Rock Bottom?

A complete embarrassment courtesy of the Mets tonight on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball. Chien-Ming Wang wilted in a long, 30-plus pitch 4th inning and the putrid offense could not string anything together against Oliver Perez. A nice response followed the horrid 4th inning, as Matsui's 2-run home run sliced the deficit in half. However, the game's turning point was when Jose Molina led off the bottom of the 5th inning with a double.

Nobody out, runner at 2nd, the score at that point was 4-2 (should have been 6-2, or worse, thanks to the ill-fated reverse home run call against Carlos Delgado). Johnny Damon has the opportunity to drive in Molina, or at worst advance him to 3rd so Abreu and Jeter have a chance to produce and close the gap. Damon's at-bat was synonymous with the team's struggles offensively all year: his approach at first seemed to be patience, waiting for a pitch to drive and thus drive in Molina. However, as soon as he took a strike from Perez, he switched to simple advance-the-runner mode, squaring to bunt and bunting foul, putting himself in a 1-2 hole. At this point, advancing the runner is the clear priority, and mercifully, Damon succeeded in getting Molina to 3rd with a ground ball to first.

What follows is the real nightmare, the microcosm of the Yankees' offensive season thus far. It captures not only the team's horrible struggles with runners on base, but also Joe Girardi's insane stubbornness and inflexibility, with a little misguided loyalty mixed in, in the face of numbers, logic and failed experiments.

First, the lineup has looked absolutely terrible against left handed pitching. Everyone knows this. I can't remember the Yankees beating a left handed pitcher, all year. It doesn't happen. None of the lefties hit other lefties. Matsui might have good numbers against lefties, but he bails out horribly when he's facing a lefty and leaves himself insanely vulnerable to breaking balls. Damon, Abreu, Giambi, Cano...they look awful against left-handed pitching. Their numbers are awful against left handed pitching. And yet...they are all in the lineup against Oliver Perez? Really?

Unbelievable. Shelley Duncan and Morgan Ensberg have done nothing to earn their playing time, but they are supposed to mash left handers. That's why they are on the roster. Oliver Perez is not Johan Santana, he is hittable, he seems like an ideal candidate to plug in right handed bats against.

Yet, Girardi refuses. Is this him being the against-the-grain-thinking manager? Or is this him being a Joe Torre holdover, running out his most talented players in a "big" game regardless of match-ups and right/left-handedness? I thought Girardi was a numbers manager, more so than a feeling/loyalty manager? What I thought is apparently not reality.

Bobby Abreu, in his big at-bat with a runner on 3rd and 1 out, with the game still a tight 2-run affair, strikes out looking on a 2-2 slider. This, after his first two ABs resulted in 1-3 groundouts, results of his feebly pulling off Perez's pitches because he can't handle facing left handed pitching.

Jeter puts a good swing on a 2-2 pitch from Perez and drives a ball to left center, but it's into Death Valley and Derek knows he's got nothing from the moment of contact. The inning ends, the game still 4-2 and the Yankees having just wasted a golden (and rare) opportunity to drive in Jose Molina after a leadoff double. The top of the order, no less, had someone to drive in that wasn't Johnny Damon or Derek Jeter. And yet they couldn't do it.

The rest of the game was a hideous mess of Chien-Ming Wang's struggles and one of Ross Ohlendorf's whipping boy outings. 11-2 as a final score didn't have to be as lopsided as it was. Joe Girardi deserves blame for plugging in all the lefties two days in a row.

Jason Giambi deserves some blame for that 4th inning and his continuing butchery of the first base position. Johnny Damon still can't get a hit. Derek Jeter continues to try and look like he's trying, but nobody else does. Melky Cabrera isn't hitting anymore. Alberto Gonzalez is not an everyday player, by any stretch of the imagination, at any position.

This seems like the ultimate low-point. Getting absolutely spanked on national television against the regional/market rival, with your ace pitcher taking the loss and your offense continuing to generate nothing. Oliver Perez leaves the game and tips his cap to the Yankee Stadium Met-heavy crowd. Disgraceful. Jose Reyes hits a meaningless, tack-on home run and raises a finger into the air and styles his way around the bases.

And there's no response from the team in pinstripes. When will the response come? Will their response be on the field, or in the front office? How long are we sticking to the "our hitters are going to start hitting, I know it!" stance?

These questions need to be answered sooner rather than later. I hope for an exciting off day tomorrow, in some form or another.