SIESTA TIME! Robinson Cano, who snapped a postseason record 0-for-29 slump with a single in the ninth, lounges in the Yankees dugout during the Bombers’ 2-1 loss to the Tigers in Game 3 of the ALCS in Detroit. (AP)
DETROIT — This isn’t about advancing to the World Series anymore. The Yankees stand so far away from the Fall Classic, they couldn’t see the Commissioner’s Trophy with the Hubble Space Telescope.
This is about restoring some sense of dignity around the industry’s winningest team. And it starts with Robinson Cano.
The Yankees’ most valuable player of 2012 stroked a ninth-inning single off old teammate Phil Coke last night in American League Championship Series Game 3, putting the game-tying run in scoring position as pinch runner Jayson Nix advanced to second base, and that ended the second baseman’s postseason record 0-for-29 slump. October hero Raul Ibanez struck out to end the game, however, leaving the Yankees as 2-1 losers to the Tigers at Comerica Park and putting baseball’s most expensive club in an ultra-dangerous, 3-0 hole.
For the good of everyone, Cano probably should continue to climb out of the hole he built for himself and his team. So he doesn’t head into the winter drawing the months-long fury of Yankees fans.
“I never was thinking that I was 0-for-25, 0-for-30,” Cano said after the game. “Just forget about what happened and try to get on base for the guys.”
Of anyone on the Yankees’ current roster — healthy, so let’s not count the injured Derek Jeter — Cano might be the last guy you would peg for the sort of meltdown he just experienced, so perfect is his swing.
Yet here he is, having just climbed out of baseball purgatory, and it’s times like now when the haters come out and point out that Cano doesn’t wear his emotions as passionately as did, say, Paul O’Neill. Or as does Mark Teixeira. That he looks too relaxed while sitting in the Yankees’ dugout, his feet resting on a cooler. And that he doesn’t hustle out of the batter’s box all of the time.
Free advice: That’s not a good use of your time. Know that Cano works as hard as anyone in a Yankees uniform. He can be found on the field early in every home game, working with Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long. He cares deeply, and he obviously has been frustrated by his performance.
Does he sometimes not all run out on balls he hits? Yup, and it’s terrible. Yet you accomplish little by viewing that in a vacuum. You conduct a full Cano audit, and his positives outweigh his negatives. Just like you forgive Jeter for his treatment of Alex Rodriguez when A-Rod first joined the Yankees.
Down 3-0, going into Game 4, sure, you want to win and try emulating the 2004 Red Sox. Nevertheless, you also have to think some about 2013 and beyond. Cano, who turns 30 next week, represents an important part of the Yankees’ future. At the least, he will be on the team next year, once the Yankees exercise their $15 million team option on him. And this horrible postseason notwithstanding, the Yankees will probably discuss internally the prospect of committing Cano to a long-term contract, if not actually go ahead and negotiate with him.
That’s why Cano could eradicate a sliver of the bitterness with a good game tonight. If he can provide some run support for Yankees starter CC Sabathia, and if Sabathia can dominate the Tigers the way he did the Orioles, then maybe the Yankees could make this a little less of a disaster.
“I’m not going to put my head down,” Cano said. “I’ll forget what happened the first three games. … We’re going to keep positive. It’s not over until we make the last out.”
The Yankees aren’t duplicating the ’04 Sawx. No way, no how. If they can avoid duplicating, say, the 1976 Yankees, though, and if Cano can stop his tribute to Dave “Mr. May” Winfield from the 1981 World Series, then they will have avoided one headache in an offseason that figures to be replete with plenty of others.