Today is May 13 and for the first time since moving to the Bronx in 1923, the Yankees have a home game with the Boston Red Sox. They have played them twice on this date in Boston (1965 and 1995) but never at home either in the Bronx, the Polo Grounds and Hilltop Park in Upper Manhattan.
Today also happens to be Friday the 13th for you superstitious types and if you’ve followed the Yankees the last two nights, their performance can be assessed a slop fest of horrifying baseball.
And because of that the Yankees are not a first place team for the first time in roughly a month.
"Maybe it's what we need. Maybe we need the Red Sox to come in. Everything seems to get turned up, the coverage, the intensity of the games seem to take on a new flavor, and each at-bat seems to take on a new game of its own. Maybe it is the right time. I don't know, but I know we're capable of playing much better and we need to start doing that."
That was Joe Girardi’s tone after last night’s 11-5 loss that probably many fans shut off or lost interest. Maybe it is because for some the season does not actually begin until the first Red Sox series of the year at Yankee Stadium.
Regardless, the Yankees are better than the four bleeping unearned runs allowed last night and the 2-for-bleeping-16 they showed with runners in scoring position the previous night.
And speaking of doing better, there’s an element of that surrounding the 17-20 Red Sox, especially Carl Crawford. Crawford hits for the 15th time and during those previous games, the Red Sox have won eight of 14 while Crawford is hitting .290 from that spot.
Crawford had batted there 15 previous times in Tampa Bay and a majority of those have occurred during his early seasons with the Rays.
"To be honest probably not,” Terry Francona said when asked if moving Crawford around the lineup has made an impact. "He’s too good a player. You can hit him anywhere you want and he’ll get hits."
And in the eighth spot, that is accurate.
Crawford takes an 11-game hitting streak and the man with the .356 batting average during that span was subject a media pack around him that simply couldn’t be avoided and was the subject of some good-natured ribbing from funnyman Mike Cameron, who hollered across the room the following sentiment:
"Craw, they got you."
And during that time, Crawford answered the obligatory questions about his first year with the Red Sox, the rivalry and other stuff. When it came to the hitting aspect of the discussion, he said that he didn’t like to think where he’s at but that he is trying to return to the numbers that generated a seven-year contract.
There are numerous reasons for first-year players struggling when they get big contracts. It could be nagging injuries, adjustments to a new city or simply trying to justify why such a large portion of payroll is devoted to them.
That is true somewhat especially if you consider what one of the easier ledes to write in a wire-service story is the following: “Performances like this are why the Red Sox Carl Crawford”. It’s a cliché lede but showed up occasionally when someone earning big money had a big game.
As Girardi said, it happens with players who want to validate contracts but in the end you tend to base judgments on the players track record.
Just look at the 2009 edition of Mark Teixeira, who joined the Yankees after signing for eight years and $160 million. He wound up leading the AL in home runs and RBI and that was after batting .200 over 70 April at-bats.
Or look at the 2005 edition of Carlos Beltran, the player the Mets gave $119 million to for a seven-year contract after a monster playoff performance for the Astros. His first season he didn’t even hit 20 home runs but his fine the next three years even if Met fans won’t forgive him for Game Seven of the 2006 ALCS.
You get the idea. Big money breeds big pressure in big cities and sometimes it starts slowly.
Crawford will try to keep it going against Bartolo Colon, who is on the mound because Phil Hughes is not. Hughes threw 30 pitches from 50 feet as he completes his fourth week on the DL with a mysterious dead arm.
Colon's last start against a Texas lineup missing Nelson Cruz and Josh Hamilton was not a good one. It was not a good one because as Girardi put it, he did not keep his hands on top of the ball and his fastball was missing bite on thirds of the plate.
Of course Crawford is not the only big money player struggling. Alex Rodriguez hit a garbage-time home run last night and that ended a streak of 11 straight games without an extra-base hit.
"We just went from one superstar to the next with the at-bats every day," Girardi said. "I thought they were better. I thought he had some of his better swings than what we had seen. Maybe one of the best swings I thought he had was the ball he popped straight up. It was just the ball was a little too high for him to swing at, but I thought the swing was excellent. Maybe last night is going to get him going."
Maybe. Either way it's Yankees-Red Sox for the 2,047th time, so sit back, flip on the TV, grab a nice drink and settle in for three hours or so.
