Game of Moans...

Credit:  Patrick McDermott, USA TODAY Sports

I am not sure what’s worse.  Losing yet another game that we should have won to the Baltimore Orioles or losing perhaps the Team’s MVP, Gary Sanchez, to a biceps strain.  Most likely, it’s the latter.  Even though Sanchez is on the 10-day DL, he’ll need more time to recover considering this is his throwing arm.  After the team’s struggles out of the gate, the timing for the injury could not have been worse.

The Yankees called up Kyle Higashioka to replace Sanchez and back up interim starter Austin Romine.  This is a tough loss considering that the Yankees are already playing with a utility player at short.  

Where is the offense going to come from for a team that can’t make its pitches?  Hopefully this question answers itself very quickly.

The Yankees should have won yesterday’s game.  But again, they let Manny Machado and Company take the game.  This time the hero was Hyun Soo Kim with a single in the bottom of the 7th to drive in Mark Trumbo with the go-ahead and eventual winning run.

With a LOOGY and the thought that you ‘have just one job’, lefty Tommy Layne failed by allowing a double to Chris Davis, the only batter he faced.  The Yankees then brought in Dellin Betances.  I didn’t feel good about the situation (Betances and base runners are never a good thing).  He promptly gave up a single to Mark Trumbo to score Davis, tying the game.  He would subsequently allow the game-winning hit by Kim.

If the Yankees team goal is to prevent the Boston Red Sox from winning the AL East, five games into the new season, they’re winning by allowing the Orioles to remain undefeated.  

CC Sabathia takes the mound today.  As the owner of the only quality start so far this season, Sabathia will now take the added role of the hopeful stopper as a victory is sorely needed.  

The Yankees were also missing Greg Bird yesterday after his foot swelled during Friday night’s loss.  Bird had fouled a pitch off his foot during a March 30th exhibition game and hasn’t fully recovered from it yet.  He’ll miss today’s game too.  Chris Carter didn’t exactly instill confidence as the first base replacement (he was 0-for-5, with 2 strikeouts, leaving 5 men on base).  

Orioles manager Buck Showalter must be loving this.  He’s the bully who keeps taking candy from a baby with these consecutive losses that should have been wins.  You know that he must get more satisfaction out of beating the Yankees than any other AL East team.  

Even though the Yankees are 1-4, they can turn this around quickly with a win today and subsequently taking their first series of the year when the Tampa Bay Rays come to New York on Monday.  But they’ll need timely hits and some quality pitches.  

Saturday’s game represented a milestone for Matt Holliday as he collected his 2,000th career hit (a first inning single off Baltimore’s Kevin Gausman).  Considering that he had 1,995 hits coming into the season, there were only 5 Yankee hits mixed in but he did do it as Yankee (even if he has not yet stepped on Yankee Stadium turf wearing pinstripes).  He is the 7th active Major Leaguer to reach the milestone and the 20th player to collect his 2,000th hit while playing for the Yankees.  

Yesterday was a day for losses as it was announced that former Yankees part-time left fielder/pinch hitter Bob Cerv had passed away on Thursday at age 91.  Cerv’s greatest year came in 1958 with the Kansas City A’s when he hit 38 home runs and drove in 104 runs.  By 1961, he was back in New York and shared a Queens apartment that year with the M&M Boys, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, during their historic home run battle.  Rest in peace.  God, it's your Cerv...