Yankee Offense Relies on Long Ball Against Rays

Two hits until the 6^th.

Last night, the Yanks put up 10 runs, but what a lot of people don’t know is that Baltimore only sent a series of relief pitchers against the Yanks.  And tonight?  Well, tonight the Rays also sent a series of relief pitchers against the regular Yankee lineup and provided a very different result.  Until the 7^th inning the Yanks only managed to eek out two hits.

Forget the argument about the leadoff hitter for a moment because ultimately that didn’t make any difference tonight.  So outside of Alex Rodriguez’s second inning home run the lineup Yankee fans are expecting will score over 900 runs this year was two today by a division rival until Nick Swisher came up and did what it seems will have to happen more often than not this year:

Hit a two run homer to take the lead.

And Swisher’s hit entirely overshadows what was an excellent performance by Phil Hughes who went 6 innings, allowed only two runs and gave up just 4 hits. 

This was late 20^th Century Yankee baseball.  Okay late 1990’s Yankee baseball, as great pitching kept them in the game until timely hitting brought the team back from the brink.

I am sure no one’s thrilled by the inconsistent lineup as this isn’t the first time all spring that they could barely scratch out two hits in the first six innings and the next day can put up ten runs.  Girardi proved to me yesterday that he will hit and run even with Jeter and Swisher at the top of the lineup so as long as the rest of the team doesn’t fall into a pre 2008 mentality where they think everything’s going to work out because the next guy will hit a three run homer this team is going to be excellent both at the plate and on the mound.

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