Kuroda Comes Off Rails

Most of us figured that Kuroda wanted to go back home after the end of last season's 

"Yawner" ( failure in japanese ) for the Yankees.

But he decided to re-up and have another season with Ichiro and the newly arrived Tanaka.

We fans figured he would win about 13 games, maybe lose 5, through August.  A bulldog he would be.  And effective in most instances.

Our concern was for September and the playoffs.  Would this aging pitcher lose stamina and mph on his pitches, and be useless when we need him most?  As happened in 2013.

In any case, we said, we can deal with that.  It is paramount to get invited to the playoffs, which would be goal A for Kuroda.  By then, maybe some one would emerge who could do the job for us against Baltimore or Detroit.

Last night, Kuroda came right off the rails, pretty much negotiating that very first curve.  And, my records show, it was not the first time this season he did that.  In fact, wasn't his previous outing pretty rough?  Two derailments in two starts raises eyebrows in the rail yard.

If he is done this early, so are we.