Night after night they struggled to score runs and hit in the clutch. The blame for seven losses in nine tilts and rapidly fading October hopes was correctly on the Yankees hitters — and they knew it.
So, when the hitters prepared for Thursday’s game against the Astros at Yankee Stadium, they decided it was time to meet.
According to Chase Headley and Brett Gardner, a rather frank talk among the group that has placed the Yankees’ postseason chances in grave danger, let each other know how they felt.
“We met and talked, cleared the air, it was good,’’ Gardner said after Brandon McCarthy’s right arm did more than the bats in a 3-0, complete-game shutout that was witnessed by a matinee gathering of 41,767 and completed in a brisk 2 hours, 7 minutes.
The meeting took place in a room away from the clubhouse’s main area, included most of the position players, hitting coach Kevin Long and bench coach Tony Pena.
“There might have been a few coaches,’’ Gardner said when asked if it was a players’ only meeting.
The victory moved the Yankees to within nine games of the AL East-leading Orioles and put them four back of the Tigers for the second wild-card ticket.
While it didn’t produce double-digit runs, Headley believed the session served a purpose.
“We talked before the game, we need to come with more emotion. We understand we are a lot better offense than we have shown,’’ said Headley, whose two-run, second-inning, opposite-field double to right off lefty Dallas Keuchel gave McCarthy an early lead. “Enough is enough, let’s go. We got on the same page and said, ‘Let’s go.’ There were a couple of guys talking, guys getting together to talk about how things were going.’’
From a hitting standpoint, things were going nowhere. In the previous nine games, the Yankees batted an alarming .136 (8-for-59) with runners in scoring position.
Thursday, Headley’s hit was the only one with a runner in scoring position but it was big, and with McCarthy dominating it was enough to halt a two-game losing streak.
McCarthy, who is 5-2 with a 1.90 ERA in eight Yankees starts and gave the bullpen a day off, credited catcher Francisco Cervelli’s fiery attitude for his ninth career complete game and fourth career complete-game shutout.
“In the middle section of the game, I was getting tired,’’ said McCarthy, who had runners on second and third with two outs in the fourth and didn’t allow a run. In the seventh it was second and third with one out and again the Astros didn’t touch the plate.
“Cervy got me through it,” McCarthy said. “He was angry with me. He said, ‘Your stuff is so good, we are going to get through this.’ ’’
Cervelli, who didn’t attend the group discussion about hitting, admitted he was on McCarthy.
“I tried to give him a little push,’’ Cervelli said. “I wanted the whole game and let the bullpen breath.’’
Having thrown 93 pitches in eight innings, McCarthy was sent to the mound for the ninth with closer David Robertson throwing in the bullpen.
“Batter by batter,’’ Joe Girardi said of his ninth-inning plan for McCarthy.
Three batters later the Yankees secured a victory that had more to do with the pitcher than a bull session among struggling hitters.
“I don’t think it hurts, hopefully it carries over,’’ Gardner said. “It was a positive, good talk. Hopefully we can continue to do what we did today and that’s win.’’