CARD TROUBLE
Yankees' bats fall asleep in shout loss
ST. LOUIS — America’s jails house deadbeat dads who offered more support to their families than the Yankees supplied David Phelps with Tuesday night.
Pitching in front of a family and friends, the righthander from nearby Hazelwood, Mo., was sabotaged by f irst baseman Kelly Johnson’s and second baseman Brian Roberts’ leaky defense and a lineup Lance Lynn dominated on the way to a 60 Cardinals win witnessed by a soldout Busch Stadium crowd of 45,202.
“Phelps pitched great and we didn’t help him out much,’’ said Roberts, who turned a possible doubleplay grounder into much more when he failed to field Jhonny Peralta’s grounder in the third inning when the Cardinals scored four runs (two earned). “We, certainly as a defense, take the blame for that one.’’
Johnson, playing first base for Mark Teixeira who missed a second straight game with a bothersome right wrist, was charged with a fielding error on the previous batter when Derek Jeter’s throw pulled Johnson off the bag. He caught the ball, but when Allen Craig made contact with Johnson’s glove the ball spilled out.
“I looked up to see where the runner was, what kind of play we had,’’ said Roberts, who figured there was a chance for a double play but a run would have scored regardless. Instead two runs scored. “It would have been nice to get two outs.’’ Johnson didn’t blame his lack of experience at first for the muff.
“That play could happen to anybody,’’ Johnson said. “I tagged him and the ball came out on contact.’’
While the defense was bad, the Yankees’ bats were smothered by Lynn, who pitched a completegame for the first time this season and improved to 62 with the second shutout thrown at the Yankees.
“We didn’t play very well behind him,’’ Joe Girardi said of Phelps, who gave up five runs (three earned) and eight hits in six innings and is now 12. “And we didn’t get much off Lynn.’’
One night after scoring six runs, but only getting seven singles in a dozen innings the Yankees went 0for9 with runners in scoring position and were held to five hits. The biggest culprit was Yangervis Solarte who was hitless in three trips to the plate in the clutch. After being the feelgood story of the first six weeks, Solarte is in an 8for35 (.229) funk.
While Lynn was using both sides of the plate to locate a crisp fastball, Girardi believed there were opportunities for his hitters.
“I thought we squared up some balls and had a chance to score some runs and we just didn’t do it,’’ Girardi said.
Brian McCann’s leadoff double in the second led to nothing when Solarte, Alfonso Soriano and Roberts didn’t get the ball out of the infield. Lynn walked Jeter to start the fourth and McCann with one out, but Solarte banged into a 463 double play. The Yankees had first and second and one out in the sixth, but McCann flied to right and Solarte popped out.
By the time the Yankees failed in their final atbat with runners in scoring position in the eighth, the Cardinals had a 60 bulge thanks to homers from Craig in the fifth off Phelps — one that Soriano got a glove on in right but couldn’t hold — and Matt Holliday in the seventh off Alfredo Aceves.
When Phelps went to the bullpen to warm up he saw former teachers, coaches and friends dressed in Yankees gear. His parents were among those who picked up the 26 tickets left by their son, a Cardinals fan growing up.
“The support I got was really cool,’’ Phelps said. “It was a frustrating night but coming home meant a lot.’’
Too bad the support flowed from the seats and not from the right side of the infield or the lineup.