Jeter, hitting coach Long get some results
Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter hits an RBI single that gives the Yankees a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays, Sunday. (July 18, 2010) Credit: Christopher Pasatieri
Derek Jeter said he doesn't like to "overanalyze," but the way things were going, he decided to sit down with hitting coach Kevin Long several hours before yesterday's game to look at some video.
"For a while he was trying to stay back and I think he overcompensated, so now he's really going too far back and it's causing more forward movement," Long said before the game. "His feet are getting kind of pigeon-toed, so we're going to try and square those up."
Jeter, who entered Sunday in a 9-for-53 slump in his previous 14 games, went 2-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored in the Yankees' 9-5 victory over the Rays. He just missed out on hits two other times on rocket groundouts to second.
"I asked [Long] what took him so long ," Jeter said with a smile. "It's been 90 games."
Even with the two hits, Jeter is hitting .271, far below his career average (.317 entering this season).
"I've been hitting the ball well here and there, just not consistently," he said.
Joe Girardi reiterated what he's said several times this season: "He's too good of a hitter to stay down for too long."
Apology accepted
A.J. Burnett, who expects to start Friday, apologized to his teammates before yesterday's game for injuring himself after the second inning of Saturday's start by slamming his arms into a clubhouse door, causing lacerations on both hands.
But what was said and how it was received will stay behind closed doors. "That's between us," Burnett said.
"It's all in the past," he said. "It's over and I've learned from it."
His teammates saw it the same way.
Jeter, whose locker is near Burnett's, called out to the pitcher when reporters asked him about it.
"It's over," Jeter said. "We don't have to do everything through the media."
Extra bases
Girardi said Alfredo Aceves (back) threw Saturday and "felt good." He was scheduled to play catch again Sunday . . . Nick Johnson strolled through the clubhouse before the game, his Jason Giambi-esque mustache shaved off. "Just cleaning up a little," he said.
