Jays give Yankees' Burnett double trouble in fifth
A.J. Burnett can take heart in knowing it can happen to the best of them. Lefty Grove and Herb Pennock once combined for a disastrous inning like the one Burnett had last night, and they both reached the Hall of Fame. Mike Mussina once had an inning like that, and he might get some Hall votes.
Then again, Burnett did allow the Blue Jays an at-bat that was truly historic. The six doubles that Toronto hit in the fifth inning at Yankee Stadium - five of them against Burnett - tied an American League record set by the 1934 Senators (against the Red Sox) and the 2002 Rangers (against the Yankees).
It was just another example of the fact that Burnett is liable to do something memorable, good or bad, any time he goes out there. He is the fitful wind in the Yankees' air of inevitability.
Three starts earlier, he made headlines when he confessed to having cut his hands while slapping a clubhouse door in frustration. Then he had two outstanding outings, a pair of wins in which he allowed no earned runs.
When he was asked if that baffles him, Burnett (9-9) said, "It does. A lot of things baffle me, but you deal with it and move on."
He called last night "a bump in the road" caused by a sinker and curveball that weren't sharp.
"I think I've been good lately because I've been eliminating extra-base hits," he said after the 8-6 loss, marked by the Blue Jays' seven-run fifth.
Burnett didn't get all the way to the end of the inning. He was lifted with two outs after doubles by Travis Snider, Fred Lewis, Jose Bautista, Vernon Wells and Aaron Hill (and a two-run home run by Edwin Encarnacion).
"I'm mad and upset about it and I'm going to work on it," Burnett said. "I'll look at it, see what went wrong and fix it."
Sergio Mitre allowed another double to Snider to put this one in the record book, and put the Yankees behind 8-2.
Grove's and Pennock's Red Sox lost by 8-1 on June 9, 1934, as Heinie Manush and Joe Cronin contributed to the six-double inning. Mussina allowed six doubles in the second inning of a 17-6 Yankees loss July 31, 2002, in Texas. Ivan Rodriguez, Michael Young and Rafael Palmeiro were among the half-dozen double hitters.
One of the few who didn't get a two-base hit that inning was the Texas shortstop, Alex Rodriguez. He hit a home run, No. 277 of his career.
