ST . LOUIS — Dearly departed film critic Roger Ebert reviewed “The Natural,” the 1984 baseball movie starring Robert Redford, and complained that the on-the-field scenes didn’t pass his smell test: “When a team is losing, it makes Little League errors. When it’s winning, the hits are so accurate they even smash the bad guy’s windows.”
Thirty years later, life imitated art at Busch Stadium.
The Yankees brought a three-game winning streak into Tuesday because they had been playing outstanding fundamental baseball, highlighted by great situational hitting and clutch defense. That winning streak ended with perhaps their worst fundamental game of the season, culminating in a 6-0 loss to the Cardinals.
If there’s a takeaway from this stinker, it’s that the Yankees really miss Mark Teixeira, who sat out his second straight game due to pain in his surgically repaired right wrist. The Yankees’ lineup without middle-of-the-order threats Teixeira and Carlos Beltran (right elbow) managed little pop against Cardinals starting pitcher Lance Lynn, who threw his first career shutout, and Teixeira’s inexperienced backup, Kelly Johnson, committed his third error of the season at first base. It sure seems like the Yankees should search outside the organization for a superior Plan B at first.
So on a day that began with them feeling on top of the New York baseball world — after all, the Mets just fired their hitting coach Dave Hudgens because of the team’s inability to hit with runners in scoring position — the Yankees put on a performance more befitting the 1962 Mets.
“We didn’t play a very good game today, but we had run off three pretty good games in a row,” Joe Girardi said, dismissing a question about his team’s possible fatigue. “That’s just part of the game. You have ups and downs.”
Maybe, but you’d understand if the Yankees felt wiped following their 12-inning, 6-4 victory over the Cardinals Monday, their third extra-inning victory on this road trip — a game in which defensive excellence by Brett Gardner and Brendan Ryan made the win possible. Yankees starting pitcher David Phelps deserved far better in his homecoming start Tuesday, getting victimized by a Brian Roberts error right after Johnson’s miscue in the home team’s four-run third and receiving absolutely no run support. Johnson, making his 17th start of the season at first base after starting there just twice in his previous nine years, couldn’t execute a catch-and-tag swipe on Allen Craig’s grounder to Derek Jeter in the third inning; the ball fell out of Johnson’s glove for his third error at first base, Matt Holliday scored from third for a 2-0 Cardinals lead and the bases remained loaded.
“I think that play could happen to just about everybody,” Johnson said, when asked if his inexperience contributed to the sequence.
On the very next play, Jhonny Peralta hit a potential double-play grounder to Roberts, and the second baseman let the ball roll under his legs for another error; two runs came in, and the rout was on.
“We certainly as a defense take the blame for that one,” Roberts said.
The Yankees put together a .417/.469/.458 slash line with runners in scoring position during their three-game run over the White Sox (two wins) and Cardinals (one). Of their 10 hits in 24 at-bats, nine had been singles and the 10th a double (by Alfonso Soriano on Saturday). On Tuesday against Lynn, the Yankees went hitless in nine at-bats, drawing two walks, with runners in scoring position.
“Fastball, curveball mostly. A few cutters,” Girardi said of Lynn. “Moving it to both sides of the plate.”
Before the game, Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long expressed sympathy for his former Mets equivalent Hudgens. Asked if he feels bad for hitting coaches who lose their jobs, Long said, “Yeah, I do. I know how much time and effort they put into it. How much they care. It’s not a good feeling.”
The Yankees came to work Tuesday with confidence all over the field. They punched out having exhibited a massive display of incompetence. The plummet from great to terrible seemed anything but natural.