A seven-game losing streak has George Steinbrenner so concerned he is wondering if replacing Joe Torre is the answer.
Last October, The Boss came very close to boxing Torre after the second straight first-round elimination in the postseason. This past Monday, Steinbrenner expressed to Torre how disappointed he was that the Yankees were swept by the Red Sox last weekend in Boston.
Yesterday, the word out of Tampa was that Steinbrenner “was very displeased” about the way his high-priced stable of talent is underachieving and was thinking about a change.
And that was before the Red Sox punished the last-place Yankees, 11-4, in front of 55,005 at Yankee Stadium last night.
Could Torre, who is in the final year of his contract, really be fired before April is finished? Is Torre the reason the starting rotation has melted in the first month and put an alarming workload on the bullpen? Is it Torre’s fault the lineup, so potent through 19 games, has gone 20 innings without an extra-base hit?
If Steinbrenner and the voices he is listening to believe the answers are “yes,” and if the Yankees get swept this weekend by the Red Sox, it’s not out of the realm of the possibility that The Boss could make a change.
Bench coach Don Mattingly and former Yankees catcher Joe Girardi are the names you hear when potential replacements for Torre are mentioned. Working in Girardi’s favor is that he has a year of managing experience. Mattingly was moved from hitting coach to bench coach to be groomed as Torre’s successor.
However, it’s also possible that Steinbrenner will hold off on making a change because the pitching has been so bad.
Last night’s loss lowered the Yankees’ ledger to 8-13 and left them 6½ games behind the AL East-leading Red Sox, who have won four straight against their blood rivals. The seven-game bender is the longest losing streak since a previous seven-game slide late in the 2000 season. It’s the Yankees’ longest losing streak in April since they dropped seven straight in 1989.
“Hopefully, we have bottomed out,” Torre said. “This was the worst game we played all week.”
The offense has been muted the past two games, but pitching sabotaged the Yankees last night. Surprisingly, this time it was Andy Pettitte melting down in the fifth inning after the Yankees presented him with a 4-2 lead by scoring four runs off a wild Daisuke Matsuzaka.
“The guys battled to get the lead and I gave it up. We are in a horrible skid right now,” said Pettitte, who issued four of his five walks in the fifth, when the Red Sox re-took the lead by scoring three runs and chasing the veteran lefty.
“It was extremely disappointing to give up those runs. It was an absolute horrible night as far as mechanically. It was a terrible night not to feel good out there.”
Torre pointed to Pettitte (1-1) not having pitched since last Friday in Boston due to a rainout and the Yankees not wanting Phil Hughes to make his major-league debut against the Red Sox as a reason for the lefty’s poor outing.
“I think he had too much rest,” Torre said of Pettitte, who went 42/3 innings, allowing five runs and six hits. “He mentioned to Gator [pitching coach Ron Guidry] that he was too strong.”
After having Matsuzaka on the ropes in the fourth, when Johnny Damon drove in two runs and Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada plated one each, the Yankees didn’t do much. Matsuzaka (3-2), who is 2-0 against the Yankees, gave up four runs, five hits and walked four in six innings.
The Red Sox tacked on a run in the eighth and four in the ninth against Mariano Rivera, who was used to make sure the rust doesn’t get too deep.