After you run through the laundry list of mistakes the Yankees made Monday night there is a realization that as bad as the home team played it really didn’t make that much of a difference.
Derek Jeter made his second mental mistake in four games. Brian McCann instructed David Phelps to throw to third instead of first on a sacrifice bunt. Ichiro Suzuki rounded third base too far and killed a rally. Kelly Johnson had a hard-hit grounder whistle under his glove at first for a two-run single.
And yet the common theme that has run through every recent Yankees loss glossed over the mistakes: The Bronx Bombers are firing blanks.
It didn’t help that Felix Hernandez was on the mound for the Mariners, who dropped in and out of Yankee Stadium for a 10-2 makeup victory witnessed by an announced crowd of 41,539.
However, in the three previous games against the Twins the Yankees scored six runs. And they have hit one homer in the last seven games.
“We are not hitting the ball out of the ballpark and it’s tough to score runs,’’ manager Joe Girardi said of a lineup that misses Carlos Beltran and Mark Teixeira and isn’t getting enough muscle flexing from Alfonso Soriano and McCann.
David Phelps matched Hernandez through six innings when the score was tied, 2-2, but four runs in the seventh carried Hernandez to his eighth win in nine decisions.
“His ball moved as much as I have seen it,’’ said Jeter, who went 0-for-3 against Hernandez, who gave up two runs, eight hits and fanned eight in seven innings. “He is a tough assignment. We kept it close then they had the big inning.’’
Jeter played a part in the Mariners scoring in the fourth when he scooped up a ball that popped out of a sliding Brett Gardner’s glove while it rolled around in foul territory down the left-field line. Jeter corralled the ball and kept jogging away from the infield thinking it was foul.
It wasn’t.
With Phelps screaming on the mound “Throw the ball, throw the ball’’ Jeter finally turned and threw it to third but Kyle Seager, who went 4-for-5 with a homer, three RBIs, two triples and a double, was in with a leadoff triple. He scored on a fielder’s choice to give the Mariners a 2-0 lead.
“I was running in foul territory and it never crossed my mind,’’ Jeter said. “I almost gave it to a fan. I thought it was foul but it was fair.’’
Friday night Jeter assumed Gardner was going to score and rounded first only to be caught off base.
Girardi didn’t seem too distraught over the bevy of mistakes. He thought Phelps (1-3) throwing to third on Endy Chavez bunt was the right move. He forgave Ichiro for over-running third base for the final out of the fourth when the Yankees scored twice and would have had the bases loaded for Gardner. As for Michael Saunder’s grounder getting under Johnson’s glove, Girardi said he wasn’t sure what happened because he hadn’t looked at a replay.
“I just didn’t make it,’’ Johnson said of the fatal play. “It was a ground ball to my left and I was playing in.’’
Since it didn’t really make a difference outside the final score, Girardi wasn’t asked about Alfredo Aceves giving up two homers and four runs in a mop-up ninth inning.
“Home runs are nice but you have to find other ways to do it,’’ Jeter said when pressed about the lack of long balls which used to be the Yankees’ calling card and is now their biggest weakness.