The Al Leiter Battle for ERA Qualification (7/18-7/24)

That look on Al's face kind of says it all. For this week Al came down from the giddy high that was his first Yankee start. Let's examine this start and it's repercussions on Al's quest to pitch 162 innings. For this is a feature ...

in which we track the 39 year-old YANKEE lefty in his quest for 162 Innings Pitched.

Innings Pitched: 92.1

Yankee Games: 97

Qualifies: No? (-4.2 innings)

It's always a bad sign when Blogger forces us to double space when we do not wish to double space. An omen, a harbinger of disappointing information to come.

For Al does not qualify for the Major League ERA title, for the ninth straight week. His most recent start, and second for the Yankees, was on Friday night vs. the Angels. Everyone was anxious to see if Al would retain the dominating stuff he possessed vs. the Red Sox the previous Sunday. It was not to be. Al got hit around quite a bit, yielding six runs on 10 hits over six innings of work. He was the losing pitcher in a 6-3 ballgame, dropping to 1-1 with the Yanks and 4-8 on the year. His A.L. ERA rose to 5.11, overall it stands at 6.43.

Second Inning Update: And wouldn't you know it, the second inning was what killed Al in his start on Friday. He let up four runs in this frame. Here's how the inning went, if you were scorong at home: 1B, F8, 1B, BB, 1B (scoring two), 1B (scoring two, the second a result of Al's throwing error), F7, 6-3.

Whew! The curse of the second inning returns for Al. He can not escape it, no matter what uniform he dons. He has now allowed four of his seven Yankee runs in the second inning (57%), and 31 of 68 overall ( 46%). This is freakish.

Al will get another chance with Yanks on Wednesday. If he reliably gets the ball every five days for the rest of the year, he'll get to 162 innings pitched. It would be just great if that could happen. But Al is on a short leash, one or two more bad starts and he could be tossed aside like so many rosin bags.

Al, take one game at a time, and hang in there. Everyone else: ROOT FOR HIM!

Remember: You can't spell Al Leiter without ERA!