Aimee
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Masahiro Tanaka continues to make progress in his rehabilitation from a torn ligament in his right elbow, but even if he can return in September, it may be too late for him to make a difference in the Yankees’ pursuit of a postseason berth.
If the Yankees continue to play as they have the last week, their hopes will have disintegrated long before Tanaka is ready to pitch again.
The latest fiasco came in the form of a 5-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday. It was the Yankees’ fifth straight loss and their second shutout in that stretch, during which they have scored a total of seven runs. If not for a solo home run by Jacoby Ellsbury in the ninth inning Sunday, the Yankees would have been shut out three times.
“Morale’s down a little bit,” the team’s hitting coach, Kevin Long, said, “but it’s our job to try to keep it up and try to keep guys as positive as we can during a time like this. That’s one of our toughest challenges.”
Getting timely hits is another. In five of nine innings Friday, the Yankees’ leadoff batter reached base but did not score. The Yankees even loaded the bases with one out in the eighth, but reliever Brad Boxberger struck out Ellsbury and Mark Teixeira, Teixeira going down looking.
Some of the pitchers the Yankees have faced, like Rays starter Alex Cobb on Friday, make hitting difficult for anyone. But Long acknowledged that the Yankees’ hitters were pressing, and in some cases — against the Baltimore Orioles’ Chris Tillman, for instance, who did not have his best stuff on Wednesday — the blame is on the batters.
