Freddy Garcia has delivered more than expected, and it can be argued that without the veteran right-hander, the Yankees wouldn’t be in a strong position to make the postseason.
Yet before you get jazzed over Garcia’s outing last night against the Mariners remind yourself of this: Garcia dominated the worst team in baseball.
The Mariners are big leaguers in name only, and watching them go through the motions associated with losers on the way to a 10-3 defeat in front of 44,365 at Yankee Stadium, it was every easy to see why they have dropped a franchise-high 16 straight games and are solid bets to challenge the all-time consecutive loss record of 23 set by the 1961 Phillies.
Even Garcia admitted the visitors didn’t make it difficult.
“They made my job easier when they started to swing at the first pitch,” said Garcia (9-7), who hurled a season-high 7 2/3 innings against the worst hitting team in the majors, gave up three runs and eight hits and won his second straight.
Not only didn’t the Mariners lay a glove on Garcia until the outcome wasn’t in doubt, they committed two errors and didn’t think clearly in the field or on the basepaths.
The game was delayed by rain at the start for 1 hour, 57 minutes, and the Yankees were by far more ready to play than the visitors.
Manager Joe Girardi said he didn’t hear any players talking about Seattle’s struggles before the game, but Garcia, a former Mariner, was aware of the deep skid and didn’t want to be the one against whom they snapped out of it
“I wasn’t thinking about it, but you don’t want to be that guy,” Garcia said. “Hopefully they play better when they leave here.”
Seattle lefty Jason Vargas (6-9) lasted four innings, gave up eight runs (four earned) and seven hits. He has lost four straight.
Mark Teixeira and Derek Jeter homered and drove in three runs each. Curtis Granderson drove in a pair of runs.
Third baseman Adam Kennedy’s fielding error ignited a five-run fourth in which four of the runs were unearned. Rookie second baseman Dustin Ackley also committed a throwing error in the frame.
First baseman Justin Smoak fueled the rally by not being sure where he wanted to go with Andruw Jones’ ground ball that went for an infield single.
In the third, Franklin Gutierrez was thrown out trying to advance from first to second on a pitch in the dirt to end the inning after the Mariners had cut the Yankees’ lead to 2-1.
“When you play them, you try to beat them,” said Jeter, who is batting .467 (7-for-15) in his past four games. “You have sympathy for individuals and sympathy for teams when they struggle because it’s not easy.”
Garcia made it look easy.
With the non-waiver trade deadline looming Sunday, the Yankees haven’t been seriously linked to the limited field of available starters. However, if they sit still and rely on Bartolo Colon and Garcia to stay healthy and pitch effectively in the final two months, they could be dancing with danger.
Yet the thought of the Yankees adding a starter hasn’t entered Garcia’s head.
“I am a player, I have to worry about pitching,” Garcia said. “It’s none of my business.”