Ken Davidoff

Ken Davidoff

MLB

Even an idiot knows these Yankees just don’t hit

We’ll spend Sunday discussing Masahiro Tanaka and Brian McCann and splitters and fastballs and Mike Napoli and “What an idiot!” because, why not? It’s a terrific subplot from Red Sox 2, Yankees 1 on Saturday night at Yankee Stadium, running rife with the sort of details that make the game so entertaining.

As long as we understand that the Yankees didn’t really lose this game, seeing their two-game winning streak swirl down the drain in a flash, because of a couple of Tanaka shakeoffs. And that Tanaka’s on-mound decision-making does not rank as a serious problem, even now that he has lost two straight starts.

No, the Yankees remain a conundrum because they just don’t hit. They had an out on this night, as they fell short to Red Sox ace Jon Lester and super-closer Koji Uehara. Nevertheless, what does it say about this lineup that the Yankees had Carlos Beltran, Alfonso Soriano and McCann coming to bat in the bottom of the ninth — after Napoli’s stunning, go-ahead homer just over the Stadium’s inviting right field wall in the top of the inning — and you pretty much knew this game was over?

“We just didn’t come through for Tanaka,” said Beltran, who struck out, followed by a (pinch-hitter) Ichiro Suzuki lineout to center field and McCann strikeout. “We couldn’t get the big hit.”

The Yankees have scored 318 runs this season, placing them 12th in the American League. The culprits remain most of all the three men scheduled to bat in the bottom of the ninth, though Ichiro has faded with increased playing time as anticipated.

The struggles of Beltran (.209/.267/.388), Soriano (.228/.251/.381) and McCann (.224/.283/.369) have given the Yankees marginal room for error, both within games and within the greater sample of the actual season. On Saturday, the Yankees didn’t get their first hit until the sixth inning, when Brett Gardner singled. They scored their first run in the third by virtue of a Stephen Drew error on a Brian Roberts grounder, Lester hitting Yangervis Solarte with a pitch, Gardner sacrifice bunt and Derek Jeter groundout.

For the night, the Yankees went hitless in five at-bats with runners in scoring position. Most painful for them, they put runners on first and second with one out in the sixth, thanks to back-to-back singles by Jeter and Jacoby Ellsbury, and saw Mark Teixeira fly out harmlessly to right field and Beltran strike out.

The FOX cameras and audio captured an exultant Napoli yelling, “What an idiot!” after he connected on a 1-and-2 Tanaka fastball and put the Red Sox ahead. For sure, you wondered what would compel Tanaka to not go back to his breaking stuff after Napoli swung through a splitter on the previous pitch.

Yet McCann defended his pitcher.

“Every pitch he throws is the right pitch,” the catcher said. “He throws it with conviction. It was the right pitch.”

It is a bit of conventional wisdom you often hear: The pitcher has to be comfortable with what he’s throwing, rather than just giving in to his catcher. And Tanaka obviously has not been your ordinary rookie this season.

For the Yankees, the real shame is that Tanaka owns an 11-3 record and he easily could be even better. Has has yet to allow more than three earned runs in each of his 16 starts, and in his bullpen-saving complete game Saturday, he lowered his ERA to 2.10.

Moreover, given the current state of the Yankees’ starting rotation, it hurts the team all the more when it doesn’t win a Tanaka start. On Sunday, the Yankees will turn to rookie Chase Whitley, who overachieved dramatically in his first seven starts before falling back to Earth in his most recent start in Toronto.

Just as pertinent, though, will be how the Yankees fare against Red Sox starter John Lackey. For if this lineup continues to underwhelm as it has so far, with the season nearly halfway done, the Yankees won’t be able to shake off missing the playoffs for a second straight season.