Andy hangs tough, then gets tagged
ANDY PETTITTE took the loss, but it was Joba Chamberlain who heard the Bronx cheers.
The struggling reliever allowed four hits in two-thirds of an inning on Wednesday at the Stadium, including a two-run homer by Nelson Cruz, which proved to be the decisive blow in the Yankees’ 8-5 loss to the Texas Rangers.
“Obviously it’s frustrating letting the team down,” said Chamberlain, who was booed off the field in the seventh inning. “That’s the worst part. I know I suck right now.”
Chamberlain has now allowed four home runs in his last seven outings and carries a 6.38 ERA.
“I would boo me too. I’m terrible,” Chamberlain said. “There’s no getting around it. Obviously you come and spend money and you want to see someone do their job. It’s one of those things where if you don’t do your job, you expect to get booed. They have a right to. You can’t get mad at them.”
The Yankees grabbed the early lead on a solo home run by Lyle Overbay, but a peculiar play in the third complicated things for Pettitte (5-6).
Leonys Martin led off the inning with a slow dribbler down the third base line. Pettitte beat third baseman Jayson Nix to the ball, barehanded it and attempted a throw to first. On the follow-through, Pettitte’s arm collided with Nix, leaving the pitcher bent over in pain.
Both players would be OK, but that play led to a four-run inning capped by consecutive two-run doubles from Adrian Beltre and A.J. Pierzynski to make it 4-1. Pettitte left after six innings, allowing three earned runs, two walks and six strikeouts in his third straight loss.
“It’s frustrating. You want to win,” Pettitte said. “It was a big win (Tuesday) for us, and you’re hoping you can come out tonight and put up some zeros and I’m just not putting up zeros for us. Just not getting it done right now.”
Back-to-back RBI singles by Robinson Cano and Travis Hafner cut the Texas lead to 4-3 in the sixth inning, but Chamberlain handed both runs right back in the seventh to push the Rangers’ lead back to three. Ichiro Suzuki responded in the bottom of the inning with a two-run shot of his own to make it 6-5, but two runs in the ninth inning, which were aided by Brett Gardner’s fielding error in center field, put the game out of reach.
PINING FOR PINEDA: Joe Girardi watched film from Michael Pineda’s rehab start with Double-A Trenton on Tuesday and seemed pleased with what he saw from the Yankee righthander. “I was watching the tape, and you can see the movement on his fastball. His slider looked pretty good, his changeup looked pretty good,” Girardi said. GM Brian Cashman later confirmed the 6-7, 260-pounder’s Sunday start for Trenton in Binghamton.