Here is something that probably needs to end right now, this idea that the Yankees are a good team that is playing badly. Until further notice, they are a bad team.
That is if your definition of a bad team is a team that will find whatever is necessary on a daily basis to lose.
The Yankees are not seven games under .500 because of bad umpire calls, though they certainly have whined enough about bad calls. On Sunday, the umps made two bad calls in their favor and the Yankees still lost. Again bad teams find what is necessary to lose, that includes failing to overcome bad umpire calls and the inability to fully capitalize when bad calls go your way.
There was a period from the ninth inning on Friday against the Angels to the eighth inning on Monday against the Blue Jays – a span of 26 innings – in which a team with Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon, and Bobby Abreu and Jorge Posada had RBIs only from Doug Mientkiewicz, Wil Nieves and Melky Cabrera. How is that possible?
It is possible this way: A bad team found a way to lose, including having its star-level offensive performers going into blackout mode again.
Scott Proctor hadn’t walked a batter in his previous four outings before walking three consecutive batters to produce a loss to the Angels on Sunday.
The Yankees lost a game to the Mets, in part, because Robinson Cano made as many errors in that game (3) as he has the rest of the year combined (3).
Good teams find ways to win, bad teams find ways to lose. Right now, the Yankees are a bad team.
Forget their famous names, just look at the results. Opposing teams have learned that if you throw strikes to the Yankees, they have limited ability to string together hits via offense. Their bullpen just walks too many hitters.
How about if I told you before the season, that nearly a third of the way through the schedule that Alex Rodriguez would lead the majors in homers, that Jorge Posada and Derek Jeter would be among the top five in the AL in hitting, and Andy Pettitte would be fifth in the league in ERA – and tops among lefties? That would have all but assured the Yankees would have a good record.
They don’t have a good record because a bad team has figured out how to squander all of that.