Ken Davidoff

Ken Davidoff

MLB

Yanks have no margin for error and, worse, no energy

TORONTO — Welcome to the edge of the cliff.

Oh, these 2013 Yankees have teased us before, gasped for air and flailed about and left us thinking they were goners only to illogically leap back into relevance. But the baseball schedule doesn’t last forever, and the Yankees are running out of electricity to charge the defibrillators.

They suffered their fourth straight loss Tuesday night, 2-0 to the Blue Jays and a dominant R.A. Dickey, and you just can’t enter that sort of funk when you’re playing with such little room for error.

The Yankees (79-72) now trail the Rays and Rangers, both 82-68, by 3 ¹/₂ games for the American League wild card spots and also have to overcome Cleveland (82-69) and Baltimore (80-70) and hold back Kansas City (79-72).

“We’re darn close,” the unprofane Joe Girardi said when asked about his team being on the verge of elimination. Then the Yankees’ manager repeated it for emphasis: “We’re darn close.”

Close, and airing their grievances as they approach the end. Andy Pettitte, who pitched an excellent game in defeat, said: “It’s frustrating. I feel like we’ve got a good club. I don’t think this should be as difficult as it’s been, especially with some of the guys we’ve gotten back and put in the lineup. But it is. It’s a tough game, a tough division.”

Alfonso Soriano went further, saying: “We’ve got to work hard and play [Wednesday] with more energy, try to do those little things we didn’t do [Tuesday].”

The veteran then posited the eyebrow-raising theory that it’s hard to come back after a day off late in the season, particularly on the road — which sort of refuted the notion a day off would allow the Yankees to shake off their weekend sweep by the rival Red Sox at Fenway Park.

Maybe Pettitte and Soriano are right, or maybe Pettitte is overrating the Yankees’ roster and Soriano is underrating Dickey, who allowed four hits and walked two while striking out eight in seven innings.

Either way, Soriano’s comments in particular might require some maintenance by Girardi when the club returns to work on Wednesday.

While Soriano is a popular teammate, no one likes having his energy and/or effort challenged.

“I don’t know if it was that,” Alex Rodriguez said, when presented Soriano’s comments, “or just Dickey having really good stuff.”

If guys aren’t feeling a sense of urgency, Pettitte said before Soriano spoke, “Some of these guys are playing the wrong sport.
Definitely, they’re in the wrong organization.”

In case any doubt lingered over how important a game this was, Girardi used top-flight relievers Shawn Kelley and David Robertson just to keep it close. It’s rare to see Girardi call upon either pitcher when the Yankees are losing. Kelley entered in the seventh and immediately surrendered a homer to Rajai Davis, allowing Toronto to double its lead to 2-0, and Robertson came in the eighth and nearly allowed another run, bailed out only by a nice relay from Soriano to Brendan Ryan to J.R. Murphy to nail Adam Lind at home on Anthony Gose’s double.

“You’re trying to hold down the fort,” Girardi said.

The fort is pretty unimposing at this point. The Yankees departed Baltimore Thursday having won four of five and controlling their own destiny, and that very well might go down as their final tease of this wacky season.

“It depends on us,” Soriano said. “If we want to play hard, keep grinding, we can do it.”

Eh. They’re going to require some help at this point, and they already have received plenty just to still have a chance at a miracle.

“I think anything’s possible, but we’ve got to get going,” Rodriguez said. “We’re running out of time.”

Time, space, energy, talent. They’re running low on pretty much everything. And yet it feels now like their most likely direction is even lower.