After five games as the Yankees’ hitting coach, Sean Casey decided to shave his mustache, at least “maybe a little” out of superstition, he said.
But the sixth game on Wednesday looked a lot like the first five, meaning it’s going to take more than that to turn around the Yankees’ lifeless offense.
Casey said in his introductory call with reporters last week that he would be crazy to think he would walk in and instantly everyone would start hitting.
The early results — 22 runs in six games — would back that up, but Casey is hoping to be part of the solution by what Aaron Boone described as freeing guys up mentally.
“The biggest thing baseball players pride themselves on is the 162, it’s a marathon — that’s why we call ourselves grinders,” Casey said before Wednesday’s 7-3 loss to the Angels. “I think you just gotta keep running. Keep running for the days, keep running for the work. The work never stops.
“You just gotta keep going every day and know that failure is information. Failure is feedback. You’re not a failure. What can we do better? What can we pass on to a teammate from an at-bat that we see [against] a guy?
“That’s the message I’m trying to preach as a team: If we didn’t succeed in an at-bat, what can we pass on to the next guy? Hope we get the line moving where we can start getting some runs in bunches.”
Boone, who is close friends with Casey from their playing days, lauded him for how he has connected with his hitters in about a week on the job.
“Hopefully over time we start to see some fruits of that,” Boone said. “But that foundation I do believe is certainly being laid.”
The problem for the Yankees is they don’t have unlimited time to allow that process to play out.
But Casey remained confident their work will soon turn into results.
The hitter who may need them the most is Anthony Rizzo.
The veteran first baseman is in the midst of a brutal slump, batting .156 with a .471 OPS over his past 36 game and has not hit a home run since May 20.
It is the longest home run drought of his career, spanning 178 plate appearances.
“I think sometimes when you have that power outage, you maybe want to start to hit home runs,” Casey said. “So sometimes I think Rizz maybe is pressing a little bit because the guy cares so much, he’s had so much success. Maybe he’s pressing a little bit.
“But one thing I know about Rizz is, he’s been here before. He might say this is the worst stretch of his career, but he’s had stretches like this and he’s come out of them.
“The biggest thing is you just gotta keep showing up. You gotta keep doing the work, and eventually you’re going to get those one or two hits that make it happen.”
The likelihood of Josh Donaldson returning this season took another hit Thursday when the Yankees transferred him to the 60-day injured list.
The 37-year-old, who suffered a tear in his right calf Saturday at Colorado, is not eligible to come off the IL until Sept. 14, and that’s if he is actually healthy by then.
Donaldson was unsure this week whether he had a chance to be back this season.
Even if he is ready by the middle of September, it remains to be seen whether the Yankees would bring him back in the heart of what could be a heated playoff chase after being sidelined for two months.
The Yankees moved Donaldson to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man roster spot for Triple-A reliever Matt Bowman, who had an opt-out in his contract if he was not added to the 40 by this week.
The Yankees did so, then optioned him to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Jake Bauers and Willie Calhoun both began rehab assignments on Thursday, Bauers with SWB and Calhoun with Double-A Somerset.
