These are the New York Yankees: Their hallmark is hitting the tar out of the ball.
Let's see what we got: Two hits from Bobby Abreu, one from "the third baseman," one from Robinson Cano, 3 walks, and 2 double plays. On a night when Sidney Ponson gives up only 2 runs over his first 5, 3 over his first 7.
You can't waste pitching like that, but this is the 3rd straight time the Yankees have. Which goes to show that whoever said pitching was 75 percent of baseball was wrong.
I remembered Billy Martin pulling a lineup out of a hat, and a big winning streak resulted. He did it because his mentor Casey Stengel once did it to get the Yanks out of a similar slump. It worked wonders in the Fifties for Casey and in the Seventies for Billy.
I decided to try it myself, to see if I could shake things up... but the first name I pulled out was Giambi. Jason Giambi, hitting leadoff? As Yogi Berra would've said if he'd thought of it first, even when he could run, he couldn't run. So much for that idea.
Vince Lombardi told the 1-10-1 Packers he inherited in 1959, "We may not win, but we won't be losing with the same people."
It's time for Girardi to go into beast mode. Everybody's got a clean slate, but from this point forward, anybody who doesn't produce gets benched.
If that means A-Rod takes A-Seat, it's still A-Great Idea. If that means the Captain gets court-martialed for a day, sorry, Derek, but hit and it won't happen to you. Show them that nobody -- but nobody -- is untouchable. Same goes for the bullpen: If the bullpen had done its job on Saturday and Sunday, the Yankees beat the Angels both times, and we're only 2 games behind the Idiots and well within range of the Frauds.
If the Yankees are going to put pressure on Boston and Tampa, they've got to put pressure on themselves first. Hank, Joe... It's up to you.
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