The Offense And Your Mom

Since May 12th the Yankees have gone through a horrible slump , in which they've only won one game out of six. The good news is that the offense has been consistent during that span of games. The bad news is it's been consistently bad, as they've only scored six times. Or, in other words, the Yankees have scored at a rate that's on par with an average night for your mom.

Pitching hasn't been the problem. Mind you, giving up six runs on Thursday and twelve the following day is definitely in the "poor" area, but other than those two games the pitching staff has given up twelve earned runs (the Royals scored two unearned runs yesterday), which shouldn't be a problem for a team that's averaged well over four runs a game. And you have to keep in mind that Esmil Rogers, Justin Wilson, Chasen Shreve, Jose Ramirez, David Carpenter, and Brandon Pinder have gotten a lot more work than they normally would in that six game stretch (none of them pitched in the Yankees lone win during that streak).

But getting back to the problem... scoring. Or that thing your mom's an expert at.

The Yankees have hit an anemic .215/.267/.300 in the past six games. But as bad as that news is, the good news is that it shouldn't continue. During the first 33 games of the season, the team hit .262/.330/.443. For further proof of the past week's offense not being indicative of what we can see for the rest of the season, I would like to point out that the team is walking less, they are striking out more, their power has gone down, and their batting average on balls in play has gone down.

Before May 12th the offense was led by what may be the best one-two hitters in the league... Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner. Well, it has to hurt that those two players have batted .261 and .238, respectively. On that note, Brian McCann has hit a pathetic .217 during that same stretch, making the top of the order almost non-existent at the moment. If it wasn't for Mark Teixeira hitting well above the norm for him, then chances are the Yankees wouldn't be in first place in their division.

You're probably sick of Mr. Optimism here, but I can't help who I am. Nor can I help that the stats back me up.