ST . LOUIS — Remember the “Seinfeld” episode when the world started turning in George’s favor — he got a job with the Yankees after ripping George Steinbrenner to his face — just as Elaine saw her life fall apart?
That came to mind watching our two New York teams hit with runners in scoring position these last few days. For just as the Mets cost their hitting coach Dave Hudgens his job because they stranded enough teammates to fill out a Ponzi scheme, the Yankees were putting on a clinic in the skill set.
“I just like the way we’re fundamentally sound right now. Coming up with some big hits when we need to,” Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long said Tuesday, before the Yankees continued their series with the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. “This game’s contagious, and when guys start to do that, instead of thinking that you’re not going to come through, everybody starts thinking they’re going to get the job done.”
The three-game winning streak they brought into Tuesday’s action came, on the offensive side, largely as a result of the Yankees’ ability to capitalize on rallies — not with grand power, but rather with good at-bats. In their Saturday and Sunday victories over the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field and then the 12-inning, 6-4 decision over the Cardinals Monday, the Yankees went 10-for-24 with runners in scoring position, adding three walks, three sacrifice flies, two hit batters and one sacrifice bunt.
Nine of those 10 hits were singles and the 10th a double (by Alfonso Soriano on Saturday), giving the Yankees an unusual slash line of .417/.469/.458 with runners in scoring position during the winning streak.
The skill remains one of the game’s most elusive to fully define. After all, the results often don’t reflect the realities, all the more so now with the increase in defensive shifts. When the Yankees came back against the White Sox last Saturday en route to a 10-inning, 4-3 victory, the game-tying run in the ninth inning came via a perfectly placed, humpback, soft line-drive single by Brian McCann. Yet only a sensory-deprived person would contend that there’s no positive or negative momentum involved.
“It’s probably more mental than anything else,” Long said. “There’s a good feeling, there’s a good vibe in the dugout when those situations present themselves.”
The Cardinals won the National League Central last year thanks to some historically good hitting in clutch situations. They put up a .330/.402/.463 line, with the .330 batting average marking the highest since reliable tracking of this number began in 1974, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
This year? With Carlos Beltran’s departure to the Yankees their only major personnel loss, the Cardinals had dropped to .242/.324/336 before Tuesday’s game.
“As far as our guys go, they have a generally good approach to hitting. They’re guys who don’t try and do too much,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said Tuesday. “That’s another thing that you can’t really measure. Some guys who walk up there, you can tell that they completely switch their game plan they’ve had all day just because they have guys in scoring position
“What our guys have been able to do the last couple of years, especially last year, is carry a very consistent, maintainable approach that works with nobody on or guys all over the bases. And then it comes down to confidence. That’s always the X-factor.”
Beltran’s leaving alone wouldn’t have such a dramatic impact, so you figure the Cardinals have simply fallen back to Earth and felt an associated confidence loss.
The Yankees’ problems in these situations have been well-documented, particularly when the likes of Curtis Granderson, Alex Rodriguez and Nick Swisher struggled. For the season, the Yankees entered Tuesday with an underwhelming .253/.314/.351 line.
“It’s part of the game that is very important to scoring runs,” Long said. “You’re going to go through good stretches with it and bad stretches. You just try to fight through the bad stretches and ride out the good ones.”
Long expressed sympathy for his fallen contemporary Hudgens. “I know how much time and effort they put into it,” he said, speaking of hitting coaches in general. “How much they care. It’s not a good feeling.”
He hopes his Yankees can stay on the Costanza side of the clutch-hitting roller coaster for quite a while. It’s an awfully good feeling.