Holy Piss!

(Photo courtesy of The AP)

Well a shitty week got even shittier with another sloppy loss last night.  CC was plain awful and once again the Yanks decided to wait until the 9th inning to start hitting the ball.  If you're keeping score at home, this team has gone 5-10 since shellacking the Red Sox on that Saturday afternoon 2 weeks ago.

With as well as the club started, you had to expect the Yankees would come back to Earth and things would start to average out, especially with the sudden rash of injuries, and that has generally been the case.  CC and Phil Hughes have been bad the last 2 times through the lineup, and A.J. Burnett looks lost out there, even with Cervelli catching him.  The bullpen has been a constant merry-go-round of who's unavailable and who's ineffective, with Mo leading the charge over the past week.  And the Robinson Canos and Nick Swishers of the world have stopped mashing the way they were in April.  Mark Teixeira made a brief cameo earlier this month but now he is nowhere to be found.

But these last couple weeks have been about more than just injuries and the law of averages.  The Yankees just haven't been playing good baseball.  Absolutely no hitting from anybody in the top 6 of the order, no clutch hits with RISP, starters either not being able to locate the simplest of fastballs or not being able to put hitters away once they get ahead in the count, bad errors all around the field, and a glaring lack of energy and no sense of urgency coming from the team until the 9th inning when it's almost like everybody finally realizes they're losing the game.

Right now this team looks tired and worn down.  The injuries have definitely caught up to them, evidenced by their lack of pop and production coming from everybody not named Francisco Cervelli right now, but that's part of the game that you have to deal with and people need to step up in those situations.  And by people, I mean Jeter, A-Rod, Teix, Cano, the veterans, the heart of the order.  Being top 3 in all the major offensive categories in the AL is nice and all, but that doesn't mean anything when you aren't getting your hits and runs when it counts.  Even Joe is starting to get frustrated with the lack of production coming from this team right now, and you usually couldn't get a rise out of the guy if you jammed a cattle prod up his ass.

This off day comes at the perfect time.  Everybody needs a day to rest, re-focus, re-energize, and get their collective shit together.  I know it ain't Jeet's style, but with Jorge out of the lineup and on the shelf, he needs to step up and fill that vocal leader void in the clubhouse.  A little 10-15-minute "players only" meeting to get everybody back together and get some good vibes going seems like a good idea right now.