Early magic must reappear ... soon
MINNEAPOLIS — The day had been a lousy one right from the start. The kid lefty, Jordan Montgomery, so good so often this year, didn’t have anything: no curveball, no changeup. No chance. The Twins hung six on him in ththe second inning, the signature blow a three-run home run by Miguel Sano. “I just couldn’t stop the bleedining,” Montgomery said. (The Yankees better hope Sano nevern winds up with the Red Sox, because not only does he look likeli a righthandedh mirror imageim of his DominicanD Republic countryman, David Ortiz, he seems to take specialsp delight in tormenting the Yankees;Y that’s already his fifth homerho in nine career games against them.)
Morning had dawned so splendidly, too. Manager Joe Girardi knew there would be three men making the trip up from Chicago to serve as reinforcements: Todd Frazier, David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle. The transaction with the White Sox had sent the internet aflame, because it allowed the Yankees to announce, loudly and formally, their year-and-a-half dalliance with rebuilding was over.
“You know they’re going to try and win here every day,” said Frazier, famously captured in a 1998 photograph on the field at Yankee Stadium alongside Derek Jeter (“I bet he’s pretty tired of seeing that,” Frazier said with a laugh), who admitted he didn’t grow up a fan of the Yankees but of baseball and its players, which seemed like a savvy way of avoiding saying he may not have hated the Mets or the Phillies as a kid.
(Although Paul O’Neill was his favorite, and he’s worn No. 21 his whole career, and Frazier admitted he hoped to speak to O’Neill before the Yankees return home to see if he can trade in the 29 he was given for the 21 he covets. Stay tuned.)
But, of course, they didn’t win, they lost 6-1 Wednesday and dropped two out of three to the Twins (a team they have owned for a decade), meaning it’s 10 straight non-winning series for the Yankees, which means they are trending southward at precisely the time they need to aim north.
Girardi, no surprise, didn’t want to hear about any of that.
“We’re poised to make a little run here,” he said, though peering through non-rose-tinted lenses raises the question: Based on what?
“I think all the tools we need are in that clubhouse,” he said.
For his sake, for the club’s sake, he’d better hope so. Never say never when it comes to the Yankees, but all signs indicate this was their big splash, a week-and-a-half in front of the trading deadline. They may be going for it, but they’re not going for broke (which is exactly as it should be). Somehow, the three new guys and the 22 old guys will have to figure things out, starting Thursday in Seattle.
“I feel like we’ve played better,” Girardi said.
Somehow, what the Yankees need to do is figure out a way to recapture the mojo of the 21-9 start that catapulted them into relevance to begin the season. Back then, it seemed the Yankees were on the verge of crafting a true circular lineup, they scored runs in bunches, and it doesn’t much matter how well or how shaky your pitching staff is when you’re scoring eight runs a game.
They aren’t scoring eight runs a game anymore. In the past four games alone they’ve sustained their first shutout of the season (Sunday in Boston) and were handcuffed across 6 2/3 brilliant innings by Minnesota’s Jose Berrios on Wednesday. Aaron Judge has cooled off. Gary Sanchez has cooled off. Lately, it seems the only reliable bat belongs to Clint Frazier, a big leaguer for all of 18 days.
(But also a rookie, and one who knows his place, as shown by his willingness to give Robertson his old No. 30 back, selecting Double-Mick, No. 77, in its place. It probably won’t take him long to take a spot alongside Ducky Medwick, Rico Carty and Pudge Rodriguez, who all briefly wore the number atop the list of all-time 77s.)
If Girardi is right, if all the necessary tools are available in the Yankees clubhouse, they need to get them sharpened and honed. Those 10 straight series haven’t yet harpooned the season. But they’re treading in dangerous waters. They need to find the 21-9 team hiding in that clubhouse. And soon.