Yankees Snatch Defeat from Jaws of Victory (Postgame Notes 12 April 2008)

Must be something about my birthday but the Yankees didn't win on April 12th last year, either.

Anyway, it looked like the Yankees were going to have one of their best early season wins, coming from behind to take the lead against Kansas City's number one starter, and the Yankees were one out away from getting the baseball to Mariano Rivera.

Disaster struck, however, when Joe Girardi over-managed the bottom of the eighth. After Damaso Marte got two quick outs Girardi elected to play mix-and-match, but Veras walked his lone batter and Phil Coke gave up three earned runs and a 4-3 Yankees' lead turned into a 6-4 Royals win.

Joba Chamberlain pitched six decent innings, giving up one earned run and two unearned runs. Even with a line up that included both Gardner and Melky, not to mention Molina and Ransom, and without Teixeira or Posada, the Yankees still managed to score four runs. In that respect, today's game wasn't a disaster.

It just hurts like hell when you're that close.


The Yankees head next to Tampa. The Rays lost two of three to the Orioles, but won today by a score of 11-3.