Igawa's Bad Inning Spoils Chance for a Sweep

Royals 7, Yankees 0

spoil v. 搞糟，糟蹋

KANSAS CITY, Mo., July 26 — When Kei Igawa returned to the Yankees last month, after a stint in the minors, he vowed to use the training methods that made him successful in Japan. That includes sprinting in the outfield before games he starts.

vow n. 誓言(make a vow of) v. 發誓要
sprint v. 衝刺 n. 衝刺


So there was Igawa on Thursday afternoon, in the broiling midsummer heat, zipping across the grass at Kauffman Stadium. It is an unusual practice on the day of a start, at least in the United States, and while Igawa might feel more comfortable, he is not showing it on the mound.

One rocky inning by Igawa doomed the Yankees to a 7-0 loss to the Kansas City Royals. They have won six series in a row but missed a chance at their first sweep in that stretch, stranding nine runners and dropping to seven and a half games behind Boston in the American League East.

doom v. 注定，使...失敗 n. 厄運

Igawa, who gave up four runs in the second inning, will probably drop out of the rotation. Phil Hughes is scheduled to make his final rehabilitation start on Sunday for Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and is on track to rejoin the rotation at home against the Royals on Aug. 4.

“Teasing is better than frustrating,” Manager Joe Torre said of Igawa. “Because you know he's been trying, he's working at it, and he's very serious-minded about what he does. He pitches well enough to think it's coming, but something gets out of whack and he gives up three or four runs.”

whack n. 重擊

The game was Alex Rodriguez's first since belting his 499th career home run on Wednesday, but the Royals gave him few chances to do damage Thursday. Rodriguez was walked intentionally in the first inning and hit by the first pitch he saw in the fifth, both times against Jorge De La Rosa.

belt v. 【俚】猛擊

De La Rosa, who gave up Rodriguez’s 400th home run as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers in 2005, also induced a fly out to center by Rodriguez to lead off the fourth. De La Rosa blanked the Yankees for five and a third innings, allowing six hits and two walks.

induce v. 導致
blank v. 封鎖；變得模糊


Rodriguez came up one more time, in the eighth against Zack Greinke, and grounded out to third base.

Igawa gave up five runs and seven hits — five for extra bases — in five and two-thirds innings. He hit a batter and walked another in the first, but escaped that jam. He was not so lucky in the second.

With two outs, Igawa walked Esteban Germán to face David DeJesus, the batter he hit in the first. DeJesus bashed a two-run double to right to make the score 3-0. After Bobby Abreu overran Mark Grudzielanek’s hit, which went for a triple off the wall, the Royals had a 4-0 edge.

From there, Igawa faced the minimum number of hitters until there were two outs in the sixth, when Gordon tripled and scored on a single by Peña, ending Igawa’s night with a 5-0 deficit. Gordon, the second overall pick in the 2005 draft, later added a home run against Sean Henn.

In some ways, it was a typical Igawa start. He looked good enough in spots to seem like a legitimate major league pitcher. But the overall picture was unsatisfactory, as it almost always is.

Only once in 11 starts has Igawa met the minimum standards for a quality start: at least six innings with no more than three earned runs. He is 2-3 with a 6.79 earned run average, and while the Yankees never projected him higher than a fourth or fifth starter, they expected much better when they invested $46 million in him last winter.

The Yankees’ hitters had chances against De La Rosa (8-10), who entered the game with a 5.61 E.R.A., but their offense sputtered after scoring 63 runs in winning their previous five games.

The Yankees left eight runners in scoring position through the first six innings. Derek Jeter and Abreu both went 0 for 4, with three of their at-bats coming with at least one runner on base.

The Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles will resume their suspended game from June 28 on Friday at 7 p.m., before their regularly scheduled game at Camden Yards. The Yankees lead, 8-6, with two outs in the eighth inning, Derek Jeter on second and Hideki Matsui batting against Chris Ray, who is now on the disabled list. The three Yankees who were not with the team on June 28 — Shelley Duncan, Sean Henn and José Molina — are all eligible to play. ... Catcher Wil Nieves, who was designated for assignment on Sunday, said he has decided to report to Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. In his Yankees’ debut, Molina, who is Nieves’s replacement, went 2 for 4 and threw out a runner trying to steal.

eligible a. 合格的