New York @ Los Angeles preview
Dodger Stadium
Last Meeting ( Jun 25, 2010 ) NY Yankees 2, LA Dodgers 1
A.J. Burnett is one of those pitchers that can look oh-so-good when he’s on his game. Then there are times when the New York Yankees pitcher is oh-so-bad.
Burnett is currently 0-4 over his last four outings and causing many fans in the stands to yell, "Oh, watch out", as home run balls fly over the fence with regularity.
The right-hander, who has allowed nine homers in 20 innings during his recent rough stretch, hopes for better results when he takes the mound Saturday against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Burnett’s performance has been so horrific in June that the Yankees suspect he’s tipping his pitches. Burnett himself surmised that a mechanical flaw might be the cause for why he’s been so easy to hit lately.
Whatever the reason, New York needs to get Burnett back on the beam.
Burnett was 6-2 with a 3.28 ERA when the month began, but he is allowing 23 earned runs in his last four starts and has seen his ERA rise to 4.83.
Burnett has allowed three homers in two of the four starts and two in another. One of the three-homer outings occurred in his most-recent start when the Arizona Diamondbacks roughed him up for seven runs and nine hits in four innings.
Philadelphia scored six runs off him in 3 1/3 innings, hapless Baltimore tallied four runs in 6 2/3 innings and Toronto homered three times while scoring six runs in six innings in Burnett’s other June starts.
Burnett has made seven career starts against the Dodgers, compiling a 3-2 record and 2.45 ERA.
Hiroki Kuroda starts for the Dodgers and he’s recorded just one victory in his last six starts.
However, Kuroda’s pitching hasn’t been that bad. He has allowed just two earned runs in his last 19 innings but went 1-1 during that span.
A prime example was his last start against the Boston Red Sox. He struck out nine and allowed just two runs and six hits in seven innings at Fenway Park but the Dodgers were blanked, 2-0.
Overall, Kuroda is 6-5 with a 3.06 ERA.
The Yankees won Friday’s opening contest 2-1 with Alex Rodriguez hitting a tiebreaking homer in the sixth inning and CC Sabathia and Mariano Rivera combining on a four-hitter.
The victory was the fifth in six games for New York, while Los Angeles has lost seven of eight.
The Dodgers are just 3-10 in interleague play this season with two games remaining. Friday’s game marked Joe Torre’s first as manager against the Yankees, the team he guided to four World Series titles between 1996 and 2000.
In a roster move, the Dodgers designated knuckleballer Charlie Haeger for assignment Friday.