MLB

Jeter having trouble getting off ground for Yankees

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DETROIT — Joe Girardi doesn’t believe this is all Derek Jeter has to offer. Hitting coach Kevin Long insists a hot streak is coming for the Yankees captain who believes May will be better than April.

Yet, with one of six months done and Jeter hitting ground ball after ground ball and showing no power, the math doesn’t lie.

“The bottom line is he is getting his hits,” Girardi said before last night’s 4-2 loss to the Tigers at Comerica Park, where Jeter singled hard to center the first time up and lined out to first in the final at-bat. “People talk about all the ground balls he hits, but he really has never been a fly ball hitter.

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“If you are not going to hit home runs, you better stay out of the air unless you are going down the line,” he added. “He is finding ways to get his hits and that’s the important thing.”

After going 1-for-4 with a single Jeter is hitting .250 (26-for-104).

Players, managers and coaches often talk about 100 at-bats being a good number to judge how a hitter is doing. Of Jeter’s 26 hits, 24 have been singles, 11 of those infield singles. The doubles have been to left-center and down the right-field line.

After hitting a career-low .270 last year, Jeter and Long went to work on his stride. The move was designed to allow Jeter to drive more balls in the air to left field. Considering that 72 percent of the balls he puts in play have been on the ground, the strategy hasn’t achieve the desired results.

Nevertheless, Jeter said he believes an emphasis on using his legs more to get into the swing has him feeling better.

“I was swinging with my arms and not my legs,” said Jeter, who also explained that during the first two months of the season he was thinking too much and not reacting. “As of late I am doing that better.”

So, is Jeter, who is 48 hits shy of the coveted 3,000 mark, a .250 singles hitter the rest of the way?

“I never short-change any of my players, and Derek takes things as challenges,” Girardi said. “I still think he can be a .300 hitter and be productive.”

The lack of line drives (nine) will be a concern for Girardi only if the numbers don’t improve by June or July.

“I think if it goes on for three or four months, that would be alarming,” Girardi said. “It’s still early, and you are talking about a guy who plays every day and gets 600 at-bats. I don’t want to judge a guy with one-sixth of his at-bats. Maybe he won’t put up 40 doubles, but he has been getting his hits.”

For his career, Jeter has averaged 16 homers, 33 doubles and four triples across 744 plate appearances per year. Last season, his worst batting average-wise, he hit 10 homers, 30 doubles and three triples in 739 plate appearances. His only extra-base hits this season have been two doubles.

Long, who says the excessive ground balls are a product of Jeter waiting on pitches to the last moment to trigger the swing, admitted the lack of extra-base hits is puzzling.

“That’s the one part where we have to say we have to drive the ball and use the lower half,” said Long, who believes Jeter using his legs will provide greater hip torque and allow him to drive balls. “That’s where it comes from. It doesn’t come from quick hands. When you look at the numbers you say, ‘Where are the extra base hits?’ That’s the part of his whole thing where we need to get a little bit better.”

Typically, Jeter prefers to look ahead.

“I come to the stadium and I don’t try to think about what already happened,” Jeter said. “I feel good. I can’t change the first month of the season.”