Missing: Yankee offense

The Yankees lost their fourth straight game following a 6-0 setback to the Angels. Over that span they’re hitting .167 (22-for-132) while scoring nine total runs. In addition, they’re batting .113 (7-for-62) in the sixth inning or later since Wednesday.

I can understand the last two games, as they were facing Jered Weaver and Dan Haren, but this is an offense that leads the Majors in runs and run differential. However, they’ve scored just one run and managed eight hits over their last 25 innings.

Haren absolutely owned the Yanks tonight. He threw a complete game four-hitter and retired 18 straight batters at one point. He also dealt the Bombers their seventh shut out of 2011.

Oh well, I guess it’s better to slump in September instead of October. The lone bright spot is that the Sox have also dropped four straight (and are 2-8 in September) so the Yanks remain 2 1/2 up in the East.

Other news:

• CC threw a pretty good game despite not having his best stuff. He finished with six innings and a run on eight hits with five strikeouts to four walks. He failed to win his 20th game (19-8) and fell to 9-3 in 13 starts following a Yankee loss, but did record his 2,003rd career strikeout. He needed 119 pitches (69 strikes) to get through the six innings; to put that in perspective, Haren threw 113 (78 strikes) the entire game.
• The bullpen wasn’t much better. Noesi was shelled for four runs on three hits with a walk and a strikeout in 2/3 of an inning. George Kontos made his MLB debut and gave up a run on two hits with two strikeouts and no walks in 1 1/3 innings.
• As if the Yanks’ injury woes weren’t enough, Russell Martin took a foul tip off his throwing hand while catching and had to leave the game. He was taken for x-rays, which came back negative. Posada then came in to catch in the third and actually threw out a runner. He also recorded one of the team’s four hits while becoming the oldest player in MLB to catch this season. Girardi said after the game that Montero will catch tomorrow.
• Girardi also said that Cervelli is heading back to New York for concussion tests and Austin Romine is on his way to join the team. Frankie won’t join the team for the rest of the road trip and it’s unclear if he’ll play again this season.
• From the ever-growing injury concerns file: it was revealed before the game that Andruw Jones has played all season with a small tear in his left knee. The knee has been drained several times this season and it will be drained again prior to the playoffs.