Ready For The Second Half

Although the Yankees lost last night, there was a big bright spot for the Yankees as Bartolo Colon pitched into the 7^th inning and looked like his old self again becoming more dominant as the game progressed.  Coming off two terrible outings where he allowed 13 runs over 6 innings, Colon needed to show the team that he still had his mojo and that is exactly what he did. 

Colon allowed only 5 hits over the 6.1 innings he pitched last night.  More impressive was his season high 9 strikeouts! Colon used more of a mix of pitches than he has in the past.  Last night he relied more on his 4 seam fastball which was topping out at 94 mph.  Colon also mixed more changeups and sliders than we have seen before, but his 2 seamer was again a great weapon against the Tampa lineup as the movement befuddled most hitters limiting them to 5 hits.  He was pulled in the 7^th inning when Boone Logan came into the game.  Although Logan pitched well, the Yankees defense and some bizarre errors caused mainly by a crappy Tropicana Field allowed the Rays to claim the lead in the 7^th for the win.

Even with the loss, the Yankees should be happy as Bartolo Colon showed his worth.  I think we can look back at Colon’s past two starts as unfortunate consequences from an injury rather than a systematic problem with the rotation.  Colon showed absolutely no issues with his hamstring and didn’t require any treatment on his legs following the game.  He seems to have gotten the injury issues out of his head, and is ready for the second half.  The Yankees will still have to monitor his progress in the future as he is pitching more innings than he has in the past 5 years and will have to monitor his defense as he was not tested by Tampa yesterday, but I think it’s fair to say the Yankees can count on Colon.

You can read more about Colon's innings issue from yesterday's blog post  HERE

You can read more about Colon's poor start following his return from the DL HERE