CALCULATED would not describe any attempt to scream a turnaround into your team just before having to pitch Darrell Rasner against Josh Beckett.
No, Joe Girardi’s anger was real. So is the Yankees’ nine-game deficit in the AL East, which is their wild-card deficit, too, if one assumes the wily Red Sox inevitably will chase down the callow Rays.
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Nine games are fewer than the Yankees had to make up in 2007, when on July 4 they were 40-42 and eight games out of the wild-card berth they eventually won. On Independence Day in 2006, they were 46-35 and four games off the division lead they eventually took and held. And in 2005, a 42-39 record was prompting no celebratory fireworks, yet they made up a four-game deficit in winning the AL East.
In 2006, the Yankees even made the postseason with Randy Johnson pitching to a 5.00 ERA and Jaret Wright taking the ball every fifth day. The year 2005 produced the miracles of Shawn Chacon and Aaron Small, so stuff can happen. On July 1, 2004, the Red Sox, left Yankee Stadium 8½ games behind after being swept – and we all know how that came out.
Mike Mussina (10-6, 3.87) goes against Justin Masterson (4-2, 3.75) this afternoon before Joba Chamberlain (2-2, 2.22) opposes Tim Wakefield (5-6, 3.72) tomorrow night. So the remaining matchups are a lot more favorable to the Yankees than Beckett against Rasner.
Of course, the Yankees now have to win both games just to get back to the same unfavorable position in which they started the series. Not an exciting prospect, much like the sight of Chien-Ming Wang on crutches in the Yankees locker room.
You will remember that Phil Hughes, who won five games after being called up last season, got hurt early in this one. He already was failing miserably, just not quite as miserably as Ian Kennedy, whose 1.89 ERA in three 2007 starts helped the Yankees pull away from Detroit for the wild card.
So with Sidney Ponson scheduled to follow Andy Pettitte against the Rays this week and Rasner, who hasn’t pitched into the sixth inning in his last five starts, still slated to start in Toronto, where is this year’s savior coming from?
Dan Giese? Girardi has been there and done that. Kei Igawa? Makes a manager want to give Rasner, who was 3-1 with a 1.80 ERA after his first four starts, another shot, the alternative being more screaming at the players.
“He is capable of pitching at this level with the weapons he has,” said Girardi. “You have to hit spots and Mikey Lowell (three-run homer) didn’t miss that ball.
“If the ball stays in Johnny Damon’s glove (on Kevin Youkilis’ game-tying triple), it’s a different line.”
Rasner didn’t beat himself up, either.
“I was on a hot streak and I just have to get on a hot streak again,” he said, asked five different ways what has gone wrong, a generic pitcher giving generic answers.
The savior, Chamberlain, is already here and still the Yankees are short two starters. Chances to add on by July 31 will hinge on GM Brian Cashman’s willingness to move prospects, assuming the Yankees have any in the eyes of a team that wants to move a starter who is pitching well.
Hughes is not as marketable as he was last winter, when Cashman refused to move him in a deal for Johan Santana. Girardi has more tantrums in his tank than the Yankees have tradable prospects. They need to get hot, tough to do with too many warmed-over starters.