Can Kendrys Morales pitch out of the bullpen?
So goes the journey of these 2014 Yankees: On a night that offered a big-picture glimpse of encouragement, they nevertheless fell short once again.
Mark Teixeira’s two RBIs Tuesday night, in his first game back from a cortisone shot to heal his ailing right wrist, were neutralized by the four runs surrendered by the Yankees’ formerly reliable bullpen.
Throw in a run that Yankees starting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda gave up, and you have a 10-inning, 5-2 loss to Oakland, the Yankees’ third straight and fourth in five games on this homestand.
“You’ve just got to keep running them out there,” manager Joe Girardi said of his position players, who have totaled 10 runs in these last five games. “And they’ve got to get the job done. That’s the bottom line.”
The travails of Teixeira and fellow injured switch-hitter Carlos Beltran (right elbow) have stirred up much consternation among the Yankees and their fan base, with the club at least discussing internally the wisdom of going after Morales, the free-agent first baseman/designated hitter who will likely sign with a team once the amateur draft begins on Thursday.
So it served as quite meaningful that Teixeira, who had seemed quite anxious about the pain in his surgically repaired wrist, felt good enough to launch a tie-breaking, sixth-inning home run to left field — his team-leading 10th — off Oakland starter (and former Mets wunderkind) Scott Kazmir. Teixeira also drove in the Yankees’ first run on a first-inning pop fly to No Man’s Land in right field, bringing home Brett Gardner from second base.
That, of course, means that no other Yankee drove in a run. And a fine outing by Hiroki Kuroda (one run in 6 ²/₃ innings against the dangerous Athletics) went to waste when stud rookie Dellin Betances surrendered the tying run in the eighth and sophomore Adam Warren got rocked for three runs in the 10th.
Girardi penciled Teixeira into his starting lineup with the understanding that Teixeira’s batting practice would deliver the final verdict. And to watch Teixeira take batting practice was hardly to take in a resurgent hitter. Instead, Teixeira looked tentative from both sides of the plate, and when his teammates took their turn, he fiddled with his right hand, as if gauging the pain level.
Nevertheless, “He said he was fine. I asked him,” Girardi said. “He said he felt good. Kind of keep your fingers crossed and hope he feels good tomorrow.”
Teixeira stayed on the lineup card and in the game and finished 2-for-5 — 2-for-4 right-handed and 0-for-1 lefty — and if this hardly takes him out of the woods, it’s a start. Teixeira didn’t speak to reporters after the game.
In St. Louis last week, Teixeira lamented that he played nearly every day — he started in 30 of 31 games — once he came off the disabled list for his right hamstring injury. Resting more often, he said, was “probably the smart thing to do, but we never do that. So we play until it hurts. That’s kind of the way I’ve played since I was a rookie. Kind of the way it is.”
Yankees officials, meanwhile, have continually asserted their confidence that Teixeira will be just fine, even as such statements seem to contradict the sports conventional wisdom that you treat the patient more than you treat the symptoms.
It’s hard to completely avoid acrimony during long relationships; shoot, even Derek Jeter got into it with his Yankees bosses a few years back. But if Teixeira doesn’t get any healthier with age, you wonder how many more of these uncomfortable episodes we’ll witness between now and the end of his eight-year, $180 million contract in 2016.
Forget about the Yankees’ future, though; there’s plenty of present-day discomfort to go around. The bullpen, so brilliant on the team’s road trip through Chicago and St. Louis, has melted down at home. Consider that in three of these home losses, the Yankees led in the ninth (Sunday against Minnesota), led in the eighth (Monday) and were tied in the seventh (Monday against Seattle).
At a time when the Yankees have so little room for error, their bullpen repeatedly has failed them. Eventually, Teixeira and his fellow big earners on the offensive side have to significantly increase that room for error. Or else this club will be about as relevant as Morales was in April and May.