Bats No Good

Believe me, there was no bigger goat in tonight's Yankees-Twins game than starting pitcher Javier Vazquez, who was back to his normal, American League self. The Twins teed off on Javy, who looked nothing like the pitcher who dominated the Mets for six innings last weekend. Vazquez was bad, Chan Ho Park continued his disastrous Yankees career, and Chad Gaudin was welcomed back with a three run bomb off the bat of Jason Kubel. It's obviously pretty easy to blame the pitching staff for this one.

However, I'm going to take a different perspective on this one and blame the offense, specifically Alex Rodriguez. Mark Teixeira finally started hitting the ball, but the Yankees' number four hitter is mired in a terrible slump. In the first inning, I thought the game turned in the Twins' favor for good when A-Rod bounced into an inning-ending double play. How many times have the Yankees failed to knock in a runner from third with less than two outs? That's the kind of thing that good teams do. It really does not take too much to loft a fly ball to the outfield.

The pitching was bad tonight, but once in a while, the bats are allowed to have a slugfest. Jeter seems to be picking it up, and Teixeira has had some encouraging at bats over the last two nights. But now it's Rodriguez who is not pulling his own weight. Overall, the Yankees had a 3-3 road trip against tough opponents. Minnesota is leading the AL Central, and, say what you want, the Mets play pretty well at home. At the time of this posting, the Mets are two innings away from sweeping and shutting out the NL Champions for three straight games.

Now, it's time for the Yanks to put up or shut up. It's time for the bats to wake up, and the team to win seven straight games. I understand that's very unfair to ask of any team, but they host the Cleveland Indians and Baltimore Orioles over the next week. There is no reason that these teams should not be swept. Good teams have to beat the bad ones, and the Yankees will have plenty of opportunities over the next few weeks to prove what kind of team they actually are.