he clearly cannot find and does not have.

With each ball out of the strike zone or bouncing in the dirt, you know the clock is just ticking before the eventual explosion. You just don’t know if it is going to be a bottle rocket or nuclear bomb.

In this case, Burnett went nuclear.

Nine hitters came to the plate. Five of them reached on hits. Four of them scored. All of this took 37

pitches and nearly ended with me breaking my hand as I sat in the upper deck wanting to punch anything hard in effort to “pull an AJ”.

The best words came from Michael Kay after AJ Pierzynski’s two-run double had made it 4-0 when he said, “AJ Burnett has nothing.”

At the precise moment, you could have turned off the TV and found other things to do.

For me, I was at the park. Nothing I could do but sit through it and attempt to come up with something positive.

That would be hard.

Even less frustrating than Burnett was the offense clearly taking the night off against Freddy Garcia,

a man who had the third worst ERA in the American League since the All Star Break.

After scoring two runs in the first three innings, I thought the bats would eventually heat up.

Unfortunately, that did not happen.

Garcia would hold the bats down for seven innings as many players partied hard in Chicago the night before. Either that, or Girardi decided to punt the game by having Francisco Cervelli and Ramiro Pena occupying the eighth and ninth spots in the lineup.

Nonetheless, the rest the team resembled zombies along with Burnett and the offense.

Defensively, the team was awful. From poor throws from Nick Swisher sailing 30 feet over the catchers head, to bad throws by Cervelli and who knows what else, it was just not in the cards for them that night.

Amazingly I stuck it out until the end, which was an upset considering that after the fifth inning, the only thing that was on my mind was the postgame drink fest.

Saturday evening I thought were going to see a pitcher’s duel between two elite starters, John Danks of the White Sox and CC Sabathia of the Yankees.

However, as John Sterling always says, “You just cannot predict baseball.”

It was a relatively warm evening and the wind was not blowing out. But the Yankees rarely need wind to hit home runs.

Three two-run homeruns from Nick Swisher, Marcus Thames and Eduardo Nunez off Danks allowed the Yankees to jump ahead 6-1 after three innings.

Sabathia though did not have his best stuff. He appeared to be battling himself and the White Sox got back into the game with two two-run homeruns of their own to cut the margin to 6-5 after four.

The offense, clearly working with a full night of sleep and a halfway competent lineup struck back for four more runs to give Sabathia a 10-5 lead that he would carry through seven innings, striking out nine along the way.

It was the coming out party for Eduardo Nunez, who went 3-for-4 with a two-run homer and two run scoring singles to earn him the nickname “El Tigre”.

All of this proved my belief that “wins” for a pitcher, despite what Kay may want to tell you, is
meaningless.

Kay’s contention is that pitchers get their pay based on the amount of wins that they have and thus that is most important.

This idea of course is ridiculous because a pitcher that is mediocre during an outing can pick up a win as long as his offense can give him a high amount of run support. The numbers between Sabathia and

Mets lefty Johan Santana are similar in nearly every category expect run support, thus the reason Sabathia has 18 wins and Santana 10.

Sabathia finished the game giving up five runs, but got the win because the Yankees scored 10. The only reason he got the win was because he didn’t give up 11.

The bullpen struggled in the final two innings as Boone Logan, Joba Chamberlain and David Robertson were unable to hold a five run lead on their own, thus needing Mariano Rivera to come in to get the final two outs of a 12-9 victory.

It was good to see a win at the park, and with my group of 20 friends, we celebrated the victory in style.

As the saying goes, “You don’t pay to see losses.”

Certainly not on this night as the Yankees stopped a two game losing streak and stay tied atop the AL East.

Sunday was Frank Thomas Day at the ballpark as the White Sox honored perhaps the greatest player in their history. The team was giving up bobblehead dolls, but I had no plans on showing up at eleven in the morning. I did not have much interest and wanted my sleep.

Trying to take the third game of the series, I looked up and saw the lineup Girardi put out there and cringed again. Already missing was Alex Rodriguez to begin with. But the previous night, Mark Teixeira had to leave after injuring his thumb that came on a play from Friday night.

The new configuration had Swisher batting third, Thames hitting fifth and Cervelli back in the lineup did not inspire much confidence in me for whatever reason.

In the second inning, Thames continued his home run tear with a solo blast to left, his fifth in the last five games he has started. He sure may not field worth a damn, but he can turn around a fastball.

Brett Gardner’s single to center in the third upped the lead to 2-0, and with the way Nova was pitching, perhaps it was going to hold up.

The White Sox score a run to cut the lead in half by going on a two out rally, and in the sixth Girardi decided to remove the youngster from the game.

Perhaps he felt that was all he needed to see on this day as he has definitely earned another start if just so I don’t not have to see Burnett’s mug on my screen every five days.

Girardi brought in Boone Logan and eventually Kerry Wood, who loaded the bases but was able to get out the jam. He would stay in for the seventh and got two outs before Joba Chamberlain came on to get out of the seventh and a scoreless eighth to hand the ball to Mariano Rivera to nail down another victory.

A majority of the crowd left before the bottom of the ninth and I couldn’t blame them. If my team had to face Rivera, why would I stay to watch that? 97 times out of a 100, it is a definite loss.

What started as a weekend with the Yankees on the ropes, ended happily with a series win and a 3-3 road trip. The team can exhale as they head back home and I was able to breathe a sigh of relief as I was able to take in a few wins.

Just the way we drew it up.