A BAD WHIFF IN THE BRONX
As Robbie shows up, Bombers go missing
There’s an alarming mini-trend developing in Yankeeland, one you’re familiar with if you’ve been tracking the frustration etched on hitters’ faces and the deflated runners plodding back to the dugout after another lost inning. The Yankees are struggling to hit with runners in scoring position and it’s killing them. Coming off their strand-fest in losing a series in Toronto, the Yanks opened a best-of-three with Seattle Friday night by continuing to flail in a 7-1 loss in front of 35,531 at the Stadium.
Without Alex Rodriguez in the starting lineup – hey, he’s a 40-year-old man who is in an 0-for-14 slide – the Yanks repeatedly blew scoring chances against Seattle starter Nathan Karns, even as they excelled at driving up his pitch count.
The Yankees were 0-for-12 with two walks with RISP Friday, which means they are 3-for-34 (.088) in those situations since the beginning of their series with the Blue Jays. No wonder they’ve lost three straight.
“I wasn’t aware of those numbers, but they definitely don’t sound good,” Brett Gardner said. “But I think it’s a small sample size. It’s only a few games.”
No-so-crisp with RISP, eh? It’s RISPy business when you don’t knock ’em in, right? No hitting with RISP, no reward. Sorry, we’ll stop there. But this might be more painful than the bad jokes: While the Yankee offense sputtered, former Bronx darling Robinson Cano came to his former home and used his sweet swing to hurt his old club. Cano knocked in the Mariners’ first run with an RBI single in the fourth inning – making him 1-for1 with RISP at the time, incidentally – and later singled and scored, finishing 2-for-5.
There’s also this: Seattle ace King Felix Hernandez, who has a 1.38 ERA in eight starts at this incarnation of the Stadium, starts Saturday.
Plenty of fans booed Cano and some even tried to start chants ripping him, including one that went “over-rated,” that never really got going. Another wag yelled, “Traitor” at Cano from below the press box. Of course, those folks were never offered $240 million to leave their place of employment, though they seem offended that Cano left for a new company at a bigger salary.
Cano, who said before the game that he’s finally fully healthy, also made a funny when asked whether he missed the Stadium’s short right-field porch: “Anyone would miss right field here,” he replied.
These Yankees perhaps should aim for it more. The offense could use the jolt of a good three-run homer.
Still, to be fair, the Yanks were second in runs to Toronto last year and, assuming health for all the players returning from that squad, you’ve got to figure their offense will shape up.
They did enter Friday night’s game ranked 10th in the majors in runs and 11th in OPS and were hitting .395 with RISP before going to Toronto.
“That kind of goes in cycles at times,” Joe Girardi said. “Sometimes you can struggle in those situations, and that’s usually the difference between winning and losing. We’ve struggled the last few days with runners on, and it’s why we’ve lost a few in a row.”
Fair or unfair, teams look listless when they don’t hit, a phenomenon that Met manager Terry Collins encountered across town last week.
And the Yankees let Karns off the hook repeatedly in his five innings. They made him throw 101 pitches but only scored on Gardner’s solo homer in the first. In the fourth and fifth innings, they got two runners on before there were any outs and did not score. The fourth looked especially bad – Karns struck out three in a row to escape, including Chase Headley and Jacoby Ellsbury, who K’d looking at I what Girardi described as “borderline pitches.” n the sixth, M’s manager Scott Servais brought in Vidal Nuno – remember him? – to pitch to Teixeira with two out and the bases loaded. Teixeira grounded out. A rally fizzled. The Yanks never had another. Not many in the crowd stuck around.
The Yankees have now scored eight runs total over their last four games after scoring at least eight in a game three times in their first five.
“It just wasn’t our night,” Teixeira said. “We had good at-bats. We just didn’t get the big hit.”
Would A-Rod have helped? In his current state, that’s a firm “maybe.” But he’s got to rest some time. The rest of the Yankee offense must rouse itself, though.