Yankees Go Cold in Hot-lanta

Written by: Drew Sarver on 23rd June 2009

Yankees Go Cold in Hot-lanta | read this item

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
NY Yankees	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	1
Atlanta	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	1	X	4	7	1

WP – Hanson (3-0) LP – Wang (0-6)

The Yankees hitting woes continued tonight, as the punch-less Bombers dropped the opener of their 3-game series with the Atlanta Braves, 4-0. New York had a number of opportunities in the early innings against Braves rookie starter Tommy Hanson, but couldn’t manage to come up with a clutch hit. Hanson and the Braves bullpen didn’t allow a hit over the final 3 2-3 innings.

Chien-Ming Wang continued his improvement, but was tagged for three runs in the 3rd inning and the loss. After a pair of strikeouts to start the frame, Wang gave up a single to Yuniel Escobar and walked Chipper Jones. Brian McCann followed with an RBI double and Garrett Anderson brought home two more runs with a double of his own.

The Yankees loaded the bases without the aid of a hit in the 2nd inning, but Wang grounded out to end the inning. Derek Jeter led off the 3rd with a double, but he and Mark Teixeira were stranded when Alex Rodriguez struck out and Robinson Cano flied out.

The Yankees had a huge chance in the third thanks to a Braves error. Melky Cabrera reached on a 1-out double and mistakenly took off for third base on Brett Gardner’s grounder to the left side. But Chipper Jones dropped Escobar’s toss for an error and everyone was safe. The Yankees though had the misfortune of having Wang come up in a key situation. He successfully sacrificed Gardner to second, but after a walk toJeter loaded the bases, Hanson retired Nick Swisher on a force out to escape trouble.

The Yankees last gasp came in the 6th when they loaded the bases with one out, but reliever Pete Moylan got Jeter to bounce into an inning ending double play.

The Braves tacked on a run in the 9th when McCann took David Robertson deep for his 7th home run of the season.

Game Notes

Phil Hughes retired all six batters he faced in a two inning relief stint. Hughes has allowed 2 earned runs out of the pen in 10.2 innings. He’s also struck out 14 batters.

CC Sabathia will throw a bullpen session on Wednesday to determine if he can make his scheduled start against the Mets on Friday.

Alex Rodriguez is in a 4-42 (.095) slump.

The Yankees stole four bases in the game, including Brett Gardner’s 16th in 17 tries, and Mark Teixeira’s first.

Jorge Posada hit, or I should say, “didn’t hit” for the Golden Sombrero. 3 of his 4 strikeouts came against Hanson.

The Yankees-Braves series continues on Wednesday with Joba Chamberlain facing Japanese rookie Kenshin Kawakami.

As expected, the Yankees protest of Sunday’s 6-5 loss to the Florida Marlins was denied by the MLB front office.

Topics: Alex Rodriguez, Atlanta Braves, brian mccann, chien-ming wang, chipper jones, Derek Jeter, Interleague Play, Phil Hughes, tommy hanson, Yankees 6/23 recap, Yankees vs. Braves