No traction: New York Yankees vs Orioles series recap

The Yankees stumbled into Baltimore to put an end to a nine game road trip that has been far from productive.  Pitching, hitting, defense, and now injuries have been pretty much awful for the extent of the trip.  Losing five in a row and 13 of 17 had the Bombers sitting in last place in the AL East and needing any kind of spark to get off of life support. The kid is struggling

The series opener saw Luis Severino take the mound, facing off against Chris Tillman.  Severino had struggled mightily in the early going of the season and was looking for a rebound against the Orioles.  The Yankees would take an early 1-0 lead on Didi Gregorius' RBI single, but Mark Trumbo would rudely greet Severino right away in the bottom of the second with a solo blast to tie things at 1-1.  Severino would later allow a single and a walk in the inning before escaping further trouble. The Orioles would take a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning as Severino would commit his second error of the night, this time while covering first base on a grounder.  Severino has been leaving pitches up in the zone in his previous starts, and that would continue on this night.  Trumbo would tag him for his second home run of the night, this time a 2-run blast to make it 4-1.  Severino would last six innings in this affair, giving up the four runs on five hits, with two walks and four strikeouts. At this point in the season, it appears it may be time for Severino to hit the reset button and try to fix things in the minors.  A 6.31 ERA in 25+ innings is not doing the team or himself any good, and the two errors tonight could be a sign of being distracted by the results he is getting on the mound.  A kid who is pressing is probably not going to get the right results. After an outburst against the Red Sox on Sunday night, the offense vanished once again against the Orioles.  Seven hits and four walks only led to one run in the game.  Three of the four walks led off an inning.  However, only one of the seven hits went for extra bases.  The team was 1-7 with runners in scoring position with 8 left on base.  Nothing new to report there, and the Yankees went down 4-1 to lose their seventh in a row.  To make matters worse, Alex Rodriguez would leave this game in the fifth inning and would subsequently be placed on the 15-day DL with a right hamstring injury.

The big fella comes through

A few years back, if the Yankees were mired in a losing streak, there was nothing more that fans wanted to see on the mound than the dominating presence of C.C. Sabathia.  Sabathia has had his struggles over the past couple of years, but the Yankees once again looked to the big lefty to help stop the bleeding. C.C. would be more than up to the task on Wednesday night as he would pitch seven shutout innings, allowing six hits with two walks and six strikeouts.  In a throwback performance, Sabathia had his changeup working, getting plenty of swing and misses, and his defense behind him came through to help him keep the Orioles blanked.  Don't look now, but the big guy is 2-2 with a 3.81 ERA.  His FIP of 3.53 backs up his numbers, so maybe there is a little left in his tank. The Yankees offense would put up good numbers for the second time in three games.  They managed to string together hits tonight to score three in the sixth inning and four more in the eighth, highlighted by Jacoby Ellsbury's 3-for-3 performance and Brian McCann going 2-for-5 with three RBI's. Unfortunately for the Yankees, the night would be punctuated by another possible injury.  Brett Gardner would have to leave the game after being hit by a pitch on the elbow in the eighth.  He is listed as day-to-day after x-rays were negative. This is why we can't have nice things

Masahiro Tanaka would be matched up against Kevin Gausman in the series finale as the Yankees would try to put together a series win.  The pitcher's duel that would ensue would last for the full nine innings as both opponents matched each other the whole way. Tanaka would pitch eight scoreless innings, giving up five singles while striking out seven.  It would certainly be one of the more solid starts by a Yankee this season.  Tanaka has now given up two runs or less in each of his six starts. Gausman was equally up to the task as the Yankees could get nothing going against the Orioles starter all night. The only real scoring chances of the night were a wasted lead off double by Starlin Castro in the fourth and a blown chance in the ninth.  With Brian McCann pinch-hitting in the top of the ninth, Castro fell asleep and was picked off of second base by Orioles catcher Matt Wieters. Dellin Betances would pitch a perfect bottom of the ninth to send the scoreless affair to extra innings.  A sacrifice fly by Pedro Alvarez with no one out in the tenth sent Orioles fans home happy and the Yankees to their seventh loss in their last eight games.  Four hits and a walk in ten innings.  A great start wasted by an offense that didn't bother to show up on Thursday night.