ANAHEIM, Calif. — The home run was tangible evidence. Yet it wasn’t the only indication to Mark Teixeira that he is slowly emerging from a miserable start.
“(Thursday) were the best four at-bats I had all year,’’ Teixeira said after the A’s edged the Yankees, 4-2, in Oakland. “There is a fine line between being really good and really bad. Unfortunately I have been on the really bad side all year. Hopefully I can turn the corner.’’
The 11-4 ledger the Yankees took into play against the Angels has provided camouflage for the .125 (7-for-56) beginning to the switch-hitting first baseman’s season.
However, in the final two games against the A’s, the Yankees scored three runs then two. Based on that, the lineup could use Teixeira’s muscle from the third spot.
Though seven RBIs in 15 games isn’t great, it’s not a complete waste because Teixeira has as many hits as RBIs. But hitting third for the Yankees comes with very big responsibilities.
Last April, Teixeira struggled without Alex Rodriguez hitting fourth. In 10 games, Teixeira batted .200 (14-for-70) with three homers and 10 RBIs. This April, Rodriguez has played in every game and Teixeira is stone cold. To go with the .125 overall average, he is batting exactly the same with runners in scoring position (1-for-8). He is a career .238 (148-for-622) hitter in March/April with 24 homers and 81 RBIs in 163 games.
Teixeira isn’t alone swinging dead wood. No. 2 hitter Nick Johnson is at the magic number .125 (6-for-48), too, and taking far too many third strikes.
Nick Swisher doesn’t hit as high as Johnson and Teixeira but he is expected to be better than the .208 he lugged to the plate against Ervin Santana.
As for those four Teixeira at-bats, he almost had two homers.
After lofting a stress-free fly to left to end the first against Dallas “Get Off My Mound’’ Braden, Teixeira skied to center to end the third with runners on first and second. In the sixth, Braden was ahead of Teixeira, 0-2, and threw a 69-mph breaking ball in the bottom half of the zone. Teixeira smothered it and sent it over the left-field fence. The second homer almost came in the ninth when Teixeira flied to deep right.
“Got under it a little bit, hit it too high,’’ he said.
Again, there aren’t many negatives in the Yankees’ universe. They had won the first five series (sweeping one) to start the season for the first time since 1926. Until Sunday they hadn’t made an error since the second game of the season. Except for Javier Vazquez, who pitches Sunday with a 1-2 record, the starting rotation has been superb. Joba Chamberlain has excelled in the eighth-inning role, and Mariano Rivera was 6-for-6 in save chances.
The Yankees gave Teixeira $180 million to produce in the middle of the lineup and his track record indicates he will. But until he does, questions will be asked.
“You can always find something (wrong),’’ Joe Girardi said. “You want to get every one going. By no means have we played perfect baseball but we have played at a high level.’’