Game 86: Red Sox Lester shuts out Yankees 7-0

July 4, 2008

By DailySkew

The Boston Red Sox dominated the Yankees in the Bronx, thanks to Jon Lester’s (7-3, 3.21) shutout.

A first inning error by Derek Jeter didn’t help Andy Pettitte (9-6, 4.22), who lasted 4 2/3 innings, giving up 6 runs (5 ER). Dan Giese stopped the bleeding by hurling 2 1/3 HITLESS innings, and showed once again he is a valuable long man. LaTroy Hawkins gave up his standard run, to make the score 7-0. Dave Robertson looked impressive in the 9th.

Anyway, the Yanks couldn’t do anything offensively. Jeter had a bad night with the error, strikeout, and seemed to be ground out to the shortstop for the routine double-play all night; but everyone failed last night.

Joe Girardi called a 30-minute team meeting after the pathetic loss.

Here’s what some people are saying:

Johnny Damon

“You saw the game. It didn’t look like we had a chance. We should have a chance every day we step out on the field. We have to have the mentality that we’re going to win every game. After we got down, it just seemed like there was nothing there.”
“We’re not playing up to our expectations. That’s never good. The Steinbrenners spent $200 million on us and we haven’t shown what we’re made of. I know this is one game and we have 75 games or so left, but we better do something soon. July 31 comes sooner than you know it, and I know a lot of guys here don’t want to go to another team or even be in that conversation. This is a team that’s built to win, to get to the playoffs and to win a championship. By July 31, we better be in a good spot.

“We’re damn lucky to put on these pinstripes. We definitely need to set a better example of what putting on these pinstripes means.”

“When you put the pinstripes on, there’s a lot of pride that goes with it. There’s 55,000 fans out there. There are many media outlets that are going to talk about, ‘How come the Yankees aren’t scoring?’ It’s embarrassing.”

“We had seven innings to try to put something together, and here they are adding a run here and there. Even Varitek, on a 3-1 count with no one out, and them up by five-six runs, swings at a pitch outside just to move the runner. They are playing great team baseball, and we’re not.”

“Being shut out all those times so far this year, it shouldn’t happen. We know Lester is a good pitcher, he did a heck of job, but it shouldn’t matter to us who pitches. This has been going on far too much.”

Derek Jeter on hearing boos

“What were you expecting, cheers? I don’t think the booing was anything out of the ordinary. “I just threw the away, that’s the bottom line. I wish I had something else for you. You can describe it any way you want to describe it. This meeting isn’t for today. This meeting is for how we’ve been playing for the last week. I don’t think today’s game is what caused it. We need to play better. ”
“The bottom line is we haven’t performed that well, besides Wednesday, over the last week or so. You just have to forget about it and come back tomorrow.”

Joe Girardi

“We didn’t hit. We didn’t pitch. We didn’t do anything. I was not happy with the results. We have to start winning a lot of games. …We’re not where we should be and I’m not happy. … We have to get better. … We did not play a good game and it bothered me. Each game that ticks by and you don’t win, you dig yourself a deeper hole. It was terrible. It was just an absolutely horrible game.”

“Every loss, I hate to lose. It bothers me when we lose games. We’re not going to win 162, but we’re not where we should be and I’m not happy and my players aren’t happy. I’ll take responsibility for where we’re at, it’s my job. We’re a much better team than we’ve played.”