Yanks Just Don’t Have Their Heads in the Game By TYLER KEPNER Published: August 13, 2008 MINNEAPOLIS — The worst part for the Yankees on Wednesday was not so much that they lost again. Losing happens almost every day. It was the way they lost that was most disturbing. The Yankees came to the end of a three-city stumble with a 4-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins that was filled with mental mistakes. They lost 7 of 10 on the trip and are showing no signs they will seriously compete for a playoff spot. “It’s a frustrating loss, a frustrating road trip,” Johnny Damon said. “ We do need to get better. It’s getting pretty late for us.” The Yankees played without shortstop Derek Jeter, who is out with a bruised left foot. He promised to play on Friday, and he cannot return soon enough. With Wilson Betemit at shortstop, Robinson Canó at second base and Melky Cabrera in center field, the Yankees’ defense up the middle was painfully erratic. Several miscommunications bothered Manager Joe Girardi. “I don’t understand it,” Girardi said. “We’ve been playing way too long to have that happen. It’s something that shouldn’t happen. It’s inexcusable. Those guys have played together long enough, they understand what they need to do. Sometimes it’s just trying to do too much, and you can ’t. You have to be able to relax and play.” Fittingly, a trip that started with a shoulder injury to a rookie pitcher ended the same way. On Aug. 4 in Texas, Joba Chamberlain went down. On Wednesday, it was reliever Dan Giese. He left after three hitters with a stiff shoulder. As he usually does, Girardi tried to play down the injury, telling reporters, “He’s O.K., just a little stiff.” He added that Giese would need no medical exams, only treatment, and would probably be ready for bullpen work by Saturday. Giese told a different story, and a media relations representative soon confirmed that he will see a doctor on Thursday. “Once the first batter got in there, I definitely didn’t feel good, and I started overthrowing,” Giese said. “That’s when it started to stiffen up on me. It’s like if you get a tetanus shot and there’s that ache real deep in there. It feels like somebody punched you in the shoulder. I couldn’t get extension on any of my pitches.” Giese was working in relief of Darrell Rasner, who did what he usually does: work five innings and give the team a chance to win. Double plays helped Rasner in the second and the third, but his defense let him down in the fourth. After a leadoff walk to Joe Mauer, Rasner got Justin Morneau to ground to third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who whipped a throw to second. Canó caught the ball, but he came off the bag and was charged with an error. Girardi absolved Canó, saying the runner would have been safe either way and that Rodriguez should have thrown to first. “The umpire said he beat the throw, not that I was off the bag,” Canó said. With one out, Delmon Young delivered the only damaging hit off Rasner. A day after swatting an opposite-field, three-run homer off Mariano Rivera, Young did the same off a cutter from Rasner to give the Twins a 3-1 lead. “I left it up a little bit and he got a good swing on it and hit it to the right part of the ballpark,” Rasner said. “It was up, and I think that was the trouble. If it was down, I think it’s a different story.” The Twins needed only those runs to win, but miscues in the later innings irked Girardi. In the sixth, Damon threw to second instead of third on a fly out because Betemit did not tell him the runner at second was tagging up. In the seventh, Nick Punto blooped a single off the glove of a charging Cabrera. It was Canó’s ball, and he signaled for it, but he backed off when Cabrera called him off. In the eighth, Mauer stole second when Canó and Betemit both converged on the base; the throw got away and nicked Betemit on the leg. It was another puzzling defensive performance by Betemit, who played first base in Anaheim last Sunday and failed to react to a ground ball single that lost the game. “This club hasn’t made a lot of mental mistakes,” Girardi said. “Today there were a couple. I don’t know if it’s because Derek’s not out there; it ’s still no excuse. All the things that happened today were in the middle. Different shortstop.” It was a different shortstop, but a typical result: another loss for the Yankees, and another day gone in a season that is quickly getting shorter. INSIDE PITCH Manager Joe Girardi said starters Phil Hughes and Carl Pavano would make at least one more start before returning to the Yankees, though conceivably that could change because of Dan Giese’s shoulder injury. For now, Hughes is scheduled to throw 100 pitches for Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Sunday, when Pavano is expected to start again for Class AA Trenton. ...Hideki Matsui (knee) is scheduled to start a rehabilitation assignment Thursday in Tampa, Fla. ... The deadline for signing amateur draft picks is Friday, and the Yankees still have not come to terms with their first two choices, pitchers Gerrit Cole and Jeremy Bleich, who are represented by Scott Boras. Cole has a U.C.L.A. scholarship as leverage and Bleich could return to Stanford for his senior year. News source：http://0rz.tw/004EZ 翻譯：http://0rz.tw/764Dx --

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