Yanks lose opener to Rockies and Giambi 4-2

By Jose “Pepitone” Reyes

Yes that’s Giambi in the image above, he’s still hitting them out. Burnett pitched good enough to win but the Yankee offense could not get a hold of Jimenez. Take a look at the scoreboard:

As you can see, the Rockies scored one run in four  consecutive innings. Yanks only mustered 5 hits and were shutdown after the 3rd inning. Is there anything else i could add but we didn’t get it done. Yanks lose!

MLB.com (Colorado recap):

NEW YORK — With the power and precision of a 96-mph fastball to strike out the Yankees’ Brett Gardner on his final pitch Friday night, Ubaldo Jimenez closed a worrisome storyline and began a new chapter for himself and the Rockies.

After overcoming a 21-pitch first inning in which he walked two and gave up a run, Jimenez lasted seven innings and struck out seven while leading a 4-2 victory over the Yankees before 46,028 at Yankee Stadium.

Jason Giambi, still loved in New York, homered on a three-hit night, and Troy Tulowitzki, who plays in the Big Apple like he loves the place, also went deep as the Rockies won for the seventh time in nine games and pushed back above .500 at 38-37, four games behind the National League West-leading D-backs. The Rockies are 5-2 in Interleague Play this season.

But the night belonged to Jimenez (3-7), who began the year struggling through injuries and a loss of velocity and command, but has been mostly solid this month (3-2, 2.43 ERA in five starts).

Jimenez’s 2010 form, which helped him go 19-8 with a 2.88 ERA and finish third in the National League Cy Young Award voting, seems clearly on the way.

Let the finishing fastball to Gardner serve as fair warning.

“I put everything I had in that pitch,” Jimenez said smiling. “I let it go. Just take a deep breath and throw everything you have.

“I think [the rough start] is gone. I feel completely comfortable, confident that every time I go out there I’m going to give my team a chance to win. That’s how I felt last year. At the beginning of the year, I had a little doubt in my mind.”

The victory gave Jimenez wins in consecutive starts for the first time since last July 29 and Aug. 4. Most of the final couple of months of last year was plagued by lack of run support or untimely mistakes by his fielders or bullpen. His record this year would be better if run support had been greater.

But ace pitchers must overcome his team’s imperfections. Jimenez did that Friday night. Twice the Rockies loaded the bases against teetering Yankees starter A.J. Burnett (7-6), but produced just one run in each of those frames.

“For [Jimenez] to be as good as he was, he almost had to be,” Rockies manager Jim Tracy said.

The Yankees’ Nick Swisher, however, said it wasn’t the monster Jimenez that he’d heard so much about last year.

“I mean his velocity’s down — he’s not throwing 97, 99 anymore,” Swisher said. “He’s throwing his fastball anywhere from 89 to 95, 96. So like I said, he just had good location today changing speeds, really was working his split and his changeup.”….Read More

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