CANO WAY! Robinson Cano, who went 1-for-4, reacts after flying out during the eighth inning of the Yankees’ 5-2 loss to the Angels last night. Brett Gardner is tagged out at third base by Alberto Callaspo (inset) during the fifth inning. (
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ANAHEIM, Calif. — Do you know the last American League team to finish 10th or worse in runs scored and still qualify for the playoffs?
It was Mark Teixeira’s 2008 Angels, whose 765 runs ranked them 10th. It’s not an easy trick to execute, especially in the home of the designated hitter.
Which brings us, five years later, to Teixeira’s 2013 Yankees. Their bats continued to underwhelm last night, as they totaled just five hits and three walks in a 5-2 loss to the Angels at Angel Stadium, their fourth straight. With 262 runs, they now rank 10th in the AL.
It’s pretty apparent what the Yankees, good in pitching and lousy in hitting, need to do to climb out of this current hole. They need to pitch even better, with Andy Pettitte’s losing effort last night serving as Exhibit A.
“When you’re struggling, you need somebody to go out there and to throw some zeroes up, and I wasn’t able to do it tonight,” Pettitte said after the game. “I wasn’t able to get it done.”
Pettitte scattered 11 hits, walked one and struck out four against the Angels and their army of right-handed bats, allowing four runs in his seven innings.
In many Yankees years, this effort would have been rewarded with a victory, courtesy of the Yankees’ own phalanx of experienced, successful hitters.
Not with this Yankees team, though. Pettitte celebrates his 41st birthday today with a 3.95 ERA and he already has spent time on the disabled list with a back ailment, but his team could really use a reversion to the 2.87 mark he put up in 12 starts last year. You never want to bet against Pettitte.
“I feel good. I feel like I’m getting there,” he said. “Still getting everything back in shape.
“I feel like I’m getting better and better each start.”
Nevertheless, the Yankees’ only lead of the night, 2-1 in the fourth after rookie David Adams delivered a two-run single, vanished quickly as Pettitte gave back the run in the bottom of the inning on singles by Mark Trumbo and Howie Kendrick, an Alberto Callaspo sacrifice bunt and a Chris Iannetta sacrifice fly.
The Angels jumped ahead with individual runs in the sixth and seventh, only to see the Yankees put men on first and second with no outs in the eighth.
No dice, though: Angels reliever Kevin Jepsen retired Robinson Cano, Vernon Wells and Ichiro Suzuki on pop outs.
Look at the Yankees’ current healthy personnel. Look at all of the track records.
Besides Teixeira, who still is finding his rhythm after a long disabled-list stay it’s the starting pitchers — Pettitte, CC Sabathia and Phil Hughes — who are most likely to tick upward in their production.
That the Yankees still reside in the playoff race can be credited to their pitching.
They have allowed 255 runs, third-best in the AL, and their 3.65 ERA places them fourth.
And this happening with Sabathia owning a disappointing 4.07 ERA and Hughes at a ghastly 4.89, and Pettitte slipping.
Pettitte, Sabathia and Hughes are far safer bets to rebound — if still risky — than the likes of Travis Hafner, Ichiro and Wells, all of whom are well past their primes and two of whom (Hafner and Wells) already have delivered as much for the entire season as the Yankees could have hoped.
It isn’t equitable to ask more of these Yankees pitchers, not when they already have contributed more than their share. Yet with the Yankees’ injured hitters Francisco Cervelli, Curtis Granderson, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and now Kevin Youkilis nowhere close to returning, it’s hard to envision another path to staying afloat.
It’s time to summon the karma of the 2008 Angels — and conveniently overlook the fact they lost, 3-1, to Boston in the AL Division Series thanks to a lousy .683 OPS — and see if that can help.