After giving up four runs in the first, Chien Ming Wang headed back to the mound to dig the hole a little deeper for the Yankee hitters. Wang subsequently loaded the bases without recording an out and Jonathan Albaladejo trotted in from the bullpen. Carlos Pena greeted Albaladejo by hitting a grand slam, to double the damage. The next inning Jason Bartlett hit a solo homer off Albaladejo making the score 10-0 Rays. Unlike the Baseball World Classic, there is no mercy rule and the Rays had no mercy for the Yankees; they went on to trample the Yankees 15-5.
Swisher Pitches In
...the eighth inning! Since the bullpen was called upon for seven innings of work and Giradi chose not to have a long reliever on the 25 man roster, Nick Swisher pitched the eighth inning. What is even more incredible is that Swisher was the only reliever in the game who did not allow a run to score!
After giving up three runs in three innings, Albaladejo was replaced by Edwar Ramirez. Ramirez gave up a run in his two innings of work. Phil Coke gave up three runs (none earned) in the 7th inning leaving Jose Veras, Damaso Marte, Brian Bruney and Mariano Rivera available to pitch the 8th. However, all but Mo pitched the day before and there was no way Mo was going to pitch in a blowout. That left Swisher, who had a solo homer and scored 2 runs in the game.
Blame the Pitcher
After such a demoralizing loss for the Yankees, it is certainly justifiable to blame the starting pitcher. Wang gave up 8 runs in 1 inning leaving the Yankee hitters with a virtually insurmountable deficit to overcome and giving them no real chance of winning the game. But assigning blame is not condoned in the Yankee clubhouse. Each player has the same goal, to win the World Series. Therefore, they win as a team and lose as a team.
In another New York clubhouse this weekend, this was not the case. After losing 2-1 to the Florida Marlins on Sunday, Mets pitcher Johan Santana blamed the loss on left fielder Daniel Murphy. Murphy dropped a fly ball in the 2nd inning. Two runs were scored that inning, both unearned, and Santana ended up with his first loss of the season. Unlike Santana, Mets third baseman David Wright did not blame Murphy's error for the team's loss. In fact, he specifically stated that it wasn't Murphy's fault that they lost.
Certainly Murphy's error attributed to the loss but so did the lack of offense by the Mets. They were down 2-0 in the second and could not muster up a run until the 9th inning. Instead of blaming his teammate, Santana could have credited the opposing pitcher, Josh Johnson. Johnson pitched a complete game giving up just one run on five hits and earned his second win of the season. If Santana has a disastrous outing like Wang did, every Met player should let him know that it was his fault they lost the game.
