On Old-Timers’ Day the Yankees offense looked well past its prime for the second straight game against the Orioles.
Joe Girardi’s club fell into a Vidal Nuno funk on Saturday in a 6-1 loss to the Orioles, but what was the excuse Sunday?
On Tanaka Day, they were out-played, out-hustled and out-hit as the Orioles simply hammered the Yankees, 8-0, at Yankee Stadium.
In the end, Girardi admitted his Yankees’ offense has been a disappointment this season.
When asked if he expected more, Girardi said: “I think that is probably fair to say, but we still have a long ways to go and I see signs of us swinging the bats better.’’
A frustrated Girardi also noted a hard slide at third base by the Orioles’ Steve Pearce was “pretty malicious.’’ The slide caused Kelly Johnson to make a throwing error in Baltimore’s four-run eighth.
“I was trying to take him out, there was nothing malicious about it,’’ Pearce explained. “If he feels that way, I’m sorry. Personally I was not trying to hurt the guy. I was just trying to break up the double play.”
It’s called hard baseball. The Yankees had better get used to it. The Old Timers certainly played the game that way.
Explained Girardi: “I’m all for playing hard. I don’t have a problem with playing hard. I took guys out, but that’s a pretty dangerous one because you are going after someone on the side and that’s how you hurt [someone’s] knee. I didn’t think he made any attempt for the bag.’’
The good feelings generated by Old-Timers’ Day didn’t last long even though Masahiro Tanaka was on the mound.
Jonathan Schoop, who has become a force against Tanaka, homered in the second inning, his second home run in his first four at-bats against Tanaka, who dropped to 11-2.
Orioles manager Buck Showalter was having so much fun against his old club he even ordered up a suicide squeeze in the seventh. It didn’t work, but the point was made, the Orioles will try anything to score a run.
The Yankees are in the middle of a key run against the AL East and after winning four straight, they were flattened the last two games by Showalter’s Orioles, being outscored 14-1.
This was a special day where past championship Yankees from Yogi Berra to Hideki Matsui were honored, a day when Goose Gossage got his plaque in Monument Park. It also was a day that showed the warts of this current Yankees’ team.
After Tanaka gave up three runs over seven innings the bullpen fell apart.
The hitters never came alive and the crowd of 47,493 booed lustily when Brian McCann (.222) popped to third for the second out of the fourth after a leadoff double by Jacoby Ellsbury, with the Orioles up, 1-0. Derek Jeter also had a difficult day, hitting into a double play to end the third after the Yankees put runners on first and second.
Tanaka, though, already has made a tremendous impression on everyone.
“You know what I found out in spring training, there is no language barrier with this guy,’’ Gossage said. “He has got one of the greatest personalities that I have ever met. He’s a happy-go-lucky guy, a breath of fresh air. There is an innocence about him that you really don’t see anymore.’’
If Gossage were closing games for Tanaka, he said: “It would be like closing for Ron Guidry. Forget it, I’d have the day off. We wouldn’t have made a good living with guys like Tanaka and Guidry.”
There was no chance for the Yankees to close out a win Sunday because the offense was silenced by right-hander Chris Tillman. Said Brett Gardner, who over-slid third base in the first inning and was tagged out on what should have been a leadoff triple: “[Tanaka] can’t score the runs for us.’’
No, that is up to the Yankees’ hitters and this offense had better pick it up come Monday night in Toronto.