It's Not the Pitching.

Another Sunday, another excellent pitching performance utterly wasted.

Today, facing a "starting" pitcher—who knows what anybody is doing for Tampa Bay anymore? Starting, relieving, and the this and the that, and HEY LADY!—with an ERA of over 6, the Yanks scored all of one run—on a dinger, of course—and left 9 men on base, 5 on second or third.

Their at-bats with those 9 runners on went:

Fly out, ground out, ground out, strike out, strike out, ground out, strike out, strike out, fly out, double-play ground out, strike out, strike out, ground out, strike out, strike out, pop out.

Quite a display.

Now granted, Neil Walker, the Designated Fridge Break was playing, and Bird was stretching out his Limitless Potential, which will someday be so immense he might get above the .220 mark. And then there's the fact that it was Fathers Day, and maybe our heroes were just too teary-eyed thinking of all the sacrifices their dads made for them to see the ball clearly, or too depressed by the baby-blue hats they were forced to wear for the occasion, take your pick.

But such peccadillos obscure a larger problem, methinks. This team can't hit.

As previously noted, its run production is dropping steadily, from over 6 runs a game in April, to 5.25  in May, to just 4.0 for May. It has now been 21 games since the Yanks scored more than 8 runs, a total reached exactly once in that skein, back on June 2. They've scored more than 4 runs just 6 times in those same 21 contests.

In the last 10 games, they've averaged just 3.2 runs a game, and are 7-3 only by dint of the pitchers performing at levels that cannot and will not hold up.

Let's face it, folks. There are World Cup teams that score more than the Yankees.

I jest, I jest, of course. But seriously: lest I be accused of the mortal heresy of small sample size, this really is about more than just the dreaded Walker taking needed reps from players who are still among the living, or Bird's fractious ankles.

For the last couple years now, every single player who comes to the Yankees becomes less and less effective as a hitter as time goes on. Sure, some of that is pitchers making adjustments to hot rookies. But veterans suffer the same fate.

What's going on is the approach. The Yankees, like many teams today, train their players to produce home runs or nothing. Unsurprisingly, what they get are home runs or nothing. It's not enough. Their sinking run production will kill them in the playoffs, and likely break the bullpen before they ever get there.