Bad timing killing the Yanks

The Yankees have been in a strange kind of slump. They’re putting men on base, but aren’t bringing them around to score. That’s both a good and a bad thing. It’s good, because they’re putting themselves in a position to score runs. It’s bad, because they’re not capitalizing on those opportunities. But it’s good again, because we know that in many ways the Yankees’ offensive woes involve luck. That is, when you put 13 runners on base in a game more often than not you’re going to score more than two or three runs. Sometimes you won’t. That’s how the game works. But you’re going to have a lot harder time scoring more than two or three runs if you’re putting only five or six guys on per game.

Since the current slump started on September 5, the Yankees have had little trouble getting guys on base and into scoring position. On Sunday against Cliff Lee and on Monday against David Price they did run into issues getting men on base, but against those two it’s understandable. They’ve already roughed both of them up earlier in the season, so it’s not as if they can’t beat them. But this time around, as will happen from time to time, they faltered. Otherwise they’ve been subject to two damning factors. First is the obvious lack of timely hits. Second is the lack of the longball.

These numbers, as you can imagine, don’t add up well. Since the fifth they’ve been 18 for 92 with runners in scoring position, a .196 batting average. Before this skid they were hitting .265 with runners in scoring position. If they hit to their season average they go 24 for 92, and those extra six hits make us a lot happier. It also means they would have left fewer than 97 men on base in those 10 games.

Also killing the Yanks was the lack of the longball in these 10 games. They hit just six, and that looks much better because of the three they hit on Tuesday. That’s one every 68 PA. Previous they have hit a homer every 31 PA. If they hit homers at their season pace they hit 13 homers in the past 10 games and again we’re a lot happier fans.

The Yankees are slumping. There is no doubt about it. Thankfully, it’s easy to put their struggles in perspective. They’ve put tons of men on base, but haven’t driven them in with hits and haven’t cleared the bases with a homer very often. Given what we saw from the first 136 games of the season I don’t think that this should cause any panic. Every team goes through stretches like this. Once Swisher and Gardner return to the lineup we’ll see them turn it around. Best of all, the recovery could come at the exact right time.