Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports
If you thought that the New York Yankees are playing their worst baseball of the season, guess again, because the Detroit Tigers are coming to town, and not just the Tigers, but a team that’s won 12-straight and owns the best hitter on the planet in Miguel Cabrera.
At 6-12 since the All-Star break, the Yankees are slowly falling into the pit of the American League, fading out of contention faster than a speeding bullet.
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The Yankees are playing so poorly that Alex Rodriguez’s return to the Bronx is no longer the top story entering play tonight. He’s become a sideshow in a circus that headlines old age and large, terrible contracts.
There are many reasons and many people that you can blame for putting the Yankees into the mess they’ve made.
Injuries, for one, have devastated the team more than anyone ever thought possible. The payroll handcuffs that Hal Steinbrenner put on Brian Cashman restricted him from bringing back players such as Russell Martin, Raul Ibanez and Eric Chavez.
On the field, the troubles run deep. The starting pitching – once the backbone of the team – has become one of the biggest problems on the ball club. C.C. Sabathia is making it seem like the Yankees are going to regret giving him the contract he has. Andy Pettitte is 41 years old and proving how tough it is to pitch in this league at such an age. And Phil Hughes is once again proving Yankees fans why he doesn’t belong.
I may not want to, but I feel as if I should also get into how little the offense is producing – let’s just say that in most cases, you could put a chair in the batter’s box and it’ll give you the same amount of production as any other hitter in the lineup.
Overall, let me put it like this: the Yankees just got swept by one of the worst teams in baseball, a team that came into the series on a 10-game losing streak and had only scored four runs total in their four games prior to the series opener on Monday.
Yes, that team swept the Yankees. In a lot of cases, you got to beat the best to be the best, and the Yankees lost to the worst team, which makes them the new worst team in the league.
Once again, the Tigers have won 12-straight games, and they’re in the Bronx to open a three-game series tonight. After this weekend, the Los Angeles Angels come to town – with a record worse than the Yanks, but more talent than the Bombers.
Not that the Angels will be an issue, it depends on how the Yankees play this weekend, but after four games against L.A., a road trip to the first place Boston Red Sox follows.
If you thought that the Yankees were having a hard time beating teams at the bottom of their divisions – like the Chicago White Sox and San Diego Padres – then imagine what it’s going to take just to compete against two of the best teams in baseball over the next week.
Gavin Ewbank is a Yankees writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow @GavinEwbank2013 on Twitter for more Yankee talk.
