The Yankees lost to the Orioles today, by a score of 4-0.  This made me wonder:  How many games have the Yankees lost this season, to date, where their pitchers have held their opponent to 4 earned runs or less? 

Using the Baseball-Reference.com Play Index Team Pitching Game Finder, and setting it for "For 2007, Playing for NYY, Team Lost, (requiring ER<=4)" shows us that this has happened 14 times (this season, to date) prior to this evening.  

  Cnt Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt  IP   H  R ER BB SO HR Pit Str IR IS  BF  AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk Ptchrs   ERA

+----+-------------+---+----+-------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+------+------+

    1 2007-06-26    NYY  BAL L  2-3   8.1 10  3  3  8  3  0 153  90  0  0  40  31  1  0   0   0  1  0   1  2  1  0      3   3.24

    2 2007-06-21    NYY  COL L  3-4   8   10  4  4  3  8  2 154  93  3  1  37  32  1  0   0   1  0  1   0  2  1  0      5   4.50

    3 2007-06-19    NYY  COL L  1-3   8    8  3  3  4  7  1 136  90  3  0  36  30  0  0   0   1  1  0   1  2  0  0      4   3.38

    4 2007-06-15    NYY  NYM L  0-2   9    7  2  2  3  9  1 143  88  1  0  35  32  0  0   0   0  0  0   0  5  2  0      4   2.00

    5 2007-05-29    NYY  TOR L  2-3   8    6  3  1  1  3  0 114  73  1  1  29  25  1  0   0   0  2  1   2  2  0  0      2   1.12

    6 2007-05-27    NYY  LAA L  3-4   9    8  4  4  4  8  0 148  94  4  2  36  30  1  0   0   1  0  1   1  0  2  0      4   4.00

    7 2007-05-26    NYY  LAA L  1-3   9    6  3  3  4  7  0 118  78  0  0  36  32  2  1   1   0  0  0   1  0  0  0      2   3.00

    8 2007-05-18    NYY  NYM L  2-3   8    5  3  3  1  6  1 101  64  0  0  29  27  2  0   0   0  0  1   1  0  0  0      2   3.38

    9 2007-05-17    NYY  CHW L  1-4   8    7  4  4  6  4  1 144  87  3  1  36  26  2  0   1   1  1  1   2  2  1  0      4   4.50

   10 2007-05-13    NYY  SEA L  1-2   8    9  2  2  2  2  0 109  69  1  0  33  30  1  0   0   0  0  1   2  0  1  0      2   2.25

   11 2007-05-11    NYY  SEA L  0-3   8    8  3  3  4  2  1 118  75  0  0  35  31  3  0   0   0  0  0   0  2  1  0      3   3.38

   12 2007-05-07    NYY  SEA L  2-3   9    6  3  3  3  1  1 111  71  0  0  35  32  1  0   0   0  0  0   1  2  0  0      3   3.00

   13 2007-04-15    NYY  OAK L  4-5   8.2  8  5  4  2  6  1 132  85  0  0  36  33  1  1   0   0  0  1   1  1  0  0      3   4.15

   14 2007-04-13    NYY  OAK L  4-5  10.1  7  5  4  6  6  2 196 111  0  0  48  39  1  1   2   2  1  0   0  0  0  0      6   3.48

Of these 15 losses (including tonight to bring it to 15), there are 9 games where the Yankees lost the game by one-run.

Let's take the 9 and the 15 and use an average of the two.   That's 12 games.  Using this, it's not a reach to say that there are 12 games that the Yankees have lost this season, so far, that could have been wins if their reported offense had decided to show up that day.

Make those 12 losses into 12 wins.  That would change the Yankees record this season to 48-17 (instead of 36-39).  A record of 48-17 would put the Yankees in first place now, in the A.L. East - one game ahead of the Boston Red Sox.

If Yankees fans want to know why their team is having issues this season, it's because of their batters, not their pitchers.  Blame Cano, Matsui, Damon, Cabrera, Abreu and the cast of thousands who have played first base for the Yankees this season.  Blame Giambi for getting hurt - again. 

If some of these guys were having better seasons with the sticks, then perhaps life in Yankeeland would be a little sweeter these days.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 9:52 pm and is filed under Game Finders. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.