MLB

Yankees rotation looking to start over

The Yankees’ starting rotation, regarded as so deep and promising a month ago, has devolved into a Bizarro version of “Survivor.” You’ve never seen contestants work so hard to get voted off the island.

Freddy Garcia appears the likely first winner now, edging Phil Hughes and staving off sporadic threats from Hiroki Kuroda, Ivan Nova and even CC Sabathia. That is, unless we’re counting Michael Pineda and his season-ending right shoulder injury.

After Garcia got absolutely clobbered in the Yankees’ 7-5 loss to Detroit yesterday at Yankee Stadium, it’s hard to see how the Yankees could justify going right back to the veteran this Thursday in Kansas City.

They know that.

“I like to sleep on things before I really do a lot of stuff,” manager Joe Girardi said afterward, but the Yankees manager took the unusual step of speaking to Garcia as soon as the game ended, delaying his news conference. Rookie David Phelps, Girardi acknowledged, would be a perfectly logical choice to take Garcia’s place.

Garcia, the owner of a 12.51 ERA in four starts, spoke like a man aware he might not get a chance to redeem himself.

YANKEES BOX SCORE

“I’d like to,” he said, “but I don’t know what decision they’re going to make.”

That the Yankees are 11-9 on the season is a tribute to their spectacular bullpen and strong offense. Shoot, they even brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning as they rallied against Detroit closer Jose Valverde. Nevertheless, the performance of their starting pitchers — combined with the season-ending injury to Pineda — has made this a jarring premiere month for 2012, even as Andy Pettitte works his way back.

“Our bullpen will get worn out at some point if we continue at this pace,” Girardi said. “I believe they will turn it around.”

Oh, sorry, forgot to mention: Girardi said this before the Garcia debacle forced the Yankees relievers into 7 1/3 innings of work. Yeesh.

The Yankees starters are averaging 5.3 innings per start, tying them with the Twins for 12th place in the American League, ahead of only the Royals (5.2). Just 25 percent of their starts have been quality starts (a minimum of six innings pitched and maximum of three runs allowed). Only the Twins, with 15 percent, have pitched fewer.

If Hughes looks like the collection of interesting ingredients that somehow keeps turning into raspberry-flavored meat loaf, then Garcia is a bag of stale rolls right now. Nothing good can come from him.

This marked his second straight start in which he managed to get just five outs, and that he allowed six runs didn’t rank as the most alarming part of his day. It was just how hard the Tigers hit him.

None of the five hits he surrendered would rank as “cheapies,” and his final two outs came on line drives. He did record three strikeouts in the first inning, although the first two arrived when he caught Brennan Boesch and Miguel Cabrera looking at high breaking pitches and the final came when free-swinging journeyman Brad Eldred whiffed on a slider.

According to the PitchFX data available on the website Brooks Baseball, Garcia’s four-seam fastball averaged a tick over 85 mph, his sinker 86, his slider 79, his splitter 78, his changeup just under 79.5 and his curveball right about 70. These were all lower than his average velocities last year, as detailed by FanGraphs. And those declining speeds are the problem, Girardi and Garcia agree.

“He doesn’t have the same arm speed on those,” Girardi said. “We’ve got to figure out why.”

Girardi, again out of character, raised the possibility Garcia could be injured, although he said no tests had been scheduled.

Phelps, who threw three innings of shutout relief, has earned a chance to start. Pettitte might need just one more minor-league start, although his schedule could be impacted by his involvement in the Roger Clemens trial.

The Yankees’ cupboard isn’t bare. It’s just nowhere as stocked as they hoped. As they know they need to survive the toughest reality show of all: The AL East.