It was the brutal beginning, not the controversial ending of yesterday’s loss to the Royals, that should haunt the Yankees this morning.
Starting pitcher Sergio Mitre spotted the Royals a six-run lead long before a ninth-inning rally ended with umpire Chad Fairchild punching out Mark Teixeira on a bang-bang play at first base in a 7-4 stinker before 48,138 sweaty fans at Yankee Stadium.
Mitre flunked his first audition to be Andy Pettitte’s replacement in the rotation, and was upstaged by Dustin Moseley, who threw 4 2/3 scoreless innings in relief.
Even with the huge hole, the Yankees’ bats nearly bailed Mitre out.
Alex Rodriguez went homerless, and was left with the bat on his shoulder in the on-deck circle when the game ended. But two of his teammates went deep, Teixeira doing it twice, and the Yankees had runners on first and second in the ninth with the prospect of Rodriguez coming to the plate with a chance at No. 600 being a walk-off grand slam. Continue
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