Girardi: we're still in first
Joe Girardi didn't beat around the bush on the obvious.
"We're not hitting right now," he said after tonight's 4-0 loss to the Mets.
But he also correctly pointed out that a three-game slump for a team that came into the night baseball's second-highest scoring team wasn't cause for panic, either.
“You’re going to go through this, and you can’t jump off the bridge when you lose a couple games in a row and you don’t score runs,” Girardi said. “This is a long season. We’re 41-26, we’re tied for first place. We haven’t scored runs the last three days but at any time that can turn around.”
Several players used the word "frustrated" for how things have gone the last three games, but more so because of the superb pitching efforts, most recently tonight by Javier Vazquez, that have been wasted.
“It’s frustrating not getting the pitcher some runs,” said Jorge Posada, who went 1-for-3 with a walk but grounded out with the bases loaded in the sixth. “Javy threw a hell of a game and we threw a hell of a game the other day. It is frustrating not to get some runs on the board.”
The ever-optimistic Kevin Long greeted reporters with a weary smile and said, "better get us now."
“A little unexpected after the way we swung the bats against [Roy] Halladay,” Long said of the slump coming after Tuesday’s 8-3 victory over the Phillies. “But it’s part of baseball. Been through it before. This is just one of those times. We’ll continue to grind, we’ll continue to get after it, we’ll continue to work and you know what? It will turn around.”
*** Girardi was not a big fan of Nick Swisher's rather odd -- OK, bad -- base running decision in the eighth, tagging from first to second on Mark Teixeira's fly out to left.
"You have to be able to stand up, basically," Girardi said.
Swisher dove head first into second and was bailed out when second baseman Ruben Tejada failed to hold onto the ball and was charged with an error.
"We talked about it," Girardi said. "He understands. Sometimes guys try to make things happen when you're not scoring runs. The danger of that is you make mistakes."
