In beating Yankees, Sox started at the beginning

The New York Yankees need a setup man, something never more evident than during last night’s 4-3 loss to the Red Sox. Everyone knows that CC Sabathia is a bull, the kind of man virtually immune to pitch counts. But had anyone remotely comparable to the Joba Chamberlain of 2007 been in the New York bullpen last night, he -- and not Sabathia -- would have been on the mound to start the eighth inning at Fenway Park.

For all of the talk about the problems in the New York bullpen this season -- and there are many -- New York’s starters are 0-6 with a 7.04 ERA against Boston this year. That is true despite Sabathia’s strong outing last night. New York relievers let down Sabathia and the rest of the Yankees by failing to preserve the pitcher’s victory in the finale of yet another Red Sox sweep, but starters A.J. Burnett and Chien-Ming Wang did more damage to the Yankees in this series than any Yankees relievers did.

Taking the eight games as an aggregated, here is how the Yankees' starters and relievers have performed in the season series:

STARTERS
              W-L    ERA    IP    H   R   ER   BB   SO   HR   Avg
Red Sox       5-0   3.80  47.1   54  20   20   17   44    6  .283
Yankees       0-6   7.04  38.1   53  35   30   27   35    7  .333

RELIEVERS

              W-L    ERA    IP    H   R   ER   BB   SO   HR   Avg

Red Sox       3-0   3.04  26.2   23  11    9   16   23    4  .237

Yankees       0-2   5.10  30.0   26  20   17   21   30    6  .230

This brings us back to Burnett, in whom the Yankees have more than $80 million invested over the next five years. In two starts against the Red Sox this year, Burnett has allowed 13 hits, 13 runs, eight walks, and three home runs in 7 2/3 innings. He has just four strikeouts. The Sox are batting .382 against him. Burnett had a 6-0 lead against the Sox in April and could not protect it.

Last night, the bullpen failed the Yankees. But overall, New York’s starters have been completely outpitched. The Red Sox have outscored New York by a 36-20 margin in the first six innings this year, by a 19-11 margin thereafter. There is a lot of blame to share ...

... and the manager does not get off the hook, either. Joe Girardi has the utmost faith in Sabathia, for good reason, but the lefty’s pitch count escalated rapidly in the eighth. On a wet mound, no less, Sabathia left up a changeup to Nick Green, then missed badly (albeit on the 10th pitch of the at-bat) to Dustin Pedroia in issuing a walk. That probably should have been it for him. Girardi opted to squeeze out one more batter and have Sabathia face J.D. Drew, who poked a single to center in what may have been the biggest at-bat of the game.

"I thought he still had good stuff,’’ Girardi said of Sabathia.

While that may have been true, it is often interesting to note the things managers do not do in a series, too. For example: Justin Masterson did not see the mound in the three games against New York. Daniel Bard pitched only in Tuesday’s blowout. Masterson and Bard are the only two Boston relievers who have consistent difficulty with lefthanded hitters, many of whom dot the Yankees lineup.

On Wednesday, counting switch-hitters, the Yankees had seven lefthanded batters in the lineup with only Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez batting exclusively from the right side. This year, lefties have batted .313 against Masterson and .333 against Bard, so Francona generally stayed away from those pitchers in any situations of consequence.

Masterson, in particular, was relegated to anchor man status, meaning that Francona held him out as an insurance policy in the event the Red Sox got into an extra-inning game. In that scenario, Masterson would have been the final option because he is capable of throwing more innings than any other reliever in the Boston bullpen. That said ...

Takashi Saito was the key to last night’s game. When Saito entered in the seventh inning, the Yankees had a man on second in the midst of a three-run rally that had given them a 3-1 edge. Saito retired Robinson Cano on a flyout before pitching a scoreless eighth. With Manny Delcarmen out of the game, with Hideki Okajima and Ramon Ramirez unavailable, with Masterson’s and Bard’s difficulties against lefthanders, Francona didn’t have anywhere else to turn.

"He gave us a chance,’’ Francona said of Saito. "I felt like we got backed into a little bit of a corner.’’

Saito now has a string of nine consecutive scoreless outings (covering 9 1/3 innings) during which he has 10 strikeouts. With Jonathan Papelbon having pitched the last two days, Saito’s appearance in the game raises an interesting question about who would close tonight if the Red Sox get into a save situation against the Philadelphia Phillies. Saito has pitched on consecutive days just once all year (April 18-19) while Papelbon has not yet pitched on three consecutive days.

Interestingly, last night’s game marked just the second time all year that Saito and Papelbon have appeared in the same game, the other coming in an extra-inning affair against the Yankees on April 24. This, too, is a reflection of Francona’s ability to handle his pitching staff.

Finally, let’s get back to Drew for a minute. Drew got on base seven times in the series (four hits, three walks) and now has a .526 on-base percentage in eight games as the No. 2 hitter, where he has had a profound impact on the Red Sox offense. One of the biggest at-bats of the series came on Tuesday night, when Burnett had Drew 0-2 with two outs in what was, at the time, a 2-0 game. Burnett should have been out of the inning by then, but an Alex Rodriguez error had extended the Boston inning. Instead of picking up his teammate, Burnett allowed a two-run double that made the score 4-0, a virtually insurmountable deficit with Josh Beckett on the mound.

Burnett was every bit as guilty as Brad Penny was last weekend against Texas, when Julio Lugo failed to at least knock down a ball that might have produced an inning-ending out. Penny had a chance to minimize the damage and cover Lugo’s mistake, but instead allowed a three-run homer to Ian Kinsler.

Lugo got all the blame on that one, but ask yourself this:

Would someone like Curt Schilling have allowed that to happen?