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June 20, 2006


How to Lose 8 of 11
by SG

On June 7, the Yankees were 35-22 and 1.5 games in front in the AL East. Since then, they've lost 8 of 11 games and dropped 3 games in the standing after last night's 4-2 loss to a Philadelphia Phillies team that had lost 8 of its last 10 games.

It's been a stretch of frustrating games and losses, but it's hard to pinpoint exactly where the problem is, so here are the team's splits over that stretch.



Melkymania is no longer running wild, as Melky Cabrera's slumped severely. Robinson Cano seems to be hitting extremely well, until you realize that he has come to bat with 30 runners on during this stretch. He has driven in 3 of them (2 of his 5 RBI are his own runs on HRs that he hit). Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon are hitting for power but not getting on base at an acceptable rate, and Derek Jeter is also basically a singles hitter right now. Alex Rodriguez was slumping through most of this stretch as well and drove in 4 of the 26 runners on base that he has seen.



The starters are averaging 5.9 innings a game, which is killing the bullpen. Wang has been the only starter who's pitched consistently well, although Moose appears to be a victim of bad luck lately.



I was surprised to see that the pen has an ERA of 3.73 over this stretch. Joe Torre continues to overuse Scott Proctor whose performance no longer warrants it, while Ron Villone waits for extra innings that never happen.

It's a bad stretch, but I'm not ready to jump off the ledge yet. Randy Johnson pitched another good game last night, and if he can pitch 7 innings and allow 3 runs most of the time the team will be in decent shape.

Despite what is being described as mild tendinitis, Octavio Dotel is close to joining the Yankees.
Dotel consulted with Dr. James Andrews, the orthopedist that performed the surgery, and Andrews told him that this was normal for any pitcher working his way back from elbow surgery.

That reinforcement was comforting for Dotel, but not comforting enough to erase any concerns from his mind.

"You have to worry about it; you're coming off Tommy John surgery, and it's not an easy surgery," Dotel said. "The day after I pitched, when I woke up and had that feeling, that night I didn't sleep. I kept thinking, 'Now what?'"

Apparently, the Yankees' Minor League medical staff wasn't concerned enough by the tendinitis to send him for any additional tests. He will receive treatment from the Yankees' training staff for the next three days before heading to Trenton on Thursday.


I'm not expecting Dotel to be a savior. I'm just hoping he can be better than Proctor and ease the workload on Kyle Farnsworth.

Interleague play still sucks, too.