REALLY? Robinson Cano reacts after a strike call in the fourth inning of last night’s loss to the Rays. (N.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg)
While Phil Hughes has been cast as the rotation whipping boy by self-loathing Yankees fans, a popular veteran lefty hasn’t been very good lately.
That would be Andy Pettitte, who was counted on to be the third starter and provide a bridge between the front and back ends of the rotation coming out of spring training.
Though he is in no danger of being passed by Hughes, that has more to do with the right-hander’s struggles than Pettitte’s recent outings.
Last night at a very quiet Yankee Stadium, the veteran left-hander absorbed a sleep-inducing 8-3 loss to the Rays in front of an announced crowd of 37,649.
“I need to get better,’’ said the 41-year-old Pettitte, who gave up a run in the second and two in the third. “I feel like I am putting us in a hole every time out right now.”
In Pettitte’s last five starts he is 1-3 with a 4.75 ERA and has given up 34 hits in 30 1/3 innings.
The loss was the Yankees’ eighth in 12 games, and with the way they haven’t hit lately there has to be a real concern the season could be flushed before next month’s All-Star Game arrives at Citi Field.
Thanks to the Red Sox losing to the Tigers, the 39-33 Yankees remained 3 1/2 games back of the AL East leaders.
Evan Longoria homered twice, taking Pettitte deep in the sixth and crushing a 95-mph fastball from Joba Chamberlain into the Yankees’ bullpen in right-center in the eighth for his 16th homer.
Most alarming about Pettitte was him giving up consecutive, two-out doubles to Desmond Jennings and Sean Rodriguez in the seventh after the Yankees cut the Rays’ lead to 4-3 with three runs in the sixth.
“It was another frustrating night,’’ said Pettitte, who is 5-5 with a 4.20 ERA after giving up five runs and nine hits in 6 2/3 innings. “We come back and score three runs and I give back one.’’
Pettitte exited after Rodriguez’s double and Chamberlain caught Ben Zobrist looking to keep the deficit to two runs.
Boone Logan surfaced in the eighth and gave up a double to pinch-hitter Matt Joyce and a towering two-run homer to Yunel Escobar that stretched the Rays’ lead to 8-3.
Matt Moore used the Yankees’ anemic lineup to halt a three-game losing streak in which he had been rocked for 26 hits and 19 earned runs in 12 1/3 innings (13.87 ERA).
In 6 1/3 innings last night, the left-handed Moore (9-3) allowed four hits (three singles and a double) and three runs.
A sign the Yankees are pressing was Lyle Overbay foolishly trying to go from second to third on a grounder to the shortstop and was an easy out in the seventh with the Yankees trailing by two.
It was the second time inside a week a Yankees baserunner made the same mistake. Brett Gardner was guilty in Anaheim last Friday.
“It was a bad read, that’s all it is,’’ manager Joe Girardi said.
Prior to the game, Girardi reaffirmed his belief that Vernon Wells would emerge from a 9-for-87 (.103) slump to help boost a team that was hitting an anemic .239 going into the game. Only the woebegone Mariners at .234 had a lower average than the Yankees among AL clubs.
That average slipped a point to .239 after going 6-for-30 last night, including 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position.
“We still believe he can get it done,’’ Girardi said of Wells, whom he batted fifth despite a career 1-for-12 (.083) line against Moore.
Wells went 0-for-3 and was pinch-hit for in the ninth inning.
Of course, there are more problems than Wells, but if Pettitte continues on this path he will become an issue the Yankees never believed they would have to address as long as he remained healthy.