Kuroda's Dominance Not Enough for Ailing Yankees in Another Loss to Tampa Bay

So far this season, the Yankees have rarely gotten long outings from their starters.

Their ace, Masahiro Tanaka, has gone 8+ innings five times, but up until tonight he has been the only one to do so.

Fortunately, that painful trend finally

ended this evening, as the Yanks got a big, 8 frame performance from Hiroki Kuroda, a fun-to-watch effort ruined by offensive problems in a 2-1 loss to the Rays.

During his time on the mound, Kuroda did make a few mistakes (most notably a go-ahead solo homer to Tampa Bay First Basemen James Loney in the top of the sixth), but overall, he was still pretty dominant, giving up just two earned runs while striking out seven.

Usually, that kind of line is good enough to at least get a no-decision, but due to David Price tossing 7 innings of nearly-scoreless ball the Bombers obviously emerged as the losers, the fourth consecutive day that's been the case. 

Yes, Price did pitch pretty well, but considering that the Pinstripes went just 1-for-9 with RISP and left eight men on base you can't help but wonder how good he actually was.

For one, the Yankees never scored legitimately this evening, even though their one trip around the bases was technically earned. 

They put men on the corners with one out in the bottom of the fourth, but if not for a pickoff-ruining throwing error by Ben Zobrist they wouldn't have crossed home in that at-bat.

To put it simply, this contest was nothing but another long uphill battle for the slumping Bombers, who are now 3 1/2 games behind the Blue Jays for the division lead and 4 behind the Mariners for the second and final wild card spot, a position no trade acquisition can be expected to fix.

Game Thread: Yankees vs. Rays 7/1

Welcome to July baseball and tonight's game thread and open thread, let's start off the month right. The Yankees will host the Tampa Bay Rays in the middle game of their three game set this week. The Yankees had Chris Archer last night and tonight New York and Hiroki Kuroda draws the Rays David Price in maybe his last start in a Rays uniform. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network, MLB TV, and can be heard on the radio with WFAN.

See David Price's possible final start as an opponent live by grabbing your Yankees tickets for tonight's game HERE. If you can't make it to the Bronx join us on Twitter by following @GreedyStripes or find us on Facebook by searching for The Greedy Pinstripes to interact with us. You can also leave us a comment in the comments section below and get the conversation started.

Enjoy the game Yankees family, if you can, and enjoy the rest of your night.

Sabathia Will Start In Trenton Tomorrow, Not Thursday

Is it panic time in the Bronx? CC Sabathia was expected to make his second rehab start on Thursday for the Trenton Thunder on normal rest but the Yankees pushed that start up tomorrow and on three days rest. At the time of this writing there was not a reason, bull or not, for moving up the start so stay tuned.

Sabathia is still expected to throw around 50 pitches.

Jim Miller Called Up, Jose Ramirez Sent Down

The New York Yankees have called up relief pitcher Jim Miller from Scranton and will send down Jose Ramirez to make room for Miller in the Yankees pen. Ramirez had struggled this season for the Yankees and threw a ton of pitches yesterday and the Yankees needed a fresh arm for tonight after losing in extra innings last night. CC Sabathia was transferred to the 60 day DL to make room for Miller on the 40 man roster. Sabathia's 60 day DL trip is obviously retroactive and will be long up before he is eligible to come back to the big league club.

Miller has actually pitched well this season to the tune of a 2.85 ERA in 41 innings for Scranton and the call up is well deserved, even if he is 32 years old.

Pirela Named Player of Month, Lindgren Joins Charleston

Jose Pirela has been named the International Leagues Player of the Month for the month of June. Pirela is a member of the Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders and has been leading off for the team and playing left and right field almost exclusively these days after coming through the system as a second baseman. Pirela had 40 hits in the month of June and had a .336/.385/.504 triple slash with 10 extra base hits, five stolen bases, 18 RBI's and 21 runs scored. Pirela is making it tougher and tougher to continue to run Alfonso Soriano, Brian Roberts, and Kelly Johnson out there with numbers like these. 

The New York Yankees have also announced that left-handed pitcher Jacob Lindgren will join the Charleston RiverDogs. Lindgren, New York’s first selection in the 2014 First-Year Player Draft, comes to Charleston from the Gulf Coast League Yankees 1. Lindgren was the 55^th overall pick in the Draft, taken by the Yankees in the second round out of Mississippi State. In 2013, Lindgren was a sophomore starter for the Bulldogs, which were the College World Series runner-up to UCLA.

