The Fairy Tale Is Over

For two straight games now, we have lost early.

On Tuesday night, we had scored two runs and had the bases loaded with no one out.  We went down meekly, and never scored again.  This was the top of the first inning, by the way.  And because we had the  old slow guys on the bases, the third base coach kept holding the runners at third after base hits to right field.

Turns out, the throws to the plate were so far off the mark, that even Tex and Beltran could have scored easily, had they been waved home. We could have had 4 runs.   The Tampa pitcher was on the ropes.   Almost dealing 40 pitches in the top of the first.  He would have been gone.

But we only scored two runs.  By the end of the 6th, the Tampa pitcher had only thrown about 20 more pitches.  We lost the game in the first inning.  We only scored two.  We always lose when we only score two.

Tonight, when I got home and turned on the game, it was 3-2 Tampa.  It was still early in the game, but I knew it was over.  This team is back in the 2014 pattern of never coming back to win.  Never scoring more than 2 runs.  Whenever we see that number on the scoreboard for the Yankees, we should run and hide.  If we have zero, one, three or anything other than 2, we have a shot.

But that 2 run output, early in the game, is a sign of death.  Strikeouts and pop-outs, double play balls, time after time we have failure after failure to advance a runner.  To score anyone.  Suddenly, everyone is a .200 hitter. 

 The lead off guys get on, and they never move.  Or, they get thrown out, knowing that they only way they can get into scoring position is by stealing a base.  Even when that works, it doesn't matter.  They are left picking their toes.

This team sucks.  Two runs per game sucks.

And that is the reality.  The fairy tale story ended tonight.