Sixteen days ago the Yankees had a 7 game lead in the AL East, their biggest lead of the season. Ten days ago they had a 6 game lead and were in the middle of a stretch when they scored 90 runs in 10 games. Six days ago they welcomed Toronto to the Bronx for the biggest series of the season with a 4.5 game lead, and didn’t show up. Now, on August 13, the Yankees have dropped their 5th game in a row and fell out of first place for the first time since July 1. So, what has gone wrong?
The easy answer is, everything. But more specifically the strengths of the team, the top 5 guys in the order and the back end of the bullpen, have let them down. Since last Tuesday, when the Yankees scored 13 runs vs Boston, they have scored a total of 9 runs. NINE! IN SEVEN GAMES! Somehow the Yankees and Mets have switched offenses in the past week except we didn’t get their pitching staff in return. The Yankees were the second best offense in the league for the majority of the season. We were giving away ABOM13 t-shirts daily and tweeting about how we all wanted to go #GlutenFree. The team was being carried by their stars but all of those stars have gone cold at the same time. When its not the offense, its the pitching. And when its not the pitching, its the manager. So, who specifically is to blame for this most recent skid? Time to point some fingers…
1) Ellsbury and Gardner
Ellsbury has been terrible for almost 2 months and has not looked right since returning from the DL. He isn’t hurt, to our knowledge (although why would Joe have pinch run Murphy instead of Ells in the 9th inning last night?). He just looks old and his bat is slow. I’m even more concerned with Gardner, who is hitting .195 since the All Star break and has a reputation of being a bad second half player (career .240 second half hitter). His body has always been injury prone so perhaps that is why he slows down, but whatever the reason, he needs to turn it around as well. I’m also done holding out hope he will ever learn to steal bases. You should give up on that too, you’ll save yourself some aggravation.
If when the Yankees break out of their slump its going to be Ellsbury and Gardner who get them going. Their lineup was dynamic for much of the season because those two guys were always on base for ARod, Teixeira and McCann. Its understandable that ARod and Tex would slow down a bit because, really, who expected them to produce like they have. But when they’re constantly batting with the bases empty you can’t blame them for not producing.
2) Joe Girardi
Girardi blew two major calls over the weekend vs Toronto. On Friday he used Pinder in the 10th who immediately gave up a bomb to Bautista instead of bringing Miller back out or going to Warren. Then on Saturday he left Nova in to give up a grand slam to Smoak, which was the big turning point in the game. It seems like Girardi is either making too many moves (see replacing Wilson in the middle of an at bat last week) or not making enough moves. The loss last night dropped the team to 17-18 in one run games and they are 2-7 in extra innings. Those records are a direct reflection on the manager’s inability to make the right moves in close games.
3) Brian Cashman
I actually think Cashman is a good GM. He has totally rebuilt the farm system and has always done a good job of adding little pieces to improve the team. This year at the deadline the Yankees were in a unique situation; they were not desperate and sitting atop the division. This team was clearly not the ’98 Yankees or ’09 Yankees, two juggernaut teams that didn’t need much at the deadline. There were some glaring weaknesses that needed addressing — second base and the starting rotation. Cashman just sat on his hands. Making a move to improve a team, no matter how small, can go a long way in the clubhouse. It was also foolish to think the bullpen would remain perfect and the offense would continue to score at will.
4) Andrew Miller
Miller clearly isn’t the same guy since coming off the DL, but he’s still been good. Blowing that save on Tuesday in a must win game was so demoralizing. It was the first time all season the back end of the pen really let them down, and it could not come at a worse time.
5) The Blue Jays
Ok so basically I just needed a 5th reason. But the Jays have not lost since the trade deadline when they acquired Tulo and Price. Obviously those guys are huge upgrades, but nobody saw this coming. Even though the Jays are rolling the Yankees could still have fended off their push by playing descent ball this past week.
Honorable mention: the starting rotation has not gone into the 7th inning in 15 games.
I know its a long season and there are peaks and valleys. This has been a streaky team all season and we’ve seen them go into bad losing streaks and break out of it. You can throw every other baseball cliche at me but the reality is the Blue Jays are a much better, and supremely confident team right now, and if the Yankees don’t wake up they will find themselves out of the playoffs entirely.
They need to salvage 1 in Cleveland and just win the series in Toronto. There are fans up in Canada who have never seen playoff baseball and I want to keep it that way.
