D-Rays 5 – Yankees 3
Mel Stottlemyre watched Carl Pavano’s seventh inning unravel yesterday and didn’t sugarcoat the costly frame.
“That was a pitching coach’s nightmare,” Stottlemyre said after Pavano was saddled with a 5-3 matinee loss to the Devil Rays in front of 48,452 fans at Yankee Stadium.
Stottlemyre and Joe Torre said they firmly believed that outside of two mistakes, each clubbed for a home run, Pavano pitched well.
However, the $40 million investment who hasn’t won since May 23 flushed a 2-0 lead in the fourth and a 3-2 advantage in the seventh.
Because the crucial blow in the seventh was delivered by Nick Green, the Devil Rays’ No. 9 hitter, the pain was intense.
“It’s a tough loss,” Torre said after his club fell to 6-3 this season against the last-place Devil Rays. “After [Tuesday night, a 20-11 win] and we had a couple of leads that we couldn’t hold.”
Following a 5-2 loss on June 2 at Kansas City, Pavano deleted bullpen work from his in-between-starts program and has played catch in order to keep his arm fresh. Yesterday, the strategy paid off with fastballs that were clocked up to 94 mph. Yet when it mattered most, Pavano’s location was missing.
“I am looking to pitch,” said Pavano, who refused to admit he had a blister on his middle finger even though Torre and Stottlemyre said he had the digit drained before the fifth inning. “The wins are going to come. I want to pitch better, that’s my focus right now.”
That’s nice to hear, but Pavano hasn’t won in a month, is 4-6 with a 4.69 ERA, and has allowed 120 hits (16 homers) in 94 innings. He started yesterday’s game tied for the AL lead in hits allowed.
His approach to the blister was strange; trainer Steve Donahue and Stottlemyre went to the mound in the fifth.
“They came out there and thought I was moving gingerly,” said Pavano, who gave up five runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings.
Asked about the blister, Pavano said, “I don’t know what they are talking about.”
Staked to a 2-0 lead in the first inning on Gary Sheffield’s third homer in two games, a two-run shot off Scott Kazmir, the Yankees had visions of another hitting orgy after scoring 20 runs and pounding out 23 hits Tuesday evening.
But Kazmir (3-5) held the Yankees long enough for Jonny Gomes to club a two-run, two-out homer in the fourth that tied the score, 2-2.
Robinson Cano’s groundout in the fifth plated Ruben Sierra and put the Yankees ahead, 3-2, but it was the last run Kazmir allowed. In seven innings, the heat-throwing lefty gave up three runs and four hits.
So, even when Pavano plunked Toby Hall to put runners on first and second with two outs in the seventh, Torre and Stottlemyre felt confident Pavano had enough left to get Green. And when Pavano got ahead, 1-2, a home run was the last thought floating through the Yankees’ dugout.
But Pavano wanted to go inside and didn’t get the pitch in far enough.
“My only question is, why did he need to go in?” Stottlemyre said. “He went in and hit Hall.”
Green drove the pitch deep to left, barely out of leaping Ruben Sierra’s reach.
“If they had padding [on the wall] instead of windows maybe I could have gotten my foot on the wall and caught the ball,” Sierra said. “But the glass was right there.”
Providing a window to watch Stottlemyre’s nightmare.
