Flat on Their Face

Last night the Yankees did exactly what we were afraid they would do, come out completely flat against the Kansas City Royals. One night after their dramatic win against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Yankees could muster only 1 run against 'C' prospect Kyle Davies in a 2-1 loss.

Darrell Rasner gave the bullpen a lift, throwing 117 pitches in an 8 inning effort. But for the second time in three starts, the Yankees offense came up empty for him. Rasner has now lost three straight starts and is 3-3 despite a 2.58 ERA.

The Yankees had the first scoring opportunity when Derek Jeter and Bobby Abreu stroked 1-out singles in the 1st inning, but Alex Rodriguez bounced into an inning ending double play. The Royals broke the scoreless tie when Mike Aviles lead off the 5th inning with a double, moved to 3rd on Joey Gathright's sac bunt, and scored on a David DeJesus single.

The Yankees had a chance to answer right back when Robinson Cano lead off the bottom with a 5th with a double. But after Jose Molina bunted him over to 3rd, Melky Cabrera fouled out and Johnny Damon grounded out.

The Royals added a run in the 6th that would prove to be the difference. Jose Guillen doubled and Miguel Olivo singled to put runners on the corners with no one out. But Rasner bounced back, inducing a double play grounder from Mark Teahen. Guillen scored on the play for a 2-0 lead.

The Yankees finally broke through in the 7th on Cano's 1-out double and Cabrera's 2-out RBI single. That finally knocked Davies, who improved to 2-0, from the game, in favor of lefty Ron Mahay to face Damon. Mahay won the battle getting Damon, whose 14-game hitting streak came to end, when he fouled out to end the inning.

Damon had one more chance to redeem himself when Cabrera came through with a 2-out single against closer Joakim Soria in the 9th, but he bounced out to Tony Pena Jr. at short to end the game.

News and Notes

Edwar Ramirez was back on the beam last night after his horrendous outing on Tuesday. He pitched a scoreless 9th inning, striking out two batters with his nasty change up.

The victory ended the Royals 11-game road losing streak.

The Yankees might have had a better chance in the 9th if not for a terrible checked swing strike three call by home plate ump Ed Montague. Replays showed that Jason Giambi didn't even come close to swinging at the pitch, which would have been ball four and a lead off walk.

We have to second guess Joe Girardi on his choice not to use Wilson Betemit in last night's lineup. We're not fans of Betemit, but considering his big home run in Thursday's comeback and his success against Davies (3-4, 2 HR 5 RBI) it would have made sense to have him in the lineup.

Brian Bruney got the go ahead to start throwing on flat ground and was in the outfield tossing before last night's game.

June 6, 2008

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Kansas City	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0		2	10	0
NY Yankees	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0		1	10	0

Kansas City	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
DeJesus, LF	4	0	1	1	0	0	1	.300
Grudzielanek, 2B	3	0	1	0	0	0	1	.294
Gordon, 3B	4	0	0	0	0	2	2	.263
Guillen, RF	4	1	2	0	0	0	1	.253
Olivo, DH	4	0	3	0	0	1	0	.299
Teahen, 1B	4	0	1	0	0	0	4	.258
Buck, C	4	0	0	0	0	2	4	.250
Aviles, M, SS	3	1	2	0	0	0	0	.333
Pena, SS	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	.155
Gathright, CF	2	0	0	0	0	1	1	.247
Totals	33	2	10	1	0	6	15
BATTING 2B: Aviles, M 2 (2, Rasner, Rasner), Olivo (14, Rasner), Grudzielanek (13, Rasner), Guillen (20, Rasner). TB: DeJesus; Grudzielanek 2; Guillen 3; Olivo 4; Teahen; Aviles, M 4. RBI: DeJesus (26). Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Grudzielanek; Buck; Gordon; Pena. S: Gathright. GIDP: Buck; Teahen. Team LOB: 6. BASERUNNING SB: Teahen (2, 2nd base off Ramirez/Moeller). CS: DeJesus (5, 2nd base by Rasner/Molina). FIELDING DP: (Aviles, M-Grudzielanek-Teahen).

Kansas City	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Davies (W, 2-0)	6.2	7	1	1	1	3	0	1.54
Mahay (H, 8)	1.1	2	0	0	0	2	0	2.20
Soria (S, 13)	1.0	1	0	0	0	2	0	1.03

NY Yankees	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Damon, LF	5	0	0	0	0	0	3	.308
Jeter, SS	4	0	1	0	0	0	0	.281
Abreu, RF	4	0	2	0	0	1	0	.288
Rodriguez, 3B	4	0	2	0	0	1	3	.299
Matsui, DH	4	0	1	0	0	1	2	.332
Giambi, 1B	3	0	0	0	1	2	3	.253
Cano, 2B	4	1	2	0	0	1	1	.227
Molina, C	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	.220
a-Betemit, PH	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	.255
Moeller, C	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.254
b-Posada, PH	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	.299
Cabrera, CF	4	0	2	1	0	0	1	.271
Totals	35	1	10	1	1	7	15
a-Flied out for Molina in the 7th. b-Struck out for Moeller in the 9th.
BATTING 2B: Cano 2 (13, Davies, Davies), Rodriguez (14, Davies). TB: Jeter; Abreu 2; Rodriguez 3; Matsui; Cano 4; Cabrera 2. RBI: Cabrera (27). 2-out RBI: Cabrera. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Damon; Matsui; Giambi. S: Molina. GIDP: Rodriguez. Team LOB: 9. FIELDING DP: 2 (Cano-Jeter-Giambi, Rodriguez-Cano-Giambi).

NY Yankees	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Rasner (L, 3-3)	8.0	9	2	2	0	4	0	2.58
Ramirez	1.0	1	0	0	0	2	0	2.65

WP: Ramirez.
HBP: Grudzielanek (by Rasner).
Pitches-strikes: Davies 104-65, Mahay 26-16,
Soria 20-14, Rasner 118-75, Ramirez 18-12.
Ground outs-fly outs: Davies 9-8, Mahay 0-2, Soria 1-0,
Rasner 13-6, Ramirez 0-1.
Batters faced: Davies 27, Mahay 6, Soria 4, Rasner 31, Ramirez 4.
Inherited runners-scored: Mahay 1-0.
Umpires: HP: Ed Montague. 1B: Jerry Layne. 2B: Phil Cuzzi.
3B: Jim Wolf.
Weather: 72 degrees, partly cloudy.
Wind: 7 mph, In from LF.
T: 3:10.
Att: 52,187.

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