Yankees 5, Astros 1 (14 innings)
W: Daley (1-0)
L: Harrell (6-17)
At least the dupes who paid the onerous Premium Game prices got to see extra innings, and got a Mariano Rivera monologue before the game, but a Yankee B squad bereft of almost any player you’d care to turn your head to see prevailed over the best mighty Houston could offer. That “best” included four hits in 46 at-bats, two walks, and the real icing on the cake, 19 strikeouts.
It wasn’t all a waltz in the lower chamber of the outhouse. Bedard went seven and only allowed three hits while fanning nine. Otherwise, it’s brown stains all around. Harrell went four teasing innings before blowing up, dropping to a ghastly 6-17 on the year.
That 19 strikeouts earned the Astros another thorn in their crown, or another dingleball on their jester’s hat, and not just because it represented the new record for strikeouts by a team in a season. No, this is worse because the previous recordholders were NL teams. The NL, where the pitcher bats and strikes out more than 30% of a team’s overall number. This was done by a team full of shitty hitters. Shitty hitters who would make a scat lover’s convention reach for the Charmin.
There’s plenty more in the 2013 Litany of Shame. Ending with a 15 game losing streak. Successively worse W/L records over the last three years, all of which were team records for futility. The embarrassing and potentially crippling explosive diarrhea that is the TV rights debacle. There is so much more but we all have a good, if slippery handle on what’s backing up from the septic tank.
They’ve run off tens of thousands of fans, placing their hopes that winning on down the line will bring new ones. That’s most likely true, but they’re going to have to turn that minor league system into major league baseball players and at a rate better than usual. They won’t be able to sustain losing over many more years if the washout rate is average.
What an embarrassing time to be a Texas sports fan. If all you can celebrate is Aggie football, Texas women’s volleyball and making it to a play-in game for the right to play in another play-in game, it’s time to put Old Yeller out of his misery.
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I want to thank that fantastic group of recappers – NeilT, Mr. Happy, Reuben, Sphinx Drummond and BudGirl – who worked hard under some awful circumstances to not only follow the team but to bring individuality, intelligence and humor to their coverage. I’m very grateful to them all for the work and dedication they showed and I can’t possibly thank them enough. It’s important to the site to have daily content about the games, and their work was exemplary.
Adios, 2013. I hope next year is an improvement.