Nothing routine in World Series for Yankees' Teixeira
NEW YORK - Derek Jeter has teased Mark Teixeira about his rigid regimen, about his robotic approach to the daily grind of baseball.
Teixeira misses that grind, that routine.
RON CORTES / Staff photographer
Mark Teixeira says World Series schedule has upset his rhythm.
The frequent off days in the playoffs have taken Teixeira out of his comfort zone. It is showing.
Teixeira, the top position-player free agent in 2008, is hitting .172 with 16 strikeouts and seven RBI in 14 playoff games.
"It's tough to get into a rhythm," Teixeira said.
He wasn't, he insisted, offering excuses. Just a possible explanation.
"When you're in a rhythm during the season, you're going to fail seven out of 10 times," he said. "When you're not in a rhythm, you're going to fail a lot more. That's been the case right now."
With Jeter electrifying atop the lineup and with Alex Rodriguez having shaken the A-Fraud stigma for the moment, Teixeira's problems have largely gone overlooked.
Then, Monday.
The lingering image of Game 5 was Teixeira fanning on Ryan Madson's changeup to end the Yankees' rally, and Game 5.
The Yankees had momentum. They had scored a run on a doubleplay ball to help whittle a six-run lead to two, and Johnny Damon promptly singled, took second and set up Teixeira to be a hero. A hit or a walk would have brought Rodriguez to the plate, facing a bullpen that leaked a loss in Game 4 and looked ready to do so again.
Instead, Teixeira, the power jewel in the Yankees' three-man spending spree, fell to 2-for-19 in the Series with seven strikeouts in five games.
"It hasn't been easy. It definitely hasn't been. I'm not getting as many hits as I'd like to," Teixeira said.
Not that he's not trying. In fact, he might be trying too hard.
Not pressing, but, rather, overworking.
"You take more time, because you have more time. You watch more tape. You take more batting practice," Teixeira said. "Maybe that works against you. Maybe during the season, when you're tired, when you just go out there and just play the game, because you've played 20 games in a row - maybe your natural ability just takes over."
That might hold water better if Teixeira hadn't smoked the ball in 2008 when, with the Angels, he went 7-for-15 in their American League Division Series.
Playing for a contract, in the middle of a solid lineup, he cranked.
Playing to a contract, in the middle of a historic lineup, he hasn't.
Consider leadoff man Jeter's .420 on-base percentage in the playoffs and Damon's .435 on-base percentage in the World Series, and Teixeira's 2-for-18 performance with runners in scoring position in the postseason validates the criticism.
It is the worst average of any player in the postseason with at least 12 at-bats.
It is by far the worst average of any hitter in the postseason making almost $21 million this season.
Of course, Teixeira isn't the only player struggling. Or, possibly, even the best.
The Phillies' Ryan Howard is 3-for-19 with 12 strikeouts and one RBI in the World Series. But Howard's scorching performance in the first two rounds fueled the Phillies' drive to the pennant.
Teixeira hit .205 in the first two rounds.
He was coincidental to A-Rod.
He's supposed to be complementary.
Rodriguez knows of Mark Teixeira's woes. He can only hope they end sooner.
A-Rod, as baseball's top-paid player, spent years in pinstriped purgatory. He won the AL Most Valuable Player Award as a Yankee in 2005 and 2007, but, from Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS through the 2007 postseason, he hit .148 with three RBI in 17 games.
Top players are top targets.
Teixeira is that guy now. *
