Kevin Baker's book is here!

Kevin Baker's book is here!
"... an exemplary sports book..." Kirkus Reviews

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Sori seems to be the easiest word

We won this afternoon, 4-2: A nice, sleepy, lead-all-the-way, small ball victory over a team that is only playing for next year's contract or pecking order.

Once again, we used Raphael Soriano for a four-out save. He did the job. And theoretically, four outs shouldn't be too much more than three.

But realistically, we know where this goes.

Sori pitched because David Robertson could not survive the eighth. He not only nearly blew the three-run lead, but when Soriano arrived, the go-ahead runs were on second and third, and the Yankees hadn't done anything since the first. Disaster loomed. Every ball hit off Robertson was a line-drive, and he was facing the bottom half of the batting order. Listen: This was bad.

It might just be a crapola outing, and maybe Houdini will rebound. But lately, he holds leads like a wet paper bag holds lead pipe. Everybody is waiting for someone - Joba? - to become the eighth inning lock down, but we are not there. Warming up in the bullpen with Soriano in the eighth, during Robertson's near meltdown, was Cody Eppley. That's the alternative we had. Make no mistake: This is trouble.

1 comment:

bennyboy said...

Robertson isn't throwing 92-94 anymore. He's at 89-91.

Plus his delivery looks very different. I think it reduces the deceptive nature of his fastball. I don't know if he's trying to avoid lingering ribcage pain, or if he's trying to do something new, but I do know it's definitely not having a positive impact.