During his junior season in 2014, he moved to the bullpen and posted stellar figures with a 6-1 record, a 0.81 ERA, three saves, and 100 strikeouts compared to 25 walks. Lindgren pitched a scoreless inning of relief on June 28 in a win over the GCL Yankees 2 in his professional debut.

David Price May Audition For Your Hearts Tonight

Make sure you take a bow tonight David, you may be calling this place home in less than a month....

7/1 Yankees Game Preview vs. Tampa Bay Rays

The New York Yankees will face off with the Tampa Bay Rays tonight in the second game of their three game set this week at Yankee Stadium. This is going to be a tough one for the Yankees as they send Hiroki Kuroda to the mound to face off with David Price for the Rays. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network, MLB TV, and can be heard on the radio with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman on WFAN.

Kuroda snapped a four game losing streak for the Yankees last time out and looks to stop the bleeding once again in the Bronx. Kuroda allowed three runs in 6.1 innings against the Toronto Blue Jays last time out to earn his fifth victory.

Price was dominant in his last start against the Pittsburgh Pirates allowing just one run and five hits while striking out 11 batters in 8.1 innings. Price earned his sixth win of the season and brings his career 5-2 record and 3.93 career ERA at Yankee Stadium to the Bronx tonight.

Get your Yankees tickets for tonight's game right here on the blog, it's cap night at Yankee Stadium for the first 18,000 fans. So all in all by clicking HERE you get a free Yankees hat, cheap tickets, free shipping, and no fees. Sounds like the best Tuesday night you could have. Get yours now!

Go Yankees!!

McCann Not Happy With First Half Performance

Since being signed to a 5-year, $85 million contract this offseason, Brian McCann has been a huge dissapointment to many Yankees fans.

The 30-year-old catcher, who hit a dismal .198 in June, has seen his offensive numbers plummet in 2014, causing some to see him as the year's biggest free agent bust.

Now usually when that happens, a player will attempt to defend themselves, although McCann surprisingly didn't do that, pretty much agreeing with his critics that he's been bad in the first 81 games of the season.

"Horrible," the veteran told The Newark Star Ledger last night when asked how he thinks he's been so far. "Hitting–you know, I feel good behind the plate. But swinging the bat, I need to get better. We’ve just got to keep grinding. I’ve got faith in myself and I think we’ll swing the bats better."

Going into this evening's contest against David Price and the Rays, McCann's hitting just .221 with 9 home runs and 36 RBIs, stats that obviously aren't what the Bombers expected when they originally signed him.

Still, we do have to remember that anything could happen with him from this point on, a fact also true with fellow strugglers Carlos Beltran and Kelly Johnson, two more starters only batting in the .220 range.

Derek Jeter Continues To Lead SS All Star Game Voting

Yankees "Regularly" Scouting Chase Headley

Yankees are scouting Padres 3B Chase Headley regularly, sources tell @Ken_Rosenthal and me.
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) July 1, 2014

It seems like it's been years that Yankees fans have been wanting the team to acquire Chase Headley. And why not? The guy hit  .287/.376/.460 between 2011 and 2012, and even though last year wasn't "great" Headley still had an OPS+ of 115. 

But Chase hasn't been as good in his age 30 season, as his triple-slash is a paltry .201/.289/.322 through 62 games in 2014. So the Yankees would certainly be buying low on the guy, hoping a change of scenery gets him going again. 

Well, I would like to see the Yankees make a move on Headley. For three reasons...

1. Thanks to being a free agent after this season, and hitting so poorly, I don't think it would cost much too trade for Headley. Not only would he be fairly cheap due to how he's hit this season, but the Padres seem to be in rebuilding mode, so probably wouldn't mind shedding nearly $5 million. 

2. Even if Headley continues to struggle this season, it's not as though players like Kelly Johnson, Brian Roberts, and Yangervis Solarte would do much better.

3. I know some people hate BABIP (Batting Average on Balls In Play), but you can't deny the fact that Headley's BABIP is really low. Throughoutt his 8 year career, Chase's BABIP has been .329, but this season it's dropped all the way down to .243. Furthermore, his Line Drive percentage of 27% is higher than it's ever been. So you can make a strong case that Headley's run into a bit of bad luck this season.

4. What better way to see if he can handle things in NY, and possibly help shore things up in the infield in the future, than this audition? 

So while the Yankees could spend less than top talent to trade for Headley, they can make that big splash for a starter. Like I said, it's not like he'd do any worse than what we've already got. So as long as Headley only costs money and a low prospect, then why not?