Derek Jeter had plenty of company not coming through in the clutch last night against the Blue Jays.
Eight times the Yankees batted with runners in scoring position and didn’t get a hit. They had bases loaded and no outs in the fifth and didn’t score. The bases were juiced in the eighth with one out and nothing.
Mark Teixeira popped out and Alex Rodriguez banged into an inning-ending double play in the fifth. Rodriguez fanned to strand two in the seventh and Nick Swisher left three on base with an in ning-ending ground out in the eighth.
And yet the 5-3 Yankees loss in front of a Yankee Stadium crowd of 40,830 seemingly attached itself to Jeter’s eighth inning at-bat against former Yankees reliever Octavio Dotel.
“It’s always frustrating to not come through but I like to be in those situations,” Jeter said. “If you don’t have confidence you might as well not go up there.”
Blue Jays manager John Farrell stayed with Dotel, who loaded the bases by walking Russell Martin and Brett Gardner, against Jeter, who was 1-for-6 with three strikeouts against the right-hander. Farrell’s other option was Jon Rauch, another right-hander, who Jeter was 1-for-3 against and throwing in the bullpen.
Dotel jumped ahead, 0-2, fired two pitches out of the strike zone and then blew a 91-mph fastball by a swinging Jeter. One pitch later Swisher grounded out.
“I chased a bad pitch,” Jeter said of the fateful pitch. “It might have been at the top of the strike zone. I am not sure.”
Jeter, who went 1-for-5 with a bunt single, is batting .188 (3-for-16) with runners in scoring position and .258 overall.
And while Jeter’s eighth-inning at-bat was the signature moment of the loss because of who he is, it wasn’t the only moment of failure.
“It wasn’t our night, we had plenty of opportunities,” said Teixeira, who went 1-for-4 after missing Thursday night’s game with a jammed right shoulder and came within inches of hitting Ricky Romero in the face with a sizzling liner in the third.
Rodriguez, who is 3-for-23 (.130) since homering a week ago in Baltimore, killed the fifth-inning scoring chance when he went after Romero’s first pitch and turned it into a 6-4-3 double play.
“The bases loaded and Tex, Alex and [Robinson] Cano coming up, I will take my chances,” Swisher said of the fifth. “You can’t say we didn’t have chances. We had a lot of them.”
Cano’s work with hitting coach Kevin Long on pulling the ball during a late-afternoon drill paid off with two homers to right and hiked his total to eight.
Freddy Garcia (1-1) wasn’t close to being as sharp as he was in the first two starts. In five innings he allowed three runs, seven hits and five walks (one intentional).
“I have to do a better job,” said Garcia, who gave up solo homers to Jose Bautista and J.P. Arencibia.
So does David Robertson throwing to second base. His toss that went into center field after he stepped off the rubber to get Bautista trying to swipe second with speedster Rajai Davis on third, cost the Yankees a run in the sixth.
“I panicked. I didn’t set my feet,” Robertson said. “There is nobody to blame except me.”
For that play, yes.
For the loss? Try Jeter with help from Rodriguez, Teixeira and Swisher.