On May 19th, Brad Bergesen took the mound at Yankee Stadium. His record was 1-1 and his ERA 5.27.
For most of the night, Bergesen dueled with CC Sabathia pitch for pitch. When he left in the 7th he was trailing by just 2-1. Two of his inherited runners would score and his final line showed four runs allowed over 6 1/3 and his ERA increased to 5.35.
But that may have been Bergesen's breakout game. He showed he could go pitch for pitch with the Yankees' ace in New York.
Since that night, Bergesen is 5-3, 2.83 over 12 starts.
This past Monday, David Hernandez gave up just three hits and one run in six innings in the same park. He followed up that outing at Yankee Stadium with a brilliant seven innings Sunday at Fenway Park.
The two rookie pitchers have this in common - their solid outings on one of baseball's biggest stages could propel them to even better days.
Hernandez is 2-0, 2.45 over his last four starts. They were all on the road at Los Angeles, Seattle, New York and Boston. Now that's a fearsome foursome.
We found out about Bergy on May 19th and about Hernandez last Monday. If you can make it in New York you can make it anywhere.
If Jeremy Guthrie could somehow return to form and Chris Tillman can come up and pitch to form, this rotation could finally look decent.
To me, for Bergy and Hernandez it all started in the place that replaced that House That Ruth Built.
By accepting you will be accessing a service provided by a third-party external to https://www.masnsports.com/