Davidoff: Late struggles not always a problem

The Yankees close out their regular season with a three-game series against the Red Sox at Fenway Park, starting tonight. And seriously - first place or no first place - they have to get their act together in anticipation of the playoffs.

Unless they don't.

"I've been on teams that scuffled the last week of the season and won," Derek Jeter said late Wednesday night after the Yankees' 8-4 loss to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. "I've been on teams that have been hot the last week of the season. I think it's just a matter of being hot when the playoffs start.

"It doesn't always work with how you played the last week of the season. You want to be playing well."

Yup, the captain, never one to waste words, pretty much nailed it: Sure, you want to enter the postseason soaring. But you can report to October lying on your back and still find a way to roll over and rise.

Right now, these Yankees are as horizontal as Wile E. Coyote after a fall off a cliff. They'll take the field having lost six of their last eight games and 15 of their last 23.

"It's been a tough month on us, there's no doubt about it,'' manager Joe Girardi said. "But it's baseball. You're going to have better months than other months."

Their starting rotation ranks, far and away, as the team's biggest concern; the Yankees' starters recorded a 5.52 ERA in September. Big tests come Friday night and tomorrow, with Andy Pettitte looking to quell fears about his health and A.J. Burnett hoping to show he can be trusted.

Girardi, with the backing of general manager Brian Cashman, has put himself in the center of Yankees fans' agita by taking a largely global approach to September. Once the Yankees gained considerable distance from Boston, Girardi made sure not to burn out his position players and relievers, generously distributing rest.

That strategy looks good at the moment. The lineup has generally performed better lately, with Alex Rodriguez in particular putting up a great month (a .385 on-base percentage and .667 slugging percentage, with nine homers and 26 RBIs in 22 games). The bullpen appears to be rested and ready; the biggest concern, slumping Mariano Rivera, put up a quick two-batter outing in Tuesday night's playoff clincher and also, you know, has an insanely good body of work.

So really, when we talk about the Yankees' poor play of late, we're talking specifically about the starting rotation.

Jeter and his fellow "Core Four" members can relate. The 2000 Yankees put up a 13-18 September/October record and a 5.32 ERA. They ended the regular season losing seven straight games, 13 of 15 and 15 of 18.

"I think we had just that good of a team," Jorge Posada recalled. "Down the stretch, we were fighting and fighting and fighting. All of a sudden, you get in, and you get a fresh start. Let's hope that's the case this year."

Actually, those 2000 Yankees weren't very good at all. They put up an 87-74 record, which would place them fourth in this year's American League East. Their rebound run for a third straight world championship challenged the mind. Six pitchers - Roger Clemens, Orlando Hernandez, Jeff Nelson, Pettitte, Rivera and Mike Stanton - covered 1211/3 of 144 possible postseason innings, a ridiculous 84.3 percent of the workload.

Of the 15 World Series champions in the wild-card era, three recorded a losing mark in September/October: the 2000 Yankees, the 2006 Cardinals (12-16) and the 1997 Marlins (12-15). It can be done. It just isn't the preferred road.

"You have to go into the playoffs with a positive attitude," Posada said. "The only way a positive attitude comes is if we're playing well. I don't believe in we can turn it on and off. Everything has to be set up the right way."

Except when it isn't.

"I don't really think you can explain things sometimes," Jeter said. "You get there and see what happens. You still want to be playing well. We want to play better."