Yanks starter Vazquez get the boos but not the loss

The Yankees can outlast and overcome just about any pitcher, such as White Sox starter John Danks, who came in unbeaten and left after five withering innings and 118 pitches. They just couldn't totally undo what Javier Vazquez, their own starter, had done.

Vazquez was not the pitcher of record in the Yankees' 7-6 loss at the Stadium Saturday. His club spared him that as it recovered from his 5-1 deficit to take a 6-5 lead. Still, he was the pitcher of note, the one who set an ominous tone and who appeared to be getting worse rather than better after his troubling early season.

He was booed heartily as he left in the fourth inning, having allowed three home runs. Eventually, the losing pitcher was Dave Robertson and the decisive hit was given up by Damaso Marte. But it was Vazquez (1-4) who took the air out of the game.

The righthanded starter can be sure it is going to be an eventful day when he pitches at Yankee Stadium. Either he is going to meander his way through the early innings and get booed or he is going to pitch really well and make himself into a nice, positive story.

But his start Saturday was extra interesting from the get-go. There were catcalls in the top of the first after Andruw Jones hit a home run just over the leftfield fence. An objective observer could aim the boos toward whoever didn't chuck the ball back onto the field right away.

Then events took a turn for the worse, and nastier, direction in the second. Vazquez walked Carlos Quentin and allowed an infield hit to A.J. Pierzynski, as Robinson Cano's typically smooth throw made it close, but pulled Mark Teixeira off the base. With the count 2-and-0 on Mark Kotsay, Joe Girardi raced from the dugout to the mound and appeared to be challenging Vazquez, face to face, from close range. It didn't help. Kotsay walked. Fans booed.

Lucky for Vazquez that Juan Pierre chose to swing at the first pitch and popped out to short. Omar Vizquel drove home a run with a sacrifice fly, but the inning ended when Teixeira cut off the throw and caught Pierzynski between second and third.

Vazquez didn't get to the mound directly for the third. He was stopped by the umpires, who summoned Girardi. They apparently found something wrong with the pitcher's glove. So the game was delayed while he went in and got a new one. Two batters later, Jones hit another homer. More boos came, and louder.

It had been clear even before the game that the Yankees were going to let Vazquez work his way out of this without kid-glove treatment. "I think you can talk to him before and you can try to take that away from him, but when you're out there, you're out there," Girardi said Saturday morning. "That's the nature of the game. You can try to relax in the situation and do what you can, but it doesn't really change anything. You're still in the situation and it's up to you to get through it."

Not Saturday. There was no getting through it for Vazquez. It grew much worse in the fourth, when he allowed another infield hit to Pierzynski and then a two-run shot to the rightfield seats by Kotsay, who happened to be batting .108 at the time. Boos louder and longer this time.

More boos after a four-pitch walk to Juan Pierre and even more on a bloop single by Vizquel. Girardi was cheered when he finally came out to remove his starting pitcher, who walked slowly to the dugout under a torrent of Bronx cheers.

On the other side of the eclipse, there is Teixeira, who entered with a .136 average then hit two singles in his first two times up.

Curtis Granderson had a more painful day than Vazquez. He was injured as he rounded second on Brett Gardner's single in the sixth and limped badly into third. He was lifted with what the Yankees called a left groin strain. He was headed to Columbia Presbyterian for an MRI.

By the end of that half-inning, though, the Yankees had put that hiccup and Vazquez' nightmare behind them. Having outlasted White Sox unbeaten starter Danks, who did pretty well in allowing two runs in five innings but threw 118 pitches, the Yanks leveled Scott Linebrink. Nick Swisher's two-run home run to right in the sixth put the Yankees ahead, 6-5.

That did not last long. Robertson gave up a double to Paul Konerko, then Girardi ordered an intentional walk to Carlos Quentin and brought in Marte to face Pierzynski. It all backfired. Pierzynski hit a two-run double to left-center, giving the White Sox a 7-6 lead that was protected by J.J. Putz and Bobby Jenks. The latter secured his fifth save by retiring Cano with the tying run on first and two outs in the ninth.