In the days following the Yanks getting swept in Baltimore to end the regular season I was clinging to the notion that once the playoffs start you get a clean slate. That you can throw everything you've done out the window. Maybe even become a different team all together. That wasn't the case with the Yankees. The team the whole country just watched flounder at the hands of Dallas Keuchel and a very ordinary bullpen was the same Yankee team that's been playing since the trade deadline. Last night's game embodied all of the maladies that had plagued the Yankees over the past two months. A starting pitcher snake-bitten by the home run. A bullpen that wasn't quite as good as it needed to be. And an embarrassing, shameful offensive effort, the likes of which haven't been seen since the 2012 ALCS.
While the Yankee lineup had been an inconsistent, mostly anemic group since July 31st, you could argue they saved their absolute worst performance for last night. 3 Hits. No run. Not until A-Rod came to the plate with two on and two out in the bottom of the 6th did you ever actually feel like they might have a rally in their bones. But we should have known better. We saw what this offense was in August and September. A once deep and explosive lineup that had succumbed to injury, fatigue and just general lack of production.
Was Tanaka horrible? No. But he needed to be better than that. He was in and out of jams every inning, had very little command and was fortunate the two mistakes he made were without anybody on base. Betances faltered yet again, struggling with control issues. The run he surrendered made it feel like 20-0. But none of that mattered last night and none of it matters today. The only thing that should be discussed this morning is the pitiful performance by everyone in the Yankee lineup because the same guys who humiliated themselves last night are going to be lining up on the first base foul line circa Opening Day 2016. Sure the experience down the stretch stands to benefit Greg Bird, Rob Refsnyder and Didi Gregorious, but everyone else is just going to be another year older. And the problem with that, the problem with the composition of this offense is that they don't have ONE contact hitter. They don't have anyone who's going to contend for a batting title, flirt with 200 hits or choke up and muscle a big RBI single like Jose Altuve did last night. They're entire lineup is just one big giant cock-tease. Just nine guys sitting around waiting for a three-run home run and when they don't get it they can't find other ways to score. Can't win like that.
If I can take one positive from last night it was that I was impressed by the crowd. I have to admit I expected to walk into there with no buzz whatsoever coming off the six losses in seven games. But for the first six innings the new Yankee Stadium was as loud as it had been since the 2009 postseason. Sure the Rasmus and Gomez home runs took some of the air out of the place, but for the most part the real fans got out to the Bronx last night and made a lot of noise. Of course once the Stros pushed that third run across in the 7th half of the crowd bailed. And you know what, I don't blame them. This team hadn't given you any reason to think they were capable of a comeback. By the 9th inning I was just waiting to go home. They made Luke Gregerson look like Mariano Rivera. Just a spineless, gutless effort from their first at-bat through the end of the game. Now I'm just left sitting here at work, hungover as a skunk on two hours of sleep with a sore throat trying to trick people into thinking that my life isn't in a complete and utter tailspin. Awesome.
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