ATLANTA — Forget the blather about the Yankees struggling against pitchers they aren’t familiar with. These days they couldn’t hit their fathers in the backyard hard enough to crack a window.
On a sizzling Georgia night at Turner Field, “The Dead Bat Society” was in full bloom against the Braves.
Several Yankees participated in an optional early hitting session in the afternoon, but it did nothing to enhance their overall performance or in the clutch last night. Facing rookie Tommy Hanson, the seventh straight hurler who never opposed the Yankees, and three Braves relievers, the Yankees melted on the way to a 4-0 loss that was witnessed by 40,828.
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It was the Yankees’ fifth defeat in six games to NL East also-rans (Nationals, Marlins and Braves) and the common thread running through it all is the lack of hitting.
“This will turn, and when it does it will be a welcome site,” Joe Girardi said after his club collected four hits, went hitless in eight at-bats with runners in scoring position and is batting .219 (49-for-224) in the last seven games. “History tells you that you battle out of it and it needs to start [tonight].”
The loss dropped the Yankees five games behind the AL East-leading Red Sox, and it seems a lot longer than 22 days ago the Yankees had a one-game lead on their blood rivals.
The only bright spot of last night’s debacle was Chien-Ming Wang providing five innings in which his fastball reached 95 and his control was good enough to require 62 pitches to record 15 outs.
A bad third inning — when Jorge Posada made a silly throwing error, Alex Rodriguez just missed fielding a two-out, bases-empty ground ball, Brian McCann golfed a 0-1 pitch off his ankles for an opposite-field, RBI double and Yankees-killer Garret Anderson punished a mistake — did Wang (0-6) in because the Dead Bats Society lived down to its reputation.
Girardi said possible changes in the batting order could be in store, but if it’s the same names, what difference will the order make?
Hanson is an ace-in-the-making according to many, and the 22-year-old right-hander seemingly has the tools to develop into one. However, he required 73 pitches to get through four, and when he left with one out in the sixth, he was one pitch shy of 100.
Still, he didn’t allow a run, and the Yankees were 0-for-7 against him with runners in scoring position.
There are times when one or two hitters serve as the lineup anchor. That’s not the case with the Yankees, who have all jumped in the cold tank together.
At the top of the list is Rodriguez. He went 0-for-4 last night and looked bad doing it.
“When a team is not hitting, it’s contagious,” said Rodriguez, who is in a 1-for-23 funk and hitting .207. “Guys want to hit balls in the gaps and home runs. We have to stay patient and we have to hit the [snot] out of it.”
It’s not like the Yankees didn’t have chances. After Wang left three runners on in the second, Jeter led off the third with the 425th double of his career (that put him ahead of Babe Ruth for fourth place on the all-time Yankees list) but Nick Swisher failed to advance him by grounding to Hanson. Mark Teixeira walked and Jeter and Teixeira stole third and second, respectively. But Rodriguez fanned on a 0-2 check swing and Robinson Cano popped out.
With the bases loaded in the fourth and two outs, Swisher went after the first pitch and grounded out.
“You have to fight your way out of this because nobody is going to feel sorry for you,” Girardi said.
Right now the Yankees are fighting a nuclear war with pocket knives.