Baseball Writing

Deflation is Josh Phelps as Your Everyday First Baseman
(Among Many, Many, Many Other Things)

The Yankees have now had several cataclysmic innings in this baseball season. The kind of innings that feel like some draconian form of torture.

There was the Mariano Meltdown the first time the Bombers visited Fenway in mid-April. And there was the eight-run 5th inning the Mariners reeled off on the Yankees the first Friday in May at the Stadium. Last Sunday's Proctor implosion is a nice addition to this group as well. One such inning was yesterday's bottom of the 7th in Boston.

The final tally:

Number of batters: 10

Runs: 5

Hits: 3

Bases on Balls: 3 (2 were intentional)

Errors: 2 (both by Derek Jeter)

Number of players disabled: 1

When I said I thought the Red Sox were going to put a beating on the Yankees, I didn't mean literally. More than the physical loss of their first baseman, the Yankees were beaten in a way that they used to beat other teams all the time: psychologically. Proctor was psyched off the mound. The Yankees are psyched by the mere presence of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez on a baseball field at this point. And the psyche of the team, to a far-away observer, looks to be tittering and tottering on the brink of wanting to curl up in the fetal position. By the end of the game the team resembled a wet, beaten, skinny cat. Make that the entire organization.

"The game today was deflating," GM Brian Cashman said. "We had the lead three times and we lost the lead three times. We had a game we could have controlled and we couldn't control it. Today was a tough loss." (Daily News)

On a day when their first baseman was carted off in a daze, with a broken wrist, it was announced that Roger Clemens would not be making his scheduled debut in Chicago on Monday night due to "fatigue in his groin." It could be up to a 2-week set-back. This whole team is giving me fatigue in my brain . . . That leaves the heretofore Cashman blunder Kei Igawa, who has been trying to tweak his delivery in the low minors, as a probable candidate for the start. And the cherry on top is that some in the organization are worried that Phil Hughes may actually be done for the year due to his leg injuries.

I'm running out of things to write, say and think about this bunch. There has been talk by the media surrounding the Yankees about this team "turning the corner." When will they turn the corner? When will they just go on their merry way and start winning consecutive series?

Every time they lose a game like they did on Sunday, it makes me doubt that there is a corner to turn. Sure, I can see this team dragging itself back to the .500 mark in spite of their pitching woes. And I can see them making a run at the Wild Card, as long as Detroit's bullpen remains vulnerable and/or the Indians come back to the pack. But can I see much more than that? Not at this point I can't. Not with Josh Phelps as our everday first baseman, Kei Igawa possibly coming back onto the big league roster, Phil Hughes nowhere in sight, Roger Clemens being counted on for so much, Mike Mussina proving he shouldn't be part of any rotation's "Big 3," and a bullpen that needs to be re-built.

There is nothing particularly special about this game tonight vs. tomorrow night or the night after. The pitching match-up is better, the arena is better, the event is better. But in terms of importance, the Yankees need to win tonight just as they will tomorrow night and the night after that. The thing is even with a win tonight against Josh Beckett in Boston, who's to say that another torture chamber of an inning, another inning that shakes this team to its core doesn't await in Chicago?