MLB

Hitless Ellsbury at center of tough start

HOUSTON — Outside of Masahiro Tanaka, the biggest splash the Yankees made last offseason was the signing of Jacoby Ellsbury.

Despite his $153 million price tag, he’s not treating his sluggish start any differently than he would at any other point in his career.

“I think regardless of what my contract is, I play the same way I did my first year,” Ellsbury said after his second hitless night in a 3-1 loss to Houston. “I do everything the same when I’m on the field. None of that other stuff matters.”

While he hasn’t picked up any hits, Ellsbury has been pretty pleased with his at-bats, including his walk and stolen base in the seventh Wednesday.

“I was happy with that,” Ellsbury said of the swipe, which put him in scoring position as the potential tying run before Derek Jeter struck out to end the inning. “They knew I was going, it was just a matter of when.”

Still, he would like to have a hit next to his name at some point.

“It will be nice when we get all the firsts out of the way,” Ellsbury said. “That goes for hits and wins. It’ll happen. It’s gonna come.”

It probably doesn’t help that the Astros’ new center fielder and leadoff hitter, Dexter Fowler, has pounded Yankees pitching during the series.

Maybe the Yankees acquired the wrong center fielder.

Fowler, who the Astros got in a trade with Colorado this offseason, had a pair of doubles in Tuesday’s opener and then topped that with a leadoff homer off Hiroki Kuroda in Wednesday’s 3-1 win, followed by a standup triple to center that sent Ellsbury back to the ridiculous hill in the deepest part of the outfield at Minute Maid Park.

It’s been a rough beginning for Ellsbury, who was bothered by a tight right calf for much of the latter part of spring training. And although he insisted his timing would be fine for the regular season, the results have yet to follow.

Ellsbury has hardly been alone in his slow start to 2014.

Mark Teixeira struck out three times Wednesday and Alfonso Soriano has fanned twice in each of the first two games.

On the bright side, Ellsbury’s balky calf — which seemed to cause him as much discomfort to talk about as it did on the field — hasn’t shown any signs of affecting him while chasing the bombs hit off Kuroda and CC Sabathia.

But the Yankees splurged on the former Boston star to spark their offense and that has yet to happen.