Holding back is not a problem for Vernon Wells. The Yankees left fielder isn’t tempted to smash his bat into a water cooler in order to express his anger over his horrific slump.
“It’s not the cooler’s fault. It’s not the bat’s fault,” Wells said before last night’s 8-3 loss to the Rays. “It’s the Indian. It’s not the arrow.”
Yesterday afternoon at Yankee Stadium, the scoreboard showed highlights of David Wells being carried off the field after his 1998 perfect game. The Yankees’ current Wells is experiencing the exact opposite. He went 0-for-3 last night, was pinch hit for in the ninth inning by Zoilo Almonte — a man with one previous major league at-bat — and is in the midst of a 13-for-110 skid, and has gone 112 at-bats since his last home run.
There is probably a temptation to discard Wells and say he shouldn’t be playing anymore. Unfortunately for the Yankees, the reality is there’s no true alternative. With Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Kevin Youkilis and Derek Jeter injured, the offense is so banged up that Wells not only has to play, but regularly has been batting third, fourth or fifth during this slump.
Last night, Wells batted fifth against Rays left-hander Matt Moore. He flied out and grounded out twice before manager Joe Girardi called on Almonte to pinch hit for him leading off the ninth.
“I know [Wells is] capable of doing it because I’ve watched it with my own eyes,” Girardi said. “And I saw him do it in April and I believe he can still get it done.”
Wells is appreciative of Girardi’s support.
“It’s awesome,” Wells said. “When you have someone in your corner, especially the guy making the lineups, that’s huge. I’ve got to re-pay him for that.”
Wells was awful the last two seasons with the Angels, posting a .660 OPS in 2011 and a .682 OPS in 2012. This season, with the Yankees, he has been even worse. In fact, his OPS is just .631, which would rank as a career-low.
Yesterday the 34-year-old worked before the game to fix his woes, saying that the objective was to re-find his short swing.
“It hasn’t necessarily been long [lately],” he said. “It just hasn’t been as short.”
Hitting coach Kevin Long has worked along with Wells.
“We watched a lot of tape. His hands are getting away from his body,” Long said. “We’ve got to get his confidence back where it needs to be.”
Additional reporting by George A. King III and Dan Martin