Yankees Fall To 0-2 With Alex Rodriguez

Nydailynews.com

A rough road trip for the Yankees continues as they fall to the White Sox 3-2 last night in Chicago. Another solid start by the ace of this team Hiroki Kuroda was wasted as the Yankee lineup failed to give him run support. Kuroda went 7.0 innings allowing three runs on nine hits and struck out four. He now falls to 10-7 on the season mainly due to poor run support. But in some cases he has been the Yankees ace since the struggles of C.C. Sabathia and the rest of the Starting Pitchers on the team.

The Yankees only managed seven hits through nine innings, one of those hits coming from Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod is two for six since returning to the Yankees batting .333 on the season. I expect more from a player who is being linked to PEDs use. It might take Alex a few more games before getting back into the swing of things after going through a second hip surgery and missing four months of action. Last night Joe Girardi had Rodriguez as the Designated Hitter after playing Third Base in his first game. At the plate A-Rod followed up his one for four debut by going one for two with a single, walk and reaching base after being hit by a pitch.

Down 3-1, Yankees tried to rally back in the 9th. With one out, Ichiro Suzuki singled to left and reached Second Base on a fielder's indifference. Austin Romine struck out looking for the second out of the inning. Ichiro then scored on a single to right from Brett Gardner, but White Sox Closer Addison Reed got the save by striking out Alfonso Soriano. A-Rod was on deck when Soriano struck out swinging to end the game with the tying run on first. Sadly this is the Yankees 13th loss in the last 19 games.

Chris Sale was dealing last night going 7.1 Innings and giving up five hits, one run, and struck out six Yankee hitters. The only run he allowed was a passed ball by Josh Phegley, which allowed Soriano to score.

Hoping that Alex Rodriguez can provide a spark and help this Yankee team start winning games to make a playoff run is looking hopeless at this point. They are relying on a player who is coming off hip surgery and has a long suspension hanging over him after MLB and Bud Selig released the suspensions on Monday. With a little less than two months left and being 10.5 games behind Boston, its hard to think the Yankees have enough games to make up that kind of ground. Also they are currently 6 games behind the Wild card leaders Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers. Playing for a Wild Card berth seems to be more realistic for the Yankees, but they will need to start winning games now and start scoring runs.

Next up for the Yankees they will look to avoid the sweep at the hand of the White Sox, as C.C. Sabathia (9-10, 4.78) will look to fix his problems of late against Hector Santiago (3-7, 3.28).