DETROIT — A few broken-bat singles might alter the recent ugly numbers attached to Derek Jeter’s name, but the captain isn’t begging for hits.
After going hitless in four at-bats during the first game of yesterday’s day/night doubleheader against the Tigers at Comerica Park, a 2-0 Yankees loss, manager Joe Girardi labeled Jeter’s luck, “terrible.”
Jeter didn’t hit into tough luck in the 8-0 nightcap win, but neither did he get a hit, going 0-for-4 with a walk and scoring a run.
Because Jeter can’t adjust the math on a slump that stretched to 4-for-39 and lowered his batting average to .270, he said he wasn’t concerned.
“You can’t change anything that has happened,” said Jeter, who chased left fielder Johnny Damon to the warning track in the fifth and lined to second baseman Ramon Santiago in the eighth of the first game. “Basically, you have to forget about it. It’s not the first time.”
During the first game, Jeter didn’t get a chance to hit in the clutch — something the Yankees didn’t do well in the opener when their season-high losing streak reached three.
In the three losses the Yankees went 2-for-20 (.100) with runners in scoring position. In Game 1, they went 0-for-6 with Ramiro Pena, who played third while Alex Rodriguez was the DH, went 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position and hit into an inning-ending double play in the seventh.
But the Yankees went 6-for-12 in the second game, collecting four hits in six at-bats in a six-run ninth.
Jeter’s bases-loaded grounder forced a runner at the plate in the ninth of the second game. It was his lone at-bat with a runner in scoring position for the day.
After Game 1, the coldest hitter in the clutch was Brett Gardner, who was hitless in his only at-bat with a runner in scoring position. His RBI infield single in the ninth of the second game was his third in 17 at-bats. Jorge Posada is 0-for-7, Jeter 0-for-8 and Robinson Cano is 1-for-9.
“I don’t walk around thinking about a slump,” said Jeter, who was robbed of an extra-base hit when Magglio Ordonez made a sliding catch in right field Monday night. “I take one game at a time. Hits come, hopefully I get some in the next game.”