This is the Year of the Pitcher. Robbie Cano, and A.J. Burnett haven’t gotten the memo yet, but the Yankees didn’t necessarily need consecutive nights being dominated by Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez to be reminded of that fact.
Hernandez, who threw a complete-game, two-hit shutout in the Mariners’ 7-0 win over the Yankees last night at the Stadium, would have been untouchable in any year. That includes 1927, and 1961, let alone 2010, when it hasn’t necessarily taken such wicked movement on a fastball for a pitcher to get the better of the Yankees’ better players.
Derek Jeter has an on-base percentage of .346, 30 points below his lifetime average. Mark Teixeira, who had the only well-struck hit last night, is hitting .231. Because Jorge Posada has been hurt so much, the only number fair to report may be his age, 38. But Alex Rodriguez has needed three home runs in his last seven games to accelerate a pace toward just 25 for the season.
This shouldn’t shock anyone, what with the majors headed for their lowest runs per game since 1992, what with two (three, really) perfect games plus a no-hitter already pitched. Times are tough at bat racks all over the league. This is evidenced by the fact the Yankees, who still have the best record in baseball at 47-30, don’t have a player in the top 10 of the American League in home runs, and their 413 runs still are second behind the Red Sox.
Not only is it again 1992, before the needles came out in earnest, but the way manager Joe Girardi talks it is 1998, when the winningest Yankees team ever had just two 100-RBI plus hitters (Paul O’Neill and Tino Martinez) and not a single 30-homer season.
“Our starting pitching [3.97 ERA before last night] has been really good,” said Girardi before Javier Vazquez allowed three runs in six innings. “[Nick] Swisher has had a very outstanding year so far.
“[Brett Gardner] has scored [49] runs out of the ninth slot. [Francisco Cervelli] has had very productive at bats. We have guys step up we weren’t even counting on at the beginning of the season.”
It’s good to be a manager who so far hasn’t had to count the days for players he’s counting upon on to get hot. Inevitably that time must come, however.
Until the last two nights, that time seemed soon. On the six-game road trip, Rodriguez hit 320 with 10 RBIs, and Jeter was 8-for-25. If seeing isn’t quite believing, you can look it up: Teixeira, whose double was the only honest hit last night off Hernandez, has hit safely in 18 of his last 20 games.
“Take out some aggression tomorrow night,” an optimistic Swisher said with a shrug, after a tip of the cap toward Lee and Hernandez. Not quite as philosophical were 46,309 grumblers who probably would have had as much chance last night against Hernandez as did Jeter. They waited more impatiently for more from the guys who most remain in pitcher’s heads, not the Yankees who have been playing over their heads.
Gardner has a startling on base percentage of .403. Swisher has hit 13 homers and driven in 47, only seven fewer than Rodriguez. Cervelli, though hitless in his last 13 at bats, is batting .386 with men in scoring position.
Nevertheless, between Rodriguez ($32 million), Jeter ($21 million) Teixeira ($20 million) and Posada ($13.1 million), the Yankees still have $86 million into guys not quite into it yet.
Because cream rises, that’s likely good news, not bad. Not that somebody couldn’t get hurt or somebody continue to disappoint.
But the Yankees Somebodies will have to get hot for some extended stretch, preferably starting today.
That’s just the way it has to work for a team being paid $213 million.