Cardinals 8
Yankees 1
ST. LOUIS – Rock bottom for the Yankees arrived on the banks of the Mississippi last night.
At least it better be as low as it gets, because if the Yankees play worse than they did in an embarrassing 8-1 loss to the Cardinals in front of 50,250, they should be asked to turn over their hefty checks to charity.
In losing for the 10th time in 12 games, the Yankees treated the baseball as if it were a live hand grenade in the field. At the plate, they appeared to be allergic to putting wood on the sphere, as they collected only six hits.
Errors by Chien-Ming Wang, Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano led to three unearned runs. And there were several plays that weren’t scored errors. Gary Sheffield threw wildly to third and allowed a runner to take second. Jason Giambi avoided an “E” next to his name but didn’t make three plays he could have.
The loss, combined with the AL East-leading Orioles winning, dropped the Yankees to 29-31, seven games behind the Birds.
Wang, who started instead of Kevin Brown (bruised left shoulder), absorbed the loss and is 3-2. In four innings, Wang gave up seven runs – four earned – and seven hits.
Staten Island’s Jason Marquis improved to 8-3. In eight frames he gave up one run and six hits.
Albert Pujols started the night fourth in the NL batting race with a .330 average and went 3-for-4 and clubbed his 15th home off Paul Quantrill in the sixth.
Dropped to fifth so that Rodriguez could protect a slumping Sheffield, Hideki Matsui went 1-for-4. Sheffield was hitless in three at-bats and is in a 4-for-30 (.133) slide.
Since the Yankees were so miserable in the field, their lack of hitting against Marquis through six innings was overlooked. But all the Yankees could do against the Staten Island right-hander was score one run.
Trailing 7-0 after three innings, the Yankees had a chance to dent the deficit in the fourth, but Jorge Posada fanned for the second out with runners on first and second and Marquis retired Jason Giambi on an infield pop.
They did scratch out a run in the fifth when Cano led off with a double, moved to second on pinch-hitter Tino Martinez’ grounder and scored on Derek Jeter’s bloop double to right.
Wang didn’t have much but he deserved a better fate than giving up seven runs in four innings. Three of them were unearned thanks to two errors in a third-inning circus.
With one out, Albert Pujols doubled to right and scored on Jim Edmonds’ single to left. Rodriguez cut off Tony Womack’s throw home and caught Edmonds off first base. However, his throw to Giambi was behind the first baseman and rolled to the wall as Edmonds made third. Larry Walker was walked intentionally in front of Reggie Sanders’ RBI single. Another intentional walk to Abraham Nunez was followed by a chopper to Cano that he allowed to glance off his glove as two unearned runs scored.
The Yankees’ bumbling ways began early when Wang tried to pick off Mark Grudzielanek at first after issuing a one-out walk to the second baseman. Wang’s throw was low but Giambi could have gloved it. Instead it rolled all the way to the wall and Grudzielanek easily made third. He then scored on Pujols’ single. Pujols went to third on Edmonds’ single to right and scored on Walker’s single to right.