OAKLAND, Calif. — Look at the bright side, Yankees, at least the sewage didn’t back up Saturday night at O.co Coliseum.
Everything went down the drain for the Yankees, who are going to have to come up with one more hitter on the trade front.
The O, by the way, stands for Obsolete.
On Friday night, Mark Texieira sat in front of his locker here and said these fateful words:
“Every win is a big win for us. We don’t have a huge margin for error.’’
That margin of error became that much thinner Saturday night when Teixeira was a late scratch with rib cage tightness before the Yankees’ miserable 5-1 loss to the Athletics. The defeat snapped the Yankees win streak at four games.
Teixeira said he did not believe the injury was the always frightening oblique, and said it was a muscle that spasmed in his “mid-back, below the left shoulder.
“Hopefully,’’ added a frustrated Teixeira, “it’s only a one-day thing.’’
The Yankees have only so much depth. At first base, they are really thin. That’s why it would have been wise, as pointed out in this space weeks ago, if the Yankees had gone out and signed Kendrys Morales. The Yankees didn’t go there.
The Twins got Morales and the Yankees have little depth at first, where Teixeira is playing with a surgically repaired right wrist, and also missed time earlier this season with hamstring issues.
Then, in the bottom of the fourth inning it got really weird.
A bank of lights in left field, right above Reggie Jackson’s retired No. 9, never came on and, just before Jed Lowrie came to the plate in that fourth, the game was halted for 38 minutes.
This is a ballpark infamous for bad happenings, like sewer lines backing up.
Jackson, by the way, was at the stadium and spent much of batting practice giving pointers to Carlos Beltran, who was not in the lineup. Beltran is battling back from a bone spur in his right elbow and still is not right. Brian Roberts also was given the night off, and Sunday too, because of a sore right knee as a result of twice fouling a ball off that knee.
The Yankees are going to have to add a bat, somewhere, somehow.
When the lights go down in the city …
The Night the lights went out in Oakland …
Any way you say it, this ballpark continues to be an embarrassment to MLB and the ridiculous circuit breaker delay certainly didn’t help Yankees starter Hiroki Kuroda.
The Yankees were an embarrassment in the bottom of the fifth, when young catcher John Ryan Murphy, who had to be inserted into the lineup once Teixeira was removed and Brian McCann moved to first base, allowed two passed balls in the two-run frame.
The Yankees looked helpless against former Met prospect Scott Kazmir, who continues to be an amazing comeback story.
Batters came into the night with a .125 average with runners in scoring position against the lefty. The Yankees were 0-for-4 against Kazmir with RISP. The last time Kuroda was on the mound, the Yankees were 1-for-17 with RISP.
Yankees management needs to take a long, hard look at this lineup and figure out if it is time to add someone like Padres third baseman Chase Headley. He is hitting .206, but he hit his sixth home run of the season in Saturday’s 5-0 win over the Mets.
Joe Girardi put Kelly Johnson, batting .223 with four home runs, at third and moved Yangervis Solarte, who has cooled off considerably, to second to fill in for Roberts.
Without Teixeira in the Yankees’ lineup, there is a huge power outage. He leads the Yankees with 11 home runs. McCann is next with seven. Beltran owns five home runs, but you have to wonder if he will be able to drive the ball with his elbow issue. He is 4-for-30 since returning from the disabled list.
All in all, this was another night the lights went out on the Yankees’ offense.