ANAHEIM, Calif. — Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez are finally working together in the way the Yankees dreamed. Maybe they still remain the best of frenemies.
But in this postseason, they also are the best players in the AL. They are pretty much staging an anything-you-can-do-I-can-top program this October. Too bad their teammates are like the rest of America and standing around watching it.
Mark Teixeira has turned into Rey Ordonez as we are reduced to fixating on his defensive prowess because his offense has pretty much vanished. The nicest thing you can say about Robinson Cano is he is having better at-bats than Melky Cabrera and Nick Swisher.
At this moment, Cabrera and Swisher are more likely to stage a bizarre balloon stunt than actually get a big hit.
VACCARO: JOE’S MANEUVERS FINALLY CRAP OUT
the formula of strong pitching plus Jeter and A-Rod, the Yankees won their first five games of the postseason. Yesterday that equation was not enough. One more big hit somewhere during this 4-hour, 21-minute Game 3 and the Yankees probably have a stranglehold on the ALCS. Instead, the Angels and their boisterous home crowd are back into this best-of-seven.
The Yankees lost in the 11th inning when Joe Girardi’s bizarre relief pattern led him to remove the emerging David Robertson for the declining Alfredo Aceves, who served up the RBI-winning double to Jeff Mathis. But the Yankees had lost the game before this by failing to do what Mathis, a weak-hitting catcher, did: Generate a meaningful hit that did not leave the yard.
The Yankees derived 41 percent of their runs from homers during the season (third most in the majors) and 100 percent yesterday. Jeter led off the game with a homer, and that was the first of four solo blasts for the Yanks, who lost 5-4, enabling the Angels to crawl within two-games-to-one in this series. The Rally Monkey lives.
“We had opportunities,” A-Rod said, “and we should have capitalized on them.”
You can put that in capitalize letters. The Yanks were 1-for-15 with men on base. They were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and are now hitless in their last 20 at-bats in those situations.
The starting outfield of Johnny Damon, Melky Cabrera and Nick Swisher are 0-for-17 with runners in scoring position during the playoffs, and Teixeira is 0-for-7.
That mainly has not bitten the Yankees in the postseason because Jeter and A-Rod have been a two-man rescue squad. The Yanks have 12 homers in the playoffs and Rodriguez (4) and Jeter (3) have seven of them. Rodriguez has been so fierce that Angels manager Mike Scioscia ordered him intentionally walked with two out and none on in the ninth with the score 4-4. That is Barry Bonds/Albert Pujols respect.
However, that was the only baserunner the Yankees mustered over the final three innings. Jerry Hairson Jr. followed by striking out, one of 13 strikeouts by Yankees hitters; and the last bit of empty hitting in the clutch.
Both A-Rod and hitting coach Kevin Long bemoaned the high number of pitches Yankees hitters chased out of the zone. In general, the Yanks are a disciplined team, but that speaks to some hitters suddenly feeling the stress to deliver. In particular, the bottom third of the order crushed the Yanks yesterday.
In both the second and fourth innings, Matsui and Jorge Posada reached with no out. Both times Cano, the seventh-place batter, bounced into a force at second. That meant both times Swisher could have plated a run with a sacrifice fly. But both times Swisher failed to bring home a runner from third with less than two outs. And both times Cabrera could have picked the others up with a two-out hit. But Cabrera is now hitless in seven at-bats with four strikeouts with men in scoring position during the playoffs.
Both Girardi and Long said changes are not likely today, especially because they want to load the lineup with righty bats against lefty Scott Kazmir.
But what needs to change most is that others need to support Jeter and Rodriguez better. Jeter and A-Rod are doing their best work ever together. The rest of the lineup must be more than impotent bystanders.