With just less than 20 percent of the season in the books, the Yankees are still waiting to go on a tear. Yet, despite the fact they haven’t clicked on all cylinders yet, the Bombers still find themselves six games over .500, and tied for first place in the American League East.
But as the Yankees begin a six-game homestand tonight against the Royals, just because they haven’t put it together yet doesn’t mean they are guaranteed to do so.
“We can’t turn it on like a switch,” Mariano Rivera said last night at the Clubhouse Grill in New Rochelle, where he was attending a benefit for the Evelyn Sachs Steiner Home for Girls. “Hopefully it happens and we go all the way, but at the same time, we just have to worry about what we have to do now.”
Rivera also wasn’t surprised by longtime teammate Derek Jeter’s breakout performance Sunday in Texas, in which the shortstop went 4-for-6 and hit his first two home runs of the season.
“It was just a matter of time, and [Sunday] was just one of those days,” Rivera said.
One of the Yankees who got off to a slow start was outfielder Brett Gardner, who was dropped from the leadoff spot after a prolonged slump to open the season. Gardner, who has gone 13-for-31 (.419) in his past 13 games, said despite the fact the Yankees are sitting on top of the division, the team still has plenty of work to do.
“I think anytime that you feel like you haven’t really played up to your full potential, I don’t think you can use the word ‘satisfied,’ ” Gardner said. “I don’t think that things have gone great for us. The one thing that we have had is most of the guys have been healthy, so you can’t really use that as an excuse.
“We’ve had some ups and downs through the first few weeks of the season, but the bottom line is we’re still tied for first place, and we’ve been playing pretty decent baseball.”