Bronx Weekends Don't Get Much Uglier Than This

The Yankees have failed to capitalize on an advantageous start to the season.

On Saturday night, when Yankee Stadium felt like it was transported back to the chaotic, crazy days of the 70s and 80s, you would never guess that the team might actually find itself hoping for the Jorge Posada controversy to linger a little longer.

As long as everyone was paying attention to the carnival freakshow that sprung from Posada's refusal to take his ailing bat to the ninth spot in the order, no one was paying attention to the fact that Posada was just one part of a major problem. It also allowed Joe Girardi to wax eloquently about the nature of aging players and the respect they must be accorded until making his latest attempt to get everyone to believe that things will turn around soon for the Yankees.

Alas, Posada went the class route and ended all the fun with a heartfelt apology for having a bad day. That meant we got a familiar refrain from the manager and it is one he must repeat to himself in his sleep to keep from totally losing his mind.

We all expect the Yankees to start hitting like the back of their baseball cards and we all expect them to start fielding like something resembling a major league team, but it would be nice to see an actual sign that it will happen.

The offense threatened to break out with four runs off of Jon Lester, but couldn't get enough done in the final innings after Alex Rodriguez's mind-boggling error helped the Sox extend their lead. Sunday night's 7-5 loss to the Red Sox was the final act in a three-game sweep, the fifth straight loss overall and nine losses in their last 12 games.

It was also the clearest sign that the Yankees, now a quarter of the way through the season, failed to take advantage of their chance to capitalize when things broke their way. The Rays and Red Sox got off to dreadful starts this season, the schedule gave the Yankees 24 home games to 14 road games and an old team got extra days off from rain to make sure their creaky bodies didn't break down.

On top of that, the pitching staff that terrified everyone in spring training turned out not to be that bad. Anyone who thinks that we're going to see much better (or even equally good) stuff from A.J. Burnett, Ivan Nova, Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia is surely a good, optimistic person but not someone you should be scared of at the poker table.

It's just ugly everywhere you look. Joba Chamberlain has become vulnerable just when Rafael Soriano comes up lame, Nick Swisher can't hit, Brett Gardner can't steal bases and Derek Jeter is back to banging out grounders at the same pace McDonald's churns out cheeseburgers.

Now the Red Sox are even in the win column and the Rays are on top of the division as the Yankees try to stop the bleeding that has become systemic. Things can get better, we'll keep telling ourselves that.  

Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.

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