Bartolo Colon, Eduardo Nunez and Sergio Mitre Responsible for Blowout Loss
July 15, 2011 · Ryan McCart · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
Bartolo Colon was nothing short of brilliant before the All-Star break. He was averaging about a strikeout per inning, threw one complete game shut out and had an ERA under 3.00.
This great comeback story has fallen off of the tracks and came to a screeching halt with the route that took place in Toronto on Thursday. As the New York Yankees were losing to the Toronto Blue Jays by nine runs, three stories came to the forefront: Bartolo Colon’s poor pitching, Eduardo Nunez’s bad defense and Sergio Mitre’s awful relief.
As stated earlier, before Colon went to the DL he had been pitching like a potential All-Star. But he injured his hamstring covering first base against Cleveland, and hasn’t been the same since.
Yankee fans were happy when he came off of the DL, and Colon seemed to give them a reason to with six shutout innings against the Mets in his first start after the injury. However, his last two starts have the fans questioning if he came back too soon.
On Thursday, Colon only pitched two-thirds of an inning, lost and gave up a total of eight runs (only three earned runs). He was sketchy, at best, and poor, at worst.
In his past two outings he has given up 13 runs in a total of six and a third innings, bringing his ERA to a 3.47. The last out he recorded against the Jays was one in which he had to cover first base. As he ran to cover the base, he appeared to be in some pain and wasn’t running very well.
The hamstring injury seems to have taken some speed off of his fastball and he doesn’t seem confident in putting pressure on the hamstring by running. This loss isn’t totally on Colon because Toronto had five unearned runs due to an error by Eduardo Nunez.
Nunez is currently leading the Yankees with 11 errors in 2011. Every error he has made has come with Nunez playing third base or shortstop. When Derek Jeter was on the DL he was brilliant, and had Yankee fans questioning if he was a better option.
His defensive inconsistency has given the answer, and it is a resounding no. Nunez made an error on a routine play in the first inning of Thursday’s game that allowed the inning to continue. The Jays took advantage and put an eight on the scoreboard. He later missed a pop-up in short left field.
While Colon had a poor outing, and Nunez played poorly in the field, Sergio Mitre was simply atrocious. In his last three appearances, Mitre has given up a total of eight runs in four and a third innings, including four runs against the Jays yesterday.
The Yankees acquired him after the Milwaukee Brewers released the relief pitcher. The acquisition was questionable because the Yankees have seen this show before. Mitre has been a Yankee in the past and was mediocre as a long man, and seems to have gotten worse.
Hector Noesi has proven to be a much better long reliever this year, but he had already pitched on Thursday when Mitre was called from the bullpen.
It seems that whenever the Yankees are able to get away from Mitre, he somehow turns back up. He isn’t good enough for the Major League, he should be a career triple-A pitcher but keeps getting chances in the Majors.
A pitcher that isn’t good enough for the Milwaukee Brewers shouldn’t be good enough for the Yankees. The only way that Mitre can be positive to the men in pinstripes is to be part of a trade that brings in another arm or another bat at the trade deadline. Sergio Mitre makes Yankee fans long for the days of Alfredo Aceves (now in Boston).
If the Yankees can’t move Mitre, then they need to follow in the Brewers footsteps and release him.
The 16-7 loss to the Blue Jays put the Yankees back 1.5 games from Boston, and ended a nine year streak where the Yankees won the first game after the All-Star break. The embarrassing loss rests squarely on the shoulders of these three players, and bringing up questions about all-three. Giving up 16 runs and 20 hits is nothing short of atrocious and the Yankees need to bounce back quickly (without Alex Rodriguez) if they want to keep up with the Red Sox.
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