The Futility Infielder

I spent four and a half hours at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, four and a half tense, exciting, but ultimately depressing hours watching the Yanks fall to the Red Sox yet again in a 12-inning, 3-2 affair. The Yankees have now lost five out of six to the Sox and stand at 8-10 today, when they will try to salvage some dignity by sending Javier Vazquez on three days rest to face Pedro Martinez. Gulp.

Having missed the brunt of their 11-2 humiliation the night before, I was optimistic the Yanks might shake out of their funk behind Kevin Brown. Perhaps it was the crystal-clear day and the sight of 55,000 people wearing their war paint and plenty of red-and-bllue 1918 regalia -- nouveau couture for tauting the Sox faithful. But all I had to do was look over the Yankee lineup, with four out of nine hitters -- Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Travis Lee and Enrique Wilson -- stationed below the Mendoza Line, to rid myself of that optimism. This is a team in the throes of a dreadful slump, looking every bit the overpriced, over-the-hill, uninspired, fragile worst case scenario that an analyst could conjure in March. They're not hitting, the rotation outside of Brown and Vazquez has been a disaster, and suddenly a scuffle for the Wild Card seems like a very real possibility.

Facing the Sox for the second time in six days. Brown started out as shaky as can be, walking the first two batters of the game. He knocked Manny Ramirez in the dirt as the crowd showered him with epithets, but the Boston slugger got even by swatting a sacrifice fly to put the Sox on the board first. Brown's problems in the second were even more of his own making. A sharp comebacker off of the bat of Kevin Millar prompted the pitcher to hurry his thrown to first, but the ball went well over Travis Lee's head and into the stands. Then Mark Bellhorn grounded to Lee, who underhanded the ball to Brown as he reached first; he dropped the ball for his second error in as many batters. He plunked Gabe Kapler to load the bases with nobody out, and suddenly this must have seemed like a bad dream for the gritty hurler. Pokey Reese stroked a sac fly, but Brown escaped the inning with further damage. Still, he walked a tightrope. David Ortiz led off the third with a double into the left-centerfield gap, and with one out Jason Varitek walked. But Alex Rodriguez backhanded a hard Millar smash down the thrid-base line, saving at least one run and drawing a hearty ovation from the crowd.

Meanwhile, the Yanks couldn't touch Sox starter Bronson Arroyo. He walked Derek Jeter to lead off the game, but DJ was immediately erased on a strike out/throw out double play. When A-Rod topped a dribbler back to Arroyo, the crowd booed intensely. In the second Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield both took called strike three. It was going to be that kind of day.

After Brown put together his first 1-2-3 inning in the thrid, A-Rod pumped some life into the frustrated Yankee crowd with a solo homer to left. That was the sole hit the Yanks got through Arroyo's first six innings, and the score held 2-1 as Brown retired ten out of eleven batters. But he was doing so in an uncharacteristic manner. Fourteen times out of the 31 batters he faced, Brown started off with ball one, not exactly a recipe for success. Five times in his seven innings, the leadoff batter got on base. He induced ten flyouts against ten grounders, unusual for a pitcher with a career groundball/flyball ratio of 2.74, and not until Ortiz struck out in the seventh did he record a single strikeout. Even more amazingly, until that Ortiz at-bat not a single Sox hitter swung and missed against Brown all afternoon. He could hardly have made it tougher on himself, but he nonetheless did an admirable job of keeping the Yanks in the game on a day which he had very little going for him.

Arroyo began the seventh facing A-Rod, who again couldn't get the ball out of the infield as he topped a slow roller to Bill Mueller at third. In a move that must have had the entire front office cringing but nevertheless delighted the crowd, A-Rod belly-flopped into first base in a cloud of dust: SAFE! Giambi singled through the two dozen fielders clogging the right side of the infield, and A-Rod took third when Millar bobbled the ball. Sheffield tied the score with a single, and the crowd became jovial for the first time on the day.

That spelled the end of Arroyo's day, and Scott Williamson came on in relief. An infield grounder by Jorge Posada -- practically the only Yankee batter with a pulse but nevertheless stuck in the six slot -- sent the runners to second and third. Williamson then intentionally walked Lee to face Bernie Williams, in such a dreadful 1-for-April slump that he and his sub-Mendoza average were hitting eighth. With the bases loaded and one out, the crowd rose to its feet at the sight of the man who has delivered so many huge hits over the years. But number 51 is growing old before our very eyes; he grounded meekly into a 4--6-3 double play to snuff the rally.

Tom Gordon blew away the Sox in the eighth by striking out the side, but got into trouble when he walked Kapler to start the ninth. Surprisingly for the sabermetrically inclined Sox, Reese sacrificed him over to second, but Gordon shut the door by retiring Johnny Damon on a grounder and then getting Mueller to pop up to Jeter. The sac bunt theme reared its ugly head in the bottom of the inning when A-Rod walked against Alan Embree and Bubba Crosby, who'd pinch-run for Giambi in the seventh, got knocked over trying to bunt two high fastballs, both of which popped foul. Crosby nevertheless lay down as perfect an 0-2 bunt as you'd ever care to see, which is to say that it beat striking out, but ultimately didn't help much. One out later, Embree walked Posada intentionally to face Lee, who grounded out to end the threat.

Mariano Rivera came on in the tenth and the Sox again got a runner into scoring position. Ramirez singled, was erased in a forceout, and then Jason Varitek got picked off of first. But Lee's throw to the second base bag went wide left, and Varitek was safe. Fortunately, Millar popped out to Posada to end the inning.

Against Sox relief ace Keith Foulke, the Yanks returned to the infernal sac bunt strategy in the tenth. Ortiz misplayed Bernie's leadoff grounder for an error and then Miguel Cairo, in for Enrique Wilson, moved Williams over. After Jeter grounded out, Matsui walked, and then A-Rod was intentionally walked to load the bases and get to Crosby. Yankee manager Joe Torre countered by calling upon the undead Ruben Sierra (when your OPS is around .400, the zombies have clearly taken over); he could manage only an inning-ending infield grounder.

Rivera loaded the bases in the elevenh with one out but to no ultimate harm, but the Sox finally put over a run in the twelfth off of Paul Quantrill. Manny greeted him with a double off of the right-center wall that appeared to befuddle both Bernie (who looks completely lost on defense these days) and Sheffield. Varitek moved Ramirez over on a grounder. Quantrill hit Millar, and then Bellhorn lofted one into the left-center gap. Bernie made a nice reaching grab, but his weak arm was no match and the Sox third run scored -- all three on sac flies. It turns out that Boston went 0-for-19 on the day with runners in scoring position, the worst such clutch failure in 27 years. It was still too much for the Yanks, who couldn't even get a runner on against Mike Timlin in the twelfth and fell to the Sox yet again.

The team is now hitting .221/.332/.377. Jeter is 1 for his last 26, hitting a meek .184/.262/.224. Williams is .179/.303/.214. Torre continues to write Wilson's name in the lineup despite a .394 OPS and the fact that Cairo has 4 RBI in his 10 plate appearances, two more than Wilson has in 49. the best hitter on the team, Posada, is stuck batting sixth despite a .745 slugging percentage, a share of the league lead in homers and second in the league in RBI. The next four days find the Yanks facing Pedro and then the big three of the Oakland A's, Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito. The Yanks are 3.5 games out for the first time in nearly two years, and it may well get worse before it gets better. Enjoy it while you can, Yankee haters.