Before the 2006 AL Division Series, as a way of both compliment and psychological warfare, Tigers manager Jim Leyland dubbed the seemingly overwhelming Yankees lineup Murderers’ Row and Cano.
These days the lineup is Cano and . . .
That fearsome batting order petered out in the 2006 postseason, and when Robinson Cano has a quiet game in 2010 so —too often — does the Yankees offense.
The culprits are many. But the biggest paychecks and largest expectations go to Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez and there has simply been too little impact provided by that trio even as the Yankees have mustered the majors’ second-most runs. What is missing is the anticipated fear factor and what is present is too much inconsistency.
The Yankees have a lineup strong enough to generate six runs in six innings Tuesday against Roy Halladay. But it was as if the Yankees had made a deal with the devil to trash the pitcher they uniformly respect the most. In the three games since, the Yankees have scored four runs. The hardly Halladay-esque starting trio of Jamie Moyer, Kyle Kendrick and now Hisanori Takahashi has limited the Yankees to three runs on 11 hits in 21 innings over the past three games.
Takahashi had blanked the Yankees over six innings in his first major league start on May 21. And, after that game, the Yankees hitters were not complimentary. They instead reverted to the crutch that they do not do well when they see a pitcher for the first time. Just wait until this lineup got a second crack at Takahashi, was the battle cry.
That came last night as the Subway Series renewed, and Takahashi authored another six shutout innings as the Mets won their eighth straight game, 4-0. Maybe the Yankees need to see Takahashi a third time.
“You can’t jump off of a bridge,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of the recent slump. “You have to look at the big picture.”
This was the Yankees sound bite after the game: That these three games are a small sample size and that over the long season the offense will be a wrecking ball. But there are issues that are not three-game problems that make you wonder about just how devastating this offense will be.
Jeter’s groundball tendencies are more dramatic than ever. Teixeira’s pull-happy slump is now at three months. Rodriguez still is stuck on just eight homers. Curtis Granderson is so impotent against lefties that Girardi started baseball anonymous’ Chad Huffman against the southpaw Takahashi. Francisco Cervelli is hitting .220 this month, returning to an offensive form familiar to his minor league career at a time when the Yankees want to play him more because of their distrust of Jorge Posada’s catching. And the Yankees still are searching — rather futilely — for an acceptable second-place hitter to replace Johnny Damon.
With all the talk about Cliff Lee, it appears the Yankees might have to fixate more on adding a hitter between now and the July 31 trade deadline.
“I have a lot of faith in these guys,” hitting coach Kevin Long said. “They are going to be just fine, trust me.”
Cervelli did double leading off the seventh against Fernando Nieve — the Yankees’ lone extra-base hit in the last two games. Mets manager Jerry Manuel summoned the lefty Pedro Feliciano to face the pinch-hitting Granderson, who struck out. Brett Gardner and Jeter both grounded out.
Cervelli singled with one out in the ninth and Granderson actually singled off lefty Raul Valdes. Gardner rallied from an 0-2 count to draw a 12-pitch walk off Francisco Rodriguez to load the bases. But as the tying run, Jeter struck out and Nick Swisher flied out, and rather than a dramatic win, the Yankees ended the game with just two hits in 17 at-bats with men on base, including 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
“It’s very frustrating,” Rodriguez said.
It is, indeed. The Yankees believed they had assembled another offense that was going to be a modern-day version of Murderers’ Row.
This lineup was not designed to be Robinson Cano and The Pips.