The Kei To Another Loss

(A picture of Kei Igawa from last night)

In what was easily the worst game of the 39 games played this season, at least we all learned something.

Kei Igawa is the worst pitcher in Major League Baseball. Period. End of story.

Maybe the Yankees can actually use that multi-year deal they gave Igawa and have him throw BP to them before games instead of wasting it on the Tigers and other teams during the game.

But you know what, as much as it hurt to watch this game and watch the Yankees fall back under .500 and throw away another game in 2008, this game was necessary for the Yankees front office to finally erase any notion that Kei Igawa can pitch in the Major Leagues.

Not exactly the most worthy of choices to make a start in the bigs with a 3-3 record and 3.86 ERA in AAA, and Wilson Betemit was not the most worthy of choices to start at third base with the Tigers putting out a lineup of only right handed hitters.

Whenever the Tigers made contact against the $20-million man, which they did often, they were just missing monumental blasts and the majority of their outs came in the form of long fly balls and line drives drilled right at Betemit. The hits that did come were in the form of doubles to the gaps and balls drilled down the third base line past a diving Betemit.

Wilson Betemit might have hit a home run to dead center at the Stadium yesterday, but let’s be honest, he isn’t very good, and I am not sure he is helpful on this team. There is a reason why the Dodgers quickly gave him up for even an overused, worn out reliever (Scott Proctor) who’s arm was an appearance or two from actually falling off.

On Friday, Betemit reached base on an infield single that was made possible by a Kenny Rogers miscue off his glove and then was quickly picked off. In his next at bat he hit the ball maybe 17 inches from home plate and was retired with a lob to first. This along with his embarrassing play at third base has to be enough for Alberto Gonzalez to get on a direct flight to Mo-Town tonight.

The Yankees had their chances to get back in the game and even take the lead, but every time they had a rally they killed it via the double play (Hideki Matsui and Derek Jeter) or the ground ball (Wilson Betemit). At least Robinson Cano decided to finally play baseball after taking a month long vacation to begin the season.

Tomorrow is another day and if the Yankees don’t win, well that will just be another series they have lost this year. As of right now, their series record this season is 4-5-3 and they are in serious danger of losing another unless they get strong outings from Darrell Rasner and Andy Pettitte.

It is funny how the Tigers are SO bad, yet they are 4-0 against the Yankees and 25% of their wins have come from the Yankees alone. What’s worse is that Kenny Rogers, who was about as effective in pinstripes as Igawa, can’t beat any team that doesn’t play their home games in the Bronx. Even though Rogers never has a 1-2-3 inning and is constantly looking at two on and one out, he gets out of jams because of the Yankees inability to hit with runners on and runners in scoring position.

Is there any question that Chad Moeller is better than Jose Molina? Sure, Jose is supposedly some defensive whiz, but Moeller isn’t that bad defensively either (except for the constant errors on throws with runners stealing second) and at least he is somewhat of a threat at the plate. If A-Rod is in the lineup then I guess you trade Moeller’s bat for Molina’s defense, but he isn’t and the Yankees can’t score, so it would be wise to try and get whatever offense you can get and put it in the lineup. I can’t believe I am saying that we need Chad Moeller’s bat in the New York Yankees lineup.

Rasner better bring his A-game tomorrow afternoon because well, the Yankees can’t afford anything less.