DETROIT — For all of the Propeller Heads who get off on statistics in baseball, The Post has unearthed a category the Yankees lead the majors in: PSOTS.
What does it stand for?
Players Signed Off The Street.
And you wonder why the Yankees have one win in five tries? Of course the Yankees didn’t axe good players to sign Lyle Overbay, Brennan Boesch and Ben Francisco off the street. No, they are in pinstripes because of injuries to big names.
Yet, they are Yankees and Overbay and Boesch were in the lineup yesterday at a chilly Comerica Park where the Tigers copped an 8-4 victory in front of 42,453.
To be fair, Overbay drove in half of the Yankees’ runs but how many PSOTS can you play with? And don’t forget the Indians made no effort to retain Travis Hafner, the Yankees’ DH, and the Angels had no room for Vernon Wells, the Yankees’ left fielder.
Yet, the biggest problem in the early going has been the pitching staff. When Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Curtis Granderson and Alex Rodriguez weren’t ready for the start of the season, the hurlers figured to keep the Yankees afloat until the stars returned from the DL.
Instead, the pitchers — other than Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera — have been punished.
Yesterday, Phil Hughes in his first big league start since last October, and Boone Logan weren’t good enough to tame the muscular Tiger lineup.
“The fifth inning was a big inning and I didn’t make the pitches I had to,’’ said Hughes, who started the frame by giving up a leadoff single to Austin Jackson, an RBI double to Torii Hunter and an RBI single to Miguel Cabrera. “I tried to get a double play ball on Hunter and it snowballed from there.’’
Logan, who gave up a three-run homer to Prince Fielder on Friday, surfaced to face Fielder again, who kept the inning going with a single.
Victor Martinez drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and after Andy Dirks singled, manager Joe Girardi called for David Phelps.
Jhonny Peralta greeted him with an RBI single that hiked the lead to 5-1.
In four-plus innings Hughes gave up four runs, eight hits, didn’t issue a walk and fanned four. Hughes was supposed to pitch for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last night but instead jumped off the disabled list and joined the Yankees.
The loss lowered the Yankees’ record to 1-4 and Justin Verlander will be today’s pitcher when the Yankees attempt to avoid the sweep. Ace CC Sabathia starts for the Yankees, but the last time Sabathia faced the Tigers was Oct. 18 in Game 4 of the ALCS. They spanked him for six runs and 11 hits in 3 2/3 innings. Shortly after Sabathia had a bone spur removed from the left elbow.
Outside of Pettitte, the starters have been shaky, and the bullpen hasn’t been good.
“We definitely need to get it turned around, no doubt about that,’’ Girardi said. “But I have a lot of confidence in these guys.’’
Length from the starters would be nice so Girardi isn’t calling for new arms in the middle innings. It’s not a coincidence the only victory was when Pettitte went eight innings.
“We need to get some distance out of these guys, that would be helpful,’’ Girardi said.
Overbay’s two-run single highlighted a three-run sixth, but it wasn’t enough and across the final three innings the Yankees went hitless with the only runner Hafner who drew a walk.
“We have to do more offensively, no doubt about it,’’ said Vernon Wells, who homered off Max Scherzer in the second.
He was talking about the hitters but the pitchers fall into that conversation, too.