AT 3:36 p.m. yesterday, Jorge Posada lashed a double to the left-center field gap. Third base coach Willie Randolph saw the ball dribble to the wall and waved Chris Turner home. The crowd – about two-thirds of the original count – stood and cheered. The Yankees were within 15 runs.
This is what it has come to for the two-time defending champs. Sarcasm in their own house. It is either sarcasm or tears, fears and anger now in the darkest days of the Joe Torre Era.
The final score wound up White Sox 17, Yankees 4, and what follows is essentially the good news for the organization these days: The Red Sox lost again and somehow the Yanks are still just a half-game out of first.
But the way the Yankees are currently playing, that is like feeling good that you are waist-high in quicksand because someone else is neck-high. If the season were over, the Yanks would not be in the playoffs, the latest in the schedule that has been true in Torre’s 4½ seasons.
“Right now, we stink,” Yankees GM Brian Cashman said.
Normally, Cashman’s public utterances
are as racy as Dr. Seuss. But as Cashman explained, “I can’t lie. I’m an honest guy. And, right now, we are beat up a little and we are going through a lot of different problems in a lot of different areas.”
That only worsened yesterday. Orlando Hernandez was thumped for nine runs in two-thirds of an inning and went for tests on a pained right elbow. Roger Clemens already is on the DL. A week ago we were wondering if David Cone was finished; now, despite just one victory and a 6.08 ERA, Cone is the strength of the rotation, especially if Hernandez must miss time and the other phases of the team continue to underwhelm.
The offense did not score enough runs in this four-game series (17) to even win yesterday’s game, Chuck Knoblauch’s defensive problems have been well-documented and the previously stellar bullpen is showing leaks from being overtaxed by a rotation that has gone less than two innings in three of the last five games. One Yankee described workhorse Jason Grimsley’s arm as “hanging.”
“Right now, we are not feeling good about ourselves,” Torre said.
And here is a frightening question for the Yankees to ponder: Why should things get better? There is age, injury and inconsistency in the rotation, too many innings already in the bullpen, the worst-case yet of Knoblauch’s throwing problems, too much decline and lack of clutch in the lineup, and a minor-league system not ready to offer another Derek Jeter or Mariano Rivera or even a Ramiro Mendoza.
The Yanks are looking to deal to upgrade the roster. But can one man – even one as mighty as Juan Gonzalez or Sammy Sosa – truly reverse the bad karma and bad play? The Yankees were outscored 42-17 in getting swept in a four-game series for the first time since July 1990. Those were the Stump Merrill Yankees. The starting pitchers in those four games were Andy Hawkins, Chuck Cary, Tim Leary and Dave LaPoint.
Whoever thought those names would be conjured in association with these championship Yankees?
“Right now, we are playing as bad as we can play,” Cashman said. “There are teams that are getting better. I’m not ready to say we are getting worse.”
Right now, the Yanks are tied with Cleveland for the fifth-best record in the AL, one-
-half game better than Toronto and 1½ better than Anaheim. They begin their longest road trip of the season, 13 games through four cities, tonight with the first of four in Fenway, with George Steinbrenner expected to be in the house. Then they face these same major-league-best-record White Sox for three over the weekend at Comiskey.
How thoroughly did the White Sox manhandle the Yanks these four games? Their ninth-place hitting catching tandem of Brook Fordyce and Mark Johnson, who came in hitting a combined .192 (29-for-151) with 15 RBIs, went 10-for-16 (.625) with eight RBIs in the Bronx.
“What we have done to clubs over the past few years, there is a certain amount of getting even here,” Torre said. “I don’t want to say it was embarrassing, but we don’t like getting our butts kicked like we did this weekend.”
It is now that the team chemistry that so many have worried about being disrupted should a mega-star such as Sosa be obtained needs to come out for the Yankees. They are wounded physically and spiritually. It will be possible for tensions to breed in the clubhouse or for Steinbrenner to foster it with his chainsaw personality.
“It is easy to point fingers and blame people,” Torre said. “It might be others way, but it is not mine. We have to do what we have to do with what we have … There is no magic formula to this thing.”
Right now, there seems to be no magic at all about these Yankees. They are limp and limping. They played all weekend under the threat of rain and threat to reign. These days they cannot hide behind their wallets or previous accomplishments. Their struggle now appears titanic and even the greatest ships can be sunk.