NEW YORK – Fact is, they don't run a lot. With what they've got in their batting order, why bother?
But the New York Yankees aren't the New York Yankees because they're fools. They pay their scouts well, and they employ players who are smart enough to learn from personal experience, and they know a gift when it's being handed to them. Like second base. Or third base.
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Melky Cabrera easily steals third ahead of Chase Headley's tag, setting up the Yankees' run in the fifth. Jim McIsaac
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The way he was pitching yesterday, that's about all Padres right-hander Josh Banks was giving the Yankees, who weren't having as much luck hitting off him as they were in running the bases on him. Completing their three-game sweep, the Yankees sent the Padres home with a 2-1 loss, and both New York runs were the indirect result of stolen bases.
For the second straight game, the Yankees stole four bases on the Padres. The way New York starter Joba Chamberlain was pitching and the way the Padres were striking out – 15 times total, amounting to a dizzying 40 whiffs for the three-game series – the Bombers knew they wouldn't be needing a lot of homers. Little Ball would work just fine, even for a team that had stolen just 33 bases before the Padres hit town.
“What the Yankees do as far as base-stealing is a good job of identifying the pitcher,” Padres manager Bud Black said. “We have some guys who are still too deliberate to the plate and (the Yankees) take advantage of that on the higher leg kick. They've got guys capable of stealing bases if that pitcher-catcher combination is not where it needs to be.”
Banks is among the newest additions to a Padres staff that's struggled for years to stop opponents from running rampant. In that regard as well as pitching ability, Banks also fit right in, because holding runners was a bugaboo of his with the Toronto Blue Jays.
“It's always kind of been my Achilles' heel,” said Banks, who only gave up four hits. “I try to be as quick as I can, but sometimes I rush myself. When I pick up my leg, I'm more effective. I actually made some pretty good pitches from my slide steps, but they must've gotten good jumps.”
In particular, Banks noted the head starts of Melky Cabrera, who stole second and third before scoring on Jose Molina's tying fly ball in the fifth. Because of his AL East experience, Banks said, he was aware of Cabrera's aggressiveness on the basepaths.
“I used to be quick to the plate and suffered a little bit with location,” Banks said. “Then I read somewhere – 'The Mental ABC's of Pitching' – that said if you make a pitch, regardless of how high the leg kick is, you're going to get an out. So that's become my motto.”
With that in mind, Banks said, he was “fine with it” when Johnny Damon advanced to third and Derek Jeter to second on Bobby Abreu's none-out flyout in the first. Without having to worry about the slide step, Banks struck out Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi, both swinging.
Conversely, though, the Padres had the concession on whiffage. Six in their lineup struck out at least twice, with rookie Chase Headley getting his comeuppance, fanning three times after yet another hit (a double) in the early going. San Diego struck out at least once in every ining, twice in most of them and thrice in three at-bats against closer Mariano Rivera, a repeat of the series opener.
“When you throw strikes and get the other team thinking that we're going to do that, that's what happens,” said Molina, the Yankees catcher who used to be coached by Black with the Angels. “They're going to swing more aggressively, and when you swing aggressively, you strike out a lot.”
Molina was crediting the K's to Yankees pitchers, naturally. The Padres think at least some of it's on them.
“A lot of this is confidence, keeping it throughout the game, not letting one at-bat affect the other,” hitting coach Wally Joyner said. “They're battling. They're frustrated. You saw that in some of the guys today. You can see it when they walk back to the dugout.”
Now the Padres are back to San Diego, where they left on a tear, with seven wins in eight games and the first hint all year that they could actually climb back into the NL West race, such as it is. Foraying back into interleague play, they lost two of three in Cleveland and all three in New York.
For the first time in a stretch of 30 innings – commencing with Sunday's game against the Indians – the Padres got ahead yesterday. San Diego's own lack of speed was apparent when Adrian Gonzalez, breaking for home on a pitch that bounced behind Molina, was thrown out easily in a bases-loaded situation, and the Padres, with two more strikeouts, came away scoreless.
In the fourth, Brian Giles singled to right and Gonzalez walked, then Tony Clark hoisted a shot just inside the left-field line and into the seats for an RBI ground-rule double. Again, though, Gonzalez was thrown out at the plate when running on contact on Scott Hairston's grounder to A-Rod.
New York used another stolen base to break the tie in the sixth, Jeter swiping second and eventually scoring on Rodriguez's single to left off Banks.
“Josh hung in there,” Black said. “He only gave up two runs against an offense that's starting to put it together.”
Little by little.
Chris Jenkins: (619) 293-1267; chris.jenkins@uniontrib.com
