With Rafael Soriano and left fielder Ichiro Suzuki combining to bail him out of an eighth-inning jam, David Robertson didn’t take his fourth loss in his last 10 appearances today in the first game of a doubleheader against the Blue Jays. He came pretty close, though.
Robertson gave up hits to four of the six batters he faced and allowed two runs while getting two outs today. His struggles forced the Yankees to bring in their closer in the eighth, something they certainly didn’t want to do in the first of two games on the day.
Now they’ll enter the second game versus Toronto with their closer having already thrown 23 pitches today and the setup man 26, making one wonder how they might deal with a late lead should one arise.
Robertson, who is 1-7 on the year, has allowed seven runs in nine innings this month. On the plus side, it’s not due to walks, which were an early career problem for him. In fact, he has an 11/0 K/BB ratio in September. He also has a fine 2.98 ERA for the season. He is getting hit, though. He’s given up five homers and 50 hits in 54 1/3 innings this season. Last year, he allowed one homer and 40 hits in 66 2/3 innings.
Yankees pitchers are pretty much conditioned to go seven innings a start. In fact, Yankees starters have recorded a total of one out after the seventh inning this month (Phil Hughes went 7 1/3 innings against Boston last week). Robertson is going to be a very important piece in any deep run into the postseason. Nothing in the way he’s throwing suggests that he can’t bounce back, but if he doesn’t, the Bombers are going to have problems.