A day later, everyone involved in the great Jorge Posada lineup soap opera found their better angels — and spin doctors.
The verbal fire extinguishers were deployed, notably with Posada apologizing to Joe Girardi and Brian Cashman for pulling himself from the lineup Saturday night after he was installed as the No. 9 hitter for the first time as a starter in 12 years.
So following a day that evoked The Bronx Zoo era, the Yankees publicly returned to the vanilla flavor they have favored in recent years, coinciding with George Steinbrenner’s retreat from the public spotlight of the franchise.
RED SOX SWEEP BUMBLING YANKEES
POSADA APOLOGIZES, WON’T BE DISCIPLINED
JETER GOES TO BAT FOR LONGTIME TEAMMATE
VACCARO: POSADA’S NOT THE FIRST YANKEE HERO TO NEED PASS FROM FANS
But as successful as the Yankees were at executing Public Relations 101 yesterday, the underlying problems that caused the rift persist: Posada’s poor offense, the abundance of aging/declining legends and a roster that has betrayed significant flaws.
So the embers to ignite a new blaze still burn, ready to spark anew if Posada cannot lift his average or if, say, Derek Jeter must fall in the lineup (he’s slumping again, with three singles in his last 23 at-bats) or if the offense and bullpen are not the strengths anticipated.
It means we are going to find out an awful lot about the mental fortitude of this clubhouse and also about Girardi’s skills in navigating what projects to be his most combustible issue as the Yankees skipper.
“The one thing about my job in managing great Yankees that have had great careers and they’re getting older, there’s nothing I can go to, there’s no manual on my desk, there’s no crystal ball on my table that I can go to and say this is exactly how you’re supposed to do it,” Girardi said.
In other words, Girardi cannot peer into one of those big binders he loves for clues on how to walk the fine line between honoring his win-now job description while not disrespecting a group that has helped bring so much winning to the franchise. That is a difficult double for a manager who is not a master of inter-personal relations.
This all would be easier for Girardi if the cleansing agent of victorious success were minimizing the troubles. But the Red Sox won 7-5 last night, completing a three-game sweep of the slipshod Yankees, who have lost five straight and nine of 12.
The bullpen again is Mariano Rivera and a bunch of other guys. Rafael Soriano was unavailable yet again last night with elbow discomfort; his signing feeling more and more like a blunder. Meanwhile, the offense is Curtis Granderson and the dead spots. Jeter, for example, has an OPS (.633) barely better than Posada’s (.627). For now, though, Posada is the designated scapegoat.
“We’re trying to do something special here,” said Posada, who drew a walk in the eighth inning as a pinch-hitter. “It’s about the team now. It’s not about Jorge Posada. It’s not about Joe Girardi. It’s about the Yankees. I let some people down.”
It was the right tack; Posada contrite about a bad day in a rather exemplary career. But, again, that merely whitewashed the immediate stain. Let’s see if he still is not hitting in two weeks. Posada either revives or goes to the bench, maybe to the waiver wire.
That is going to weigh on him — and a whole clubhouse. No matter what he said yesterday, Posada feels stung by Girardi and the organization. He did not lash out Saturday because of one act he viewed as disrespectful. This is serial going back to their uneasy playing days together and also incorporating bench time Girardi doled out the past two postseasons when others caught A.J. Burnett. And, yes, it is about the “why me?” aspect of being moved to ninth when so many are slumping.
There remains a bubbling lack of trust between Posada and his manager, a growing unease between the players and Cashman’s front office. That fosters a tension that was last seen with the Yankees during the worst of Alex Rodriguez’s diva days. Can this group of Yankees work through that and the sloppy, ineffective play?
And can the uptight Girardi deal with this simmering problem while trying to figure out if his bullpen and offense really aren’t all that special?
One day of good public relations work does not cure this whole patient.