Injuries are out of anyone's control. They happen and you have to work past them. Unfortunately throughout the start of this season, the Mets' injury bug has traveled six miles to the Bronx over the offseason and bitten the Yankees. Injuries happen and a true athlete works as fast as they can to get treated and get back on the field.
Curtis Granderson was bitten with a groin injury about a month ago. Alfredo Aceves' back tweaked again and he's been out for about two weeks. Nick Swisher's left biceps was strained and we missed him for about a week until it healed. Nick Johnson was placed on the DL with a wrist injury and he's not expected to be back until July. Jorge Posada strangely developed a hairline fracture on the bottom of his foot that no one expected to happen. He'll be out 4-6 weeks. A few weeks ago we were missing both Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera with pains that have hurt them in the past. Because of that Mo was out for a good two weeks and Pettitte was skipped in the rotation.
With these incidents it is vital that our hitters step up and and help our team get ahead in games. However, they haven't. Derek Jeter is in a slump that he's very slowly getting out of. Brett Gardner started off great and has hit a skid. The middle (and most important part) of our lineup, however, has REALLY struggled recently. I'm basing my stats on the past two weeks from May 9-23.
Robinson Cano has the best batting average, but that success has come from the beginning of the season. In these two weeks his BA has dropped from .353 to .335...not terrible, but the rest of his numbers tell you why. In 61 AB he has 19 hits, 7 RBI, and has left 25 runners on base. It's noticable that even though he's not doing terrible, he is struggling to drive in base runners.
Our cleanup hitter Alex Rodriguez has some of the better numbers. He raised his BA from .278 to .291. But like Cano, he is having trouble driving in base runners. He had 19 hits in 60 AB leaving 23 runners on base.
It hurts to read numbers that my favorite player has put up the past two weeks. It's not easy to say that our number three hitter Mark Teixeira is only struggling because it's early in the season. It's the end of May. He was heating up for a little bit the the beginning of the month, especially after those three home runs against Boston, the first Yankee to do that at Fenway since Lou Gehrig.
Since May 9, Mark has really struggled, quite possibly his worst struggle of his career so far. In 62 AB he has 13 hits, 10 RBI, 15 strike outs, and has left 36 runners on base. His BA is sitting at .209 on the verge of dropping below .200. Usually at this point he is smashing HRs but he only has 7 so far.
I'm not saying I'm worried about the end of the season. I'm not. It is still early and we can pull this together. What bothers me about these numbers is the fact that our guys are rushing their ABs rather than being patient like they usually are. Teixeira especially is a guy who usually takes his time and works a pitch count on the opposing pitcher, but lately I've noticed he's been swinging at the first pitch in almost all of his ABs. If I had the opportunity to ask them, I would as them all why they are doing this. What's the rush? They need to regain their patience and then I think they will be more successful in the next few weeks. We have a month every season where we struggle. Hopefully May is our month this year so we can get it out of the way.
