IF the Yankees can’t beat the Devil Rays and Orioles, how in the world are they going to beat anybody in the playoffs?
That is, if they make it to October.
Last week’s sweep of the Red Sox was an August accomplishment, but these 2007 Yankees are inconsistent. It’s clear that this is a much different Yankees team than any other during the Joe Torre era. The Yankees were pummeled 8-2 yesterday by the Devil Rays at Yankee Stadium.
These Yankees don’t care how they get into the playoffs, they want to get there. They would be perfectly happy with backing into the postseason. The Mariners lost their ninth straight yesterday. The Yankees remain two games up on Seattle in the wild card race, but only have a one game advantage in the loss column, and the Tigers are breathing down their necks, too.
The Yankees could have put some distance between themselves and those teams if they had just taken care of business against the Orioles and Devil Rays.
Over the last five weeks, the Yankees have had three series against the dregs of their division. They dropped two of three in Baltimore at the end of July, lost two of three to the Orioles at Yankee Stadium in the middle of August and now have lost two of three to the Devil Rays, the team with the worst record in the majors. That’s six losses in nine games with two of those series at home.
The Yankees are 12-15 against TamBal this year.
In any other season all that would doom the Yankees. This is not any other season. This is the year where the Yankees are just trying to hang on in the regular season and get hot in the postseason, starting most likely against the Angels, always a difficult matchup.
This is not a team built for the long haul because its pitching staff is in transition. In the six losses against TamBal, the Orioles and Devil Rays averaged 7.7 runs.
Yankees hitters tend to disappear as a group. They best way to attack the Yankees is to throw them strikes. They worked only two walks yesterday. It was a terrible day for Derek Jeter. Not only did he have to hear it from teammates because his beloved Michigan was stunned by Appalachian State, but also he struck out three times and went 0-for-5.
The Yankees only have so much energy, and it appears they save that energy for the big series. They have another huge series, a wild card wakeup call, beginning today at Yankee Stadium against the Mariners. Maybe that will jolt their baseball souls.
The Yankees were 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position against a team that came into the game dead last in the majors in ERA at 5.35.
Jeter said Tampa Bay starter Jason Hammel was “effectively wild.” This was Hammel’s first win as a starter in 18 tries.
The lack of a lefty in the bullpen hurt the Yankees because Torre, who knows to trust Pettitte, stayed too long with the lefty in the seventh, and Carlos Pena hit a three-run home run to right, making it 5-1.
Afterward, Pettitte was asked about a possible letdown against the Devil Rays.
“My approach is there is not going to be a letdown,” Pettitte said. “I’m going to bring the same emotion and focus to every game and I hope the guys in this clubhouse feel the same way.”
Either the Orioles and Devil Rays have gotten a whole lot better the last five weeks or the Yankees are just not able to bring the same emotion and focus to every game. When you put yourself in a hole like the Yankees have this season, there is an emotional and physical toll, no matter what kind of lift you get from Joba Chamberlain.
It’s no different than an NBA team falling behind by 20 early in the third quarter, making a run to get back in the game, and then having nothing left the final two minutes.
Do the Yankees have anything left?
It’s fitting that on Labor Day they will begin to answer that question.