Road trip report: Royals, Rays, and Rival Red Sox

The outcome of the Yankees’ first road trip of the season wasn’t spectacular, but it was pretty good considering the circumstances.  Four wins, four losses, a boat full of injuries, a few rain delays, a whole lot of runners left on base, and a few signs of life for the offense made for an interesting eight games in three cities.  Starting off 0-2 in cold and rainy conditions in Kansas City was a dreary start, but a solid outing by Pettitte and some sparks off the bat save the sweep.  CMW pitched a two-hitter to start off the series in Boston, but the Yankees dropped the next two before departing Fenway for warmer weather and took two from the Rays in a two game series.

The offense scored 33 runs, including being shut out by Zack Greinke on game two of the trip, for an average of 4 and an eighth each game.  They’ve scored 56 over their first fifteen for an average of 3.733.  The real story is the failure of the Yankees to hit with runners in position to score – .205 average and only 32 runs in 117 at-bats.  Some of this could be attributed to the weather, at least until last night in Tampa when the Yankees were 0-3 with the bases loaded in the dome in Tampa.

Injuries have also taken their toll, but not as strongly as they could have.  Posada and Jeter have both missed several games, but backups Jose Molina and Alberto Gonzalez (brought in from AAA) have performed admirably in their absence, at least until Molina got hurt himself in the last game against Boston.  Even back-up back-up Chad Moeller had a key hit and run scored in the first game at Tampa Monday.  Jeter has returned to the line-up and is 5-9 in two games.  Posada has hit in the DH slot but still isn’t quite ready to man the plate as he tends to a shoulder strain.  Molina is still day to day, but could be back within a few days.

Pitching has varied from awful to amazing, with Kennedy and Hughes falling into the former while Wang, Joba, and Mo hold down the latter.  Kennedy did bounce back from a sloppy start and rain-induced relief appearance with a solid start in Tampa, but Hughes had two rotten outings after his dominating in his first start of the season.  Mussina and Pettitte have pitched somewhere in the middle, both having solid outings but neither stellar.  The bullpen has mostly done a good job, only really blowing one game and coming close once.  The first was Hawkins and Farnsworth, the second was Traber and Bruney.  Good performances from those two and Ross Ohlendorf have made the bullpen an asset instead of a liability, with Joba and Mo locking down the 8th and 9th in close games.

The outlook for the season is pretty sunny.  Aside from the poor batting average with RISP, the offense is showing signs of life.  The pitching has shown power (Wang, Joba, Mo), persistence (Pettitte, Mussina), and promise (IPK, Hughes, Ohlendorf, Traber, Bruney).  Defensively, the team has looked pretty solid, even with all of the pre-season worries about first base.  Baby, we got the tools – let’s see how GI Joe plays them.

Next up is a two game home “stretch” (more like brief visit) versus Boston.