Yankees Postgame notes after another tough loss to Oakland

The Yankees are still 5-3 against Oakland this season, but the last two games hurt. Tuesday they came back from 6-0 down and were within a few feet of a game-winning grand slam. Tonight they had a 2-1 lead in the eighth with C.C. Sabathia pitching. Both times they lost to an inferior club while Boston beat up on Texas.
It is only their third series loss over their last 21.

There’s going to be a lot of anger at Rafael Soriano after he surrendered the deciding home run to Coco Crisp. He hasn't been exactly welcomed in with open arms since he has gotten here.

“It just looked like he left a breaking ball up to Coco and a breaking ball up to Sizemore,” Joe Girardi said. “And they took advantage of it.”

Soriano didn’t help himself by claiming after the game that he hadn’t picked up on any hitting patterns on either hitter.

“I never think about the hitters, what they’re going to do,” he said through a translator. “I just try and pitch my game.”

He said he didn’t feel any tightness from not pitching in a week.

After his last start, Sabathia said he was just slinging the ball, not really pitching it. That wasn’t the case today.

“I felt great tonight,’ he said. “I wasn’t so strong, my mechanics was good, I was throwing the ball where I wanted to. It just didn’t work out.”
He felt no ill effects of being in a six-man rotation.

By making his 350th start tonight, he became the youngest to do so since Vida Blue in 1980. CC is 31 years, 34 days old.  He is a true ace and a workhourse.

 Crisp and Scott Sizemore probably both had the best batting days of their lives today. Sizemore was 4 for 4, his first career four-hit game. Crisp was also 4 for 4, with two home runs, a career-high five RBI, and a walk.

 Although Bartolo Colon insisted last night that he feels no effects of his high workload, Brian Cashman said today that it’s definitely something he’s aware of.  It has to be since he hasn't done it in so long.

“He’s been a godsend for us no doubt about it, ” Cashman said. “But how the back end of those innings are going to affect him, it’s fair to speculate based on how he’s performed.”

Colon is at 131 innings, more than he’s thrown since 2005 and more than the last three seasons combined.

Derek Jeter stands 21st on the all-time hit list, tied with Rickey Henderson. He needs five more for 3,060, the number held by Astro great Craig Biggio. Two hits tonight gave him a .490 average over his last 12 games.

 Mark Teixiera hit his 35th home run, tying him with Curtis Granderson for second in the majors behind Toronto’s Jose Bautista.

 Nick Swisher has 16 home runs over his last 75 games after hitting two in his first 46 games.  Robinson Cano extended his hitting streak to 15 games.