The story of this Yankees season is one of an injury-depleted team striving to succeed but unable to overcome their offensive deficiencies, even as their once-stout pitching finally gave way. Such was the case Tuesday as the Yankees fell behind before they even came to bat, and then were unable to capitalize on a parade of base runners.
The result was a 7-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium on a cool autumn night that has so often blended seamlessly into the October postseason.
But another loss Wednesday, or a victory by the hard-charging Cleveland Indians, will mathematically eliminate the Yankees from postseason contention. The Indians defeated the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday on a game-ending homer by Jason Giambi, and lead the Yankees for the second wild-card spot by five games, with five games left to play. The Yankees were eliminated from the American League’s first wild-card spot Tuesday as they fell six games behind the Rays.
“It’s not a good feeling,” Manager Joe Girardi said. “It hurts.”
Although Girardi has maintained a positive outlook as the Yankees have gone on a late-season plunge, losing 7 of their last 10 games, he was a lot closer to facing reality after this humbling loss.
“Yeah, it’s definitely hard because you work hard to put yourself in a good spot and get into the playoffs,” he said. “Right now, we need a ton of help and we need to win every game or we’re not going to get in, and that’s the hard part because of what you go through.”
Tuesday’s was the latest loss in a series of games the Yankees considered must-wins, including Sunday’s crushing 2-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants, and two defeats in the three-game series in Toronto last weekend.
For several days it has been obvious that the only hope the Yankees had to win a wild-card berth could be found only with a dizzying combination of events, most of which included them winning all their games while at least three teams ahead of them lost most of theirs.
Before Tuesday’s game it was pointed out to Girardi that, as grim as the outlook seemed, the Yankees were still mathematically alive.
“Darn right we are,” he said.
Just hours later he watched as the Yankees lost their second straight game to fall to 82-75. Hiroki Kuroda gave up a leadoff home run to Matt Joyce and then two more runs in the first to set an unsettling tone for the Yankees. Kuroda settled down for the next four innings, but the Yankees’ offense could not capitalize on numerous opportunities.
They had runners on first and second with two outs in the first, but Mark Reynolds struck out swinging. They loaded the bases with only one out in the third, but Reynolds hit a fly ball to right, too shallow to score the runner on third base, Vernon Wells. Eduardo Nunez then hit into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.
The trend continued in the fourth when Alex Rodriguez came to the plate with runners on first and third and two outs. He hit a towering fly ball to center, but it was caught by Sam Fuld to end the inning. In the fifth, Wells hit a harmless fly ball with runners on first and second as the Yankees again failed to execute with runners on.
In the seventh inning Robinson Cano doubled with one out, but was stranded at second. All season long Cano has been the one constant in a lineup saturated with injuries. He was unable to do much on his own through much of the season, and Tuesday was no different.
“Any time you put this uniform on you expect to go out and produce and win,” Wells said. “When you’re not doing it, it’s frustrating.”
INSIDE PITCH
The Yankees had to scramble to distribute 18,000 MARIANO RIVERA bobblehead dolls that did not arrive at Yankee Stadium until 6:45 p.m. because of transportation problems. The Yankees opened the gates 30 minutes late while they printed up 18,000 vouchers for the bobblehead doll and distributed those to fans as they entered the Stadium. The vouchers were then exchanged for the dolls after the third inning, producing long lines. … The Yankees announced that PHIL HUGHES and IVAN NOVA will start the next two games against the Rays, and ANDY PETTITTE will pitch Friday in the opener of a three-game series in Houston. The Rays lost two players to injury. YUNEL ESCOBAR left the game in the fifth inning with a sore left ankle and JOSE LOBATON exited in the seventh with a bruised elbow. Both were listed as day-to-day.
