Recent Offensive Drought Starts At The Top

Even with the win last night, it was another game of mostly non-existent offense from the Yankee lineup.  This has been the norm since they lost Brett Gardner to a strained oblique a week ago today.  They won that game against Baltimore, scoring 6 runs without Gardner, but since then their collective output has been as light as it was during the darkest offensive days of the summer.  5 games, 11 runs scored, 1-4 record.  That's not going to get it done in a playoff race regardless of how good or bad the pitching is.  We knew losing Gardner was going to be a big blow and the Yankees are feeling the sting.  They've been using Curtis Granderson in the leadoff spot since Gardner got hurt, and the results haven't been good.


5-23, 2 XBH, 2 BB, 9 K.  That's what Curtis has done in the leadoff role in the 5+ games he's been there in place of Gardner.  He's scored 4 runs, so when he has been on base he's been effective capitalizing on those chances.  But he hasn't been getting on base enough, at least not enough to make up for the loss of Gardner or the loss the middle of the lineup has taken as a result of C-Grand being moved up.

Further complicating the situation is the recent disappearance of Alex Rodriguez's bat.  We all know he's struggling with his legs right now and it's become obvious to anybody watching him hit that there isn't much life to that swing.  Since first tweaking his hamstring on 9/10, A-Rod has gone just 2-22 with 1 HR, 6 BB, and 7 K, with the bulk of those plate appearances coming in the 2nd spot in the batting order.  6 walks in 7 games sounds pretty good, but overall A-Rod and C-Grand have combined for just 14 times on base in 49 PA since the Gardner injury.  That's a .286 OBP and that's not good enough to set the table for the heart of the order behind them.

It's tough to score runs when you don't have guys on base, and since Gardner went down that's the issue the Yankees have been dealing with.  They were able to string enough hits together in the 8th last night to give some hope, but if they want to hang on to the last remaining threads of postseason hope they need to get more out of the top of their lineup.