It may be time to start considering whether the Yankees might want to consider leaving Bartolo Colon out of the playoff rotation. It might have been a meaningless game after they clinched the American League East, but Colon got hit hard once again in a 15-8 loss to the Rays at The Stadium tonight.
Colon was one of the best pitchers in the entire league in the first half of the season as he had a 3.20 ERA, 79 K’s and 22 BB’s in 90 innings. The second half has been a different story as his 38-year-old body has not been able to sustain itself. In his last nine starts he has a 5.09 ERA.
Thursday night he allowed five earned runs over three innings and was hit hard by a weak lineup. They weren’t seeing eye singles either, Ben Zobrist homered, B.J. Upton had an RBI-triple and Evan Longoria had an RBI-double. Scott Proctor was somehow worse than Colon as he allowed three earned runs over one inning including a pair of home runs allowed.
After that the only interesting thing was Andrew Brackman and Dellin Betances making their major league debuts. Brackman was so-so, but he did manage to get out of a bases loaded jam. Betances clearly had some jitters and walked four batters in a fit of wildness.
At least the Red Sox lost some ground in the wild-card race.
Very concerned about Colon and Garcia… Their recent struggles really worries me about our playoff rotation. By now I think Nova has to have sealed up #2, but #3 and #4 will certainly be interesting.