MONEY FOR NOTHING:Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira (above) and other members of the Yankees’ high-priced offense entered last night’s game against the Orioles at Camden Yards with a woeful .333 on-base percentage and a putrid .315 slugging percentage.
MONEY FOR NOTHING: Alex Rodriguez (above), Mark Teixeira and other members of the Yankees’ high-priced offense entered last night’s game against the Orioles at Camden Yards with a woeful .333 on-base percentage and a putrid .315 slugging percentage. (Reuters)
Nick Swisher follows through on his two-run home run in the 10th inning last night. (AP)
BALTIMORE — This one, like its two immediate predecessors, carried the vibe of, “Well, we better beat the Orioles regularly. They’re terrible!”
Yet this victory last night, 6-4 over Baltimore in 10 innings at Camden Yards, felt a little different, too. For a team eternally saddled with (and marketing) great expectations, you could sense some relief.
The Yankees prevailed, completing a series sweep and evening their 2012 record at 3-3, because Nick Swisher crushed a two-out, two-run homer off Kevin Gregg in the top of the 10th inning. That would be the Swisher who has been one of the Yankees’ steadiest regular-season players the last three years, but also one of their worst in the postseason. And a player who also has carried the label, fairly or unfairly, of being unable to hit in the clutch, and who has personified a lineup that kicked off this season failing repeatedly with runners in scoring position.
That Mark Teixeira, facing a similar perception, started the two-out rally with a flare double made the night all the sweeter for the Yankees.
“That was huge,” Teixeira said. “Big win for us. … We haven’t wowed anyone with our numbers so far, but that’s going to change.”
“When we left Tampa [following a three-game sweep by the Rays], it was a signal for us,” Swisher said. “Spring training is done.”
Before the game, Swisher was more expansive.
“You want to be that guy to drive them in, and when you don’t, you’re disappointed,” he said. “But you kind of look around. It’s happened to a bunch of guys.”
Entering last night’s action, the 2012 Yankees had 10 hits in 53 at-bats with runners in scoring position. Their 4-for-10 showing last night raised that mark to 14-for-63, a .222 batting average. Still pretty lousy, but trending upward.
Maybe it’s because the Yankees have so many big names and big salaries that makes their fans in particular loathe failures in the clutch. It didn’t help, for sure, when they fell short to the Tigers in the American League Division Series last year, tallying just 11 hits in 47 at-bats with runners in scoring position and re-enforcing the notion that they can’t come through in the big spots.
Yet the Yankees won 97 games in the 2011 regular season because, in addition to pitching pretty well, they came through sufficiently in the big spots. Their .361 on-base percentage with runners in scoring position paced the American League last year, and their .455 slugging percentage led the entire major leagues.
The season is very young, but if the Yankees finish the campaign with a .222 batting average with runners in scoring position, then they will be looking at a season gone horribly wrong.
Last night, enough of the times, things went right. When Eduardo Nunez got picked off first base following a 10th-inning base hit, the Yankees and Orioles appeared likely to bring a tie game into the bottom of the 10th. Then Teixeira, to that point 1-for-4 on his 32nd birthday, sent a high pop toward the left-field foul line.
With the Orioles playing Teixeira to pull — of course they were — they found themselves ill-equipped to deal with this opposite-field shot. Leftfielder Nolan Reimold and shortstop J.J. Hardy both went after the pop-up, and neither could get it, landing Teixeira with a cheap double and putting Swisher in another RISP at-bat.
“We were due for a break,” Teixeira said.
Swisher worked the count full before smashing his homer into the right-field seats. On a warmer night, Teixeira said, the ball might have traveled 500 feet.
“All I was trying to do was get a base hit,” Swisher said.
The Yankees can open Yankee Stadium tomorrow with the confidence that their season is proceeding as hoped. If the lineup largely has underwhelmed, then it still has scored six runs in four games and five runs in a fifth, with a Sunday shutout loss to the Rays serving as the aberration. Their bullpen has performed nearly flawlessly.
The starting pitcher could be better; CC Sabathia pitched just adequately last night.
Obstacles always await. Yet if last night proved anything, it’s that track records mean something, and the Yankees employ many players with excellent track records.