Two hundred dollars million just doesn’t go as far as it used to. Despite a phenomenal start from Alex Rodriguez, the rest of the New York Yankees have failed to pick up the slack, resulting in the team’s longest losing streak in two years. Twenty games into the season, the best baseball squad that money can buy finds itself in last place in the American League East. Are the New York Yankees becoming the Washington Redskins of Major League Baseball?
The Yankees, while almost universally hated (outsie of New York), are one of the most consistently excellent teams in the sport. It’s too early in the season to make definitive judgments, particularly about this team. The Yankees can come back, but this is the American League East we’re talking about. Do you know who else is in the American League East? The Tampa Bay Devil Rays. This is a team, much like the Arizona Cardinals of the NFL, that is typically associated with a level of play that could compete at the high school level. That said, the Yankees, who now find themselves ranked below the Devil Rays, should pause for a moment and really take in what this means. For any team to sink below Tampa is surprising, but New York? That’s just shameful.
The one bright spot in all of this has been Alex Rodriguez, who is hitting .400 (30-for-75), with 14 homers and 34 RBIs. He is the first player in major league history to hit 14 homers in the first 18 games of the season and has tied Albert Pujols’s 2006 mark for most home runs in April.
But New York’s starting pitchers have given up 20 of the 31 runs allowed during its current skid. Plagued by injuries to pitchers Mike Mussina, Carl Pavano and until recently, Chin-Min Wang, Yankee starters have a 5.65 ERA, and opponents are hitting .301 against them.
I’ve never been a huge A-Rod fan, but I feel sorry for him. Despite impressive performances against Boston’s top three pitchers this past weekend, New York still managed to lose every single game. Emblematic of this trend was Monday’s game, against Tampa Bay, in which Rodriguez went 4-for-5 with two homers (13 and 14), four runs scored and three RBIs. A-Rod didn’t make it easy for them, but somehow the Yankees managed to overcome all obstacles, persevere through hardship, and lose to one of the MLB’s worst.
Perhaps I’ve spoken too soon. These are the Yankees, after all. The thought of a post-season without them is almost as ridiculous as the idea of a World Series with the Detroit Tigers. A power-shift like that is something that Yankee fans, players or management will never accept.
