| Andrew Perna. 10th June, 2011 - 12:11 pm
 The New York Yankees entered the 2011 season with a glaring weakness. They had a lineup full of big names like Rodriguez, Teixeira and Cano, but their starting rotation resembled a make-shift spring training unit.
Over the first two months of the season, that staff was surprisingly effective.
Aside from CC Sabathia, the Yankees have been forced to rely on A.J. Burnett, who struggled with inconsistency in 2010, Freddy Garcia, who averaged 12 starts over the last four seasons, Ivan Nova, a 24-year-old with seven career starts prior to 2011, and Bartolo Colon, who hasn't had more than six wins since 2005.
Garcia, who has replaced the "injured" Phil Hughes as New York's No. 3 starter, was sparkling in April and decent in May, but looked horrible on Tuesday night in his first start in June.
Last season, the right-hander went 12-6 with a 4.64 ERA for the White Sox in a comeback campaign. In the three years prior to that, Garcia made just 23 starts, going 5-10 with an ERA over 5.00.
Garcia was 1-1 with a 2.00 ERA in four appearances in April, including an inning of work in relief against the Red Sox on May 10 in which he allowed a run.
He made six starts in May, going 3-3 with a 3.96 ERA, low enough for a club with an offense that is expected to be explosive. In his three losses the Yankees managed an average of just two runs per game, while he allowed an average of 3.33.
While he has pitched well all season, there is cause for concern after he failed to finish the second inning at Yankee Stadium against Boston on Tuesday night. It was easily his worst start of the season, having never allowed more than four runs or lasted less than five innings this season, but there were indications that he was beginning to struggle.
His completed line against the Red Sox looked like this:
He allowed four runs on four hits and three walks while recording just five outs. He struck out one batter and tossed just 46 pitches before manager Joe Girardi replaced him with Luis Ayala, who got the final out of the second inning with the bases loaded full of men Garcia allowed to get on.
None of Garcia's six starts in May were awful, but he was prone to giving up home runs and got out of numerous jams. He allowed six homers in the same number of starts, while averaging nearly 1.4 base runners per inning. Opponents hit .288 against him and he had double the number of fly ball outs as ground ball ones.
In April, batters hit just .185 against him and he averaged just 1.1 base runners per frame.
While the Yankees certainly need Garcia to take the ball every fifth day with Hughes still on the disabled list and not too many in-house options available, they have to be even more concerned with his numbers against Boston this season.
Including Tuesday night's affair, Garcia, who appeared to have a tired arm, has allowed nine earned runs in just eight innings (two starts and a relief appearance) against the Red Sox this spring.
If you take his numbers against Boston out of the mix, Garcia is 4-3 with an awesome 3.39 ERA this season. |
