At any rate, last night, at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, within the circus, there was a game played between the Yankees and the Chicago White Sox. Our old friend Andy Pettitte had nothing, allowing the Pale Hose 7 runs on 11 hits, and didn't even get out of the 3rd inning (his record falling to 7-9).
The bullpen did all right, with Preston Claiborne, Shawn Kelly, Joba Chamberlain and Boone Logan pitching 5 1/3 innings, allowing just 1 run (Kelley) on 3 hits. (Sure, Logan: Pitch a perfect inning when the game is already lost.)
In contrast, Jose Quintana, while not quite the proverbial "pitcher the Yankees have never seen before" (he was that on June 29 last year, when he beat us), did his job, bending (allowing us 8 hits and a walk) but not breaking (only 1 run, and advancing his record to 6-3). Vernon Wells had 2 doubles, and Brett Gardner had an RBI single, but that was it. White Sox 8, Yankees 1.
Alex Rodriguez batted 4th and played 3rd base, got the hell booed out of him by the South Side crowd, and singled in his 1st at-bat of the season, but that was all he got.
The Yankees are now just 3 games over .500: 57-54. We're 9 1/2 games behind the Red Sox in the AL East, but, due to games in hand, we're 9 games in the loss column behind the team with the fewest losses in the Division, the Tampa Bay Rays. We're 5 games out of a Wild Card berth.
There are 7 1/2 weeks left in the season -- 51 games. We'll have to pick up an average of 1 game every 5 games to win the Division, 1 every 10 to make the Playoffs.
This is still possible, but we'll need to improve the hitting and the pitching. Right now, even with A-Rod and Curtis Granderson back, we're not hitting, and our starting rotation seems to consist of Hiroki Kuroda and 4 guys with 4.75 ERAs.
The series continues tonight, with, thankfully, Kuroda going against a struggling Chris Sale.
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