Change has helped, but more is needed
SMALL moves, big changes. The additions of Brandon McCarthy, Chase Headley, Stephen Drew, artin P rado and Esmil Rogers have ready had a large impact on the Yankees, hich tells you a lot about the state of ediocrity in baseball. The Yankees have become a scrappy am, but it is going to take more to make em a playoff team. The Yankees managed only eight hits uesday night over 12 innings in a 4-3 loss the Tigers at Yankee Stadium. The go-ahead run came on a solo home un by light-hitting Alex Avila with one ut in the 12th against Matt Daley, the Yanees’ seventh pitcher of the night. Change is go o d , espeally when you can pick up lented players from struging teams — and that is hat has happened in The ronx, but the Yankees still eed more help. Appreciating the oppornity to play games that ean something, the new additions have ven the Yankees new life. “You could see it in their face, you can e it in their emotion, how excited they e to be in this type of situation,’’ Joe irardi said before the game. Catcher Brian McCann, who has worked osely with McCarthy to bring out the est in the right-hander, said he has seen difference. “A n y time you ome to a situation ke this and get the hance to play alongde Derek Jeter, Cars B e l t ra n , Ic h i ro uzuki], you get to e these guys work n a daily basis, it’s ncredible and it elps lift your game,’’ e said. “Everybody is tryg to win a champinship.’’ The Ya n k e e s elieve in themselves, espite all their probms this season. “I think they have een really important
us,’’ Girardi said. We’ve seen the flexility they’ve given s when [Mark Teixra] was under the eather [ Mo n d ay ] ght and had to move l kinds of people all ound and people d the job. So I think ey’ve meant a lot to s and these are vetern players who know ow to play. They are xcited to be here and they are excited to be in a race and they will mean a lot to us moving forward.
“Stephen Drew was part of a world championship team last year. They look forward to these type of games and they thrive off of these type of games. I think this has really helped Brandon. He’s pitched extremely well for us.’’
Change is good for another reason: A struggling player gets to hear some new ideas.
That has sparked the success of McCarthy, who is 4-0 as a Yankee after being 3-10 with the Diamondbacks.
“I’ve caught a lot of sinker-ballers and I had some suggestions,’’ McCann told me. “We jjust talked and with Larry [Rothschild’s] help, he has been able to make a couple adjustments.
“I think there are two different kinds of sinkers, t h e re is a s i n ke r that stays over the same plane and that tends to get hit more and I think there is a sinker that drops straight down is the one that misses all the barrels. And that’s the one that McCarthy’s got that, it misses barrels.’’
“He has very good stuff, very good command, he knows what he is doing.’’
“We just need to win games,’’ Brian Cashman said. “I can’t say I feel better or not better, I feel good that it appears [Michael] Pineda is going to be here soon. That’s something we a re go i n g to need and I’m h a p py the e a rly returns so far on the rest. We just have to keep fighting. We ’ r e one game out of the wild c a rd right now and we’ve got some re a l tough competition in front of us. I think Joe has more flexibility and we are going to look any which way to try to i m p rove the club any way we can.’’
Cashman tinkered a little more Tuesday, dumping left-handed reliever Matt Thornton and saving about $4 million in the process. You can be sure there will be more changes.
The Ya n k e e s just a re n’ t good enough. kevin.kernan@
nypost.com