In the span of three eighth- inning pitches from Mariano Rivera, of all humans, the Yankees yesterday went from being a powerhouse able to sur mount every in jury and every im portant slump to a team undone by the inability of its marquee stars to get it done.
Or as essen tially everyone in the home clubhouse said after Rivera walked in a run and yielded a grand slam to consecutive batters to turn a 3-1 lead into a 6-3 deficit and defeat to the Twins: “That’s baseball.”
It’s an adage older than the combined age of the Core Four: Go to a baseball game and you’re guaranteed to see something that never has happened before. Yesterday it was Rivera walking in a run and yielding a grand slam in the same game.
It also was witnessing Alex Rodriguez ground into a fifth-inning fielder’s choice in which Derek Jeter was thrown out at the plate with men on first and third and one out trying to build on a 3-1 lead — without the obligatory booing from the masses that accompanies such type of failure.
But then, a playoffs and World Series such as the one Rodriguez enjoyed last autumn earns a lot of credit. And so although A-Rod is experiencing an essentially silent spring during which he has hit all of four home runs — including Friday’s winning grand slam — in 136 at-bats, his failures have been met with sounds of silence.
Rodriguez, who hasn’t endured a season-opening power outage the likes of this since 1997, when he hit five homers in his first 175 at-bats with the Mariners as a skinny 21-year-old in his second full big league season, was 0-for-4 with a strikeout, an infield pop and two groundouts.
He’s 18-for-72 (.250) with two homers and 16 RBIs since April 25. Overall, he’s batting .279 with four homers, 27 RBIs and a .365 on-base percentage. One can imagine the civic outrage if Rodriguez hadn’t earned his (pin)stripes last year.
And then there’s True Yankee Jeter, batting .269 after yesterday’s quiet 1-for-5. And Mark Teixeira, called out on strikes to end the game as the potential tying run, who raised his average to .224 following his 2-for- 5.
And Robinson Cano, 10-for-48 with two RBI since May 2, after an 0-for-4 that included a fly out that stranded two to end the fifth.
Jeter, who fanned in the ninth with two on and none out, is 9-for-58 (.155) over his last 13 games. But the captain refused to acknowledge that he might be slumping.
“I don’t use the word, ‘slump,’ ” said Jeter, who grounded out twice and saw Denard Span make a diving grab of his third-inning drive to right-center. “I focus on having good at-bats and hitting the ball hard.
“There’s nothing I can do about guys diving in the outfield.”
With Nick Swisher, Curtis Granderson and Nick Johnson sidelined, the bottom of the order, featuring Marcus Thames, Randy Winn and Ramiro Pena, looked like the Mets . . . the middle of the Mets’ order, that is.
But those three batters reached on six of their 11 ups, including Thames’ second-inning, two-run triple. The replacement players weren’t the issue. And as much as Rivera and Joba Chamberlain, hung with the loss after leaving the bases loaded with two out in the eighth for Mo, ultimately were culprits, the guys who couldn’t help build the lead were unindicted co-conspirators.
“The lesson for the game is the middle innings,” Rodriguez said. “When you have the opportunity to drop the hammer [you need to take advantage].”
The Yankees didn’t drop the hammer, they dropped the game.
Instead of going into these next seven games against the Red Sox, Rays and Mets as an all-powerful 25-12 behemoth able to leap tall buildings and all obstacles with a single bound, they’re a 24-13 second-place team that needs more help from its marquee players than its been getting.