The Yankees won tonight in a game that was played in either a wind-tunnel or a land besieged by a small hurricane. It was windy tonight folks. Adam Jones hit a ball that hasn’t landed yet, Luke Scott smacked one as well. The only problem was that Robinson Cano, Marcus Thames and one more Yankee all took advantage of questionable O’s pitching – and gales that were strong enough to repel a Athenian Fleet.
The big question: How was Guthrie?
Well – um – yeah – see – about that. Guthrie looked awful to start the game. He walked a bunch of Yankees, gave up a three-run homer to Cano, drilled Texeira in the elbow with the bases loaded but he struck out seven and aside from those things he did alright. His pitches had good movement, his velocity was up and there were certainly flashes of the Guthrie we all love and hoped would return in 2010.
So, once again, Guthrie is maddeningly inconsistent. What does that mean in regards to the rotation? Probably not too much. The people that make the decisions all have faith that the Guthrie of old will emerge from his cocoon of mediocrity any day now. And there certainly were, as I said, flashes of brilliance tonight. Seeing Guthrie throwing in the 90’s again with good movement was certainly a very welcome sight. Despite a bad pitch to Cano, and drilling Tex with the bases-loaded Guthrie was serviceable tonight. Jeremey’s pitch count was ridiculously high again and he was again unable to get out of the sixth inning. It would do one well to remember that if this were a regular season game he would not have been pulled with 85 pitches in 5.2 IP. By that point in the game Jeremey had really calmed down and was pitching well, if this were a regular season game Guthrie probably could have made it into/ through the seventh easily.
We should all know who gets the fifth spot in the rotation very soon. All signs are pointing to Hernandez. I still think that Tillman makes much more sense in the long run, but I see the point and I can’t really get my hackles up over it. I’m on Spring Break I can’t get my hackles up over much anything this week.
