(Courtesy of the AP)
I'm running out of things to say about this offense or ways to try to look at it from a positive perspective. The Yankees flat out don't hit. They don't hit for average, they don't hit for power, they don't get on base, they can't lay down a sac bunt when they need to, and they very rarely string hits together at opportune times. They haven't hit well when they've been healthy, they haven't hit well when they've been beat up. They had opportunity after opportunity to score runs and easily win by a comfortable margin today against James Shields and the Royals and they didn't. They suck.
Game Notes:
- The Yanks blew their most golden opportunity in the top of the 2nd when they loaded the bases with nobody out only for Kelly Johnson to strike out, Brett Gardner to ground into a force play at home, and Derek Jeter to whiff to strand all 3 runners.
- The Royal lineup capitalized on that free pass by stringing some hits together against Hiroki Kuroda in the bottom of the inning. 4 straight hits, a Lorenzo Cain double and Mike Moustakas single the run-scoring ones, led to 2 KC runs and a 2-0 lead. All of them came with 2 outs.
- The blown chances by the Yankee lineup didn't end in the 2nd. They wasted a leadoff double in the 3rd, a 1-out double in the 4th, and a 1-out triple by Brett Gardner in the 7th.
- The one time they did manage to not fuck up with a runner in scoring position was the 6th, when Yangervis Solarte hit a 1-out double down the right field line. He moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Ichiro's RBI groundout.
- Hirok was pretty good after the 2nd. He held them to just 1 more hit and 1 more walk in his final 5 innings of work and kept the team in the game. He still doesn't have the killer slider/splitter combo of the last 2 years, but he pitched good enough to win.
- Of course, the Yankees had to tease one more time in the 9th. Ichiro singled, moved to second on a wild pitch, and stood there while the next 3 hitters failed to even move him over. Like I said, they suck.
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