ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Cory Wade was the Yankees’ best player this weekend.
I guess I can go on for another 700 words to describe the implications of that. And since I am contractually compelled to do just that, I will.
But you get the point. This would be like a $200 million play opening on Broadway and a reviewer citing the third girl from the left in the chorus as the high point of the show.
The Yankees were outclassed physically, strategically and mentally at Tropicana Field. That is 0-for-3, matching their record against the Rays, including yesterday’s sweep-finalizing 3-0 setback.
Perspective demands we point out that the last time the Yankees opened 0-3 was 1998. That unleashed a Joe Torre Watch. His firing seemed inevitable. Of course, the Yankees won 114 games, the World Series and, arguably, the title of greatest team ever.
If George Steinbrenner were still around and the current situation — Yankees winless, Mets loss-less — existed, well, another Yankees manager named Joe would be feeling the inferno intensifying. Especially since pretty much whatever Girardi did against the Rays backfired while his counterpart, Joe Maddon, had mostly a golden touch, particularly when it came to lineup and defensive configurations.
But the anti-impetuous Hal Steinbrenner runs the Yankees these days, so Girardi is safe. Nevertheless, Girardi knows a three-game losing streak to begin the year looks and feels different than a 40-20 team falling to 40-23. So following the sweep, despite citing having a “veteran” and “resilient” squad, Girardi gave his team “a little pep talk.”
His message was brief and delivered without volume or panic: The season is so long that being three games back after three games means you have to make up a half-game a month for the season’s six months to tie for first. Consider that Tampa Bay began last year 0-6 and really did not begin making up ground until a historic September allowed the Rays to overtake Boston for the wild card.
So it will be a while before we know the significance of the Mets and Orioles opening 3-0 or the Red Sox opening 0-3, or what the stumbling-out-of-the-dugout starts mean for the Phillies, Braves and Marlins, those financial champs of the offseason.
What we do know, however, are two key factors exist in 2012 that make even early-season missteps problematic for the Yankees: 1) The AL East projects as a beast with four teams — Yankees, Rays, Red Sox and Blue Jays — all legit contenders, which matters because 2) There is a second wild card this year. Thus, the penalty for not winning the division is either to miss the playoffs entirely or — at best — to play a one-game knockout to advance to the Division Series.
Here is another item we know: The Yankees have to play better that this.
Their starters — CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda and Phil Hughes — allowed 13 runs on 21 hits and nine walks in 16 1/3 innings. Mariano Rivera blew the opener.
Girardi had Derek Jeter as the DH on Saturday, and his shortstop fill-in, Eduardo Nunez, committed a first-inning error that set Kuroda on a poor path. Girardi put Nick Swisher at DH yesterday, and Raul Ibanez botched a Matt Joyce first-inning liner to right into an RBI triple to hurt Hughes at the outset.
The Yankees did score six runs in each of the first two games, but squandered multiple chances to blow open the first game and did not really threaten until a too-little, too-late four runs in the middle game. Yesterday, the Yankees were shut out on three hits — all doubles — because they went 1-for-9 with runners on base, including 0-for-5 with men in scoring position.
For the series, they were hitless in 12 at-bats in “close and late” situations — at-bats with your team leading by one run, tied, or having the potential tying run on base, at bat, or on deck.
The Rays defenders — positioned via the organization’s devotion to computer-generated spray charts — seemed to be standing wherever the Yankees hit the ball. The hitters claimed not to be unnerved. But having so many potential hits become outs due to a well-positioned Ray led to a bunch of frustrated reactions between home and first.
It was that kind of lost weekend for the Yankees.
Cory Wade, the 23rd most important player on the team, struck out five of the nine men he faced covering two scoreless appearances. Besides that, it was hard to find Yankees positives.