Tuesday night, the New York Yankees will look to snap their four-game losing streak -- and snap out of their team-wide offensive funk -- against Tyler Glasnow and the AL East rival Tampa Bay Rays (GameTracker). New York has scored no more than two runs in nine of their last 12 games, and they're averaging only 3.74 runs per game this season, fourth fewest in baseball.
"It hasn't been pretty at all," hitting coach Marcus Thames told reporters, including Erik Boland of Newsday, on Tuesday. To say Thames is stating the obvious would be an understatement.
Already 21 times in 54 games this season the Yankees have been held to two runs or fewer. That is more than they did it last year (15 times in 60 games) and nearly as often as they did it in 2019 (26 times in 162 games). Only the Pirates and Tigers, who have been held to two runs or fewer 23 times each, have done it more often this season. Not exactly good company there.
As a team, the Yankees are hitting .229/.316/.371 this year. They rank 24th in batting average, 13th in on-base percentage, and 24th in slugging percentage. DJ LeMahieu hit .336 from 2019-20 and is slugging .338 in 2021. Gleyber Torres has two home runs in 45 games. With Luke Voit limited to 12 games by injury, the team's first basemen have hit .173/.276/.264 this year. Yikes.
The four-game skid has dropped the Yankees to 5 1/2 games behind the Rays in the AL East, and if they're panicking, it is not showing in their lineups. Here's the starting nine manager Aaron Boone is sending out there against Glasnow on Tuesday:
- 3B DJ LeMahieu
- 2B Rougned Odor
- DH Aaron Judge
- SS Gio Urshela
- 1B Mike Ford
- C Gary Sánchez
- LF Miguel Andújar
- CF Brett Gardner
- RF Clint Frazier
Torres is not playing Tuesday after starting six games in the last five days, and the Yankees are still easing Giancarlo Stanton into action following his recent quad injury. Otherwise the Yankees have a second baseman at third, a third baseman at short, and a third baseman in left. That lineup wouldn't look out of place in a Grapefruit League game on March 1. Instead, it is the lineup the Yankees will use to try to snap a four-game losing streak on June 1.
The Yankees were swept in Detroit this past weekend and have lost six of their last seven games overall. They went 22-8 in the 30 games prior to that, though their success was built largely on their pitching. New York averaged only 4.33 runs per game in those 30 games. The American League average this year is 4.37 runs per game.
