Scott Kazmir struck out 9 batters and only allowed 2 ER in his 5 innings of work but the Rays offense was woeful! Kaz hung 1 bad pitch to Jeter with 2 out that he smacked to the fence allowing the 2 runs to cross the plate. Other than that Kaz pitched well. The only concern is that he is still going too deep into the count with hitters. In 5 innings of work he threw 97 pitches. Kaz is aware of his shortcomings and working on them with pitching Coach Jim Hickey according to him. Gary Glover allowing 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th made this game look worse than it really was.
OK, when the first inning for our offense began with 2 pitches and 2 quick outs I knew it was going to be along night. Yes, that’s right 2 pitches and 2 outs for Pettitte. What happened to patience? When a pitcher of Pettitte’s quality sees hitters expanding the zone he WILL take advantage of that and he DID. Even though the Rays struck out only 6 times (Pettitte 5, Ramirez 1) they did not record 1 walk and only managed to collect 4 hits, 2 by BJ Upton. Our “power” hitters, Pena and Gomes, combined for 1 for 7 with 4 K’s.
Pettitte pitched a quality game no doubt. However we made it very easy for him to do so. We never put pressure on him and continued to expand the K zone all night. This does not a season make. However we need to show a vast improvement in today’s offensive performance to walk away with a split in this short 2 game series. We have given the Red Sox back 2 games and are giving momentum to the Yankees. Hopefully we open it up today and leave with a victory!
