Yankees Season on the Brink after 2-1 Loss in Detroit

TIGERS 2
YANKEES 1

Once Derek Jeter limped off the field during game one of the ALCS, everyone knew that winning this series was going to be a monumental task for the 2012 Yankees. Without their leader, and arguably best player, the Yankees would have to dig down deep to find that extra something to pull this one out.

Instead, the Yankees have continued to play listless baseball, falling to the Tigers again 2-1, Tuesday in Detroit.

Through three games, the Yankees have scored only five runs, all of them in the ninth inning. In short the Yankees have been shutout in 25 different innings in the ALCS against the Tigers, as nobody can hit a baseball right now.

Bronx Bombers? How about Bronx Bums.

That is what the 2012 Yankees have become. Sure you can kill Alex Rodriguez all you want for his post-season futility, as he has spent more time trying to touch first base with women behind home plate, than he has trying to get on base during a ball game.

While, Rodriguez was ideal once again during a playoff game, benched in favor of Eric Chavez, the rest of the line-up went limp.

Granted the Yankees were facing one of the best pitchers in the sport in Justin Verlander, but the fact they couldn't even touch him was embarassing for a team chuck full of all stars and Hall of Famers.

The Yankees managed only five hits in game three, and only 15 hits as a team in this series. As a club the Yankees are hitting .192 in this series, .205 overall in the playoffs. The biggest culprits have been A-Rod, of course, who is batting .130 in eight playoff games, Robinson Cano, who is a woeful .083 this postseason. Not has Cano been bad, he has been really bad, at one point going hittless in 29 straight at bats for the Yankees in this playoff season.

Nick Swisher? Why ask. He's hitting .154. Russell Martin? .172. Even Mark Teixeira, who has a .310 average in the postseason has had his troubles, driving in only one run in eight playoff games. The entire Yankees offense has been awful, looking more and more like a team that is getting too old to catch up to the fastballs of younger pitchers.

If the Yankees were going to have any success this fall, they needed Cano, Swisher, Martin, Texieira to deliver, they have not. 

While there were lingering concerns about the Yankees pitching staff coming into the postseason, they have done the job. Outside of CC Sabathia's brilliance in two games against the Orioles, the rest of the staff has been solid. Phil Hughes threw to a 1.86 ERA; Hiroki Kuroda, was great in game two of the LCS, but didn't have any run support; Andy Pettitte was fair in two starts. So the starting pitching was not an issue.

While Verlander didn't have his best stuff on Tuesday, he still dominated the Yankees through eight and a third innings, before Phil Coke closed out the Yankees in the top of the ninth.

The Yankees watched Detroit build a 2-0 lead on a homer by Delmon Young and an RBI double by Miguel Cabrera, earlier in the game. When it came time for New York to rally in the top of the ninth, one never felt that the Yankees would ever really get back into the game.

Even though New York cut the lead in half on an Eduardo Nunez solo homer, and even though both Teixeira and Cano reached on singles, it felt like Detroit was in complete control, and they were, as Coke struck the lone Yankee hero, this October, in Raul Ibanez ending the contest. The days when the Yankees used to be feared for their late game heroics are gone. This line-up doesn't scare anybody. They are just a group of aging Hall of Famers, who are nearing their collective end.

The Yankees are now down 3-0 in a best of seven series; the Yankees have not been swept in a playoff series since the 1980 ALCS against the Kansas City Royals. Since the Yankees dynasty run began in the Autumn of 1995, the Yankees have never been swept in any stage of the postseason. If they should lose Wednesday, it will be a new first for this team, and possibly the beginning of the end.

The Yankees have a lot of work to do, not only in this series, but beyond. They have so many concerns in a rotation that will have to be fixed big time for 2013. In addition, the Bombers have way too many concerns about the age of this line-up, and and questions about the long-term health of their top two stars, Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter. Not to mention the long term value of having an aging bat in Alex Rodriguez on this team. Perhaps the end of the Yankees run is finally taking place this season; -- it is now up to Brian Cashman to take this playoff run as an example of the work he must complete this winter.