Sunday, July 25, 2010

Dying with Sergio Mitre

The Fan watched the Yankees - Royals game on Saturday mostly to see if A-Rod would hit his 600th homer (that is history after all). He didn't hit one but Teixeira hit two and Posada hit one. But the real story was Sergio Mitre and the first base umpire.

Mitre was making his first start in place of Andy Pettitte. As stated previously in this spot, the choice by the Yankees completely lacked imagination. Bringing up Mitre from Triple A cost Jonathan Albaladejo a roster spot and that's a guy who could be a real nice late inning reliever for the Yankees. Frankly, Mitre was putrid and withing four innings has put the Yankees in a 6-0 hole and it could have been far worse. Girardi finally pulled the plug in the fifth and the relievers (mainly Dustin Moseley did a nice job of keeping the game from getting out of hand.

And the Yankees kept chipping away. Two homers by Teixeira and another by Posada made the score 7-4 and they had chances in every inning to chip away more but couldn't get the big hit. A-Rod didn't get his homer, but had some decent at bats. Then the Yankees managed to get Jeter and Granderson on first and second with two out in the ninth. That brought up Teixeira, who battled hard after getting in an 0-2 hole. He finally dribbled one in the infield and the replay showed clearly that he beat the throw at first. But the umpire, Chad Fairchild, called him out. If the ump had not blown the call, A-Rod would have come up with the bases loaded and all kinds of drama could have ensued. But it was not to be.

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