They are in a flatfooted tie for the best record in baseball following two straight defeats, which also happens to mean that the Yankees also are tied for their division lead with the Rays.
And flatfooted isnt exactly the best way to run a three-into-one-won’t-go race to the playoffs with Tampa Bay and Boston, now is it?
It was 3-1 for the Tigers in The Bronx last night behind Max Scherzer a day after it was 2-0 for the Royals in Kansas City behind Bryan Bullington. The Yankees not only are slumping and swinging tired bats, 6-9 in their last 15, they’re older and they’re wounded at the top of this elongated stretch, and the list of the injured starts with Alex Rodriguez.
A-Rod left last night’s game with a left calf issue following his fourth-inning at bat. Manager Joe Girardi didnt seem overly concerned in the immediate aftermath of the game that ended with Derek Jeter bouncing into a bases-loaded double play, but the calf isn’t that far removed from the groin that sidelined A-Rod for four games in June, and the groin isnt all that far removed from the hip that required surgery in March of 2009.
Not that there are many facsimiles for Rodriguez, even the 2010 version, but with a lineup that doesnt quite seem so deep as projected with Jeters ongoing issues at the top of the order, Robinson Cano’s 12-for-52 August in the five-spot, and Brett Gardner’s 8-for-42 August at the bottom, the Yankees can barely support Roberto Pena’s bat as A-Rods replacement at third.
In baseball, the ball always seems to be hit to the weakest link just inserted into the field. In The Bronx, GM Brian Cashman was able to import replacement parts for offseason mistakes at the July 31 deadline in Lance Berkman (DH, first base), Austin Kearns (left field) and Kerry Wood (bullpen set-up man), but he could not acquire the utility infielder with some pop the team had sought.
Now that may become an issue, especially with Berkman down for the time being with an ankle injury and with Nick Swisher forced out of last night’s game with an unspecified right elbow ailment.
A waiver trade, anyone?
Javier Vazquez required 106 pitches to get through four innings, though he did somehow limit the Tigers to two runs despite allowing eight of the first 14 batters to reach base. His issues 0-2 in his last four starts with a 6.75 ERA in 20 innings combined with Andy Pettitte’s lingering groin problems, combined with the specter of Phil Hughes innings limit presents another challenge for the Yankees, who were carried through the first four months of the season by their rotation.
But now that the pitching has hit a speed bump and the Yankees need their bats to do some talking, the club has been largely mum offensively 11 games into during a stretch in which the club is playing 20 straight days and 33 of 34 into Sept. 8.
“Sometimes you have to give credit to the pitchers, but we have to find a way to score some runs,” said Jeter, who also hit into a DP in the third.
“We need to swing the bats better.”
The Yankees will get no breathers the rest of the way as they attempt to fend off the Tampa Bay-Boston axis.
They are even with the Rays, 5 up on the Red Sox, and in a race to the finish of a season in which they will play Tampa Bay seven times and Boston six times in their final 19 games, closing with three at Fenway.
“Everyone understands how long the season is,” said Jeter. Even if we were five or six games ahead, we’d still have to play our best the rest of the way. It’s too early to be watching the scoreboard. We play those teams in the final month and the last week. If we win those games, we’ll be where we want to be.”
Even if they’re flatfooted and injured at the top of the stretch.
