The long municipal nightmare is over.
A.J. Burnett finally got his first August win as a member of the Yankees on Monday night, ending a 13-start skid featuring all manners of ugly performances. It was his first win on the 2011 season since June 29th and his second win against American League opposition since the end of April.
That's the good news. The bad news is that he didn't actually pitch all that well en route to his streak-busting victory.
Burnett almost let the game get away from him in the fifth inning when he loaded the bases on three straight singles. Melky Cabrera walked to force in a run, Billy Butler singled home two more runners to give the Royals a 3-2 lead and Burnett appeared ready to dive into one of the nightmare innings that have been his calling card since joining the Yankees in 2009.
Salvation came thanks to his teammates, however. Eric Hosmer's hard grounder to second was handled easily by Robinson Cano and the Yankees turned an inning-ending double play that helped them stay close enough to overwhelm the Royals in the sixth inning.
They scored three times in that frame, highlighted by Derek Jeter's two-run triple, and wound up 7-4 winners to draw even with the Red Sox in the AL East. The game ended with Mariano Rivera pitching a scoreless ninth, ending any lingering concern that last week's struggles were a sign that the greatest reliever of all time had permanently lost his way.
Despite the victory, no such concerns about Burnett were alleviated. Outside of the fact that the Yankees escaped that fifth without doing irreparable harm, Burnett was the same pitcher he has been throughout this mediocre season.
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He does fine until there's the slightest bit of pressure applied by the opposition, at which point Burnett folds like a chair in a high school auditorium after a production of South Pacific. Expecting anything more than that at this point in time is a fool's errand, as is making an argument that Burnett is going to lose his job as a result of his performance.
Brian Cashman made it clear with his defensive, factually incorrect rant in support of Burnett last week that the team is committed to the $82 million man through hell or high water. He might not make the postseason rotation, but he isn't going to be a long man or mopup reliever either.
The best anyone can hope for is nights like Monday when the Yankee offense and defense does enough to make Burnett inconsequential in the final reckoning.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.
