A 15-4 Texas-Sized Beatdown

Game 43 / 22-21 / 2nd / 1.5GB : With apologies to Mariano Duncan, it’s now “We play today. We lose today.” The New York Yankees are deep in a pronounced funk with no end in sight. There is no stopper. Their best pitcher and position player are on the DL. No one is hitting with any consistency. And no one can field the ball. Today’s result was a 15-4 beatdown at the hands of the visiting Texas Rangers.
Thanks in part to sloppy fielding and poor pitch location, Texas settled the game with 10 runs in the third inning. By the time the 9th rolled around, reserve first baseman-outfielder Garrett Jones was on the mound for New York.

Here’s the box score, full recap, and video highlights.

Rangers 15, Yankees 4

• One Man Wrecking Crew   Here’s how bad things are going: Didi Gregorius is the hottest hitter on the team. Didi has smoked two home runs in the last two games, after hitting zero in his first 35 starts. Over the last 3 games, he’s gone 5-11 with 4 runs knocked in. Hopefully his defense will now start looking like the highlight reels Yankee fans were drooling over after the trade was announced.
• Beltran Giveth   His solo home run in the 6th inning prevented the further embarrassment of being shut-out on top of getting your head handed to you on the scoreboard. The blast extended Beltran’s hitting streak to 13 games.
• Garrett Jones   Boasting a 0.00 ERA, Jones and his 70mph stuff volunteered to help out the bullpen when needed. Despite the outcomes of the opening two games against Texas, Jones has a couple of things to feel good about — this mound performance and the 3-run blast that gave hope for a memorable comeback in last night’s disaster.
• AL East Sucks   Both Tampa and Baltimore (thanks Martin Prado!) also lost today, so New York remains 1.5 behind the Rays and 1.5 ahead of the Birds.

“It’s tough. It’s tough when you get a big deficit like that. Yesterday we almost came back and we fought hard, but today it was just too much to overcome and we got embarrassed.” ‐ Brett Gardner  (h/t: Mike Zacchio / LoHud)

• CC Sabathia   The Big Man was yanked after only 2.1 innings today, charged with 6 earned runs on 7 hits, while striking out four. Getting tagged with the loss, CC’s record dropped to 2-6, 5.47. Also of concern is Sabathia’s performance at home — as reported by Bryan Hoch, CC’s last victory in Yankee Stadium was September 20, 2013. Since then he’s gone 0-6 in decisions, with a 9.42 ERA.
• Beltran Taketh Away   While Beltran is slowly finding his stroke at the plate, his fielding went south big time.
• Esmil Rogers   An innings-eater in the early going, maybe the workload is catching up with Rogers. Taking over for Sabathia, Rogers allowed 7 earned runs of his own on 7 hits in a three-inning stint.

FOOTNOTES : Today’s loss was the 9th in their last 10 games, and dropped the Yankees to 22-21 record with Baltimore breathing down their necks for second place … Left hander Chris Capuano gets the nod tomorrow, and the organization will officially retire #51 in honor of Bernie Williams …