April 30, 2016

Schadenfreude 187 (A Continuing Series)



Mark Feinsand, Daily News:
There are 139 games remaining on David Ortiz's farewell tour, but it's hard to imagine many of them will compare with Friday night.

The Yankee-killer crushed a two-run home run off Dellin Betances in the eighth inning, snapping a tie score and lifting the Red Sox to a 4-2 comeback win in the first of three weekend tilts at Fenway Park. ...

[The Yankees] continued to struggle at the plate, scoring three-or-fewer runs for the 16th time in 21 games this season and falling to 3-13 in those games. It was the 11th time the Yankees scored no more than two runs, dropping them to 0-11 in those.

The Yankees have now lost three in a row, four out of five and 11 of their last 15, lowering their record to 8-13.

George A. King III, Post:
All aboard the pinstriped bobsled to hell without a brakeman.

With five months remaining in a season that has started miserably, it's possible the Yankees absorbed their toughest defeat Friday night.

They led the Red Sox by two runs going into the seventh with ace Masahiro Tanaka hurling a shutout. ... Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller were poised to close it out.

Instead, Tanaka gave up a two-run double to Jackie Bradley, Jr., the ninth hitter, in the seventh inning to tie the score, and Betances watched David Ortiz drive a first-pitch breaking ball on the outer half over the Green Monster in the eighth to lift the Red Sox to a 4-2 victory ...

The loss dropped the 8-13 Yankees a season-high 5½ games back of the AL East-leading Orioles. ...

In the last 16 games, the Yankees have scored 39 runs. That's an average of 2.43 runs per game.

"I believe we are going to bust out of this," Girardi said. "We are having opportunities. You keep getting opportunities, it will turn."

The question is when, because the bobsled is gaining speed.


Wallace Matthews, ESPN:
In the space of five pitches, the Red Sox had two runners on after sharp singles by Travis Shaw and Brock Holt, and two batters later, the game was tied and Tanaka was headed to the clubhouse. ...

What made it even more painful for Yankee fans is that manager Joe Girardi had both his virtually-unhittable setup man, Dellin Betances, and his lefty specialist, Chasen Shreve, up and seemingly ready to go in the bullpen before the left-handed hitting Bradley stepped to the plate. ...

But on this night, Girardi's faith in his starter turned out to be misplaced, and when David Ortiz launched a two-run home run over the Monster off Betances in the eighth, instead of an inspiring 2-0 victory the Yankees faced a dispiriting 4-2 defeat ...

Ken Davidoff, Post:
When does early become late? How low can a baseball team go before ultimately shrugging it off as much ado about nothing?

These 2016 Yankees sure seem interested in tackling those questions, don't they?

With April nearly at its end, the Yankees hit a new low Friday night at Fenway Park. ...

They can go only so low, can dive only so deep, before the worry morphs into something more sinister. Before they're not all as polite about falling on their swords.

When does early become late? Each night like this one gets them closer to the answer they don't want to know.

2 comments:

allan said...

Sad to not have back pages, but other sports are apparently more important.

laura k said...

bobsled to hell without a brakeman

Good name for a blog.