DEL.ICIO.USMajor League Baseball
A-Rod, Yankees rock Lowe, Braves
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Braves scored five runs in the fourth inning Thursday night — and got only within two runs of the New York Yankees.
That said plenty about the depth of the hole that Braves starter Derek Lowe put his team in during an ugly 11-7 loss in the series finale against the Yankees at soldout Turner Field.
Derek Jeter had four hits and reached base six times, and Johnny Damon and Alex Rodriguez had three hits and four RBIs apiece for the Yankees, who handed the Braves their 10th loss in 16 games and fourth consecutive series defeat.
A crowd of 47,508 saw Lowe (7-6) give up eight runs (six earned), 11 hits and three walks and leave without an out in the fourth inning. It was his second alarmingly poor start in 12 days.
“Terrible, three in a row,” said Lowe, who is 0-3 with a 12.34 ERA in his past three starts, including a quality start Saturday at Boston against Josh Beckett.
“Especially after yesterday’s game, when our starter goes three innings,” he said, referring to Kenshin Kawakami’s exit Wednesday after being hit by a line drive. “Today was just a debacle. We’ve got a chance to win a series for the first time in a long time, and I go out and get shelled for the second time in three starts.”
Things don’t get any easier for the Braves, whose homestand continues with a three-game series against American League East-leader Boston that starts tonight with another game against Beckett, who threw a five-hit shutout Saturday.
They’ll finish the homestand against National League East-leader Philadelphia, which lost again Thursday — the Phillies have dropped 10 of 12 — to keep the Braves within four games of the division lead in spite of it all.
“That’s what’s frustrating, we could be two games back, and we haven’t taken advantage of opportunities,” said Jeff Francoeur, one of four Braves with two hits. “We’ve got to turn the page because we’ve got Beckett coming to town.”
In a June 14 loss at Baltimore, Lowe was charged with eight hits, seven runs and three walks in 2-1/3 innings. Thursday’s outing made it twice in three starts that he has failed to record more than nine outs or even one strikeout.
“Derek just didn’t have his normal sinker,” said Braves manager Bobby Cox, who called it the “same outing” as Lowe’s start at Baltimore. “Sometimes it doesn’t sink. For whatever reason, it doesn’t happen.”
Lowe is 1-4 with a 9.37 ERA in his past six starts, after going 6-2 with a 3.45 ERA in his first 10. He said it’s not just his sinker, but also an inability to command off-speed pitches that undermined him against Baltimore and New York.
He said he’ll work and study in the next four or five days to figure out what he’s doing differently than 2008 when he was pitching well for the Dodgers.
Lowe is 8-11 with a 6.41 ERA in 40 games (16 starts) against the Yankees, including 6-6 with a 6.02 ERA since the former Red Sox starter and closer moved back to the starting rotation in 2002.
Francoeur was pleased to see the Braves not lay down after falling behind 8-1 through 3-1/2 innings. But they stranded eight runners in the first five innings, failing to take advantage of Yankee mistakes in any inning except the fourth, when they sent 10 batters to the plate against Andy Pettitte, who was charged with six runs (three earned) in 3-2/3 innings.
Brian McCann left five runners on base before hitting a solo homer in the ninth, when the Braves trailed 11-6.
The Braves had four hits in the five-run fourth, including Casey Kotchman’s two-run double and Yunel Escobar’s sharp two-out, two-run single off the glove of first baseman Mark Teixeira.
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